January 19, 2023 - Clifton Board of Education Meeting

001with this one foreign thank you he means well we were just doing a presentation with the newborn members okay [Music] foreign can you hear me on the computer okay okay very good so I'll just stay on this link all right very good thanks Eric okay good evening I'd like to open the regularly scheduled meeting of the Clifton Board of Education for Thursday January 19th 2023. if you all would please rise for a salute to our flag followed by a brief moment of silence thank you roll call please Mr abadrabo Mr Awad miss basford here Mr Brunswick here Mr Mejia here Mr Paris here Mr Santiago here vice president Danny here president Smith here we have a quorum um Mr Awad uh is um uh on what's the word under the weather yeah under the weather

002um so he will not be uh here tonight um we hope that he's feeling better um and um are um our leader of our district uh is uh on the screen there um at our Stadium on a beautiful sunny day uh so Dr robitosi will be participating in our meeting uh remotely uh nice to see you doc okay mission statement Dr Danny would you read that please the mission of the Clifton School District in an open and reciprocal Community Partnership is to provide all students with a quality education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong Learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a Democratic Society in an ever-changing world the open public meetings act the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to

003have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Clifton Board of Education has caused no 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 on the district's website and mailed to presidents of parent teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policy zero one six eight um at this time the board is going to um break for executive session uh to discuss a Personnel matter action will be taken um so in order to make this a little bit easier for

004the board and shifting around we ask the public if you would uh kindly vacate this room uh security guards will take you up to a a room where you could stay until our executive session part is over uh and then we'll come up and get you to come back down again so we appreciate your cooperation with that again we are hoping to be on schedule uh to start our regular meeting at seven o'clock but we'll go and let you know those that are here uh that are waiting upstairs so our security team uh in the hallway will take you upstairs thank you so much a motion to go executive session please motion by Mr Roberto second by Mr Paris any objection over there a full system okay roll call from executive session Mr abadrabo here

005miss basford here Mr Brunswick here Mr Mejia here Mr Paris here Mr Santiago here vice president Danny here president Smith here we have a corner um the uh the board met in um executive session uh for a uh Personnel matter um no action is needed correct correct okay um I don't know where my poor dogs went oh here's okay so we're going to uh move into 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 in person to sign the register provided for this purpose all speakers are asked to State their names municipality in which they live

006and 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 the board all comments will be considered and are responsible be forthcoming if and when appropriate your questions may or may not be answered by board members the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when they are speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded to them by the state of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments

007in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments okay we'll start with um we don't have anyone nobody in the virtual sorry sir yes no one okay motion to close the version what Mr Roberto second by Mr Paris okay so we'll move to uh in person if anyone is here to address the board if you kindly step up to the podium uh state your name and municipality and subject matter and you'll have five minutes to speak to the board oh yes good evening uh welcome and God bless everyone I'm so pleased to see the public is here which is so important my name is Trini maestre and I reside in Clifton I got too happy I forgot

008to say the first uh I was here last month or maybe two weeks ago thank you and I was saying how important it is for the new generation to be part of it and I'm glad to see that there are a lot of young faces in this public attendance at that meeting or maybe the meeting prior to that there were some concerns that there were not enough security not enough police uh helping and this past Tuesday at the council meeting I heard something so terrible I almost cried a child had a leg broken and another hand his face sort of this figure cut why are these things happening in our school system I was looking at the three cities Patterson Passaic and Clifton Clifton has the least amount ten thousand and change compared to the

009others and population so I don't think it's a good thing for the image of the public school system in Clifton I am so pleased that we have a young member of the new generation maybe we should do something to create something a program for the school at the high school in the junior high school where children will learn to be like the big brother like watching for the younger ones this is not a good report to have someone a child he's LED broke and you can check that with the city council because it was made public so I'm concerned education to me is is the bridge to success whether it's Financial whether it's to do things to accomplish so education is very important so I implore I really would like you to be a little

010bit more concerned with the safety of our students and if there are students that must be disciplined Soviet but it's for their own good thank you anyone else wish to address the board your buddy good evening my name is Lori lalama and I'm the president of the association since this is School Board recognition month the cea wants to thank you for your hard work and dedication to the students and staff this is a new year for the Board of Ed so I want to talk about four steps that I read which are important to think about for this upcoming year number one having a Clear Vision for the district effective school board members can see a path forward they understand where their District succeeds and where their district has challenges they have a vision for

011not only what a better district will look like but how to get there the foundation for this vision is deep understanding of the district and not just a passion for public education board members are successful when they Master the finer details of their district and use that to fuel their ideas for the future setting goals though having a critical vision is critical Visions alone don't make a change goals do setting goals is one of the most vital signs of effective school board members because goals give shape to what school board members will take during their terms when when this gets tough school boards can return to their goals as a litmus test for whether or not to do something if the initiative doesn't tie back to the goals it doesn't move forward goals are also

012the best way for school boards to measure success they can reflect on the progress they've made towards the goals and use that to report back to the community and to the superintendent focusing on student achievement school boards are pulled in many different ways they're elected as the community's voice on public education but they also have to win the favor of Educators and staff within the district however these are both essential effective school board members never forget that their top priority is the student's success no matter how loud the voices get school boards are successful when they remember that they must protect the interests of their students influential school board members can manage other expectations and also help them understand and even support their unwavering Focus for student outcomes number four build positive relationships throughout the

013district school board members need to become part of the district not just a silent group overseeing District activities instead they need to Foster constructive relationships with everyone from the superintendent to the teachers successful school board members know that these are the relationships that will help them get a closer look at The District's day-to-day and create action that will make change where it's needed the support of the District staff is indispensable to school boards effective school board members never forgive this do when you listen don't listen to respond listen to understand first then respond accordingly thank you very much and I wish for a successful New Year thank you anyone else wish to address the board foreign happy New Year everybody I have a complaint I went on the webinar last night the informational on the

014LGBT ma'am if you could just please state your name and municipality before you excuse me Marcia Miller Clifton I went on the website last night as a attendee and partially way through I was taken off the website and it stated that the host removed me and I and I could not retry and rejoin so I found that very unacceptable I have an article here it's dated from December 27 twenty thousand twenty two Sweden pulls way back from gender affirming care for children Sweden's National Board of Health just updated its guidelines on the care of children with gender dysphoria and caution is the new watchword it declares that extended psychosocial Explorations are key young people suffering from gender dysphoria need to be able to quickly receive an investigation and be offered adequate care measures based on

015the health care systems assessment of care needs good psychosocial care is fundamental says Thomas Linden head of the Department of the national Board of Health and Welfare contrary to Biden's Administration and gender activists assertations that the science has settled this is a pelosity of studies on the best approach for caring for gender dysphoric children the national Board of Health and Welfare has previously based on among other things data from sbu which is the sweetest National Agency for medical and social evaluation they concluded that systemic documentation documentation and follow-up of care does not take place to a sufficient extent and that the scientific data is insufficient to assess the effects of puberty inhibiting and gender sensitive hormone therapy for children and young people the need for good clinical studies is clear from the knowledge gaps listed

016by sbu follow up an evaluation was something we emphasized already in the knowledge support in 2015. and since then very little knowledge has been added it is important that the health and medical care regions work to ensure the systemic documentation and follow-up of Care at the national level is realized and that clinical studies can start says Thomas Linden the board also wants to cut back on what activists call Top surgeries that is mastectomies of children there is also the recommendation regarding breast surgery similar to hormone treatments that the assessment is that such treatment should continue to be given without the framework of research and that pending the onset of a research study it can be given an exceptional exceptional cases according to the criteria contained in the knowledge support as with the previous presented recommendations

