001okay good evening I'd like to open the regularly scheduled meeting of the Clifton Board of Education for Thursday March the 2nd 2023. if you all would kindly please rise for a salute to our flag followed by a brief moment of silence into the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you foreign miss basford here Mr Brunswick here Mr Mejia here Mr Paris here Mr Santiago here vice president Danny here and president Smith here uh Mr Awad was here for a um uh Committee hearing uh this evening and had to leave so he will not be present for the remainder of the meeting um our mission statement vice president Danny if you would the mission of the Clifton School District in an open and reciprocal Community
002Partnership 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 open public meetings act the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to have advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Clifton Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place thereof posted at the city clerk's office Clifton Public Library administration building senior citizen Nutrition Center on cable TV in the local press and on the district's website and also
003mailed to presidents of parent-teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with our policy zero one six eight okay uh we're going to start with public recognition are you ready for that all right while we're doing that I'll read the public recognition this portion of the meeting is open to the residents and non-residents of the city of Clifton for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to and or directly related to the operation of the Clifton Public School District residents and non-residents are requested if they're in person to sign the register provided 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 by members of the public may or may not be responded to by
004the board all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate your questions may or may not be answered by board members the board asked that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specifically specific legal rights afforded to them by the laws of the state of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be held 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 those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable
005for their comments okay our um our call-in session has been open um are there any people uh waiting to be heard hi uh you're at the Clifton Board of Ed meeting did you want to make a public comment hi you're at the Clifton Board of Education meeting did you want to make a public comment hi cell phone caller uh you're live at the Board of Education meeting would you like to address the board all right one last shot here cell phone caller you're live at the Board of Education hello hello can you hear me yes hi this is the Clifton Board of Education would you like to address the board yeah okay if you kindly just state your name okay you have five minutes please go ahead I sent an email concerning my remarks and
006testimony from the February 9 2022 meeting regarding the lgbtqia webinar I have yet to receive an answer the center of Garden State family was also copied on the email I'm still waiting for an answer I am a taxpayer resident of Clifton and I expect an answer regarding the email that I sent to a reborn member and the superintendent thank you good night okay thank you anyone else you okay pleasure of the board seen on motion to close motion to close the colon by uh commissioner abadrabo seconded by vice president Danny now we'll do the uh in person if you wish to address the board kindly come up to the podium sign the roster state your name and municipality in which you live good evening my name is Renee Holland and I have been teaching at
007Clifton High School since 1996 and yet this is the first time that I am speaking out of board of magic Education meeting I thought I was going to make it to retirement but I have Mr Greg Quinlan the speaker at the last meeting to thank for bringing me here tonight Mr Quinlan stated that his name was maligned and ridiculed but from what I was able to see he did a fine job of that himself so from this point I am addressing Mr Quinlan and any others who share his sentiment you claim that you know what is going on in schools how do you know do you hold a position on the board of education in a school district how many children do you have have you volunteered your time at schools at any capacity how
008many years experience do you have working with adolescents Mr Quinlan you need to walk away from cable news and start thinking for yourself you have no idea what goes on in Clifton schools and you suggesting you do is not only laughable but an embarrassment to you but let's pretend for a moment that you do know what's going on in schools if that's the case then you would know Mr Quinlan that the lgbtqia plus Community has the highest rates of suicide so you being aware of that fact and yet you continue the verbal attacks against these children makes you a bully you being an ex-gay does not make you an authority figure on the topic but it is quite comical the way you think you understand it all through your Ghana study and your lesbian feminist
009quote but what you are missing is something a nurse retired or not should never be without your blatant lack of empathy and compassion is a disgrace according to the Trevor Project National mental health survey in 2022 the lgbtqia plus youth are not inherently prone to Suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society so once again you coming here with your smug attitude and your insensitive comments implicates you as a direct contributor to the emotional and mental distress inflicted upon the minor children in our community shame on you words matter Mr Quinlan and too often words have repercussions far from what we ever intended 13 years ago a college freshman who was coming to terms with his sexuality
010as a gay male was humiliated on the Internet by some of the students in his dorm imagine the loneliness and despair that this 18 year old felt as he jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge do you remember that story Mr Quinlan do you remember his name have you ever silently prayed that your children will never have to endure such rejection and hatred as Tyler Clementi did have you ever been awakened by a child crying stating that they hate who they are always have and don't know how to stop the pain have you ever looked a child in the eyes and said go ahead don't be scared tell me there will never be anything that will make me stop loving you lgbtqia plus adolescents are not merely numbers from a study and your
011statistics from Harvard do not Define them you cannot measure what's in the heart Mr Quinlan you stayed at homosexuality is not normal if you were the picture of what normal represents dear Lord I pray we stay abnormal forever here's what's not normal what is not normal is 80 percent of the lgbtqia plus youth report severe social isolation and that every 45 seconds a member of the community tries to commit suicide what is not normal is going on the Trevor Project website and seeing the message wait times to reach a counselor are higher than usual thanks for your patience we'll be with you soon what is not normal is a grown adult in 2023 knowing these facts but it's not deterred and mocking and humiliating an already marginalized community so as you can see you are
012the problem Mr Quinlan you were the one that damages children emotionally you're mocking of lgbtqia-xyz was not funny and it further demonstrates your intent to harm and ridicule the young and and vulnerable population which you claim to desperately care so much about but I thank you for helping me create the acronym I now use when you are here as lgbtqia-a-s-s you were correct about one thing this is not Winnie the Pooh and you're not Tigger and you're not the only one but we the educators of this Clifton Community especially the ones at the high school We Are The Velveteen rabbits we're our love for the students make them real thank you [Applause] anyone else wish to address the board hi Tova Felder Twain place uh Happy read Across America day just wanted to say apparently
013my hair decided to do an impression of Hermione Granger in honor of the day don't know what's going on here but um as most of you know I am now the editor of the Clifton times which is a daily digital news source and one of the things that I decided to do oh apparently I jogged here was to bring in some CHS writers to work with me because I'm I know there's a ton of talent in our district and especially in our high school and a lot of these students don't necessarily have a way to share their talent publicly and I wanted to see if we could do that so I have Stephanie Feliciano albera jabril and Elias Ragsdale who are all writing with the Clifton times please make sure you check out their pieces
014they're all really great writers and shout out to Elias especially who sat through a longer than I expected it to be meeting to cover it for the Clifton times last week and he did it he did the whole thing and he did a great job um and also albara is highlighting different students students who maybe don't always get the spotlight but should and Stephanie has been highlighting some of the clubs at CHS to help bring that to the community so that people especially people who have children who are not yet in the high school will get a little glimpse of some of the stuff CHS has to offer which I think is great and on a more personal note also kind of yay Clifton my son who is in his first year at Rutgers School
