May 20, 2021 - Clifton Board of Education Meeting

001uh did you expect action to be taken uh there is a resolution on the agenda for the personnel item yeah okay so that's the only it's already on the agenda though yep okay good evening everyone and welcome to the uh regularly scheduled uh clifton board of education meeting thursday may the 20th 2021. if you'd all now please rise for pledge of allegiance follow and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay thank you everyone roll call mr usey yester mr awad here miss basford president miss beltran i see her here mr kenoba i don't think he came here mr daley here danny here mr casper here mr rabbit bravo here mr smith here um mission statement mr casper would you read that please yes

002the mission of the clifton school district 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 okay the open public meetings law the 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 clinton 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

003in the local press on the district's website and mailed to presidents of parent teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with our policy zero one six eight okay we now like to uh entertain a motion go into executive session the board has to uh discuss a negotiation and a personnel matter second by vice president second by mr casper roll call mr awad his mouse must be bouncing again okay um miss bassford yes miss beltran [Music] sorry guys my mouse but yes michaels yes sorry i'm having some technical difficulties no problems no problem mr bailey yes miss danny yes mr casper yes mr abedrabo yes mr smith yes hey the board will reconvene to executive session uh we will probably be there for about 45 minutes uh action uh will be taken and

004the board will come back out around 7 p.m for the start of our regular board meeting thank you mr mountain if you would take us into executive hey jim what's up [Music] you mr casper do you see an invite to go back to the executive room no i don't yeah yeah nothing there mr uh mountain trying to get casper in but it's not working all right whatever [Music] everyone here is yes sir i'm here oh there it is yeah everybody's here okay everyone else is [ __ ] all right the uh the board met an executive session on uh matters sorry we everybody in all right mister vocal please mr garywon mrs passport here miss beltran here mr nova mr dally miss danny here mr casper here eva drivo here mr smith here uh more in an

005executive session to discuss uh [Music] negotiations and um so matter can we continue with our regular or business [Music] mr smith you are really lagging i have a motion emotion i think he's talking about the minutes another second is there a motion to prove the minute mr smith asked me to take over um so we have a adoptive minutes by miss spaster and his second bye mr cap is that correct mr g yes mr awad yes mr password yes let's go out yes mr daily miss danny yes mr casper yes mr abu drabo yes mr smith he'll be back he just he's restarting um communications and announcements we do not have anything uh first reading of policy 51 511 for eligibility of resident and non-resident students nexus presentations of reports from administration advisory committees and

006special committees there isn't anything there uh board committees we have policy minutes uh delhi assembly facilities education and transit food let's start with policy minutes and i believe the chair of that is miss basford you want to go ahead yes uh the policy committee met on may 12th at 2021 at 503 pm attendees were president uh board president jim smith myself board members joe konova and dana beltran from administration dr roberto and luis ross the committee discussed policy 7250 school and facility names it was decided to pull a policy from second reading so that we can have the committee review the proposed policy and addressed the items such as nomination and approval criteria qualifications and financial considerations mr ross and dr robert tussie will research similar policies from other districts and draft a proposed policy

007for the committee to review the committee then reviewed existing policy 5320 regarding immunizations the committee noted that the state statutes and the new jersey department of health determine any required immunizations the committee also noted the existence of medical or religious exemption if one qualifies pursuant to the state regulations the committee then reviewed and finalized policy five one one one dealing with the eligibility of resident and non-resident students and will place on the board agenda for first read reading a section was added on page nine dealing with the possibility of enrolling students in district of full-time certified employees that do not live in clinton the meeting adjourned at 5 56 p.m and mr ross wrote the uh um minutes any questions any questions from board members all right see you none we'll move on uh next

008i will ask mr casper to read education please okay um mr vice president do you want me to do all three at once i was gonna go one by one all right you got it okay okay i'm gonna start with education okay the these are the minutes from the may 18th 2021 meeting the education special ed committee meeting began at 4 p.m attendees were myself board president mr jim smith and as well as mr ferrassawa and miss lucy danny administrators included dr robert tosi mrs kusalavich and mrs rotolo academic needs for 10 to 12 month supervisors by mrs kusalevich mrs kuzelev shared the instructional needs to change the status of the english language arts math and social studies supervisors grades 9 to 12 from 10 months to 12 months from 10 months to 12 months

009positions the extensive yearly summer programmatic revisions workshops trainings hirings and curricular changes uh needed to meet nj cusack requirements merit these positions being full-time now positions full year action informational number two college and university collaboration updates by dr robertosi and mrs kusalevich mrs kusalevich provided an update on the district's growing dual enrollment programs as well as partnerships to support both students and staff on april 12th and 14th mrs conte and miss bergman held our held our best attended college option nights by creating informative panel sessions of college and dual enrollment options for families collaborations for dual enrollment concurrent enrollment early college and senior options include passaic community college bergen county community college fairley dickinson university montclair state university william patterson university and berkeley college staff training and course collaborations have begun with both berkeley college

010and caldwell university dr robert tosi shared a new collaboration with felician university to promote a clifton to felician university back to clifton pathway to increase diversity and support our own students coming back to teaching clifton this was uh informational education a special education update by ms rotolo she shared an update on collaboration with seton hall university and project wild to support writing for students with language learning disabilities she shared plans to provide more district support for cpag to expand parental involvement inclusiveness and collaboration 25 families participated in the kindness rocks activity on 422 with good feedback an autism parent training will be held on 5 27 with another plan for june 10th invitations for extended school year and learning support will be extended through eligible students action is informational 2023 calendar discussion dr robert tosi

011shared the results of a staff and community survey regarding the timing of the 2022 2023 school year spring break both groups overwhelmingly voted to shift the break from april 3rd to 7th to april 7th in april 10th to to april 7th and april 10th to 14th 2023 snow days will be adjusted accordingly action a related resolution is on this board of education agenda discussion of remote wednesdays a discussion regarding remote wednesdays took place of the four remaining remote wednesdays one is being used in several schools for moving up ceremonies scheduling high school credit instructional nursing maintenance and continuity issues were discussed as indicated in the district reopening plan schools will remain will return to full day full-time in-person instruction in september action informational summer school update miss kusalevich shared the staffing appointments are included on

012this boe agenda for various summer programs online registration has been sent out for titles 1 3 and middle school academic programs as well as for the new student academic acceleration summer support programs serving the non-title 1 schools invitations are first targeting students enrolled in basic skills intervention and referral services this principle of counseling recommendation integrated summer enrichment experience or ic northern regional credit recovery summer school and educare applications are posted on the district website related staffing resolutions are on this board event agenda the meeting adjourned at 4 59 p.m respectfully submitted mrs junina kusalevich i see mr smith is back with you there i'm still hearing frank talking so somebody has some feedback maybe if somebody has two devices questions on the education community are there any questions on the education report no nobody has

013any questions smith all right seeing none frank since you're reading why don't you uh do the transportation got it transportation why don't you do the transportation food service transportation and food service committee meet on may 18th from 5 to 6 25 pm board members present were myself mr daley mr abedrabo and mr smith administration present uh were dr robert tosi mr ushi mr tomasevich and ms lisnick other attendees donna devaney pomptonian operations manager and alex rosenberg pomptonian district service director under transportation current status of buses and purchases of additional buses mr uc informed the committee about the current status of the buses he explained that all current buses will be retained for the 21 22 school year with none being currently auctioned administration will look into auctioning budget buses next spring in addition mr rusty

014informed the committee that the district has currently earmarked the purchase of an addition of additional 9 54 passenger buses totaling around 990 000 utilizing grant funds through sr2 grant fund mr rusi explained these additional buses are in addition to the 4 bus buses two 54 passenger and two 24 passenger that have been budgeted in the 2122 budget the committee discussed with administration the current parking situation within the district dr robertozi informed the committee that the city has proved the district to temporarily store up to 10 buses at a city location administration will look into the possible options and will bring them back to committee at a later time president smith inquired about purchasing electric vehicles to transition into replacing the gasoline-powered buses in the future ms nick explained that they they are four times more

015costly and there is needed set up for charging however administration will look into this for the future vice president abbado informed the administration that there might be potential grant money being offered that the district can utilize for the purchase of electric vehicles administration will look into applying for potential grant money potential bus advertising option mr usi explained that to the committee that the district had received a request for a vendor to be able to advertise advertise on 10 buses for an annual revenue income to the district of 1944 the committee agreed to reject the offer as it does not provide a significant financial benefit to the district operational needs of the transportation department president smith inquired with administration of the current needs of the transportation department relating to staffing ms nick explained that the transportation

