May 4, 2023 - Clifton Board of Education Meeting

001all right now right there like check one check one two three check one two three mike check one two three check one two three testing one two three all set thank you foreign sorry Hi how are you I'm doing okay how are you all right thank you so yeah foreign laughs I'd like to call the regularly scheduled meeting of the Clifton Board of Education for Thursday May the 4th 2023. if you'd all please rise for a salute to our flag followed by a brief moment of silence thank you roll call please I'm Mr abadrabo here miss basford here Mr brunsia here Mr Mejia here Mr Paris here Mr Santiago here vice president Danny here president Smith here do we have a call our mission statement uh vice president Dr Danny please the mission the Clifton

002School 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 our uh open public meetings law the open public meetings Act New Jersey 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 affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Clifton Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place thereof posted at the city clerk's office Clifton Public Library administration building senior citizen Nutrition Center on

003cable TV in the local press and on the district's website and it's mailed to presidents of parent-teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policy zero one six eight they were going to um alter a little bit tonight we have a nice crowd here tonight and some nice presentations to be made so after the particular area that you're here for if you wish to leave you can after that part if you wish to stay for the whole meeting then of course you're more than welcome to stay um and some some people will leave then it will open up some more chairs for people standing or out in the hallway okay we're going to start off with Tiffany first thing with her report [Applause] here's my report on April 3rd the pre-med Club

004was worked with the Red Cross to host Fuller Drive at CHS we almost had a hundred students and staff sign up to donate and the Red Cross was able to collect 70 units of blood the Red Cross told Miss terrifying and Dr Cape not that our donations will help save over 200 lives on Tuesday evening May 2nd 75 students were were inducted in the National Honor Society these were the new NHS inductees joined the 37 seniors who were inducted last year there are the embodiment of the four NHS pillars excellence in scholarship character service and Leadership role models to their peers they excelled in our classrooms and have actively encouraged engaged in our community serving in school clubs such as the Key Club and out of school with organization organizations such as the Boys and

005Girls Club Girl Scouts and various religious and cultural groups together they have volunteered over 9 600 hours to make Clifton and even uh Clifton a better place to live they have helped fight food insecurities shared vaccine information during the pandemic reach out to younger students in middle school as well on April 26 Kaylee Miller scored her 100th goal making her the third student to reach this accomplishment in the girls lacrosse program congratulations Biller [Applause] opposed the Mustang ban annual spring concert Wednesday May 17th at 7 pm in the CHS Auditorium tickets are five dollars go and support your Clifton Mustang band the interact club or having a spring closet cleanup you can donate anything from of items you don't use anymore all items will be collected and all the money will be earned will be

006given to a local charity you can donate clothes shoes coats bags and more on Saturday May 13th all Clifton residents can drop off items at a bin outside the Clifton High School from 9am to 12 P.M thank you [Applause] great job as always Tiffany we thank you for that information okay now we're going to um now we're going to do the my most favorite part of a Board of Education meeting is uh when we present Awards out to staff to students and tonight we will start with our students of the month for Clifton High School so um we'll ask that the recipient will come up receive your your certificate your family can come up and friends and board members anyone else who wishes to join Dr Danny and I out there for a picture um

007you're more than welcome to come out okay so we'll start with our this is for the month of April and we're going to start with our freshmen student of the month who's got freshman Papa javo thank you president Smith freshman Natalie Romero Vera Natalie's favorite subject is math because she finds math is entertaining and keeps her mind active athletes most influential teacher is Mrs spinall because she really enjoys her teaching style and has learned a lot from her from her this year alone Natalie's parents Inspire her to teach her Highest Potential and have supported her every day Natalie is a great support to her classmates and goes out of her way to assist anyone when they need help the certificate of achievement this recognition is certified to an Anthony Romero Vera on behalf of the

008Clifton Board of Education and administration for CHS freshman soon in the month April 2023 with sincere congratulations on your meritorial achievement with recognition by resolution of the Board of Education the desires to excel is the formula to a lifetime success your efforts have brought distinction to you your family in the clips of public schools signed by Jim Smith president Board of Ed and Danny robertosi superintendent of schools is Natalie here thank you yes thank you foreign [Applause] 's favorite subject is math because he appreciates the importance it holds in our everyday lives Armand credits his fifth grade teacher Mrs honorevili for his success because she was a teacher who deeply believed in him and assured him that he was on a path to success Armand's late grandmother has been his inspiration because she provided him

009with so much positivity Armand attributes his success to his time management skills which come in handy since he is a member of our Key Club and also spends his time playing soccer bodybuilding swimming martial arts singing and songwriting reading writing and drawing certificate of achievement this recognition is certified to Arman rasuli on behalf of the Clinton Board of Education and the administration for CHS sophomore student of the month April 2023 congratulations Armand [Applause] thank you a couple more [Applause] foreign our Junior student of the month is Mia Garcia Mia's ambitious and hard-working whose favorite class is intro to Health Professions because she gets to study the numerous medical applications and is helping her identify what career she might want to pursue in the medical field Miss garnish has had the greatest impact on Mia because

010she's been extra extremely helpful and always feels like a best friend in the form of a teacher she cares about her academically and always checks in with her and provides great advice Mia is inspired by her brother Kevin who encourages her to pursue her dreams me and find Science to balance a busy extracurricular schedule which includes cheerleading Heroes and Cool Kids um answers uh Ensemble and pre-med Club Mia's long-term goal is to become a midwife or a nurse practitioner on behalf of the Clifton Board of Education Administration the certificate of achievement is presented to Mia Garcia thank you yep [Music] [Applause] and our seniors senior Emmanuel West Emanuel is a driven 12th grade student whose favorite class is sign language because she enjoys learning how to communicate with his hands and learning about the deaf

011community and culture Emmanuel's most influential teacher is Mr stepnecki because he helped him discover his passion for music Emmanuel's parents are his biggest Role Models because they are hard-working leaders in the community and have been great parents to him and his sister Emmanuel is a proud member of the Mustang marching band Wind Ensemble Orchestra Mustang concert band jazz band and the Pitt Orchestra for the musical after graduation Emmanuel plans to attend Passaic County Community College and study music production on behalf of the Board of Education Administration congratulations to Emmanuel West as CHS senior student of the month thank you [Applause] all right thank you very much foreign [Applause] yeah so if you just think about how many students we have in Clifton High School to achieve that honor of student of the month is truly

012truly great and we're so proud of you and I wish you continued success in all that you do so be proud of that certificate okay next we'll move on to our um PBIS p b s i s program by Miss virgosa good evening everyone give me just one moment to pull something up so I can queue us up um all right sorry about that thank you for uh your patience everyone good evening uh president Smith vice president um Danny Dr robertozzi Commissioners and Central Administration thank you once again for the honor of showcasing what we do best in our pbsis world so tonight our conversation focuses on the crucial role of student voices when it comes to implementation of pbsis framework in our schools as the stakeholders of the educational system students views and opinions

013are extremely extensively considered when it comes to teaching methods curriculum design and educational policies a student's perspective can provide invaluable insights into their learning experience which can help identify Improvement areas and better tailor the learning process to meet their needs this approach not only creates a learning environment that is more inclusive and engaging but also results in better academic outcomes furthermore encouraging student voices empowers the Next Generation such as you see in front of you to become active Learners and community members they learn how to articulate their thoughts opinions and develop leadership skills to become advocates for their own educational needs in a moment you will see how the fifth grade safety patrols at school five Incorporated their learned All-Star ways to re-teach the school's overarching expectation Behavior expectations to their fourth grade peers let's

014take a look now [Music] good evening my name is Steve Anderson and I am the proud principal of school five first I would like to thank the Board of Education and Central Administration for showcasing our safety patrol pbsis students and their effort in getting all students at school school five to be an All-Star next I would like to recognize our safety patrol advisors John Silva and Deanna Demotte for their leadership and I would also like to thank our fourth and fifth grade teachers for their efforts in supporting this student-led initiative at school 5 our overarching expectations our safety teamwork acceptance and respect that's where we got our All-Star motto everything we do as a school Community revolves around these expectations in January a group of our state patrol pbsas students notice the needs to set

015higher expectations for our fourth grade students who would soon serve as next year's safety Patrols the student team took the initiative to meet on their own time outside of the school to develop a peer-to-peer intervention by creating a presentation using Google Slides I am so proud of their individual leadership and teamwork in creating this presentation and in how they presented it to their fourth grade peers these Future Leaders have a lot to be proud of and again I thank you for recognizing their hard work in this Initiative for our school five Community thank you possibilities safety definition the condition of being protected or unlikely to cause dangerous say things about being safe it is important to be safe because you can get interested and others together Teamwork Makes the Dream Work teamwork is about working

016together to achieve a common goal or thank you foreign thank you responsibility definition the state or practice having a duty to deal with something or having control over someone if everybody I hope you enjoyed our slideshow we are [Applause] as you can see our students from school five what effortlessly and and worked collaboratively and worked in independently to create this so what we know about education is the following right if you could teach it that means you've learned it that's telling us that what administration Mr Anderson is leading in his building what Mr Anderson is leading along with the safety patrol advisors and everyone at school five what they're teaching about being All-Stars and superstars in their buildings is working because they're taking it upon themselves to really breathe that in and reteach it to

017their younger peers so congratulations so to every single one of you who had something to do with this um in a moment we're going to read all of your names and you'll come up Dr robotozy and president Smith and vice president Danny will help us out with those certificates and we'll take a picture together does that sound good all right who's excited Zion thank you somebody would you like to come up as well and so um all right um William Colligan foreign Kiefer [Applause] Addison dubrovsky [Applause] Ryan Fisher [Applause] Samantha King zaret [Applause] and Samaria Sanchez [Applause] okay sorry [Applause] so I'm sorry so parents if you would like to come up to take a picture with the group and and students would you come back up to us that honor sorry about that parents

018Debbie do you want to take a picture that's a big one phone phones you just have to find me no I'll have you don't text me sure make it easier I've got one more hand for another phone all right [Music] I just realized I don't um thank you foreign congratulations to all the reward recipients we're so proud of you we'll just give a second for the crowd to leave thank you Welcome to our new uh visitors there's chairs up front we have four chairs in the first no one likes to sit in the first row but there's no everyone goes for the back row yeah exactly anyone else want to sit where there's uh some chairs up front here feel like an usher in the movie theater four up front okay we thank you for

019your uh patience um it was great to see this room filled um I think we have somewhere around 80 chairs so every one of those was filled so um we would have never been able to do that in our old board room so um glad that we were able to do that so thank you all that I had to wait outside for uh for your patience Okay so um we're gonna move on to a brief presentation by um our assistant superintendent Miss kusilevic um and it looks like it is on imagine math things around good evening Commissioners once again it's wonderful to be here but I'm actually not presenting this time I'm simply introducing our two presenters and they have a really exciting um set of short videos uh to show you that really show

020the power of Imagine math in action in our Clifton public schools and they are based on the amazing growth data that this program has resulted in supporting our students at their level and adjusting with them so with that I would like to introduce Mr Dan savarese imagine math representative and our MS Aaron's muda K-8 math supervisor [Applause] good evening uh thank you president Smith Dr Robert tozzi for in the board of education for having me tonight um as it is truly an honor to be here um I don't think I've been so excited about sharing something in quite a long time but these videos are are pretty special um in January the learning video team uh came to our corner of the state and uh coming from Texas Oklahoma Arizona Nevada and Massachusetts to film

021what's going on in Clifton uh the goal was to interact with teachers and students about their success with imagine math facts imagine math and robotify and the videos You'll see shortly are the culmination of that these videos have been viewed by districts students and teachers in every state in the country and we're delighted to hear that the story of Juan Clifton is being shared with the entire nation in fact when you see one of the videos especially students from Clifton High School took part in the filming so we're delighted that as well well in addition to the videos in the coming weeks imaginings we're going to share the results of a research partnership with the district that highlights the amazing gains that your students have been making so look forward to that one as well

022these gains would not be possible without the hard work and Leadership of District administration and the wonderful Educators that you're seeing back here into this room uh we really are just floored by the amount of Engagement that your teachers and your students have uh using the program Dr Robert tozi always mentions that one of his favorites part and you'll see this in the video about imagine math is a charitable donations and I ordered him earlier today and I'm pleased to announce that next year there will be two opportunities for Clifton students to donate their think points raise money for Clifton Choice Charities so we're very proud of that there'll be opportunities one for the spring semester and one for the fall semester where your students will raise money for Cliffs and Charities so we're very

023proud of that as well um I just would like to take a brief moment to thank this Aaron Zmuda and the math department and the instructional coaches uh Jen Maggie Kristen Hillary um Jen mengee just make sure I don't remember Jen I think Adam right okay and Jaeger absolutely uh not only for the partnership with their hard work and I really need to thank the board Dr Robert tozi this is levage for surrounding your students with such wonderful teachers coaches and everything because it truly is an amazing thing so uh with that I'll turn it over to miss uh zamuta but enjoy your Clifton Story please thank you thank you good evening Commissioners I don't want to take up too much of your time we were privileged to have a film crew here to showcase