015of Engineering this year came up through Clifton schools his entire education just made the Dean's List at the School of Engineering no no small feat in classes like the ones he had to take and he texted us last night so excited sent us a screenshot of it and while his dad and I certainly would like to take some credit both for whatever genetics we passed on and for the way we raised him Nobody Does it alone and you know and of course Jesse gets plenty of credit for being the kid he is but he is a product of our school system so thank you to Clifton and especially his teachers at CHS who's did such a good job preparing him that off to college he went and he's smoking it so thank you [Applause] thank
016you is there anyone else that wishes to address the board seen on no one else Miss llama's not getting up oh geez oh well no I didn't mean to egg you on I'm just I was just shocked that's all I guess you twisted my arm I was waiting for a huge fight but I can throw my papers away so I'm happy with that I just want the community to know what fantastic teachers Paras uh counselors CST nurses um custodian secretaries security we have the best group here and we only want what's best for the kids here in Clifton I don't personally live in Clifton but I have adopted thousands of kids since 2001 here in Clifton so we only want the best for the children here and all the other nonsense that is going on
017don't listen to the lip service it has nothing to do they're trying to confuse you so please continue to listen to the Educators here in this District we want what's best for your children and I can't thank the Board of Ed enough for listening to the Educators here and not listening to The Outsiders so thank you again [Applause] thank you anyone else okay motion to close by Mr Roberto second by Mr Paris thank you uh we don't have our student representative right see Tiffany here no okay um okay there uh I don't see Tiffany here there's no one else representing the the student body on a report tonight okay just so I don't Miss over um we now like to recognize our students of the month for the month of March at Clifton High School
018and uh if we would start uh whoever has the freshman good evening freshman Anthony Stella Anthony's favorite subject is history because of the positive classroom environment created by his teacher Mr Latt who makes learning fun and interactive this year Anthony has been academically Successful by working hard and having supportive Friends by his side Anthony's parents are also inspiring and encourage him in everything that he does Anthony's older sister is in the students at Montclair State program at CHS and in the future Anthony is considering doing the same congratulations Anthony [Applause] thank you it takes a village to right foreign that's right [Applause] I do Mr Smith thank you uh sophomore Ava Acuna Ava is a very busy student at CHS she's a member of the cheerleading team the founder of the CHS book club and
019a member of the Heroes and Cool Kids Club managing academics and activities can be difficult at times but Ava has support from her teachers peers and family specifically Ava thanks her mother and considers her as a Pillar of Strength she also acknowledges her teachers Mr iwas Mr Cadmus and Mr Rando for inspiring her to do her best this fall Ava will be in the BCC early college program congratulations Ava [Applause] congratulations thank you [Applause] Junior Walla Neal's favorite class is U.S history partially because of his teacher Mr Rogers Neil enjoys engaging in his daily discussions about historical topics and his teaching methods help students to understand complex topics Neil is the vice president of the coding Club a member of the Hindu Student Association and also a member of the investment Club Neil is planning
020on going to college to major in computer science and thanks his family for all the sacrifices they have made to give him the opportunities to be successful certificate of achievement this recognition is certified to Neil jariwala on behalf of the Clifton Board of Education Administration for the CHS Junior student of the month March 2023 congratulations Neil thank you sure do you have any questions um you know congratulations [Applause] senior Christian Grant Christian has witnessed a diversity firsthand Kirsten's mother has battled lupus breast cancer and her will to fight is what keeps Christian going Christian has excelled in and out of the classroom and he really enjoys his marking class told by Mr O'Brien because of the passion he brings to class Christian has a has been a standout on the CHS track and field team
021a recently Sunday scholarship to bring his talents to Felicia University where he will be pursuing a degree in business the following certificate of achievement reads this recognition is certified to Christian Grant on behalf of the Clifton Board of Education Administration for CHS senior student of the month March 2023 with sincere congratulations on your meritorious achievement with recognition by resolution of the board education the desire to excel is the formula to a lifetime success your efforts have brought distinction to you your family in the Clinton Public Schools signed by President Board of Trustees Jim Smith and superintendent Danny Roberts would you join me [Applause] good congratulations congratulations [Applause] hmm Such Great accomplishments on on such great students and um as Mr Lama will um has just attested to um students you've worked very hard and you
022should be commended for the the hard work that you've put into it but you've had a lot of help along the way starting with your families your parents who have been there and supported you each and every step of the way and we'll continue to be there for you and your teachers your principles and all those people that have believed in you um we're so very proud of you and so very much enjoy making these presentations to the students of the month each month so congratulations to each of you continued success and it is a school night so if you'd like to exit the meeting now you're more than welcome to do so but you're more than welcome to stay as well so um thank you again and congratulations [Applause] thank you thank you really
023see is it too so scholarships right next are uh again very successful uh and wonderful program in our pbsis program uh by run by our um our coordinator Miss Paula ragosa who has uh two presentations tonight to make all right good evening everyone good evening president Smith vice president Danny Dr robitosi Commissioners and Central Administration thank you once again for the opportunity to showcase what we're doing in Clifton with pbsis in advance I will have you'll have to pardon my excitement we are recognizing two of my favorite people to work with in this district and I'm just so excited to be able to share this with you all so here we go one of the main system drivers of pbsis programs and the key marker for program sustainability is embedding pbsis practices across District programs
024and within curricular areas this is best practice promoted by the national PBIS Center despite the importance of integration of pbsis across curricular counseling and systematic programs many districts Nationwide struggle with this integral integral interlaced support system tonight we recognize two outstanding administrators for their effort support and enthusiasm and collaboration with the district-wide implementation of pbsis framework Mrs Aaron zamuda the math supervisor for grades K-8 and Dr Valerie kropenek language arts supervisors for grades K-8 have seamlessly embedded the pbsis preventative practices into their curricula few districts share this tremendous achievement in our state many folks have difficulty seeing the pbsis framework as more than an extrinsic reward system and neglect inter-curricular and inter-programmatic practices however thanks to these administrators and their content area teams working together with our teachers across the district Clifton has been able
025to embed the framework into our teaching practices nowhere is this more evident than in language arts and Mathematics Dr kropenek and Mrs demuda lead teachers to achieve pbsis daily practices by modeling tailoring support to the teachers needs asking for feedback and simply respecting teachers time these actions said administrative poetry into motion while ensuring that teachers feel successful I want to express my gratitude for this curricular alignment supporting engagement in curricular areas shows the power of pbsis practices and extends Universal interventions Beyond those simple extrinsic motivators making them part of daily learning in a moment you'll hear from both supervisors on how that the partners the Departments partnered with pbsis to support and enhance literacy and math engagement through several exciting initiatives Mrs kusilevic will then share remarks regarding this Monumental partnership so first I would
026like to welcome up to the podium I miss Aaron zamuta thank you everyone I really appreciate this we usually work behind the scenes so it's a it's a little weird we got to be honest with you um one thing I would like to also recognize is I don't do this alone my team of math coaches and with Miss Jaeger at the high school we really work together um to make math achievement a reality here in the district along with the teachers and the students so pbsis and math we started a partnership this school year to give each marking period the classroom that has the highest accuracy in completing lessons a stem kit so it can be a Lego kit it could be magnetic blocks it could be um other different kinds of I'm going to