016department is actively seeking new drivers and bus aides but the availability the available applicants have took a decrease compared to prior years as a result of the covet 19 and unemployment benefits president smith inquired about the current covet 19 protocols that are in place with the cleaning of the buses and the health and safety of the students and staff on the buses ms nick explained that the buses are thoroughly cleaned after each run master worn and provided to students upon entering if needed windows on the buses are open for proper ventilation and all areas of contact by the students are cleared are cleaned after each student enters the bus food service cafeteria prices for the 2122 and menu options mr russi provided the recommended cafe prices for 2122 school year and the committee based on

017the recommendations from promptonian the prices will be put up for board approval on may 20th on the may 20th meeting vice president abu drabo inquired with administration about the potential to expand the food options that student that students currently have in order to benefit all students in the district mr vane explained that this is possible but will provide an additional cost to the district administration will look into the additional cost that it will create dr robertosi recommended that a survey be performed within the community for possible interest in any additional food service food service options such as vegan halal kosher etc administration will bring back to the committee at a later time mr uc discussed with the committee the contract renewal of pomponian district's district's food service management company for the 2122 school year he

018explained the contract has been proposed by pomptonian to include a 2.5 increase in the management fee which is the industry market index rate standard approved by the department of agriculture mr usi informed the committee that the bids have been received pertaining to the chs clifton chs kitchen project and were substantially higher than originally anticipated due to the increased price of materials that exist in the current market mr irsy explained that the district will be finding the project will be funding the project between the cafeteria fund surplus and sr2 grant funds the project will be completely funded using federal funds mr russia explained that the certain items under the project are deemed to be allowable under the sr 2 fund mr russia explained the estimated project completion time frame is still on track to be completed

019prior to the start of school in september however there could be some potential delays with the arrival of equipment administration will be monitoring the equipment orders closely does anybody have any questions on that one yeah um i just i i don't know if can you hear me now go ahead mr daley okay uh i do i do we'd like to speak about a transportation issue um an executive session yes okay we'll have uh we'll have a discussion executive session on transportation issue next we have the delegate assembly okay i'm gonna make this one short the delegate assembly met on may 15 and was called to order by uh president uh mr michael mcclure he provided his report to the assembly county meetings when virtual can help members stay connected courses were provided to help members

020obtain acquired training throughout the year he thanked everyone for their continued support throughout his term as president mr larry feinstein provided his report to the assembly and updated us on some of the legislation that is coming down the pike such as s 2 26 91 which allows districts to maintain a four percent budget surplus s 3488 which is voluntary incentive based uh regionalization matters he also announced the new the new officers for the next term which includes uh irene lafar as president bruce young four county activities to mesh [Music] he did announce that the njsba uh njsba's workshop this year again will be virtual and will run from october 26th through the 28th the first order of our agenda was to uh vote on our our slate of candidates which were approved we also we

021had two we had two resolutions that we voted on which uh passed so the one was on the njsba believes that students have the right to be educated in an environment free of discrimination intimidation that brought mutual respect and acceptance among the students regardless of age gender race ethnicity religious belief physical ability gender identity or expression um i lost my place gender identity or expression affliction or sexual orientation and perceived difference students should be expected to treat each other with respect and should not be subjected to or subject other students to demeaning remarks whether discriminatory and or intimidating statements interactions so that was our first one that we passed our second one was on the recommendation by the njsba special education committee and the new the new uh wording for that is as follows okay

022let me get this the njsba believes that trained non-lawyer parent advocates provide a valuable service to parents and students mandatory training of non-lawyer parent advocates is essential to protect the interest of parents students and districts training for parent advocates should result in an understanding of the appropriate role of a parent advocate as well as the requirement of federal and state special education laws and regulations iep development and conflict resolution training shall be ongoing the state should provide funding for such training so those were the two uh items that had passed the delegate assembly and will be placed in uh our new jsba handbook does anybody have any questions okay all right uh last uh we have uh facilities uh miss beltran okay um so we met on may 11th it was me uh mr daley

023mr casper and mr smith um the administration president was mr robert tosi um mr uh janine cuccillavid michael usey eric uh thomasvidge and al um marcio we met from 4 to 5 30 pm the first thing we discussed was the new parking lot at the administrative building this parking lot is needed for the welcome center so that we can have it be handicap accessible so that the parents coming to register their children or have a meeting with anyone in the registration office they don't need to park in the back and find their way through the building the second thing we talked about was the handicapped spots um around the district that we came to realization that we don't uh we're not in compliance with the handicap spots we're going to be painting them in the

024existing parking lots as well as going to the city to see if we can get some front spots designated as handicapped only the third thing we talked about was a tree cleanup at school number 16 the only trees that will be removed are from the arborist report um they we had a quote come in um and we're going to look into the potential value of any wood that comes down um number four we talked about is the hvac at school number 17. there's some cooling issues in the building um this will be done um before the referendum work as it's needed um more rapidly and it is um not as costly as the things that we're going into the referendum uh potential the fifth thing we talked about is potential sites for school expansion um

025if the possibility for a purchase or a lease to purchase uh were to come available we would consider it as a board and that is all we talked about that evening any questions uh yes miss beltran i have one did you uh did who has the arborist report and can the board get a copy of that as well for the the trees at 16 and the other question i have is about the parking lot um that's sick at the administration building what what's the parking on the side of that building um i was always curious about that and uh do we have to get county approval because that's a county road uh no the we don't need county approval because it's not going to be uh no egress or regress is changing uh it's just

026like a use of land so there's no county approval needed and the the tree report i'm not sure mr oozie could supply that to you yeah yeah i could do it as early as tomorrow no problem okay the other thing is we have parking on the side of that building like who uses that miss beltran i could respond to that okay um miss best for that doc you can explain that yes yes sir thank you um miss basford previously as i know you're aware we had the preschool program at the school and that was utilized by those staff members uh the head start program was there so that they're no longer there so we'll be utilizing those spaces for a couple of handicapped uh uh parking spaces but in addition we're gonna need this additional

027smaller parking lot because of the reconfiguration of the building with the new welcome center um so people can park right at the side and walk to the front of the building as opposed to parking in the back which by the way is full and walking around the whole building so we'll be using both vice thank president mr president smith uh ms bashford had i mean mrs belcher had a question for you um so when's the last time we actually looked we received the arbus report it was like two years ago right yes and then the tree company themselves came out and uh did a report on which trees they would think most of the trees are already laying down the ground it's simply just taking them out okay the reason i'm asking is because i

028mean obviously things can change between two years and to today so i was wondering if it would make more sense to bring arbors back out and do make another report or if the tree company already did a report then that answers the question thank you mr smith i i just want to reiterate quickly those trees that's that's lotus trees at school 16 they're they're worth a lot of money so the arborist would be uh i really want to see the report because um it should be close to nothing to remove that stuff because the tree company is going to make a lot of money on that wood and wood is very expensive now plus make it lotus wood it's even more expensive yeah we'll we'll share the report with everybody there's there's just um a

029lot of issues with dead trees uh you know fallen trees moldy molded trees i mean we'll we'll definitely investigate everything before any decisions are made well the the reason why i'm curious is because when the last company came in they came in and did a lot of the work without the board being notified it was very controversial and some healthy trees got removed and we didn't know about it and there those trees are kept on that property because they their root system root system absorbs a lot of water so that they're very valuable so i want everybody to be really aware of it that that tree company made a lot of money and we weren't we weren't notified about what was going on so it was very confident we had a lot of people from

030the community show up at the meeting so i just i'm telling my fellow board members to take heed of this until and to really pay attention thank you uh miss bastard if i may uh just check your email back from sorry i was mistaken almost three years ago back from september 13th 2018 just do a quick harvest search in your email and i accept what i did and i've done the artist report it was sent to us from uh mr uchi or from his office so we think we also get a no but i'm saying it would be also a good idea to say what anyway because this wave is for mr always can have a copy as well yeah why don't we send it out to the full board please uh i don't have

031a copy of it either oh sorry emma smith any other questions all right we'll move on to the agenda oh i'm sorry um um mr mountain is uh max reuben here yes he is if you could admit oh there he is hello max welcome always good to see you thank you for being here and uh the floor is yours all right good to see you too um so a few updates for tonight uh first i want to mention how um there was recently a website that was created for all of these spring performances that are going to be happening on the upper fields at the high school in between the tennis court and the soccer field and you can visit the chs spring performance series website for information on attending the chs choir concert which

032is next tuesday the orchestra concert there's two dance showcases and then the spring musical and all of this information was included in an email to parents i do have a question if anyone can answer this is that website also posted on the clifton high school website um if you don't have an answer now you guys can just get back to it later uh but i want to finish what i was going to say with my address so uh next i just wanted to thank everyone who attended the cast film festival there were a lot of a lot of people in attendance there um and it was a really we got a really good crowd reaction for a lot of the films so um thanks for supporting our program also um thanks to anyone who showed

