April 15, 2021 - Clifton Board of Education Meeting

001we'll be live in about 10 seconds not even we're good to go ah look at that all right we're okay yes we're good to go mr his audio mr smith we can't hear you flag followed by a brief moment of silence all right nobody's standing why not excuse me tv needs your attention i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you mister c roll call please yes mr awad mr watt miss basford here miss beltran left but she's joining right now she's coming back rejoining right now i'll come back mr kenobo here mr daley he is not present miss dan here mr casper mr abbado bear mr smith here we have a quorum all

002right the uh mission statement mr casper would you please read sure the mission of the clifton school district in an open and reciprocal community partnership is to provide all students with a quality education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a democratic society in an ever-changing world the new jersey open public meetings act new jersey open public meetings law was enacted into the right to the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies with this offender interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the clifton board of education is notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place thereof posted at the city clerk's office clifton public

003library administration building senior citizen nutrition center on cable tv in the local press on the district's website and mailed to presidents of parent teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policy zero one six eight before we begin i just like the public to know uh that our meeting today is uh being broadcast virtually uh the reason being there are uh there were and uh still continue to be technical issues with broadcasting the meeting as dual meaning virtually and live we are working on the issues at the high school however issues with doing the dual meeting uh may continue to be an issue and we've called the the people from channel 77 to come in and uh we will be working on hopefully a solution to that issue uh so we felt

004it was most important after all the emails and complaints that we had after last meeting of not being able to um for the public not being able to hear us to see us uh that we felt it was most important to be able to get the message to all of you and to all of you to us in the best possible way and right now that is virtually so that is why this meeting was moved to a virtual meeting okay we'll move on to adoption of minutes do i have a motion we do have a recognition and a word um oh i'm sorry i missed that i'm sorry i'm doing this i'm doing this from uh paper right now uh recognition and award um mr abedrabo is that the one uh yeah thank you president

005smith i wanted to say thank you uh public content salsa debate abdullah grade 12 collaboratively worked with miss beth selenina chs graphic design art teacher in the high school pbsis team to develop the clifton high school pbsis logo the mustang academy and the chs pbsis grades 10 to 12 program would like to formally thanks that sabine for her spectacular new local contribution on the direction of chs graphic design teacher miss beth slanina uh said seven's favorite classes include math american history and art when asked which chs teachers have been most inspiring those extra special individuals included mr deluca uh musico and the newly appointed chs vice principal mr waka mr deluca for his exponential amount of space patience and advice miss seco for her mentoring and for constantly providing the perfect learning environment and finally

006mr walker her favorite wwms teacher who made class fun and always knew how to put a smile on her face during sesame's journey at chs she also involves herself with extra extra activities such as the national art honor society and the chs girls basketball teams sesame's future aspirations involve becoming a graphic designer writing and illustrating her own comics selling personal independent art her plans also include attending college and studying graphic design fine arts and drama says to be his passion for passion for art began for art began kindergarten when she first learned to draw when asked what inspired her most to construct the chspbsis logo she mentioned wanting to improve upon the old style and yet the desire to make it more authentic and unique this led to a bit more banner style and eventually

007the new logo thank you sesame and thank you mr smith thank you thank you would you like to uh would you like to say a few words um i just like to thank everybody for this opportunity i'd like to thank my parents who support me and well i have my mom next to me yeah thank you and congratulations we're very proud of you mr smith and to dr roberts aussie i know dr talking i can't hear you and he's had he's had issues all week with his uh with his internet mine was just tonight well he's trying to figure that out is there is there any way you think we can get this has to be a certificate of some nature because i feel like not just her but anybody any student or yes the

008administration takes care of that yet yep and we can get the resolution um if president smith if you want to call for a motion to pass it yes motion to move this please second discussion roll call i apologize who was the first i'm sorry you've said mr casper okay uh mr awad miss bastford yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes miss danny yes mr casper yes mr avadraba yes mr smith yes motion carries dr robertosi is asking if paula regoza could speak absolutely miss rogoza hi everyone thank you from dr robertson and the board of education commissioners i i wanted to take a moment and just really uh extend my gratitude and my appreciation for mississippi's uh contribution uh to the positive behaviors support in schools framework as the high school gets ready to implement

009next fall miss the view the legacy that you're leaving behind well outlast your four years at the high school but will certainly live long and prosper right to keep it in this star trek world i just wanted to thank you i think um mr of the trump other trouble didn't understand um talking about your uh your goals and your merits so far but again thank you for leaving your amazing legacy and best of luck in your studies in graphic design fine arts drama and thank you for certainly making it a date a great day to be a must with all gratitude and thank you and a great sense of um just all around thank you and all of your teachers and peers we'll take this forever have a wonderful evening thank you everyone thank you

010very much uh mr rogoza can anybody hear me now all right i'm back congratulations uh salsabeal we are very proud of you thank you mr smith you made it muted you beat me i switched [Music] i think you're actually in twice you got to close one of them i just put one in the waiting room so are you good now mr smith [Applause] okay i think we got it now all right adoption of minutes please i have a motion so move my vice president abu dravo second second bye mr kanova discussion smith yes smith uh executive board minutes are wrong i was not president as me as being president would you make those uh corrections please mr oosie of course the one i'm looking at march 18th oh yes it does say absent i'm sorry

011yeah there's a lag on here never mind thank you sorry okay any other discussion seeing non-roll call mr awad yes miss bassford yes to the regular minutes uh an abstain on the exec miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr annie yes mr casper yes mr abedrabo yes all around and mr smith yes oh she cares uh mr you see mr smith i'm uh it's jim daley i'm in the meeting welcome mr daley gotcha all right um we just uh finished adoption of the minutes uh we'll move on uh communication and announcements we have none no reading of for oh yes we do first policy reading uh two five six zero live animals in school miss bassford did you want to read that no it's the first adoption it's just that i want to call the

012attention to the board members of the second paragraph that we uh we agreed upon if anybody has any changes could they please contact the policy committee we'll make the adjustments and meet okay noted for first reading all right next we have a presentation of reports from administration uh we have none all right next move on to board committee reports and uh we have quite a few so again i asked my colleagues if they would kindly um summarize their minutes so that uh we have about eight or nine of them here um so if we could start with the hsa meeting minutes miss bassford yes uh we met with the hsa committee met on march 24th with um school 14. um it was a meeting that encompassed of many people and um the administration introduced the

