July 8, 2021 - Clifton Board of Education Meeting

001like to call the regularly scheduled board of education meeting of july the 8th 2021 in order if you all would please rise for the pledge of allegiance followed by a brief moment of silence with liberty and justice mr russi roll call mr abba drabo here mr awad here miss basford here mrs beltran here mr canova mr daley here miss danny here mr casper here mr smith here mr casper can you read the mission statement please the mission of the clifton school district in an open and reciprocal community partnership is to provide all students with a quality education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a democratic society in an ever-changing world the open public meetings act the new jersey open public meetings law was

002enacted to ensure the right to the public to advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests 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 and local press on the district's website mailed to presidents of parent teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policy zero one six eight okay we have a uh first thing will be doing is the nomination uh uh and elections of the vice president of the board of education nominations are now open so we

003have a nomination and a second and i just have on one clarification for the board before we do the nominations if possible um through you to the board attorney um can we just clarify whether or not because i want to make sure we're not going to from our email earlier today so make sure we're not going to tread into waters that's going to be a little bit muddied if the board president is running the campaign of a fellow board member they are still allowed to vote for let's say fellow board member to be vice president of the board of education if they're running their campaign please there's no i don't know if this is on or not okay i'm holding it there's no conflict of interest for any board member to vote for any other

004board member for the position of president or vice president if either one of them is a campaign manager for the other because there's no additional interest that they're getting they're not getting anything above and beyond what they normally would get as a board member in fact individual board members can vote for themselves as president or vice president and that in itself is granting a benefit you know as as you vote you're voting for yourself so there's no conflict that i can see in the school ethics act for a board member for mr smith if he were to vote for mr casper or for anybody else or vice versa thank you i just want to clarify for the public you're welcome okay nominations are now open for the office of vice president of the board of

005education mr smith mr daley yes i nominate frank casper for the uh position of vice president of the clifton board of education for the remainder of the year motion for frank casper mr smith ii second by mr awad any other nominations from the floor nomination for miss beltran for vice president any other nominations from the floor seeing none nominations are now closed okay each board member has a ballot uh piece of paper provided to them from the business administrator if you'd kindly put the name of uh i'm sorry oh yeah sorry put the name of the person that you're voting for plus your name in the bottom corner and then mr oosie will collect those ballots okay all ballots are in everyone wishing to vote okay voting is now closed all right mr lucy if

006you would read the results please of course mr president um these are in no particular order you saw me grab them um mr smith votes for mr casper mr abhijab over to mr casper for uh mr awad voter mr casper mr beltran votes for herself mr mr canova votes for miss beltran miss bat miss vassard votes for miss beltran mr casper votes for himself miss danny votes for mr casper and mr daley well true mr casper so six to three mr casper has the majority to be elected vice president of the board congratulations mr casper okay we're going to have the adoption of the minutes of june the 10th 2021 regular meeting so moved so moved by mr casper second by miss danny discussion roll call mr abhijava yes mr awad yes i'm having a

007hard time hearing over here is this just for regular minutes or is it for special uh for the executive session the regular 10th meeting i'm sorry the june 10th meeting is it for both sessions or for one i believe both okay yeah yes it's it's like echoes over here it's hard to hear miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes miss danny yes mr casper yes mr smith yes next is the adoption of the minutes of the june 28 2021 special board of education meeting so moved so moved by mr casper second by miss dan discussion mr smith yes miss basketball i want to object to these minutes because um everything that i've gotten from the district i've asked for it said that we were speaking about a student matter there is a second

008item on here that had nothing to do with the student matter as far as i'm concerned and my legal counsel is concerned this should be taken off or or the objection that i made in executive session three times to it being discussed should be noted here in the in the minutes i was very very very very very strong about my objection and i would like that noted in the minutes it was not fair that this was discussed it was a half hour character assassination of myself and if it's going to be in the minutes i want it noted that i was an objection to it and even counsel i want everybody in the room to discuss it as well i'd like it noted in the minutes thank you okay the motion and second order have

009any objection to making that a amendment to the uh minutes i have no problem no problem okay mr make those uh amendments roll call please mr abby drabo yes mr awad yes mrs bassford yes and i would request a copy be emailed to me tomorrow morning right away thank you miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes mr yes mr casper yes mr smith yes okay the board will now be meeting in executive session the board will be discussing uh contract matter um personnel matter and the student matter okay action may be taken approximate time about an hour let's hope all right do i have a motion per executive session so move second all right mr daily second by mr casper vice president casper roll call please mr abedrabo yes mr awad yes miss

010bassford yes miss beltran yes mr canova mr daley mr daley bailey yes miss danny yes mr casper yes mr smith yes do we need our chromebooks does it have air conditioning okay the board met an executive session revealing from executive session roll call please mr abby drabo mr here miss passport here miss beltran here mr canova mr daley here miss danny here mr casper here mr smith here okay at this time i'd like to make a statement from the board a board of education does not have the power to censor reprimand or remove a board of education member only the school ethics commission has the power to do that that is established in case law castriata versus roxbury board of education number 185-11 schools ethic commission and commissioner of education decision additionally under the new

011jersey administrative code regarding the file of ethics complaints njac 6a colon 28-6-a state specifically that any person may file a complaint on the commission alleging a violation of the act the board of education is not a person under the school's ethics act an individual member of the public and or individual member has the right to file an ethics complaint against a school official which is defined as a board member or as a school administrator on the school ethics commission website this issue is further clarified in their frequently asked questions on who can file a complaint with the school's ethics commission who can file a complaint with the schoolx commission any person may file a complaint with the school x commission when he or she believes that a school official is via the school ethics act

012a board of education as an entity may not file a complaint although individual members may do so as individuals based upon the above the board of education cannot take any action against a sitting board member regardless of the actions taken by that board member we hope that this clarifies any questions that the public may have had regarding the filing of ethics complaints okay we'll continue on with the uh the meeting okay communication announcements we have none okay first reading of policy we have none presentations we have none board committee reports will start with the uh technology committee mr kanova me many times is 150 plus instructional computers and handful of admin computers district-wide prepared provokes for incoming students the indie preliminary work for district-wide security camera system upgrades the approval supply staff promotes as as

013soon as the tech team finalizes wi-fi configuration distribution to staff will begin chromebooks will be sent to all schools for new incoming students item four chromebook printing initial tests of staff printing directly from chromebooks were successful the option will be expanded to other staff in the new school year the committee discussed pros and cons of students printing directly from chromebooks for now the tech team will leave this option off but with the but the decision can be reconsidered at any time item five cell service commissioners brought up a concern that cell service is not very strong in some auditoriums and other areas that often serve the public mr mountain will con contact the major carriers to see what options may exist to improve cell service in these areas item six board event meeting technology zoom