033up to opus which was the band spring concert which was yesterday and i know that had a pretty good turnout as well unfortunately i wasn't able to go but a lot of my friends were playing and i heard they did a great job so thanks to everyone who attended opus um the next thing i wanted to mention is for any parents or students who don't know there is a confirmed event for the senior class it's the senior sunset and that's taking place monday june 21st uh students will have a chance to watch all the senior videos at the senior sunset if you don't know what the senior videos are there are videos made by my cast class uh we make a bunch of different projects highlighting as certain students um in the senior class and

034all the students will get to watch it during the senior sunset um there'll be meals provided by pomptonian and students will have to bring chairs blankets or etc and it should be a really good time next there's i wanted to mention prom for anyone who doesn't know that prom is happening this year it's thursday june 17th there should have been a letter that went home to parents and the letter included a permission slip which needs to be filled out in order for students to purchase tickets also in order to purchase a ticket for the prom seniors need to pay their class dues it's only forty dollars in order to purchase a prom ticket it's at the legacy castle and it's gonna last from seven to eleven pm again on june 17th and the ticket cost

035is 110 and ticket sales are going on next week um so other than that the only other thing i wanted to mention is for those of you who don't know i've mentioned it a few meetings ago but i wanted to mention it again for anyone who doesn't know the clifton student union has made us a few websites that are really helpful for students it's on the clifton high school website if you go under the students tab in the additional resources column there's the chs mental health and communications for students that website contains various videos and contact information in order to help students reach out in case they need any help with anything mental health related or anything academic related they can take advantage of those videos or contact info on the chs mental health and

036communication website i plan on updating the site in the near future with more content since more content is being made regarding mental health uh and also the digital resources and test prep website um this website's also on the clifton high school website there's videos on how to pick up hard copy books and ebooks from the chs media center over 45 hard copy test books over 45 hard copy test prep books and 45 test prep ebooks are available there's also a link to clifton public clifton public library resources six different test prep websites with free resources and eight different educational youtube channels of various different subjects are all included on that website um so yeah that's all the information i had tonight if any of you have an answer on if that chs spring performance series

037website could be accessed from the high school website if you could give me that more information that would be much appreciated and yeah that's pretty much it i think i only have like one or two more of these speeches to make so um i'm gonna i'm gonna miss this you know it's nice getting to see you guys once a week updating you everything that's going on so um yeah good luck with everything and stay safe max thank you very much again for your very important a formative report if it is not on the website uh now we'll make sure tomorrow that that information is on the website and again we appreciate all that you've done uh as the representative for the students uh this entire year uh you've done a phenomenal job and you should

038be very proud of your accomplishments thank you so much and um they're actually do in the process of the elections for student council for next year we actually need more people to run so if there's any student watching this make sure to if and if you want to get more involved with school uh you can go to the clifton high school website and under headlines there's a flyer with information on how to run for a student council position um and that's how i got the position i have now is from getting elected by the student body um and about the uh spring performance website it's it was already in an email that was sent out to parents i just wanted to know if it was on the chs website but thanks for checking in on

039that and um and thanks for listening everyone have a good week thank you max thanks [Music] max okay we'll move along to our 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 resident 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 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

040be answered by the board members the board asked the members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of the state of new jersey the board bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments 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 all of their comments okay uh if i see it correctly i believe uh lori lalama was uh first into the uh to the group

041so lori you have the floor thank you president smith good evening to all i hope everybody's doing well there's a few things i just want to bring up and i really want us to reflect how far we've come during this year this has been a difficult year on everybody but just listening how we have the referendum passed we have the esser2 funds we have all these great things that are that are occurring here in clifton we have the dual um enrollment at so many universities clifton has such a a brighter future than previous and that's due to the hard work from everybody teachers power professionals all the staff uh the principals the the supervisors the parents the community central office the board of ed i mean just think back a few years and see how

042much we have changed and how much we have grown so i just want to reflect on that i think that's important sometimes we look at other things that are not as important as what the positive things that are occurring in this district and the other thing i'd like to bring up is right now we're going through the latino institute and there's quite a few people that are taking classes right now and i'm very proud to work with the latino institute and the classes that they're taking is um and this is all in spanish um how to handle stress family stress the immigration laws and their rights the importance of communication in the home and all about the new driver's license laws so we have some of the best speakers in the state conducting this so

043i'm very proud of the latino institute and through our pride and fast grant and all all together since we started with this four years ago when i did it the first two years and then uh martha o'rourke took over we have received a hundred and ninety thousand dollars from the njea for all of the programs that we have done in clifton so i just want everybody to realize how much that we do that andrea does that the staff members who volunteer the community and i was act i was asked to give a shout out to neil's pizzeria on harding avenue because they supplied the pizza kits for this week for the pride event for schools 12 and 17. so i just want to make this short and say thank you for everybody's hard work and

044i hope everybody has a good evening thank you miss lalama uh next we have uh adrian austin uh you have the floor thank you very much adrian austin uh clifton school eight um and i have two children there just had a few questions one was around the federal stimulus funding i know there's a parent engagement requirement around uh how districts are going to use the federal stimulus that recently came through and so i was i'm curious that information is going to be posted on the website and whether what the plans are for parent engagement around the use of the additional federal stimulus dollars that are going to the district and more information about the amount um and then i have a second question just about next school year i know the new jersey governor announced

045that there will be no remote option in new jersey and so i'm curious about the numbers and whether or not you know what the district is thinking regarding the three feet of social distance at least it's currently required and whether uh all of the schools will be able to accommodate 100 of the students back with three feet of social distance uh and then i had other questions just around closing i don't know what the current closure school closure policy is for um you know copied positive tests but i would be curious about what the district is thinking about the testing policy for next year what the closure policy will be around positive uh coveted tests and then in the event that there is a i guess classroom closure if there is some sort of you

046know outbreak in a school would that mean that it would be a return to remote for those students so just like more and and i know this is like really early for next school year but at least i'm starting to think about that uh because my child is fully remote so i want to have an understanding of what it's going to look like so i can make some decisions for what i'm doing with my child next school year so more information is as soon as possible would be great but would love to to hear how the district is thinking about next school year and then also federal stimulus dollars and how that's going to be used to address academic learning loss and other issues okay thank you miss austin next we have uh ramon carreras

047ramon carreras you're next up ramon ramon carreras okay last call mr ramon carreras all right we'll move on to the next uh next up would be uh mr mark brunsiak mr bruciak you have the floor good evening everybody can you hear me yes we can yes thank you a president uh smith vice president abu drabo and the rest of the board uh every every time i come on here you know i don't know how many more times i can say how out of touch this board is took me weeks just to get the just to get the subcommittee to talk about giving parents an option to go into in-person schooling on wednesday once again the board kicks the can down the road and they got the nerve to say in september we'll definitely have it

048open how does anybody even trust the board of ed that that is actually going to happen all that i hear is perpetrating fear talk about parking spots talking about trees when the students don't even have an option to go into the classroom the parents don't even have an option to send their students into their classroom five days a week not only that but now students age 12 12 and above are eligible for for a vaccination against against for the covet vaccine and yet as far as i'm aware of and somebody please correct me if i'm right that the high school those students who have the parents who have chosen to have their students go to in-person learning in the high school still do not have an option to go three days a week four days

049a week it's the same thing two days a week and i've asked this board how many times does it even matter anymore i hope nobody ever forgets the response to the pandemic that this sport is done and how many children lives they have destroyed thank you for allowing me to speak thank you and god bless america have a good night everybody thank you mr brunciack next we have uh kayson little cason little case and little if you could hear me you have the floor hi can you hear me yes we can good evening um k-son little here i'm calling on our on behalf of our statewide um blm chapter uh black lives matter i just wanted to just publicly share my deepest gratitude and appreciation to commissioner ferrazawa for all of his hard work and

050his love and commitment to bring in justice not only to his district not only to his community that he loves and endures it serves um you know with humbleness and with love and with care and with passion of compassion but i wanted to let the record reflect that um that is what we need in our communities we need more of people who will fight for what's right more people who will who is not afraid to say to power's face right that something is wrong let's protect our students right whether they look like us or not so i wanted to be brief tonight and i wanted to share um that from the heart i also as a proud cousin of the late great malcolm x myself um we believe in justice and we need to protect