027use the word Erector Set because I'm old but different kinds of building materials so that kids can really get um to build things and make things in their hands so you see some of the students here and it's across all disciplines we have in special ed classrooms in gen Ed classrooms and ESL classrooms and the program adapts for every student I've told you all before it is one of the supplemental pieces that we really are trying to leverage here in District to meet the student where their needs are and bring them up to grade level as much as we can so here are some of our recipients recipients of our stem kits and Lego kits for the first two marking periods in K through five are six through eight you'll see again but they are
028also receiving kits and then every marking period we recognize the students themselves who again achieve the most past lessons or highest accurate accuracy in the program and the coaches will go out give them certificates take pictures with them and again this is across the District kindergarten through eighth grade we hold contests imagine math holes contests in fact a high school teachers geometry class won a fifty dollar gift card to do a party even at the high school so one of the last things I want to highlight is something that we love so much about this program is that students in grades three and up can actually donate their think points to Charities both local and National and we're going to start with pbsis recognizing these students so you're going to see six names here these
029kids have donated the most in District from September to yesterday so they will also be recognized recognized through pbsis and again I don't do this by myself Christine gechi Kehoe Maggie whitillo and Hilary vangel along with Aaron Jaeger really help Drive everything along with me I am not an island unto myself and uh Dr kropenak and I work really closely together as well as Miss kutzalevich so I couldn't do anything without them so thank you very much foreign [Applause] I'm excited um as Aaron said we intend to work behind the scenes we tend to not take the Kudos but I couldn't do this job again without the support from my team which is in the back should I actually miss patala Mrs Maser and Mrs Hogan and Mr Stefano in our Middle School so we've
030leveraged pbiss with our book vending machine so it's very important to me as a supervisor we've we bought the book vending machine right after we came back from kovid in three of our buildings and then it got wind some of our principles are well how come I don't have one and we want to put books in kids hands that was the big big project for me I wanted all kids to have a book in their hand and the way to do that was to partner with pbsis and kids can earn that entry coin every month every week um and when the first time we did it was at school 17 on that Friday with Mr Gorski and the amount of kids that lined up to get that coin with their ppss dojo points there was
031just fascinating to me and then now we've every school has one including our middle schools and our middle school has leveraged we have videos out there our kids are excited and I'm going to put a chime in here our preschool buildings got their machines today I know they're not part of the pbsis but we wanted to make sure our kids are supported and that partnership um continues I think that's it right okay and our kids are in action and then I'm thankful for my team because they go out each marking period to reward AR or Accelerated Reader Program and our rods kids program for K through one and again with the entry token rpbsis bucks I think in the Middle School it's the golden ticket is hidden in one of the books for our kids
032so it's just really something that's very exciting for us thank you I think that's it foreign so I would like to really thank both Valerie and Aaron and their teams the all of our math and language arts coaches as well as our high school math and language arts supervisors and Aaron Jaeger and Dave White as a team they really work together to you know that they they're here to drive curriculum to promote instruction but to get kids engaged in curriculum and instruction requires people to be creative and that's what these two ladies embody they embody the best in creativity and they're tying together that social emotional piece that motivational piece the engagement necessary to get kids excited about something other than a video game now I know imagine math may be electronic but it's developing
033deeper skills and by tying it to these stem kits we're also getting the kids a little bit away from the computer letting them do some Hands-On 3D modeling in front in their classroom whether it be through a building activity um and by the way erector sets are not old because they still exist and that's another thing that we could add to those Hands-On Makerspace stem type based activities from the literacy perspective paper books matter yes you can always read on a screen but all of the brain research shows how our students learn better retain more from paper pencil activities and from reading books on paper so we're trying to strike that fine balance of getting our kids engaged in curriculum being tech savvy 21st century Learners while also being able to engage in deep curricular
034activities and Hands-On activities and that's what these two ladies do they drive their teams to ensure that our kids are fully engaged and the partnership with pbsis you know so many of the wonderful presentations you see about pbsis every year I'm sorry every month focus in on that extrinsic motivation but that's just kind of like the the universal layer the fun lining there's an awful lot more to this system of support we are building an integration of our behavioral practices with our inrs system with our curriculum so that we're able to do those secondary tiers what you see is the universal level that fun stuff that hooks kids in but that then helps identify which students are not getting hooked in and that targets those students to then receive addition an additional look with check-in
035checkout systems referrals to counseling referrals to basic skills additional supports that secondary tier is the real meat of pbsis but people don't quite see it yet because you know what that's not the fun part that's not the hook so here we celebrate that hook and that fun that Universal support and these ladies are taking that to the next level by now connecting that hook into that content and our counseling team is working on connecting that hook into our social emotional supports so over time we are building a really strong structure to support our student social emotional behavioral Developmental and oh yes learning and academic needs so ladies thank you for being such an integral part of this pyramid [Applause] um president Smith Dr robitosi would you help us hand out these certificates please so miss
036Aaron zamutas thank you so much congratulations [Applause] sorry I'm sorry did you know uh the um the board is going to be um uh breaking into executive session um to um be updated on um legal legal matters sorry I couldn't come up with the uh the the right word um so this is at the uh this is the time that the um are I'm losing our special ed council could be available to the board to to give that to us so um the board will be breaking away for a brief moment um to be updated on our uh special ed attorneys and at which time we'll come back and continue with the rest of the meeting um however if the board is okay with it um I just quickly like to um do the um
037educational Administration part um because um number one on that is the national women's history month and um Miss Lori lalama was a very instrumental and received an award um in this area from the New Jersey Education Association it was the Elizabeth Allen women in education award in recognition for Lori's dedication to public education by promoting women's rights and equality for all persons so we thought it would be great if Lori would read the resolution if it's okay with the board um and if we do that now and do our um our section B um before we break for executive session motion to move the group okay motion move my group I miss basford second by a Mr Paris any discussion okay we'll have you read the uh ea1 please thank you very much whereas women
038of every race class and ethnic background have made historic contributions to the growth and strength of our nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways whereas women have played and continued to play critical economic cultural and social role in every sphere of Life Of The Nation by constituting a significant portion of the labor force working inside and outside of the home whereas women have played a unique role throughout the history of the nation by providing the majority of the volunteer labor force of the nation whereas women were particularly important in the establishment of early charitable philanthropic and cultural institutions in our nation whereas women of every race class and ethnic background served as early leaders in the Forefront of every major Progressive social change movement whereas women have served our country courageously in the military whereas
039women have been leaders not only in securing their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity but also in the Abolitionist Movement the Emancipation movement the industrial labor movement the civil rights movement and all other movements especially the peace movement which creates a more fair and just Society for all and whereas despite the contributions of the role of women in history has been consistently overlooked and undervalued in the literature teaching and study of American History therefore be it resolved that the Clifton Board of Education honors the contributions of women have made throughout history and commit to support efforts to improve opportunities for girls and women and declare March as a national women's History Month thank you hey roll call please Mr abujrabo yes Berg yes Mr brunsiak yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago
040yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes oceans carry uh while we're confirming that the special ed council is here if until we get that confirmation if you don't mind we could continue on uh with um walking in there now so we'll now we'll do a person we'll do uh Personnel C sure okay we have uh P1 through p uh 21 no moved by Mr Robot second by Miss basford discussion seeing non-roll call please Mr abadrabo yes Miss basford yes Mr Brunson yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motions Gary okay we'll move on to a d Finance facilities we have uh F1 through um F9 so it moved by Mr abadrabo all right second by Mr Paris discussion um I'm asking for number four
041eight nine three under facility use of facilities uh f8 sorry uh um be pulled uh for uh till we get uh some further information um I have some questions on on it so um if the board agrees to pull this till we get some uh further information from Administration on uh 4893 use of facilities all right rest of the group roll call please Mr abadrabo uh yes with the possession F9 Miss basford yes Mr runziak yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes excuse me Mrs yes I need to abstain on board conferences uh my name only please okay Okay so let me just see what else as she was walking in the door do I have time to do anything else sorry minutes I didn't
042do minutes I'm sorry yeah that's why I hate it which number is that's fine the adoption I mean it's okay I'm sorry number 11 gang adoption of the minutes of our uh regularly scheduled meeting of February 9th um motion please by Miss basford second by Mr abadrabo discussion seeing none roll call please Mr abadrabo yes Miss bassford yes Mr bunziak yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion carries okay uh so the board will be meeting um at this time to be updated by our special ed Council um we do not expect it to be a a lengthy exit um so 30 minutes the board will come back and continue with the rest of our meeting uh do I have a motion please to break
043to Executive session by Mr abadrabo second second by Mr Mejia any discussion roll call please Mr abadravo Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yeah yeah president Smith yes thank you so I'm doing it okay uh the board met an executive session uh to be updated by our special education Council on a special education items um we also had a Personnel matter and a um student matter an illegal matter okay roll call back from executive session please here Mr Brunswick Mr Mejia here Mr Paris here Mr Santiago here vice president Danny here president Smith here we have a quorum okay uh we will continue with our order of business um I'll come back to the superintendent since he's uh not here uh so we'll go to
044number 13 which is uh first reading of policy uh Judy you want to read those um sorry uh first reading a policy um zero one five two board offices is a mandated policy zero one six one call adjournment and cancellations it's mandated zero one six two notice of board meetings it's mandated 2423 bilingual and ESL education mandated 5200 attendance mandated five five one two harassment intimidation or bullying mandated eight one four zero student enrollment mandated eight three three zero Student Records mandated and eight five zero five local wellness policy nutrition nutrient standards for meals and other Foods mandated any questions on that all right seeing none um we'll move on to uh our board committee reports uh we will start with our diversity committee and Mr Mejia thank you president Smith so the diversity committee
045was held on February 13 uh 2023 so I'm just going to read the minutes from it those who attended were me commissioner Fahim aldrabo commissioner Judith bastard Commission of commissioner Jim Smith assistant superintendent Miss um excuse me I'm probably going to mispronounce it I always have trouble with it because you love us um assistant superintendent Mr gengaro Clifton principal Mr hamda some teachers that were on the committee were Miss malama Miss Lopez Miss tesca Miss Tavera Miss Turk Miss Terry and a couple of student Representatives as well so some topics of discussion were that the first thing we all introduce ourselves some new board members on the committee and we introduce ourselves some students and teachers we're all able to introduce ourselves and talk about what this Committee of what's going to be about the
046second thing on the agenda um the committee discussed different presentations that the Key Club has been hosting throughout um the year through the Garden State equality there are going to be three more presentations that are scheduled for the remainder of the school year and the committee also discussed discussed potential issues with technology related to the virtual meetings and how we could solve that as well for number three the committee discussed the impact and the influx of the ESL students in our district it's seen now that the ESL population has more than doubled since last year and there's a discussion over the impact on class sizes and counseling resources for these students there's going to be further discussion to ensure regarding different programs to assist these students like peer mentoring programs as well as Global mentoring
047programs and we're also discussed to help these new ESL students come into our district the committee then discussed the potential of a school diversity event that would be planned and implements but at different clubs here at CHS the event will celebrate different ethnicities and help educate others from different cultures in our district the CHS Administration will work together with students and clubs and other advisors to schedule this event and then the meeting then adjourn at 2 20 PM again it was chaired by me and me and Dr Robert will work together to determine when the next meeting will take place and what we can do is help Advance the um the minutes for this thank you okay anyone have any questions yes Mr Brunswick thank you president Smith uh different presentations hosting through Garden State
048equality is that is there an age restriction to these presentations from what um from the presentations from the Key Club no I don't think I don't believe so and you could just I don't think the Key Club has any age restriction though just a high school student so high school students only are invited okay thank you and could you describe some of the uh some of the technology potential issues with technology related to these virtual meetings so there was a concern saying that one person was eventually kicked out um we try to discuss potential you know not in a way to say that someone was kicked out they don't remember anyone ever being kicked out it might have been you know just a technology issue in general ways on how to prevent that from ever
049happening maybe we can keep a record of all um person who was involved um I know when you do log into Zoom or teams wherever you're at as soon as you end the meeting it does give you a list of people who did attend how long they attended and if they ended up leaving or not early depending on the time so that was one of the problems we try to solve and I should I I do believe that we talked about recording the meeting too so there would be other records of it so in case um somebody did come up with a question but there was a there was a lengthy discussion about recording the meeting as well thank you another question about the ESL family commissioner Mejia yeah so this just happened there's a
050double ESL does anybody know over here if we get an addition additional funding from the state or from the feds as a result of the influx of ESL because presumably we need additional classrooms for this influx of BSO does that sound correct to anybody yes sir Mr Brunswick the on October 15th we submit our Assa state report that's the annual um submission for state aid and you you get the Money Follows the student so you get a certain amount of money for a regular education student you get more money for a special education student because it costs more money to educate that student you get more money for an ESL student so we anticipate because of the influx of ESL students at the beginning of this year and our October 15th account being almost 400
051students higher than last year we anticipate more funding because those students you get more aid for those students don't know what that number will be but we'll know soon so if it occurred last year it occurred this this calendar this school year right starting September so we won't even find out the number until next fiscal next fiscal year July 1st no not exactly so we know the number last October 15th right so most of these students came last summer we count our students October 15th that goes to the state and that number is what our state aid is based on for next school year starting July 1st so that's the number we're waiting on right now in fact actually we got it today we're just looking through it that's the the money the state aid
052for next school year so it's the amount of students October 15 2022 is what dictates how much state aid you get for the 22-23 school year that makes sense sorry 24. 23 24 school year sorry right so the next fiscal year yes we're not helping this year that's what you're asking yeah yeah thank you everybody that was probably the easier to say that's what you're asking right yeah we don't get any help this year okay um thank you Mr Mejia for that first uh diversity meeting next we'll move on to uh policy uh Miss bassford thank you Mr President Smith uh the policy committee met February 13th we began at 5 p.m in attendance with board president Jim Smith uh commissioner fahima abedrabba commission commissioner Richard Mejia administrators were Mark gingero Lou Ross and myself