014will no longer be needed as the board of ed meetings are now back in person the tech team will continue to evaluate different video conferencing products and hardware technologies to be prepared to host meetings in an emergency should they ever need to arise again any questions mr president over here um regarding the number six if we are going to institute no more zoom we have to bring policy back uh to reinstate the normal order of business and to do away with the policies that were instituted last year about remote meetings so i'm going to bring that to policy i just want to let you know it spurred it from here okay next we have uh finance uh mr daley thank you mr president um finance committee met on june 29 2021 from 12 p.m to

0151 p.m board members present with mr canova miss beltran mr smith and myself administration was dr robert tosi mr yusi and mr eric tom cevich one item was discussed by on sale mr uc presented the district's financial advisor's recommendation after extensive analysis of the differences between a competitive sale and issuing bonds to the passaic county improvement authority the recommendation from bond council the financial advisors and the administration was to sell the bonds through a competitive sale the resolution to sell bonds will be on the july 8th meeting board meeting board meeting to sell as soon as possible and current emit current deadlines anybody has any questions i'd just like to add and mr uc can confirm i believe they're looking at the sale at the end of august or sooner the target dates august 5th

016at the moment thank you mr daley we now have public recognition this point in the portion of the meeting is open to the residents and non-resident of clifton for the purpose of addressing uh any subject matter pertinent to or directly related to the operation of clifton public school district residents and non-residents are requested if in person to sign the register provided for this purpose all speakers are asked to state their names municipality and subject matter before speaking comments are limited to five minutes per person a person does not use any portion of their five minutes they may not relinquish any remaining time to another speaker comments are issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and a responsibly forthcoming if and

017when appropriate your questions may or may not be answered by the board members board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals who are speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of the state of new jersey the board bears no responsibility nor will be liable for any comments made by 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 is there anyone that wishes to address the board there we go uh first i have a question uh commissioner beltran

018was speaking earlier about and getting a legal opinion on the vote for vice president was it just a coincidence that the attorney referenced smith and casper don't worry about i i know it's a rhetorical question i know the answer second i just want to say that i find it extremely rude and inconsiderate that you folks will go right into executive session and leave the public sitting here for two hours that's just terrible but rude and inconsiderate are just two more adjectives to describe this board third and the most important i'm here again to talk about project graduation and the endangering of the children i want to talk about the board's legacy let's talk about where this board what their legacy will be a few years ago we had rich tardillo as a superintendent here and

019this board had its share of controversy some of you ran for the board four seats on the board because of that controversy but i don't ever recall a board member stealing from project graduation or endangering the welfare of children that will be this board's legacy because you all allowed it none of you spoke out about it the board president just read a nice statement about ethics charges but everybody after after mr abu drabba relinquished his seat as vice president everybody kept quiet matter of fact a few years thanked them that's just bizarre to say the least you should really all be embarrassed you think back to the last election three sitting board members mr abu drabbo mr smith and mr casper or or was it mr what i'm not sure got a mr wine got

020a free pass they ran unopposed not only did that now they ran unopposed and one of those board members that ran unopposed is at the center of this controversy mr abhidrabo i can assure you this issue will not go away this issue will follow you this will be your legacy on the clifton board of education i will assure you of that thank you mr smith for your comments about the ethics charges they were already filed we also filed a police report with the clinton police department i'm also speaking to the clinton to the passaic county prosecutor's office and i'm also speaking with the attorney general's office i can assure you as i said earlier this issue will not go away this will be your legacy on the board of education and as for the leadership

021and the rudeness and the inconsiderate action tonight with you folks sitting in the back for two hours probably having dinner last meeting i spoke about a lack of leadership and when i did that mr smith laughed i can assure you mr smith i will have the last laugh bet on it good night anyone else wish to address the board good evening everybody mark bernsiek 20 holly street thank you dr robert tosie thank you president smith vice president president casper for allowing me to speak tonight and i'm here pretty much for what i'm here for every time i come to speak and i'm demanding that this board mandates an option for in-person full day in person learning and if that's not possible i'm asking this board publicly state what other options are available to clifton parents

022to send them to a school that has the availability for all all-day in-person learning the business administrators the business administrative office has already mentioned the increased funding for the charter schools in this city i don't know if it's because of clifton's share of the funding for these charter schools in this state but if these charter schools have that option maybe that's why it's happening so it's imperative that this board does that and i'd like to know does this board have any data on what percentage of students were left back this year last year relative to the last normal graduation year of 2019 where there was full in-person learning this board created this condition for students to fail and i will refuse to allow this to continue to happen this is absolutely unacceptable and i demand

023that this board give an option this coming school year parents an option to send their school to send their children for in-person learning for a full school day not one o'clock not 11 30 not off on wednesdays you know you have the school reopening plan and you mentioned the cdc the cdc guidelines again the cdc guidelines already in may said that kids had an opportunity to go to in-person learning so we send communications to education committee and what do they do they say no oh in lieu of graduation ceremonies this and that we're still going to keep in person you know we're still going to have remote learning for wednesdays it doesn't make any sense and it's very frustrating for a lot of the parents in this city and we will never forget that thank

024you for your time and god bless america anyone else wish to address the board i'm gonna take my time because i just spent two and a half hours sitting here hi first of all most of your mics aren't working that's what people are texting me from home joe no one heard a word i knew only word people heard was chromebooks i have 20 text messages going what did joe say just so you know your mic doesn't work judy your mic isn't working either strange coincidence question i have five minutes is it the same five minutes as when mr uchi came out and said we'll be out in five minutes and then you stayed in there another hour and five minutes we showed up as citizens and there were a lot of people here who wanted

025to talk and i know that because while you were back there in your room being guarded by the vice principals of the high school who are not guards they are educators it's not their job to guard your door i went around and talked to every single person who was here and a lot of them wanted to speak about curriculum and how you were handling lunch and gym and school and hours and they all went home because the one hour executive session turned into two hours and 42 minutes last monday some of them were also here and that executive session ran into two and a half hours if we had known on the agenda you were going immediately into executive session most of us would have shown up around nine that was rude that was inconsiderate

026and this is two meetings in a row what you needed to handle amongst yourselves could have been done after you allowed the people who were here to speak you have people here who work for you who have worked hard for you who you have decided to give new positions to and they had people such as their wives and their husbands and their families who are here to hear their name announced and listen to their loved one give a speech but you know what most of us have jobs in the morning we can't sit here all right waiting for you to come out of executive session while mr uchi comes out and tells us ten more minutes five more minutes just a half hour two hours and 42 minutes that was rude that was inconsiderate you

027were elected to serve the people the people were here to tell you what they want to see in september you chose not to listen to them you could have easily held this session before you all ran off i came here to speak on another issue tonight something positive for our community this is the second meaning i've sat in these thank god they're refurbished chairs but they're still uncomfortable after two and a half hours you could at least get us donuts how about setting up a coffee pot because last week we went out and got our own donuts and passed them out amongst the crowd five minutes your job is to come up with a plan for september you asked to do this all of you on the board of vet are not being paid maybe