051our community the best as we can so i wanted to share that as best so thank you and have a great evening thank you mr little uh mr mountain anyone else nope that's it see sorry mister you're not emotionally closed outside motion by uh vice president ava drama second by mr casper okay we will move along our agenda uh unfinished business i see no unfinished business we'll move on to uh education administration uh we have mr smith excuse me i apologize yes i'm not sure if it's the proper time to discuss a change in board meeting dates under unfinished business or a new business i will probably do that under new i think okay thank you all right under education administration uh we have uh ea one revision to the 2021 school calendar ea2 revision

052to the 2223 school calendar ea 3 the attendance report ea 4 proposed modification to school crossings and ea 5 approval of field trips so moved so boom by mr casper second by mr awad discussion yes mr awad vice president let me excuse me vice president aberdrabbo sorry same bearded man um mr smith threw you to the superintendent so i noticed here uh virtual school day for all staff and students through the primary on june 8th is that swapping out with uh the ninth making ninth in person and then just swapping your tuesday does that make it eighth and ninth virtual eighth and ninth mr abdullah what changes switching the swapping schedule for eighth and ninth uh that was not a consideration due to the secondary schedule but it's something that if the board wanted me

053to look at i can look at so through you mr uh president smith to and of course i mean i don't have to go through a vote or just a request if we can please take a look at that i would appreciate that all right superintendent we'll take a look at that uh uh could i have a follow-up question on that yes mr daly yeah uh did we not have school closed on on the calendar for that date because we're i traditionally we always close on election day due to security issues yeah mr daley we were going to use a snow give back day for um for that purpose but since uh this year it's the first time we're able to use that virtual day uh we wanted to make that a virtual day so

054that we could take the days off at the end of the school year every year in the future and our calendars will be closed on on election day so in essence you're swapping uh a putting in a school day on an eighth because you could do it virtually and shorting that school dismissal time at the end of the year yes sir that's correct thank you and and doctor i only asked that because the one thing that you know uh that some board members spoke about was that you know we should have done that instead of school clothes because then we can add that end of the year so and you know we can't change the past but maybe we can change with coming up so if we could just swap the eighth and ninth i

055think would be great especially um uh it would help the parents who are expecting the four days a week i certainly understand thank you any other questions comments seeing none roll call mister uh yes but that day doesn't the high school have uh ninth grade have quarterlies off the top of my head i'd have to check miss bassford unless miss kusalevich can you check that for me or do you know um even if they were to emote in many of our cases in order to level them we have been administering our either on remote days or on the off day so that they're done remotely so what i think i heard ms kusalevich say because janine your internet is lagging a little bit um that even if there are quarterlys that date and i will

056check miss bassford it it's not a problem to do them remotely because they're all done that way anyway even for students who are in person okay i'm voting yes miss beltran yes mr daley yes miss danny sorry i had to get the trying to find my mute thing here yes you're good mr casper yes mr abba drabo yes mr smith yes all right next we have uh personnel we have uh p1 resignations p2 leave of absence p3 maternity leave of absence p4 amendment leave of absence p5 amendment of appointments p6 change in employment status p7 continuation of community-based work skills program p8 reappointment of transition coordinator p9 reappointment of full-time paraprofessionals p10 staffing for summer programs p11 appointment of secretaries for summer school programs p-12 appointment of nurses for summer school programs p13 appointments for

0572021 academic readiness summer program p14 appointments for 2021 academic readiness summer program kindergarten aids [Music] p-15 appointments for minds in motion 21st century grant summer program p-16 appointments for orton gillingham workshop p-17 appointments for middle school summer academic program p18 appointments for 2021 student academic accelerated summer support p19 appointments for integrated summer enrichment experience program p20 staffing for special education extended school year program and covid learning support 2021 p21 special education summer testing and meetings p 22 2021 summer iep meetings p-23 restoration of increment p 24 board conferences p 25 substitute appointments and p 26 personnel appointment motion potion by vice president abedrabo second second by mr casper questions or discussion seeing none roll call mr awad yes miss basford yes miss beltran yes mr daley i see him singing yes yes did you say

058miss danny yeah miss danny oh sorry cut out um yes and abstaining on p24 mr catherine yes mr abbott yes with an extension on b21 hey mr smith yes motion carries okay next we have finance and facilities f1 we have approval for transportation services agreement 2021 school year f2 certification of budget line item accounts april 2021 f3 financial reports april 2021 f4 modifications to the 2021 budget april 2021 f5 purchase requisition list f6 approval of the food service management contract renewal with uh pomponian incorporated uh f7 equity and pricing for school lunches f8 approval to award the lowest responsible bid cafeteria kitchen at clifton high school f9 special education settlement agreement f10 use of facilities f11 claims list what's your pleasure so much so moved by vice president abu drabbo second by mr faraz awad

059discussion see none roll call mr awad yes miss bassford i'm voting yes to everything and i'm abstaining on number nine i was only given a sheet of paper on that i had a lot of questions so i couldn't get them answered to novell so i'm going to abstain on that one yes mr daley yes miss danny oh yes mr casper yes mr abigail sorry yeah my daughter's name mr smith yes all right we move on to uh commissioner comments uh we have uh start back with uh mr awad you're up first mr awad you're muted oh thank you sorry about that my mouse is dancing around uh good evening to uh all clifton students staff and districts our fellow citizens uh here in clifton and around our nation i just want to keep my comments

060a little short tonight um as we're mourning the losses of uh many uh in my uh parents homeland of palestine as many know that what's going on there is uh basically a human humanitarian issue uh we having many families massively uh murdered by uh uncontrollable uh you know crises going on there i just wish peace for both sides um i would also like to also mention you know a belated happy birthday to uh malcolm x his birth name was malcolm little uh eventually becoming uh uh shabazz i just would like to also you know just touch upon you know what's going on and you know or overseas i do have family over there my family and also my wife's side i also want to pray for them uh for everybody's safety over there what's going

061on there is honestly very troubling it's very scary many children are being killed parents mothers fathers you know doctors engineers all walks of life it is extremely extremely standing that you know that a nation over there of israel being funded 40 billion dollars of u.s taxpayer money to oppress uh people uh the palestinian people if many don't know they could search online look in youtube and actually look at the news gaza is the most densely populated place in the world with millions of people in such a small uh mile radius uh it is the biggest open-air prison where you have israeli military controlling uh the water the mediterraneans pointing missiles at them building apartheid style walls trapping them controlling every movement no airspace basically keeping them locked up in a prison and giving them such

062short notice to leave their homes before they got bombed and there's nowhere for them to go they are not allowed to move freely within the land as many would like to look back into history of apartheid states and colonialism i call on our local leaders our state leaders and our national leaders to not be cowards and hide behind the doors because they don't want to make a statement to lose votes or donations these are people's lives we speak of sadly we're also going through a crisis in our country and i'm proud to say it black lives matter our brothers and sisters i will always stand for you brown black all walks of life asian gay straight doesn't matter of gender ethnicity or creed i will also stick up for justice for all because at the

063end of the day we are humans of this world we should be peace loving and caring hatred will never win colonialism will never win apartheid will disappear as it did in south africa and i just want to close up my statement by saying free palestine and free my people all they want is peace and they want to live with their neighbors in peace but trapping them like trapping them into these certain situations sadly does cause uh escalation and if for anybody these comments bother i apologize that this does bother just something you need to self-reflect we are all humans and i stand for all causes and i for our students and our staff out there before jumping to a conclusion do a little research do a little research about what's going on over there because

064the money we send over there to press on other people we are also sending our police forces and you can look this up online and educate yourself many police forces within our country actually go overseas to israel to learn and to be taught abusive tactics that is brought back into the urban communities and local communities when george floyd may he rest in peace died because an officer decided to put a knee to his neck and suffocate him that is an israeli tactic and there's many images online of palestinian people being suffocated to death what a knee to the to the neck so when we when we want to basically mirror the image of why what's happening with our police forces here and what's going on over there we need to understand where the source of

065money comes and that's our taxpayer money when we spend 40 billion dollars to a nation to oppress others and to teach them how for us to oppress our own when we have veterans that are homeless you know mentally unstable or do not can't find a meal when we have children or educational systems being underfunded it's i just find a very very funny national leaders when they say that there's not enough money for vets not enough money for education not enough money for you know a green new deal not enough money for anything but surprisingly when we could cut a check to another nation to do dirty work there's money available and i just want to end off with black lives matter free palestine and peace to the world mr awad could i just ask you

066to just reiterate that these are your own personal comments not comments made on behalf of the board of education please these are my personal comments have nothing to do with any organization the board of education or anything these are my personal comments and if anybody has a disagreement or would like to comment they're more than welcome to reach out to me we can have this discussion thank you next uh we have uh miss basford mr smith i have to pass i have to um let me come back to you yes please i have to go i'm sorry okay yes sorry um miss uh beltron okay i'll keep it uh short tonight for you guys um i would just like to say to the people who are calling in just because we're not directly talking about