017on hormone therapy the uncertain state of knowledge suggests caution at present States Thomas Linden the swedes also note the explosion in cases and the day transition phenomenon several factors have pointed towards increased caution and offering hormonal and surgical treatment insufficient scientific evidence as yet to be explained increase in the number of people by being diagnosed ages 13 through 17. and with registered sex female at Birth less uniform experience-based knowledge among participating experts than in 2015 and the documented prevalence of detransition it is most unfortunate that our government and most social media platforms continue to stifle this important information just as they did with catastrophic results during the during the covid pandemic what is really needed now is not to be the suppression of opinions but open and robust debate in the medical community and among

018the public as how we might best treat children for what might be an essentially psychological condition the swedes have outlined The Profit scientific approach thank you anyone else wish to address the board okay last call anyone else was to address the board seeing non-motionally closed by Mr abadrabo second by Mr Paris um is uh Tiffany here oh there you are would you like to come up and give you a report foreign a brief update on the CHS winter sports the boys varsity basketball team beat Tech on Tuesday and the final score was 66-61 the boys had a game today at Clifton High School first versing Passaic Arts and Sciences Trader winning 58-42 the next game will be Saturday at Bloomfield versing Bloomfield at 1pm the girls varsity basketball team had a game today at Parsippany

019versing Parsippany the next game will be Saturday at Hoboken versing Hoboken at 11. the boys varsity ice hockey team will be having a game tomorrow at Montclair ice skating rink at 4 versus Newton go and support our ice hockey team the varsity swim team had a meet today at the Boys and Girls Club reversing Paramus Catholic the next game will be Saturday at 9 00 a.m at PCR versing PCI the meet will be a county tournament so go support our swim team West University team won their big North championships beating PCI in the finals and becoming top five in state the next match would be Saturday at West Milford versing West Milford at nine and go support our wrestling team indoor track last meet the boy scored second place at legacies and the girls got

020third place the next track meet will be Monday January 23rd at 4 30 pm at Ocean Breeze Staten Island moving forward to events and fundraisers the senior class will be during their annual Mr Cupcake fundraiser the donations will be going towards the senior activities like senior prom all order forms along with the payments will be due Thursday February 2nd cupcakes will be delivered on Tuesday February 14th on Valentine's Day please contact miss karafine or miss a video for any questions Key Club is holding a pie in the face contest starting this Monday January 23rd and will be collecting meant monetary donations up until January 28th students and faculty compete to raise donations for ocean of Love of non-profit charity dedicating to help children and their families fight cancer this is our way of building Community

021engineering school of spirit while raising money for a loving cause you can donate through PayPal cash app or venmo for more information you can find on the CHS Key Club Instagram page the official Pine will be happening Monday January 30th the junior semi-formal dance AKA Junior Prom will be held on Thursday April 27th at the Grand in Totowa tickets will be on sale February for the event the CHS musical is hosting at Applebee's Flapjack breakfast on Sunday January 29th between 8 to 10 a.m at the Clifton Commons Applebee's tickets are 12 and may be purchased at the door the cast will be serving at the event Sam Samuel zip Bell placed fourth at the co-ed classic singles tournament at the bowler City and Hackensack Sam wrote honor scores of 256 243 and 207 Clifton Bowling

022also finished third at this year's PS pcca County bowling and tournaments the CHS competition share is now 4 and 0 in Minimates for the big North Championship they move on to next week mini meets on January 23rd at Riverdale High School against Ramsey and esai go and support our CHS competitions cheer team thank you Tiffany foreign we appreciate all the you know people don't realize the time that you have to get all that information uh and share with uh with the Clifton community so again we thank you for all that you do okay um we're next gonna move on to um uh our um presidential volunteer Awards and then the student of the month Awards so we'll start with uh the uh student file excuse me the president's volunteer service award who has those uh

023presentations of members of the board Central Administration faculty and Clifton Community my name is John O'Reilly and I'm a social studies teacher who is representing the Key Club of the Clifton High School I am here today to congratulate two pillars of the Key Club at Clifton High School as well as the entire Clifton Community Alberta jabril and Jose Suarez Gonzalez albera and Jose have the honor of receiving the very prestigious presidential volunteer service award this award is one of the most prestigious awards given to outstanding individuals who according to the program are using their time and talents to solve some of the toughest challenges facing our nation Nation guide by the corporate corporate the corporation of for National and community service and independent agency of the United States government individuals of all age groups throughout

024the United States are chosen for exceptional work on a local state and National level these two fine young men went beyond the criteria necessary to be worthy of this award which shows their level of dedication first I would like to congratulate our barrager Brill for his over 108 hours of community service throughout Clifton High School nice job nice job foreign despite facing numerous challenges in the past four years especially the covid-19 shutdown albera still lent his time tutoring children throughout the district feeding the homeless providing care package for soldiers overseas and Families in Need contributing to various community service organizations and as well as being a natural leader for the Clifton High School Key Club he is filled with passion curiosity and vision and it is those qualities that have enabled him to thrive as

025vice president of the Key Club organization these past three years he is an amazing organizer Works incredibly hard and brings out the best in all he works with as his teacher I could also verify that albera is one of the most intellectual curious and good-spirited young men that I've had the privilege of working with Alberta Miss Turk the entire Clifton Community are so and I are so proud of you we've been blessed to have you as part of our organization and are thankful for your efforts [Applause] today we are going to give albera his certificate and a letter from President Joseph Biden as a congratulations for his hard work and he also receives a medal for distinguished service [Applause] you're more important than I am um that's right thank you congratulations your uh recognition of

026Alvarado jabriel resolved the Board of Education recognized Clifton High School senior jabriel and earning of the president's volunteer service award al-barah earned bronze for 108 service hours congratulations on the achievement and if I can read this certificate of achievement this recognition is certified to alvarajibril on behalf of Clifton Board of Education Administration for the president's volunteer service award bronze 2022 with sincere congratulations on your meritorious achievement with recognition by resolution of the Board of Education this desire to excel as a formula to a lifetime of success your efforts have brought distinction to you your family in the Clinton Public Schools signed by President Jim Smith and superintendent schools Danny Roberts congratulations okay [Applause] brother coming up yes sir yes I know you're good give him a noogie congratulations Paul and finally Jose Jose Suarez Gonzalez

027Jose from my understanding and Miss Turk if she's listening uh she could correct me at school tomorrow but there are no key clubbers at least in my seven years of working as an advisor that have reached 271 hours in less than two years of community service this accomplishment is impressive enough but you are also looking at the New Jersey Key Club Governor the highest position given to anyone within the Key Club organization foreign for communicating to all key clubs throughout the state of New Jersey and he has done so effectively he has already established numerous networks between clubs and increased Clifton's involvement in numerous State projects Mrs Turk and I are astounded by the work ethic that this young man has done in just such a short amount of time and we know that this

028man is going places Jose we are very proud of you foreign thank you congratulations [Applause] so recognition for Jose Suarez Gonzalez resolved at the Board of Education recognizes Clifton High School senior Jose Suarez Gonzalez narrating the president's voluntary service award Jose earned gold for 271 service hours congratulations on this achievement Jen [Applause] experience president Smith so through you to the uh board secretary to VA there's just some edits on the revisions on the um the the notations of the minutes here that need to be made the hours need to be changed to coordinate with Mr O'Reilly said and Mr jabriel's last name is spelledoro okay we'll make those uh the Minnesota reflected yes um Clifton students uh these students tonight that Mr Riley just presented um truly are outstanding and remarkable students and we are

