001all right I'd like to open the regularly scheduled meeting of the Clifton Board of Education for Thursday December the 8th 2022. if you'd all please rise for a salute to our flag followed by a brief moment of silence I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you roll call please Mr abidrabo here Mr Awad here miss basford here miss Beltran Mr Canova Dr Danny here Mr Paris here vice president Daley president Smith here we have a quorum uh mission statement the mission of the Clifton School District in an open and reciprocal community is to provide all students with a quality education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong Learners
002who 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 have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Clifton Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place thereof posted at the city clerk's office Clifton Public Library Administration Building senior citizen Nutrition Center on cable TV in the local press and on the district's website it is also mailed to presidents of parent teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policy zero one
003six eight Mr uh Mr Canova um uh could not be here this evening uh his brother is getting married so he had to decide which way to go and uh we wish uh we wish his brother much happiness and Miss Beltran um is coming from work so uh she will be here uh shortly okay uh we're going to do some presentations first so if I could uh we'll do the students of the month first uh I don't know who has what who has freshmen all four are out Mr President yes freshman Nadine Judah Nadine's favorite class this year's Orchestra she loves learning new music and is grateful for the opportunity to play with her other talented student musicians much of her inspiration comes from her parents who value hard work and always support her next
004in her extracurricular activities Nadine manages her busy schedule and challenging courses by devoting time for homework and study time Nadine curly plays cello in the CHS Orchestra and has also played the violin since she was six she's a member of the winter track team and plans on running distance events in the spring as well congratulations Nadine foreign much stuff here um uh Brian waslinsky is he here hi uh Brian is our junior class student of the month Brian is on the Academic Decathlon team volunteers with the Key Club and is also a member of the National Science and English honor societies Brian excels in biology and credits his AP Bio teacher Mr vitello for igniting his passion with engaging assignments Brian aims to be a research immunologist and hopes to find his way to better
005treat autoimmune conditions congratulations Brian foreign on behalf of the Clifton Board of Education Administration CHS Junior student of the month December 2022 with sincere congratulations on your meritorious achievement with recognition by resolution of the Board of Education the desire to excel is the formula of a lifelong of success your efforts have brought distinction to you and your family and to the Clifton Public Schools congratulations Brian thank you very much [Applause] sorry Valen it's like bumper cars tonight these chairs I think something thank you Mr President uh sophomore is Alexander Jacob mcmowitz Alexander you're here today okay thank you great Alexander is our sophomore student of the month Alex thanks his parents for being positive role models and for the continued support Alex's most influential teacher at CHS has been Mr Beckham Ms Beckham excuse me
006who who made language arts fun engaging and left him with a love of reading Alexander participates in economic decathlon and the Key Club and has met plenty of new people while having the opportunity to give back to the community congratulations Alexander thank you is Paris Frederick here yes hi Paris Paris is our senior class student of the month she enjoys all of her classes at CHS and is heavily involved in the music program and Performing Arts shout out to all the CHS music teachers Paris [Applause] Paris plays the violin Viola cello piano and is also a talented vocalist in the choir and tenor section leader she started in many performances in her High School career including sorry she's starred in many performances in her High School career including Beauty and the Beast nine to five
007and we'll have a principal role in this year's spring Musical besides Arts paris's member and captain of the Mustang cheer squad [Applause] Paris dedicates your strong work ethic to her mother Yvette Frederick who is always supportive Paris is planning on studying economics next year and is currently applying to colleges congratulations Paris is [Applause] I think I think she needs to learn another issue [Applause] you know I don't know about other board members but I I think that is by far the best part of our meeting is recognizing uh great achievements from great kids so uh congratulations to everybody and um if you would like to exit now would be a good time if you'd like to stay you're more than welcome okay uh we'll do uh we'll do uh pbsis next no video tonight Mr
008shahada but thank you false alarms I like the dim I like the dim lights though it's cool I dig it um hi good evening everyone Mr President Smith vice president Daley Dr robertosie Commissioners and Central Administration thank you so much here we are December thank you all to the students um before me for putting such great effort and um into living life and doing what they love most but thank you also tonight everyone for allowing us the opportunity to showcase what we do best in the pbsis world tonight we're showcasing our district overall Mr gengaris is the superintendent of schools and myself had the opportunity to present at our the PBIS National Conference this past uh October in Chicago it was amazing to say the least it was amazing on so many fronts because we
009got to showcase on a national platform International actually because we had International guests we were able to show all the hard work and dedication that goes on in our district with pbsis implementation so here we go um let's see alrighty actually let me go back here so a little bit of a little bit of background um the PBIS Center that you see in front of you to the right is funded by the U.S Department of Education Office of special education programs and the office of Elementary and secondary education the center on PBIS supports schools district and states to build systems capacity for implementing multi-tiered systems in schools districts and states these multi-tiered systems approach and and building that framework provides us with social emotional and Behavior Support the alignment that occurs in our district within
010the counseling department and the curriculum Department in general is outstanding and folks are noticing across the board we were asked by the national Center and the Department of Education to present on what we do in Clifton so first up we had the school climate transformation Grant director's meeting out of all of the folks that were selected in the 2019 Grant Clifton Public Schools was asked to Showcase what we're doing with pbsis implementation that doesn't happen in a silo that happens because we all work collaboratively in making this happen what we also did was um present at the PBIS leadership Forum which is the center's conference annual conference so here are a couple of really cool interesting facts about those days there were about 5 000 in-person and virtual participants from various states and countries we
011were asked to present of course on our district-wide implementation our success and our challenges right because we wanted to make it real and people learn from what is real which is what we're doing as a result from the outstanding participation from Mr gingero and his passion for Safety and Security and how it aligns with the hardening and softening of school and school security we were then Clifton Public Schools was then asked to further record a podcast for the University of Missouri I'm boasting about what we're doing in particular not just to toot our own horns but to really show to the community the effort and the love that staff have for our students and how we're making this happen thank you again for allowing our students and staff to shine at the Board of Education
012meetings this activity along with everyone's day-to-day belief in providing 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 is what the one Clifton Community is honoring through the PBIS framework thank you all so much and happy holidays to all foreign [Applause] each month you do a tremendous job of highlighting um another school so um we truly appreciate and uh having the opportunity to show everyone internationally now that what Clifton does is is uh such a great thing so again thank you to you and to your team um I'm now going to um have Tiffany and Elena Lee it was close come on up and do your report thank you the winter season had
013just begun the varsity swim had their first meet today versing Passaic and they won the next Varsity swimming will be next Tuesday on December 8th at 3 at the Boys and Girls Club the boys the boys varsity basketball team had a scrimmage game today versing West New York Memorial the next scrimmage game will be on Saturday at 10 at the Clifton gymnasium versing Randolph the girls varsity basketball team had a scrimmage today versing West New York Memorial the next scrimmage game will be on Saturday at 10 at Caldwell the Clifton United Varsity ice hockey team won both of their scrimmage the home opener for hockey is tomorrow at Montclair State Arena versing law form law Fair Lawn F4 come and support the hockey team lastly The Varsity bowling will have their scrimmage tomorrow at the
014bowler City at 4. sorry I kind of lost my voice so ignore that moving forward sorry moving forward to events boys soccer season their boys soccer season recap their record was 16 wins to two losses and one tie they were big they were big North conference Liberty Champions at Varsity aces in North jersey.com they were number two at the final Top 25 Poll at newjersey.com they were number 12 at the final poll on other news 70 Heroes and 70 Heroes and Cool Kids members had their first Middle School visit on November 30th the heroes from the high school visited the sixth grade sixth graders in both middle schools to give a lesson on resiliency advisors receive very good feedback from the teachers the CHS athletic Training Club is collecting new toys and books for the
015children at St Joe's Hospital also there is a HSA sponsored event at the high school tomorrow sorry tickets are five dollars join for a night join for a night to watch The Polar Express there will be many activities set up as well for the kids there will also be a visit from Santa tickets are to be registered and purchased in advance no tickets will be sold at the door please come and support the HSA have a happy holidays so yeah I hope you all have a happy happy holidays great job girls for keeping uh the community uh uh involved and knowledgeable about the the great things that are happening at CHS um also um if the public is not aware um each morning uh students put together with the um uh advisement from Mr makani
016the morning announcements and the morning announcements are I find them to be so uh knowledgeable and enjoyable and so if you don't have an opportunity to see them I see we have some of our morning announcement crew here um they are um on YouTube if you just put in CHS morning announcements and you'll be able to see all the back days take a look you'll learn a few things about CHS and really see the great job that's being done here for our students again under the leadership of Mr mccunney we thank you so if you have an opportunity to check it out please please do so okay we're gonna move on to uh public recognition sorry we're going to go down to number 13. on the agenda we're going to do um Miss uh Jessica
017Trimble as a presentation for us I didn't see it over here [Music] okay good evening president Smith vice president daily Commissioners Dr robertozzi and Central Administration I stand before you tonight to share the success of activities and donations for hunger and homelessness Awareness Week during the week of November 14th students participated in age-appropriate character education lessons and school-wide activities that address the importance of helping others within our one Clifton learning community our younger students were introduced to the topic through the story of Maddie's fridge while our older students were presented with short stories and new segments each School hosted a food drive to collect non-perishable items for St Peter's Haven a community organization that provides food and basic needs to our residents I am proud to share that Clifton public schools has collected and donated
01814 307 pounds of food this is a powerful example of the kindness and generosity that exists within our community in addition the school is also collected monetary donations for the code blue warming Center the code blue warming Center provides at-risk residents a warm place to stay when temperatures drop below 32 degrees the donations accumulated for this initiative will help the community purchase new clothing coats and toiletries for those residents due to the outpouring of donations by our one Clifton Learning Community the district has raised two thousand eight hundred and twenty two dollars for the code blue warming Center words cannot express how grateful we are for our staff students and our their family's thoughtfulness the donation will directly impact Clifton residents and make a huge difference this winter so without further Ado on behalf of
019Clifton public schools and the counseling department I am pleased to present this check to the Clifton Department of Health Dr robitosi would you and president Smith please join me in presenting the check to Miss Jennifer Kitt [Applause] y foreign [Applause] thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts at the Clifton Health Department um John beagle who is the City's health officer and the Director of Human Services could not be here tonight he is actually teaching a class at Montclair State University right now um and he asked me to come in his place to accept this incredibly generous donation you have no idea how this is going to help the people that come to our warming Center there's actually a code glue has been activated for tonight and so our doors were open tonight
020at nine o'clock and we will keep about 10 individuals warm tonight we will feed them we will provide them with love care and support and we can honestly say that the homeless that have been using the warming Center services are so truly grateful and appreciative for the warming Center this year they are just incredibly kind they are incredibly grateful to us um we actually were able to just a little side note we were actually to provide them with uh Thanksgiving dinner the night before Thanksgiving and I saw I was not able to be there I was away but I saw pictures and it was like a family um just enjoying a Thanksgiving meal something that I'm sure they did in their past lives and unfortunately something happened and they're in the circumstances that they're in
021now and we are trying to help each and every one of them get out of their current circumstances but in the meantime they have a place to go when it's too cold to stay warm so they don't freeze to death so on behalf of the city of Clifton and the health department we would just like to thank you so much for the generosity of everybody in Clifton public schools and the Board of Education you have no idea how this is going to help us take better care of our homeless and and our great community foreign to uh to you and to John and to all my favorite my favorite friends over at the health department um we thank you for the great work that you continue to do uh for the citizens of Clifton and
022I know um councilwoman Murphy is she was here oh there's you um who uh has really uh worked hard to help get our homeless these much needed places to stay when it's very cold and as you said Jen the love is something that they can't get um and I know you guys give a lot of that so we thank you for that and glad that the board and this Clifton School District could be some assistance in some way so great job okay now we will move on to public recognition this portion of the meeting is open to the residents and non-residents 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
023to sign the register provided for this purpose all speakers are asked to State their names municipality in which they live and the 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 a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate your questions may or may not be answered by board members the board asked the members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when they are speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of the state of New Jersey the board Bears
024no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments okay we'll open up the call-in virtual portion first uh we have anyone no okay motion to close the virtual motion sorry Mr petravo second by Mr Awad okay we'll now go to uh in person if you'd like to address the board please step up to the podium and state your name and municipality in which you live in subject matter good evening everyone Mark Brunswick Holly Street Clifton I'm overwhelmed with the Gratitude to have been elected as Clifton Board of Education commissioner thank you all so
025much for being there to share in that Bittersweet Victory as well as those of you who reached out to my family and I really relating to my father-in-law's tragic death that same day many hours went into our campaign and it means so much to me that the work that I have been so passionate about has also resonated with others this accomplishment is not something that I did alone and there are many others who deserve to share that in this win I'd like to thank my wonderful wife Robin Mel Frankie my twin brother Bob Paul coach Safari and C Dr holster Celeste Mike G Maxwell and countless others including a few In This Very Room your love and support throughout this journey has been priceless I hope that this is this recognition of of the work
026that we have performed can serve as inspiration to others in this field and others please note that if my work can make a difference so can yours I will continue to pledge my to advocate for student educational excellence and their safety and look forward to their success for many years to come I am humbled and appreciative finally I want to give big shout out to the volunteers from the school 14 cea and the wonderful parents who run the school 14 nhsa regarding the cookie decorating event last night the cookies looked absolutely delicious but they didn't have many left so it was jam-packed with kids and they all had a wonderful time thank you all and God bless America have a good night everybody [Applause] good evening my name is Lynn marakovitz didn't forget it this
027time Clifton good evening Dr Robert tozi Mr dingaro President Smith and Commissioners I would like to thank you all who took the time to listen to my concerns last month however I do feel that it is very important to come before you begin tonight to speak about the paraprofessional issues as they continue to affect us each day tonight's agenda lists another three paraprofessionals who have resigned from the district and only one new hire I do have personal knowledge having worked with two of the powers that resigned and can state that unfortunately one went to sake and one went to Montclair for significantly more money than they were receiving here in Clifton I appreciate I also appreciate the acknowledgment that the board is well aware of all of our issues however being aware of the issues