028it's prestigious maybe that's why i don't know but i just know that when citizens come out and this is the backbone of our democracy is citizens coming out and then you doing what the citizens want and when you keep a sit in here for two and a half hours i'm sorry two hours and 42 minutes and then come back and i get text messages how your microphones still aren't working that's insulting to us because this is is it your five minutes or is it my five minutes because your five minutes is an hour and four minutes long that was totally inconsiderate and in all honesty you should be ashamed of yourselves robert pop which 57 down the road i'll give my my time to donna oh i am i'm done i'm taking into positive stuff

029i can't do the positive stuff after i just yelled well mr president thornton waiter yeah i mean you've read the statement of the open public meetings um and i've brought this up in the past we've we've passed on it there's no provisions for in other words a person can come up and yield the five minutes to somebody and somebody can be up there an hour you have five minutes and i think that's are you familiar according to rob excuse me i'm speaking thank you ma'am one time we we try to run these meetings in an oily manner i think mr smith does a very nice job but the fact of the matter you have five minutes if you wish to contact us for any reason we have emails and things like you can always contact

030the superintendent you can come back to another meeting but each citizen has five minutes to speak what they want to speak at a board meeting and to for somebody to yield that leads to other problems where somebody can come up and continually yield their five minutes to one individual and be up there an hour that's not what this purpose of the public hearing is didn't think it was the purpose for us to sit here for two and a half hours looking at an empty stage either point of information pointing to robert's rules of order there is a provision in that that somebody can yield to the speaker and give their time so i think that we need to look that into that and make sure that we're not violating roberts over the order yeah i

031have i'll submit a written uh answer from school boards that gave me an answer on that so each board member will be supplied with that that it is not a violation of robber rules i'm sorry that it is not a violation of robert's rules but if somebody if somebody yields their time you have to give the permission or not give the permission no i think that's i think that's what mr daley just stated yeah she should have been allowed to finish should we did allow her to finish i didn't cut her off but mr pop which yielded his time he should have asked your permission and you should have said yay or nay well mr daley made a statement to it anyone else wish to address the board hello my name is annelise giagastino i'm

032a resident of total new jersey and i'm here because i have friends and family who live and go to the schools in clifton and i'm here because i became aware of the negligence regarding project graduation and i was incredibly concerned angry frustrated and absolutely appalled and disgusted and what i expected today was more of a note a statement a presentation a bit more than regarding ethics and of one's submitting ethics claims i thought that there'd be more to that because from what i see from my perspective my passion is education and children and i expect that every board member a passion for education and children should be the absolute minimum requirement and keeping children safe should be the utmost priority of every single board member and that safety failed because mr adradabo would you be

033sitting up there if something happened to those students that night would you be sitting there because what i see the example that has been set from that experience and let's be mindful each one of the board each and every member sets an example for the future the children are watching you and you know what example you set the example you set is that cheating and negligence and irresponsibility you can still maintain power and that there will be no real repercussions that it can be swept under the rug that cheating is okay and do you think that's a really good example to set for young people especially 17 18 year olds that are embarking on this new chapter of their lives i don't know how you can sit there and think that is a good example

034to set that you can cheat and you can endanger children's lives and think that that is okay to be a member of this board when children's safety is at the foremost of your mission because if you're not supporting children's safety why are you here there is no reason for you to be here if that decision was made out of ignorance that is terrifying if that decision was made of irresponsibility that is also terrifying and should be terrifying to every single parent every single educator and every single faculty member because i sat here for two and a half hours i'm not even in this district because i was absolutely appalled and i hope this doesn't happen in any district i'm sure it does but at least you can catch it when it happens to make sure

035it never happens again and i don't know how you can sit there and be okay with maintaining power after yielding it in a reckless and irresponsible way that was absolutely disgusting thank you anyone else to address the board hello my name is barry mahmoud uh 2 1 2 d my um i like to reiterate what a couple people already said uh i kind of wish i wasn't here for two and a half hours too but i went to 7-eleven and i got some taquitos so i wasn't hungry the whole time and i liked the donuts idea of miss potholish that's good um i'm here as a graduate i just graduated two years ago two weeks ago felt like two years ago already but i mean if if i can speak from a student's perspective as

036to what happened um regarding project graduation and you know where everyone's head's been at for the past two weeks it's is that i don't i don't really think any any of this is worth our time because there's a lot more pressing matters at hand and i i feel that a lot more should go to blame for not just what obviously it was a big mistake and no one is uh defending what mr abu drabba did because it was pretty bad but i don't i don't believe that it's as drastic as it's been made out to be because from my perspective it was just i feel that he was trying to do the right thing but it didn't come out that way and i'm not just saying this because i've been in this school district my

037entire life and i i'm i have personal relationships with most of the people on the board and i know everyone personally and everybody knows me and i i just i just see this as something that's kind of been over exaggerated and i think we can use our time and our five hours of executive sessions and are public speaking for for a lot more pressing things and even even i'm sure that other students can attest to what i'm saying and i've spoken to other students and they do attest to what i'm saying so you know going going forward i think we should really focus on what really matters in public at least and leave leave all the other stuff to the meeting rooms and you know litigations and all that other stuff because if if we

038do this for every every single thing then there there will be no real work done there will never be any real progress made in our school district that's all i gotta say keith basswood mountain view drive clifton i didn't think i was gonna have to be up with this mic ever again it's over probably a year and a half i've been coming to these meetings way over 15 years speaking i was listening to the gentleman that was just up here right now he's right there's other things more important i really didn't want to get involved with this thing and say anything with mr haberdrabo because my wife's on the board well whatever way you look at it mr aberdrabbel committed a crime committed a theft he set a bad example for other students in a

039school system outside the school system so i don't know anybody can say this is not that important as mr whittle said back onto the police sign complaint prosecutor's office or everything it's all legal and all can be done you know i was surprised also with people's reactions up here with what mr alba drabo did i've been involved with project graduation for many years too we had incidents with children trying to sneak in different things never a board member you know i've been watching people's faces who thinks it's funny smirk and everything one thing i got to tell you if mr bedrabble does get charged he goes to court and they find him guilty i guess you're going to have to fist pump him outside because he's not going to be able to sit up here

040anymore this people from the county and the state are not laughing at this i know they're not laughing at this and they have questions for other people on this board too how things are handled in that stuff as mrs pablo said we elected you people to put you in some people didn't get elected they got a free pass the only reason why you got a free password because no one decided to run and that you may think people don't see what goes on here or watch things we watch especially me i see been through a lot of boards a lot of stuff here different superintendents but you guys really have become one group with a lot of years that you think you're the you're the group that's going to run this board and do what