053the following by laws and policies were put forth for adoption as recommended by Strauss Esme which is the service that we contract to regulate looking at our policies and also giving us updates when they come when they come to um to the surface so one was zero one six one call a German and cancellations number two is zero six two notice of board meetings two four two threes bilingual and ESL education five two zero zero attendance eight one four zero student enrollment 8330 Student Records the following bylaws and policies are being put forth for adoption with recommendation changes zero one five two board officers select option one on page one and option one on page two number two was five five one two harassment intimidation or bullying select option two and section g and Page
05424. the following policies are abolished as recommended recommended by Strauss Esme 1648.11 the road forward it's covid-19 policy number two one six four eight point thirteen School employee vaccination requirement policy 8505 wellness policy nutrient standard this policy will be presented for the first and second reading tonight to be re-adopted as currently written due to the upcoming audit requirement we have to do this immediately or it's we're going have an issue with that audit for uh informational purposes the committee discussed the section addressing virtual public participation by zero one six seven public participation in board meetings the committee also agreed to continue the process of reviewing and updating all district policies the meeting adjourned at 5 35 pm and Mr Ross wrote the minutes any questions yes thank you commissioner basford on the board officers to
055select option one and page one is this is this something that we um that was already provided on on the agenda okay um everybody get the um [Music] it was hard to follow the attachment so I we have the committee we got the minutes right but just on the actual policy itself is is there um more description on these I believe Mr Ross sent the whole okay did he send every policy to everyone because that's what he's supposed to be doing believe right right every you got it right and then what happens is Strauss says me gives you a language to to consider it's either option one or option two and the committee decided the option so do you want do you want me to bring this back to you want to be invited to
056the committee meeting so you can listen to this I I don't want to be in violation of the public meetings act or whatever it's fine yeah yeah but um actually discuss these options in length and everybody was affirmative it's it's only a couple of word changes it's nothing where it's gonna It's Gonna Hurt the board I believe um which one you you're referring to board officers um I think it was just verbiage about the boy president and how we and how what he does in his role and Jim was on the call so he was fine with every all the wording as well as as there was no negative not one person said nothing about it so so let me just say this going forward when I get my minutes I'm going to respond to
057Mr Ross to please send it to the entire board and everything with all the attachments because I think that's where we made the foul uh I don't I I thought everybody got him Alan's telling me we got them right thank you right it's got an attachments but see the options it's from Strauss has made they're a company that we pay the Board of Education pays them every year to actually give us the language to put in these policies that are mandated by the state of New Jersey or the federal government depending on the policy it's nothing that we make up we may change a word like that says um designated uh Personnel we may say superintendent but we never make really serious changes you'll know when we make serious names because there'll be a lot
058of discussion here and argument trust me right we were all on board with it so thank you you're welcome yes Mr Paris um there it is I told you in two minutes I'm sorry it's not in two minutes sorry about that everybody thank you hold down meeting about the virtual public hearing and all that um because the former board member brought it up that he didn't have enough time to um you know basically go on and speak what he wanted to speak about is it possible you know and I liked how we did it today we gave we gave an opportunity and log in about getting like I think a minute and then you read a little bit about um the reading of the policy and all that can we just might have been the
059same procedure all along nothing's changed I think there's a five SEC five minute there's like a five something delay he was saying that I I know he expressed his uh concern to me that there's a couple of minutes delay by the time we're speaking and the actual login went on that was his issue so Jim really spread it out when we looked into it um through technology uh um and through uh Mr Rose um she puts it on uh a couple of minutes before the meeting starts so anyone who wants to come into the virtual room can come in she'll put them into that waiting room we go through this flag salute we go through moment of silence the mission statement open public meetings all that so there's a good 15 minutes there before any
060of that actually happens all right thank you so I don't know there was an issue with somebody's internet or something but we're not trying to stifle anyone from you thank you president Smith all right um food and transportation we're gonna hold those to uh to our next meeting um so uh Mr meehy I'm sorry I should have had you do both of them uh booster club committee it's fine um so we're gonna go to the booster club committee minutes um we held it on Monday actually not a couple days ago on February 27 2023 and it started at 7 pm the start time was at 705. at first I'd like to apologize I did end up getting there a little two minutes later you know I couldn't log in then I realized it was because
061I didn't have my Clifton school email so present at the committee were myself commissioner Fahim abdrabo commissioner Judith basford and commissioner Anthony Santiago president at the meeting from Administration with Mrs Rogers the vice principal of CHS meeting facilitator Miss Keegan Mr Keegan a CHS vice principal Mr doctor was also present serving the capacity of both a parent and representing Central Administration there are also coaches and booster club Representatives present from the following Sports and activities boys soccer cheerleaning baseball lacrosse ice hockey and the band Miss Rogers first congratulated the winter sports who were president in the meeting cheerleaders the co-ed state championships a huge congratulations to them and the hockey team on a great run during their first try up season and we also mentioned to our student athletes for wrestling Indoor Track horse still
062in season and are still competing um third on the agenda Miss Rogers will send a shared calendar she ended up sending it in the morning to presence of booster club so they can upload any events that are going on within their groups not sure if anyone else on the board ended up receiving those but I did again invite to see all the events that are going to happen from now up until May uh Mr abroad brought up how the board can be more aware of events games matches that take place and Miss Rogers also discuss how the Athletics calendar on our website and that we do have an app for this as well um number five was discussion of ideas Miss algeri discusses using um but again I don't want to mispronounce it but plutonian
063for pre-game meals especially when I'm pressed for time highly convenient for the schools and the parents and also our student athletes Mrs Cole mentioned that the snacks in at the stadium so my deals were discussed um and then we also mentioned about the financial advice regarding combination of accounts with our new hockey's try um op team it was suggested to stick with the count and making advice from professionals and then miss bastard also brought up booster club fundraisers and with the Bluetooth clubs raise money for and discussion that was insured including a explanation of items that are kept by students personalized jerseys equipment senior gifts tickets Awards dinners trophies and plaques and then food slash added treats on game days um parties listed by teams and other outings seven was among the various Sports and
064booster clubs was discussed including some costs incurred by the cheerleading team discussion centered around what the district should be responsible for versus what the district Club pays for and then the next morning likely around June to recap spring Sports um meaning again is going to be an August kick off all sports and the meeting adjourned at 7 46 pm thank you okay any questions um this was a new committee that was started this year we felt I felt it was very important to bring these booster clubs together so that they're all on the same page um to give them a voice and Mr Mahia I commend you in your committee on a on a first great meeting I'm hoping those booster clubs that did not attend um was just for this particular meeting and that