028is much different than being in the schools actually experiencing and handling the issues our students need consistency and the turnover of Staff makes an already challenging situation that much harder for our students that have a very difficult time handling all of these changes our district powers are doing as much as possible to not only handle these challenges but to make sure that our students feel as safe and secure as we can it was never my intention to infer that every paraprofessional should be full-time with Benefits it is understood that that is not financially possible however the fees per hour that are being paid to the various agencies to cover the vacancies left by Powers who have resigned from our district are significantly more compared to the pay of our own District Paris this continues to
029be disheartening however in order to support our students the district needs to continue to utilize these agencies to provide paraprofessionals until all of the outstanding vacancies are filled while this is not the best solution it's what we have currently available I know that it was stated that there was discussion and something was being worked on in the long term however I am afraid of what will continue to occur and the staff that will continue to leave our district in the interim I am fully cognizant of the fact that we are under contract there is no quick fix or light switch that can be flipped to immediately rectify the situation however I do I have to believe that this board truly wants to do what's right by our district paraprofessionals and hope that something can be
030done sooner than later I truly love my job and my school and am thankful to work with some of the most awesome students in our district our students deserve the very best that we can give them and we need your help in order your help and support in order to do so thank you foreign good evening everyone can you hear me that's good my name is Jacqueline Turk I lived in Clifton for 15 years my daughter attended Woodrow and she graduated from Clifton High School last year I've been teaching Clifton High School for 23 years and have been serving as the Key Club advisor for 15 years I come tonight with two invitations to celebrate the accomplishments of key clubbers building community in Clifton through good deeds and to congratulate a key clubber Key Club
031has been busy this school year supporting programs run by Clifton Recreation Power of One praise baseball Clifton Kiwanis Clifton police Clifton Elementary Schools Clifton Education Association and Clifton cares we would like to express our gratitude for these volunteer opportunities godspeed to our key clubbers traveling to Lebanon New Jersey to spend the week this weekend glamping at Key leader a conference focused on service leadership and social emotional skills I would like to acknowledge and congratulate congratulate Jose Suarez Gonzalez he started this year as Key Club lieutenant governor of division 19 but has risen to the position of Key Club governor for the New Jersey District board it is the highest state position a New Jersey key clubber can hold Jose we are very proud of you but more importantly you should be proud of yourself is
032it it is an honor to serve with you now I have a couple invitations my first invitation is for the Board of Education Commissioners assistant superintendents and Dr Robert ozie Key Club has held a pie in the face contest for many years benefiting ocean of love helping children with cancer and their families last year we raised Seventeen hundred dollars many of our staff members have taken a pie in the face for this charity including May Mr Rose John O'Reilly Mr doctor Mr hamda Mr Mecca Mr ewas Mr Rando miss Petey Mr Keegan missing you Coach G and the list goes on the donation is made in honor of Nicholas arvenidus and a member in memory of Gianna Mecca and former Clifton teacher Stephen Meck and Anne-Marie gacion we invite you to join the contest this
033year you are guaranteed to have fun the Key Club officers will send you a follow-up email finally I'd like to invite huh uh we're getting the names it will be at the end of January beginning of February [Laughter] finally I invite the Clifton Community to a series of Garden State equality workshops hosted by Key Club and the Clifton Education Association two have passed already but we've had them for a couple years so hopefully we'll have them next year lgbtq 101 lgbtq 201 those have passed for this year coming up on January 18th we have transgender and non-binary identities on February 15th we have identities and intersectionalities on March 15th we have unconscious bias and on May 17th we will be hosting the cycle of prejudice these workshops are hosted on Zoom at 7 pm and
034are free for the community they were paid for by an NJEA Grant the links will be posted on Clifton public school's social media social media I hope to see you all there yours and caring and service good night [Applause] good evening my name is Jose Figueroa I'm an English teacher at Clifton High School and until this year I was also the advisor of the high school's gender and sexuality Alliance for several years I'm here in solidarity with colleagues and members of this community who are deeply concerned about the misguided misinformed and often hateful rhetoric that has become pervasive at the Board of Education meetings of late meeting after meeting non-educators have postulated that the new health and sexual education standards don't provide a real education and have described the revised standards as sexually exploitive the
035suggestion that Educators somehow profit from teaching children about their anatomies or the wide range of human sexuality is not only inaccurate but deeply offensive in fact the aim of the new standards is to discourage risky behaviors by empowering students with factual information rather than leaving them at the mercy of hearsay or the many online environments to which they wander unsupervised we've also heard people dismiss calls for diversity and inclusion in schools as a leftist political agenda and refer to members of the lgbtq community as perversions it is my position that this rhetoric is harmful to our children many of whom are lgbtq plus individuals those of us skilled in the practice of empathy understand that disparaging and erasing groups of people can have catastrophic and irreversible consequences history has taught us as much I propose
036that we allow ourselves to be guided by empathy and not bigotry as we decide what is truly best for our children when I was about seven years old I knew I was different from the many kids in my classes and by age 13 I knew I was gay I grew up in a time when men and women in rooms like this debated my existence and whether or not I had the right to join the military donate blood or marry the person I love not once in all of my public education did I experience any positive representation of people like me in school I didn't have any openly gay teachers I didn't learn about the impressive contributions of trans civil rights activists I never learned about the spectrum of sexualities and family models that already existed
037in my world in this vacuum of cisgender heteronormativity I failed to discern any corner of the world where I belonged as a result between the ages of 13 and 15 I thought about suicide on a nearly daily basis in fact the Trevor Project and National Suicide Prevention hotline for queer youth estimates that 1.8 million lgbtq youth seriously consider suicide each year in the U.S and 45 percent of lgbtq Youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year this is what happens when we erase queer people from our schools this is what happens when ignorance and hatred bleed into public speech this is the danger of turning away from empathy as the advisor of the gender and sexuality Alliance I have helped many of your children through crises I have comforted children when they lacked unconditional
038love at home I have partnered with Educators to fill schools with pronoun pins and safe space stickers I have offered students an example of what it can look like to be a decent well-educated and accomplished queer person and I won't apologize for any of it because I can say unequivocally that in doing so I and all of the Educators who have joined me in these efforts have saved the lives of children in this District in an age of book Banning and don't say gay laws I will fervently and unapologetically defend the Dignity of all students against bigotry and intolerance education is much more than math reading and science it's about ensuring that our children will thrive in a peaceful and fruitful Society I applaud the Educators and members of this community who Champion inclusion and
039stand up against divisive forces and I urge the Board of Education to do the same thank you [Applause] foreign good evening Dr Robert tozzi president Smith and Commissioners I'm here tonight to expand on the discussion brought to your attention last month regarding the mass exit of Paris I want to start by stating it is not full time and benefits that we are looking for well that the powers we're looking for I'm a teacher um it's just more money other districts are offering our powers at least seven thousand dollars more than they're making here and they have no choice but to leave and to go to a district that is offering more support for their families again it isn't only the benefits that they are looking for we find money for various new positions and things
040in this District we need to find a way to allocate some money to the powers in the very near future there are currently agency Powers working within our district to cover positions that were held by powers that left before we stop Outsourcing to those agencies we need to make sure that those positions are filled this needs to be a top priority I do look forward to hearing more about what that plan is that is in works as discussed at last meeting now I'm going to explain briefly what being an educator in our autism classrooms are like for some of you that may not know what exactly goes on so all of my experience is directed towards teaching preschoolers for through fifth graders in my classroom all of us are responsible for promoting communication running trials
041man thank you managing behaviors assisting with feeding comforting students who do not feel well toileting which includes changing the diapers teaching them how to wipe themselves um in addition to a few other toileting things that I will not mention but most importantly import creating a safe and successful environment for our students that's a lot of hats that they wear and that's only naming a few if we do not have the appropriate amount of trained staff to help with this because so many powers are leaving how can we continue to promote success in our students as Educators where are our students voices for those who don't have the ability to communicate I am here tonight as my students voice saying that as a district and a board of education they all need your help foreign this
042every single day a lot of us are so we are just looking for your help now please take a minute to think about the last time you were in a room with six students with autism or any amount of students with autism I have a great group and I'm inviting you to my classroom to come visit sit with my students work with them for an hour see what our powers do each and every day come see the role that they play in our classrooms and unfortunately there are times when the parish just don't feel that their jobs are as important because they are just Paris I can honestly say that without my powers in my classroom that it wouldn't be functional so we are just here I am here as an educator in our classroom
043that we need to figure out this power solution sooner than later and try to allocate some money somewhere sooner than later thank you [Applause] or code good evening Marcia Miller Clifton the New Jersey Department of Education 2020 health and sex education standards are not acceptable however as parents fight to delay or reject the standards for their school district the elephant in the room is being missed completely even more disturbing than the 2020 release of the controversy was the dramatic leap to incorporate social emotional learning and career Readiness life literacies and key skills formerly the 21st century life and careers into all subject areas if you recall it wasn't long ago when we brought five subject notebooks to school notice we no longer referred to subjects but instead they are called content areas group work think
044pair share and other Innovative strategies that were said to teach the whole child as an area as the idea of teaching the whole child was pushed the line between the subject being taught and the strategies used to teach these subjects begin to blur while the goal was to appear more effective teaching practices quietly crossed over into the realm of Behavioral Sciences for all history children learned how to interact with one another on their own with the guidance and directions from their families yet sometimes over the last 10 years the state of New Jersey has heavily invested in the study of Behavioral Sciences and Incorporated them into all aspects of our Public Schools known as social and emotional learning mindfulness and character development programs teaching in these areas crosses a dangerous boundary by implying there was
045a right and wrong position according to www.learn.org Behavioral Science is the study of the interactions between human beings and includes the fields of psychology anthropology philosophy religious studies and more all of which are subject subjective and are based on an individual's background family values and beliefs the teach means to show or instruct how to do something correctly it is the job of a public school teacher to do this by presenting concrete factual information and core content areas the state of New Jersey does not have the reserve the right to dictate how a parent my child in the area of religion beliefs of morals values and other personal beliefs yeah njac 6A 8-2 point I'm sorry that's 3.2 directs widespread incorporation of Social and emotional learning and other subjective content and njac 6a8-1.1 mandates District Board
046of Education shall include interdisciplinary connections throughout the K-12 curriculum this means teachers dictate correct mindset attitudes behaviors in all aspects of their education in all lessons each and every day it is incredibly bold for the state of New Jersey to imply authority over such mindsets in all areas of their Education Without prior consent from their parents complying with these mandates means a teacher would certainly have to observe and question a child's beliefs in other words survey the child thereby violating their rights under the pupil rights and Privacy Act again in other words survey the child thereby violating their rights under the pupa rights and Privacy Act thank you foreign Place Clifton uh good evening uh I want to commend superintendent uh Robert Tosi and the Clifton school district for providing clear and transparent communication on
047the New Jersey state health education standards these curricular standards will do much to protect the mental health and physical safety of the lbg2tqia community by allowing people of all orientations to be seen heard and acknowledged unfortunately as we know too well month after month the board of education's time has been wasted wasted by the willfully ignorant and truly outrageous fear-mongering of a vocal few who do not want students hearing anything positive or anything at all really about the very existence of lgbtqia people my thanks to this board for your service I ask the incoming board to stand firm in prioritizing the very real concerns of the closeted the scared the bullied the persecuted the possibly suicidal students in our midst who feel unseen who feel unsafe who feel unwanted please continue to prioritize the health
048and safety of these very many folks over the fragile feelings of a hateful and uninformed few who persistently waste the board's time and the Public's time thank you very much thank you foreign Felder Twain place um first I want to thank Commissioners Beltran Canova and Daley for your service sorry to see you go and welcome to the new commissioner Santiago brunsiak and Mejia looking forward to seeing what you do and contribute to the board so I am friends or at least friendly with everybody up there I feel like I needed to say that because it's hard to criticize people you like but I'm going to a little bit for about a year now members of the community some of whom don't even have children in our schools have been coming to the podium to voice
049their objections to the updated Health standards and despite your many attempts to provide very clear and explicit examples of what is and will be taught in our health classes they keep coming despite repeatedly being reminded that they can opt out of certain lessons they keep coming despite their misinformation being pointed out by Dr Robert Tosi a few different times they keep coming and that's annoying but what is really troubling is how many of their comments are blatantly bigoted in content the Pearl clutching over the very idea of a drag queen Story Hour is the most recent example why would someone in a costume which is all that is reading a book to children be so threatening to anybody here's the part where I criticize the people I like you let it happen I understand that
050you have to be cautious with First Amendment rights and you can't just silence folks willy-nilly and send them back to their seats but why aren't you at least addressing this in your comments why are you sitting there listening to people say hurtful sometimes hateful things about your employees your staff students in your District community members some of whom are sitting in this room today where is your outrage where is your concern for the lgbtq community who live work and study here in Clifton and who have been subjected to bigoted commentary for months and months whether you intend it or not your silence is sending a message to everyone it's saying that those words are okay it's saying that these fears about teachers possibly abusing the standards to corrupt children might be valid you can't be
051bystanders in this you always remind us that comments will be forthcoming if and when appropriate it's appropriate you may have to let everyone have their say but you don't have to let them have the last word thank you [Applause] president Smith vice president Daley Dr potozzi Central Administration board members teachers citizens good evening I think Aretha Franklin said it best r-e-s-p-e-c-t it's simply about respect we've learned it from when we first started school Miss Trimble taught me in school five Mr O'Reilly's teaching it to me now along with Miss Turk Miss Taylor it's what we all have to have for each other despite differences we all have to find a way to come together because whether or not you like it they're going to be there difference in opinion or ideology does not call for
052insults discrimination humiliation and especially lies the Clifton Student Union recognizes respects and advocates for it everywhere thank you [Applause] foreign thank you yeah yeah Keith uh bass Ford Clifton New Jersey excuse me I'm losing my voice too now must be the mic it's been a while since I was here once I will keep it brief which I don't think is going to happen because listening to everything going on here and just to say thank you to the Board of Education Dr robotazi and friends in the community for the well wishes well wishes it wasn't easy to be away especially with all that has happening but I'm thankful to be here to say how much I appreciate the messages so I'm getting upset but if you know what happened to me it was very close um