024our students and our teachers and the wonderful work that they do every single day we chose school three School 13 and Christopher Columbus those teachers and some of those students but we've also had other districts here looking at our district and how we do things in Clifton with Imagine Learning products so we are really becoming a success story but not just in New Jersey so I wanted to highlight that as well so we're going to play two videos there are actually four right now on the website for Clifton they're actually they're going to be more forthcoming and they have been as Dan said shown nationally so far and they will continue to be shown nationally so the first one I'm going to show you is success with imagine math I needed to find a program

025hang on that sorry I do not have my glasses on and I can't see a thing okay here we go I would help kids get to their gaps in learning identify them and help to fix them with imagine math the program really tailors to their level and before using a program it was just you know pretty much one level we didn't really have differentiation in the classroom it was you know here was the book here's the problem we're gonna all solve it together they don't get frustrated with it because it levels them where they can do the work with success and it continually supports them as they move up or remediates them when they need that extra support on on something I I know all my multiplication in division but it helps me when I

026didn't know it and now it still helps me but a little bit less also love the benchmarks because it's a measure of growth where they start in the beginning where they are in the Middle where they are at the end and you can show them anyone who's asking that wants to see the data from that Benchmark one to The Benchmark two to Benchmark three how much the student has progressed and what exactly is progress did and now we can get individual student data that our teachers can use to drive their instruction it's technology-based the students are engaged they have a good time with it it's differentiated and we get to track data see where they are and see how they grow so it's a huge relief on our shoulders that we can do all of

027that in one spot my students are very engaged with match math they love the video game component especially the younger age because it's just it's fun to look at even I'm like oh that's exciting I want to be doing it my students love their things point I think points is like the currency of Imagine math and you could get them by completing lessons and you could customize your avatar they like using them for avatars creating their little figure making it look like that I'm making like me to be funny you could donate to Charities there's a new one every month with the Imagine math program many of our Educators use it like as a competition between their classes so I think it's empowering them in that they're able to get their students to buy into

028it more and therefore excited about the the course material this the student was so excited to learn and so engaged to the program that like the teacher and I we high five each other we're like this is really working every single one of my students showed growth so the kids are already on Pace to outpace themselves from last year [Music] all right yeah the last video we're going to show you is about imagine robotify this is the newest program that we've introduced this year this is coding in grades two through eight we have had um 10 elementary schools and both middle schools just recognize as Schools of Excellence for robotify so that is a nationally recognized honor everybody got big huge banners and we're going to go around next week and take pictures of everybody

029with the banner so we're very excited all right this is Axel everyone because he's a robot and you have to try to solve the um puzzles and find his batteries robotify is fantastic especially for teachers like myself who have no background in coding at all I love how the program starts off so simply the children don't even realize what they're doing I don't really like coding but once I found out robotify I kind of got more into coding I'm really interested in coding so while I'm like doing it I keep like thinking oh how can I do this how can I do that like it really gets me like thinking about all the stuff the aspects that I liked so much about it was the kids wanted to do it they were engaged it was

030something they had never seen before and I also was learning with them the students they think they're playing a game they think that they're moving this robot around a course what they're really doing is picking up skills coding skills math skills and robotify is not busy work robotify is engaging and it's fun and to me that's the name of the game my favorite part about robotify is you can go new levels and lock words that you can go left right move it sideways anywhere you can go that's my favorite part about robotify that entertains me a lot even though you don't have a background in computer science or coding because the students can help each other I'm doing it ourselves they're learning how to collaborate with their peers think critically on how to solve problems

031they're just gaining a lot more skills from doing it on their own or with a partner than they would from direct instruction from a teacher every time we need help we'll just raise your hand and robot if I need help right and go up and go help them it's expanded it rains completely I love how they help each other and it's not I'll do it for you let me show you what this means I think they get as much status more buses are needed to accommodate the growing population to ensure timely arrival and dismissal for all our board students funded by sr3 arp Xerox lease agreement five-year lease ending June 2023 admin and Xerox reviewed the machines and will be updating the machines Xerox is on the state cooperative number five pomptonian contract renewals Administration

032discussed the paid meal pricing a minor increase to keep up with Rising food costs we are currently in the fourth year of a five-year contract the board is being asked to approve the management fee renewal for the 23-24 school year we have had positive reviews was also discussed with with their services the pomptonian compared to predecessors a health insurance update iMac the board's insurance broker presented the board an overview of current utilization for medical prescription and dental as well as alternate funding options to potentially save premiums next year any questions Mr President if I may yes um what state Cooperative are we part of uh that Xerox coming out of it's actually State contract it's state okay okay any other questions comments Dr robitussi I've just asked Mr Lucy just to explain what what that

033means for um the rest of the board in case they don't know for the public what it means to be part of a Cooperative sure so the state of New Jersey as well as many counties have cooperatives um they bid out a service or a product uh in lieuing the district doing it because it's very timely um to to bid out everything that goes on in in a district so either the state or the um um an edge Service Commission of Essex County or or uh Passaic County will have a co-op and bid out supplies I know I'm repeating myself but they bid it out for us so we could join the co-op and we don't have to bid it out ourselves to um be in compliance with purchasing law okay anyone else and I'm

034sorry just one last thing I understand as well Mr tell me if I'm wrong in order for us to be part of that Cooperative we actually have to vote as a board to be part of that Cooperative correct yes okay anybody else all right thank you Mr brunsiak for the finance report okay now we're going to um move on to our presentation of our 23 24 budget um Mr Lucy you are it looked like it ended right good evening president Smith vice president Danny Commissioners members of the public attending the meeting and and everyone streaming or watching the broadcast I'm Mike you see the district's business administrator and Skype has popped up we'll just okay we'll just and this is the public hearing on the final budget tonight the board will have a resolution presented

035to them to approve the submission of the 2324 budget to the county office I always like to start the presentation with a snapshot of how of the school district's operations to try to put into perspective on how large of a district we are the Clifton Board of Education has 24 facilities three being rental properties consisting of 14 elementary schools with an elementary Annex three preschools the Clifton learning early learner academies two middle schools and the largest single Campus High School in the state the administration building Transportation garage and the stadium on a daily basis we transport over 2500 students in District with 45 buses in Vans and contract for over 1 000 students to be transported out of District through the Educational Service commissions the district employs over 1700 full-time employees and has 11 013

036students on roll there are 28 different sports 54 teams and a hundred coaches two athletic trainers and a part-timer with over 1 150 student athletes also there are over 160 co-curricular activities and clubs throughout the district which I could say there was a request from students for the moth Club child mock trial club fees and costs to be added to the budget and we have done that after submission after submission the preliminary budget was approved by the county office on April 11th the budget was advertised in the Bergen Record Sunday April 23rd the public hearing on the final budget is tonight when the with the final budget being due to the county no later than May 15th with the last to hold a public hearing being May 8th and obviously today is May 4th now

037over the main highlights of the budget on the revenue side the budget calls for three percent tax levy increase or 4.1 million dollars from the current year budget into the 23-24 school year there's a state aid increase of 22.7 million or 33.59 percent this is a significant state aid increase caused by the district being underfunded or under budget adequacy since the Inception of the state aid Safra formula since 2018 the state has been equalizing the formula to fund state aid to underfunded districts by reducing state aid from overfunded districts without changes without a change in the state aid formula by the legislature or enrollment changes the district is now fully funded expects to be fully funded for the past several budgets the data increases were used to balance the budget so moving forward in future

038budgets would not have this additional infusion of funding budget calls for a withdrawal of capital reserve for two projects and for Rod Grant and for Rod grants for several roof Replacements throughout the districts which may or may not be approved by the SDA and lastly on the revenue side would be semi or the special education Medicaid initiative of 400 000 and miscellaneous revenues of 890 000 which consists of Interest facility rentals School fines Insurance dividends prior refunds Etc also the only change from the preliminary budget presentation and this presentation on the final budget is the capital reserve withdrawal of the 1.35 million dollars for two tentative capital projects that I'll explain on a later slide thank you on the appropriation side the budget maintains all current Staffing and programs with the addition of adding key

039positions district-wide that are instructional and support there are 121 special education out of District placements in private schools and County Special Services and 770 budgeted students at ppti one of the bigger increases in any budget area is the increase in Charter School tuition which does come directly from the Department of Education of 2.4 million dollars or 21.56 percent from current year which I will go into a five-year Trend analysis later on in the presentation and finally budgeted salaries and employee health benefits that are contractual through collective bargaining along with significant increases in transportation and District wide maintenance projects lastly The Debt Service tax rate will actually be decreasing and I'll go into that I'll go into detail later on in the presentation about that as well our District's total balance budget is 294 567 294

040million 500 567 517 which consists of the general fund that contains the operating budget and capital outlay budget special revenues which are federal grants and state entitlements the district receives there is a significant increase in the special revenues because of the covid-19 pandemic federal grants that will be expiring after next year the only Grant still available is the sr3 or American Rescue plan and lastly Debt Service which includes the recently passed referendum and one past spawn here is an overview of the general fund Revenue sources with a comparison to the current budget as I stated before tax levy hasn't we're we're proposing a tax level increase of three percent from the current year and would stand at 141 million state aid has increased by 33 percent but is fully funded going into future budgets so

041it's a large increase but it's going to be capped going forward extraordinary Aid is accurately budgeted at 2 million there is a ballot budgeted withdrawal from capital reserve for tentative projects um and everything else there as well and just to know um but excluding one-time Capital outlay revenues sixty percent of the district's total revenue is funded by the tax levy and 38 is funded by state by state aid here's an overview of the general fund Appropriations broken down into major categories of the budget without going through every line every Department line has increased mainly because of budgeted budgeting for much needed significant much needed number of instructional and support staff throughout the district and their benefits also things such as text book adoptions Chromebooks and other other technology Athletics co-curricular activities preventative maintenance of the

042facilities and security projects and in District and contracted transportation with and with Staffing shortages and inflation everything has gone up dramatically also to put to put the total budget into perspective salaries and employee benefits consist of nearly 80 percent of the total operating budget therefore there's not much room for discretionary spending after all tuitions and transportation is accounted for here is a show more specifically all the budgeted positions district-wide we are looking to hire next year as I've been saying it is spanning over all departments in the district through general education special education student support admin and supervisors and overall District support with an emphasis being on special education teachers paraprofessionals and other support ESL and security now I'll go over a five-year trend of our major Revenue Source being the tax levy for the

043past two years the board has called for a tax levy increase in 2223 this school year the district used a two percent tax levy cap and 2324 it is proposed to use the tax levy cap and along with other allowable caps three but three budgets prior were at zero percent which was a great effort during the covid pandemic also beyond the three years of zero percent two years back the board presented less than one percent tax levy increase and has never gone over the two percent tax levy caps since the capsman instituted here's a five-year trend of the charter school budget which is based on enrollment 2324 budget numbers are projections approved by the department of Ed that the district is required to budget for for compliance purposes the actual enrollment counts are realized during

044the October 15th Assa audit or application for state school aid at that time the budget numbers may increase or decrease during the school year typically projected enrollment amounts are much higher than the actual enrollment numbers however in recent years they've maintained High charter school numbers over the past five years the Charter School enrollment has had a drastic enrollment increase approved by the state with the budget increasing from 6.6 million to 13.7 million or 557 students to 831 students here are the capital projects that are planned for 23-24 the locally funded projects through capital reserve include a Transportation Hub expansion to park additional buses and vans and uh Athletic Field bathroom at the high school for the soccer lacrosse field tennis courts Etc if there is unspent money the funds are reverted back to the capital

045reserve fund through the audit the projects must be budgeted for at this point in time even if it's a possibility of being done next year um this is because the district can't withdraw a capital reserve mid-year without emergency approval from the county and the county has been very strict lately other projects funded um are are through the RPS Grant which include window replacements at school 8 9 11 12 15. in the high school after these projects are completed and after using Esser two funds during this school year to replace several other schools Windows the district will have new windows throughout every school tentative Rod or regular operating District um grants are budgeted for roof Replacements at schools two four eight eleven twelve CC and the high school and see the high school and the new

046weight room the amount of these the amount of projects that can be done will be determined by Grant approvals and the price of the bids when they come in here's an overview of the special Revenue budget this consists of the the state entitlements and all the state and federal grants the district receives non-public State entitlements this includes non-public support for textbooks nursing security technology there's the Perkins vocational education Grant which supports Clifton High School's career marketing Academy title one provides instructional remediation and extended day week and year programs to all Title 1 schools Title II supports teacher preparation training and effective instruction in the classroom title III provides after school and summer programs to over 600 English language Learners title IV supports emotional social emotional learning through professional development the Ida Grant supports over 2

047000 Clifton students with special needs including private school tuition support the 21st century Grant is our minds and motion program which provides after school and summer programs to over 200 students at schools 4 12 and 17. the preschool education Aid provides fully inclusive three and four-year-old preschool for over 600 students the climate Grant or pbsis initiative is a Federal grant aiding the district's implementation and enhancement of the pbsas initiative district-wide and sr2 and sr3 are are aiding and Staffing learning loss PPE and cleaning supplies and those capital projects foreign this is an overview of the jet service budget for 2324 The Debt Service tax levy is decreasing by 2 million from 2022 2023 this is only happening from year one into year two of the referendum bond which I will explain on another side other