013executive i mean the administration parents teachers from the board was myself mr smith and mr canova um dr robertazi once again did his presentation and there were questions and answers from the um the audience and we ended at uh 7 57 pm do you want me to do the rest of them mr smith yes please okay there was another hsa meeting with school 15. it started at 6 30. uh once again we had administration and the school principal dr batten walker president smith and myself were present at the meeting dr robert tussie did his presentation and there were questions and answers from the audience and that meeting ended at 7 28. um school 3 school three um had a very large um presentation uh and um excuse me had a large participation of students it

014started at seven o'clock the presentation was made by dr robert tauzi he introduced the principal lynette park the teachers and staff and also the hsa board uh president was uh mr smith myself and mr canova a brief uh summary was um of the meeting was uh made by mrs canova um dr obatazi did the presentation and questions and answers were fielded from the superintendent um let me see if there any other ones um that's it anyone have any questions okay seeing none next would be uh the diversity and inclusion committee uh vice president abu drabo thank you president smith this is actually very exciting to have our first diversity meeting under this board's um as a committee the diversity inclusion committee began at 1 30 p.m board attendees were board president jim smith chairperson and

015board of vice president kim abu drabo board members frank casperer and commissioner dana beltran administrators dr danny robertozzi uh superintendent martijan and vice principal of chs um hamda teachers laura la lama carli carlo rodriguez raymond burns courtney terry and jacqueline turk and we had some students and further safety and precautions we put their initials and all a-h-m-m-v-o and r-a number one on the list was greetings and introductions the media began with greetings and rejection of two new members both students introduced themselves to the overall group and gave a brief explanation of their previous experiences with diversity and inclusion the students discussed their attended attendance of the summit on racism in education number two inclusivity uh vice president spoke about the importance of inclusivity and education mr abdullah mentioned that although race is the forefront of

016the conversation is not the only part of the conversation he spoke about the importance including race gender sexual orientation and ability as an equal part of the conversation number three student relation chs vice president mr hamdu shared the overall committee the results of the student relations subcommittee student to student teacher to student and administrator to student aspects of student relations were discussed the goal is increasing positive interactions between students teacher and administrators in order to promote a positive school climate number four professional development mr hamda shared with the overall committee the results of the professional development subcommittee teachers and administrators should be given a menu of professional development to choose from the goal is to give teachers and administrators the opportunity to educate themselves on cultural differences different resources available for professional development were discussed

017number five mentoring and orientation mr hamda shared with the overall committee the result of the mentoring and orientation subcommittee the goal is to create a pipeline of mentorship from the elementary level to the high school level the importance and benefits of mentorship for students at all levels were discussed number six curriculum mr hamda shared with the overall subcommittee the result of the curriculum subcommittee the goal is to create a more inclusive curriculum that would give agency to underrepresented communities different resources that can be used to amplify the curriculum were discussed the meeting adjourned at 2 40 p.m committee chairman fema abroad dr robertosi and vice principal mr hamda will work collaboratively to determine the date of the next diversity and inclusion committee meeting um as the chair of this committee mr smith if i may

018to you dr robertazi and i'm sure he's launching because he always quantities his meetings uh i want to thank um vice principal hamda uh for putting these notes together and for starting off with this lead um and as well as all of our teachers and administrators our teachers are very passionate and i repeat very passionate every single one of them that were listed and named today not that the others aren't the ones who serve on this committee that we're able to hear from and understand from have shown what it means not only about race but also about ability also about gender race sexual orientation they have made sure every single um part of diversity has been represented at the table and i appreciate them for it because that's what diversity is it's not just one

019thing it's all that encompass diversity so please dr robertazi uh and i'll tell them myself but as our ceo of this district please pass on my thank you and and i appreciate every single one of them any questions all right as a reminder this committee started as dr robertazi's purview uh as well as uh president danny last year appointed certain uh board members as liaisons and then president smith created this as a committee and now it's a collaborative i i mean miss basford mr daley you guys would tell me i've never seen administration and boards like this work together collaboratively for the for the district if there has been in the past i may be wrong but this is the first of my what i know about um so i'm very proud of this thank

020you thank you uh vice president abu drabo mr smith yes um jim daly and then i think seniority goes jim daly lucy and myself are the longest sitting members on the board and i can tell mr abbado that with any committee that i have ever sat on that we've had staff or s or teachers involved with they have been 100 percent on board and given more than 100 of themselves so i have nothing but positive i don't know if mr daley can chime in on this or mr mistani but um we have had successful committees in the past with everybody that has um really stepped up to the plate so that i can report yes jim daley i would agree with mrs pass yes concur thank you all next we will have our facilities meeting

021minutes um miss beltran are you there yes i am you guys hear me okay yes we can one second okay so the very first thing that we discussed um the meeting was from 4 to 5 pm on april 7th we discussed uh the roof replacement of the transportation center as well as the wood replacement at ccms both are in dire need of being done and will be done um ccms we shared some issues that pertain to the hvac being installed in that building um is to however we were told that it would not have any um issue if we do wind up having to put units on that roof uh we talked about the welcome center bathroom renovation that needs to be done um the project would only be a tv project it'll be done

022um in the budget-friendly way the admin building we talked about new parking lot options uh we need to make ada handicap spots we need to make sure the parking lot flows better so that people can actually use the new welcome center um again we talked about the cgs kitchen renovation update which should be completed by the start of this new school year um right now we're in a little bit of a delay due to a fineman uh finding of um asbestos we need to do an abatement uh which should delay the project about four weeks and then we'll get going with it to be done by the new school year uh we talked about some observations that were seen during board members school visits which include the trees at school 16 um as well as

023some handicapped parking district-wide that needs to be handled and then we talked about uh tentative capital projects for the 2021-2022 year um and some exciting things are going to be planned and that's pretty much it thank you any questions all right anyone have any questions i do um mr smith regarding this uh trees at school 16 if we do get prices on the removal of them some of them are lotus trees that wood is worth a lot of money lotus wood is extremely uh valuable and i would be very mindful of what happened the last time some of the live trees were cut down by mistake uh and they were carted out and if we can make any money on selling those lotus trees that would be something that i would um be very interested

024in knowing about but the wood is very valuable i would take it back to committee once we discussed that thank you mr smith um has facilities um [Music] i don't know if commissioner beltran and commissioner um conoveron at the time there was a um survey conducted um of the school 16 trees and there is a report out i think mr uchi does have that information um i don't know if that would help for you to read that before making any decisions on the trees uh but i do agree that that area does definitely need to be cleaned up and so many you know so many different aspects can be used with that area if used wisely um so i just want to remind you of the report that was conducted i think about two years

025ago mr uchi soon a half maybe yeah around that two or three years ago and we have it and it's going to be brought it's going to be brought to committee with consideration of quotes that are obtained great thank you okay moving next uh mr daily uh finance mr president i just have a question no i'm sorry mr kanova i i don't i'm not seeing my full screen for some reason that's fine um i just had a question on the uh the roof replacement is that a full roof replacement or is that just like a patch up on on the part of the roof the transportation center is a full roof basement and the ccms um the middle school replacement is just over the gymnasium okay thank you miss mr smith uh could you have