029so proud of all that you do and um but not only are we proud of the students um but miss Turk and um are still um Teacher of the Year Mr Riley um do a tremendous job in coordinating and organizing the Key Club which is a tremendous organization that we have in town so we're very thankful and proud of the Educators and the students that do such a great job so congratulations to all of you and I lost my voice somehow but I don't I'm covered negative so um okay uh next we're going to go on to students of the month um again just a tremendous achievement that these students achieve out of um how many students in the high school almost 3 000 students in the High School uh to be chosen as uh

030your grade level student of the month is truly a remarkable achievement that you should be very proud of so let's hear about our students uh freshman who has freshmen I have okay uh freshman Nicholas Nores Nicholas favorite subject is social studies because she enjoys learning about past events and the way people lived long ago Nicholas is most influential teacher has been Mr stepnesky because he has taught him about discipline and hard work which has also positively impacted his grades Nicholas's parents Inspire him to reach His Highest Potential and have supported him throughout all of life's ups and downs Nicholas is a member of our Mustang marching band and the trium music Society this certificate of achievement recognizes Nicholas Nores on behalf of the Clifton Board of Education and administration for CHS freshman student of the

031month January 2023 with sincere sincere congratulations on your meritorious achievement with recognition by resolution of the Board of Education the desire to excel is the formula to a lifetime of success your efforts have brought distinction to you your family and the Clifton Public Schools congratulations Nicholas foreign you are how was I got another number congratulations [Applause] sophomore yeah okay you can go so sophomore student of the month is nosley yildiz nosley is a hard-working student who has been enjoying her geometry geometry class at Clifton High School because it helps her develop her analytical and thinking skills nosley credits Mr Stewart for her success at CHS because he has helped her acclimate to the school has encouraged her to break barriers try her best all the time and follow her dreams nosley's mother has made has

032been her role model encouraging and supporting her as she moved to the U.S two years ago nosley serves as our Key Club secretary and as a CHS Mustang Ambassador in the future Nestle wants to pursue the students at Montclair State college program during her junior or senior year this recognition is certified to nazli yildiz on behalf of the Clifton Board of Education Administration for CHS sophomore student of the month January 2023 with sincere congratulations on your meritorious achievement with recognition by resolution of the Board of Education the desire to excel is the formula to a lifetime of success your efforts have brought distinction to you your family and Clifton Public Schools congratulations foreign thank you [Applause] Junior Cameron zutek Cameron is ambitious hard-working and kind whose favorite class oh has always been mathematics because he

033just loves numbers Cameron credits his success in school to his parents who Inspire him and selflessly do whatever they can do to support him Cameron not only takes his academic classes seriously but he is an outstanding soccer player for our boys at boys varsity soccer team Cameron attributes coach limbrick for helping to shape mature young man he is now but also for instilling a sense of pride in all that he does Cameron is all Cameron also managed to find time to play soccer on a club team he is a member of our athletic Training Club and a coach's younger children's basketball and soccer Cameron help hopes to play soccer in college and professionally and plan to major in marketing or athletic training in college the res the certificate reads certificate of achievement this recognition is

034to certify that Cameron tsutic on behalf of the Clifton Board of Education and administration for the CHS Junior student of the month January 2023 with sincere congratulations on your materius achievement with recognition by resolution of the Board of Education the desire to excel is a formula of lifetime of success your efforts have brought distinction to you your family and the Clifton Public Schools signed Jim Smith president of the Board of Trustees and Danny a robotazi superintendent of schools congratulations Cameron foreign thank you [Applause] senior Amelia przovsky Amelia is kind smart and always respectful Amelia's favorite subject at chs's Art because it allows her to express her thoughts in a creative way and provides her with freedom to just create create without having to be perfect Amelia's most influential teacher has been Mrs Fox because she

035inspired her to get back into art and renewed her love for the subject Amelia's sister is her role model providing her with advice and guidance Amelia strives to be just like her sister who is strong smart and independent after graduation Amelia plans to attend college and major in architecture certificate of achievement this recognition is certified to Emilia przovsky on behalf of the Clifton Board of Education and administration for each CHS senior student of the month January 2023 congratulations Emilia [Applause] I know my colleagues will uh agree with me um that those presentations are the best part of a Board of Education meeting we enjoy that tremendously and our town should be very proud of these young men and women that attend Clifton High School so um great job thank you yeah if there's any students

036that wish to leave they're welcome to do so but we have a lot more part of the meeting coming up uh recognizing and honoring um our great staff at Clifton High School so um do you want me to do that next 31. let me do that okay all right so Mr uh assistant superintendent gengaro will um award our pbsis recipients at Clifton High School so we'll find out in a second before I begin I just wanted to reiterate and concur with President Smith just said my position is assistant superintendent I have attended several meetings over the course of many many years and it goes without saying that for me the best part of every meeting is that the opportunity we have to highlight the successes of our students and and our staff it's just that

037overwhelming sense of happiness and accomplishment is shared amongst communities so president Smith you couldn't have said it any better so that's why when I got the call from the bullpen this evening to present on PB the sis I gladly welcome the opportunity just to contribute to the the joyous occasion of celebrating these successes so on behalf of our PBS pbsis team Mrs Paula Ray goza a coordinator and her team of Tracy marigi and Stephanie de sanjis we would first like to take a moment to welcome and congratulate our new Commissioners and again thank everybody for the opportunity to showcase positive behavior supports in schools this framework that has been thriving in the Clifton Board of Education in the continuing effort to promote pro-social behaviors and provide students with access to an equitable learning experience we

038recognize the importance of positive relationship building between social between School staff and our students this month we highlight Clifton High School and their pbsis team on the development and implementation of what's referred to as Mustang Aces it's a recognition that's awarded to students each marking period the criteria for the honor to be a Mustang Ace includes academic performance the display of pro-social behaviors and everyday contributions to the classroom environment this acknowledgment began over eight years ago under the leadership of Mrs Susan schneff the East Wing vice principal and the success and impact of the Mustang Aces has now evolved to Encompass grades 9 through 12 providing increased opportunities for all Learners to be recognized for their Excellence the Mustang Aces is yet another reason why it's a great day to be a Mustang so let's

039take a look at this in action as we play the Mustang Aces video [Music] sorry Hi ever everyone I'm Effie Kelso and I'm one of the pbsis coaches for Clemson high school we are honored to highlight a Potter of our pbsis student recognition system that we are extremely proud of our Mustang Aces program so many of our students demonstrate exceptional examples of what it means to be a Mustang to recognize their contributions to our school Community they have the opportunity to be selected as a Mustang Ace each marking period teachers from two departments select one student who has gone above and beyond in their class the teachers fill out a form that includes a message to the student that message is included on the certificate that the student receives at the celebratory event at this

040time I'd like to introduce you to our principal Mr hamda we're extremely proud of the students who were selected as Mustang Aces for the first marking period and were blown away by the comments that the teachers wrote about the students when making their nominations here's a quick look at some of the kind words that their teachers had to say about their students and some footage from the ice cream party where the first marking period Mustang Aces received their certificates we look forward to getting to do this three more times this year we know it but these days really prove that it's a great day to be a Mustang thank you [Music] here's a segment highlighting just some of the teachers who nominated student Aces for the first marking period ariadne I just want to congratulate

041you on being chosen as a Mustang ace For The First Market period you are a hard-working student you are kind you are helpful you really um embody what it means to be a Mustang congratulations I am so proud of you congratulations kasmira on your marking period one Mustang Ace nomination you are a hard worker you are dedicated you come to school in class each day ready to work you're prepared I am very proud of you and keep up the hard work Clifton I'm Mr wise metal my nomination is Mary necrosis she has been absolutely killing it in class and I am so proud of all the work that has been going on aside from that Mary also has the best name in the world so yeah hello everybody so I nominated albera for the Mustang