048than referendum the only other existing bond is the clb project for 890 800 which is set to mature in the 2425 budget and the referendum bond is set to mature in the 45-46 school year so this slide will explain the the slide will explain the total tax levy when looking at the general fund and Service as a whole because that's our The Debt Service tax levy is being reduced by two million dollars and the three percent general fund tax levy is increasing by four million dollars this equates to a realized net total tax levy of a little over two million dollars this has happened because the board had promised that the community that there would be no interest payments in the 21-22 school year so there was an additional payment in the in the August

0492020 or the 20 in August 2022 or the 2223 budget also there was an added benefit to the strategy because not having a payment in 2122 allowed a district to maximize the state of debt service because of the scheduling of selling the bonds there would not have been state aid for The Debt Service payment in 2122. so from year two or the 2324 budget throughout the life of the bond the tax bill and The Debt Service side will be more reflective of an average tax on the bond after factoring the general fund increase and The Debt Service decrease the real feel of a three percent tax levy on the school side would be an increase of 1.44 percent Lucy yes sir that is an incredibly important piece of information that you just explained in the

050middle of a whole lot of information I would ask if we could just please review that one more time because it's critically important that the board understands it's basically an additional 2 million dollars that we didn't need to budget for that we had paid last year correct on The Debt Service Tax Service yeah so the debt the tax levy in a hole is comprised of the general fund and The Debt Service so the first year of the referendum had an extra interest payment because we weren't going to receive state aid on that particular year so and we were when we were promoting the referendum we told the public that you know if you vote for this your taxes won't increase this year they won't increase for another year and so technically that year we paid

051two payments right so now one of those payments is dropping off now this is what we'll be paying for the rest of the the bond um which means the the real feel of a three percent increase as Mike said is only 1.44 is that what you said correct 1.44 meaning in dollars and cents and that's incredibly important thing I just want to make sure everybody you know understands and if you don't please ask questions thank you Mike so to put all that information into a tax impact analysis for the average Clifton taxpayer we take the actual net tax increase for 23.24. of 2 million eighty nine thousand three hundred and twenty four dollars divide that by the approximate tax Point provided by the assessor to get 3.98 tax points excuse me then 3.98 tax points

052into the average assessed home value of a hundred and seventy eight thousand eight hundred ninety one you take that factor to get the annual School tax levy increase to be uh 67.34 annually or 5.61 monthly next to look at the impact on the average Clifton taxpayers entire tax bill using the tax information on the state's website and assuming a zero percent County increase a six percent City increase and a 1.44 board increase the total come to approximately 247 dollars with the board side being 70 70 and the city Side being 177 assuming all the percentages I said lastly here is another way to view the total of the average Clifton taxpayer bill in percentages of County State and board taxes looking at all three areas that impact a taxpayers bill the district's piece of the

053pie is actually decreasing from 47.4 percent to 46.6 percent of the total tax bill going to the school system so to put that into perspective not only is it going down but to put that into perspective the state average of all towns portions going to the school district is 52.7 percent and Passaic County average is 51.3 percent so Clifton School tax bills could significantly less than the rest of neighboring towns and all towns in the state Miss Lucy again an incredibly important point I had said this when I presented to the board a few weeks ago there's not a town in the state of New Jersey where the biggest portion of this pie is not the school district it's always the school district we employ the most people we have the most needs it's always

054the biggest part of the pie however how big the part of that pie is in Clifton is much less than places in that is similar to us so and and even with a three percent increase in our tax levy our percentage of the pie at the Clifton taxpayers paying is going down what does that mean that means that this board in the past and present has done a real good job looking out for the Clifton taxpayer now look it's not one of them we don't want to raise anybody's taxes but to to say that in Clifton in the district our size our percentage of the the the homeowner's tax bill is only 46.6 is very impressive you won't find that in very many places anywhere and if you want to see that information if you

055own a home in Clifton you get a tax bill every year and that that piece of pie is on that on that tax bill thank you Miss Lucy thank you honestly that concludes my presentation and it's always a great day to be a Mustang thank you I can go back to my seat for questions and I believe yeah thank you Mr Lucy okay board members uh questions of Mr Lucy's presentation anybody Mr abjaba my name Mike I want to thank you for putting us together a finance team uh the finance committee this was an outstanding presentation in my opinion and I want to thank you and I appreciate you um what's our expectation of psti since increase next year because I'm hearing that they're they're they're renovating in their building and um there's a good

056percentage from the 770 of students that we have going there that we possibly have more going which means more money leaving the district going to go and attack it didn't go up too much this year but we have heard of expansion does anyone else know any more information because I know they're I know they're expecting about another 800 to 900 students um of your increase in enrollment coming up a little Insider bit told me uh uh next year so if we can keep for that that'd be great um with the three percent can you remind public obviously our paraprofessionals have been coming up here every single meeting for the past few months and my biggest component is making sure we take care of our paraprofessionals uh and our CST and our special ed team um

057and our security of course because the security as we've seen over the past year and a half has it been a big big component of this District making sure our students are safe for every school not just the high school um what is three percent what is three percent getting us from the pair of Professionals in the security standpoint if you don't mind I want to just jump in for a second when we were planning this presentation we were very hesitant to say a specific number of employees that we would hire per category for a couple reasons I don't want to sit here today and say we're planning on hiring 30 paraprofessionals full-time um and then when we post a job and we look for 30 paraprofessionals we don't find 30 and I want to

058use that money then to hire a security guard or something else and then a year from now you say well you told us at the budget presentation that you were hiring 30 paraprofessionals so I don't want to get too much caught up in the number of positions but it's obviously fair to say the difference between uh three percent and four percent is is more staff members we did give the board a um some background information with preliminary numbers you have that um I don't mind if if you share it Mr Brunswick but I just don't want to be held to those numbers I just want to get that yeah yeah thank you Dr Robert tozi so I referenced this before commissioner Bravo so so on the list on the three percent increase when we have

059a comparative over here these are the things that we took consideration the finance committee so the you know the proposal with the three percent includes 15 full-time Paras um nine part-time Paras and four four full-time security so the these are the things we couldn't get any of this with a two percent Levy increase and uh we we got a lot more with with the with the three percent in addition to that we're not going to be losing bank rate in perpetuity so this is why we sent the original budget like that and when we got you know when we we met last time it was for quite some time almost two hours we met to Crunch the numbers so this is where we came up so it's it's um we're looking out based on the

060information that we received from from staff at some of the schools as well I I referenced that during the they're in the finance committee meeting as well and these are needs that that some of the that that they requested at the at these schools so and I believe we address it in in my so let me ask you this question then um if we're gonna make full-time Paras does that mean they get benefits as well and correct okay and how do we so how do we choose who these at three percent nine people at four percent fourteen people how do we choose which part-timers become full-timers and how do we under you know how do we categorize that how do we prioritize that the two two ways we prioritize where the powers are going based

061on the needs of students those classrooms with the students with the most severe that have the most severe needs will get the full-time paraprofessionals and then how do we pick it's an interview process it's not um um it you don't there's no such thing as a seniority when you're a part-time employee so it's not like well you've been here longer you can be full-time okay you'll have to apply for the job um anything else yeah I know I actually have a couple more things I was going Slide by slide but I think it is important to note that we would make our we wouldn't be hiring people as full time we'd be hiring our current part-time as full-time that would be the goal and and I appreciate that and listen my questions are not because

062I'm coming at 20 at the 12th hour to Bumble the questions but the public needs to understand how we prioritize how we pick what these percentages mean uh why are we going at three percent of possibly higher or possibly lower why are we discussing you know the public needs to understand at home and hear that 2122 2021 1920 and two years prior to that we went less than one percent I'm gonna say for those couple years I agreed we had to go zero percent in some years I agree that we didn't have to go zero percent and unfortunately we did so am I guilty to be part of that yes I am we got to pay for it now yes we may have to um to the to the administration why are we going over

063that cap I know why we're going over that cap the public needs to understand because some of these people haven't been here for the past couple meetings so there is a mechanism that allows districts to go over their two percent Levy cap it's called banked cap and if a district goes to zero anywhere under two percent it could be zero percent one percent one and a half anything under two percent the difference is then banked and you're allowed to raise future budgets up to three years using that bank app so if if we went to zero one year the following year technically you can legally go to four percent without a vote using Bank cap so we can easily tonight if we wanted to go eight percent close to that correct close to that so

064the reason why I'm asking that question we can easily say let's go eight I can do math um that's not why I asked that question but I asked that question because you can easily go eight percent and say you know what forget about the public was go eight percent let's make everybody's like you know great for our students and just move forward but it's not I can't speak first of my colleagues but for me you know to see how much do we did we get this year and I'm sorry if I'm taking too much time I just had to get these questions off my chest how much did we get from the government this year stated it was 22.7 Million all right so that's 22.7 million that we're getting a free money that well no

065let me take that back it's not free month because we even owed that money and they're finally been retro paying us for that money for the past umpteen years right um so how much are we leaving on the table by not going to four percent now you all see where I'm going with this right um we about 2.9 Million dollars so so going to three percent one percent on our budget is approximately 1.3 million 1.3 million dollars so every one percent is approximately yeah one point so by not going to four percent we're leaving 1.3 million dollars on the table right I'm not trying to grill you I'm just trying to get this information to understand okay um you mentioned a rod Grant the rod Grant can you explain to the public why we may

066not get it and what that pertains to so the school Development Authority they so they sometimes issue these grants called Rod grants regular operating District usually only the essay only um gives grants to former Abbott districts but sometimes when they have extra money or whatnot they offer odd grants every District can apply for them there's specific projects you can apply for and um they pick up part of the tab for the raw Grant if you get it okay and the reason why I stuck on the broad Grant is because on paper 5.3 million dollars looks amazing right you're like all right we're getting 5.3 but it doesn't mean we're getting it you have to apply for like every other school in the state you have to go based on what your percentage is and I

067think we only get 60 or the 40 we only get 40 of out of the the funds that we apply that the project we apply for all right um and my last question is our last statement is average assessed home values 178 000. that doesn't equate to an average home asset or home um net worth correct it's the taxable assessed value not the market value and the reason I say this because nobody's gonna say my worst my house is worth 170 000 there's no way in heck um but the city municipality what they do is they just the public order who doesn't know is the assessed value of what your house is worth in the eyes of the sad municipality not in your eyes on the market value it is so you might say well

068that times that three percent of whatever maybe that's what I'm actually paying it's not it's interesting understand uh okay that's all I have thank you all right any questions more questions from Mr UC on this presentation yes Mr Paris thank you Mr Smith um uh Dr Robert tozzi in addition no we've talked about the powers and and the need to help with retention and expansion of them and there's progress in this this budget towards that um my question is related to the security side and at three percent I mean this these security positions are going to be for elementaries is that correct are they primarily elementary schools I I think the administration because the high school and middle schools are covered although could use more we want to go to the elementary before we add

069more to the high school and middle school so yes okay and I know you don't want to commit to positions but I'm going to ask you if in a three percent yep do we get at least every school every Elementary with a security position we do not we do not get every school so we would probably prioritize by the size of the school or other needs um but the the goal and the goal was never to have somebody in the school within two years remember this is a brand new position that we just started the goal was to phase it in over a number of years however if I had my way I'd like a security specialist in every school well part of the challenge would be you know which which Elementary is uh you

070somebody wouldn't get one right so how do we make that decision if if we went to the four percent budget would that allow us to cover four percent increase would that allow us to cover security for all the elementaries Mr UC tells me uh yes thank you Mr Mejia so uh um before when you mentioned about the impact on the average taxpayer right I saw some you know eyes open up when you mentioned the per year increase between us and the city could you just exercise that one um column again so um the city's project to raise six percent um with our with our with our net tax levy the 1.44 our piece of the the pot is 70 a 70 increase close to a sixty seven seventy dollar increase and the city's in approximately

071177 dollar increase so even though they're a smaller piece of the pie they're so much greater that it's that much more like if we went to a six percent it would be much more than 177 so but the total ours is 70 theirs is 177 totaling 248. all right thank you thank you on page five you have the slide that talks about tax levy debt services and you you reference three percent what would that percentage look like with the four percent the last column so what would the net look like with the four percent yes yes we would be do you want to go to another question that somebody else can answer while you're figuring out oh maybe let me calculate that please he's calculating that yes anyone else no I think the really important

072question is Mike you had a slide that indicated that the three percent tax increase would cost the taxpayer 5.61 a month was that right yeah yes but on our on our presentation have something that says 5.94 so it was updated after which slide are you looking at I'm looking at page five the last slide on page five I'm looking at Slide Five page five he said 561 during the presentation but the the information we have sitting in front of us says 591.99 oh I see I say what you mean so I I had that was my next question was it updated after it was printed out that's a good question I don't know do we know which one is the accurate number I'm sorry his presentation I said 561. your presentation said 561 a month

073the the copy that we have in front of us says 594 a month the copies the copies more accurate it was a minor there was like a minor minor change yes yes so that's important to note this presentation was 5.61 cents a month the real number is 5.94 cents a month or an annual increase of 71.32 so now I think the real question that Mrs bassford is answering what is the dollar amount at four percent and also you know what percentage will that bring us up on the city side with I mean how much of the budget is the board okay we just it would be 2.34 yeah net yeah okay and we won't leave any money on the table crackers and how many more employ positions will that employee you said 35 at the