026somebody else read the minutes because i don't have full access to the text on the device i'm on right now yeah mr canova would you mind reading the finance okay uh one member is president uh jim daley dana beltran joe canova and president jim smith administration president danny robertson mark martijan michael ushi and eric tomeskovich meeting time was 5 to 6 15 p.m items of discussion additional air scrubbers mr uchi discussed with the committee the emergent need to purchase additional 200 air scrubbers and filters for the purpose of placing additional airscovers in large rooms to have a stock of extras the district had previously purchased an additional 1000 the district will now be utilizing an additional funding that was awarded from the elementary and secondary school emergency relief from the esser fund through the coronavirus

027relief and supplementary appropriations act cep eligibility mrs informed the community committee that the district has taken the initial steps related to the community eligibility provision the district has submitted that required direct certification information by school site for eligibility determination by the nj department of agriculture to determine what school sites would qualify to be eligible offer meals at no cost all students that are eligible at a school site administration will update the committee once the state reviews the applications as to what school school sites are deemed eligible auditor contract fiscal year 21 22 and 21 21-22 mr chi discussed with the committee that the district has not appointed an auditor for the 2021 school year and is required to appointment to be in compliance with regulations he informed the committee that the district had previously proposed

028requested proposals for the 2021 school year and the district received only one response that response was from lurch vinci and higgins llp which will be up for approval on the april 15th board agenda mr uchi informed the committee that the district should appoint an auditor prior to the 2122 school year to be in compliance the administration will obtain a proposal from large vincent higgins and bring it back to committee at future time for a 21-22 school year bus lease mr uchi discussed with the committee that the district is planning on purchasing through a five-year lease agreement two 54-passenger and two 24 passenger buses the district has obtained quotes through a state contract vendor the total quote is 359 thousand six hundred and twenty dollars the financing will be through hunterton educational services commission will be

029soliciting bids for the lease purchasing financing on april 20th once the financing bids are received they will be brought back to committee that concludes the minutes any any questions any questions okay seeing none uh next we'll move with uh policy miss bassford yes the policy committee he met yesterday april 14th at 503 p.m in attendance for president smith myself uh board members joe konova and dana beltran in the administration dr danny robitusde mark teigen uh luis ross also president uh president was our board attorney delise gutierrez the committee discussed how the board commissioners should respond to complaints or concerns from the public i provided myself provided guidance from new jersey school boards for the committee to review and we're going to discuss it in the next meeting to prepare a draft a reply or verbage

030to be included into emails commissioners emails with the approval of the board um the committee then re renew reviewed and discussed policies relating to dress code for board commissioners and possible consequences for not abiding to the policy or bylaw miss gutierrez advised that the board cannot censor or reprimand the commissioner for not adhering to the bylaw the board however can address policy of bylaw non-compliance in executive session or at a board retreat the committee agreed to add the dress code language to the remote from the remote policy to the regular policy or bylaw and an encouragement or suggestion for board commissioners and will be present presented at the next meeting the committee continued uh with discussion of policy five one one one and the policy about allowing student children of staff members residing in other

031towns to enroll in clifton schools at a tuition paying student ms gutierrez will review the policies suggest language and safeguards to ensure district interests discussions was held on what staff members would be eligible how much tuition would be charged and the definition of a child upon presentation to the committee of ms gutierrez recommendation the committee will finalize proposal to submit to the board the committee reviewed and agreed upon policy zero five five six zero live animals in schools to comply with the updated version provided by strauss esme which was presented for first reading tonight our meeting adjourned at 6 18 and mr ross submitted the minutes thank you mr ross any questions i do president smith i may vice president abu drabo thank you um so this whole um dress code of board members i'm

032really curious what's the definition of the proper dress code um i mean what i'm wearing is that not proper is it somebody i mean i'm i'm just curious to understand what is what has preempted this to do so and if our board attorney is saying that there isn't any sort of consequences to be had um on based on first amendment rights um what is the point of spending effort and time in doing so if it's not going to get us anywhere i'm just curious may i respond president smith yes go ahead please okay so this was actually discussed two meetings ago and i asked for it to be put back on the agenda because we had unfinished business on it and we were going to ask the attorney to be present because we didn't want

033to make any decisions it was prompted because a statement that was made by one of the um the members of the audience at a last meeting we did adopt in i believe last year i don't know the exact date about a remote policy that had language in and about board member dress code and the board member dress code speaks to a remote meeting about business casual so um being that the um the the community member made a comment i brought it back to committee to talk about having that language influxed into the regular committee um regular meeting structure policy because once remote stops we will be in regular structure and it was from a comment that was made by the public and it was it was a very healthy discussion uh our attorney expressed um

034very clearly what freedom of speech means and what we are are and are not allowed to do so if i remember correctly if i remember correctly we're basing this on a conversation and again i have all my respect for every single person that comes up and speaks during public recognition but we're basing this on somebody who did not want to share what that from clifton or a name or called an unknown that person could have been from south jersey or from oregon for all we knew so you know this needs to be a deeper conversation and i'm more than happy to have put to have this in public then rather than slap policy together and throw it in the public eye and have people vote on it i think we need to have a healthy

035discussion on this and i think this needs to be discussed there was also uh another conversation and then we got an email we got an anonymous letter and then we got an email about from a student that was talking about not having a dress code policy as well um i have to um it is my job as policy chair when when something comes to light i bring it to policy i have done with everything that has been facing this board and we are also addressing complaints from uh people in the public as well when something comes up if we don't have it in policy i bring it to the committee if this board doesn't want to put the language in then so be it but if you want to have the discussion in public i

036have no problem having that discussion uh there was a there was an executive an email that went to everybody about an executive session uh session we were supposed to have about an anonymous letter that never happened last meeting um you know it's just if you want to have it in public it's fine with me i'm doing my job as the chair policy to bring things to the to the policy committee that have to be looked at in order to recommend and update and make our policies in compliance to what happens the one item did speak to the fact is that if a board member could do something why can't staff and students do it as well we addressed that in length in policy committee um yesterday and the previous meeting we have to address things

037that put the board at risk and i we've done our job if the pro if the board doesn't want to go this way then we just knock it down it has to be addressed it was it was brought up by several people mad comment please because i find it pretty funny to me just personally i find it funny that someone calls in doesn't want to stay who they are where they're from or anything then a week later in an honest letter and we're having this discussion because of freedom of speech i feel like i just find that certain people in the public eye and also uh in our city that tend to hide behind shadows if you truly believe that my shirt made or was a mistake or offended someone then you have your you