067things in public doesn't mean that these discussions aren't occurring in our work sessions um in our individual committees we are talking about you know what next year is going to look like what our plans are there's still a lot of fluctuation from the cdc where states aren't agreeing with the cdc and the cdc is agreeing with states and back and forth so it is a huge flux schools businesses everyone is kind of at the mercy of what's going to happen we do hope as president biden said that we will be fully back um in school and fall with five day a week um instruction um governor murphy said there will not be a remote option could that change between now and september of course we've had things changed all along um i just wanted to

068reiterate to the public that just because we aren't making definite decisions on things doesn't mean that these discussions and these thoughts aren't in fact in our heads um i'd also like to thank everyone for calling in i hope once we're back in uh in-person meetings which may be uh next meeting we will be that they people continue to show up and participate in the process and um that's all i have for tonight i hope everyone has a safe memorial day weekend next weekend um and we've almost made it to the end of the school year and i look forward to attending the prom thank you uh miss passport would you like to go now yes thank you and i apologize i just i had a i couldn't hold it okay so um i have a

069couple of questions when will we be back in person uh because it's uh these meetings are really getting to a lot of us with the uh the way our computers are working acting up so i just like to know when we're going to be back in person i'd like to thank all the speakers for coming out tonight everybody has a right to their opinion and their voice and it should be heard max reuben thank you thank you thank you for concentrating on mental illness you know that um something that uh is very near and dear to me so i thank you and i look forward to tapping into the website to see what work you've done and i really want to um just stress that um with covid it's it's going to make matters worse

070and we're really going to have to think about addressing mental illness um sooner in the future than later uh thank you to ms lalama for your update thank you to all the other speakers that called in tonight um and i just want to say that memorial day we honor all the men and women who died while serving the united states of america because of their sacrifices we are able to have our freedoms that every one of us enjoy good night thank you miss basford um mr kenova uh unfortunately couldn't uh be here tonight he's not feeling well so um we send our best wishes to mr konova uh next we have mr daley okay thank you mr president um also be very brief tonight uh thank you uh to all the speakers who addressed the

071board tonight um as we continuously say in unison we do hear you we don't give a lot of chatter back and forth because um uh when we usually speak we speak on behalf of the board we do have our own individual opinions uh but um uh we all work extremely hard um i think this is the busiest year i've spent more hours involved in various aspects of the board as all my uh my fellow members have so we all are working very very hard that's because uh partly because of mr robertosi he's a tough task master and makes sure things get done and things move forward but that's a good thing um and again uh max another another great briefing uh you're certainly a credit uh not only to the school district but to your

072family and to yourself and we'll be seeing each other hopefully soon in person during either board meetings or certainly hopefully at graduation um and the last thing i'd like to just speak briefly about is upcoming is memorial day um everybody likes to thank veterans veterans day is in november memorial day is really set aside uh for those who've given their lives on be in battle on behalf of the freedom of our country and way of life over many decades and centuries from the civil war or from the revolutionary war right up to the present so we need to think of the sacrifice that's been made by those folks and i think that gives us a much deeper appreciation of how precious and sometimes fragile that our freedom and democracy is we have to be very

073careful that that's always on my mind i um two of my favorite movies is saving private ryan because that is one of the best movies that accolade accurately portrays uh what went on during that period of time and the sacrifice and the and what those individuals faced uh at that enduring world war ii um so that that's very important and um we also need to keep that in mind so with that i wish all those families who have a loved one a relative who's given that sacrifice we thank you so so much from the bottom of the heart our hearts as a veteran um i also take that very special too so all the best to all you and let's remember those who've given their lives in that sacrifice and connect that with the precious

074freedom that will always be fragile we must always keep that in mind as we go forward with that we'll see you at the next meeting thank you mr daley uh miss danny uh yes i'll just keep it brief um to reiterate um mr daley said yes um uh it's great uh the memorial day weekend we always celebrate but you know let's keep in mind the historical context and thank you to all the speakers and that's all i have for this evening thank you mr casper thank you mr president i'd first like to take this opportunity to um congratulate our students of the month i wasn't able to see all your accomplishments at the beginning of the month so i'd like to take the opportunity to thank you for working so hard even though there is

075a month left uh please continue to work throughout the year and we're almost there it's the final countdown everyone i just counted there are 22 days of school left so keep on going uh push it through i'm excited to see all the good things that are going to be happening within the next 22 days including the prom the moving up ceremonies and graduation i'd like to thank mr healey and i'd like to i wish you all the best in your future endeavors please know you still have a home here with us in clifton i'd also thank to i'd like to thank our teachers who are taking the organ gillingham training i had the pleasure of taking that as well i know you're doing it for the betterment of our student our student learning in your

076classroom so please know that your hard work is not going unnoticed and i'd like to just mention uh to everyone that uh take an opportunity this uh memorial day to remember all of our fallen and um as we appreciate what they have done by making the ultimate sacrifices for us thank you everyone and we'll see you next meeting thank you mr casper uh vice president abu drabo president smith thank you uh going i'm going to hit a couple of points that some board members already hit because the library a little bit so as miss beltran said um you know and and mr brunsiax mentioned uh in two different capacities where first of all hit misspelltron where uh the governor is saying back in school september um which we are all looking forward to and discussing

077how to go about that safely now to mr brunshinks comments um you know there is another school district that is bringing back their teachers and their their teachers for the month of june my the first thing out of my hand out of my mouth and i said some people were on this on the zoom and on the board and i said that is absolutely ridiculous make them come in for june when they can do it over the summer and start school fresh in september for students to come in late in the school year to add that extra fifth day a week i think is not the words not ridiculous but it throws a wrinkle into the sheets a little bit to continue the ship the path that we're on and continue fresh in september so

078and i apologize if you feel this way but i'm gonna say it but if you think that we wasted lives or whatever words you used exactly i i um respectfully disagree um mr max rubin you you know students come and go every year and we are always say we impressed we are taken back there's a credit from this education system in this district and also from your um family upbringing and you are definitely that representation max you are very well spoken carry yourself well hand yourself well great representative not only representing your family and your student body but definitely representing yourself as well uh and i applaud you and whatever you do [Music] hopefully we get to meet the new person that you get to have in uh introduction to from this person to this

079board so we can get start working closely with this representation well not us but the administration can mr hill you're a passionate man um i was fortunate enough to go to your appointment um over at pb and i did so for one reason we are not great friends we don't hang out at school outside of school districts but seeing you at football games the way you are passionate i don't see your day-to-day operations art woodrow um but see the passion that you have the students that stop and say mr healy how are you and you do and you reciprocate the same respect pv first of all will gain a tremendous person and clifton in retrospect will lose an amazing person um i give you you know as mr casper said you will always have a

080home in clifton you're an amazing individual i think you will excel and exceed danny is lucky because he'll get to see you still on superintendent round tables but hopefully you won't be a stranger to the football games over at clifton so that forever tells you i don't know how we have to figure this out but we gotta get we gotta play tv um and set that aside memorial day as mr daley says it's not uh a way it's we should always honor our veterans we should always mourn our veterans because it is our veterans who put their lives at stake um [Music] no matter where and when daily annually in the decades in the history of this kind in this history of this young country it's not their fault where their countries put them but

081yet they put their side to to protect the people um of where they are trying to protect which is the united states of america and i for one am very lucky um to live in this country many people don't know is i for one um am very particularly lucky because i have stories in my life at my young age of 35 but one is that if my parents waited an extra few weeks to a month and a half i actually would have been born about palestine not in the u.s so i'm very thankful to my times and living in this in birth in this country because there's rewards i get to reap that others do not with that said education being one of them education is the most important thing to bring awareness access to

082education should be an equal opportunity for all ages especially children from k to 12. we are blessed to live in a country that avails education for all we live in a world that education does not afford equal access whether it is here in the united states or abroad over the past decade and year and weeks particularly the past few weeks we have noticed an imbalance of equality not only in education but social and political recognition oppression and aggression um i'm gonna reciprocate mr awad's sentiments where my prayers my prayers and i am going to repeat my prayers again these are commissioner comments are with people across the world particularly in the middle east for all people to be treated equal without duress and occupation education while we get to reap education and freedom of education