074three percent what would plus percent give well I could guarantee you that it would get a security specialist in every school yes and and probably and additional full-time Paris so you're saying at least 10 more positions like I got to see a number it's approximately 17 more than the current thank you Mr President did I miss did you say what the dollar amount is at four percent so the the three percent is five dollars and ninety four cents a month 71.32 a year can we do four percent annual monthly right what is this I have that it would be 100 I have that it would approximately be 115 instead of the 71. this says 119. what are you looking at yeah I wish I would have been given this prior to the meeting to digest

075it a little more it would have been helpful for all of us so so what happened this was so we found out the actual tax point after after we did this we found the actual tax point and it adjusted the number slightly attendance yes 115 68 and 964. 964 monthly instead of the 590 594. so let's clarify yeah okay let's say it again instead of 594 a month at three percent right what is the dollar amount at four percent nine sixty four nine monthly yearly would be 71.32 and it would be 115.68. basically we have to decide what dinner we want to give up a year a year that's how I look at it I look at it as being food prices for my house 115 is like you know dinner for like three maybe

07675 is two food going out or one Dunkin Donuts cup for a week you give up for our students our safety our security our education I just wish I would have had it ahead of time I don't know if anybody else feels about that just the bare bones of it because to make a decision so can we open it up to the public so we can contemplate this while we're thinking about what we're going to do here okay are there any other questions for Mr Russi Mr Mr President yes thank you Mr President do we have any visibility on future years there's no there's just no way until we get numbers from the state um as as I said we we believe um we're at our capped state aid barring the state legislature changing the

077Safra formula or drastic enrollment changes thank you but I think the state have said going on what Mr Brunswick said even look at staff for Forum alone and the state aid they're not changing it and they're not giving any more free money out or any money out in the next couple years they've said it is what it is you get what you get this year hence why we got the 22 Point whatever million dollars I would agree with that yeah yes so we're gonna make a move we're gonna make a move hey any other questions for Mr UC nope Mr Lucy thank you to you and Mr shatta for uh good job guys putting this together um if the public could see what we have we had to go through this is actually the budget

078book pretty thick book laying it all out um so these questions and uh are very important to to us in understanding uh what's presented in the budget um I just like to make a comment briefly about um there was some talk about or there was some Scuttle about the city council going up to six percent so the board shouldn't go up any percent and I just think it's important to understand that what the city council does is their their business is their uh running the the city it should not be we should not be approving or disapproving um items because of what happened across the street as we know education continues to um accelerate education doesn't get a sales sticker on it for the day for from 599 to 199 with uh with coupon at

079the at the registration office education is what it is and if you're dedicated and devoted to education we have to not put in our minds what their the city council is doing I think it's important to my opinion it's important to focus on our needs what we want to do in this District what we want to present to the public so please and to the public please understand that we cannot base our decision because of what the city council does or doesn't do I I respect them for for the job that they do but as Board of Education Commissioners we have a job to do as well so just keep that in mind I wanted that the public to understand that um all right so let's move on uh we'll allow the public recognition oh

080Mr Smith yeah a question for uh sure Mike do we have to have a public hearing just on the budget and then a separate one we have done that in the past I discussed with the board president we're going to have one and have it specifically right before the adoption of the body thank you sorry okay public recognition this portion of the meeting is open to Residents and non-residents of the city Clifton for purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to end or to react directly related to the operation of the Clifton Public School District residents and non-residents are requested if in person to sign the registered provider for this purpose all speakers are asked to State their names municipality and subject matter before speaking comments are limited to five minutes per person issues raised

081by members of the public mayor may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and responsible forthcoming if it went appropriate and your end excuse me any a response will be put because 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 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 hears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of

082those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments okay anyone uh in our um virtual call in okay so you're not a motion to close motion to close the version by Mr Jabo second by Mr Paris okay we'll now move on to uh in person if anyone wish to address the board please come up to the podium state your name and municipality and you'll have five minutes [Music] thank you there we go good evening to all I'm loving what I'm hearing when you guys are discussing the budget so I want you to know that staff has shown up because they want you to know that we care we care about the kids we care about the programs we care about the future of this

083community and the education that we give to our kids every day so four percent is what we would love to see we don't want to leave money on the table we're not playing poker we're playing with kids and their education public education in Clifton is immensely important because it plays a crucial role in providing a foundation of Knowledge and Skills for all individuals regardless of their socioeconomic background or other factors that might limit their access of Education as well as positive impact on the real estate here in Clifton it promotes equity public education provides an opportunity for all children to receive an excellent education regardless of their background their Financial Resources this helps to reduce disparities in educational outcomes and promotes Equity of opportunity it enhances socialization public education provides an opportunity for children to

084interact with peers and diverse backgrounds and develop social skills this includes learning how to collaborate that's the best word communicate effectively and respect to others promotes economic growth a well-educated population is essential for economic growth and competitive and to compete education helps to create a skilled Workforce that is better equipped to adapt to changing economic conditions and technological advances Foster's Civic engagement public education helps to develop informed and engaged citizens who are better equipped to participate in the Democratic process and contribute to their communities quality of our schools the quality of our schools is a major factor that influences the real estate prices here in Clifton when the schools in the area are highly rated it can attract families with school-aged children who are often willing to pay a premium price for their homes in

085those areas as a result homes in areas with high quality schools tend to have higher prices Community Development in education can also contribute to the development of a strong and Vibrant Community there's so many different groups here in Clifton it's absolutely a beautiful place to live in to go to school they're also the Hub of the community activities and events and can help Foster sense of community pride and engagement when an area has a strong sense of community it can make the area more attractive to potential home buyers which can lead to a higher real estate prices in summary public education here in Clifton is important because it promotes equity Fosters critical thinking and problem-solving skills enhances socialization promotes economic growth Fosters Civic engagement and contributes to the higher higher real estate prices to attract

086families to come to our district thank you [Applause] anyone else wish to address the board do well yeah hi everybody my name is June Carlos Gonzalez I'm a school teacher here at Cleveland High School I'm also in each for a sports coach and I'm a coach here for the high school um and I also a Clifton resident I have a little speech about the budget um if you could just you know pay attention uh good evening members of the Board of Education thank you for allowing me to speak today I'm president of Clifton and I'm here today to ask your support for providing a five percent price on tax level increase that will go for the students in our town as we all know education is the backbone of any successful community our students are

087the Future Leaders of our town and they deserve the best possible resources and support to help them achieve their dreams unfortunately the cost of education has steadily increased over the years and our schools are struggling to keep up with the demand of a growing student population I'm sure everyone in this room can agree that Clifton is a wonderful town and their students are some of the brightest and most talented in our state however we must ensure that they have the necessary resources to continue their academic success by providing a five percent tax levy increase we can hire more teachers provide better technology and improve the overall learning environment as someone who has seen firsthand the positive impact of great education I believe that investing in our students is one of the most important things we

088can do for the future of this town by giving them the tools they need to succeed we are setting them up for a bright and prosperous future I urge you to consider the benefits of a five percent tax level increase our town success depends on the success of our students and we owe it to them to provide them with the best possible education thank you for your time your consideration [Applause] hi good evening everyone thanks for coming to school today I mean for coming to the boarding today that's what I say to all my kids every day I'm Monique delore I'm the robotics coach of the high school I look forward to seeing you next next board meeting and throwing some things at you guys from the robot um I also live in town from

089delawanna and I first of all I want to thank you for discussing four percent it's really important that we are able to find things like you know myself with our program thank you for mock trial putting them directly in the budget it's it's really really important um I learned about robotify tonight which I had seen on the uh on our staff page but I didn't actually know what it was and I saw it during robot season I didn't have time to really look but all of those things are supported by four percent and you know our students deserve that we appreciate that you're considering that and I just want to say thank you for what you're doing I thank my colleagues for being here behind me everyone at home who's uh still listening to us

090thank you for being on the call I know I appreciate everything that you're doing for our town and for all of our students so thank you have a wonderful night [Applause] come on now hello so my name is Kim Janik and I am a district physical therapist here my municipality is Glen Ridge New Jersey so I'm here because I listened to the board comments at the last meeting in March at the end of March and I want to say to Mr abadrabo you told us to come you want to hear from us so I'm here Miss basford I was pressed when you said that you give voice to the people who don't have voice for themselves that's what I've been spending my whole life 36 years as a physical therapist both in the medical model

091and in the educational model Mr Santiago and Mr Mejia I was also encouraged by how open you guys were to considering raising the budget so that is why I'm here so my home-based school is pretty much the Clifton Early Learning Academy and school 14. so you know where I'm going with this heavy special ed population if you provide more paraprofessionals and support staff you will increase the likelihood of your preschoolers going to higher classes as all of these preschoolers one day will be kindergartners will be first graders second graders and on up you're getting the idea right well you know that we're putting more classes in clip we're doing construction right now and support staff will help the teachers will help the speech and language Pathologists will help me as the physical therapist the occupational

092therapists the behaviorists the nurses as some of these kids are medically fragile you're getting the idea that it takes a village to help these children out and the the paraprofessionals often come to my sessions they learn how to work with the kids I can educate them I work with speech pathologists I use the communication device the pecs to help the kids speak then I can show that power professionals how to do it and I can collaborate with the teachers and it becomes trying to generalize all the work with what we do across the board so I humbly thank you for giving me the time to speak Miss basford thank you very much because I am not somebody who's ever been in management I'm always in The Trenches for 37 years face to face that's what

093makes me go and I love these kids and I love seeing any little progress that they make and you gave me the courage to speak because I heard you say that so thank you and I really appreciate everybody's time and you're being open to listen to us I'm grateful that I work here thank you [Applause] hola assalamualaikum and hello my name is Augustus Suarez I'm from Bloomfield and uh this is actually I've been teaching in Clifton for about three months um I have to say well I've been teaching for five years right so I have a little bit of experience you know being around but I have to say being here uh it's it's been an amazing experience um you know how sometimes they say like when there's too many chefs in the kitchen nothing

094really gets done uh I have to say I'm around a lot of experts a lot of great chefs and I still have the opportunity to spice things up a little bit in my classroom um seeing what you guys are doing uh it's very great the only point of concern that I have is with inflation going up about 5.4 percent it's like a tax on everybody uh which is going to include the cost of supplies and things that the school has to deal with to go up as well um so you know increasing the amount that you're asking I think is a good idea just for that sake because uh overall the cost for our education will go up regardless of whether we want to or not um another Point uh which I think is great

095that you guys are focusing on security um some of you guys might not know there was a nces survey that found that about six percent of a teacher's uh reported getting injured on on school campuses and one of the main focuses that experts say would help to benefit uh in school of safety is a great school climate which fortunately uh Clifton High School does have mental health services for students as well as faculty and that security component which I think you guys are adding so you know feel empowered with what you're asking I think you guys are doing a great job and keep it up and thank you so much for your time [Applause] anyone else wish to address the board start my pitch clock with that pitch Claw is like intimidating I wonder how

096like Cole puts up with this on you know looking at it but hi I'm Donna popwick I'm from Clifton I'm a retired teacher yay for me but I'm still working I work at Kane University now um I came to say first of all Mike that was a great presentation I really was I was very impressed you spell tell everything I understand how our money's being spent um I'm hoping you can let him go across the street so we can get the same explanation from the other side of Clifton Ave because I don't know what they're doing the one thing I will say is between the council and here they keep talking points and you keep talking percents and I think we need to somehow talk the same language because a percent is not a point

097but um I like that you're spending money and that I can see what you're spending it on we're not just keeping the status quo we're getting better and I think that's something as a community we have to look at um I have no problem spending four or five percent I would probably go below six but you know in all honesty um New Jersey has a freeze if you're a senior and you're disabled if you're making under a hundred thousand dollars which really that's a lot of money it really is a lot of money I mean then your top property taxes are frozen you you fill out a form you're not getting an increase you're not paying for this the rest of us are okay so those who have a problem with the taxes and we

098mostly think of seniors really aren't going to have a problem um I I like the idea of hiring more teachers um The Washington Post recently did a story on school system school security 80 percent of School shooters which I know we don't like to talk about are students or students recent students and they're saying that all the security we're adding isn't always working they were saying one of the best things to do is having the the vestibules which we are putting in which we got with the referendum and the next best thing is adding staff especially teachers paraprofessionals counselors and anyone who's going to be speaking to these students especially in grades K through five and catching and finding what there is a problem whether it's at home whether the child seems to be in

099distress those are the critical years so anything we can do to add staff that will interact with students at that level I know I am all for as now A ex-teacher and A homeowner in town the last thing I want to see is our school system fall behind because who knows you know my daughters are ones out of college and doing great by the way and the other one is in college and hopefully we'll get a job when she graduates but she is doing great in college and she wants to move to DC the other one may move to DC who knows where we're going to end up if I have to sell my house I'd really like it to be worth a lot of money okay um I'm watching my kids clock I'm still

100good um so I really as a taxpayer I I have no problem with it tax increase because I can see it's being used to improve the school system we're not just keeping the status quo we are making things better that imagine math program all you young teachers you have no idea what it was like when you had to do all that data by hand from their for their pencil and paper tests probably why I retired okay thank you and Mike and just once again that was just an absolute fantastic presentation it really explained everything out and I was very very impressed [Applause] Mr President anyone else wish to address the board seeing on motion to close by Mr Roberto second by Miss basford thank you everyone for your comments okay so now we have uh