042Aces he is a true leader in our class he is the first to discuss anytime and we have a question he's the first to share his thoughts and he does so in a very respectful way he's a great model for his peers and congratulations Alberta hi this is Miss Anderson and I am here to talk about my Mustang Ace who is Maria Maria is a stellar student in my studio art one class she puts her Blood Sweat and Tears into every single artwork she creates every week and cares about every assignment as if it is a major project and she's the most conscientious student always asks questions in class and make sure she's doing what she needs to do so congratulations Maria I nominated Gianna Kennedy because she has all the skills that are necessary

043to be a Mustang Ace she's hard working she's dedicated to being an excellent scholar she is a critical thinker she is someone does not that does not settle for less I'll give you a good example we just did essays in our social studies class in my social studies class and Gianna came up to me every single day asking how her essay could be better she took her time and energy to make that essay be the best essay that she could be I get emails frequently from her asking about how she can improve not only her grade but herself she really is a Mustang Ace and very deserving of this honor [Music] [Applause] you know I was very honored I I felt like I didn't deserve it but uh I'm enjoying this ice cream uh you

044see I was really proud I think my mom my dad for this great honor I guess finding out that I was a Mustang Ace was pretty exciting because I've never gotten an academic achievement or anything like that um so it was definitely really surprising when I did get it and I wasn't expecting it but it's cool I love ice cream I recently found out because I've been out sick but it was a great surprise to come back to and it just made my entire week made me feel so much better I was really surprised at first but it feels good to be recognized and plus we get ice cream it's kind of exciting you know I was nominated for this I really like Mr Rogers and I'm kind of happy that he dominated to come

045and have fun and enjoy the timing when I found out I was a Mustang is I was very shocked and happy so I heard that there was going to be free ice cream and that's what sold me [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] so I think the best part about that for me was just watching the ear to ear smile that our students had as they were recognized with our hard-working efforts and it's just demonstrating that Pride that makes Mustang students just that our Mustang students so as our students were recognized for their all their hard work and efforts we as a pbsas team would be remiss if we didn't take this opportunity to publicly recognize our administrators and pbsis team members who made this a possibility for our students so first and foremost the

046captain of our ship our principal Mr Ahmad hamda and president Smith and vice president Danny if it would be so kind to join us that would be wonderful one of our vice principals Mr Timothy Waka [Applause] our pbsis high school coach Miss Effie kelsell [Applause] pbsas team member Miss Wendy angomas foreign pbsis member Kathy matriba [Applause] pbsas team member Mr Matthew Stewart [Applause] the man the myth The Legend and the huge shout out to this next individual and his entire cast team for his hard work and efforts in making all these videos videos a possibility huge shout out again to Mr Michael McKenney [Applause] I hope you've heard the love from your students in the back and then last and certainly not least who I'm going to consider the absolute backbone of the the pbsis

047team for over eight years a friend a mentor a colleague and everything in between again that backbone Mrs vice principal Mrs Susan schneff [Applause] thank you if you guys wouldn't mind getting together with a picture for the commissioners [Music] three two one and one more beautiful thank you congratulations thank you very much you know that whole that whole PBS is program is so so wonderful but honoring our our staff uh and especially our high school staff that's walking out when I'm talking but okay um we we we thank you guys for uh for all that you're doing uh the board would like ice cream next time you come so okay uh let's move on um we have some presentations tonight but um if the board does not mind um I would like to hope p25

048all right so we have uh some appointments of um some staff members and I know one of our staff members is here tonight so if the board doesn't mind if we could just skip to um p25 so I'll pull p25 separate and then we'll move the group after so can I have a motion motion p25 by Miss basford second by Mr avatravo so um p25 um resolve the superintendent schools recommends uh Lynn fund a 10-month secretary signed to the high school her change in status to a 12-month secretary assigned to the high school then we have I'm going to skip the last one uh superintendent schools recommends John Salazar Fernandez custodian assigned to Clifton High School 3 P.M to 12 a.m if you change the status to custodian assigned to the high school 11 A.M

049to 8 P.M wow great good hours now huh um next is when the schools recommends uh Danielle liebe computer education teacher assigned to Christopher Columbus Middle School to be changed in status to technology trainer facilitator grade six through eight assigned to Christopher Columbus Middle School resolved that the superintendent of schools recommends Edward lavash LTS special education teacher assigned to Clifton High School be changed in status to TTR special education teacher assigned to the high school and B resolved that the superintendent of schools recommends Sean Smith maintenance General grounds um jack of all trades uh person assigned to the district to be changing status to the supervisor of custodians assigned to the district he replaces Ryan Mooney who resigned so we congratulate all of those uh yeah we'll do uh congratulate all those that are in

050this resolution and if I could have a roll call on it please Mr abidrabo yes Miss bass yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president yes and uh congratulations to everybody and I know our new supervisor custodians is here uh Mr Sean Smith if you'd like to come up and say a few words and we congratulate you thank you [Applause] I gotta have my gun there we go I apologize restart hit the reset button thank you everybody uh 19 years here I'm excited for this opportunity um just can't wait to get started I would like to just thank you know president Smith the board members Mr shahada Mr gengaro Mr UC Mr kozeski and Dr robertozzi thank you for this opportunity I'm so excited to

051get working uh I just appreciate from the bottom of my heart thank you for giving me this opportunity and I look forward to getting to work I look forward to your continued support in the future thank you I bring it on sure and bring the girls up and uh get a picture and uh Eddie Eddie and these I would like to thank my family too for supporting me I left them out that's get in trouble when I go home [Applause] thank you so much thank you um again I'm speaking on my my own but um a dedicated employee for 19 years and uh and um moves up to better himself and better our district so uh congratulations we we have I think um one of uh the best supervisors of Maintenance and custodians and um

052we have a tremendous team doing great things for our district so um Eddie Moe and now Sean thank you for all that you do for our district okay right now it's Gina right oh you know what we must can we do the rest of P why we're here um so we'll have uh P1 through P38 minus p 25 motion most by Mr Roberto seconded by who was that Paris Mr Paris uh discussion seeing non-roll call please Mr abadrabo yes Miss basford yes I abstain on P35 name only Mr Brunswick I want to abstain abstain from P 35 only your name only and the recipe yes correct correct okay Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes but I abstain on P39 vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion scary um just okay um

053I'm skipping around here sorry guys why don't we do uh education Administration ea1 through ea9 Minister Roberto's second my Miss basford discussion seeing none roll call please sorry Mike I'm sorry I'm skipping around a little bit yes and oh miss basford yes all right Mr abdrabo yes Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes to stand on three [Music] Mr President I'm sorry I apologize I want to abstain I apologize no problem Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes uh you know it's it's hard enough for the new board members to get accustomed to our agenda and everything and I'm making it harder on them by skipping around so I apologize guys um I I just didn't want our employees sitting around all night that's the only reason

054I moved them around a little bit um okay so uh let's go to um adoption motion by Mr Robert second by Miss basford discussion seeing none roll call please Mr abadrabo yes Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick stain Mr Mejia yes Mr s you weren't here and you weren't here abstain Mr Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago abstain vice president Danny yes president Smith yes the minutes Carrie uh adoption of the minutes of January 5th motion Mr Roberto second second by Mr Paris discussion seeing none roll call please Mr abujrabo yes Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes um our superintendent uh um graciously does not have his report uh tonight but he'll just uh say hi to everybody and wave foreign I too