083the quality of education in this country education is a light for children to understand the works of the world and how our community works in order for fair equitable education children should not be caught in the middle of such atrocities that have been occurring over the past weeks and years and decades and all over the world particularly the middle east in order for fair equitable children education excuse me children should be able to attend schools without worrying whether their homes will be destroyed or their neighborhoods being ethnically cleansed by groups of people by that said children should be taught the truth of the world and not one side of history that's why we should be thankful for where we are today and hope that that the rest of the world gets to live in peace

084as mr awa said and my prayers are with the children of the west bank and within 1948 borders and in gaza you know why do i make these comments i make these comments because as somebody was born in this country i'm turning 36 tomorrow and i'm damn proud that i live in this country it's darn proud i apologize okay but i've gone six times back to palestine where my parents the land of my grandparents i've been detained i've been strip searched i've looked down the barrel of a gun to protect my sister yes i can tell you that story okay that's only three occasions out of the six i've come where i and many you know i went past and i was on the board two years ago maybe two and a half years ago

085and i went live on a lot of opportunities when i was there and my daughter comes back and i'm telling you this story has nothing to do with education but it's education in terms of we are always learning in this world we are always learning daily in this world in our lives there's not one person that can tell you i know everything in the world and i'm not nothing to learn well guess what they're full of it in their line because that we learn every day and you know my daughter comes back and has a really nasty dream and i said what's wrong and she told me on her own imagination and her own understanding and i told my wife not to teach her or tell her what side is what or which side is

086which says one one was my mama was shot in the back and i was shot in the lake and she referred to at the borders with guns and permits that we've been asked for by not palestinians i'm not going to say who you can use your own imagination so when people say to me or say to others to say to me stop what you're writing on facebook on my own personal page guess what and i made that very public today and yesterday you can't stop me you can't stop me it is my freedom my first amendment i will speak i have stories nobody can stop me because those are my own personal pages these are my these are my commissioner comments we get to speak right and again these are my words so i thank

087you anybody has questions i'm more than happy to explain miss gutierrez you took yourself off on mute and just to make sure that they're your comments they're not comments made on behalf of the board again mrs whoever's texting you say that to me i've said that five six times already this is not towards you i see i see phones i see fingers i see people texting i know no one no one's texting me mr i know who it is okay no one is texting me mr robert drama i've said it five times already these are my comments my commissioner comments and i'm going to keep it that way thank you thank you uh vice president abu drabo um first i'd like to uh commend um mr mcconney and the cast program on a wonderful job

088of your cast movie program that was held last week it was uh it was a great night under the stars it was it was a little chilly that night a little windy um but uh seeing the crowd of people that came out uh to support the students that did a tremendous job putting these uh movies together some of them were very touching uh some were confusing at times others were very funny and um i i just have to commend all the students for such a great job that they did on this uh and mr mcconney under your leadership and for all the work that they have done in the cast program uh throughout the entire year um every morning uh they made sure that the morning announcements were done remotely uh mr mcconney did a

089phenomenal job of piecing uh them together um but for these students to be able to keep the upbeat atmosphere uh even though they were in a very difficult year but to have the upbeat to uh put on the cast program to put on the morning announcements um is such a credit to mr mccutty and his program and to all those students that were involved in that you did a great job uh and i commend you and uh you know i i don't i don't i don't want to um try not to single anyone out um because each of those movies were were great in their own way um only because uh max is our our student representative and max's movie that he put on um about ocd um and how many people suffer from that

090disorder um really touched me tremendously and i know it touched a lot of people that that saw that and um for him to come out and and tell us about the the problems that he had with it growing up and how he got help and um it it truly was a tremendous job max but all of the cast program did a did a phenomenal job um from uh weightlifters in the weight room um to uh scenic uh uh expressions uh it just really was a nice night out under the stars at the top field uh with a big screen and other than it being a little chilly i enjoyed myself a great deal and last night as well the the band put on their their opus uh and congratulations to um uh mr stefanski uh

091brian did a uh uh a great job in putting this all together the music was wonderful um and uh seeing so many people to come out to to hear our band to support our band um it was a great outdoor event um going forward maybe that's something that they'll continue to do outdoors because i thought it was just wonderful they had a little bit better weather than the cast program did it was uh it was a beautiful night last night but a tremendous job to our band and to uh to mr stepnesski for the great job that he does with them all year long um uh vice president abu drabba i i do have to second your comments about max reuben and i i thank him for the dedication that he's given to not only

092uh himself but his fellow students to the clifton high school community uh but to the entire clifton community to have a young man of his character to come out um and and speak to the board speak to the public uh keep us informed of information uh did a phenomenal job going out in the referendum and being part of the referendum committee uh and getting other fellow students involved max you did a tremendous job this year we appreciate your reports that you brought to the board you'll truly be missed and i hope that other students will follow in your footsteps and get involved get involved in student government get involved in being part of the cast program get involved in the band and sports and our robotics program is is a top-notch program and cheerleading and

093gymnastics and and so many opportunities we have for clifton kids to get involved in um it would be a shame if you went through your high school years and didn't take advantage of any of those opportunities so please listen to max follow in his footsteps i'm sure he'll be able to answer any questions you have but please uh get involved and put your name in the hat so that uh we have a great representative here taking over for max next year um all the retirees uh again like to to thank all the retirees for for uh the input that you gave to our students to our kids to the clifton community um for whatever time it was uh we truly appreciate you we truly thank you and i wish all our retirees the best and

094i i hate pulling out people uh to because i'm so appreciative of everybody and i don't want to forget people but there's just a few people that i i do have to mention because they they've um they've impacted me quite a bit and i know them well um first uh our uh our girls basketball coach coach in tilly uh coach has been a a dedicated coach for so many years in many different sports in football and baseball and basketball and um we appreciate your dedication to the kids and coach brian small brian has been our bowling coach um for a gazillion years and many people don't think bowling maybe is not that exciting but clifton bowlers do a phenomenal job they represent clifton well and brian small you you've been a great coach to those

095bowlers and i wish i had you as a bowling instructor because uh i'm i'm definitely not a good bowler um but i know the kids definitely benefited from you and i thank you and um and mr healey i you know the district is truly losing a remarkable educator uh remarkable principal um and just a a tremendous person uh if you've never had the opportunity to talk to mr healey he just you walk away feeling so much better about yourself and better about life and he just is been so supportive of clifton the clifton district and our kids and uh anyone who's had them as a principal they they have nothing but great things to say about mr healy and uh it's been an honor to know him we wish him all the best in his

096endeavors and um i know that he'll make uh pv a better place because of the foundation that clifton will be sending you off with so i thank him and thank all the retirees for uh for a great job um our students that have made the national honor society uh what a great tremendous um accomplishment this is some students all four years all four years being on the honors society on the honor roll and some of them doing that uh with a 4.0 average um and being involved in many extracurricular activities so i commend those students uh for doing a great job in uh in being on the in academic excellence and being awarded to the national honor society memorial day um it's just not the start to summer as many people think it is um

097a day off um but it's a day in memory a day in memory remembering all those people that have fought for all of us to be in a country to be able to be free to speak our minds to speak what we believe to have a proper education um what a great place uh the united states is and and we truly are so thankful and grateful to all those uh present and those that have gone before us uh that served our country and continue to serve our country to help us remain free um i salute all of you and i remember remind our board members that our our band will be marching in the memorial day parade and that each commissioner is invited as well to march uh with the uh elected officials um so

098um i hope if you're not down the shore somewhere that the board uh could uh could support memorial day and march with our fantastic band um i want to uh are my two colleagues on the board um vice president abu drabo and mr awad i send out my my thoughts and my prayers to you and to your families for for all that's taking place in the middle east we just hope that peace can be in the minds of everybody and that peace can be uh something that's remembered and can come quickly um so those that may not be listening to us we hope that heads will get together and realize that peace is the better way um so um on that um i thank my board members again for being uh so diligent in um

099in your committees in your committee reports um those that are on negotiations uh the long hours of doing that and this year we have numerous negotiations to go through so uh and just so the public knows that the board does not rest over the summer the board continues to work it works hard our committees will still continue to meet and i thank my fellow commissioners for the great job they're doing in committees uh it really shows and uh and uh vice president abu drabo um i wish you a a very healthy and happy birthday as as those numbers go up our experiences of life also go up and um i know you've experienced some uh wonderful things in your life so far and i wish you uh peace and happiness in uh in all your

100years ahead so uh happy birthday and many more and uh on that i um i uh turn it over to dr robinsozzi thank you president smith uh tonight we uh the board voted to amend the 2022-23 school calendar and um this was as a result of a discussion that we held at our last meeting regarding the spring break traditionally in clifton the spring break had always um taken place uh the week prior to easter sunday and uh that was unlike many other districts so mr konova had suggested that we take a look at perhaps doing what many other districts do for the 2022-23 school year not next year and we surveyed our parents surveyed our staff and as a result of that survey was an overwhelming response that we got in favor of changing uh