101the adoption of our 2023 2024 uh school budget Mr President I make a motion to raise to four percent I think second so yes so we have a um we have a resolution here um and Mr brunsiak you you you you the recommendation from the finance committee was three percent that's why we have this resolution correct correct let me let me amend my resume my emotion okay we have a motion and a second to amend this budget uh that's presented to you uh which shows a three percent to amend it to a four percent okay discussion on that okay this is only a vote to amend this is not a vote to approve okay vote to amend call please Mr pedrobo yes Miss bassford Great Schools equal great communities yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia

102yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes okay so now we have a motion on the floor to increase the 2023 2024 budget by four percent motion by Mr Roberto second by Miss basford is there discussion on this seeing now and roll call please so this is to adopt correct to adopt a four percent increase correct Mr abidrabo has a Clifton product 100 Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick safety and special education are very near and dear to the hearts of most Clifton residents I proudly vote Yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris in recognition that it allows us to address our uh the needs of the para Paris in terms of retention and bolstering those Services also since most of these positions are serving our ESL special ed community and

103the ability to fully staff our elementaries for security absolutely yes Mr Santiago ditto yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion carries thank you to all of you that came out tonight those that uh were not able to be here I'm sure they would uh have echoed your sentiments and um it truly truly is a great day to be a Mustang so thank you again all of you um so we're going to continue the rest of our meeting I hope that you would stay but if you have to get home and do lesson plans and things like that truly understandable uh but again we thank you for coming tonight thank you so much okay uh we're gonna move on we have um adoption of the minutes from March 16th our special Board of Education

104meeting by Mr Roberto second by Mr Paris any discussion seeing none roll code please Mr abadravo yes Miss bassford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes and president Smith yes motion carries okay adoption of minutes of our regularly scheduled meeting on March 23rd hi Mr Robert drabo second by Mr Santiago and or was Mr Paris sorry um any discussion seeing nun Roku please Mr abadrabo yes Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes and president Smith yes motion carries okay next we have our superintendent's report superintendent Dr Robert Posey thank you uh Mr President um Board of Education Commissioners members of the community our faculty and staff I have to tell you I'm I'm overwhelmed

105tonight um you know I know that several of you who came into this meeting tonight weren't sure what you wanted to do weren't sure what the right thing to do was but I am just so impressed that you listened to the administration who presented you the facts because that's what I told my team our job is to present you the information you ask people to come out they came out you listen to them and you may not have wanted to go to four percent but you listened and a group of people who let's be honest don't always get along listen and were you unified on one thing making this District better for our children so I thank this board very very much from the bottom of my heart you you are not just impacting the

106school district this year this will impact our district for many many many years to come so thank you to the Board of Education yeah let's hear it always love to see the the staff come out they're not here to hear me thank them but thanks for our staff uh to come out you know you need to we talk about percentages we talk about numbers but it's good to put face to a name we have you know an occupational therapist here talking about the work she does with preschool disabled children every day and that's not you know we're talking about budget numbers and you don't get to think about that now we have a face to the to a name and and how important that is so thank you to our staff for for coming out

107tonight I know there's a lot of better things you could have been doing but it was very very important that you were here and uh as you see this board listen to what you had to say um Miss publish what I was saying was that your daughter Chloe who you know is one of my favorites we'll I believe at our next meeting is going to be on the agenda should be recommended to be approved as a substitute teacher so she is coming coming back home to get some some time in and I know she's at my alma mater the college in New Jersey and I I hear she's doing well so please give her my best how great were those imagine math videos I'm sorry like they I'm watching it I'm thinking these are professional

108actors right and I'm like no these are our teachers and our kids it was a and it wasn't fake this was what was really going that's it I'm watching this like this is like a fake like infomercial kind of thing and I'm like no I know that teacher I've seen that kid before and it was just so impressive um talking about math kids were excited about math kids were excited about coding that is just impressive to see and again back to the budget what you did tonight will allow us to keep funding that and expanding that so congratulations to everybody who was involved in the um uh that whole video process that was really really fantastic I saw there was a little flip of me in there I made it I made a little little

109snippet so that's good going going cross-country now so um I also had some some other good news that you may or may not have seen recently on our on our social media I think uh Mr Rose sent out a press release um very proud to announce that Clifton has once again been selected as one of the best communities in America for music education um something we all knew right but nice to be recognized by an outside independent organization and this uh by the way is the fourth year in a row no coincidence that it's the fourth year that I've been here I'm just saying that was a joke that was a joke if you hear my guitar playing you know that that's a joke um but that's the that there's a fourth year in the

110row this district has been recognized as one of the best communities for music education in the entire country it recognizes the outstanding efforts of teachers administrators parents students and Community leaders you guys who have made music education part of a well-rounded education listen we know what the research says students who are involved in music and arts music in the Arts tend to do better in all other academic areas too so in some areas when there are needs for budget cuts one of the first things districts do is they cut the yards and they cut music that's never going to happen here in Clifton because this community believes in in the power of music so strongly in the power of the the artza and you should have plot that yeah [Applause] um and just last note

111on that we are one of only 50 school districts in New Jersey by the way there are over 600 districts in New Jersey I know it's crazy but there are 600 districts in New Jersey only one uh only 50 received this award and 800 Nationwide so it's it's nice honor I didn't see Elias tonight and I wanted to publicly congratulate him those of you who know Elias Ragsdale who normally comes to to our meetings one of our students he was just recently named the Clifton Boys and Girls Club 2023 Youth of the year the youth two youths the youths yes um so yeah he was there last night at National Honor study so this is this award Boys and Girls Club does this every year and the award comes with a three thousand dollar scholarship

112um and it also allows him to be put into the state level of competition now where he could potentially be the state um Youth of the year and even get more scholarship money and those of you who've met Elias or you've heard him speak here he's just a tremendous young man I love him um he's just just it's great I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to get to know him you know the the further the higher you get up in administration the further you get away from kids and so it's nice when I do get to develop a relationship with some of the students um a lot went on tonight I'm going to make this brief I want to just give a quick referendum report very pleased to announce that the Woodrow Wilson Athletic

113Complex is uh now open for students to utilize if you haven't driven by please do this was one of the most visible projects of our referendum when we were promoting our referendum and it is it's it's stunningly beautiful so we're having kind of a soft opening we're allowing the students to practice they had their first game on the uh I don't know did they win Mr Smith I believe so all right well we won't count that then um they had the first game yesterday um but tomorrow or Monday at the latest you will be getting an invitation for a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony uh so save the date I've sent you an email to save the date on May uh 17th at 3 30 p.m there's a a home game that day we're gonna do a

114little ceremony a couple speeches we're going to have the uh the choir we were unable to get the band because the band has their concert that night the the Opus but we're gonna have them uh part of the maybe the middle school band and the Middle School uh choir um sing a little national anthem maybe it'll take me out to the Bowl game we're gonna have uh it's gonna be a nice little ceremony to uh to officially open up uh the the athletic complex which by the way I keep calling it an athletic complex we have to come up with a name for it right it's the varsity baseball field but it's also a soccer field and it's all for the community so maybe it becomes an athletic complex but we have to kind of

115think of a name for it no I'm not asking for it to be named after me for sure no um but that's something for us to consider in the future so it's the the it's 95 done we're waiting for two major things we're waiting for the Passaic Valley Water Commission to flip the water switch which we will believe which is for the field as which we believe won't be a problem the one problem we might have is the electric PSEG has to put up a poll um and the the waiting list for that is uh we're we're really far back so it's not going to impact it just just means the field house might not be up and running but you'll be able to see it be able to see the field and it's going

116to be a really nice um well we'll make it a nice day um I told the interact club that I would read their flyer they're doing a spring closet cleanup so um the interact Club from Clifton High School if you have any clothing items you don't use anymore they are collecting all items um and any money earned will be given to a local charity they're looking for clothes shoes bags backpacks purses hats scarves and toys uh the drop-off locations are at Clifton High School Media Center or main office drop-off dates uh up until May 12th is the last day to drop off any Goods that you have during school hours only please and then on May 13th on a Saturday from 9 to 12 p.m all Clifton residents can drop off items that have been

117outside the high school so again on May 13th if you don't can't make it during the week you can drop off your items between 9 and 12 p.m in a bin outside the high school so good for the interact Club um and we have we are in the the heart of our referendum projects going on we have work going on in almost every school uh in school one um before I give you the brief updates and I'm almost done I apologize I want to take a moment to thank all of our staff and our administrators because it's they have a lot of patience and flexibility when there are contractors in in the school and sometimes they're leaving a mess in your classroom or you're maybe booted out of your classroom because they're doing work in

118there so appreciate everyone's flexibility uh in dealing with this know that this is good progress right we're we're making progress so we have to deal with some of these inconveniences for what it's going to bring to us in the future um so it's school one um the new unit ventilators are being installed the electrical whips not really sure what they do but they're being installed uh the refrigerant pipings being installed at school eight they're completing the gas riser to the roof School nine they're continuing the installation of the unit ventilators and they began the the bathroom Demolition and Renovations School 15 same thing installing the unit ventilators and they've begun the toilet room demolitions and at Columbus they've started the Lori lalama elevator project I I say that because during the referendum Lori was the

119biggest supporter of the uh she had been asking for an elevator for years so um they place the the concrete uh elevator slab there at the pit and there um I don't know what the timeline is on that but but that started so I just want to and last thing for tonight I want to remind the board and members of the public that on our website under the bond referendum section we are putting up before and after pictures so if you get a chance take a look we'll continue to put some more up as the projects progress but we had made a promise to during the the selling or the promoting of the referendum that we would continually update the community on what's going on the community had had faith in us voted overwhelmingly to

120pass the referendum so if you want to see the progress please check it out on our website under the bond referendum page Mr Smith that concludes my report thank you for your patience thank you Dr robitosi um just to remind everybody May and June are very busy months uh in the school so there are tons of different events that are taking place in the Clifton School District so please look at the website go to the peach jar and you'll be able to see all that's going on um just quickly I just want to just tell you a little bit about yesterday uh when I went to the baseball game it was their first baseball game on the new field and um I could not uh be happier to see kids say thank you thank you

121for finally giving us a respectable and good field and um that's something to be proud of uh that this board felt it was important enough um to go out and get a respectable Field Complex that's going to be used uh from Woodrow down to the high school down to outside organizations um so as doctor told you said it's something the most visible project that we have um but this board should be very proud to know that yesterday students actually said thank you they appreciate it and they were so happy to be on the field um so thank you to my colleagues that supported that and um as Dr robitosi told you on May the 17th at 3 30. uh we'll be having that ribbon cutting we invite everybody the public please come out come and

122take a look at the field come and look at the complex and um it should be an enjoyable uh time um and then afterwards we'll have some light Refreshments or something so we hope that the public will come out and see this great new complex we have Richard Wilson so I just want to Echo that thank you president Smith yes for uh to you through YouTube to the superintendent notice yesterday I'm sure also I don't know if you oh I don't say I'm sure but president Smith if you saw it there were a lot of foul balls yesterday yeah uh if we could take a look at a net possibly on the first base side Mr Smith talked to Mr Smith and I talked about that today um there was plans for it but I

123think those plans need to be moved up a little sooner because immediate there was a immediate apparently a lot of elbows there were and if we're gonna look at foul balls on the baseball side um maybe we can bring us back to Athletics um softball as well softball I know we've talked about anything yes so on the third base side it's on the opposite side yeah it was uh it was uh brought up in uh I think it was uh no it wasn't Athletics was it that must have been Athletics because Eddie brought it up that he had gotten quotes from a company for The netting over there yeah it wasn't I think maybe that must have been um facilities facilities facilities okay so um yeah I Echo you it's a uh to uh gutierism

124um I'm gonna ask your opinion on that so there are a lot of fell balls until we get the netting up if we have a signpost there park at your own risk are we covered does that help us notify people their car maybe get may get hit yes he might get hit by a wall right the game is playing insulate us from liability is the answer that I always give you people will always file a lawsuit it's just a question of how well we can defend ourselves so in the meantime a sign beware of you know if you park at your own risk usually it's before I mean they do it at baseball games yeah yeah the ticket on the in your baseball on your ticket it will say very clearly you're you know we're

125not responsible if you get hurt and I'm sure that it's not only that it's very easy to hit the building and the windows on the building so it's extremely important we get that netting up so I'm assuming the building was there before the field not this extension and the field was the configuration was different we got reversed we've reverse it so previously you would have had to hit a uh type bomb to hit the parking lot now a foul ball hits the parking lot but so I I would say that until you have netting then put up signs so that people are aware yes yeah and the whole purpose of you know letting them get on before the project is complete is we wanted our seniors to be able to experience that field so if

126we waited till it was completely uh done um they wouldn't have had that experience so that's really the main uh purpose of it and as Dr Robertos he said they're 90 percent uh there if there's anyone listening to this or anyone in the audience has any connections that PSEG uh we would gladly uh ask you to please help us um I I've been told it's a simple uh procedure to put the poll up um but without it we can't get electricity to the field house and the scoreboards so uh hopefully somebody's listening that has a connection you have a connection a Rosie Sarah pillio she's a friend and she does government relations for PSEG and they're Clifton rep would you mind calling and give them Information Administration or Administration whatever we can do yeah if