053I got to know I'm late but I want to say congratulations to the uh new board members you have a big job ahead of you and hopefully when you get up there on his board you go further you just don't listen to what's going on in the board go to your county meetings go to your state meetings learn just so that people tell you what to do I know we're going to have this thing coming up who's going to be board president and as it always happens you know city council has their own problems but what will happen here is the phone calls will be happening who's the best person vote for me and I'm expecting to new people three new people who are coming up here to do your job the right way don't
054do things because people are calling you and telling you I'll give you this so I'll give you that I've been here a long time with these broad memes many many years and I know what goes on I read between the lines and I'm going to ask you for the sake of the city and the kids do the right thing another thing too is the Paris that have been coming up here I know these powers that have been coming up here for many many years and all the years that I know them they never said that you know we need more money we need more money was never about that and I know and they used to always say what they did in the classroom with the children and the stuff they do in the classroom
055with these children is unbelievable mosties wouldn't even do it what they do and I'm hoping you just put your head together all years and you find the money we find money in other places let's find money for these people who love their job and love the children that's what it's about and I know you can do it there's no question about it you don't want to lose these people some have been around 15 20 years they stayed around because they loved their job and they still love their job so many people get up here tonight to speak I know them very well and they speak from the heart and I'm telling you it's not about the money really isn't but you know it has come down down to a point that we're losing people like
056they said and they go in other districts we don't want to lose these good people we want to keep them here we want to have them take care of our children and that I'm not going to get into this other thing that's been going on with this lbgi thing and everything that's another story um all I have to say is I got 17 minutes is I respect the people I respect the people who come up here and voice their opinion but you gotta understand you're not going to change this this is down a state of New Jersey that's where you got to go thank you hello everybody John O'Reilly Clifton High School I'm a social studies teacher I'm here today without actually anything planned to speak but I got very passionate and I heard so
057many people make appeals so I just felt like it was necessary for me to come up here and just say uh to all those who spoke on behalf of the powers for all our students in the community and for I would like to add also the nurses who are working endless amount of hours and going through numerous amounts of stresses every day dealing with these tough times now this is not just Clifton going through this there's this is happening throughout the state of New Jersey but it's hitting us particularly hard so I just come today very simply just to encourage you even further to help out our schools a power professional does more than people could even imagine in many ways they're the lifeblood of our students and especially our most vulnerable students they form
058relationships with these kids at last past schools and it's with them that we can actually have a functioning school and of course our nurses as well our nurses are going through some pretty strenuous times since covid none more so than them because they are on the front lines dealing with these issues and conditions as we probably have seen there have been numerous reports by the state of New Jersey that there are increasing cases as well so numerous other illnesses and it's important that our school system actually have the necessary amount of nurses to actually take care of these problems we're suffering from a real staff shortage so I know that this is a tough situation for you to be in I don't envy you I would never personally want that responsibility myself because I wouldn't
059be able to sleep at night because it'd be so stressful but that's why you're here and I just encourage you to just please find a way to make this work we're all doing the very best we can and we got to work together to try to make this place the best it can be thank you so much and have a happy holidays foreign thank you on one of our first dates almost 25 years ago my partner and I cycled to the Palisades and took a lunch and water excuse me if you just say your name and municipality please my name is Dave Joseph and I reside in Clifton thank you yeah on one of our first dates almost 25 years ago my partner and I cycled to the Palisades and took a lunch and water
060break we were sitting in a roundabout eating our sandwiches when some guy came in a car and did Donuts around us rolled a bottle at us and called us before speeding off we will never forget that day with over one million eighty thousand Americans dead from covid-19 and Counting one would have thought more of our fellow said more of our fellow citizens would have a fresh new take on human fragility and vulnerability some sense of what gay men endured during the outset of the AIDS epidemic we were supposed to be better than this by now weren't we lgbtq citizen taxpayers of all ages and abilities deserve more than radio Silence from our elected officials we need public statements of solidarity from all those in seats of civil Authority particularly those who told us they feel
061themselves to be our voice or even more remarkably that they feel all cliftonites to be family members we need to know that City Hall will have all of our backs evenly and all who are elected to serve Clifton entirely understand the boundaries between their own personal religious convictions and worldview and those of the culturally and religiously diverse electorate of the city they are entrusted to represent Believers and non-believers that they will stop countenancing hate speech and harrismith theater at our Board of Ed meetings silence is not an option results from research published in 2017 by the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute showed that LGBT people experienced 71.1 victimizations for one thousand people compared to 19.2 victimizations per one thousand people for non-lgbt people in the wake of the massacre and the gay nightclub in
062Colorado and other attacks more locally many city council members in municipalities across Jersey and and New York City made statements of solidarity and offered guarantees of safety to their lgbtq constituents yet in the 25th most diverse City for its scale in the United States not one single member of our city council made a public statement of solidarity with Clifton's lgbtq constituents our schools are funded in part by taxes collected from lgbtq cliftonites we gaze are big on education about 52 percent of gay men in the U.S go on from high school to attain a bachelor's degree compared to 36 percent of all other adults Fanatics are uncomfortable with the idea of any shared objective reality unless they get to control the entire Paradigm within which it is shaped they will use every tool at their
063disposal including a baoa meeting to attempt to assert that control they will tell us that they have our children's best interests in mind without knowing anything about our children they will tell us sex education is a problem but sex education isn't the problem in Clifton a lack of knowledge about what constitutes healthy boundaries is the problem every minute spent relitigating sexual orientation at a board of ed meeting is a minute lost to finding ways to provide our City's Young Learners with the educational Arsenal they need to distinguish fact from fiction to learn and self-actualize as human beings in a world being overtaken by AI for the first time in human history we are unable to answer the question what job will you be doing in five years I stand before you a 55 year old
064gay man who was unaware of my own non-verbal learning disabilities and add until I was diagnosed in my early 40s as a man who has always struggled with low self-esteem and was aggressively bullied as a child called a from the age of nine imagine that so in my humble opinion if a nine-year-old kid is old enough to be taught by a parent that it's okay to call another nine-year-old kid a because the kid presents a certain way or otherwise shows signs of being gay then they are old enough to be taught by teachers in our citizen taxpayer-funded non-religious Public Schools about sexual orientation in animals including us humans Point Counterpoint our teachers are there to offer education and instruction on critical thinking skills facts objective reality and scientific method they are there to establish a
065learning environment built on mutual respect and healthy boundaries The Bullying I experience is a gay kid and the lack of awareness about the differences in how I assimilate knowledge and process the world around me had profound implications on my ability to succeed at school and in the world of work I would much rather the Board of Ed spend time with Clifton's parents and kids on ways to improve educational and Vocational opportunities all young people require to thrive as individuals and as Citizens I close with a quote from the early 20th century labor activist Reverend Albert Hubbard which I direct to the members of the Board of Ed and the Clifton city council okay sir thank you to continue to pretend to believe something at which your reason revolts to stultify the interest if this exists
066as all is the unpardonable sin I thank you my fellow citizens [Applause] foreign [Applause] my name is Terry scart House Lucille I live in Clifton I've lived here all my life went to school here my two children went to school here also and they still live in well my daughter well they live in town uh the reason I'm here tonight is I didn't my friend La uh Larry from I had mentioned to him that I would come and support him I wasn't you know I hadn't planned to come up and speak and actually tonight I I'm only here because I was just at I just attended the seven o'clock mass at St Andrews for the Immaculate Conception and I said well you know what I'm gonna I usually stay in at night but I said
067you know what since I'm out I'm gonna go I'm going to come and support him and Marcia because they do have a view point of view and I'm at my age and many people my age in this town friends they say we are just shocked of how much the world has changed in the last two three years and how do we cope with it really and then we and as a mama grandma I am concerned about what is being going to be taught to my my granddaughter she's in four years old and I have a grandson in school I don't know the curriculum I do have an outline from the state of the um the the con you know of the uh an outline but I have no idea what you're going to teach in
068school I did listen to one a couple a few meetings ago about the general uh information that you gave the parents so but I mean I really can't speak to it tonight and I'm not going to I really would need more information but I am concerned but I know one thing that our country has changed quite a bit and that we have a far left agenda and I'm not going to speak to it and I don't and I'm sorry you said that but there is but it is the left and you say and if you say there is a right then there is a left I'm sorry and I'm just here to say that you really do have to speak and I'm so sorry the gentleman before me it's just so I mean I realize
069he's emotional and so am I but I'm not emotional I'm emotional because of it you know for other reasons tonight and I won't mention them but I want just want to say that um I mean I feel for him because actually I am a registered nurse I've retired I was there and I worked with the first AIDS patients in the hospital and the CCU and I've give you know so I realize what went on in the 80s I was there I saw it myself I took care of eight patients you know at St Joe's in the 80s and I realized what happened and actually I lived through I lived through the 60s when Martin Luther King died and that you know I was a well I was uh I was in a nursing school when
070he died and I went through and I said you know what we went through all that and it seems like we're right back to it again talking about discrimination I go we got over that in the 70s and 80s why are we back there again why are we and I'm sorry that there are still people that because I've moved you know I never had any on you know of course I work with everyone so I'm sorry if there are people out there that you know that haven't been kind to other people but I anyway that's all I'm going to say and um I have one other thing to say is that uh was with education and that I really concerned that enough time because I know children have lost a lot in the last two
071years and that I'd like to find like to know what the school district is doing to have them come up to speed I know that the um the governor hasn't released the uh the the spring results yet about each district so so we'll have to wait and see but thank you good evening my name is Richard Mejia I have been known as Richie I live in Bonnie Village so I'm here to speak um as a regular citizen I first like to thank the people for you know electing me to be on the new board of edges coming year but one thing I like to address is first I like to say a story so this story goes back to elementary school when I was in kindergarten by my principal Mr in zaldi and Miss tally
072something they always installed in US is be too true to yourself and respect others the way you want to be treated um and today that speaks volume no matter race religion age gender sexuality I saw I sat in the back and you know I teared up a little bit because to stand up here and have many people say that the standards aren't right is to say and to acknowledge that these people don't exist the lgbtq community does exist I hear you I see you and I'm here to phrase my voice and say that I'm going to help you as much as I can and as many times as I can because at the end of the day when I was sitting there in the back many of you seen them bothered and that spoke volume
073to me and I'm glad I'm going to be up here to change that thank you [Applause] good evening everyone my name is Caitlin Wendt I'm a former Clifton resident and a current teacher at Clifton High School um just like my friend Mr John O'Reilly um I'm going to follow his bravery I did not have anything prepared to say tonight but after hearing all these people come up I had to say my piece on really everything we've been saying tonight I teach special education that is all I've ever taught I'm duly certified I went to school Virginia for Gen Ed was offered a special position and I cannot ever consider going back because my children are faced with so much stigma but they are some of the best children in the entire world I have been
074on both sides I have been teacher the teacher who spoke earlier on the para issue this past summer in the CLS program I was one of her pairs for a day I was only a parent in that program and I can tell you on more than one occasion I went home and I cried it is the most difficult job in the world being a teacher is more sometimes that I can bear seeing the grief that my students go through not only at the high school level not only the academic issues but the social emotional issues things going on at home things going on at work things going on with their friends through significant others but the Paras the lack of respect that they have and the lack of money that they receive with what they
075have to do I thank my two pairs on a daily basis or everything they do for me I could not run my one classroom without them I obviously could not I'm also the new advisor for this uh Clinton High School GSA I was very grateful to take over the Reigns from Mr Jose Figueroa over my six years of teaching five years at Clifton High I have had more than one student come to me discussing their desires for taking our lives self-harm I've had a student move across the country for college because she could not be her own self she had to leave everything she had ever known growing up her entire life in her hometown because she was not allowed to be herself because of the bigotry I've had students come to me having been
076abused having been kicked out of their own homes as a Clifton student I had more than one friend to take their own life because of the hatred and the Prejudice and the bigotry and I will tell you it is not our students when kids come to me complaining about this it is not the students it is the adults and there is something we need to do about this again I understand if someone brought up earlier we cannot just shut people down in their right to free speech but when you stand by and say nothing you are speaking volumes to our students thank you foreign thank you Samantha bass for Clifton New Jersey um I don't have anything prepared tonight but I am so happy to see people here um some from Facebook and those who
077are here to support a community that has definitely needed a lot of support in the past few months now and it might be uncomfortable for some people tonight it's hard to not be in the majority isn't it it's hard to feel like you don't belong like you're not accepted that you feel the hate there have been people in this room when it's me three other people four other people and you don't know their sexual identity and you sit here and spew hate I'm glad I didn't get a sex education lesson tonight I think this is the first times in months we didn't hear about anal sex oops I just said it okay we learn more about that on this Podium that the students do in the classroom we have been through this over and over
078again poor Janina has to keep talking about the same things over and over again because frankly you do not accept gay queer lgbtq people that is what this is about it is not about what body parts go into where and protection and you know it is good that we're talking about a student's mental health and if they need support and it's good to challenge certain thoughts that you may have that could be harmful for yourself and if you don't have that support you don't know how to get yourself out of that and if we're going to keep talking about this meaning after meeting after meeting we're not going to progress to anywhere you're labeled as bigots you're labeled as people who hate because you're constantly the people who keep talking about the same thing and
079I really just I can't stand anymore and the people who are standing here behind me can't take it either and that is why they're here tonight so it's up to this District people at home people in this room to decide where we're going to go from here are we going to keep this conversation going because we don't like it it makes me feel uncomfortable or are we going to respect people and the choices that they make it is up to you today I wore a good friend of mine who is a drag queen I met this person when I was in college the first one of the first people I met at my orientation and this person is an artist if I could clack my heels and do my makeup as well as he can
080I would feel amazing but at the end of the day that is their profession is a job they are an Entertainer and at the end of the night they go home take off the lashes the wig the weave and pay their bills just like anybody else in this room so if we keep continue to not looking at people like people Clifton's gonna get uglier so tonight you have a choice to come back to the next meeting and keep going but if you keep going I'm going to keep going because I'm not going to let hate overtake this District I have invested way too much time of my life in Clifton to see other people who I care about suffer I even brought this man to a drag show he didn't even know and we surprised