041you want you think i don't hear on the outside already how many people you want to get to run on this board to get my wife off ahead they did in 2011. they didn't succeed they do they do it it's no big deal so what she leaves the board you still think you get a free pass see this mic here still could use it you think people don't listen what gets uh to talk about on this mic let me tell you something you're wrong you're wrong and i could prove it to you you know this board needs leadership and i seen this happen years ago when there was no leadership everybody was a gang they all played games together you know what happened when they ran for election people didn't vote for them they got

042they're gone they had smirks on their face like some of the other people up here i challenged them too last person that did that to me i challenged them and i told them you will not be back on this board again i was right because people out there watch they watch closely thank you anyone else was to address the board seeing none motion to close so move my mr daily second second mr betravo yes unfinished business none okay under b education administration we have ea one through ea 10. do i have a motion the group motion second miss bassford second by miss danny discussion seeing none roll call mr excuse me mr abba drabo yes mr awad yes ms casper miss beltran yes mr canova yes but i'm staying on berkeley college on eaton mr

043daily yes miss danny yes casper yes mr smith yes mr smith i need to abstain on number 10 as well the berkeley college field trip with uh with the uh audition please all right next we have uh c personnel we have p one through p thirty 32 so move moved by vice president casper second second by mr canova discussion seeing non-roll call mr aberdraba yes mr rowan yes miss passport uh yes to everything but number 10 h no miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes dr danny yes mr casper yes mr smith yes motion scary mr smith we have two um administrators who the board just appointed tonight who uh would like a moment to uh speak to the board okay two administrators would like to speak to the board that were just

044approved if you kindly come to the microphone to adjust the board hello everyone my name is uh mr chris keegan and i graciously accept the position of vice principal of clifton high school and i would just like to take this opportunity to thank you all thank you dr robertosi president jim smith members of the board of education mr doctor and the entire administrative team at clifton high school 12 years ago i began my educational career as a special ed teacher here in clifton and i had the good fortune of meeting so many colleagues parents students staff members who have all helped me in preparing for this role and i sincerely thank all of them my involvement in the clifton school district along with my educational training has given me a strong background to support both

045the students and staff of clifton high school whether i was teaching coaching supervising after school programs participating in various committees my goal was and will continue to be providing our students with the most supported positive academic experience available to them at clifton high school i'm fully committed to the clifton school district's mission in excellence in education and i very much look forward to joining the administration team here at clifton high school once again thank you so much thank you [Applause] a little shorter uh good evening president smith commissioners of the board of education superintendent dr robert tosie assistant superintendent mr tegen ms kucelevich my name is robert bertolini and i am thankful for you that you've given me the opportunity to return to christopher columbus middle school after spending the first 12 years of my

046career in clifton as a teacher and coach i feel as if i'm coming back home although the hawthorne school district provided me with an invaluable experience i always felt that a piece of my heart was left behind being able to seize this moment has brought about much happiness when the agenda was made public i was overwhelmed with the many messages i received from former colleagues it was these messages that reminded me what a wonderful family clifton was and continues to be as i thought about all the students and staff i worked with i knew without a doubt that this was the best decision i am looking forward to working with ms gaber the building principal many years ago we shared a vision of providing an environment for both students and staff where they're where they

047feel supported motivated and willing to learn and grow it is this vision that i look forward to perfecting from the bottom of my heart i thank you all for allowing me to be a mustang again have a great evening thank you [Applause] congratulations to you both [Music] uh next we have uh finance facilities we have f1 through f10 do i motion second motion motion by miss bassford second by vice president casper discussion seeing none roll call mr abadraba yes mr awad yes ms basford yes mr beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes dr danny yes mr casper yes doctor mr smith yes okay next we have uh board member comments joe i believe we start with you today i'm gonna keep comments short tonight but uh i do want to thank all the speakers

048that came out um and congratulate all the the appointments tonight um speaking to to some of the comments tonight september i know the government the governor removed the uh the virtual options so it sounds like we will be in person and i know that on monday dr robert tosi addressed the crowd and he did say that we would have more of a normal school session which i think all of us really want at this point um hopefully you know this other coven variant goes away or we don't have to worry about it and everything is the way it should be in september and i think that's where everybody is really hoping for um and uh for executive i i think you're very correct that uh we should have some consideration and coming out in these

049meetings we should we should at least read the crowd and see uh knowing what we have to go back there for and how long things are going to take we we probably should let some of those people speak first um such as consideration for the board something we could do um another thing though that uh i think can help with that is when we were virtual i feel like we had a lot more people be because we're flexible and i know me personally i have kids at home and if i wasn't sitting at this at this daisy maybe i would be home calling in um in a remote session so if if we can take that back to technology again and look further into i know we are looking into some virtual options but if

050we can look into the option of calling in or having some kind of virtual option where they don't have to actually sit and wait here for us they could do something at home and not have to worry about getting you know coverage for babysitters um i think that would be a good option for as well to address that thank you thank you mr daley thank you mr president i just briefly like to you know mr brisniak brought up about charter schools i'll be happy to discuss that with him i have a long history and have a uh of issues with charter schools the basic charter school that's in clifton it's basically a conglomerate and not a neighborhood school and i can go on and on but i am very concerned about charter schools getting unilateral

051approved improvement from the state board of education without local input and ignoring our board's comments and issues with these charter schools but we'll get into that later congratulations to our two new administrators we wish you all the best and thank you for putting up with us and staying here but uh great to see you and we wish you all the best in in your new positions also congratulations to our graduates i always one of the best joys of being a commissioner is sitting in the graduate at during that graduation and watching all those 700 plus students get up and receive their diplomas i do have some comments um i'm going to take a few minutes to address remarks that have been made here at boe meetings city council meetings and on social media about project

052graduation specifically those targeted towards our superintendent police officers and board members who had no role in the subterfuge concerning the wristbands provided to two students of chs by one board member the tone and demeanor of the remarks are offensive derogatory self-serving they only serve to divide and intend to purposely damage the good reputation of these individuals the institutions of the city and the city as a whole they are laced with false falsehoods innuendos and misinformation they serve no constructive purpose and are made solely to draw attention to those who have made those remarks to provide false versa a false facade and appearance that they are the champions of public interest and justice when in reality they are no more than character assassins and have no interest in the truth or facts there is no doubt

053that one boe commissioner and only one boe commissioner inappropriately provided project graduation bracelets to two students of clifton high school at the behest of one of the students parents without regard to the lawful obligations as a boe member for those who have been criticized the boe commissioners for not taking a stronger action against this board member we do not have the legal authority to do so this is reserved surely solely for the new jersey school board ethics board boards of education are prohibited by law concerning fulfill filing ethics complaints or charges against fellow board members and mr smith in his opening statement was clear on that and i hope all the citizens understand exactly what our position is here let me talk about the superintendent who has been maligned by some our superintendent is a