127you get that info to me I'll I'll reach out thank you okay so we'll move on um to uh our first reading of policy um Miss basford did you want to read those or just they're just as as written to us yep right just written to us um okay we'll move to committee reports and mine are showing none so somebody are there other committee reports there okay policy so I haven't seen none um thank you a policy committee meeting minutes of April 17th the policy committee began at five o'clock it was remote and attendance was for president Jim Smith uh commissioner abadrabo commissioner Richard Mejia Administration was Dr Danny robitussi Miss Mark chingaro Luis Ross and also in attendance was our board attorney delis Gutierrez and myself the committee reviewed policy 7510 use of school

128facilities discussion was held regarding requiring District security Specialists to be presented at many the events the administration prepared and presented a proposal amendments to policy addressing the requirements of District security when facilities are used further questions were raised regarding how it will be decided if the event will be will require security and possibility of different rates for school groups non none for not for profit groups and for-profit groups the policy with proposed amendments will be reviewed by the board attorney and will be sent to the and discussed by the finance committee the committee then continued its discussion on creating a apostle new policy for the use of one or more therapy dogs in the district the sample policy used by other districts were presented to the committee for discussion based on this discussion the administration

129will continue to amend the policy and present the final draft at the next committee meeting for approval to the entire board the committee reviewed and recommended adopting all the recommendations by Strauss Esme in their policy alert 230 as presented for its first reading at night's meeting the following are bylaws and policies being amended and or abolished zero one four four board member orientation and training revised 2520 instructional supplies mandated it was revised three two one seven use of corporal punishment revised 4217 use of corporal punishment this is new uh 5305 health services policy Personnel it's mandated and it was revised 5308 student health records it was mandated and it's revised five three one zero Health Services mandated and revised 6112 reimbursement of federal and other Grant expenditures it's mandated which was revised 6115.04 federal funds

130duplication of benefits it was mandated and it's new 6311 contracts for goods and services funded by federal grants mandated and revised 7440 School District security mandated and revised 9100 public relations it was abolished 9140 citizens advisory committee it was revised and continuing its review of existing policies the committee reviewed the following policies all adopted prior to 2015 the recommendation of the policy remains as they are no with no changes the board attorney will review policy 3161 and 4161 uh Examination for Cores to determine if there will be possible permissible for the superintendent to send out employees for examinations and bring to the board at its next meeting once the board attorney advises on possibility possible acceptable changes these two policies may be recommended for Amendment at a later date the interim and the interim the

131below policies will be marked as reviewed with today's board meeting in our policy book and on the district's website where the policies are kept three one one two abolishing positions three one three zero assignments and transfers three one four three dismissal 3144.3 suspensions upon certification and 10-year charges three one four four point one two certification of tenure charges inefficiencies three one four six conduct of reduction in force 3150 discipline three one five one assessment of pay three one five two withholding an increment three one six one slash four one six one Examination for cause 3211 code ethics for informational purposes only the committee discussed politicking schools during events with no recommendations to the board at this time the meeting was adjourned at 6 19 and the minutes were written by Mr Ross any questions thank

132you about the uh the adoption of the minutes it's it's not I didn't see it so it hasn't been created yet the first reading on the therapy dog right no it has not been presented there's uh there were some issues legal wise it was some Financial issues so it's going to go to multiple different committees before Eclipse actually put on the on for an amendment you'll you'll be able to see it first we're just gonna We're Not Gonna present it until it makes its rounds through the right mechanisms thank you Mr Smith yes uh one of the things that we were concerned about was insurance and I'm very happy to say I can say that we learned today that we learned today from our insurance company uh zero increase in our insurance premium due to

133the therapy dogs nice thank you so so the issue I had I had no idea but unfortunately one of my neighbors on my street is allergic to dogs highly allergic so when you we when we had Mojo when he was still around her her kids could not Pat my dog all he wanted was love you know very friendly dog or whatever so my concern is so I went to research it a little bit Emperor the uh for The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America approximately 30 percent of of people in this country are allergic to dogs so that's my concern and some of them have severe reactions I'm talking about they might go in through asthma attack or whatever so I you know that that was my concern and I again I had no idea

134that some people had these kind of severe reactions to dogs a lot of different discussion and policy about this and before any child just like we take a photo of a child a child gets exposed to any kind of food in the cafeteria parents to notify the District of who is and who is not allowed to be in that certain situation if the dog is going to be presented at any kind of class the teacher will already know there will be permission slips granted there'll be a whole mechanism that we make everybody safe Mr Mosaic we're not just going to throw a door in a class when we're a bunch of kids great no no no no no no no I'm sure lots would thank you liability was a very big discussion during this conversation

135there's also liability to the handlers or you know dogs dogs are dogs you bring them to a parade they hear noise they get scared they bite you don't know what's going to happen because they can't speak so there's a lot of liability that we have to worry about so it's all going to be worked out but it's also going to go to finance because there's a discussion on costs and things like that of training and also the keeping of the dog the food and and all the essentials the dog the the upkeep with the vet Veterinary bills there's a lot of things that there's a lot of different moving parts to this actual mechanism so we have to really take care and make sure it goes to all the Departments it needs to go to

136thank you yeah it was pretty good yep anything else yes uh Mr Arrow can you add some insight to this I actually have to commend commissioner Casper because metaphorically she hit the nail on the head with everything that we had discussed uh in fact just this afternoon Mr Ross Mr shahari myself had a meeting with our uh uh insurance broker uh just to up to update the policy specific to things like cost notifications and everything that commissioner basford did say does hold true to where we're going in this direction we've been partnering with a few other school districts that are are also implementing the therapy therapy dog programs uh so we were able to model our policies and our procedures based on what's already working with other districts that are also being covered by our

137insurance provider but we're definitely excited about this initiative uh with the hopes that we can roll this out as early as next year thank you gengaro all right let's move on uh let's move on to facilities let's see Alan are you on facilities would you mind doing that yeah Frost is not here um facilities committee met on April 19th board members attending were uh Mr rawad myself Mr Santiago Administration attending was Dr Robert tozi Mr gengaro Mr Uchi Mr shahada Mr Maldonado and Mr marcione as a guest we had Mr Bill Costello it's from epic right yes sir turning the referendum update the Epic rep gave us an overview of what's taken place thus far in the referendum and what's taking place throughout the rest of the year so he gave us an electrical update

138on updated warranties on HVAC units and it'll updated with Jules and field which near completion with only a few more steps before it's 100 complete uh building and ground updates Administration gave an update of projects taking place throughout the district School 17 parking lot Administration discussed a new project to add more parking at school 17 the tree will need to be removed however two trees will be planted in its place uh School 13 Cafe bid uh it's really cafeteria I think a uh kitchen oh update the cafeteria Administration informed the board of the bid taking place on April 27th to update the cafeteria money is coming out of cafeteria funds and will not impact the general fund our need for space in The District administration is aggressively searching for another location to lease due to

139increase in population uh Transportation Hub Administration found the location that can expand upon the current space to fit an additional eight buses and five Vans or 20 Vans change orders Administration discussed the change orders for the referendum also noted was the amount of change orders are minimal for a project of this magnitude and have been monitored closely Special Olympics use of facilities a discussion sued regarding the usage of facilities for a special Olympic event additional topics Administration will look into getting bathrooms for outside events at the high school and we're going to need an architect to come and give some recommendations and render a drawing uh meeting closed at 504 pm any questions Mr President Mr Brunson again thank you commissioner Paris is this part of the uh capital reserve that that we is this

140part of the reserve for this for this piece yeah yes it was thank you okay anyone else no thank you for uh filling in there um next we have uh uh food and transportation Mr Santiago thank you president Smith some of this overlaps with uh finance and Facilities so um a little little bit redundant but we discussed these in various committees so uh board members attended were myself commissioner Paris commissioner Wadd president Smith um the administration who attended were Mr gengaro Mr Uchi Mr shahada um Miss uh devaney and miss Nick the meeting start time with five o'clock meeting end time was 6 35 we discussed uh the Food Service as mentioned earlier the school 13 uh cafeteria bed same thing Administration formed the board of the bid taking place on April 27th to update

141the cafeterias money's uh coming out of cafeteria funds nine pack to General funds discuss the pomptonian contract renewals the administration discussed the paid meal pricing a minor increase to keep up with the rising of food costs and inflation has caused all food prices to rise not this is not something specific we discussed uh lunch balances um the outstanding balances and administration explained the work being done district-wide to have families fill out the forms to alleviate some of the balances so Administration has done various things tried every which way to communicate the importance of completing these lunch forms the parents and families complete these it's imperative to do that it helps us with state aid and we discussed trying to be creative and and reach out in other ways uh the transportation portion we discussed the

142need for buses more buses of needs for expanding population as discussed earlier buses can be purchased with Grant funds there's no set amount of buses yet to be purchased the administration will review needs and make a determination in the near future we are waiting to hear back on that Grant still I believe um and then the location that was found a possible location that can fit eight buses and five Vans or 20 bands that location is is uh still uh being worked on and it's possible that is food Transportation if you want I can if there's no questions yes any questions on on transportation and Food Service no can I do resumes yes please go right into that um so residency and security committee um we met April 20th at 5 PM uh the meeting

143began at 504 on 28th in attendance for administration where Mr gengaro Mr doctor Mrs zanola Mr Constantino in attendance from the board where myself Miss bassper sabrenciak president Smith at a point president Smith left the meeting it was replaced by commissioner Paris Mr doctor provided a report on registration and outline the new platform is currently being utilized the department is processing registrations very quickly and efficiently we discuss rescheduling of the May 11th committee meeting for The Residency and security meeting which to update will probably just go forward with that June 1st that we already have on the calendar Mr Constantino explained the drill and the reason for the moving the meeting is because not everyone could attend the meeting not everybody who's on the on the committee Mr Constantino explained the drill of the month

144which mimicked the tactic utilizing School incidents such as Columbine and Parkland he reported that the drill was completed across the district with fidelity commissioner parents Paris joined the meeting to highlight key aspects of the njsba firearm safety task force and in favor of resolution being adopted with bulletin to be sent to the community for the upcoming school year committee members will be provided with an additional copy of the report for review and discussion at the next residency and security meeting meeting Mr Garros spoke about the Stop the Violence prevention program which are grants that are available to the district he made the committee aware of a meeting between Clifton Public Schools Cleveland Police Department Clifton fire department that took place on April 20th at Police Headquarters both himself Mrs zanola we're present for the meeting

145a list of the projects were shared that are anticipated to be completed if the district is awarded the grants Ms Nola provided a brief overview of the behavioral threat assessment and advised the committee members of upcoming General awareness training offered by ospep which specifically named board members as potential candidates to attend dates and meeting links will be shared with uh meeting minutes the meeting concluded at 6 28 pm any questions thank you Mr Santiago um we're going to move to uh Finance we did Finance uh gonna move to education Mr Powers thank you Mr Smith uh education and special education committee met on April 26th at 5 30. president or myself vice president Danny commissioner basford for administration Miss kusilevich uh Ms Rotolo and Miss Rotolo summer program updates were given by Miss gusilevic she

146discussed the summer programs and offerings uh discussed the buildings that will be used due to the referendum work across the district buildings Title One and Esser funding are being used to provide in-person K-5 programs at school 17 and school 12 Annex which will also house the 21st Century Learning Program jumps jump start for eligible Rising Pre-K will also be housed at these locations the isee program will be held at Sela s special education esy and s-funded CLS will be held at Sela A and B virtual programs will be available for general education and ESL students in grades 6 through 12 and a virtual program will be open for students in grades three to five at non-title one schools schools will be contacting eligible students to enroll shortly after School tutoring updates we're giving were given

147by Miss Goose Levitt after school tutoring was discussed while the programmatic specifics of each School varies after school tutoring is available and offers students as needed each School K-8 has an after-school homework help program that varies either in person or virtual these typically take place after school the number of teachers varies by availability and interest students are either recommended to attend by teachers or the intervention process or parents request help from their teacher or principal High School tutoring is primarily for ESL and AP but Ella and mass support groups are also available based on teacher availability and student interest the district has several online support programs students in grades two to ten can access a live tutor while using imagine math and all students in grades 3 through 12 can access a live tutor via

148chat using tutor.com for any content area we offer tutor.com is being evaluated for usage prior to renewal Mr Rotolo gave a special education update and reported on the following items a CPAC meeting was held on March 29th on twice exceptionality with a presentation by a bcba the next cpag meeting will be held in person at school 17 on May 31st CPAC sponsored an arts and crafts table at the Clifton City Touch a Truck Event this past Saturday one of our small school buses will be there or was there in this case for students with autism to touch we've been working on hiring for the 23-24 school year by attending job fairs and interviewing new staff already recent parent trading includes a webinar on play on March 15th and picky eaters on April 26th we held