055uh do not have any announcements so we'll move on to um first reading of policy I don't think there is anything right now um so next we'll move on to uh Miss uh kusilevic and um oh Mr doctor I didn't even see you here um for your presentation right yeah I'm sorry now we'll do it next sorry to kill Danny with all these presentations and one night but we have Mr doctor so no no we'll go back to that yes you ready all right good evening president Smith vice president Danny Commissioners Dr oberton District administrators my name is Mike doctor I'm director of operations and I'm here to unfortunately talk about bullying violence vandalism and substance abuse the exact opposite of everything that we've talked about over the last two hours um however I have

056to give this presentation twice a year and part of it deals with hibs which is harassment intimidation and bullying the trainings and programs are associated with that that we have to report that go from September through the end of December we'll do another report at the end of the school year and we also have to talk about actual hip cases and vvsas violence vandalism and substance abuse cases we as a district need to report this throughout the school year culminating in one report that goes as I said from September through December and then January through June with that I'm going to be presenting the violence evangelism numbers for us last year we had 58 violent acts between September and December seven vandalism 12 weapons and 42 substance abuse cases this year we had a slight

057increase in violent uh situations most of those were because of situation two or three situations that happen with multiple people you can notice that our vandalism and weapons cases went down as did our substance abuse cases very significantly from 42 down to 19. hymns would be next uh with hibs ahib is essentially has to have two parts to it one is that there has to be a substantial disruption to the child and the other is that the child has a characteristic that's being picked on as you see on the slide we have numerous characteristics it could be race color religion all the way through down to just an imbalance of power substantial disruptions it could be missing school not wanting to go to school a change in their routine changes in how they eat sleep

058and situations such as that you could see that for founded hip cases we had a marked reduction we actually cut it in half we had 21 last year this year we have 10 for this same time period and for unfounded cases we went from 56 down to 23. in addition 15 of those 33 cases we were able to determine very early on that they were not hip cases and therefore resolve them through a preliminary determination finally our hibs trainings and programs for this period for this year you'll see that our programs went up by 30 and our trainings however went down by a substantial amount the largest reason for that is we combine certain groups and committees and meetings so there were less trainings that will pick up a little bit but it wasn't so

059much that the information wasn't getting to the people we combined a lot of it to try to save time for staff members in the trainings that they received finally we're going to continue communication and professional development for the administration and are building anti-bullying Specialists we're going to review the code of conduct as we usually do throughout the year and how the implementation is being done along with adopting additional restorative justice practices and we're also going to continue to identify Trends in hibs we've been in great shape this year so far they've dropped quite a bit through our efforts from last year and we're hoping to continue that as we move forward are there any questions yeah thank you thank you for the report um there was a there was a couple of things out on

060social media in the last couple of weeks about outside of school incidents uh mom who took to social media she talked about her son's Nose getting broken a leg getting broken can you explain to the community what the responsibility of the school district is for those children when it's they're not on school grounds um and what we do as a district to enforce the safety of students getting home from our door to their door sure um normally if a situation happens outside of the school we don't discipline on it however if it impacts the educational process of the school if it's being discussed in school if a student doesn't feel safe things like that then it can be dealt with through discipline in addition to that counseling is provided to the student who may have

061been the victim of that situation along with work with the offenders to try to keep that from happening again um one more question thank you and the other thing is um what do you do with the parent population to encourage them to report first to this the chain of command versus going out on social media and using that as their um their venting block we as a district would much rather the information come to us so we can resolve it before rumors spread and information that may be twisted might get out um I couldn't speak specifically to what Mr Honda is doing at the high school or Miss Gaber Mr Jaeger at the middle schools but we encourage parents to reach out to the administration of the buildings instead of going to social media thank

062you Mr doctor I wanted that to be heard because there are a lot of people that are confused that they're not going to the right Source where they need to report it so thank you very much the building administrator is always the right person to reach out to any other questions Mr Smith I have a question yes Mr brinsky thank you wanted to know how far the look back period is on the statistics over here for violence vandalism substance in the substance abuse period one 21 20 21 2022 and 2022 2023 is there a comparative related to something like a decade ago if you do a prorated share whatever whatever the population was in the school district at the time and the number of incidents that occurred is it are you aware of it's comparable

063as long as we have the uh stats of one of the issues that um would have fallen within the last 10 years would have been coveted that skewed a lot of our numbers during that time obviously but for the most part our numbers have been uh pretty much uh steady throughout there have been dips and there have been some uh increases especially when we returned last year but you could see that we're leveling off back to uh more normal now however our hip numbers are a little bit lower than even the historical numbers thank you okay anyone else yes Mr President yeah just one question concerning uh the trainings yes I know you mentioned the number has gone down because you have larger groups so this is the number of trainings does it reflect the

064same or similar number of participants year over year yes okay so it's just larger groups instead of having two trainings we combined it to one so I think that would resolve that issue okay thank you so much thank you appreciate it crowd is thinned out but the clap is still there I'm Miss kousal aviciro question good evening Commissioners it's a pleasure to be here with you again today um over the last two meetings I've been presenting various forms of state and local data and at the last meeting I did indicate that we have one more assessment that is mandated to be reported out upon uh which I'm going to do but I'm going to keep that super short because I'm here with um the team that makes this all happen for language arts and math

065so I'm going to have them rise behind me and then each of them is going to have an opportunity just to share some of our really amazing highlights that are going on in our schools to help our students support their learning in the areas of language arts and math K-12 so if MS muda Dr kropenak Mr White and Ms Jaeger could just stand up thank you so much for being here this behind me is kind of the dream team that really helps keep our students moving forward with interesting fun engaging activities programs projects and curriculum to ensure that our students continually improve so let's begin with start strong and District actions start strong assessment is a new assessment that we're hoping is going to go away but right now it is a mandated assessment upon

066which we need to report in 2020 during the covid lockdown we were not able to give the NJ SLA assessments which are federally mandated the federal government gave a waiver to all states not to have to give such assessments due to lockdown in 2021 the federal government wanted us to give assessments again instead New Jersey pushed or promoted the start strong assessment in September of 2021 and that was in lieu of the spring njsla from 2021 however then we were giving njsla again in 2022 which is information that I shared with you previously the start strong should have gone away but the doe decided that some districts did not have robust local programs and therefore everyone should give start strong as well at the beginning of the year to help guide instruction however thanks to

067these amazing people behind me working with their teams of teachers we already had great local data that helped us adjust our curriculum and instruction to support our students in the area where they needed it um so I'm just going to quickly share with you start strong was meant as a standards-based assistance for our teachers to help Drive instruction but it does not replace local data and we really relied more on our local data start strong is supposed to be based on a subset of the previous year's standards these were very short assessments and the results Were Meant to tell us whether students needed more support some support or less support and what we see in the results is that about half of our students needed more support and half needed some or less support across

068all grade levels in English language arts we see similar results in mathematics that about half of our students needed more support and half needed some or less support and in science we see basically the same thing about half of our students needing more support and the other half needing some support or less support what did we do with this data we did compare it to our local assessments and using our local assessments and classroom performance this is what we use to drive instruction we use this data to make changes in instruction during the school year and to provide increasing amounts of intervention services we've used this to adjust pacing and as a result of the data that we see we've expanded our before and after school programs and summer programs through 2024 thanks to Federal

069Esser funding instructionally we're prioritizing reading foundational skills Hands-On math activities technology and using our Esser funds to provide wraparound supports to help support the behavioral and communication delays that have been the bigger issue for our students we're prioritizing our students Mental Health but the real magic happens in our classrooms with our teachers working on the curriculum and activities instructional programs help that are developed under the guidance of the supervisors behind me so each of them is going to have just a moment to give you uh some of our highlights we're going to start with K through 8 math with Miss Erin's muda good afternoon or good evening my name is Aaron smuda I'm the K-8 math supervisor and thank you all for this opportunity so this is our slogan for this year Clifton math it