054hero through his strong leadership he ensured that seniors of clifton high school had a prom a full graduation and a project graduation to a class which has been denied full high school experience due to pandemic restrictions in the true spirit of ted kennedy's remarks that his brother robert's funeral i like the quote some look at things as they are and say why i dream of things that never were and say why not danny robertozzi embodies the spirit of this statement he not only secured the funding to make these things happen by convincing all board members that this was the right thing to do more importantly he rallied his staff to make this happen i can say with great deal of assurance that the staff did not do this because they had to but they did

055so because they believe in his leadership and vision for students i lived in clifton all my life i've never seen anyone in this town exclu extrude the leadership and vision of this man shame on those who attempt to disparage this man's character and what he has done for this community in a short time he has been here you are a disgraces community for those who've tried to disparage the superintendent the people continue the people who continue to look at the betterment of the city and decent people here who live in this city know better dr robertosi you are true to those of us who see clifton as a better place for us and future generations also project graduation i also like to recognize commissioner basford for stepping up and helping the commissioner organize it was

056uh it was a great effort on his part and i know you took a big role in helping make sure this project came off and i thank you for that let me talk about the police officers that were reliant they are there as police officers both the clifton police officers and those from east hanover i also often spoke about responsibility and education i've always talked about a three-legged stool the student the teachers the education community in the school district and the parent these are three important elements of the education of student in this as instance from what i've been told the responsibility of those children's safety especially the two children that drove up there the two students that drove up there is this responsibility of the parent should know better especially in this situation where

057we're all concerned about student safety in around graduation and other times too but it is a parent that needs to take full responsibility here and to blame police officers for not doing their job and basically i would think they'd have to overstep their bounds if they just went in and asked student or anybody else certain things they have parameters that they have to live under so to to be disparaging to the police officers is also out of line let's talk about board members there was talk about rules dr robertosi came to our board members and says i need the funding to do this i'll get it organized and we're going to make this happen at that point the board of education took over the lion's share and was in charge of the event rules made

058by other people and organizations were now not in place and we have there was no obligation upon the superintendent or anybody else to make decision otherwise the superintendent was in charge of the operation period nobody else the superintendent said board members can come so there was no violation or impropriety of any sort by any board member they've all asked the superintendent if they can attend and they did so and left so you're getting a picture unfortunately from the naysayers and those who not want to really be truthful about the situation [Music] that board members did something wrong superintendent didn't do his job and police officers didn't do what they were supposed to be that's all false facts bear out stay differently so i'm really perturbed about the tone and demeanor of those who want to

059be disparaging come on out and be constructive for a change quick character assassination quit tearing down the city of clifton on false and misinformation that concludes my remarks thank you mr daley dr danny um thank you i i will keep my comments brief as i did defend for my doctoral dissertation and um i did pass so it's just been a very very um you know say thank you thank you um i do want to say that in my school districts i have been with seven superintendents and um i have to say that dr robertosi is definitely in for the children and about bettering the school system and making the school system you know the greatest that it can really be so just you know to mention uh what um mr dailey was saying i'd like

060to say thank you to all the speakers it is a democracy i do want to apologize that we did take so long there i do think that we should have thought about um before we went in to let you speak knowing that there were so many matters and we might be back there for quite a while so i do apologize um i'd like to say congratulations to the administrators on their new appointments and congratulations to the students of the 2021 graduating class make clifton proud thank you thank you mr abu drabbo thank you president smith um of course congratulations dr danny it is no easy task to out after your doctorate especially when you have a whole plate full of things in front of you to eric thomasevich who will be leaving our district for

061bigger and better things as we see in our agenda congratulations to you this district will be losing an important role in within the administration um and uh wish you nothing but the best uh it's mr berlini mr keegan i know we took longer than anticipated i know mr berlin your wife was here uh please give her our apologies i know she wanted to be here to share in the joy with you uh congratulations to the both of you uh welcome back and hopefully in your new roles you can flourish even further in the district regarding executive session mr smith if we can i know that it was longer than anticipated because of just time out of our control unfortunately because we have to listen to our way to discuss the issues that we're on at

062hand i guess if we have something get louder i guess if we do have anything on executive session maybe we can start at 6 00 pm instead of 7 p.m at we can discuss it later but just ideas we could throw around um anybody happy 4th of july that just passed it was a it's good to be it was good to be in the park and see people after a year covet um and on that end i do want to thank all the speakers it is democracy at its finest where you are able to voice your opinion and you know discuss at whatever issues you want to discuss about i appreciate all the speakers coming to speak up and again it's great to hear from folks in the community i'm more than happy i've been

063talking to people about the issue at hand i am not shying away from it um i've been i have been going through a city with my kids at various points but what i don't appreciate is when the issue when the issue first broke out the first photo that came up where my father and my wife when i first got sworn in and this is not to um bring up another topic to put what's at the forefront in the bat on the back burner but when your wife is attacked i stopped and shot because her photo was in that picture i told my wife that person is lucky i wasn't even with her in the parking lot i stop and shop i'll leave it at that because nobody you got an issue with me take it

064up with me touch my wife touch my father touch anybody in that photo it's a whole new ball game to me that's not a threat that's a promise and if anybody's out there that she didn't wouldn't tell me who it is she said i know this person if i find out it's a whole new book game mr awad thank you president smith um first and foremost congratulations on our new administrators welcome to the family um as you can tell sometimes you know we have family issues up here but at the end of it at the end of the day i always love to say that no matter what storm you know comes our way arguments disagreements at the end of the day we will be one you know like dr robert tosi you know like

065to say one clifton you know we're gonna have our ups and our downs and you know i me personally my beliefs is to keep my chin up uh and keep on fighting for our students and for our staff and district um just one small comment i would like to say because you know just to piggyback on mr daley's uh great remarks also to mr um just said um you know after the whole project graduation incident um you know i just find it very interesting how my family and myself got dragged into this when i had nothing to do with it and i would like to address it that it is a racial issue that one person of color made a mistake it's automatically easy to tag the other person of color with no facts no

066evidence and personally i would like to say this live to the public is if you could find an ounce of evidence of my involvement or my doings or my sayings i would put my resignation up but i would like to pinpoint it back with if they are false for rumor spreading and trying to use their little crew to spread these rumors i would personally call that person out to resign and another thing for mr whittles i wish he was still here because i would like to discuss with him about what happened at project graduation because i find it kind of interesting and hard for me to understand after the breach has happened and you know the students were caught and you know the administrators did the proper thing by handling the situation he was in

067the parking lot for an hour hour and a half hanging out i just find it really really really really interesting after a breach has happened and supposedly they were short staffed and they didn't have the volunteers was it really such a smart idea to hang out in the parking lot for an hour hour and a half but standing up there puffing his chest and saying of all the wrongdoings that happened that night but does not want to take accountability for the mistake he also and for those you know that are so strong behind the screens of computers and phones you know threatening and speaking all this nonsense it's very disheartening or i know our community is better than that you know people make mistakes and they will be held accountable that's why we have law