149a hidden dangers workshop at School 14 in March sponsored by poac a poac walk is coming up on May 21st come in and join the fun and fundraise for a great cause esy will be held at seala B July 5th through August 15th CLS which is covered learning support will be held this year from July 6th through the 29th at Sela a Handle With Care training was provided to the security department as well as select School staff Ms Rotolo attended the recent Clifton disabilities council meeting on March 20th to discuss District programming and future events Mr Rotolo encourages community members to apply for power professional positions referral numbers for preschool to 12th grade were reviewed and budgeting and Staffing next budget and Staffing for next year was discussed uh next item was Staffing and space

150needs for special education ESL preschool and middle school I'm Miss kusilevic and respond to the expanded need for classrooms for special education ell students and preschool programs the district continues to look at maximizing space our K-8 schools have reached the maximum capacity for General and special education class sections as well as preschool and ell classes most of these programs have class size caps and require full-size classrooms in middle school there are no available small classroom spaces for these rapidly growing programs the district continues to look at multiple options and has explored the possible use of other available sites being adjourned at 6 30 pm any questions any questions okay seeing none thank you very much thank you to all the Committees for a great month um president just FYI we don't have the Athletics committee

151on there we're missing them meet the minutes for that okay we'll get the athletic mini minutes the I thought a committee did meet though right yeah okay is there any unfinished business any unfinished business seeing none will move on to um education Administration um uh we've requested a um separate on EA one EA 2 and ea9 so let's um let's move the group and then we'll just read the uh onto a night okay so motion for the group it's almost second by Mr Paris any discussion I think you should read all four of them this is these other three two topics are very important a national nurses day and a special education week they're short so I think they should be read as well I only took those out because people were wrong okay no

152no I think it should be separate votes on all well that's a rhyme on all four yeah you want to read the fourth one [Music] I think we should read all four of them yeah okay special these things are very important to our so um so I got one two so ea3 uh this password already A3 and uh ea4 anyone like to read A4 Mr Paris okay oh okay so again we'll approve the group and then we'll go back and uh read each one okay of the top of those those items yes one two three four nine right okay motion um Mr abidrabo yes Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president yes president Smith yes okay EA one um Mr abujabo ea1 April Autism Awareness Month whereas ultimate

153awareness month and April aims celebrating promo acceptance for the condition that occurs in one in every 35 children in New Jersey as of December 2021 nationally one in every 44 children are identified with ASD whereas autism is a complex developmental condition affecting the patient's ability to interact communicate and progress as no one has not won but many sub subtypes whereas the ultimate Society deeply understands the need to Foster awareness acceptance to ignite change and healthier lifestyle through improved opportunities for people with Autism it works every day to improve lives of affected individuals and families by using tools like Community Partnerships with organizations digital and print resources along with events referrals to spark empathy and inclusivity in the general public whereas the observance of April 2 as World Autism Awareness Day is designed to increase awareness

154and support family members Educators and other professionals who teach and care for individuals with autism working to create connections and Empower those in the autism community and whereas we celebrate that many ways with people with Autism contribute sorry contribute to their families our community in the world as a whole now therefore be it resolved with the autism diagnosis rate increasing fast the Clifton Board education would like to take these 30 days to celebrate the differences of learn more about and Empower autistic individuals wear blue this month to recognize and celebrate our population with ASD thank you uh next we'll do ea2 uh Mr Santiago thank you president Smith uh May 8th 2023 Teacher Appreciation Week whereas teachers mold future citizens through guidance and education whereas teachers encounter students of widely differing backgrounds and whereas our

155country's future depends upon providing quality education to all students and whereas teachers spend countless hours preparing lessons evaluating progress counseling and coaching students and Performing community service and whereas our community recognizes and supports its teachers in educating the children of this community now therefore be it resolved that the Clifton Board of Education proclaims May 8th 2023 to be teacher appreciation week and be it further resolve that the Clifton Board of Education strongly encourages all members of our community to join with it in personally expressing appreciation to our teachers for their dedication and Devotion to their work foreign for 23 May 10th 2023 national school nurse day whereas children are the future and in by investing in them today we are ensuring our world for tomorrow and whereas all students have the right to have their

156health needs safely met while in school settings and whereas students children today face more complex and life-threatening health problems requiring care in schools and whereas nurses are professional Public Health nurses that Advance the well-being academic success the lifelong achievements of all students by serving on the four of the front lines for providing a critical safety net for our District's most fragile children and whereas School nurses act as a liaison to the school Community parents and health care providers on behalf of Children's Health by promoting wellness and improving Health outcomes for our district children and whereas School nurses support the health and education success of Children and Youth by providing access to care when children's cognitive development is as it is at its peak and whereas School nurses are members of a school-based mental health Team

157and whereas School nurses understand the link between health and learning and are in a position to make positive differences for children each day now therefore be it resolved at the Clifton Board of Education encourages all district students and staff to observe May 10 2023 as national school nurse day to acknowledge the accomplishments of School nurses and their effects of meeting the needs of today's students by improving the delivery of Health Care in our schools and to offer gratitude for School nurses who contribute to our local community by helping every student stay healthy in school and ready to learn in every classroom in every subject every day okay thank you and Mr Parisi A4 thank you resolve that the Clifton Board of Education accepts the recommendation of the superintentive schools to recognize special education week in

158New Jersey from May 14th through 20th whereas the New Jersey School Board Association theme for this week is creating a better world whereas we would like to take this opportunity to recognize the achievements of our state's 232 000 students with special needs and a dedicated collaborative work of their teachers School Personnel parents and other professionals whereas our many teachers child study teams paraprofessionals administrators School Personnel transportation and Board of Education provide ongoing support and assistance to our students now therefore be it resolved we in Clifton are most fortunate to have such amazing staff to help our students with special needs reach their potential and become successful citizens thank you uh ea9 I just want to um let the public know that ea9 is uh our safety patrol trip to Washington um parents and that I've

159spoken to are just so um extremely happy that the safety patrol trip is back on that the kids will have the opportunity to experience that great trip I remember doing it when I was in school and uh it truly is a great opportunity for these uh for these kids so um I just wanted to thank Administration for allowing us to take place again and um it's just a great time for our kids so I believe we have like 200 around 200 kids right now right around 200 that are registered to go um so that'll take uh that'll take a few buses uh to put them on there but uh we're very proud that our students do a great job you know safety patrol and they'll have the opportunity to go visit Washington so and thank

160you to all the volunteers in the next uh EA EA 10 um all the volunteers that are giving their time to go on the trip and to be there for the students so thank you to all the volunteers as well okay we can move on to uh personnel okay we have um P1 through p44 moved by Miss basford second by Mr Robert dravo is there any discussion seeing non-roll call please Mr abadrabo U.S with Obsession 33 and 43. this past yes an abstention on my name only on 41 please Mr Brunswick yes to me here yes Mr Paris yes abstaining myself on 41 please Mr Santiago yes I've seen on 41 my name only vice president Danny yes abstain on 41 name only president Smith yes motion carriers all right move on to finance facilities

161we have um F1 through F 32 so I moved by Mr abadrabo second by Mr Paris any discussion I have a question Mr Paris uh yeah just uh to Mr Uchi um the facility changes change orders on items three to eleven uh am I correct in reading that none of those incurred any additional costs um kind of a two-part answer they encourage it just you know cost however they're still included in the base bid so they're part of our allowance they're called in the bid okay because I saw that on that one all of them it said zero a couple had a credit that's correct so it's we're using our allowance but we still need to um do a change order to use the allowance okay thank you anyone else Ambassador yeah I have a

162question are we having executive session tonight yeah okay I have a question about a facility it's just a general well I we can bring it back all right thank you anyone else casing none real cold Please Mr abadrabo the US with abstention on 32 Miss bassford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion scary okay we'll move on to uh board member comments um I have Mr Paris first thank you Mr Smith um I had the honor of attending Honor Society at the high school the other day um was a great ceremony and very proud of all the and congratulate all the new inductees to our National Honor Society um a reminder we mentioned earlier that the uh High School concert band

163the Mustang organization has their Opus concert on May 17th um there's also a car wash this weekend I believe at the high school that the band is uh able to wash your car for a very reasonable amount of money so and it's supposed to not rain I don't think after Saturday so if it is raining it's canceled um foreign PBS is School number five I was very impressed to see a PowerPoint presentation done by fifth graders um I'm not so sure I could have done that when I was in fifth grade so um and even better the fact that we have this peer-to-peer teaching going on um it's great great for both the kids receiving the teaching as well as those giving in um also impressed that imagine math chose Clifton really as a role

164model they could have picked anyone in the country and they chose our school district to hold up as a model um I think that says a lot about the the level of math instruction and the success of this robotify program we have in our in our district um I wanted to also do a promotion on uh community band concert that's coming up it's going to be on May 20th it's in honor of armed forces day that will be the theme but there's also a Clifton alumni who we're memorializing during the concert Joe gerbino was a member of the Class of uh he was been a member of the community band since its Inception he was the treasurer of the community band he was the treasurer of the Clifton Mustang band Alumni Association um and he

165passed away about a month ago suddenly uh and we missed him very much he's our principal clarinet player so I want to send my condolences out to the gerbino family and also encourage to come and help us celebrate our service members both veterans and active service on May 20th and if you are a active military member or a veteran you get in at no charge and last but not least happy Mother's Day I don't think we're meeting before then again so happy Mother's Day to my mom and all the rest thank you Mr Paris Mr Santiago thank you president Smith thank you to everyone for coming out congratulations to all the students of the month um you know it's important to really stress that we have you know we recognize a few students of the

166month we have a lot of great students um as far as I'm concerned we have students of the month that that means we have parents of the month as well so thank you to all the parents who are involved I think it's also indicative of our staff including our teachers and all of our staff um you know uh unfortunately negative uh stories travel farther and and faster so that's why I think it's very important to accentuate the positive we have a lot of great students doing great things we had another student who was accepted to Columbia University um Elias Ragsdale represents the city Wells many many many many many more examples of that and we really need to stress that um because uh if we talked about the positive we'll be talking all day um

167and uh you know again it's important to accentuate that um and along those lines I wanted to say thank you to all the teachers I'm glad we're appreciate doing teacher appreciation week next week there was a great quote uh if I can quickly engine on teacher appreciation and that was teaching is a profession that launches every career and it's so true that um you know we had a gentleman who wanted to be in music production we have kids who want to follow all different kinds of careers and as teachers who are so important to that um I want to say happy Cinco de Mayo tomorrow it is not Mexican Independence but it's another important uh three and just want to say um uh happy Cinco de Mayo don't party too Hardy um I also was

168going to mention Mother's Day commissioner Parish uh mentioned so um happy Mother's Day uh to all the mothers all the the godmothers the aunts the deities the dog moms the cat moms that's everybody um thank you so much for all you do especially for my wife who's an amazing mother if you don't know that um spend five minutes with my two boys who are amazing um and uh I think that oh May the fourth be with you to all the Star Wars fans I am myself and I don't want to speak for Mr gigar raising his hands up there I am uh I was so looking forward to bangkon at Christopher Columbus I had my t-shirt and everything but today was really really important all the meetings are important today was a really important to

169me but I hope the event was awesome thank you good night thank you um commissioner robertrall thanks president for not forgetting me this time um so what we did today I think was pretty important uh it fixes some mistakes that have been in the past going less than one percent for six consecutive school calendared years and also setting up for success for the future um from Public Safety to the CST special education paraprofessionals um it's it's important to make sure that we secure the the future of our children and making sure that you know as I mentioned that we set them up for Success so um thanks to my colleagues as well for for avoiding work I was hoping everybody would go and it went successfully uh congratulations to Mr Anderson in school five uh

170for doing a great job with vsis the Robotics and the coding it looks like fun I wish we had it when we were younger um and it sets up uh Monica tree for for future robotic uh um competitors to our teachers and curriculums uh curriculum coaches um thank you for everything you do and making sure that you guide our children and making sure that they understand what they're studying what understand where you know where education could take them um and congrats to the mock trial team as an Alum of the mock trial team I'm proud to see that they're flourishing succeeding in what they're doing um and uh thanks for representing um all past and and future mock trial teams so that's it thank you thank you Miss password good evening um I'd like to

171thank all the speakers for coming out tonight and to voicing their opinions and um to the one speaker that mentioned me uh you you've touched me I always try to have people come up here and have a voice it's not easy it's scary sometimes when you have to get up and speak in public but thank you very much it did make a difference with my decision tonight so I thank everyone because Great Schools equal great communities and knowing what I know now I wish I known then that the earlier the intervention is such a key in anybody's education and if we can impact the younger students to make them Thrive later on in life by this budget I'm proud to put my signature on that line so I'm going to take a lot of flack

172I know I'm going to get phone calls and my phone phone is already blowing up but when you have to sit here and you listen to the administration Mr Lucy thank you for a very very really good explanation I'm very impressed um you laid it out there to get the thumbs up from Donna Popovich that just says it all because she she was very she was for the last couple weeks she was very strongly opinionated on what the budget should have in it she was putting it out there and she gave you a thumbs up so you did a good job so I'm impressed so this week was a busy week for me I had a lot of things to do with school boards I was at the Hudson County School boards association meeting as

173an observer to watch my really good friend Lorenzo uh Richardson become a school board president of Hudson County he's uh part of my Island of Misfit Toys he's been a really good friends of mine for over 10 years so Kudos Lorenzo good luck in your new position um we Tuesday night we went to the National Honor Society to watch all those students inducted into the National Honor Society nothing so much more thrilling than to see the best of the best and um good luck in your future endeavors so a lot of familiar faces last night yesterday afternoon or yesterday morning I traveled down to Trenton again at New Jersey school boards Association where I've learned a lot I participated in the school board member of the Year luncheon and we inducted the new member from