081him and now he asked me every time of my friend's going to be on RuPaul's Drag Race and I have to explain dad this doesn't work like that not every drag queen gets to meet RuPaul right and he has never been to something like that in his life okay and if he can go and have so much fun with a drag queen on his birthday mind you we surprised him then I think we can be a little bit more open to understanding that what somebody else does is not going to be hurtful or impactful to me thank you [Applause] laughs good evening Anthony Santiago East 8th I'm a newly elected Board of Ed commissioner I just wanted to come up and say thank you to all the voters for their trust and support and everyone
082else who supported especially my wife and my sons I look forward to working with the new board on improving our school district and making it a welcoming and inclusive environment for each and every one of our students and staff regardless of their background there's a Spanish saying we're going forward and I'm excited to work with you to move our school district forward so merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy Kwanzaa happy holidays whatever you celebrate and if you don't celebrate anything in particular I wish you a great rest of this year and an even better 2023 thank you [Applause] good evening Ray robertella Woodlawn Avenue it's been a while I've never stood at this particular Podium before and the room looks a little different so congratulations on that um what I want to talk about tonight um
083I want to talk in support of lgbtq Youth students staff in the district and I want to point out what I see is responsibility of the district versus obligation the responsibility of the district in my opinion is to provide a public education to any student who is in the school expecting to get one the district also has an obligation to keep every student safe while they are in our school buildings and in our care and that's where I want to focus my comments I think good bad or indifferent I have become the face of gay Clifton and that's why I'm here tonight um I have been involved with the pride flag raising since the first one in June of 2016 I think I've accomplished a lot in my life it's one of my most proud
084accomplishments I think the programs are great many of you have attended some of you have participated and the staff and the students that have participated have been outstanding absolutely outstanding the first event was several days after the Pulse Nightclub shooting I had to show up in fear of what could happen I felt an enormous responsibility because I asked people to participate in a program and stand at a microphone outside in public after 50 people were shot in a nightclub thankfully nothing happened there but lgbtq people live in fear all the time I lived in fear for the six years that I spent in middle school and high school in Clifton New Jersey I didn't speak then because I didn't have the confidence now I do and that's partly why I'm here tonight as Mr Figueroa
085pointed out lgbtq youth have higher rates of suicide attempts they are successful at higher rates than the other youth population the Trevor Project did a study and they they determined that it's because they're mistreated and they're stigmatized allowing hateful rhetoric in a Podium like this in a public meeting stigmatizes students who were at risk I think that's the last thing that we want to do and I can tell you that students who are in this District still live in fear in one of the early flag raisings there was a young man who was from the GSA and he got very emotional at the microphone and it looked like he wasn't going to be able to continue and he got emotional after saying my family doesn't accept me I didn't know what to do because I
086went right back to that anxiety-ridden high school kid but from the back of the audience my neighbor Joseph yelled when everyone else was silent take a deep breath and keep going he did and he kept going I think of that young man often and I hope that he found his footing in life and I hope he learned an important lesson that day my mother um who barely had an eighth grade education knew children to her core and she understood that any child needs the freedom to be themselves in order to succeed in life whether they're artistic whether they're a math geek whether they're gay straight you provide respect to people you don't Define people you don't label people she imprinted that on me she imprinted that on my gay brother who was a physician and
087also served gay men in the 1980s and it wasn't pleasant and I can share that for anybody that would like to hear it so again my goal here is to sort of keep the conversation respectful the last thing we want to do is take a young person who's at risk who may not feel accepted at home and have them feel like they're not accepted in the one place in the world a few hours a day that they may be able to so please please keep that in mind as you keep this going and let's try to eliminate the hate and the rhetoric and the talking points because it's not productive thank you foreign good evening board members I'm Rob marmerstein I'm a special ed inclusion U.S history teacher over at the high school and I
088also am the head of the Esports program at the high school it's difficult to be lectured especially from your position on the merits of pre of legal precedence set 50 years ago or to talk about 40 to 50 years ago of didn't we get over this when there's a new Target every decade every year every month every hour there's someone new targeted on a regular basis I just wanted to stand up here quickly obviously I have nothing prepared in solidarity with the lgbtqi a plus community members students I've had a number of trans students over the years and I just come with this message instead of why not just uplift everybody regardless of who you are regardless of how you represent regardless of anything you can't control much like I can't control what things I
089like to eat versus what things I don't like to eat these people can't control who they're attracted to the disagreement doesn't come from well I feel a different way than you unfortunately a certain swath of population believes that if we suppress these people and if we make believe they aren't there they don't exist and it's just not true they haven't gone away they're not going away they're here to stay so why not uplift them anyway that's all I have to say take care guys have a nice night [Applause] oh thank you wow a lot of people tonight with this topic no one has ever got come up here as far as I heard and I'd like to hear from board members and maybe uh Dr robitosi with hatred for any just just state your name
090and I'll do Block Clifton I've never heard anyone talk about hatred or animosity other people who come up who look upon individuals trying to say something have said that we're insinuating that we're saying it misinformation we've never given any misinformation everything we've given is facts we didn't establish the New Jersey state sex ed program it's not health and physical education it's sex act clearly that's what they're teaching and nothing healthy about anal sex I don't care whether you enjoy it or not it may be enjoyable but it's nothing healthy about it anyhow we didn't do this and we also if it was so healthy and so edifying they wouldn't allow and tell you you're allowed to give exemptions out there's no other class that you can just say I don't want to come I'm exempt
091they're the ones and immediately when you say oh if you're offended we could sign yourself out well then there's something wrong there there's a dialogue that needs to be addressed I agree with most of the people who got up here I agree with a lot they said they said a lot of beautiful things they said it properly they speak well I've come up for the past six months asking to have an open public meeting on this so where where in a Auditorium just discussing and throwing out things and trying to understand more we've asked we want to understand more we're not coming here condemning we're not coming here making judgments I don't you know check the tapes I don't think you're going to find that once but you're forced to teach something and then you're
092told oh you if you don't like it if it offends you or your religion you can sign out well there's something wrong there and you guys as board members and girls and and superintendent should address that with the state if it's something that's mandated well then it's mandated if it's not mandated there's a problem with it they're the ones creating the problem not us we're sharing our opinion and then we're being all and we're fighting amongst each other which we shouldn't be fighting amongst each other I I said something about the drag queens because I was shocked to hear that you're going to start teaching drag queens I sent you all the tape I sent you all the tape about drag queens nobody responded because I wanted it played here Dr robertozzi I wanted to
093play it here so these people could see what was shown down at the ngeea conference where you took two days off on taxpayer dollars to go watch a drag queen show meanwhile our kids were home doing nothing that's nice you all saw that tape that's education the stuff she said that's normal now I know there may have been two different parts one may have been in the in one segment and one something else was in another segment but the organization that's sending that out is very reputable they just expose something in his hand over that was a problem and Tucker Carlson played it the other night so we're up here we're up here we're expressing concerns we don't want to fight we like a nice big meeting in an open but if you want to
094continue this Avenue then we'll continue it we'll go on to another four years if you want whatever you got we want to have a meeting and I think the resolver like you there was some other issues once you have it we can express not in this form but in other form I think it'll be over so we've never said anything hateful to anyone we've never judged anyone we've shared it's the state that says we're allowed an exemption well if we're allowed an exemption why that's what you've got to address why if it's necessary and if it's not creating a hostile environment by allowing the exemption well why are we getting blamed for it thank you hi wait I need like 30 seconds hello hi I'm Natasha some of you guys may remember me hi to
095the new board members on Natasha I'm a 12th grader go to Clifton High School today I'm here with the basketball team varsity and junior varsity um we're here to talk about something that's close to our heart but you know they're not going to talk because you know girls rule the world you know so um so we're here to talk about our coaches our first head coach is Mr catamis you know we love him and we also have assistant coaches we have Coach Gunn and Coach Lee watch but last year we had a coach Mr Lopez some of you may know him so we're here to talk about how he can't be a part of our team this year and how it's affecting some of the boys and not just them but also us so pretty
096much Mr Lopez came in last year and started volunteering for us and he helped over the summer volunteering as well helping the boys get their skills and everything better we also talked to the principal about this our coaches our coaches and our principals know we're here today and we just want to know like if you guys could you know we don't have any answers but you guys obviously can't tell me any answers today or can't tell us any answers but we just want him back even if it's not this year which you know most of my Varsity players sorry most of my Varsity players want him back this year because we're all seniors and we're all about to graduate and he's made a big impact in all of their lives so yeah that's why we're
097here we just got out of a game an hour away sorry we won [Applause] no 60 254. sorry my bad but um yeah so we're just here to like Express that we want him back as our coach because you know he's helped us a lot and not just with basketball he's helped us like you know want to motivate ourselves to do better better in school because as student athletes who need to have your grades a certain way you need to not have you know disciplinary so you know he's helped us a lot throughout everything and so have our other coaches but you know we just feel like something's missing a part of our team and you know he's a big factor of why we feel as like a piece is missing so that's why we're
098here and you know thank you for listening and yeah the boys basketball team and yeah thank you thank you anyone else want to speak oh I just want to stay on the cat in the basketball team I've been here for four years and uh ever since Lopez came I feel like we there's been a family obviously we've been a family before but now we're like really together helped us get along and uh he honestly I was 40 like 40 pounds heavy before but hit me up and lose 30 pounds I'm in the best shape of my life and I just want to thank you for that for me like he really helped us a lot thank you [Applause] last year I was on the basketball team I didn't really see the I couldn't really be
099in person to see the effects of Lopez's coaching but you can just tell by how the basketball players carried himself last year like the the spears up like it was just it was a good vibe and it showed too because they opened all of it suits and won it so and even even like not even as a coach Lopez is just such a good guy like you see him in the hall he'll give you a hug and just give you some advice to fight it's like for today and he just it sticks with you like he's a really good kid I'm not kidding God sorry but yeah [Applause] come on uh I just wanted to say that uh coach Lopez helped me throughout you know my two years of knowing him you know he helped
100me through basketball he inspired me to keep playing basketball I wasn't gonna really play basketball but because I'm a football player but he told me to keep going and I keep I kept going and like last year he brought the energy to the bench and I feel like that's what's missing from us so you know it will be really grateful if you guys really thought about this so thank you [Applause] I think Lopez came in at the right time he changed the whole demeanor of the team and just improve everybody like mentally and everything thank you [Applause] he came in changed the whole demeanor of the team just boosting the mentality and everything the season didn't turn out how we wanted but knowing that we would thinking we would have him going into the next
101season felt good but now he's gone it doesn't feel the same Generations [Applause] um hi my name is Stephanie Oviedo uh Colfax Avenue I had no intentions of speaking today but I was really moved by uh the two big things that are going on right now which are the Paris and the lgbtq community um first and foremost I have a very close family member of mine that is a Paris uh I personally could never do something like that uh it's a lot and it just it's really disheartening that they work part-time and they have to work a second job don't have any health insurance uh you know it's just really sad because they're working with somebody who is these children who are special needs and I feel that you know not everybody has a strength
102but to do something like that it's so important and I just really hope that moving forward you know I did also hear about other parents going to different districts because they are being offered more I would hope that it's just something that takes precedence and it's something that's very important that we can find more in the budget to help with um my second issue is the lgbtq Community um which is not an issue at all actually I'm here in support and in um you know sorry I just I have like a little I got a little nervous during these things um basically hearing up both sides my family always you know says how I play Devil's Advocate hearing both sides it's very strong wording and I kind of don't agree with you know when people
103kind of jeer and sneer at people saying things that we don't agree with I feel like we should all be very respectful even though what they're saying is a little much and biased and very dated um I went to Catholic School my whole life but I was born and raised in Clifton my whole life so in the past year I've made tremendous friendships within people who were lgbtq um amazing people that were in our late 20s now and they still have to deal with trauma that they've carried in childhood and it's so sad and disheartening that you know they didn't have a voice growing up in the school system and now that we can offer that opportunity to our youth in the future uh I don't have kids I don't know if that's around I'm
104going to take in life but what I do know is that I have you know uh family members that are in Clifton and that I just think that the youth should be able if they don't have support in their home that they should be able to go to somewhere where they feel like they do have support and I think that's something that we as a community we as the board of you know the Board of Education that's something that should be taken into consideration and you know these kids shouldn't feel like they should feel included and they shouldn't feel like you know Outsiders or anything like that because it's just not right in my opinion so it's just all I have to say thank you [Applause] well good evening my name is Laura lalama and
105I am the proud president of the Clifton Education Association I want to review a few things that were said tonight so the group The the two people here that say um horrible things about the lgbtq plus um group and I'm an ally so I've been involved with many of the workshops through the NJEA and we have the night um groups with workshops with the Key Club so I want the I want the board to know about the groups that they represent they're called the center for Garden State families which is an ultra-conservative Christian group lobbied against health and physical stand physical education standards in public schools and has spread harmful disinformation and State Legislative hearings on social media and in person speaking events like ours while they claim to be a Christian group they've decided
106to the traditional family is all they're interested in they need to they continue to Advocate just for their conservative beliefs the head of it is Gregory Quinlan he's the founder and president president of this group a self-proclaimed ex-gay lobbyist left the homosexual lifestyle in 1992 to become lobbying against same-sex marriage and then the former West Milford Public School teachers currently serves as the Director under his guidance they've been outspoken about New Jersey sexual education standards and lgbtq standards in public schools they have directly accused Governor Murphy in the Democratic party of grooming children I'm so disgusted we have the best staff here in the state of New Jersey the NJEA as the they say disgusting things about the NJEA because they know that we will go on the attack the the drag queen Story Hour
107which I appreciate what you said Samantha that was hijacked by the organization and it was spliced and dubbed by a group called The New Jersey project which is another um Koch brothers group and they're also known as chaos and control so these are the people that we're dealing with they do not care about students they only care about their own 501c3 organization and their funding in 2018 They promoted uh XK Nea caucus at the ra meeting they were trying to infiltrate there they have used their Twitter account to spread disinformation about covet 19. so this needs to stop I am tired of it the kids in this District are tired of it the staff is tired of it and we will just keep putting up this fight because this needs to stop we do not