101the spring break to to be in line with more what most of the other school districts too so 896 staff responded to the survey and 95 of them wanted this change uh and 1339 families responded and that breakdown was 85 percent wanted that change so um i just point that out because i just want to reiterate that this process does work right this board exists because you represent the community and if there's an issue that comes up you're supposed to bring it to my attention i'm supposed to get feedback and we're supposed to make a decision um for the betterment of of the community and so it's a small thing uh but i think it it shows that uh this board listens and i think that's a very very very good quality for a board

102of education as many of you all already know the governor governor murphy has lifted many of the covert restrictions in new jersey i want to reiterate and be very clear that many of the things that have been lifted do not necessarily impact our schools specifically in regards to the masking requirement the governor has specifically stated that um the the rules for our schools will not be changing um this school year however some good news came out of in regards to having outdoor events and a number of things like that so we're going to have a full high school graduation at our stadium we're still going to have to social distance but our the class of 2021 is going to be able to have a full graduation it's going to be able to have a senior

103prom it's going to be able to have a wonderful night on june 1st we have the uh senior night award ceremony so a lot of the things that are that our kids missed out on last year at least won't happen again to the class of 2021 i'd like to recognize i know miss lalama spoke about it earlier tonight about the cea pride and fast events that the the pride money that that they've received from the njea has brought in 190 000 over the last few years for programs that directly impact our students and their families just in the last couple weeks they started the latino incident the latino institute excuse me which will benefit many of our families there was a trivia game show night which i wanted to attend i don't know if it

104was the night we had a meeting or something but there was a trivia night where students got lots of prizes and it's really about this family engagement piece um and it just shows that our teachers do go above and beyond all the time not just during the school day but planning these events at night and it's nice that the njea it's more than nice that the njaa has supplied the cash funds to do these projects uh we had a speaker tonight who was discussing the esser funds and i want to i want to thank miss austin for bringing that up the esser funds are the funds that we're going to be utilizing for summer school summer enrichment this summer and after school enrichment next school year um that's one of the things that we'll be

105using the esser funds for uh for summer and and after school uh learning enhancement um and as for what school is gonna look like in september there are still a lot of variables that we're not sure but i can tell you this unless the governor changes his mind there will be no virtual option all students will be back or staff will be back full time if there is a student with an immunocomp immunocompromised condition then that student will be given the option of home instruction like in the past like prior to the pandemic if a student needed home instruction that was arranged and as for the three feet rule if the three free rule is still in place in september we are very confident that we'll still be able to bring back all of our

106students with the appropriate social distancing besides that we don't know yet what it's going to look like if a student is test positive for uh for covert or if a staff member tests positive for copay does that mean a whole class is going to need to quarantine we don't know what that means we know for sure that students and staff who are vaccinated will not have to quarantine so the public service announcement vaccines are now available for children ages 12 and above there's information on our website and on our social media of places where parents choose to get their children vaccinated they may um and finally uh for tonight on at our next meeting on june 10th i will be inviting the teachers who were the recipients of the governor's educator of the year award

107and the educational support professionals of the year to be recognized by this board of education to be recognized for that award is a tremendous accomplishment it's traditionally what we call you know the teacher of the year in each school building or the educational support professional of the year in each school building to get that award is a great honor to get that award for this year um arguably is even a bigger honor um and and and finally um let's all hope for uh peace uh in this world and uh and what's been a very difficult year for many people throughout the world some have it much more difficult than others so um we should count our blessings we should be thankful for what we have here in clifton and uh i am very thankful and

108very thankful for this board i'm very thankful to be in clifton and i look forward to doing many many great things together in the future thank you and have a wonderful night thank you dr robitosi okay we'll now move on to uh new business we do have uh an item for a new business dr orbitosi would you like to uh thank you mr smith uh commissioners at our last meeting we um voted the board voted to uh cancel the june 24th meeting that was on the calendar um and the board also uh voted to give 12-month employees off for those three snow days which i can tell you is very much uh appreciated by the 12-month staff and they're very very thankful for that our next meeting isn't scheduled until july 29th uh i am

109concerned that not having a meeting from june 10th until july 29th um that there is going to be too much time in between where business uh will need to get done so i'm proposing that we change the july 29th date to july 8th or another date earlier than july 29th that is convenient for all the commissioners if there's any discussion on that is there anyone that uh right now sees a conflict with uh july the 8th nope i'm seeing uh no none so uh we'll make a uh motion outside to uh i'm just outside we'll make a someone uh entertain a motion please i moved so mr casper second by then mr uc mr smith i apologize before we vote uh mr uc did um let me know the of a potential issue that i

110want him to bring to the attention of the board yeah i just want to look our august meeting is at the end of august correct i'm just looking real quick august yeah the august meeting is near the end like do you will you need another no need another meeting in between so yeah after dr robert tosi told me this i i thought it would be while we did a late one it it's better for closing out the books of the prior year and because we can get more done in july when we're closing the books out but we could have a july 8th meeting but it might be better to up the august meeting then um if that's okay because then there were going to be two months again almost um let's see removing the

111june meaning you know you may have to have two in august it's that's up to you you know what yeah i like i like having that august meeting late only because of late hires if we need to hire people for the school year but i'm certainly not opposed to having another meeting uh earlier in august maybe i know people have vacation schedules and stuff so you know people can't make it it's certainly understandable but what if we did the first week in august like would that work of course that would definitely work i mean we could schedule it and if it has to be canceled or removed i mean that that's fine too i mean so on that it looks like thursday august 5th mr smith yeah that's what it looks like august 5th um

112so why don't we uh wanna so if the uh mr um miss bassford would you amend your motion uh so we'll change the um our july july meeting to july the 8th and our august meeting will add an additional meeting on august the 5th we'll still keep the second august meeting unless administration advises us that it's not needed thank you thank you mr smith just an fyi that obviously i might not be here my sister's getting married out of state so and that's fine with me i want me to um i might not be july the 8th um i'm planning a vacation so yeah it's it's understandable board you know the board has other commitments and things but as long as we have a majority that could be there we have to set some dates

113here so all right so uh we'll have a roll call on moving the july meeting to july 8th and adding a august the 5th meeting it was first by uh miss pass for the second by who i'm sorry oh it was first by mr casper second by miss passport thank you mr awad yes miss bassford yes miss beltran yes mr daley yes miss danny yes mr casper yes yes mr aberdrabbo yes and mr smith yes so july 29th is is done right we're not we're not meeting july 29th correct correct so we'll let our next meeting will be on june the 10th after that will be july the 8th after that august the 5th and then our regularly scheduled one in august is 22nd 26 i'm sorry well 26th okay the pro appropriate advertisements will

114go out about those meetings so that the public is aware of those changes mr smith if there's no further business i like to make a motion to adjourn i have something still okay mr daley had informed me that he's pulling his um request for an executive session item um so we won't have to meet back in executive session on mr daley's item is there uh anything under new business um yes ms bashford yes can we get a firm data when we're coming back in person or uh are we gonna be coming back soon i asked my question i just wanna know if we could just have some kind of idea yeah uh i'll i'll talk to administration we'll see how we are on the uh the internet issues and uh because we're gonna have the

115the same issues that we have here we'll have uh still back at the uh the high school if they if we have not corrected them so uh we'll uh i'll be in discussion with the administration and i will inform the board thank you vice president abu drabo president smith thank you smith mr abdullah excuse me just uh i have a comment on miss bassford's question unless if you don't mind um i just wanted more of a question for anybody or maybe maybe for miss gutierrez do we know yet if we go back in person are we still going to be required to do the hybrid kind of meeting or can can we when we make that decision can we just be back in person um and have a traditional meeting did we have there been

116any guidance on that that anybody's aware of so yeah i can speak to that so if we're able to provide a meeting a location for a meeting that's large enough to provide social distancing whatever that number is because right now i don't know what that number of feet is i think it's three i'm not sure um so that people will not be turned away if they come if the public comes then you can have the medium in person without having to have it uh also remotely but you can so obviously then the public can come and speak in person but you can also provide the public with the opportunity to send in comments by email up to a certain time before the meeting or up to the start of the meeting in case they don't

117want to come in person they're at least as if that's that's the latest uh that might change between the next few days but right now so it so basically the the high school auditorium is large enough given the what you normally expect of public relations i'm a little confused a little confused on our last discussion you had told me that um that as long as there is a pandemic that we have to still offer a zoom a virtual right and now that's been clarified some more so that we can as long as we're able to allow people to come in so that we don't turn anyone away so like you couldn't have it in the boardroom i don't believe the regular boardroom because it's too small for everybody but if you had it if you