174West New York's Board of Education Adam so he's in the club now good luck Adam I learned uh some very important things and I have some information Mr brunsiak on that that issue that you had a question on that resolution on the gun violence I can discuss it with you on another date but it was for I got a little bit more in depth from Dr Purnell on it they are making a recommendation that's going to be forthcoming soon that you're going to see a mentoring program they're going to try to get people from other boards to matter people from other boards so you will not necessarily get a board member from Clifton you would get somebody from maybe Wayne or somebody from the same county to Mentor you as a new board member which

175is something really they're going to try to coordinate I don't know how they're going to do it but they're going to try also the school boards Association has scored a major coup in a hiring of Catherine whale and she's from the school ethics commission she will now be the resident School ethics person on board so that's going to be a big plus to helping them promote and also revamping gov one because one needs to be redone it's old so that'll be um kudos to that that's going to be huge huge huge for us so on our board we have the pleasure of two people get making making this certifications Alan Paris will be getting his new board member certification on May 8th and I'm proud to say Lucy joins a club of elite people getting

176her master board member certification Lucy so congratulations to the two of you um but if you have nothing to do on Monday night please come to the school boards association meeting um it starts at six o'clock well you can wish Jeff Fisher a Manchester Regional he's a personal friend of mine a happy 50-year Milestone which is huge which is huge so to all them I don't want to be any more to all the mothers out there my mother is no longer with me but she rides my shoulder every day happy Mother's Day to all all the mothers that are are mothers or dads that are mothers all the people that are mothers if you touch a child in any way you are a mother so happy Mother's Day to all of you good night uh

177commissioner thank you Mr President want to give congrats all those inducted into the National Honor Society this week I was unfortunately able to attend these are the wonderful things that were referenced earlier in most of the meetings all the good things that that occur in this District uh so congrats to all those kids who have been inducted happy Asian Pacific American heritage month uh very important so I want to give a shout out to everybody uh for that as well one of my favorite Foods as you could tell based on how I look I don't mess around when it comes to food so I want to wish everybody a happy National Hamburger month so um I you know I I thought that was fantastic I didn't even know until I got the promo from uh

178from White Castle so happy National Hamburger month to everybody and uh very important so shout out to Tiffany earlier student liaison she referenced the concert earlier commissioner Paris did as well and unfortunately the treasurer of the community band my understanding is was an absolute Legend um you know so it's it's devastating to the community band uh but as he referenced there are other concerts as well the middle schools they have spring musicals as well as the grade school so if your kids attend the grade schools if you have an opportunity to attend some of these concerts we have how many schools 24 schools in this District so there are lots of things going on within this District um finally just want to wish all the moms out there happy Mother's Day without all the moms

179in my life I don't even think I would be alive today so I'm very appreciative of all the moms out there Happy Happy Mother's Day May the fourth be with you thank you for the time thank you for your time God Bless America and have a good night everybody thank you Mr Mejia I first want to say thank you to everyone who came out today especially for the budget hearing I know last month I came into it thinking you know we needed at least four or five that's why I made that motion at first to do five because I want to end up at four at one point um but I'm glad we were able to do that a big reason for that is obviously you heard me say yeah honestly you heard me say

180it last time you know I lost a few teachers back back in the day like six years ago seven um and I didn't want to see you know students see that this time around another thing with that would be school security I go to schools every day across the country school security I could tell you off the top of my head no one has as much security as we do because I have security guard each school would be the best thing possible Mr jangaro says all the time Security's always seen us too much until the day it's not enough so God forbid you know something ever happens here I know that we have the top-notch security guards here especially in New Jersey you know um recently fdu Ramen Bowl schools like that had Shooters on

181campus recently so it's good to have you know more security going forward great for Teacher Appreciation Week um that video that came up it was awesome it shows that we're in the times that we're actually teaching students with computer um teaching them how to code that's a great thing because you know what when you go to college that's another you know scotch on top of that just for being a stem major um like faheem said before congratulations to the Montreal team I was also a part of it you know to see them go to Yale Princeton again and always ending up one up that's amazing Mr Vander hey missing Gonzalez are always leading a terrific job over there um come and attend some of the spring performances we have for us department whether it be

182a string string um concert band concert a musical uh drama club anything to support Parts you know I grew up as an art student as well I played violinville and cello I was a theater kid I loved it so you know students they like to see other people come support sometimes you can you're performing and then you see in the audience and you know 20 20 people are there those 20 people are your parents so you know if you can have more staff Administration there that'd be awesome and for a national decision day I know a lot of students already committed to universities colleges and all that but there's always you know those students who haven't committed so um just want to let you guys know I didn't come into University up until May 24th

183for my dad's birthday um I was a student athlete so I was being I'll still being recruited um and at that time I didn't have the best grades honestly with all of you um I hung out with the wrong people I made excuses not to do homework not to go to classes and I still ended up terrific I ended up over 80 offers to go work Wall Street School wherever I wanted to go and you know for those students who they're sitting back right now thinking to themselves wow I don't know where to go hey you still got plenty of options there's over I like to say maybe 20 000 schools that you can apply to all right so with that have a great night everybody thank you uh vice president Dr Danny well Mr

184Lucy I'd like to say you know thank you very much for putting together that very comprehensive you know detailed um you know explanation because it really really helped um as Ms bassper said it would have been good just to have it you know earlier but I understand so you know but it was very very detailed it really explained things you know showed where everything's going um you know how you broke things down understanding that one referendum's ending that you know with the percentages so that was really really great it's really helpful um and I and I think that's what you know really helped with the four percent when you explained it that way so thank you um I would like to say congratulations to all the students who received Awards and it's really nice that

185we showcase what the students are doing because you know Miss basford was here with me and you know in the beginning we didn't do that so um it's really nice because again we're Board of Education so it is nice to Showcase what the students do I always enjoy that um from the presentations it was like one of the things that sort of hit me I mean there were so many wonderful things that we're doing in the district and that I was proud of that you know we're showcasing that but just just the coding hearing about you know how many students wanted to do the coding and just as you were saying Mr Mejia I mean that that positive benefit for the students um it is um teacher appreciation week as an educator you know I

186really do want to thank the teachers because you're in front lines and all you do you know does matter and you know um especially having come off you know the past few years with coven and everything and I would say that as an educator I mean I find this year um just at this point just just to be very very um tired and um you know I think it's just because it's it's been the first like real so to say normal year um and so you know if you do find yourself like you're a little bit like looking forward to June it's okay because I think we all are um even I think Administration you know to some degree you know um and and I think that that's expected I mean it from what I

187hear from you know experts and things that because of everything we had gone through and now it's like sort of normalized process that it's okay that we're we're sort of tired at this point which normally we might not be as tired um but I want to thank you for you know all you do um as educators National School nurses day again you had your share with things with the pandemic so I don't know how you're doing now but um you are appreciated you know thank you for all that you do and then for just everybody that you know works with our special education population um thank you to all the employees for all you do for the special needs students it's really appreciated um you know happy Asian American and Pacific Islander um Heritage Month

188um I also want to say happy Mother's Day to my mom and to all the moms I know everybody says well my mom's the greatest you know but my mom truly is the greatest then and um you know it wouldn't be something if I didn't give a shout out to um my dad Stanley qualic um because it was his birthday and he gets so excited when I give him shout outs if you know my dad is Miss basford does he he really gets excited and he's been my number one supporter my number one fan like I can never do wrong in his eyes no matter what I do if I did something wrong he would still find the positive in it so happy Birthday Dad and that's it good evening thank you um I have

189to start out by saying um you know especially the chair who goes last um you know we don't always get to in our comments to um wish every organization and everything a happy this or a happy that um so I just want everyone to understand that that we do appreciate everyone what they do but sometimes we we don't have the opportunity to thank them so um I just want people to feel that they're left out um Teacher Appreciation Week I never was I never was fond of teacher appreciation week because teacher appreciation week should be teacher appreciation year um we should always appreciate and remember the people that educated us inspired US helped us um teachers are a sense of home and warmth and many times they become a nurse um they have to wear

190many different hats and to just appreciate them on a week doesn't truly identify the great work that they do throughout the whole year so um maybe next year we can change that to teacher appreciation year um and just remember those teachers I I was so touched by a student that told me um and I can't remember and I apologize I can't remember her name but she is a teacher at school number nine um who has been teaching in the district I'm going to say 45 years um she's she's in the same classroom um that she's been in the whole time and adult adult students came back to me and said you know I just went to visit School nine and this teacher that inspired me so much and she's still here and she's still in

191the the same class and she remembered me she remembered me and uh that tells you something about a teacher and a teacher in Clifton again I guess I'm a little biased I I think that we have the best teachers there are um because you see it in all the programs that we have and you see how well those programs run look at what we just had in Imagine math tonight for those teachers to be able to learn that and then give it back to their students it's just truly amazing so um teacher appreciation week thank you teachers for all that you do we as a board member I think budget time is always the um probably most uh unfavored part of this um job that we uh we take on um but I think this

192board tonight on a nine to zero vote realized what our our job is what our commitment is it's to this District and ensuring that our district receives the very best education that we can give our students and along that process I'm so proud of this board tonight you know I think paraprofessionals we should have them all full-time so this board taking step in that direction I I think is is tremendous paraprofessionals are are true guiders they are true helpers their presence in a classroom or anywhere else enables that teacher to be able to truly use their skills and their abilities to help the students that they teach so these are such very important people and I maybe I'm wrong but I'd have to go back and look I I think when I was previously on

193the board of the 90s I believe they were full-time yes yeah am I correct so tonight today this board has taken a step back in that direction to say you people are very important to this District and I hope we will continue to do that to show how much we appreciate and support our teachers paraprofessionals the list of of items not so much the amount of them but the additional staff that Clifton is going to be able to hire because of passing this budget tonight is just tremendous just a few that I just want to highlight here um you have ESL bilingual supervisor we have um we have an occupational therapist uh the speech therapist these are these are great things that we're bringing into Clifton great things so I just wanna Express how important

194it is in this board took that step tonight to to correct some things of the past and to move forward in the right direction we all are very concerned about security and last year this board again took a major step and bringing security guards into our into our district and we didn't know how it was going to go Mr gengaro through all his um education and um many conferences that he attended and brought back and and put a direction to our district this is what we need this is what we need them to do this is how they're going to be trained and we went with it and to be honest we had no idea how it was going to work but what a success it's been what a success it's been the security people

195are not just guards that stand there and make sure there's not trouble they have made a relationship in our schools they have made a relationship with the kids so now the kids trust them and look up to them and two of our guards are here tonight we can't begin to say thank you for all that you do for how much you have helped this District and now in this new budget moving forward we're going to be able to add to that to put one in every element to put a security in every Elementary School other than troubled areas I'm not sure any District like ours is progressing with that again this board taking the action that we value our students our staff and we want to make ensure to them that they're safe while they're

196teaching putting the vestibules up if you travel some other towns they don't have it they're not putting them up but Clifton is because it was important enough to do that so yes is it comfortable raising people's taxes it's not it's not comfortable but it's almost like saying you know if I have to give a dollar I'd rather give a dollar to something successful and not the dollar to something it isn't our taxpayers have been true supporters of Clifton education true supporters if you look in the history of our referendums any time we went out and asked the voters to help the educational system nine times out of ten they supported us and two years is it two years ago two years ago when we went out and asked for one of the largest referendums they

197said yes that our kids were important enough to put these items in our school they said it was important enough to make sure L'Oreal was happy and had an elevator to get upstairs it was important enough to have a respectable baseball field and soccer field it was important enough to put a weight room in that's going to be state of the art for our kids tonight on a 9-0 vote and I I'd like to look at how how long ago that happened this board took the direction to ensure that there should be no doubt we support our kids our staff and education so thank you to my fellow colleagues for making that step tonight and I know the public will understand why we made the move that we did and we're going to get the

198question why didn't you go to the three percent instead of the four percent Mr Robert what'd you say was a cup of coffee or something difference coffee a week there it is Give It Up thank you to my colleagues and thank you to our business office Mr Lucy Mr shahada and the entire office staff um for putting this all together for us this board had many questions rightfully so and are leaders were able to get those answers to us so that we could support this budget tonight so thank you to the business office to all of you for the great job you did and Mr brunsiak for the finance committee for the hard work that they did as well again the finance committee can only make a recommendation and they did but we appreciate their

199their their help in getting to that point and now their support to bring this forward so thank you all truly is a is a great day to be a Mustang Clifton is truly moving in the right direction as as one Clifton one Clifton so thank you to all um [Applause] all right we have uh I'm sorry I always forget uh new business new business anyone have any new business okay seeing none uh we have three items for executive session that should be quick we should be out of here 15 minutes and there's no votes so we will adjourn from executive session okay there is a Personnel matter there's legal issues concerning facilities and there's student issues so a motion to go into executive session by Mr abadraba seconded by Mr Mejia okay uh roll call

200please Mr abadrabo uh Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Jimmy here yes Mr Paris Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny and president Smith yes for today