108want to hear this rhetoric anymore it hurts our students because they're students that listen to this meeting and we need to stop and I also want to thank my group because it's been lonely here at the top trying to talk and fight all this so I really appreciate everybody who spoke for the Paris and for the lgbtq plus community and I want to thank the Board of Ed Dana and Joe who's not here and Jim Daly for all your hard work for all your dedication to the kids of this community and the staff even though sometimes we didn't agree but that's the way it works so I respect you and all the hard work that you did do and thank you again um please the conferences that we have at night with the lgbtq plus
109please participate it's free it's for the community the more understanding that we have for each other the more love that we have for each other the better it is for our kids and our staff and our community thank you foreign okay we're going to um move into the adoption of the minutes of the November 17th regular meeting sorry Mr Roberts like my Mr Awad discussion seeing none roll call please Mr abadrabo yes Mr owad yes Miss bassford yes Miss Beltran Dr Danny Mr Paris yes vice president Daley yes and president Smith yes motion carries [Music] okay superintendent robertosie Europe thank you Mr President good evening Commissioners members of the community faculty and staff have joined us tonight I'd like to turn our attention to educational matters that impact our children a lot of what was
110discussed tonight no doubt is extremely important when I go to schools and I talk to our kids and I you know what our kids want our kids want to come to a school where they have adults who care about them where they feel comfortable where they have someone that they could go to if they have an issue our kids don't care what you look like they don't care what sexual orientation you are if our kids believe that you care about them then you're golden and our job here is to provide an environment where all of our kids regardless of what color they are what religion they are what sexuality they are feel comfortable in our schools and we're doing our best to provide that there's a few outside voices that are trying to penetrate this
111community and try to stop the good things that we're doing but we're never going to allow them we're always going to do our best to provide a safe learning environment for our children unfortunately they're going to have to deal with some people who may not like them for whatever reason um but what I can tell this board and tell members of the community that as long as I'm around as long as as long as I have any power to do anything we're going to make sure that our kids feel safe in our school and if they're not we're going to do our best to fix it there's a cultural war going on in this country and now all of a sudden it's converged on the Clifton Public Schools I'm not going to spend any more
112time on it if this is uh [Applause] I want to spend time on the things like donating two thousand eight hundred dollars to to clothe cold homeless people to feed people sorry I'm I'm a little frustrated tonight because we are one of the most diverse communities in the state of New Jersey and in this country and I believe that our faculty and staff and this community I believe that we that the vast majority of us believe in inclusiveness and being kind and being fair to everyone and so let's not let some outside forces come in and try to ruin the good thing that that we've got going and do we have do we have ways to go sure we have lots of areas where we can improve but it's not for lack of trying it's
113not for lack of being aware thank you now I'd like to talk about education and some things going on in our schools that okay good on December 7th we had instant decision day at Clifton High School instant decision day is when a number of colleges come to the school they'll interview our students right on the spot review their transcripts and accept them right at that moment so I'm proud to say that on instant decision day yesterday there were 13 schools faily Dickinson Bloomfield Caldwell Felician University Kane University Monmouth University Montclair NJIT Ramapo Rutgers Newark Seton Hall Stockton and William Patterson we had 64 students participate in instant decision day of those 63 were accepted to one or more colleges or universities of their choice on that day yesterday there's also an another 11 additional students
114who didn't participate in the interview but were already accepted um and among those students almost a half a million dollars in financial aid was offered that's pretty amazing foreign success I'd like to share some other things going on in a couple of our schools at school nine um on Tuesday night held a stem night science technology engineering and math for grades three through five and their theme that night was in outer space event um called out of this world students traveled through the solar system as they conquered a variety of activities they completed measurement tasks with 10 grams they completed distance calculations they solved equations and they worked with ozobots and they worked together students also had the opportunity to take a trip into the Star Lab which is like a big how would you
115describe the Star Lab it's like a uh yeah it's like a miniature planetarium that they they kind of blow up and um students and their parents were able to go in and learn about the different constellations uh the moon phases and the solar system the Clifton High School robotics team joined the event as well the robotics team showed the students how the robots worked and they allowed the elementary students to to interact with and control the robot so I bet you we definitely made some future robotics club members that that day it was really an amazing night thanks to the school nine team for putting that together um school 11 hosted a wonderful Community tree lighting ceremony last week the madcaps choir provided the perfect backdrop as students met with Santa and drank hot cocoa
116now that's fun stuff to usher in the holiday season and they also had a ribbon cutting ceremony to unveil their new book vending machine by the end of this month all of our elementary schools will have these book vending machines which the students are so excited when they see them they're excited to actually go to a vending machine that gives them a book to go read and they want to read the book as fast as they can so they go back and get another book it's pretty cool and uh really really nice way to encourage reading uh in our schools I want to thank Jessica tremble for all her efforts um with the code blue donations so proud you know to be able to give that money to a good cause in the Clifton Health
117Department through the the code blue Center um the extraordinary acts of kindness by our students and by our faculty and staff these are the things that we should be celebrating um Jessica came to me with the idea I believed in her vision told her to run with it and as always she never never fails to to do an amazing job and thank you to all who contributed thank you for your generosity and for always going the extra mile I'd like to talk a little bit about um our referendum on tonight's agenda ladies and gentlemen the board you'll see the final two bid packages are up for approval this is a big step so bids three and four are now complete which means shortly we will move into the construction phase of all of our referendum
118projects 168 million dollars worth of projects unfortunately there are still supply chain issues and a myriad of other other issues impacting the day-to-day operations of these projects but um we still believe that we are on Pace to complete the projects when we said we're going to for example the uh the field Woodrow Wilson we expect to be ready for the spring our Clifton High School Renovations of our restrooms are well underway and and going on time so um that's actually the the Clifton High School the South Wing is nearing completion and as soon as the South Wing is done the contractor will move to the east wing um tonight again bids package three and four are on the agenda uh we will continue with our pre-construction and our regular meetings with the vendors with our
119construction management company and the principles of those schools where the projects are taking place and finally um tonight I would like to take a moment to recognize two of our board members who are here tonight and this is their last Board of Education meeting you know as a superintendent one of the hardest things that we face is that the turnover of board members every year there's an election every year you are faced with the possibility of losing three people that you have known that you have worked closely with and that you're perhaps even become friends with and when you're hired as a superintendent it's the Board of Education that hires you and so tonight I am now losing two three Mr canova's not here off something to say about him in January but three of
120the people who actually brought me to this District and that's a hard thing right so now I only have two board members left three board members left that hired me it's over it's coming it's over soon now I say that because the turnover happens very very quickly and it's not that superintendents fear that it's just that you build relationships with with people and it's not because I fear what's to come it's because we work incredibly close together we spend hours and hours of time in meetings um past couple years most of them have been virtual but still it's a lot of time a lot of time on the phone um I consider you my friends and almost family because you know we fight sometimes like family a little bit except for you Mr Daley I
121couldn't fight with you um they ain't over yet so these are board members that that brought me to Clifton brought me to a place that is a new home for me a place where I'm so so happy to be a place where I believe we're making a difference and they believed in me and they supported me in ways that I can't eloquently uh State tonight but really what I want to say to both of you is thank you Dana thank you for bringing a different perspective to all of the issues that you were involved in whether it was facilities Finance your specialties thank you for being a strong leader thank you for being a strong female leader who was never afraid to speak her mind um thank you for being cognizant of the budgetary issues
122that we face but balancing that with the realities that we face thank you for speaking out for the people who needed to be spoken for and thank you for caring and for worrying about our children and always always voting and always doing what's best for kids I will never forget that and I thank you very very much and Mr Daley I want to thank you for your almost 14 years of service it's it's almost unprecedented to do this for 14 almost 14 years as a volunteer um thank you for your Sage advice both personally and professionally thank you for always looking out for the taxpayer but but also being a strong Advocate when we needed to spend money like with the referendum when it was something you knew that needed to be done you knew
123it was necessary you knew it was good for kids thank you for being the voice of reason during many a debate thank you for sharing your vast experience so that others could understand why things are the way they are and thank you for always being a gentleman thank you for always being kind and I appreciate you more than you could ever know thank you both for believing in me thank you for supporting me when we've had to make tough decisions thank you for challenging me to be better and to do better and thank you for giving me the opportunity to be the superintendent of this District confident that our paths will cross again so this is not goodbye but please know that I will personally miss both of you very much thank you [Applause] I
124would like to wish all in our community um happy holiday season happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate Merry Christmas to all and um enjoy this enjoy this time of year where it's about love it's about giving and it's about acceptance let's try our best to love one another the best we can thank you [Applause] all right we'll move on uh two uh board committee reports uh looks like um Mr Paris you up first thank you Mr Smith um The Residency and security committee met on Thursday December 1st um at 408 PM president or Dr robertosie Mr gengaro Mr doctor Mr Constantino from the board where myself is Beltran Mr abajabo and president Smith the meeting began with Mr doctor explaining that eight pcti students were found not living in Clifton and were removed from the
125roster of students that are paid for by our district that equals the savings this year of ninety thousand nine hundred and twelve dollars [Applause] and the savings over the remaining years of schools for the students in question equal 204 552 dollars uh Mr doctor also explained that Aid in new investigations have been completed and of the 701 students receiving aid in lieu 20 no longer lived at their listed address further investigations will be conducted potential savings here to the district of twenty thousand dollars Mr Smith asked for the percentage of charter school and private school students receiving aid in lieu the supervisor of Transportation was immediately emailed for the information and it will be shared at the next committee meeting Mr Constantino explained that the security and fire drills for the month of November were
126conducted and were completed appropriately by the staff and administration Mr gengaro explained that the district assisted the city in providing information for the safe routes to schools Grant Clifton was awarded the Grant and the funds the amount of six hundred thousand dollars which will be used to update and upgrade the tunnel leading from CCMS across Route 46 or rather under route 46. if there were any additional expenses for the project it would be incurred by the city and has no Financial impact on the district uh I requested an update on school number nine school zone traffic safety concerns which the city was uh was made aware of uh to date the district has not received any notifications from the Clifton police or the city concerning the traffic safety issues at school number nine Administration will
127seek an update on this and all pending issues brought up during the municipal Alliance committee meeting the meeting was concluded at 4 49 pm Mr Paris uh through you to um Mr Jan Gerald do you know if we received any answers from the city on that school nine uh yes ironically I actually received an email from Mr Villano late this afternoon uh they are uh that he has passed that information forward to Chief Renaldi from the Clinton Police Department uh with the plan to set up some mechanism to monitor the traffic patterns especially around the school of Nine area I did make sure that I reminded the staff that the school 9 Community had did sign a petition has been quite vocal in both the city and board side but that information is now in
128the chief and all these hands super thank you any other questions nope okay um we'll move to uh facilities Mr Awad the facilities committee uh met on November 29th 2022 uh I myself was present uh commissioner Daley beltron and president Smith from the administration we had Mr gingero Uchi shahada mondano marcione and Mike doctor Our Guest that attended was Steve DeStefano uh Mr lack and Mr Costello the meeting started around 2PM ended around 3 50 p.m items of discussion Energy savings Mr DiStefano from the Energy savings company came and spoke about how the district could possibly save money a proposal will be reviewed a referendum update bid package two the contractor had a meeting with the administration and the construction manager and will Begin work shortly uh bid package three opening date was November 15th
129currently under attorney review bid package four opening date was October 27th currently under attorney review current work being done Clifton High School is moving along perfectly we'll be done with the South Wing mid-December and pivot to the east wing uh third item of discussion was Pope Paul still winning response from the DSs diocese I'm sorry and the fourth item was Graham Mercy bandcamp facilities the grand Mercy brass band camp and Orchestra is working in collaborations with the high school they requested a permit to use the high school's Auditorium on July 30th and for us to waive the facilities fee we have Wade facilities fees for outside athletic and band groups in the past such as the north Jersey band festival and the one more once big band because they featured our students and it's it
130is free for all to attend they will be responsible for the custodial and utility fees fifth item discussed was City use of our facilities City and rec department at times need to advertise their events on a short notice Administration is exploring options of approving the advertisement of City events prior to the permit approval by the board so the city can get high participation from students and families the date of the actual event would come after board approval this would be on a case-to-case basis and would need to be approved by the superintendent and the business office item number six was safety around our schools that was also discussed the city is aware and has said that they will be conducting traffic surveys Arps or projects the window projects for schools one two three four five
131and thirteen Esser number two and window projects for school eight nine eleven twelve and fifteen the high school is ARP Sr number three eighth item discussed was Cafe project School 13. exploring options of turning the kitchen into a fully functioning kitchen because of the logistics of feeding the students in the school and the school is the third largest Elementary in our district funded through the cafeteria fund under new business gym gym floors report outlining how old they are and I another item discussed was the air purifiers being needed when the hvacs are fully completed ensuring that they are used throughout the day how to grant for stop signs asking grant writers to explore another item was to a new draw up to the new drop off and pick up patterns that we'll need that will
132be needed when the security are being constructed if necessary and our meeting adjourned around 350 I believe I said and that is all any questions on the facilities okay seeing none will go to food and Transportation uh Miss beltron okay the food and transportation committee met um yesterday it was myself Mr Paris Mr Awad and Mr Robert drabbo president for the Board of Ed and then Administration was Dr robertozzi Dr Mark dengaro Mr Michael USI Mr shetta um miss Nick and Mr Rosenberg the items are up for discussion was the school 13 kitchen this is being funded by the cafeteria Surplus which has to be spent on Cafe related expenses so this is kind of like a use it or lose it type situation so we're going to be using it to renovate and actually
133build out an entire Kitchen in school 13. the CCMS WMS kitchen equipment upgrade we received quotes to upgrade the equipment for both the middle schools so that'll be projects that will be coming down the pipeline we're collecting requests for Kitchener equipment upgrade since we do have the Surplus money that we do have to spend so we're asking the schools to let us know what they would like to add or what needs to be replaced so that we can properly fund those we talked about the Cha's Atrium the administration is looking into a CHS Atrium upgrade for instruction eating during the warmer months then we moved on to transportation and we talked about Bus Parking uh we're looking for land so if anyone who's watching right now or who knows of any land we desperately need