038have your absolute right to state it but to hide behind shadows i just find that you know it's it's a game to suppress someone's uh voice and at the same time if you're so passionate so powerful against the the message of what my shirt may have said or what my beliefs are then why aren't they just showing uh showing up we had a public meeting nobody showed up to voice their opinion there i just find that you know we just want to run around and make noise about a subject when there's no basis to it and uh miss password you know i totally respect where you come as a chairwoman and i know you know you have many years under your belt i totally respect that but you know just to slap around a couple

039of policies to you know uh to quiet others i i'm not saying you directly are trying to but just in general just stop policies without a really detailed discussion and you know instead of trying to just blame the shirt we should talk about the message of the shirt the purpose of the shirt racial injustice that's going on in now our communities all over our country something that's been going on for such a long time as a person of minority i went through a lot of racial you know uh discrimination growing up honestly in this city you know i mean uh local supermarkets stuff like that i have parents and you know siblings i have family members in the city that have gone through you know certain things and i also have family and friends all

040over this country you know from the black community spanish community uh middle eastern muslim community the jewish community has many friends you know anti-semitic you know things that happen to them and instead of just trying to blame one thing we need to look at a overall aspect we do have an issue in in this country and it does trickle down from communities working up on a federal level of racial injustice and i think it's time for us you know as board members that represent all students not just certain students need to shine the light on you know what's really going on and not trying to hide it from our students you know but today society especially this generation they have all phones tablets and internet majority of them you know information is on their fingertips

041you know we can act like nothing is going on as board members you know or you know as political leaders you know uh from certain you know either from the presidency all the way down to you know local levels we can act like nothing's going on but kids are actually we assume them to be and they know what's really going on out there and it's time for us as adults you know to actually sit down with these children and give them you know life conversation actually educate them and that way we may prevent it you know ever since i bought that shirt and now i know i've been i've been personally attacked you mean it does not bother me because you know i always voice my opinion from what's right and what's wrong and that

042that's my god-given right and i respect everybody's you know opinion you know we may have differences from time to time on certain things but at the end of the day we all need to stay compassionate and it's a sensitive subject and let's let's have a real discussion about it uh mr smith my job is a chairperson of policy this board is run by policy we operate as policy i have been policy chair i don't know how long i'm very compliant in the law when there was several comments made also about staff and student stress i had to bring it up because mr awad you were not on the board when we went through a very tumultuous discussion and a very tumultuous time about uniforms and student dress and i i take my job and my

043role as policy teacher extremely serious dr roberto will tell you the minute something's discussed he's getting a sample policy poof right away from me because i i'm in that world down in school boards it's it's something i do i'm really passionate about it it had nothing to do with what anyone was wearing uh i had a mask tonight that i was gonna wear if we were in person that some people may have been offended by with my mask and but that's my right to wear it as well as your right to wear what you want to wear but i have to address when i hear people say something about a dress code policy for staff a dress code policy for students and if board members can do it why can't other people do it i

044have to bring that to my group to make the rules and it's just i'm doing my job all right miss gutierrez if you would please yes thank you very much mr president um the first thing that i just want to point out is that we're in committee reports um and and so maybe this conversation is better left for a thorough and robust discussion of the actual policy when it gets reviewed that's one thing the second thing i wanted to point out is that as ms basford said there is no board policy right now for a dress code for board members for in-person board meetings there never has been um i think it's one of those things that it has always been assumed among school boards that if somebody comes to a board member or in

045the administration when they come to an in-person board meeting everybody would be dressed in professional business attire casual attire or something like that when we went into the pandemic the policy that was recommended by school boards and also by strauss esme uh has just a very short line that says board members will dress in professional uh business casual i think it is and i think i think i i wasn't the one who wrote those policies but i think it's probably from the perspective of since people are attending meetings from home and on online you know that there was there may have been a concern that people would be showing up in their pajamas um for board meetings and and that's the only thing that this dress code policy for board members addresses is just what

046whatever professional attire means to anyone um the clifton board of ed does have a dress code policy for staff and they have a dress code policy for students and both of those dress code policies simply address what's appropriate attire particularly for students that it's not clothing that will interfere or disrupt instruction so the none of the policies are rightfully so none of them address any issues that would usurp anyone's constitutional freedom of speech their every single instance of an any any question whether somebody's attire or somebody's clothing is um offensive or violates free speech or or violates somebody else's free speech those things are taken on a case-by-case basis because they're all it all depends on the circumstances it depends on where we live who we are etc so that's all that the policy that's

047being presented addresses is just basically mimicking the policy you already have for online meetings to put it into regular board meetings all right manage and uh president smith so before my time on the board and i i want i just want one total honest you know answer nobody has ever worn uh a clifton hoodie or clifton sweater or something that's non-professional because me as a as a before i became a board member as a citizen i watched many meetings i'm not going to name certain board members on here or previously they were not always a professional uh uh aware and i just find it funny the one time that i wore a certain shirt that may have said something all of a sudden this discussion came up for me personally me personally just viewing this

048you know from my lens it's not it's not that i wasn't more professional i think it was a message bothered certain people and that's where the discussion needs to go in the future because i've witnessed many people you know on board member board members on meetings before my time that we're not wearing professional map it's been going on for years i've been watching this for years ever since i was in high school up until now i've witnessed many board members you know present and not present not always in the most professional formal aware and i just find it funny because i wore a black lives matter shirt representing the oppressed i represent a just a social justice movement that's peaceful and about speaking and bringing discussion of what's really happening in our country it hurts

049certain people that have you know certain views they're not always the most you know kindest or the most you know uh heartwarming or the most honestly moral duty and i just find it funny the moment i wore that shirt then all of a sudden policy wants to be brought in place and you know it's certain ways to suppress uh you know my messaging go ahead if that shirt follows you and i i spoke with you know uh president smith and i also spoke with a doctor operator i told him if that shirt bothers you it's okay i have ties i have pins i'll wear a tuxedo that's needed and i'll also be able to you know express you know what you know what i i really feel now i would like to see you know

050once i wear where professional and still send out the message i want to send out i want to see if there's still another discussion to be happening afterwards because i feel like this won't go away is because it wasn't that it wasn't the actual formal wear that i was wearing it was actually the message and you know everybody has you know a conscious and we know you know what we i know personally what their intentions are so let's not play games smith okay let's kind of yeah let's kind of move on i just i i have to answer um it's not fair okay i do my job i do my job very well on policy everybody knows that i am a policy person and that's all i do is compliance we had one anonymous letter