068and order people will be held accountable for the mistakes they made but to try to twist and manipulate the words by dragging other people and threatening my pregnant wife and my family now that's a whole different issue i am a person that's extremely extremely vocal i am proud to say a muslim i'm palestinian born and raised in clifton my father and my family members all attended clifton i am someone that speaks up for oppression and for racism i am a proud person that supports black lives matters palestinian matters asian it doesn't matter sex race ethnicity i respect all lives and all backgrounds and that's why i will fight for especially for our students in a crazy world where we try to sweep things under the rug these students are extremely smart their phones that they

069hold their laptops that they have is infinite information we could try to manipulate and twist the words to mirror some image but they know what the truth is and it's out there and i know many many students see what's going on in this district dr robert tosi's leadership is extremely phenomenal and he is one of the many many reasons why i ran some people say that hey you got a free seat nobody ran but is that my fault nobody chose to run i chose to run is because i wanted a voice as a millennial 27 years old knowing the mistakes that happened in this district when i attended i wanted to represent and uplift our district but i find it really weird that i'm to blame that others didn't want to run that was their

070choice i did my petitions i did the due process and thankfully you know i got elected i might have got it handed to me but one day is going to come where i have to run my own election and i always said this to all these board members which i love the family members to me and i'll say this to the public if i was not to get reelected that is the public's choice and i accept it i'm not power hungry you know being in the seat is a privilege and i always always remember that my father always reminds me about that and when my time comes if i get it reelected or not i accept it i don't have that egoistic character where i need the throne i need to see i need the

071public speaking i need the attention that's not what i'm here for i will always be here for for the students thank you miss bassford i hope this works can you hear me okay good so on the agenda he said exactly g said g1 says executive session um if we knew that we were doing this ahead of time board members should have been notified that we were going to go in first we should have made a motion to suspend the agenda and go into executive session if there's information about robert's rules of water and yielding to the public i would like to see that information and shared with the rest of the board jim you said you got it from school board so i'm just curious to see what that says um executive session that long

072is not fair to this public body um if we we have to go back to the regular agenda and we're going to suspend the remote the remote um policy then we're going to institute three minutes on the agenda for public speaking and then five minutes later on in in the agenda um this all has to be brought back i i really want to um bring this robert's rules of order and this yielding back to policy i want to look into it and really dig into it deeper because it's just not fair to these people to sit out here for two hours and 42 minutes it's it's it's not fair we're a public school this is a public meeting that people should be heard when they should be heard we um i believe mr pacenti started

073the rule about public session starts at eight o'clock and then the people knew that we were speaking at eight o'clock so um we we are in uh a new new format so let's reconstruct it um board of education petitions anybody wants to take one out you only need 12 signatures you don't need 154 you need 12. they have to be registered voters and they have to be 18 and well eight you have to be 18 to vote you have to read and write english whatever the um the characteristics and you have to be a citizen of the united states citizen of clifton you need 12 signatures they have to be registered voters of clifton not anywhere else the petitions are due july 26th at 4 pm that means you have to go down to the

074you have to have your positions filled out and bring them down to the county and have them looked at by the county clerk and she takes care of it that way july 26 4 p.m 12 signatures that's all it takes to get your name on the ballot and to run that's all it takes um opmah and when we go into executive session i want to stick to the agenda we said three things we discussed four last meeting you want to talk about character assassination jim 32 minutes of something that was not on the agenda that's a violation of opmah and everybody allowed it i objected nobody else did i objected three times that's not fair the people that's in that room or the people in public as well if we're gonna stop following the rules

075if we're gonna start talking about rules let's follow them um let's see um i i don't get privy to the pre-meetings so i i would i couldn't tell you what they are um did what's the other what's the other phrase that i wanted to talk about um uh turmoil i've been hearing that i i closed the turmoil no i follow rules and i expect people to follow rules we lead by example leading by example does not apply to all here and miss keegan thank you for your words they were spot on i thank you for coming up i know you don't live here because you said you live in totora i commend you because the hours that go into project graduation are just incredible the amount of time i took two days off from work

076and i was lucky to have the weekend off from something else i do on the weekends to get this done little background on project graduation it's an event that is held nationwide not only in clifton um it's following high school graduation we used to do it the kids used to graduate at seven we used to get them they used to go um done at 8 30 we'd have the month up here at nine o'clock there was no time to do anything in between they go home get changed come up here get them on the bus um it's it's a night to provide to the students to celebrate one more time safely amongst their peers uh we don't get a hundred percent which is very puzzling and i don't understand why but it's a it's a

077night about substance abuse and alcohol and substance abuse it began 32 years ago in oxford hills maine in response to seven alcohol and other drug-related deaths of teens that graduated the season of 1979. the event was organized and funded through the parents years ago this year that didn't happen due to the lovely pandemic as some people say the covid caused it and it was a cover year i got a phone call a couple weeks ago before graduation i need your help you got to help me the board was going to be the board dr robitazi was talking to the group that i belong to clifton against substance abuse i'm the vice president of substance clinton against substance abuse since 2006. i've been project graduation chair i can't remember but i've been i've been volunteering my

078time since 2003 for project graduation got a lot of t-shirts up in the bin in my in my um in my attic people do not realize the amount of work that goes into that event and yes jim it was paid for by the board of education and yes there was rules but we never had adults try to sneak somebody into the event we've never had anybody go to the links to what they did to get two students in there the whole event cost sixty two thousand dollars with the in-kind donations from other events and that's without the sros i don't know if they were billed i don't have that figure yet and i'm speaking from the knowledge that i have from what i did with the report because the report has to go to the

079governor's council because not only do we report to the city on this we also report to the state on the findings and all this information has to go down to the state on the report it's called um it's the governor's council on alcohol and drug abuse it's chicago and this year we were asked to do it to do the to do the bus the bus loading and the chaperones i didn't want to do it because i only had a week to get people on to get people to volunteer went back to my group they contacted dr roberto we'll get people we've had some issues with students on the trip but it was it was handled in-house with administration people just not arguing arguing with each other minus stuff nothing to this degree we wait and

080then we load them on the buses we take them where we need to go we do rotations we were for short i usually have five floaters but we were four short so i had to break up my teams we had to move everything around and it's not easy organize this and i'm not i'm not looking for metal and i'm really disappointed that the people that volunteered that night were never thanked or properly notified i don't want to take the credit and i thank you jim for acknowledging me but this board even going back to the previous administration never thanked the people mary ann cornett did it for years and she never even was properly thanked it's just it's really i don't understand i don't understand that it just boggles my mind the event was fully