070just adds up what um one of the programs we use in mathematics is called imagine math we've had some presentations with you before on it it is an adaptive math program for every student in kindergarten through eighth grade and even through high school it's great because every student goes to their own ability in mathematics and it builds from there we also had the opportunity to have a national school of excellence with school three and two Beacon Award winners Woodrow Wilson Middle School and school two has actually won twice so these are some kids playing on imagine math we also do monthly winners and marking period winners so we look at all the students um how they've done through kindergarten through eighth grade and each student at each of those grade levels is recognized for passing

071imagine math lessons and doing well on the program we also award the teacher as well so there's some students and some teachers uh we also post and create contests for usage for students who pass lessons and we've also won some imagine math or Imagine Learning contests as well through the company imagine learning that um that has imagine math so there are some of that and then we also have a new program now called imagine robotify imagine robotify is in every single classroom from second grade through eighth grade and kids are actually learning to code in school using a web-based program with a robot called axel plate hopefully it works nope all right can you get this yeah it's embedded um so I hit the link okay well unfortunately my technology ability to embed in a

072slide probably didn't work Axel's just tired it's been tired it's a long day that's okay thank you I appreciate it um but anyway here's some kids in action on the program you can kind of see what it looks like it actually looks like they're called it's called blocky so it looks like puzzle pieces and the kids actually move the robot in the screen to pick up little batteries and do little things and and move puzzle pieces to move the robot so the kids really really like it um we are still number one in the state of New Jersey for charitable giving I'm here to tell you today that for the past three days Imagine Learning has been in District and we have been filming for a national campaign and a feature for Clifton School District

073we have been to school three School 13 and Christopher Columbus to showcase our students our teachers and our administrators and the success we've had using imagine math imagine math facts which is um a facts based program to help the kids with their skills and then for the implementation of robotify and the success that we have seen through it we have we're going to actually start doing robotify duels coding duels between classrooms and schools so that's up and coming and we're also working with all of our new teachers to um to train them on mathematics the programs that we use and these different programs and how to use data to drive their instruction for students so thank you foreign [Applause] are driving is really amazing the gamification to get our kids engaged in in instruction is

074really an important piece one thing that the pandemic did bring out is our kids need a hook they need to be pulled into instruction and the The increased use of technology is resulting in us having to change how we do some things and imagine math and imagine robotify are definitely two examples of that um now those hooks continue into literacy as well I would now like to introduce Dr Valerie kropenak and have her talk to us a little bit about k through eight reading hi good evening everyone so I am proud to say Clifton is reading and we've been reading all through coven and our numbers are keep going up because our kids are reading that's our Focus tonight so we use Raz-Kids reading a to z in our kindergarten first and second grade classrooms

075head Sprout which is a phonics based program to remediate students phonetic awareness skills an Accelerated Reader two through eight two through eleven but my focus is two through five in this slide and as you can see our numbers kept going up from September we average around 25 27 000 books per month that means students are taking the quiz on Accelerated Reader that they're reading it and they're understanding it and they're passing the quiz so we're proud we're proud we're proud um each month I have a team of literacy coaches and I'm also thankful for this board of education to give to give to me because I couldn't do my job without them my three Elementary my one Middle School coach award our students each marking period for meeting their goals so with an Accelerated Reader

076each of our students get an independent goal set for them and they're tied to that for the marking period based on their star reading and as you could see students that read 85 percent or met that on their AR for the marking period are rewarded and our first prize Patrol went out around the holidays our kids were thrilled with that came our vending machine so that was part of our and we're going to get to that so we are reading um we're proud to focus because of our students are behind in Reading we are whether we have a big push for foundational skills K through three we're using our foundations program to meet that we're um excited that our Ela coaches are actually facilitators from Wilson Reading so they've been providing study groups to our

077teachers since September Mondays and Thursdays in person really working to the Crux of the instructional component of that and getting into the classrooms and making sure our teachers are teaching those programs to Fidelity and the results are phenomenal so our kids are learning those Concepts and they're applying them independent to the program and other content areas so they completed one and two last year that means our first and second grade this year they're focused on kindergarten and third grade and getting that facilitators training behind the scenes and they're supporting our classrooms with Fidelity um almost every day and you can see here's some feedback and some of our teachers in in-person professional learning and they love it so we have a waiting list to get into our trainings because one person goes back to their

078classroom they went to the train and they're so excited they want to get back on another training so we're really proud of that we send out a monthly newsletter with our deadlines for data important tips for instruction these are successful we've had a lot of success in classrooms with teachers following through with targeted lessons based on Concepts um we call it the literacy buzz and this is my buds they go out they see that as a literacy Buzz um uh for our students our students in action so we were featured in the Clifton Merchant in December um Ariana Puzo um worked with us to write an article about our vending machine and how we are supporting our students to getting books into kids hands so this is just a highlight of our students and um

079every school I'm very proud that every school has a vending machine thank you pbsis we have a partnership with that pbsis and our students are so excited to visit that vending machine um every month with that coin I think that's it thank you thank you Dr kropenak she's making just as much excitement about literacy as Ms muda and her team are in math and this excitement continues where we have our high school supervisors um Mr White and Ms Jaeger are going to come up and they're just going to talk a little bit about how they're helping support our teachers as we transition into trying to make instruction and continuing to make instruction more engaging at the High School Ms Jaeger and Mr White foreign [Applause] good evening everyone I'm Miss Jaeger I'm the 912 mathematics

080supervisor hi I'm Mr White the 912 English supervisor and and we're just going to briefly discuss how our teachers are utilizing the data that we've gained from these state and local Assessments in order to improve their instruction in the classroom and increase our student achievement so our departmental objectives we've been taking a pedal pedagogical approach to the high school level to address student achievement and we have done targeted professional development for our teaching staff focusing on identified opportunities for growth based on local and state assessment data so what have we exactly been doing with teachers Mr White and I have been collaborating trying to be a model for our teachers and we've had a small group plcs where we collaborate and develop strategies for classroom implementation we have in-class coaching support and reflective sessions to

081improve instruction and departmental in-person workshops to analyze state and local assessment data and to begin to create action plans addressing student performance and success indicators you'll notice these are some of our sessions of our teachers where they're engaged with one another we've actually started doing it between the middle schools and the high schools collaborating and using that data to drive our instruction thank you Miss Jaeger and Mr White I just wanted to really give them an opportunity to be highlighted because this team focuses on driving our language arts literacy and math instruction across the district we have other Personnel focused on science social studies and the other remainder of the nine New Jersey student learning standard content areas but I just wanted you to get have it have a glimpse of the amazing stuff that

082is going on in our content areas right now thank you so much commissioners foreign Smith excuse me yeah I'd say one question please the uh head Sprout for the grades K through one should the kindergarten teacher just reference that do they use it during class or is that extracurricular in the or is that extra to what um is part of the regular curriculum day-to-day correct so mainly seeing up and up in the summertime where students are not in school um that was when we purchased it we purchased it for summer use but then we found that it was a way to remediate students during centers and stations at the kind of that one-to-one tutoring where it's on the kids path thank you yes Mr Cynthia under District actions it mentions expand before after school and

083summer programs through 2024. how are we doing that um so that was as a result of the Esser funding um when as her grants were granted we had to delineate how we would be using those to accelerate learning in the past Clifton has provided an elementary program for our Title One students for language arts and math and then we also had an ESL program for title III these programs were free for students through eighth grade um however um we were not able to provide programs to our non-title one schools we did have some paid programming such as the IC program and our paid credit recovery at the high school thanks to the Esser funds we are now offering summer programs to students at all of our schools so through the end of 2024 whether you're