134land to park buses you would think this is not such a crucial issue but it really is um we don't want to have to park the buses at schools we want to be able to park them at a designated parking location one for safety so they're always under guard another being that they want to be close to where they're fueled and where their maintenance is done on them and we're having a really hard time and hopefully with a new Council coming in maybe the town of the city Side can be able to help us a little bit with either um you know facilitating a purchase or a a tax um what is it called not a vacation abatement there we go sorry a tax abatement to be able to lease a property and not have
135to have the burden of one property we're looking at the 90 000 tax burden and that's for like a you know we're talking mostly vacant area um and we are going to get new electric buses that are coming down the pipeline and we're simply not going to have the spots to park them with the Chargers so it's you know it's becoming a crunch situation where we're desperately in need of this space and that's it if anyone has any questions yeah echoing just what you said um the district definitely needs um some land to put some buses on um so if anyone out there has uh some land that they could donate to the board we would greatly accept it um and um even if it's uh you know on a temporary uh basis um we
136just are maxed out at our transportation garage so any of that help and uh if we could just amend the minutes I was present at this meeting um so if we could amend it to make sure that I was added to it I was attacked enough so I should be there present yeah I don't think the theme wasn't there no yeah I was gonna say were you hiding okay and last we have uh education Miss Dr Danny okay uh Clifton Public Schools education and special education committee minutes December 1st 2022 we met at 3 P.M president uh president were Mr Jim Smith myself and uh chairperson Mr Alan pal Paris from Administration Dr Danny robertosie uh Yanina kusilevic Mark gingaro and Heather Rotolo special education update from Heather Rotolo Miss Rotolo discussed the cpag meeting
137on 11 30 22 the results of the recently distributed parent survey were shared the next meeting will be January 25th 2023 it'll be virtual we continue to encourage parents of students with special needs to attend meetings and join this parent Advisory Group two free assemblies were held on November 16 2022 at school 16 by bounce out the stigma organization which discuss issues relating to inclusion and students with different abilities bounce out the stigma is hoping to host a basketball camp this summer for students with special needs play unify will begin at Clifton High School with um two newly appointed coaches and it is expanded in the Middle School the CST will have a free work workshop on understanding how psychiatric disorders manifest in the learning environment speech language Specialists attended a workshop on Gestalt and
138natural language Acquisitions on December 2nd of 2022 class size and increasing referrals to the special services department were presented certain Clifton High School self-contained classes will participate in a buddy program with peers at pvhs in similar classes a rollout of goals and objectives process reporting was conducted marking period one the district continues to search for part-time power professionals so if anyone is interested they can apply on the district website action was informational instructional budget priorities and Esser Sunset Planning by Ms kusilevich she reviewed the instructor instructional uses of Esser funds which will sunset on September of 2024 prior to Esser funding the district provided Title 1 and title III summer support programs to eligible students thanks to Esther funding summer support programs were provided to qualifying students from each School K-12 Esser is funding one
139child study team to counselors and multiple language arts and math intervention teachers to provide basic skills support two instructional coaches to support language art and math in special education classes are also funded from Esser in order to maintain these positions and programs beyond the 2023-2024 school year the district will need to consider phasing the support and intervention expenses into each of the next two local budgets other budget priorities focus on secular education and ESL the increases in referrals for developmental and behavioral needs as well as over 400 additional English language Learners will require additional behaviorists ESL and special education teachers in order to attract and keep our professionals additional full-time power professional positions need to be phased into the budget over time as well action informational New Jersey quality single accountability Continuum which is New
140Jersey Cusack was presented by Ms kusilevic who updated the committee on the cusac process facilities visits are taking place in December instructional professional and governance visits will be scheduled in January of 2023 action was informational meeting adjourned at 405 respectfully submitted by Miss kusilevic any questions I have a question Mr President uh yes um what was the uh discussion amongst the group about the findings from the cpag surge surge uh survey uh we I did receive the survey from the group but I'd like to know are we what what we're going to do with that data Miss Goose levage if you could please yeah Ms Rotolo is using that data to address with professional development that's going to be offered for teachers as well as programming and offerings for parents after school uh based on
141the responses or uh are we do we have communications with the actual group itself I believe that she intends to be sharing that information at one of the next CPAC meetings okay thank you it might not be the next one because I think there's already an agenda scheduled for that okay any other questions uh just so I could go over the Committees again um so uh policy did not meet indeed they're not meeting in December they are a meeting Monday it's every uh second Monday okay so we're meeting on Monday that's why I just want to go over um all right so now we don't have Athletics are we meeting December okay um facilities just met uh Municipal Alliance obviously were not January right yeah diversity um I don't think we'll have another meeting in
142December right technology uh just uh as a reminder diversity is Administration driven yeah so it's up to them technology do we know we have anything scheduled okay do we need to before we break the nothing on the horizon that couldn't wait till January okay uh legislative obviously we're holding Finance January January want one just if you need it that's all I just want to go over it for the last in the last day you want to want to have it um education we had and uh I think I got everybody right no the HSA committee oh yeah I I don't think you were going to schedule anything because we weren't going to do it in December I think we're going to do January participation especially this time of year it's too busy of a time
143so mid to late January [Music] all right everything else I got okay thank you uh committees for your hard work throughout the entire year um board committees are always functioning and always working so uh I appreciate all the time and effort that you have all put into uh your committees over the past year um unfinished business we have any unfinished business seeing none will move on to 16 expression of condolence uh Mr Robert you asked did you read that whereas on December 3rd 2022 the community noted with sorrow the passing of scale sandola and whereas Miss sandola served the Board of Education and children of Clifton Faithfully conscientiously as a highly respected language arts teacher at Christopher Columbus Middle School and Woodrow Wilson Middle School from 1993 until her retirement in 2020. now therefore be
144it resolved that this resolution be forwarded to her bereaved family to serve as an expression of the great Regard in which Miss sandola was held by the Board of Education the Administration Employees and pupils of the Clifton 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 December 8th signed by the superintendent uh Mr Uchi and the board members hey motion by Mr abadrabo second by Mr rawad discussion seeing it on roll call please Mr abadrabo yes Mr Awad yes Miss basford yes Miss Beltran yes Dr Danny yes Mr Paris yes vice president Daley yes president Smith yes motion carries and we're going to move on to education Administration I'm going
145to ask that we pull um ea1 and ea2 for later in the meeting so we'll do ea3 through 10. so move to motion by Ms basford second by Mr abadrabo discussion seeing none roll call please Mr abadrabo yes Mr Awad yes Miss bassford yes Miss Beltran Dr Danny yes Mr Paris yes I'm stand on six vice president Daley yes president Smith yes motion scary and next we're going to see uh Personnel we have um P1 through p31 so I moved second Mr Roberto second by Miss basford discussion seeing non-roll call police Mr Mr abadrabo yes Mr Awad yes Miss basford yes Miss Beltran yes Dr Danny yes Mr Paris yes abstaining 28. vice president Daley yes president Smith yes motion scary next we have uh D finance and Facilities we have uh F1 through F22
146motion by Miss bassford second bye Mr Paris any discussion seeing non-roll call please Mr abadrabo yes with an abstention on 22. Mr Awad yes Miss basford yes Miss Beltran yes Dr Danny yes Mr Paris yes vice president Daley yes president Smith yes motions Carrie okay um so we'll do it after um yeah we're going to board member Commons I want to hold this so I want to do that's the last thing because we'll probably go up and take a picture and all that so can we do that is that okay with everybody do we want to hear too after we do War remember comments okay all right uh but remember comments so um we're going to change it up a little bit so that um Miss beltron and Mr Daley could go last so miss
147basford went first last meeting and it ran out and now I don't know what it is okay so first up is Dr Danny okay yeah uh good evening I'd like to first um send condolences to the uh sendola family I'd like to thank all the speakers that came out um and the presenters um I think you know that every individual matters I'm an educator and I work with many individuals I have students you know with many different needs and every individual matters and everyone makes a difference and everyone puts in a contribution and I think you know we need to respect everyone for the contribution the people that they are the I mean that's that's important and I think it all starts with respect and um it's an important thing you know to instill within
148our students so moving forward um you know that they pass that along and I think as um Dr robertosie said you know we hired him and we want you know to make sure that every student does feel safe does feel respected does feel like they have a place um and so I'm moving now to um I want to thank um Dana beltrum for her service to the board for working with us and um you know there were times where sometimes maybe we didn't agree on certain things but you know we're always civilized cordial um you know uh I'm you know I'm as Dr arbitozi said I mean you know hopefully it it doesn't end here you know that you know you never know paths will cross and come back and you know what I mean
149um and for uh Joe Canova I mean I don't know if you'll be here like the next one so okay um so Mr Daley I mean you've been the longest um you've been here you know when I obviously came on the board um and I just you know think about all the people that you know we have seen come and go and um it's sad for me to see you go it really is just because you know my whole entire time here I mean you know I've I've sat pretty close to you all the time you know almost like you know hand in hand and um you know I know that you know this isn't you know something that you know you'll be back you'll you know you um you'll be doing something I know
150um because you're always active you're always involved um I really appreciate you know like what Danny said you know Dr robertosie about all the the advice the help that you've always you know contributed and everything it's it's um just really really sad and just to see you go because we've been on this board for so long together um just the last thing I'm done almost um and so I'd like to say happy holidays to all those celebrating um Hanukkah uh Merry Christmas to those celebrating Christmas and Kwanzaa and um just you know all around happy holidays and that's it thank you thank you Mr Paris thank you Mr Smith um you just want wanted to congratulate again the pbsis team and and our staff and teachers for being really setting a benchmark a national Benchmark
151for how this type of program should run um I think that's fantastic and a tribute to everyone in our in our school system uh and to miss tremble and her efforts with schools and students to uh Help the Hungry and the homeless and the warming Center uh fantastic job and again it amazes me how how generous and how compassionate our student body is to Dana Jim and Joe I've only got to be with you for my first year here but it I appreciate it very much working with with all of you I hope we see you again I hope we see you up here in the days again someday even thank you Mr Daly for being my mentor and helping me get started um and thank you Dana for for all your strong support of
152our students in Clifton um thank you to all the individuals that spoke today to the LGBT community um clearly I I'm one voice on this board um I know the board I'm not gonna I can't speak for the board as a whole but I know we want safe environments for our students we want our students to feel welcome and and not just the lbtq community but but everyone um silence is not acceptance of someone's opinion on that podium and maybe maybe I have a misdirected response sometimes on this but sometimes I feel that responding gives oxygen to points of view sometimes that um shouldn't shouldn't get the shouldn't get that opportunity this podium fortunately or unfortunately is is an open probably the last open Free Speech place in in this country We Can't Stop peoples
153from their points of view We Can't Stop people from speaking um doesn't mean we agree with everything we hear and certainly not not me um we'll continue to look after what's best for our students in this District that's where our focus should be that's where our time should be spent um and the precious time that we do have together to get things done and I don't think I could have said it better than Dr robertosie tonight uh to everyone during this season of of love and joy uh Merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah and here's to a more UniFi more unified and and uh respectful year forward thank you Mr Rob Java I think president Smith um not here but uh Dr robertols if you can make sure the Key Club uh flows out the workshops
154to the board so we can see that uh congrats to all students of the month thank you to always to miss ragoza for your every board meeting uh three minutes in the beer always here regardless through all the way through and I appreciate you always being here um and giving us our presentations to miss tremble and the district on doing great things in partnership with the city of Clifton and the health department Cole blue is a tremendous thing I'm glad it was cold earlier today at 4 pm because it was to be cold weather and um our community definitely does need and it's there to Jose and the Key Club team congratulations uh Dr robertozi can we get an update on our Paras from you know what we discussed from last meeting if there's anything
155new to it and also Dr robertozzi um I think I was going back to my notes there was a resolution urging the state to continue free free lunch roll did we ever send that resolution we did okay can we next time when we send the resolution just let the board know it's been sent because I didn't know all right um and can we talk about the whole lopesty with the basketball team and executive session please I'd like to know what's behind that no oh no it wasn't rice no sorry can we have that for next meeting is he still an employee We're Not Gonna discuss it I can update the board on the issue um without violating anybody's rights that's right I forgot he wasn't interested necessary if if anybody needs to be Bryce we'll
156do that next meeting okay good thank you uh to miss Beltran is Mr Daley on your service um thank you for everything you've done for this District whether it's three years or 13 years um volunteering on a board takes a lot of time and I I personally appreciate the service and good luck on all future endeavors um whether it's down the shore or whether it's hanging out with your doggie um sorry names blanking out Gustavo there you go uh policy meeting is on December 12th at 3 P.M uh if anybody has any questions the agenda hopefully will be sent out by Dr by Mr Ross um happy holidays Merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy Kwanzaa happy rest of the festivals for the rest of us and uh Happy New Year um with the short few minutes
157I have it's from Seinfeld our country is changing the hate is not going away while it should it's not I've said this in my past meetings there's fear fear doesn't go away so easily it doesn't even go away gradually you can come up here and you can say what you want one two meetings okay but when you Hammer home every single time with the same repetitive and you bring up a community that is called hate when you want to talk about a curriculum and we tell you can I have another minute or two thank you and we tell you it's not here your fight is down at the state and you continue to come here and Hammer a community over and over and over and over and they're not even here they were here to
158say a few words and they do us every single meeting and they run away they don't want to hear us say anything to them and we have some of us continue to say stuff and again somehow some of us have some of us have not but I'm not worried about the rest I'm worried about what I feel and I'm worried about what I think and as a board member and as a resident as a human being I think that we should love each other no matter what who or what whether I agree with you or I disagree with you I'm going to respect you a student said it best respct and if we can't have that my father always taught me if you have nothing good to say keep your mouth shut simple as that
159thank you Mr Awad thank you president Smith I just want to make one comment and one comment only uh obviously with the public comments um honestly at moments with certain speakers you know the typical speakers that usually come every meeting were really cringy and really hateful uh for me personally I think we're all human we all have emotions some are right and some are wrong but I feel like some individuals just I know one of the public members mentioned that you know certain board members or majority of the board members stay quiet is you can speak up once or twice but sometimes you're adding fuel to the fire and you're going to try to convince an individual to or a group that cannot be convinced it's just they're driven by hate fear and basis and
160honestly just no educational aspect to it I have beautiful neighbors that are from the lgbtq community and they know I'm a Muslim and they know our beliefs and you know my backgrounds where I come from but nobody judges the other person we help each other we love each other we celebrate holidays together it shows unity and I was looking over to you know where the public is sitting two individuals from two different sides that have mutual disagreement came up and spoke and I saw them also interacting with each other once they finished smoking and I saw that for a moment of it was a glimpse of Hope for me because I saw that you know even though we may have disagreements if we really speak from the heart and speak our minds and really respect