065will have a hundred percent participation at the next meeting um so those that may be listening to this meeting if you're involved with the booster club and would like to be present at the next booster club committee meeting please let your coach Mr melayhee building principal uh no so that you can make sure that you're present at the next meeting so thank you again for that that progress and okay and last but not least uh Mr Paris is our education special education thank you Mr Smith uh we had a uh education committee meeting on February 16th president or myself uh uh Miss Danny vice president uh Miss basford uh Dr robertosi miss kusilevich Mr gingaro uh Ms Bergman Miss tremble Miss Banning and Miss Rotolo first item counseling grant for Teen Mental Health First Aid
066Ms tremble and Miss Bergman made a presentation shared about the new training on Mental Health first aid for select CHS staff and 10th graders the program provides tools to both staff and students to be able to recognize signs of distress and how to notify appropriate adults this was made possible by a grant received action on that was informational special education update by Ms Rotolo she discussed updates for project unifying Special Olympics recently the CHS unified basketball team played an away game against Northern Valley with a tie game 42-42 Woodrow Wilson Middle School played uh play unified had a basketball game on February 28th at 3 30. several Bowlers competed in many of our talented Clifton athletes are moving up in the Special Olympics bowling tournaments team shirts have been purchased for the athletes recent parent
067professional development on toilet training was held the January cpag meeting had an assistive technology presentation for parents the department recently spent time working with the transportation department on understanding autism and student needs child study teams have had training on traumatic brain injuries and how they may present in the classroom security and ERI teachers have been trained in the new Handle With Care de-escalation procedures there will be a week-long summer camp through bounce out the stigma stay tuned for more information on that referrals to special education have increased dramatically this year this will this will cause a need for more special education teachers and related Services provided in the future special education classes have class size limitations which will also require additional classrooms the district continues to search for part-time paraprofessionals so if someone is interested
068they can apply on the district website uh ESL update by Miss Banning and Miss Goose levich Miss Banning reviewed the unprecedented increase in the number of Ells from 652 in October of 2021 to over 1100 to date not including ell follow-up and refusal students who still require support this Banning shared how the sharp increase in Asylum Seekers and refugees has also increased the number of Ells in need of counseling social and academic support we've added multiple ESL sections additional staff our monitoring enrollment in all of bilingual magnet programs Ms Banning shared that we may need a new bilingual program in Ukrainian in the 2023-24 school year and will need additional ESL teachers to account for nearly double the students of the previous year ell students continue to register on a weekly basis action on that
069is a budgetary request for additional staff is being considered for the 23-24 school year Staffing and space needs for special education in ESL Miss cousalevich in response 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 the district continues to look at multiple options and has explored the possible use of the former Pope John Paul High School uh Twilight program pilot reported by Mr gigaro and Ms kusilevich Mr gingero introduced the Twilight after school tutoring program pilot Miss kusilevich shared the details of this pilot program to support selected students
070for whom the traditional instructional day and the spot and the existing Aspire Alternative Program are not optimal the district is piloting a hybrid enhanced home instruction program coupled with after-school tutoring students participate in online home instruction during the day and come on campus after school four days per week to work with content teachers counselors and specialists action on this is a budgetary request for this program is being considered for the 23-24 school year our next topic is s-i-f-e and s-l-i-f-e program needs Ms Banning and Miss kusilevic Define both programs the district has experienced an increase in students who fit the category of students with interrupted formal education and students with limited or interrupted formal education these programs serve students who are in the United States for two years or less and who arrive at least
071two years behind a native language academic skills several students meeting even more extreme profiles are being supported in our schools students meeting this definition do not qualify for special education and require intensive basic literacy support in addition to ESL the district is researching the creation of a formal program for these students whose needs cannot be met in the traditional ESL program uh summer programs this kusilevich updated the committee about summer programs for the summer of 2023 nearly every building is undergoing construction to further progress of referendum ventilation and security projects as a result of these projects summer programs will be modified the K-12 title 1313 and Minds in motion programs will be held at school 17 and school 12 Annex special education esy and CS CLS will be held at CLA and B the isee
072program will be held at Sela s and all other programs 6 to 12 will be virtual meeting adjourned at 6 50. any questions Mr President thank you commissioner Perris same thing with the special education referrals the increase do we fill out more applications for additional State and or federal funding for these increased referrals yes sir thank you anyone else no okay thank you very much for a very detailed meeting you had there yes but so very important okay uh before I turn it over to our superintendent is there any unfinished business yes I have one um I know I've been emailing you I've been kind of a pest about a board retreat I had the opportunity today I received a phone call from Kathy hello work because uh we I had to ask our question
073about something else um and she just got back to it so that was like weeks ago but she was really busy um I I asked her thoughts on having a board retreat she said to email everybody with three dates and if we can't at least the community knows we're trying to do it so that was her recommendation to us so I hope that we continue yeah that's that's the only thing I have to try to do it that's yeah thank you um any other finished business okay superintendent Europe thank you Mr President in the interest of time uh I just have one announcement to make I want to remind the board and the community that this weekend uh Clifton High School is performing the play Chicago teen Edition uh tomorrow night 7 P.M Saturday 7
074p.m and Sunday there's a matinee at 1 pm uh purchase tickets uh you can go to the high school website there's a graphic with a link to purchase tickets Commissioners if you are going I think it's next Friday I'm sorry that's exactly correct that's next weekend uh it's before our next board meeting March uh March 10th March 11th um Friday 7 P.M Saturday 7 P.M Sunday 1 p.m uh if Commissioners need tickets Please just uh reach out to me let me know and uh please come out and support our kids they do an amazing amazing job thank you superintendent um thanks Mark I will open up to I gotta get my list out so I do this Fair ly [Applause] oh yeah I gotta do that too okay okay go ahead while I'm looking this
075up uh so we have uh two resolutions sure I can read it into the record and then I'm president Smith can ask for a motion so it's resolution improving suspension of student ID 12-2022 and student ID 13-2022. whereas following a disciplinary hearing before the student Judiciary Committee held on March 2nd 2023 the Clifton Board of Education hereby approves this little plenary recommendation for student ID 12 2022 and 13 2022 and authorizes the superintendent to implement same okay do we have a motion by Mr Paris second second by Mr Santiago sorry uh any discussion roll call please miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion carries okay uh for some reason I can't find my new sheet but I think Mark
076was Nyx Mr Brunswick I think you were up first for board member comments thank you president Smith good evening everybody just want to give a happy birthday to Dr Seuss I know what his age would have been today possibly 113 or greater I had the honor and privilege today of attending and reading for reading Across America week at school 16 this morning in school number two and it was a wonderful experience and I cannot thank the staff and students enough over there just for the honor of having the invitation I want to give a big shout out at school 16 to Mrs wadbe and Miss gray School number two big shout out to miss Lucas Mrs speda Miss Gonzalez and Miss Garcia my perception is that all all of these people and all the students
077and staff that I have met are High Caliber high quality human beings so uh thank you to anybody who to anyone involved in making The Hires for all these people also there tonight this evening which we none of us were able to attend for obvious reasons at Columbus there's Seussical junior tonight was at 7 pm there's another showing tomorrow this is their spring Musical if anybody has any time if you got a few extra bucks it's five dollars for students eight dollars for for adults highly recommended uh you know this this is their spring musical again Dr robertosie plugged the plug the one in um at the high school for Chicago the teenage version for next next Friday and Saturday um also for those who celebrate the upcoming holidays uh I wish you a joyous