051one student letter a couple of comments that were brought to mind when people say about dress code policy or student policy that triggered this conversation it had nothing to do with who was offensive or being mr what i really don't appreciate the gestures with the facial things it's really not fair i'm doing my job mr mr smith please it's not right i did my job you were on the meeting last night was it offensive at all absolutely thank you no one's no one's let's just kind of stick to the questions about the minutes okay gang we'll have an opportunity to to discuss this fully uh but this is board uh committee reports and i kind of have to just adhere everyone to the uh to the rules of the order so if there's no other

052questions on the policy committee minutes um mr canova i'd like to move to technology so that mr casper can take the last two uh technology committee president is president smith myself miss beltran dr robert tosie miss kusalevich mr teigen mr martin meeting time was 505 to 5 55 pm items of discussion item one state testing mr mountain provided an update of technology preparedness for state testing njsla has been cancelled but drc access testing for ells and dlns testing for special education students are still taking place all testing hardware and software up to date and ready to go two software subscriptions mr mountain and ms kusalevich provided an update of the process for evaluating new and current instructional software nearpod is the most recent subscription being evaluated the product has a free version currently being used

053by many teachers and the full paid version will be piloted soon to every to evaluate efficiency chromebook repairs questions about chromebook repairs were brought up by commissioners mr mountain we've informed everyone that the numbers have repairs and has increased but not as much as expected with regards to the number of new chromebooks since going one to one tech support is handling issues in person and v email and phone item four chs auditorium meetings the committee discussed several technical and procedural issues that arose at the most recent hybrid in-person remote board event meeting held at chs plans and solutions are being developed to might mitigate problems in the future item five commissioners brought up some questions and suggestions for improvements of the board docs program a meeting will be scheduled soon with admin board event representatives

054and board docs to address concerns and to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement any questions [Music] okay uh last uh mr casper if you would start with uh food service and uh finish with your education all right let me just make sure okay i'm walking okay so uh our first food service committee had met on april 7th uh sorry april 12th um it's listed as finance at the top of our our uh minutes but this is the food service committee so uh present were myself uh president smith and mr abu drabo administration present uh was dr reportozzi mr teigen mr russi and mr thomasevich other attendees were donna devaney and alex rosenberg our meeting time was from 5 to 6 15 pm uh number one food service operations overview ms delaney and mr rosenberg the

055district's food service directors from pontonian join the committee meeting to discuss how food operation operations have been running throughout the school year there was a discussion about how successful the emergency food program has been in clifton throughout the entire uh pandemic administration in the committee commended donna alex and an entire pumpetonian staff on the fantastic job they have been doing the food ser the food quality distribution community announcements and service has been exceptional also the food service website was brought up an administration talked about how the menus are accessible along with full analogy information payment options the free reduced lunch applications wellness policies and nutritional facts and news the poptonian staff has been involved in the planning process of the chs clifton the clifton high school kitchen renovation and is very excited about opening next

056year after the renovation is complete there was a discussion regarding the district-wide vending machines and potentially adding a machine to the administration building there was a discussion regarding the paid lunch prices for the 21 22 school year a slight increase may be necessary with minimum wage increasing and a new law stating that districts cannot use foam trays foam trays will be replaced with cardboard trays which are more expensive administration will analyze the financial hit on the cafeteria fund and recommend a paid lunch price increase at a future committee meeting before the end of the school year any questions on food service okay clifton board of ed education special ed committee the educational education special ed committee met on march uh march april 12 2021 and it began at four o'clock attendees were myself board president

057uh mr smith commissioners fawaz awad and lucy danny administration included dr robert tosi mr teigen mrs kusalevich mrs rotolo miss gaba mr healey miss lucas and miss tremble and we had a guest with us miss rachel harrington number one was informational end of the year activities for kindergarten fifth and eighth grades uh miss gaba mr healey and miss lucas principals gave an overview of the health and safety considerations and equity issues of creating end of the year events that include both in-person and remote students mr healey and ms gaba gave an update regarding planned events for middle school students end-of-year activities included a virtual national junior honor society induction virtual awards ceremony team breakfast and who's who assemblies by class each student will receive a yearbook on a lawn sign a yearbook and lawn signs

058will be available for sale miss lucas gave an overview of elementary activities preschool in kindergarten will have class based virtual celebrations in grade 5 each student will receive a yearbook or memory book and a virtual keepsake presentation will be held in order to include all students options for smaller class by class in-person ceremonies are being considered with a final decision to be made for june there is a line item uh resolution on tonight's board agenda for number two which was the essa title iv grant we had a care plus overview by miss jessica tremble miss tremble gave an overview of the roundabout cert the wrap around services being provided by the district to support students in staff mental health she provided an overview of the title four funded care plus services which will provide individual

059and small group counseling for tier one students and staff consultations these services will dovetail with the school-based healthcare solutions network grant which is providing six transitional coaches to improve academics through mental health supports these services are in addition to our traditional counseling programs with district counselors that are available for all students an informational special education update was provided by miss heller rotolo miss rotolo spoke about upcoming activities for students ensured that 147 staff have completed the full six hour nurtured heart approach training district administration has participated in a praise meeting on march 22nd in coffee with the supervisors was held on april 7th for parents to drop in and meet the supervisors of special services upcoming activities include kindness rocks and 422 and a parent workshop on toilet training on 429 plans are being made

060for the esy program which will run from july 1st through august 12th at schools 14 and 16. an informational report on summer school was provided by miss janina kusalevich miss kusalevich shared the plans are underway for summer programs across the district title 1 and 3 programs will be held at schools 412 17 and ccms with an additional school still to be determined multiple sites for language arts and math summer support are being identified the integrated summer enrichment experience and a new program at chs will provide steam activities the northern regional commission will provide a credit recovery summer program at chs our last topic was informational from the njdoe and jsla and local data collection ms kusalevitz shared that the new jersey department of n new jersey student learning assessment for grades 3 through 10 has

061been postponed this testing will not take place in june a new strong start strong assessment will be given in september and the nj sla will be given again in the spring of 2022. local benchmark data from all students in grades k three eleven in math and language arts and in grades five eight and eleven four signs have been submitted to the new jersey department of education our meeting was adjourned at 4 59 respectively submitted by mrs janina kusalevich all right any questions on either of uh mr claus committee mr smith i have a question on the education um i item i guess yeah on i guess that's item let's see oh yeah item four item four are we planning and this is really i guess for the superintendent or mrs cruz are we gonna uh