081funded by the clifton board of education however clipping against substance use did donate money to the course it was so much a kid we uh we paid for all the extra entertainment that night because there's it's just not what you see up there it's other entertainment and we put everybody out to work and they do rotations and they stand on their feet all night long some of them sit they have a chair but they're people that come back year after year because they believe in the mission of this project to keep them safe all night in an enclosed safety environment the people that come back don't care they have to go by work the next day they care about keeping the kids safe so when people get upset because the value of that arm band

082wrist bracelet whatever you want to call it is the ticket to get into the show or the event it's worth the life so i don't know how much anybody values a life but it's not 125 dollars it's a lot more to that to me it's priceless so when they come up here they rant they yell they they holler they hoop and they go and they take an hour and sit in the parking lot with their administration because they've done that for 20 something years that's because they've earned it they've earned the night to relax that's what they do i usually do the rotation i had to do a shift because i had a new new person that really didn't was uncomfortable so i stayed on the shift when he got comfortable i would jump off

083go someplace else i had i had chaperones that were doing the same thing as me and i commend each one and every every one of them for doing what they do we give them a t-shirt that says chaperone on the back of it with the logo they collect them that's their pay for the night a t-shirt what do you put on a valuable life i know it's not 125 to me two kids of mine went on that trip 2008 2014. they still talk about it people still talk about it i get phone calls about it thank you for doing this i don't do it for the thanks i do it because i believe in the mission i yield my time i have one more other thing i have to say at the end of the

084day it's about safety security and what we teach teachers every day of their lives the health and welfare of children staff and the people that were on that trip that's the value of that ticket the welfare one other thing today was a very sad day in my family he used to watch these meetings especially when keith would come up and say keep bastford mountain view drive clifton i wasn't going to come tonight steve [Music] reswell i know you're not going to be able to watch these meetings anymore steve i just want to say one thing i wish i was leaning over the fence yelling out mamas mamas that's for you steve rest in peace good night uh miss belchon i'd like to thank everyone who stuck it out tonight i know it was and it

085still is a very long meeting hopefully we'll be out of here before midnight i'd like to take this time to thank joe and judy for voting their conscience and supporting me for vice president of the board it would have been a great opportunity for this board to put someone who reflected the demographics of this school district in a position of power our school district is 65 hispanic 65 percent only growing i hope in november that some other latinos and latinas choose to run to maybe change some of the faces that are on this board it would be nice for the students to look at this board and say oh i could be there too one day maybe you guys don't know this but i'm the first cuban-american elected in pasay county not just clifton in

086all of passaic county it's a pretty big deal cubans have been here since the 50s and i'm the first one to ever make it this far um in passaic county obviously menendez made it all the way to senate um but i'm the first one in passaic county um i'd also like to say that i think we need a training because the decorum of this board lately has been out of control to say the least we have board members commenting to people who are at the podium we have discourse going back and forth we have time sexist comments being made it's just i think we needed training from the school boards to either go over robert's rules of order to go over a proper decorum maybe even like a sexual harassment training a proper um how

087to run a board meeting we need some training because honestly i agree with a lot of uh the speakers who are coming up here and saying that we're disorderly because frankly i think that we are maybe it's because i'm a young millennial like uh for us but i don't know i just feel that you know there's a certain way nowadays to speak to people and to uh address the public and i think we just need to uh brush it up on our on our on how we react to things and that's all i have for tonight thank you vice president casper dr danny congratulations i'd like to thank my fellow board members for your confidence this evening i'm looking forward to working with all of you to make the next six months as great as

088possible i'd also like to um let mrs popovich and mr burnsack know i'd like to bring your topics back to the education committee so this way by our next meeting we can have some answers for the public i'd like to welcome and congratulate our newly appointed administrators thank you thank you for your time that you will spend with us in my last comment to dr robert tozzie and mr smith thank you for your leadership as well and helping our our district run as smoothly as possible thank you thank you to the public um we're on a stage here and on this stage which is meant for productions there are enormous amount of spotlights and somebody who suffers from migraines looking into those spotlights is a tremendous detriment so while i don't look up at all

089times i do take notes at all times but the other portion is because of those lights so i don't want people to think that i'm not listening to them or addressing them um but i just wanted that to be known um i do take notes tremendously so that the board uh has the information that we need uh so i am listening to everybody um but just because i don't make eye contact i mean no disrespect to to anybody um so if you see me at times looking down at school six we don't have that issue um so i just hope that people will understand that to those that are still here and those that are still watching yes we apologize to everyone tonight if i could just step back for a second when administration comes

090to me and says that we have items for executive session and in most cases this board always meets an executive session at the toward the end of our regular meeting we have always made the exception when we talk about student matters and tonight there was a student matter so administration asked if we could do executive session in the beginning this is not something that happens regularly and i apologize that it did happen tonight no one intended for anyone to wait to not be heard but on the other hand this board doesn't go into executive session and and sit around and have a party we had important information and things to discuss and without as the attorney would tell you without allowing every board member the opportunity to discuss and as miss beltran said maybe there

091needs to be some changes because board members will speak on the same topic 20 times in executive session so maybe going forward you'll speak once and we'll move on and maybe our executive sessions won't be so long but then the law says well if you don't allow board members then they're going to gripe that they didn't get their opportunity to speak and give their information and their input so you try to allow both sides to it unfortunately tonight the public got hurt and that was not the intention of myself and i'm sure of administration we do not take any pride or joy in making people sit around for two and a half hours but this board was working in the back room for two and a half hours so i will work with administration going

092forward to make sure that if it's student matters we will meet with the student matters and if there's other matters in the executive session we'll do those at the end we'll come back out to the public and then go back into executive session i think that's a fair assessment to make in no way did we want to halter anyone from speaking and if you look in the past history of this board and last year's board that i was that i came on there never was a situation where we had to go into executive session for hours upon hours unfortunately those issues happen tonight and again i apologize to everyone that it happened but going forward if they're student matters we will address them first and then we will come back out and if there's any

093other executive session we will do it at the end of the meeting so that the public does not have to wait and just so the public knows the board will stay here for whatever hours it needs to discuss those other executive session matters that's what we're here to do but nobody should have to wait around for hours and last meeting was an exception for a special meeting and that was the only reason the meeting was called for us to discuss things in executive session and then come back out we cannot possibly estimate when we give an estimate of how much time we're going to be there it's truly an estimate i cannot tell you how many questions the board will have what topics come in an executive session it is totally out of control so

094in the beginning when i give the hour estimate i'm hoping that the board hears that i gave an hour and will kind of move it along but they have every right to ask every question the board needs to be thorough on on all those matters so again i apologize to the public tonight you shouldn't have to wait around and i'll i will do my best with administration to make sure that doesn't happen again uh going forward and if we have to do two executive sessions then we'll do it i'd like to thank my colleague uh congratulate my colleague dr danny on her uh her doctorate um mr casper and miss danny are both educators on this board and they work very hard in educating the lives of kids and [Music] mr casper with your masters