118have it in the high school auditorium that's large enough to accommodate a large number of people and not have to turn anyone away then you can handle it that way but that's the famous materials as long as there are there's a capacity limitation on the inside of the gathering that's still inhibiting people from attending technically maybe unless we do like a waiting room in the case three cafeteria and then people can file out and then next bunch of proof comes in right so unless but you're generally not unless you're expecting a thousand people to show up which generally speaking in person you don't get that you get even if you have all the people that normally would come to the board room they all fit in the high school just from i mean i'm not

119a an engineer or anything but it seems to me that there's enough room in the high school auditorium to fit all of those people so okay so we so we no longer are required to have a zoom during the pandemic as long as we can allow people to come in in person and speak yes if you were discussing so it's on a case-by-case basis if the subject was going to be something that you're going to expect you know a thousand parents to show up then you know you don't have enough room for them but on a general basis you're just anticipating your normal number your usual number of members of the public and you have a space that's large enough to accommodate that then you can do that not every school district has has a

120an auditorium of the capacity that clifton high school has right so then that if we went back in public then public the public to address the board would only be in person no zoom or virtual option you wouldn't have to do zoom it would be recommended that you give the public the option to send in comments um if you're not going to do a zoom you could do it you don't have to but you could give them the option of sending in email comments for example up to a certain time up to the up to the start of the board meeting okay now we also had a discussion about um so board members that can't attend a meeting for whatever reason but can attend virtually are we required to have that option available so right

121now as long as the health crisis as long as there's still a public health crisis and the governor hasn't declared that to be over yet although there's been this there's been talk about it in the news that he might be declaring the public health crisis over i don't i don't know where that stands but as long as the public health crisis exists there can be the option of having a remote board meeting if there is no public health crisis this rema the remote doesn't work there would have to be some kind of a special board policy adopted to allow for remote access to a meeting such that the members of the public can hear what the board member is saying and can hear the participation okay so if a board member because in the past

122if a board member was sick they just stayed home sick and they weren't part of the meeting so now because there's still a pandemic correct if a board member was sick and at home or whatever reason they could have the option of attending the meeting through a zoom as long as the public could hear what that board member was saying is that what i'm hearing that is correct that's what i'm saying before the before the pandemic a board of education couldn't have remote uh sorry there was no option for remote but there was an option for calling in if the board had a policy or if there was some kind of a court order that allowed for that to happen and most boards of education don't have that kind of a policy that board members

123call in because then there's a then there's a um you know it's almost like a slippery slope do you have you have one or two board members but what if you have all nine board members just calling in and then you know the public is just left there with a bunch of tip with a telephone so there's no clear cut answer on that but clearly during the pandemic there was a specific there was a specific order that allowed for remote meetings so that exists until the health crisis as long as the health crisis continues when the governor declares that there's no more health crisis or when the legislature adopts a bill saying there's no more health crisis then the zoom the the remote option is is over they're arguing over that bill right now they're

124arguing over that bill for the record the high school auditorium has 1062 seats yeah it's that's big so the issue doesn't seem to be mr smith as i say it doesn't seem to be the public the issue seems to be the board members being virtual and that's kind of where we had our technical issues in the past haven't we well yeah you know the the issue becomes if if if we still have to offer a virtual issue then we still have an issue at the high school we still have an issue with the tv station all that if we don't have to offer any of that and we're just going back live as we did before and we're just not doing it at school six because of the restrictions um then we're just live so

125that's what we're trying to get the answers to maybe there's some other technological alternative that can be made for board members who are not able to come in person i don't know uh miss password do you know offhand uh i'm putting you on the spot you know offhand if we have such a policy no we have a policy to offer remote because we changed that last year but we've never done anything else in our policy book because we've never faced it uh we we don't even we don't we've never instituted the calling policy either because uh back in the ten years that i've been on the board the board the pass board uh felt that it was not appropriate to allow somebody to call in during the meeting only unless there was a special vote

126going on if they were sick and we voted on that one provision but no not at all right so mr lisa that was my next question so unless we have a policy a board member cannot call in and vote on something is that correct during normal times during normal times but since we're still in the pandemic since we're still in a health crisis all i'm suggesting is that perhaps there's some other alternative that would accommodate being able to be in person and accommodate whatever whichever board member is not able to come in person and i don't know i don't have the answer to that for example we could have a a phone a speaker phone in place of the board member who's not there so they can hear us talking and the public could hear

127them talking that's i guess i would say that was that would be like an accommodation that we'd be making for that board member only because of the pandemic but if the emergency ends at the end of the month which people are saying the governor might end the emergency at the end of the month then it's back to normal so under normal circumstances a board member can't call in and vote unless there's a specific board policy that allows for that that change and so you can discuss that you can you can decide whether or not you want to have that policy and have certain parameters under which that would occur that's up to you that's up to you up to all of you we could bring it back to policy i i would yeah i think

128it should be come back i'll bring it back to policy in this way it can be discussed if anybody has anything they want to include please email me so we get it i get to told the members and i'll do some research like i always do to see what other districts are doing with the state all right vice president abu drabo you had a thank you president smith yeah uh i found out last week that dr valente who many probably already know from ccms the old principal passed away three years ago and i don't remember if we ever did a resolution on his behalf after him passing mr uchi oh sorry through the president to the superintendent if we can find out if we can do that uh for our next meeting um i for

129one thought he was an amazing phenomenal individual and great principal and it has had impact on my life and i'm sure others who went through that through that individual school um if we did not i if i like to request that we do some sort of resolution in his honor i know his uh didn't even know that his daughter teaches in the district i found out through another avenue that somebody told me he passed away and it was a shock to me so if we could do something and if you can give it to his daughter that'd be i think that would be great all right administration will look into that and uh get back to the board on that thank you i have one i have one other question um yes how are we

130handling uh mask wearing if a student has uh um issues with handling that uh are we making special accommodations for the students and what's the protocol that they should what what do they have to do because i got i got somebody asked me today so um i'll i'll answer that and i'll ask janina to add on if i miss anything uh we have had very few issues uh miss vassar but as you stated if a parent contacted you their first step would be in contacting their child's teacher or the principal to make them aware that the child is having an issue we can certainly make accommodations for that child to have either more mask breaks or some other accommodations you know depending on what the issue is um the masking rule is still in effect

131janina the main thing that has been done for any students having issues um has been training working with our district behaviorists so in short miss basswood i would have the parent first contact the teacher um and the principal and i'm sure that they will make some sort of accommodation for the child if for any reason they are unsuccessful in getting the assistance they need please just have them contact my office thank you all they're listening so and um i'm gonna i just wanna about the policy we had uh talked about having committee meetings virtually um i think we we should bring that back to policy to put it in writing so we have something on the books and then this way we can address maybe all this other um things in in policy as well

132like i said if anybody has anything get it to me and i'll make sure the policy committee reviews it and we'll discuss thank you uh dr robertosi not to prolong the conversation but again because it's so unclear uh so people were asking last night at the at the band thing so the governor released the outdoor wearing of masks um for vaccinated people i believe so have we updated anything in our policy that any event outside is now master not required people didn't know what to do last night mrs smith it's my understanding that that still does not apply to school events with the exception of njsiaa sponsored athletic events i will double check and make sure and send that guidance out to the board that is my understanding right now i'm certainly hoping that that

133changes by the time all of our other outdoor events are happening in june when it's going to be hot you know i can't imagine all of our students and their families sitting at graduation with masks on outside when many of them will be vaccinated as a superintendent i'm required to enforce the policy as is so as bad as the policy will enforce it but i'm hoping that that changes okay so as of now the policy still remains that he at a school events the mass still be worn unless you get other clarification from it you'll let us know yes sir okay everything's changing yeah well absolutely every day but daily but didn't didn't the governor release that of all outdoor public space events not necessarily not to schools because that's how that's how i read

134the executive order because the schools follow the new jersey department of health guidance and that has not changed maybe it will it could be you know it could be changed tomorrow morning or it could have been changed and they just didn't tell you and and dr rotozi um or through you president smith dr josie um if a student is having a mask issue would a shield suffice in lieu of under our current policy no no okay i just want to click on that thank you shield is not cbc compliant yeah no i i just wanted to i just want i i mean if i remember correctly but i just wanted i don't remember if that were those the words that's why i said no when superintendent but also this way the public can understand that

135it's not as well thank you yeah all right mr daley i'll entertain a motion motion to attract adjourn second uh by mr daley seconded by vice president albertravo any objection seeing none meaning adjourned thank you all