084in a title one school or a non-title one school you will still be able to participate in these summer learning experiences this summer is going to be interesting because I think thankfully the referendum is moving forward but it also means we're going to have very little space for our expanded summer programs but we're going to be creative and figure it out thank you okay thank you so much uh great job to the entire team it was really uh very uh thank you very enlightening huh yeah I know okay um I did not do uh Finance facility so we have F1 through f-17 wait Mr Robert seconded by Mr Paris discussion seeing on roll call please Mr abidrabo you guys with the potential on f-17 Miss basford yes Miss Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr

085Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motions carry um unfinished business um I had planned on having your uh committee assignments tonight and I uh messed up on Paris found an error that I messed up on so I'll correct it tonight and I will get them out to you tomorrow so that our committees can start to start working um I was wondering why everyone was like had nine committees because I I assign four people plus myself so I have to go back and fix it but uh I'll do it tonight and I'll have it to you guys for tomorrow uh okay uh we have two um 18 and 19 um expressions of condolence uh would anyone like to read one and the other this past year one Mr Java the

086other um I'll read the first one 18 expression of condolences um whereas on December 30th 2022 the community noted the sorrow with sorrow the passing of Frank a Pesci and whereas Mr Pesci has served the Board of Education and the children of Clifton faithfully and conscientiously as a highly respected commissioner for 11 years where he served as president and vice president Mr Pesci played baseball for the Chicago Chicago Cubs and he coached the Clifton Junior Mustang football team for 25 years Mr Pesci also received the Distinguished Citizen of the Year award in 1984. now there be it resolved that this resolution be forwarded to his bereaved family to serve as an expression of the great Regard in which Mr Pesci was held by the Board of Education the Administration Employees and pupils of the Clifton

087public school system and there and be it further resolved that the contents of this resolution be noted in its entirety in the official minutes of the Clinton board of education for future General generations to peruse dated January 19 2023 Emotion by Miss basford second second by Mr albadrabo um I had the fortunate um what's my words here um I was fortunate enough to have served with Mr petchi um probably for about five years when I first got on the board um Mr pechy was um very dedicated to Clifton um foreign just had a little story real quick um so down in our Stadium we used to have a the entire stadium was a brick wall around the whole stadium and uh Mr Pepsi was very big in football and back then we didn't have turf

088we had grass and if our football team practiced on the football field it got chewed up in holes and everything so when they went to play their games on Friday nights the field was a mud pit so Mr pet she had the great idea that if he could make a practice field on the side so that they could practice on that field and only play the games on the regular field well there wasn't enough room so the superintendent got a call one day uh Mr Lee's and said Mr Lee do you know your wall is coming down your stadium and uh they took the wall down to make room for the practice field so that's why the east side of the stadium is all open now but that used to be a brick wall there

089and if you travel that road that runs along the the pond you'll take a look at it and it's called the patchy Drive so not official drive by the city but Mr pechi had the sign put up and uh things were done a lot different back in 19 uh but he he was very dedicated to Clifton and I was uh very happy and fortunate to serve with him so uh I believe his wife Jerry is still alive and we send our condolences actually his son was a painter in our district for many years so uh I just thought I'd add that all right uh roll call please Mr abidrabo yes Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion carries k-19

090whereas on January 4th the community noted the sorrow of passing of Miss Marie Van Walden and whereas Miss welcome has served the board education and children of Clifton Faithfully conscientiously as a highly respected special education teacher at Clifton High School 1987 and vice principal at Woodrow Wilson Middle School before retiring 2010 now therefore be resolved at this resolution be forwarded to her bereaved family to serve as an expression of the great regarding which van walligam was held by the Board of Education the Administration Employees and pupils of the Clinton Public Schools and be it further resolved that the contents of this resolution be noted in their entirety in the official minutes of the Clifton Board of Education for future generations to peruse dated January 19 2023 motioned by Mr abujavo second by Mr Paris uh

091discussion again just quickly um I actually have a picture that I just saw the other day when we were putting the new edition on Woodrow miss van wellingham took her dirt of shell a shovel of dirt and thought that there was nobody behind her and threw the dirt and nailed me so I always remember her for that we laughed about it many times okay roll call please Mr abadrabo yes 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 I think we are up to board member comments um so we'll just start uh with Mr badrabo and just move around I don't have my chart ready yet but for next meet uh very simple congrats and good luck to all

092the sports teams that are have played and are playing and uh tonight I think was a great demonstration of what the school has to offer and what the values are and where um what the ceiling is and that it really is no ceiling because what our Administration does and our teachers do day in day out is phenomenal for our students and that shows in our students from the students of the month to the president's volunteer service award recipients and congratulations all around I'm proud to be a Mustang thank you Miss basford yes thank you very much I would like to thank all the speakers for coming out tonight uh your voices are heard uh we do appreciate comment we and your concerns and any issues you have you should come up to the mic and

093whenever you have an issue because sometimes we don't hear it and it's good to have the community involvement I do appreciate that very much so thank you to the speakers as well um I'd like to congratulate the recipients of the presidential award and also the students of the month when students strive for a higher level they give other people that they're a role model for other people that are striving to get there so that's a good thing to have and we do since Dr robotazi has started here we've had more presentations than I can remember we used to come to meetings and just work on our agenda and it was it was no there was nothing to like show our student achievement so I do thank you for that it's it's really a good thing

094to do I see that there's a lot of move movement around the district have been seeing a lot of trucks and different kind of equipments the windows at school five at night when I go down Valley Road I saw this big big light on the school I was like what the heck was that turn around if they were putting windows in at nine o'clock at night I was like oh my God so I just I doubled back just to watch them put in a window and I thought it was pretty amazing at nine o'clock at night there's these big spotlights and they're putting these windows in so um I have a couple questions I'll address the superintendent about that but um it's really amazing to see the amount of work that's being done in the

095district and I can't wait for it to for our communities to start seeing the good stuff that we voted on the community voted on and approved back in um for the referendum condolences to the peshi family and also to Marie Van wellingham's family when my children went to um which also my daughter went to Woodrow's and she was the vice principal and she was she was pretty tough she was a tough lady but she ran that uh she you you respected her she commanded respect and and the students really love this so I my condolences to the family that's all I have tonight thank you for coming out once again be safe with your trip at going home but Lucy just to uh piggyback on what Miss Pastor said those windows at school five were

096under Sr right yes they were under the Esser Grant right that's super Mr Robertson thank you Mr President thank you to all the commenters that spoke tonight as well regarding some of these issues about safety you know it's it's one of my top priorities this is what I pledge for the district as well and I submit to you back in 1996 so I'm aging myself a little bit to let everybody to know what a dinosaur I am and I was at CHS uh one of my good friends was jumped right on Clifton Ave these guys just came out of a car and uh they ended up breaking one breaking one of his ribs it was over issue they believed that he allegedly had messed up a fresh pair of his Tims or whatever you know

097and uh you know unfortunately it wasn't reported to anybody so one that ended up happening two days later you know so many degrees of separation my other good friend end up escalating and a fight broke out at in the JFK Auditorium a massive fight broke out between the same crew over here and uh it's all connected so um I urge everybody to to contact the proper authorities associated with that this information was publicly available these these it was somebody spoke at the at the um city council meeting as one of the commenters said before and uh you know all the education and is fine but if if you can't get to and from school safely it's very concerning as well and be to be safe in school as well and I have confidence that the