095and um and and beyond and miss danny now with your doctorate you truly are bringing uh your uh expertise your education and helping educate the lives of students and that's what education and the board of education is all about and i congratulate both of you and wish you continued success with with your degrees mr casper i congratulate you on your vice presidency to the board i know that you will bring uh your experience your expertise uh to the board and assisting me in administration as well so congratulations to you you know i i don't want to elaborate on too many things um that people said or or didn't say um but and i don't like speak for other board members but other board members have spoken to me if anyone in the public got the

096wrong impression that this board in any way was trying to cover up was trying to show that we agreed with what took place at project graduation that was the furthest thing from the truth and it was portrayed that way you know i i don't know what to say but that was the furthest thing from the truth that is why it took and i don't know i don't know if anyone timed last week but that's why it took a long time in executive session last week because it was something that we were just throwing under the carpet or brushing under the carpet we would have been out here in minutes but it wasn't people voiced their opinion so to state that anybody up here agreed or was trying to sweep anything under the carpet absolutely not

097but as our attorney will reiterate to you no board member has the right to discipline punish any board member not only do we not have the right we can be brought up on charges and ethic charges from the board member we tried to discipline for trying to discipline them we don't have the right to do it the public is the only ones that have the right to do it and if anyone wants to file charges we've said that in the statement what to do but in no way was i and i know many other board members that spoke to me none of them were trying to throw things under the carpet or try to hide anything two hours plus an executive session i think proves that i'll finish up by again reiterating what mr daley

098said you have one of the best superintendents around and to discredit him to put him down to ridicule him to accuse him of things is beyond ridiculous he cares about these kids more than anyone i have ever seen this town made a true investment and made a great decision on bringing a superintendent like dr robitosi here he does not deserve to be put down to be ridiculed to be called a thief or someone that accepts thievery however was brought he doesn't deserve those things i think the public truly sees what type of superintendent we have and what has he accomplished in the short time that he's been here i think his actions speak for himself so please don't try and put the superintendent down he's doing a great job last thing i'd just like to

099congratulate all of the appointees tonight uh all those that are new appointees and those that have changes in their titles and um other positions that they're moving into we tremendously thank you and appreciate your years of experience and dedication to this town and i thank the majority of this board for supporting the superintendent of of schools on his recommendation for positions in this district thank you okay we'll move on oh i'm sorry move on sorry presidents i'm sorry no doctor overtones he goes first i know i'm out of order but i just had a quick a quick comment in there let him go first superintendent thank you thank you uh mr president first and foremost uh hardy congratulations to dr danny i had the privilege and honor of um being on her dissertation committee today

100and uh was part of the three members so when you defend your dissertation after you spend a you know years writing it you have to defend it and you have a an advisor and you have at least two other members who have doctorates on that committee and then you you present it and you get grilled a little bit but i have to tell you dr danny was amazing tonight in her in her dissertation defense i was extremely proud to be a part of it because i know this is a day that you will remember for the rest of your life so i'm very very proud of you on a personal and professional level it's truly an accomplishment so congratulations to you dr danny it has a nice ring to it too doesn't it and we'll

101get you a new sign i also want to apologize to the public for the executive session tonight taking so long um and from the administration's perspective we will do a better job of getting the notice out to the public that if we are going to go into executive session first i take responsibility for not getting that notice out to the public um if we are going to executive session at the beginning of the meeting in the future we will notify the public in advance so that people can adjust their schedules uh accordingly so again i apologize for that was certainly not anyone's intention to leave you out here waiting we did have important business to discuss we actually had a hearing for a student matter but nonetheless we could have given you notice and i

102take responsibility for that there have been a couple questions about what september's gonna look like for school and um we did do a presentation at our june 10th board meeting mrs kusalevich uh mr gingaro and our executive reopening team where we've clearly stated and i'm going to state again tonight september will be full day five days a week full schedule with lunch the governor has stated a couple weeks ago that the wearing of masks will be left up to individual districts now that could change if if anything like the past year working in a pandemic the way the guidance kept changing that could change but if september 1st is here and it is up to the district to make a decision on whether students are required to wear masks my recommendation to the board of

103education is going to be that we give parents that option give students an option whether they want to wear masks or not i don't anticipate that this board is going to mandate that so that's on a question that's still out there we know there will be more guidance coming out this summer so we will follow the law we will follow the guidance from the new jersey department of health and we will follow the guidance from the new jersey department of education but i expect september to look as close to what we consider a normal school year as possible i want to thank the board and also congratulate the clifton education association tonight for ratifying a new four-year contract the cea and the board negotiation team worked for months negotiating this contract it was passed overwhelmingly

104by the association members and unanimously passed tonight and good labor relations are good for education so congratulations and thank you to the board i'd also like to congratulate two new members of my administrative team mr keegan mr bertolini my advice to you i was sitting in your chair my first administrative job was the vice principal and it's probably where i learned the most right it's where i dealt with dealt with kids the most and my advice to you is this always do what's best for kids sounds simple but you will be challenged and there will be circumstances where you may question what is best for kids but always do what's best for kids in your heart and i will be there to support you along the way so congratulations on this new journey and finally

105um just to address project graduation very briefly i'm saddened that i came to this board because i wanted to make sure that our kids could have a project graduation this year i remember my own i came to the board in june and i said i know it's short notice but casa doesn't have the money the kids don't have the money we can do this we can provide this night for our kids and i explained to the board all the reasons why it was a great thing for our kids and you know what this board said yes dr robert tosie we agree with you this is great for our kids and what saddens me is that instead of celebrating what a great night it was because it was a great night overall the kids were amazing

106and always when i say kids i don't mean that disrespected disrespectfully those are my kids something kids had an amazing night instead of celebrating that it it's it's been tarnished and the person has taken responsibility for that what happens next i don't know but i have to publicly thank this board for providing that night for our kids most of them have no idea what's going on here but i know that they appreciate the fact that they had the opportunity to be there so thank you for supporting me and by virtue of supporting me making it a great night for our kids and finally i hope that everyone has a great summer i cannot wait to get away for a couple days and shut my phone off and not check email and uh i'm not sure

107if that's possible but i'm going to give it a try so i hope that every one of our board members has an opportunity to go away for a few days this uh this summer and i wish all of our students a happy and healthy summer and we will be back for a board meeting august 5th and again on august 26th we will have more details on what the next school year will look like so thank you and have a great night yeah i just wanted to add to one thing um sorry i was looking at my notes and uh i know i'm out of order so if you can forgive me just give me 10 seconds uh it was mentioned that you know obviously you all know me about responsibility and i want to make

108clear that the not one parent of any of those children reached out to me said give it to my kid so i want to make that very clear not one of any of those parents from those two students said give my kid the bracelet so i just want to make that very clear okay uh the board will uh next our next board of me education meeting is uh august the 5th uh 2021 and motion to adjourn so moved mr daley second second second by mr awad any objection meeting adjourned you