161each other that's all that really matters is respect because at the end of the day I can't force my beliefs on you you can't force your beliefs on me but at the end our children are watching us and if the adults are acting idiotic and disrespectful and hatred obviously you know my mom always says children are like clay you can mold them to what you want them to be and a child doesn't pick up racism or homophobia or any of that on their own it's taught it's taught from hatred and honestly it's embarrassing as an adult to see adults acting like this than when a child goes and does it the child gets reprimanded in the schools and is labeled as someone of hateful but they don't stop and say where did he learn it
162from oh he learned from another student but whether that student learned it from it's going to eventually trickle back to the parents the community or the environment that they're in we all may be different but at the end of the day we say one Clifton but are we truly United if everybody just you know like Mr Robert said yeah another thing nice to say just don't say it but when you continuously come week to week basis and one of these one of these speakers literally called us a bunch of Nazis and he comes back hammering about lgbtq and people's sexuality at the end of the day who one person loves or who one person wants to have relationship with it's none of our business it's their private life what you do on your own time
163and what I do on my own time that's no one's business everybody deserves to be happy and if you're trying to forbid someone from being happy then you really need to look at yourself in the mirror because there's something wrong with you I love everybody I respect everybody and I just really wish December is usually a happy time of year I wish everybody a Merry Christmas Kwanzaa Hanukkah and honestly today kind of ruined the holiday joy that I thought everybody would be feeling they came in with fire but hopefully Santa Claus gives them a little lump of coal or something and you guys have a good night Miss basford uh good evening um two things uh the discussion on the uh I had on my list about the basketball coach and also um an update
164on the powers I'd like to thank the school nine Community for giving us this lovely uh holiday card uh you always send something nice every year so I'm I'm thankful for that I get to put that on my in my card display thank you thank you to all the speakers that came out tonight um good job to the pbsis community and Mr goza for going global that you know you put Clifton on the global map thank you very much for that uh to miss miss tremble Jessica tremble thank you for your and your staff for doing what you did with the students to raise all that money um so this kid I haven't seen her since now babe days when we used to be in the first grade classrooms teaching everybody about the basic awareness
165beginning education series um and uh we go way back a long time and and for Jen to come here on an off night with all the hours she puts in that's that's a big deal because she was very grateful because I could see it in her the way she spoke and and her from her heart and how grateful she was for that money so thank you to the Clifton public school district for doing that um I'd like an update on the power professionals Miss felda um excellent point um to keep quiet is not the right thing you're 100 correct on that and I've been guilty of that and I apologize to you and the rest of the community for keeping my mouth shut I have kept my mouth shut for a long time about a
166lot of things up here I promise you in January that's not going to be the case okay because I've learned a lot of things I've learned a lot of things about hypocrisy I've learned a lot about people tell you one thing and they act another and they don't look at themselves in the mirror when they say bad things or they label you I've been labeled I've been a victim of being labeled I wish I had the power that that label gave me because everybody that spoke ill of me or did something would be toads right now okay so let's get on with uh what I wanted to say and because I had to say that a couple good quotes tonight silence is not an option 100 uh you don't label people but in this world
167unfortunately people do keep the conversation respectful all students should be accepted um I am not a perfect person I don't tend to be one I don't play one on TV but every day I'm learning something new and I'm learning how to be a better Ally thanks to my daughter Samantha you knock my socks off every time you get up at that Podium I can't believe that you're mine I'm just so proud of you I'm proud of you for what you did in the last couple of months I didn't say anything and I speak for myself I don't I don't speak for this but thank you Samantha you're a voice of a of a community that needs to be heard so thank you for what you do okay so um equality is something that should never
168be just excuse me equality is something that should never have to be voted on that was already decided when the Declaration of Independence when Thomas Jefferson wrote we hold these truth to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are in uh I yield that they are endowed by their creative with certain inalienable rights that amongst them these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness equal means equal people period it doesn't mean equal except gay it means equal thank you for coming out and speaking I am tired of it too I've been labeled a groomer and all kinds of stuff I've been harassed at church it's got to stop and it stops here thank you Dr robitussi for saying those words I agree with you 100 and for the other community keep
169on coming out to counteract it Dana belchon thank you for your service to this District I want to thank you for including me on information that never got disseminated to me you always made me feel that I was that my membership on this Deus was important so I thank you for that I'm gonna miss your financial Wizardry you you I would have a question about something financial and you would take it down to a level that I could understand because that's not my forte and you would explain it to me and take the time to really give me the information that I needed to make a proper decision on this board and I respect that you know we uh we laughed a lot we cried a lot and we had a lot of fun in
170the last couple of months and I'm gonna miss you but I know that this is only round one I know you're going to be back so this is only say to see you again soon and uh good luck in what you do in the next couple months but I know you'll be back sitting on this day is Monday I know I just have a feeling maybe that's caught part of the you know special powers that I do observe and I'm confident that this is just a brief average Mr Daley to the gentleman on the board I want to take the time to truly thank you for your for your 14 years of service to this District we didn't agree all the time we would fight we would debate we would roll up our sleeves and
171yell but when we walked out of this building we respected each other and I want to thank you for that respect you you you your shoes are going to be very hard to fill and I will miss you because you you did bring a voice of reason to this board so thank you Jim for the long term that you gave to this uh people this District you can put in more than your share of ours so thank you and go Jets okay merry Christmas happy Hanukkah um and Happy Kwanzaa whatever you celebrate thank you good night okay John I'm gonna go over my time a little bit but too bad I promise first I'd like to say happy birthday to Jim Daley usually I'm like not the happy birthday Wisher but I no one else
172did it and I was like oh it was there was oh you skipped it canceled but uh unfortunately you did have a birthday um so happy birthday I'd like to say thank you to all the speakers tonight um I love to see this room full I know I say it all the time but it affects me a little bit differently being Cuban American coming out and speaking like this on either side is something that would be punishable by imprisonment and you know depending on what you said that was so bad even death and you know being able to come out here and you know express your opinion is something that I always treasure and especially for the young people that came out tonight and spoke about something they feel so uh passionate about is that's
173just something that's always bring a smile to my face because if you're getting involved this young you're going to be set up for a lifelong uh dedication to the public world so I know it's cliche to say but one of my best friends is gay um and we were fooling around planning a fake destination wedding for him and has yet to appear partner and we discovered that sandals one of the biggest Resort brands in the world does not allow same-sex weddings to take places Resorts this is a brand that advertises on every channel I'm pretty sure everyone has seen the couple walking down the beach you know 65 percent off special that they have running almost constantly and the fact that they have that type of brand power and at the same time don't allow
174lgbtqa plus couples to host their weddings there at any of the resorts is quite shocking so it's just another way to prove that we've come a long way but there's a long way to go so that's why these discussions are so crucial in terms of the pairs I'm leaving so my opinions won't enact too much change but now that me and Jim the other budget Hawk are leaving maybe for the next budget we can figure out some money to reopen negotiations with the Paris if the teachers are willing to formally agree to leave their side of the contract alone I know it's going to be making that'll be a huge deal to make but I do think that we have to do something and we're going to wind up with only contract workers so now
175for the farewell speech I promise I will keep it short um these last almost four years have been some of the most challenging but also rewarding times of my life I've met some great people because of this position Joe Judy Jim Daly um Danny Dr robertosie and Money Mike uh the time I spent with you these last four years have been truly great president Smith and former president Dr Danny we first we for sure did not always see eye to eye but we were always able to work through our disagreements cordially and move the district for these last almost four years in addition to this because of this position I've also become an honorary member of the basford family a great Clifton family would have not have met if not elected and I feel extremely
176fortunate to have them in my life as a board we navigated some of the darkest days this district will hopefully ever see with the covet Health crisis however it wasn't all doom and gloom we accomplished a lot of great things like the referendum passing going one-to-one with the Chromebooks being involved in all the contract negotiations except for the ones that occurred this year and having them all go through without arbitration and my all-time favorite accomplishment the call-in option for the meetings which I plan on using to ensure it doesn't die when I leave even though I'm sure Jim has it written down as the first thing he's going to do I didn't always agree with all the choices we made as a board but I always voted my conscious and I will leave here knowing
177I made it through these four years the same person I entered as there were for some there were for sure Temptations at times to get down in the mud with other members and to participate in group think but I was able to stay the course and maintain my convictions and that is something I am proud of I leave here knowing that I left at a better place although this last year I did not have the opportunities to serve on as many committees as I have in the past I still made it a point to be involved in decision making going on this District this district is on a great path and I leave here with confidence that the members I'm leaving behind and the new joining will continue this push forward and take it places
178I never thought possible I thank the Clifton voters for affording me this opportunity it has been an honor I will carry with me for the rest of my life being the youngest female ever elected in Clifton in the first Cuban American ever elected in Passaic County is something myself and my family are incredibly proud of and something I will be telling my future grandchildren about and I have to thank you for that this isn't a final goodbye as Arnold says I'll be back I'll be continuing to participate in the town and hey maybe this would just be an extended vacation you'll see me on about again someday soon time will tell I'd also like to thank my father and my business partner Felix who has put up with me leaving work early and countless midday
179meetings these last four years without him stepping up I would not have been able to hold this position and it's a little bit of family rivalry because he lost his Board of Education Election when he was about my age so I have one up on him that I actually won mine in conclusion I like to thank Clifton again I wish every Clifton citizen a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year and every other holiday that you choose to celebrate um even the Clifton citizens that didn't vote for me for Council thank you and that's all I have [Applause] vice president Daly thank you Mr President and I am going to take some Liberties I think after 14 years I get a little leeway so but I won't try to abuse it first a
180couple of housekeeping things uh about tonight's meeting first of all I'd like to um uh welcome and uh thank them for running Mr brunziac Ms Mejia Mr Santiago we wish you all the best if you ever need some uh guidance or want to want to hear what I have to say I'm always available and I do that for everybody on the board I'm always willing to share uh information and and things that are that I think will help the community and next that Mr Goslin is uh and and Jessica thank you for your presentation they're always great uh and I'll make sure I tune in see more PBIS the presentations as you go forward um also on the Staffing issue board members one of the speakers tonight invited us to go to the classroom we
181we cannot do that and even if the superintendent he really can't give permission the reason for that ethically you don't want board members to go in and critique teachers that's that's the wrong way to go okay this gentleman his staff is the one that does that we don't do that so we should not even be close to that if we go into a building we have to ask his permission but to go into a classroom I was invited to go to classrooms too uh way back when I started and I you know respectfully declined it wasn't of course I wasn't interest but that that line between uh what a board members for Duties are on is real strong and a board member has no place being in the classroom while there's instruction going on uh
182not that there were not empathetic to the queer and we're very aware of the powers and what they do and what our teachers do and and the staff as a whole they're all terrific it's not that that's not the issue we understand that now what we could do about that um and I think Dana alluded to it is I don't think it's a money issue and we have to go through other procedures we have to jointly engage with the cea to do that I don't see it as a money issue but it is a contractual issue that needs to be addressed and hopefully the board and the cea can can work that out and move that forward it's not again it's not a case of we need to allocate more money I think we could
183work within the budget to provide the funds we need to adjust those uh those pay scales um let me talk a little bit about uh when you sit here as the board member um I'm very conscientious of where borders are I've served the many government roles as a board member we're here to look out and we say this in our openings statements in the meeting it's what's what what we do about that affects the Board of Education and I think Dr robitosi said it very eloquently if there's any issue with bullying or bullying or any form of discrimination whatsoever I think the staff and the administration do a terrific job at making sure that's taking it and like we've said many many many many times it's about keeping our students safe and comfortable in their
184environment in the teaching environment that's what our responsibility here is through the superintendent to make sure that happens if I ever heard of anything or somebody relayed some information to the contrary he'd be he'd get a call in a minute so and he and I know Dr robitussi would be on it in a second so that is our main responsibility for me personally um I'm not too much uh for expounding what I believe I believe the way I act personally and with others is the example I try to uh pass on to whoever I'm with and I will continue to that um uh we are particularly it's all about respect acceptance and tolerance and um I do that every day of the week I work in a very diverse atmosphere and um it's it's part
185of the reason why I still go to at least one of my jobs it's uh it's something I enjoy and it it's every individual has to practice that uh I can't convert anybody who doesn't do that but I try to do by my personal example to promote those virtues finally on the housekeeping I wish everybody a happy holiday Merry Christmas Hanukkah Kwanzaa and a great New Year and I wish you all the best throughout the the next year and thank you for that now now comes the tolerance part um when you've been elected an official for the Clifton Board of Education for nearly 14 years there are numerous issues and events you can can go to and reflect upon although my term officially ends December 31st this will be my last public meeting that I'll
186be attending closing out my tenure here I will miss participating in discussing topics that are directly related to the process and quality of the education that we're able to provide our students here in Clifton issues of finite Financial limitations and opportunities and their impact on the local taxpayer payer is a delicate balance that is Paramount to meeting our educational objectives and maintaining public trust in this institution and supporting the decisions we make a long-term vision is a key component of any institution without one there is no yardstick to measure your short-term decisions with we have faced many challenges and opportunities during my tenure here in the future there will be more challenges there will be challenges that vary a magnitude as there are in our own personal lives as in life we must expect these
187challenges will come to pass even though we may not know the specific nature of those challenges at this time One Challenge looming for sure is that the boards in the near future is fiscal we have been fortunate that this district has been benefited with large increases in state aid with with these large increases in state aid funding has allowed us to do is keep taxes stable increase our operating budget once these increases in state aid funding have plateaued decisions will have to be made how to stabilize Rising costs or proposed tax increases that exceed two percent which will require voter approval these decisions will be difficult and painful turning from the future we look back to the past with a great deal of Pride the board and the administration as a whole has accomplished many
188Milestones tax stability best improvements and investing in facilities that benefit our students lessons the burden on our operating budget and to maintain those facilities raises the image of the Clifton putbook system in the eyes of our students our staff and the people who visit us on the top of this list that we now have the best superintendent in the state of New Jersey is Dr Robert things that we have yet to accomplish and can and control things we have yet to accomplish is controlling the cost to the district of pcti and charter school education I would also like to have seen a development of a strong Medical Arts Academy and curriculum whereby students will be prepared to move directly into the medical field as a technician or somewhat profession or upon graduation entering a higher