078season for those who celebrate St Patrick's Day St Joseph's day and those who celebrate Ramadan which starts March 22nd this year thank you everyone for your time and God bless America have a good night everybody thank you commissioner Mejia thank you president Smith so I first like to start out with a huge congratulations to our cheerleading team and our hockey team for making it so far this year especially our cheerleading team um state champs that's an awesome feeling I know how you guys feeling right now full of joy full happiness and you guys are going to remember this for a lifetime and you're going to talk about it to your kids you know when you get older maybe even grandkids how that how that one time when you're a Junior and senior in high school
079how you now you're a state champ um I also like to congratulate our student athletes who are still in wrestling in indoor track and field I know we did have a sitter in the month today he was an indoor track and field um Superstar I call him um he is attending my alma mater at Felicia University so big and congratulations to him as well um and again like Mr bunsiak said happy read Across America day for Dr um Seuss growing up I wasn't always the strongest reader but then as soon as I had into college um took my LSAT applied for law school I realized how big reading is um at the end of the day huge part of everyone's life you're going to read no matter where you go and I always tell students
080as long as you can improve on your really reading and critical thinking abilities you're going to be great no matter where you go um so thank you again for giving me the time and have a great night everybody thank you commissioner Paris thank you Mr Smith uh congratulations to all our student of the month winners um congratulations to Ms samuda and Dr kropenak for their guidance and and integration of pbsis into our our math and language arts programs um I also read today at a at a few schools and I just wanted to do a shout out to parents it's one thing you can do for your children that will absolutely Amaze them I mean just just the looks on the on the children's faces when you're reading um it's just a wonderful experience for
081them and for you and if you haven't done it in a while take a moment to take out a book and and tell them a story thank you commissioner Santiago thank you president Smith I want to kind of echo some of the sentiments congratulations to the cheer team for their state championship um I too was going to say go see Seussical JR the musical today and tomorrow I also visited School uh 2 5 16 and 17 for Dr Seuss read Across America today was awesome it was I was inspired it inspired me visiting the kids and being with the kids um and uh I was kind of surprised firstly I was a little a little nervous to going to read to first grade a classroom full of first graders a classroom full of third graders
082uh but but they were happy and excited that we were there to read to them to to visit them so um that that made me feel good um but yeah I told him keep reading you know be a lifelong learner I you never stop reading um so thank you to the principals and the staff that were all part of that um I've also wanted to say congratulations to the students of the month as well as the staff for their pbsis Awards that's really a great great program um I also wanted to say happy St Patrick's Day to everybody celebrating and happy uh Ramadan and I think that's it thank you guys good night you commissioner bassford thank you congratulations to the students of the month congratulations to the cheerleading team I hope we're going to
083honor them soon as an old ex-cheer leader myself to the hockey team I had the privilege of reading at school 17 yesterday School five School two and tomorrow I'll be at school eight uh very briefly I just want to tell tell the people out there my trip to school five of course it's my home school that's where my kids grew up I had a special guest and with the permission of Dr robotazi I had an armed guard with me my son accompanied me to read he didn't read but he came to his home school and looked around and said it's really small and he remembers the room the all-purpose room but the lunchroom he was really he just kept on popping in and out of it going it's so small ma this room was so
084big we went to his resource room to read to his teacher Mr Hunter I'm going to get very emotional I'm sorry I can't help this and it was amazing the questions they were asking him both him what first what do you do do you get paid for that you know what do you do so we explained that you know together with eight other people we make decisions that mold your future basically with the education that you receive from the district we try to make really good decisions how much money is that and they were asking a lot of questions the lesson in the book was the Cat in the Hat we talked about people not letting anybody in the home or the lesson about telling the truth and about you know being honest with people
085because moms and moms and dads and your Guardians and teachers and people in the district all have a wisdom of really knowing what what's going on so the kids were amazing with that the moment was really profound for me is when my son talked to them about the lessons they were going to learn that how hard his teacher was on him to push him to the level where he needed to be made him successful today and he stood up and he stood up in his uniform and he said I just want to tell you all something he said people told me I couldn't but I'm going to tell you yes you can and it just sunk in and I lost it in front of you and they they were so happy to see him they
086were asking him tons of questions about his uniform and everything but he kept on telling them to read and he said how hard it was for him to read he said I do so much reading in my daily job I have to write things and they were listening and they were sponging in it was just so such a nice feeling so I have to thank you Dr robitussi for making my son have a full circle in his life to a school that he had a hard time in and somebody sent me a text message and said wouldn't it have been nice for the people that really didn't see the value in the boy see the value in the man now so thank you I'm sorry I'm just it's it's home it's home to me so
087um I just want to tell you how beautiful the schools are they were perky they were vibrant just such a delight and he kept on saying what's the difference about this school and I'm saying look around Keith look at the decorations look at the colors in here he goes it wasn't like this when we grew up he said it was dismal so kudos to the district and to the staff that keep it that way so thank you to the staff that allowed us to do that I was just so impressed with everybody that greeted us they were like you said Mr Brunswick to the people that hired them Kudos right so I have um to say happy St Joseph's Day to my friend my Italian friends happy Ramadan but this is my Heritage so this
088is comes from me may you all have the happiness and luck that life can hold and at the end of your Rainbow may you find your pot of gold that is an old Irish blessing that my father always used to say so God bless you and have a good good good rest of the month and we'll see you on the 23rd thank you uh vice president Danny okay um so first of all I want to say thank you to all the people who did speak um thank you um you know your thoughts are always heard um even if we don't agree or we do agree uh it's your right to be able to say what you wish um congratulations to the cheerleading team congratulations to all the student of the month and um to the
089pbsis presenters thank you for a great comprehensive presentation it's always nice to see what the students are doing and I know that it's just only a little part but it it still really showcases the great things that we do here with the program um happy birthday to Dr Seuss unfortunately um I was not able to read because I have to work um and um but you know hearing about the things that you say about you know reading to the students and you know I'm in the classroom with the children and that's the best part of the job it really is the paperwork the administrative things that go along not so much sorry but um really the kids are are the greatest part of the job they really are um anybody that's in the classroom with
090them knows and if you had that little bit of time like joy that it brings you to see their faces Light Up The Joy when you see that they actually get something the joy and the stories that they tell you even like home stories it's sort of fun you know to listen um especially because I teach high school so I want to say thank you for being asked but um unfortunately it's it's always a conflict with with work um and I'd like to say uh Happy St Patrick's Day and uh happy Saint Joseph's Day until celebrating in happy Ramadan to those celebrating and I just because it is women's History Month so by Dr Maya Angelou you may encounter many defeats but you must not be defeated thank you unfortunately going last uh you become
091repetitive so I I don't want to prolong anything however today is one of the great days of being a board member because you get to go into a school to see the staff to see the students to see what hard work that we put in and the hours that we put in and it's all worth it because you see education happening you see the the smiles on these kids faces today and how happy they were for little old me nobody there to read to them and they were just thrilled actually I have to confess I did bring Triscuit with me and they were they were more happy to see Triscuit than they were me so I I have to be honest um she was a big hit but um truthfully it truly makes the work