062i'm contemplating providing some summer school support uh for other than title one or title three programs in other words uh are we gonna have anything open to students who feel they need some remedial activity regardless if they're title one or title three yes mr daley in addition to those programs we are going there's going to be a myriad of programs so let me say it as simple as possible if a parent wants their child in a summer program this summer they're going to have the opportunity regardless of um whether they qualify as title 1 or for any reason if if there are children who need extra help we're going to have programs for every grade level in every student it may not be in every school but every student will have an opportunity to attend

063some program if they choose or if their parent chooses thank you thank you that answers my question any other questions uh mr uc if you would just uh have the minutes corrected to read uh food service and not finance thank you okay thank you all committees for your continued hard work um we'll move on i'm sorry uh this student representative committee oh yes i'm sorry i just said max was next and i i'm sorry max max rubin you are up can you hear us max yep can you hear me yes we can go ahead the floor is yours thank you mr smith good evening everyone um i have a few important updates for this week uh first i just wanted to say that the csu just created a new website it's called the chs mental

064health and communications for students page and it's on the clifton high school website so if you for students who are listening or for parents who are listening and you want to tell your students about this you can go to the clifton high school website click on the students tab and then in the additional resources column the first site should be chs mental health and communications for students and on this page i it's a website i created and it has different videos i'm targeting uh different ways for students to get help communicating with the staff in the administration and just um there's a video miss rogers and miss graziano did about taking advantage of office hours because a lot of students don't know that their teachers hold office hours where they can get extra help from

065their teachers after school um there's also a video from mr figueroa about the different people you can go to if you um need help or if you're having some sort of emotional issue just the different people you can contact um there's another video that miss carafine made and she got help from some of her students who spoke very well about the best ways to communicate with staff members since a lot of students were struggling um reaching their teachers um so that video should help any student with that and there's another video that um i originally wasn't sure if i was going to put it on because it wasn't part of like communicating with stat members but i decided it was too important to leave out so i put a video um it was for i

066think trans visibility week um and it's just titled transgender awareness video and it was made by this student named rylan stetz who if you're listening to this ryland i really appreciate what you did you know that was um really brave and just really awesome for making that video rylan is a trans student at our school and he made a video just a really thoughtful video about um identifying trans people and just making them feel you know um not uh i'm struggling to find the right words but um just to make them feel welcome and to make them feel like they belong which everyone deserves because you know no matter what you are everyone's the same you know everyone should be treated with kindness and that video is really effective in communicating that message so yeah

067rylan you rock for listening to this um we have another uh website um that's posted in the additional resources column of the student section of the clipton high school website that's called digital resources and test prep for students i've mentioned this website many times before but this is basically if you need help studying for s-a-t a-c-t ap exam or just any of your other classes if you just need help studying for something you can go to that website and they have a video on how to pick up hard copy books from the media center hard copy test prep books or they also have a catalog of ebooks test prep ebooks that you can pick from there's over 45 hard copy test spread books and 45 ebooks that are also with test prep materials and you

068can pick them out on that site there's also a link to clifton public library resources there's six different test prep websites with free resources on the website and there's also eight different educational youtube channels i've mentioned this website before it's gone up on the morning news but just in case there's anyone who still doesn't know about it definitely take advantage of that especially if there's a test coming up for you soon um upcoming sat testing i always give a shout out for this just in case anyone doesn't know but the upcoming dates are may 8th and june 5th and spaces may or may not still be available at chs and i wanted to finish off tonight i'm just making one last plug-in for the referendum vote if you still don't know which most you most

069of the public probably knows at this point but if you you're still unaware if you want to get to the referendum website there's a link in red bold at the top of the clifton schools homepage um and i'm just asking anyone who um has a family member in clifton or anyone who just friends neighbors who don't know about the referendum yet just spread the word it's important we get as many people to vote as possible especially in this this last stretch we only have five days till the vote so you know if you have neighbors or friends or people around and you want to tell them about the referendum please do so we need as many people to vote as we can um i made a video recently explaining the referendum to students and it

070went up on social media and it also went up on the high school morning show it's still running on the morning show we're gonna run it again tomorrow and again next monday and maybe even next tuesday um uh speaking of the morning show um yeah we're still doing a great job uh the cast morning show they're still putting in their best efforts you know making the students informed about everything now more than ever i think we've really you know found our footing i feel like we've gotten so good at this um mode of communicating you know the morning show has just been better than ever so definitely check that out if you need any updates on what student life is like at chs um and also and just to quickly go back to the video

071i made the main goal of the video was to inform seniors who are 18 and register to vote to cast their vote in the april 20th election hopefully we get as many 18 year olds as possible to vote um i know dr robert tosie said at one point if we can get the students the parents and the teachers if we get as many of them to vote as we can that might even be enough but even if you're not directly involved in the school district i would definitely recommend going out and voting in the april 20th election it's really important for our community in general not just the school but our community and i really hope that um the vote is successful um that's all my updates for today uh thanks for allowing me to

072speak as always and i will see you guys next time max thank you again for giving us so much information and doing just a wonderful job as the student representative uh you've really done a fantastic job and since i always get last fiddle i'm gonna i'm gonna take first fiddle here and make sure that everyone is aware that uh to congratulate max max has been inducted into or invited to the passaic county film festival uh max does a tremendous job on putting together films and it's a great honor for you max and a great honor for clifton and clifton high school so i want to say congratulations to you for that great honor thank you okay we will move along our next uh our next form of business is public recognition mr smith i'm seeing

073just a few but the first one up is ray robertello okay first i'm going to read the public recognition statement the this portion of the meeting is open to the residents and non-residents of clifton for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to and or directly related to the operation of the clifton public school district residents and non-residents are requested if 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 the response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate your questions may or may not be answered by board members

074the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of the state of new jersey the board bears no responsibility nor will be liable for any comments made by members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments with that said we'll open public recognition with mr ray robertello mr robitella if you can hear us you got the floor last call mr robertson yes we can hear you yes okay sorry

075about that i was sort of switching between the computer and the television um good evening my name is raymond robertello 66 woodlawn avenue in clifton what i'd like to do is spend a couple of minutes talking about the board of education referendum next week and why i think it's important i'd like to clarify by saying tonight i'm representing myself as a taxpayer and as a lifelong citizen of clifton that's number one number two um i don't have children i've never had children i am not going to have children at this point in my life so i don't really have a horse in this race i'm not going to have a horse in this race which i think maybe gives me a bit of a unique perspective myself and my brother went through the clifton school

076system it prepared us really well for successful careers in very different directions um but i'd like to spend a few minutes tonight talking about why i think this is important um i've been an advocate for this approach for a very long time i think that it takes a vision and it turns it into a plan and why is that important for me right now it it allows us to take advantage of a really competitive interest rate environment we have been in a period of historically low interest rates for some time and this referendum at this time allows us to leverage that capability um at the right time that's number one number two it as i understand it it allows the city to access state rebates to the tune of i think of about 55 million