189education path that would lead to acquiring a position requiring a license or certification as a doctor nurse or similar position in the medical field demand for these positions in the medical field are in high demand throughout the entire medical profession I would also like to give a big shout out to our staff the executive staff administrative staff teachers Powers bus drivers custodians maintenance staff secretary nurses and aides thank you so much for what you contribute to the education of our students and the image of our district both locally and throughout the state the level of our commitment to the district is reflective on you as a person and on the district as a whole one thing will never fade from my experiences here are the faces of the students and and as they graduate receive
190Awards and are recognized for their personal accomplished accomplishments they are extended family to us here to all of the uh to all of you at the Board of Education you may not know you all personally since that is a lot of uh a lot of being a commissioner nonetheless I fully understand each of your roles the dedication you put into your positions and the pride you carry with you as you go about practicing your profession I also like to recognize the voters thanking them for putting trust and support in me for the last 14 years and also to my wife Kathy my children Jim and Adriana thank you for your love and support throughout my tenure here I will conclude with this those who know me well know that I am not one for long
191speeches and diatrops except for tonight I often reflect on the ceremony dedicating to Gettysburg National Cemetery site one of the costliest battles in the American history keynote speaker was Edward Everett his speech went on for two hours and it contained 13 607 words he was followed by President Lincoln who spoke for two minutes that contained 272 words Lincoln's words were possibly the most impactful that were ever given in this country the address is inscribed in stone in the Lincoln Memorial on the wall to the left as you face the statute to read that address in this setting is emotional to say the least not to feel that emotion in that setting is not to have an appreciation for our country and common Humanity throughout my adult life I believe that we all are personally responsible
192for giving back in our personal resources without looking for recognition self-benefit or advancement nothing sums that up more clearly or succinctly than which is well in a statement that was often repeated but nevertheless pointed the words of President Kennedy it's not what you can do for your country that's what we ask not what the country could do for you but what you can do for your country we all need to be a hell of a lot more selfless in how we conduct our lives and how we treat each other I will also treasure the time here on the Clifton Board of Education and what we've accomplished here together God bless you all [Applause] so uh just quickly I'm going to try and do running quickly here um Mr fragosa Miss tremble your uh your input
193to this district is uh so commendable uh just on all the work that you do in Jess is always the one that Dr robitosi likes to call on to do some special projects and uh you never fail they just come out great so thank both of you and um to Mr Rose you know I I don't know how you drew the Lucky Draw here but um you hear every board meeting you you stay um as long as it takes um you you handle the call-ins and as best that you can and um we truly appreciate the time and the effort that you put into that like I said I don't know how you got the Lucky Draw but uh we thank you that you're uh you're doing that um Mr llama I I I'm sure
194you join with me on how um how proud I was of your staff here that came out tonight um they thought it was something important enough to come out they spoke their minds and I commend them for that they could have been at home doing many other things but it was important to them to uh to come out and um I hope I hope that we can you know as a board member I as a board member at least you know you don't want people to be unhappy and we all face reality a little bit that you know we're not you're not in education to maybe millionaires um right Miss White they're back there yes um you know people that are in education devote a lot of their time and energy because they care about
195kids and it's not a profession you get into if you want to make tons of money um but in saying that we also want to be fair and make sure that people um can take care of their families could put food on the table you know and appreciate the work that people do um so again as this board member I never want an employee to ever feel that we do not appreciate them um you know I wish I wish that we could give tons of money out to our our employees we try to do what's best uh but sometimes it's it's not right sometimes we fail um and um I think and I hope that this board and I know this board and I know the members of this board um when we see people
196hurting um we we don't want to see that so I'm hoping that we can re-look at some stuff with the Paris because in no way do we want them to be unhappy and in no way do I want Mrs White coming to every meeting when she can be at home and and be with her husband and whatever but my point being I think if we work together we we could sure find um the best possible out look for uh for all of us and I know this board member is willing to to work at that and to do that um so I I hope in the new year that that will uh that will happen um oops um Keith bassford nothing keeps you down Keith you know you you break a hip and you still
197hear at a board meeting you know can't keep you down Keith I'm I'm we're very concerned about you and uh my prayers were with you and I'm glad that you're you're up and around and and uh and that you're here so and Samantha for taking care of your dad that's uh thank you and that's why I think God saved me so you can just come around right yeah okay you don't want me to miss out okay well so take it slow and continue to to get better okay you know yeah thank you yep yep but you're you're you were in our thoughts in prayer so um uh just to let everyone know um the next time we'll be meeting um Dean and Jim will be could be here if they wish but um there'll be
198three new seat people uh that will be installed that evening and we we welcome Tony uh Mark and Richie um so our next meeting is going to be December the 5th with the which is our reorganizational meeting what'd I say the month after December January 5th um and it says different time it's at 6 pm okay 6 p.m we'll be here and we will um we will have three new bodies that we'll be uh sitting up here on the days um I don't know about all of you but I was so proud of our students tonight to to have a bat you know whatever whatever their issue is but to have students to take they just came back from a basketball game the last thing I think they wanted to do was come down to
199a Board of Education meeting but they thought it was important enough and they were unified they spoke well they were not attacking they were not rude they were polite and gosh you know I credit their parents I credit their teachers their administrators you know we're doing something right and they're the proof of it um so I I was so proud of them uh Tiffany is always with with her reports and Elias I mean you know he always surprises me but I didn't even know he would know who Aretha Franklin was no less uh comment about her but uh you know I I just was very proud of our students tonight as I always am but uh it was clearly evident tonight um to our lgbtq community um I think you saw the support that you
200have from from the public and I know this board member supports you uh tremendously um I don't know how to say it um and I think a lot of you have said it um so one of the toughest things of being a board member is that you're up here and you have to listen to people come up to the microphone and and speak and grad you know normally you love hearing that but when you hear the same thing week after week like like something's going to change like you know it it gets very frustrating and and I think our attorney will tell us we have to be very careful on stifling people from speaking and then even giving our opinion could be taken as we're stifling them or we're taking sides or and you got
201to be very careful as a board member not to do that because we represent many so just because we don't make a comment that we are against something you know I think um I think you know Tova I think you know a lot of us and our personalities and our beliefs and I I think you know where we stand uh on things uh so we just have to be very careful on on doing that and that is something that is put upon elected officials um the public doesn't have to uh by law abide by certain ethics and guidelines but as elected officials we do so we have to be very careful on on doing so um I think Dr robitosi said it the best tonight I have no problem hearing people come up and talk
202about education I have no problem giving my opinion on educational type things that's what we were elected to do and I don't know why the Board of Education maybe it's because we have a nice room now and everything that people like to come here and and talk about anything you know I I never saw these people I shouldn't say never but Council meetings that I've watched I've never seen them go to the council meetings I've never seen them go to Freeholder meetings I've never seen them down at State not that I've been to a lot of State meetings but the point being is why do they like to come to education a Board of Education meeting where we're talking about education and bring up the same old items um why we have to listen to
203it yes but I hope we can move on from it um Mr Dubois speaks about uh you know these these open meetings um the Board of Ed members here we we attend so many meetings as it is and that's what the public elects us to do we are your representatives okay so that you don't have to come to every meeting and you're not not board meeting but committee meeting and every topic if you held a general meeting on every topic in the district you know we'd never be home that's what you elect us to do yes are there times that Dr robitosi calls a group meeting together we did that with our strategic planning we do it with the hsas we do it with diversity you know there are times that you did it with
204the calendar so there are times that you do that but in general terms if you want to have meetings all the time please Run for the board because we have lots of meetings okay but we get a lot of things done so if that's what you're looking for an open dialogue um and and for some reason you're looking for the board to be the facilitator of it if you want an open dialogue with other parents call them talk to them email them blah blah there's so many other ways of doing that but why you're asking the board to be the facilitator of it um that's just not what we're here for um we're elected to do a job we try to do that the best that we can and represent the people if we had
205to ask the entire city of Clifton to be part of our every meeting that we have we wouldn't get anything accomplished so um I think I had 24 speakers tonight um you know it was an important enough subject tonight um to to talk about but the board has has things that we have to get done we have to accomplish and we have two board members that are leaving tonight we want to have time to to honor them um so I just hope that anyone that comes to the microphone to speak about education um I'll leave it at that um we've all been sent the K-12 Winter concert performances um so I presume that's posted on our website too yes so if you are interested in seeing any of the Winter concert performances uh please go
206to our website you'll see um see all them I have to credit um Mr Paris and and his wife and the entire Mr Morgan and the entire Clifton community band I attended their concert on on Saturday and uh you know I shouldn't be surprised because they're all former um band members but it was absolutely enjoy so enjoyable and what touched me the most was that there were current band members there with you guys and that that really was something that that they uh didn't mind on a Saturday afternoon to come with you older folks and uh and be part of the Clifton community band so uh Mr Morgan and you're and the entire and your wife did a wonderful job in and the um the narrating and the uh making things run smoothly and I
207I was just very impressed by it all so I hope if you didn't get an opportunity to see it this year you come out next year um but there were a lot of good things happening um on that note I like to wish uh everyone um whatever holiday that you celebrate um or maybe you don't celebrate anything at this time um whatever it might be spend with your family and friends enjoy the holidays your Merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy Kwanzaa and as Mr Awad said just you know be happy and peaceful and respect one another and that's what the holidays are all about so I wish that to to all of you and last but not least I uh to miss Beltran and Mr Daley it truly was a great opportunity to work with both
208of you Jim and I have known each other our whole lives we grew up and lived two houses away from each other so we have a history of ourselves and Miss Beltran I have to thank Miss Beltran the the first night that I got appointed to this board we were in executive session for hours talking about a subject that you brought to the board on a financial issue and uh that's all I can really say right um so um your your business expertise and your uh Insight um so this board was uh was greatly uh greatly appreciated and uh I know you're you're going to be dedicated to whatever you do so I know you're not gonna be far away and if you are far away you might uh we might be seeing you as
209a mayor in another town or something like that so um I thank you for the opportunity to work with you as you said we didn't always agree on everything but we were able to come back to the table and move on um Mr Daly you know not only the the three years of of being back on the board and working with you um but this past year as my vice president um you were always there uh to support me to give you your your advice uh your input and um I I couldn't have asked for for anyone better just of your expertise and your years of experience um you know that's truly going to be missed on this board but in in doing that I don't know I may become one of the older members
210on the board since you're leaving um but I thank you for um I thank you for all that you have done for Clifton kids um Jim was it Jim was a tough one with your money so everyone better know that Jim was very frugal with the money and and you need that you need that's what the expertise of of each board member that brings to it Miss Beltran also heard with her financials and facility work with Mr Awad and and that's what makes us all um so unique on this board and what we can bring to it so um I I truly do wish you both the very best and um if we can at this time I would entertain uh so we'll do yeah where is it yeah so we'll do uh ea1 um
211oh that's me um resolve that the Board of Education recognizes James Daly and expresses its gratitude for his dedication and service to the community and the students of Clifton serving as a board member for 13 years including service on on the attorney education special education facilities Finance Health Care legislative Municipal Alliance negotiations Personnel policy residency security technology and um yeah everything else um now there were further resolve that um we make an official note of this resolution and um so that's my motions or a second moved I moved it you second any discussion don't vote no on this please oh come on I was gonna say it roll call please Mr abadravo pass Mr Awad of course Miss basford yes absolutely it's Beltran yes Dr Danny yes Mr Powers absolutely vice president Daley president Smith
212yes motion carries and uh uh on behalf of the board I would like to present you with this uh it says presented to James Daly in appreciation for your years of service to the children of Clifton for your leadership oh I'm just not going to say everything over again free leadership dedication and commitment and Excellence as president of the board vice president of the board um member from 2009 to 2022 the Clifton school school district applaud you for your unselfish devotion and loyalty the Clifton Board of Education December 2022. Jim congratulations foreign [Applause] but I very very very much appreciate it and uh I served 20 years on the planning board in town and one thing that was different from this plaque is they spelled my name wrong on the other one five letters but
213they might usually do this so maybe if uh Judy you do Dana and then we could all be out there for group pictures motion by Miss basford second second by Mr rawad okay EA 12 8 22 recognition of Dana Beltran resolved that the Board of Education recognizes Dana Beltran and expresses its gratitude for her dedication and service to the community and students of Clifton serving as a board member for four years including service on the diversity facility Finance Personnel residency security technology Transportation Food Service committees as well as a delegate for the county and then alternate for the state this plaque is awarded presented to Dana Beltran in appreciation for you years of service to the children of Clifton for your leadership dedication and commitment to Excellence as a Clifton Board of Education member from
2142019 through 2020 the Clifton School District applaud you for your unselfish devotion and loyalty sincerely the Clifton Board of Education December 2022. congratulations thank you we all come out here and we can make the presentations and get a picture come on guys any any objection no no okay Jim I'll give you did you bring it it's over there we'll get a picture of me giving it to you and then we'll do it again foreign all right now everybody you guys in the middle yeah um make sure it looks good Sam give us directions everyone out here in your life all right thank you well you're right that's right that's right could I have one of those last pictures yeah absolutely all right let's uh let's continue here it's always 10 30 oh my gosh now
215we have to move to uh so we have um is there any actually no there is an action it's gonna be a walk-on bike if the board approves uh any new business from the board see no new business we have a brief uh executive session uh we have a Personnel matter and we have a contract matter uh action will be taken and I'm gonna say uh 30 minutes tops it's never 10 and I'm not coming out so if we come out earlier great motion to go into executive sessions Mr Roberts taken by Mr rawad any objection so moved uh when we owned our business we had one guy he would hold us to the stone yeah no we're ready but he was our lead that's what I mean all right here we go the um
216oh we need a motion to return second roll call please I'm sorry I'm just taking the time Mr Jabo Mr Awad Miss basford yep Miss Beltran here Dr Danny Mr Paris here vice president Daly here president Smith here we have a quorum uh the Boardman executive session to discuss a Personnel matter in a contract matter I have a resolution the board hereby resolves to approve a settlement agreement regarding employee number 2022-37 subject to minor revisions with the superintendent's approval so moved by Mr Robert will Say Goodbye Mr Awad discussion roll call please yes Miss Beltran yes Dr Danny yes Mr Paris yes vice president Daley and president Smith yes motion carries okay motion to adjourn okay first by Mr Roberto second by Mr Paris any objection meaning adjourned it's a wrap