092that we do so beneficial um and I have to comment something on what Miss Alama said before um you know you want to kind of believe that the district that you're working for that you have the best staff and you have the best people in your district and you want to profess that but I profess it because I believe it and I know it we see it we have some of the best administrators teachers aides custodians supervisors administrators uh secretaries I don't want to leave anyone Perez of course the powers I can I consider the report of staff nurses counselors sodiums I said drivers aides Associates um our BAS our assistant ba our superintendent assistant superintendents um I said secretaries but I'll say them again um that's right that's right um you know people everyone
093included the the the technology staff and Mr mccunney in the back there that is that handles our meetings here and he handles the cast program and the kids in the cast program and and all of our technology team that make everything happen day to day and our maintenance crew that work very hard to make sure that our buildings are kept up and and are at the best quality that they can be and gosh if I didn't believe it I couldn't profess it and I'm so thankful to be part of a district where we truly have great people in our district and I can honestly say that to you and if you don't believe it take a look around take a look at the shape our buildings are in take a look at the advances that
094we've made in so many areas look at the major renovation project that's taking place in Clifton right now I think only one other Town beat us out um to spend more money to renovate and wherever heck they got 300 some odd thousand dollars I have no idea but anyhow that's all another story but take a look around go to your schools see the conditions of the schools I was so impressed today and Ms Miss bassford said School five was so bright and colorful and streamers and and school too and school 16 and it's just the enjoyment of being there and seeing the staff so happy to be teaching and educating kids you know it's not just a job they enjoy what they're doing and you could see it's benefiting our kids look at our graduation
095rate what was it last year anyone put anyone on the spot but it was 89 percent and going up that's tremendous that doesn't happen because you have bad people working in your District that happens because you have dedicated people devoted to making sure that we give the best possible education to Clifton kids and all of Staff if you're not listening to me today I say it all the time but thank you to all of you for caring about our kids they mean a lot to us that's why we do this the kids all think we get this big paycheck okay we're not here for the paycheck and I know many of you are not here just for a paycheck you put in a lot more time a lot more dedication and a lot more energy
096but you know what it shows it really shows because we can stand up and be so proud to say that we are part of the Clifton School District We Are One Clifton all of us working together and Mr Rose I would be so negligent not to thank you for the time that you put in here and are here each and every meeting and she doesn't have to be here to do this she does it because she's dedicated to to the community so on Dr Seuss's birthday it's a pow-wow day for me because I just love being in the schools I love to see things in action and if anyone has any doubt on what happens in Clifton and how the money is spent and how kids are educated and the devotion of our staff everybody
097this day as a board member shows me that clean well-kept schools staff that is upbeat secretarial staff that met me at the door with this big welcome and smile and not just because I'm a board member they do it to everybody not every District can say to this people not every District can stand up and say hey we have a great District No many districts are all talking about the problems they have this District tries to come together and solve the problems and do it together not to be against each other but to work together and three some odd years ago this District took a major step in being bringing one of the best superintendents to our district that has led the fight has led the charge has led the changes that have happened in
098our district has brought the staff together to work together instead of being at odds I have to tell you years ago staff was at odds with superintendents it was always a conflict it was always a fight but those days have changed in Clifton yes we're not perfect we hope to get there we know there's avenues that we have to improve on and there's staff members that we hope to improve on and give them more resources this board knows that and we're willing to work to do that because the ultimate goal people is to make sure that Clifton gives the best possible education to our kids our kids deserve it they should have the best and on this day of Dr Seuss's birthday I just wish to thank everyone involved in in this District I am
099so proud so proud to be a board member in the Clifton School District and I hope I get the opportunity to thank each and every staff member for the great job that they can do and continue to do so thank you all I'm sorry I went off on this but it just is very important to me and and Miss Alama for that for honoring women and today and receiving that wonderful Accolade and award you know that's not an award to put on a back shelf that's a ward to be hung up be proud be proud we're so proud of women men everyone in our district that work together we're so proud of all of you so please continue to do the good work for our kids and I know you will and you'll have our
100support and I know you'll have Administration support so again I tried to mention everybody and I hope I didn't forget anybody but trust me you're not forgotten um I have to thank all those that invited me to to to speak um I'm sorry to read to the kids today um I wasn't able to get to every school um School 16 kept me there quite long um but I was so glad to be there um then I went over to school five and then I ended up my day um at school too and I was so thrilled and honored to meet um Mr paris's wonderful daughter uh Alana um everything that Mr Paris has spoken to me about his daughter uh truly was the truth she's a remarkable and wonderful young lady and I was very
101happy and privileged to uh to meet her and to thank her for inviting me and wanting me to be there um schools that I didn't get to I I will at some point I promise you to get there or at least Triscuit will get there um and I hope tomorrow I'll be at Sila B uh school 11 and school eight uh to continue the end of uh read Across America week but thank you to all the schools for the uh for the invites um as we mentioned there's so many great things happening in our in our schools Clifton High School um are um I believe our debate team is uh is going into a um a session uh we have our robotics team going into a a competition um as we mentioned our cheerleaders doing
102a phenomenal job our basketball program had one of his most successful years this year our wrestling program we're gonna make uh history by having some state champions down in Atlantic City uh our indoor track and field um there are just so many great aspects of of uh Clifton that are taking place we just got our invitation to the um the string is it the strings in the band uh All City I'm sorry All City coming up in uh in March um if you haven't attended one of those it's a tremendous tremendous and wonderful uh experience so um please look into it I can't remember the dates off the top of my head um but it's on our website um it really uh uh Jason does a tremendous job of putting it all together um so
103there are so many aspects of our schools that are doing such great things and if you go around town you see all the construction that's happening okay that doesn't happen in a district or a town that doesn't care about its people and its kids okay Clifton does and we thank you and there's going to be a lot of good things happening we're hoping our Woodrow Wilson baseball field and soccer field and the new Clubhouse is going to be ready for the start of the baseball season uh that little bit of snow hopefully didn't put us behind we're ahead of schedule it's going to be a state-of-the-art facility that Clifton has deserved for so many years and didn't have and now we're going to have that uh Woodrow Wilson students will be using it for their
104gym classes and the community will also be benefiting and using it as well so you'll see construction happening all around the schools I know the trailers have gone up at Columbus I know that elevator is coming very soon but all of the schools will see construction bathrooms at the high school some of the bathrooms have been completed already and they have come out amazing just absolutely amazing so thank you Clifton for supporting our schools for supporting kids continue to do it continue to see the great things that are happening in Clifton um and uh next meeting on the 23rd it'll be our preliminary budget uh presentation correct and uh hopefully at that point we'll be able to give a um a little construction update on just a synopsis of what's happening in our construction projects
105okay um thank you all again for attending tonight our next board meeting will be on the 23rd um at 7 pm if there's no other business before the board a motion to adjourn motion by commissioner basford second by vice president Danny no objection meeting adjourned thank you good job team