077dollars which covers about a third of the cost of this and this referendum essentially as i said um turns a vision into a plan it permits critical infrastructure improvements that have to happen in this district i think most people who are probably hearing my voice or are already familiar with these but it improves security and it improves hvac and if we've learned anything in the last year it's that hvac and how any closed facility approaches that is critically important to keeping something going whether it's a school system a restaurant or a public building it modernizes our facilities it brings us as i understand it in compliance with ada requirements those are laws that have been codified for decades it's an issue like so many others that's important but it's an issue i think that we

078in any city should lead on so lead in and i think it brings us into compliance with that and the last thing i'm going to say is um i benefited from a a great education in the clifton school system that infrastructure was developed by people in this city who had a vision who understood how important a strong school system was to developing a thriving community i believe that it's now our generation's opportunity it's our time to build on that legacy so that the generations who are going to come after us perhaps when we're no longer here can have the same benefits that so many of us have had coming out of the clifton school system so if you have any questions if you can hear me if you have any questions i'm happy to talk

079to anyone about this if you have any questions talk to someone get your questions answered and more importantly please get out and vote on tuesday so thank you for the opportunity tonight have a good evening everyone thank you mr robitello um miss orak who would be next good evening everyone how are you uh as you know i'm andrea orrock i am the clifton education association pride chair and fast communicator chair i just wanted to first shout out school four amazing night on tuesday we had fun at their tricky tray i also want to give a good shout out to my school 12 family we're doing amazing since the couple weeks we've been back awesome job trying to get everything back to normal and making our kids feel safe and enjoy school once again um i

080want to just announce to the public that on may 20th we are going to have the latino institute have a workshop at night for our parents um this conference is going to be held in spanish for our communities um and it's going to have four classes possibly five and one of them is driver's licenses for the undocumented um how to manage stress for the parents we are going to do social media tackling uh texting uh bullying and uh so interactions on the internet also we will be doing um sorry i lost my notes here immigration rights so i'm gonna do that in a couple seconds in spanish and then i'll go back to english families a mr rock missouri can you put your mute on sorry can you hear me now sorry touch all right

081so let me go back so par los padres in espanol i also we are going to have a district-wide trivia night may 6 we're gonna have prizes for the winners we invite everyone board of ed community leaders and families uh i will be sending out a district-wide flyer we will be playing on kahoot and we'll have top three winners of the night we'll pick up some prizes may is full of wonderful events and then we will be having pizza with the parents at school 17 and school 12 in the last week of may and also we will be hosting another district-wide game show night so it'll be five games on zoom and it'll be competing with all the families on zoom because we'd really like to encourage our family engagement on tuesday we had a

082family game night and we provided over 100 board games to our family so they can have a nice fun family game night and with that they're communicating skills they're doing by motor growth and also learning how to work together so that's all for i have for tonight and thank you all have a great night thank you miss rook miss laurie lalama you're next well good evening to everyone i hope everybody's doing well um there's a few things i want to highlight so the first thing are the uh the air purifiers they're doing a great job throughout the district and we want to thank dr robertosi and the board of ed for using the sr2 cares funding for it um it is another tool in our arsenal to help protect the students the staff along with

083the masks social distancing the plastic separators and the hand sanitizers um i also would like to to really thank because this was something that was done in an emergency and we really appreciate it next dr robertosi's team and my team are part of dr saul rubenstein's rutgers labor management collaborative we met with the leaders in the state so the leaders are from njea the school boards association the superintendents association the principals and supervisors association and a few of the national leaders and in other countries the secretary of education spoke miguel cardona as well as phil murphy so the discussion points were very important and i'm just going to give you a brief summary very brief how to build a positive school culture because everything revolves around our students that's why we're all here is for

084kids so through strategies supporting collaboration which sparks innovation models best practices and we find solutions so the importance of a school culture is collaboration and the collective pride in the district is fundamental this illustrates how we can work together communicate and have mutual respect mutual respect should be the outcome and it should not be based on fear i believe that we have developed authentic collaboration giving a voice where there wasn't previously to make true progress which empowers everyone so this is a very important part this collaborative that we belong to and it has improved many ways i believe clifton school district within the association and within the school board and the administration now the last topic is standardized testing i'm going to assume that there isn't one educator that thinks these tests are important these

085tests are to me and to most of the groups that i belong to are not even worth it are children standardized i know my two daughters are totally different all right they were brought up the same had the same background the same education but they're too totally different why are kids nowadays data points and these data points are for testing companies state and federal government has all your children's information on their pipeline and they have everything anything that you see in in our real time um it's there anything that you filled out for schools for um government all of your children's stuff is up there and i don't think most parents and groups understand that these tests actually stratify the inequities in our school districts these testing companies are making a lot of money and

086that is their goal recently i was at a meeting and 200 million dollars were spent by pearson to ensure that the tests go on now why are they spending all that money to lobbyists to get kids to take these tests in the western hemisphere headquarters is in hoboken tax-free they don't pay any taxes pearson does not pay one cent in taxes and they have their cloud headquartered in clifton sadly our new jersey senator teresa ruiz is now trying to craft a bill to overturn the new jersey department of ed for postponing these tests so there's a lot of things that are going on and if anybody would like to discuss these standardized tests there's a group that had a presentation last night called save our schools new jersey and they're backed by many groups throughout

087the united states so we could really um think of portfolios or think of in-school based testing something that we design and not corporate reformers because i do think testing is important but i would like to see something different in the long run so that is mine for tonight and next time it will be about learning loss thank you and have a great evening thank you mr lama as always uh next we have um miss uh stephanie langer thank you president smith tonight you will see my resignation on the agenda and i'm gonna ask for your patience when i get emotional as i speak from the heart and share some of my story with you i grew up in clifton i could see the band field from my bedroom window growing up i remember being a

088little kid and my mom would march me and my sister up and down the driveway i went to school too according to the song they're the best school in the land woodrow wilson middle school and then clifton high school i remember my mom telling me that your education is what you make of it in a school that had over 3 500 kids it would easy it would be easy to get lost in the crowd but that diversity and its size was its strength of course i was in the clifton mustang marching band the show band of the northeast i played the french horn and the melophone in the marching band i was in the orchestra i was a four-year varsity swimmer president of the german club and i graduated with 18 college credits i'll say