098uh you know all the whatever was alleged over there and the accusations made I'm hoping they're truthful and I hope any perpetrators and and uh are you know prosecuted to full extent of the law because safety matters to all of our students thank you for your time and God bless America have a good night everybody um Mr Mejia um I first like to congratulate all the student athletes and especially huge congratulations to all six students who came today and got recognized by the Board of Education and our superintendents I also like to thank the administrators faculty and staff for always pouring your health your hearts out and helping each student no matter what um I know you guys probably go through a lot each and every day and you guys sometimes you're probably tired of

099it but at the end of the day you're still pointing your house out for our students and I don't just appreciate it and appreciate everybody here in this room and all of our um other faculty members and citizens here as well um thank you to our PBS's pbsis team members again for that nice presentation and for the supervisors for Math and English thank you for all the hard work you've been doing thank you Mr patters thank you Mr Smith um I know what I'll be brief too because I don't want to repeat too much of what others have said but congratulations uh especially to the president's volunteer Award winner at the national recognition puts Clifton on the map and really showcases how great our students are um congratulations also to the pbsis aces and a

100Shameless plug for the Key Club Mr abidrabo and myself are eligible for pies in the face so if any of my colleagues would like to see any of us get pied please make a contribution and one of us one way or another I guess we're going to get it right and it goes to a great cause goes for uh children's cancer research thank you [Music] and you can donate more than five dollars uh Mr Santiago good evening uh so this past Friday the 13th I attended an event at school five which was a kindness event uh but also to get the kids moving physical activity event and it was the New York Giants organization was a part of it News 12 was there interviewed students and there were former Giants there who actually interacted they

101just weren't hanging out in the back uh doing nothing or getting or you know signing autographs they actually participated uh in the event there were a few staff members who were there um and it was just a really great event the biggest thing is to see all the kids who were so excited that that was even happening and then that they were participating it was a really good event so just kudos to everyone who was involved in that I think principal Anderson the staff was there too they were involved so kudos to everybody and then the Giants ended up winning so um i i attended uh last evening I attended the webinar the transgender non-binary intersex and gender diverse activities presented by Garden City quality and uh it's in coordination I believe with Key Club

102and the Clifton Education Association so it was very informative a lot of data there um very helpful you know we're um you know we're a public school system so you listen and you learn um and uh I look forward I believe it's a part of a series so I look forward to attending um other uh the rest of that series um and lastly this this past Monday was uh Martin Luther King Jr's birthday um so you know great one great part of American History a person who literally gave his life to um cause of equal opportunity and just uh Americans being treated equally under the law and so there's a lot of quotes but I just wanted to end with with this one that resonated with me so the function of education is to teach

103one to think intensively and to think critically we must remember that intelligence intelligence is not enough intelligence plus character that is the goal of true education so education is is critical but what you do with that education uh how you behave without education how you share that education is is also as important so like everybody else said thank you everyone who came out and everybody online um and uh congrats to all the kids again students who won awards thank you good night Dr Danny uh yes I want to say congratulations to all the students and the staff who are recognized it's always nice to see students that are excelling and to hear their achievements and what it is that they want to do in the future and you know again we are board of education

104so it's really nice it's also nice to see staff who put in the time who are very dedicated to help those students that's it it's finished okay um I'd like to say you know thank you also to the administrative presenters do such a great job and it's nice to you know hear exactly what we're doing to help students succeed whether it's in science or literacy or math and thank you for the speakers who came out and spoke and condolences to the peshi and the wellingham family and that's all I have for the evening [Music] um just real quick I just like to um welcome our our new board members to their first meeting tonight um it was a it was a packed agenda uh but a lot of good things that happened and I apologize

105for moving around a little bit um I I just I hate to have staff members wait around um they have to get up early in the morning and so I I just tried to move some things around but if I confused you guys I apologize um but most of the time we take it in order um you know sitting on this board our staff and our students are the most important part of what our district is about and um I am so proud to be part of a town to be part of this board that recognizes through our superintendent that recognizes achievements of our good people um we have a good we we have a great school system and we should be proud of it we should be proud to Showcase it we should be

106proud to show our students and um you know 272 hours of community service I mean that's just remarkable um and attend school and your studies and all the things of of growing up as a teenager and still finds the time to donate that I I was floored tonight I wanted to speak to them and find out you know how he does it and the energy he has and to do that but I I commend them and I hope other students can follow along with that to give back to their Community to give back to other people um piggybacking on the uh the giant thing um I think it was Channel 12 in their little um bit that they did on on School five um so after they filmed School five they had kids that were

107in the hospital and sick send a message out to um um we got to get a new timer um they send messages out to the Giants and to everybody you know um and that just touched me that these these young kids that were in the hospital were so psyched of seeing that event that happened at uh School five and that they sent their uh regards to the Giants and uh um that really touched me it touched me as well um as you know I TR I intended to join you on that uh on that morning but I should have had Mr Lucy's alarm uh maybe it would have gotten me up um but um you know as as Commissioners on the board we try to uh get out um and support our our schools and

108our students and activities and um so you may see us around and doing those things um we try our very best to to support uh support our kids because I know I again speak of all the Commissioners but we are so proud of our kids and the staff and to see a 19-year staff member who worked through and applied for a position and may not have gotten it over the years and stood by it and was rewarded by the district tonight that tells a lot about our district that hang in there do a good job do hard work help our district shine and you can move forward and again I'm just so proud of of all of our kids and all of our staff and keep up the great work and I know Clifton will

109continue to shine and those little things that um that try to bring down Clifton um you know someone reported uh you know one fight and you know that Clifton is full of fights and that's all Clifton High School is is fighting and that that's not the case you saw it tonight this is what Clifton is so don't let the bad press try to over ride what good things are happening there's a lot of good things happening in Clifton and if you can't see that as Miss basford said you're going to be seeing windows and you're going to be seeing ball fields and you're going to be seeing vestibules and and you're going to be seeing an up-to-date bathrooms in every one of our schools and ventilation systems and air conditioning and you're going to be

110seeing a lot of things happening in Clifton that's because you people thought enough of our school system and our kids that you came out and said yes we want our kids to have these things and we want our schools to be up to date and we want our bathrooms and all those things so it's because of you people that this is happening and we thank you for that and you're going to be seeing a lot of a lot of good things happening to commissioner Awad we hope you're you're feeling better and of course to our uh our chief uh superintendent Danny um we miss you tonight uh it's weird having this seat empty um but we wish you well and I know you'll be back to us soon and um I was going to highlight

111this next meeting but I'll just quickly do it um if you haven't noticed at our board meetings or at sporting events or um that we have this year we have hired um uh security um and um I I can't be more proud of um the responses that we're getting back from kids and teachers and faculty and people going to sporting events and um we are so fortunate to have such a great group of security and they're both men and women and Rocky and Tommy are here tonight and we're so thankful and fortunate to have you and the great job that you do and if you see these guys out somewhere uh say hello to them and and thank them for the the work that they do I know our kids respect them um many of

112the kids I know talk about and they look up to them and um they're just doing a great job for uh for our district and um I just want to make sure everyone was aware of it most of the time you'll see them um you know Rocky and Tommy are big guys wait to see Gary he's even he's even bigger but they they wear these uh the your security on their their back and uh they're they're doing a great job to um to protect our district so thank you guys to you and your colleagues for all that you do so that's all I have for now and I'll open up new business is there any new business and if there's not I'll entertain oh I'm sorry I'm just I was wondering if you're thinking about

113uh scheduling a board retreat yes thank you yep thank you yep we'll talk um no executive session so motion to adjourn no objection meaning adjourn thank you all night everybody