089it again clifton's diversity and its size is its strength in 2005 i went to college with 18 credits i also kept in touch with some of my teachers and halfway through my sophomore year i learned that with 60 college credits you could get an emergency sub certification in the state of new jersey so when i came home in june of my sophomore year of college i had my very first day substitute teaching 26 kindergarteners and if there's anything that will make you question whether or not you are ready to teach 26 kindergartners in the month of june we'll do that but trial by fire i was in love with it i wonder if that emergency subsert still exists and if that might be a way to help get more substitute teachers because if this pandemic

090has highlighted anything it is how hard it is to get the support to cover for teachers when they really need the help and i wonder if there's a way to partner with maybe montclair state university or william patterson to encourage future educators to practice their pedagogy while they continue learning and fill a much needed gap in our system we need more substitute teachers in my first year as a middle school science teacher i was on a safety patrol field trip and judy basford happened to be chaperoning on that bus and i will never forget how scared every other professional was they're scared of you you're on the board that's important and by the end of the trip i could not believe how much i appreciated you for your directness i have a lot of respect

091for that because it can be hard and i think that's something that intimidated people but i thought it was beautiful especially from a woman in leadership there's not enough of that from there i never would have made it far without the teachers i shared classrooms with many of whom were my former teachers the teachers i ate lunch with the ones that stayed late to talk about the students that weighed heavy on our hearts they shaped me into the person i am and i am so grateful for that in my fourth year i believe it was gary frankel the science supervisor was able to get our school district into the wipro science education fellowship it was a program with montclair state that had three cohorts of 20 teachers and in their second cohort i was selected

092to participate and it focused on developing science teacher leaders in better understanding the standards the next generation science standards and how to infuse three dimensions of learning from the facts of science to the skills and the thought processes in my fifth year i was transferred to christopher columbus i had nothing mr smith that's five minutes but just to let you know okay miss langer if you could uh finish up your statements absolutely i was really shook by that because it was something i did not ask for and i felt like i lost a community in many ways and i think that shows how in our goal to become one clifton maybe there's still some work to do there but within a few months the leadership vanessa gaba mark gengaro who was there at the time

093and fran parker gave me such a warm welcome and put me into a leadership position that in many ways kept me around and mr teigen i know it might not have been easy but you found a way to give me a leave of absence when i needed it and i came back and brought so many things from that into my classroom and so to wrap it all up i want to thank you for the impact you've had on my life i want the students to know that your education is what you make of it and our diversity is our strength and i want you to know that dr robert tosie i know i may have been difficult asking a lot of really hard questions this year your decisive leadership whether i agreed or not was

094important and i am not leaving because of the pandemic or because of clifton i have some really big dreams i want to go chase and i saw today that there were two students from christopher ashley hernandez and maria mufla that were accepted to five ivy league colleges talk about big dreams i want to congratulate them and wish them well thank you so much not just for my 11 years but for how you grew me into the educator that i am and i hope that you will continue to welcome me as a resident at board meetings and i hope that that will be in person soon teachers and students are back and that was something that i i felt very supportive when i heard board meetings would be back in person so i hope that that

095will happen soon thank you for your time thank you very much and uh all the best to you all right next up uh we have mr um mark brunsiak mr brunsiak you're up uh good evening do you hear me yes we can hear you great thanks dr robert tozie thanks president smith vice president avondravo uh i want to give a big shout out to uh max ruben if we got the invitation to the film festival for passaic county uh shout out to miss langner i wish you continued success in your future endeavors and uh what can i say i'm coming here every three weeks we're five days away from we're five days away from this special election on the ballot can't even be here in person to to to comment and you gave the reasons

096president smith i understand uh it's so critical the last time i came i i hear about all these committees and we're forced to watch about all these committees and to listen to all these committees and then something about uh the attire that you wear to the meetings and all i've been asking for is to give parents the opportunity to send their kids into school for five days a week that's all i'm asking for you heard the teachers union rep uh mr llama i guess her name is i don't remember what her name is she was saying that oh thanks so much for the uh for the air filtration or whatever i mean there's got to be at least 20 25 of people vaccinated at this point i don't even know why you're getting vaccinated at

097this point if we can't even have five days if parents can't have the five day an option to send their kids into school five days a week makes no sense to me and she's got some nerve you got some nerve to complain about the standardized testing over here you know every student is regular there needs to be some sort of basis for these students to learn and what's the issue you've done it for how many decades have so many teachers done well to teach their students how to prep for these standardized tester i know no system is perfect but there needs to be some way to measure the success of the student so this is what i'm asking for there's no committee here i get it you got a finance committee you got some of

098these other committees as well the policy committee obviously you need policy to to implement new policy get rid of old policy is there ever going to be a committee to try to get the parents to have an option to allow their kids to ha to be in school to have that option to get in person learning because it's obviously not it's it's obviously not working it is what other reason is there it's it's not working for all the students and i know mr nina said yes it works for a goodly portion of students they are you know they've been very effective you know learning remotely but there are there's got to be a lot of kids out there they're having a very difficult time not you know psychologically i mean it's just unbelievable so this

099is this is what i'm asking for the board i'm asking for the board to give the parents an opportunity to send their kids into school five days a week there's absolutely no way that on a tuesday and a friday the same deep cl a similar deep cleaning does not occur in the same school facility that occurs on on a tuesday night going into wednesday it it you know so you know these are the things that i question constantly you know when i went to chs wonderful school wonderful teachers over there they gave me the tools necessary to try to become successful future for for your future they try to give you the tools over there it's up to you to get there and it's up to your parents to help you get there give them

100that opportunity i'm asking the board give the student give the parents and the students the opportunity to get into the classroom over there and make life as normal as possible that's all i have to say tonight thank you and god bless america have a good night everybody thank you mr brunciak mr mountain anyone else in the room nope that's it [Music] motion by ms basford second by vice president abu drabo okay we'll move on to we have no unfinished business move on to uh education administration we have uh ea one which is the attendance report e ea ii which is the school uh 2022-23 school calendar ea iii is the memorandum of agreement between clifton public schools and felicia university ea4 is a 21st century community learning center program application grant and ea 5 is

101the care plus new jersey services emotional move motion by mr avadravo second by mr casper discussion seeing non-roll call yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley he's coming to the screen oh i see give him one second we're on uh ea mr daley you're muted hear me yes mr daily ea one through five jim you're you're muted if you can hear me okay he's uh gave up on the thumbs up with that okay miss danny yes mr casper yes mr abedrabo yes mr smith yes okay next we have uh personnel we have uh p1 resignations p2 retirements p3 leave of absence t40 leave of absence p5 amendment leave of absence p6 amendment of maternity leave of absence p7 amendment of appointments um p8 change in employment status p9 appointment of mentors p10 2020

10221 pbsis administrative members p11 additional appointments 20 pb team members uh p12 additional appointments for the 2021 after-school programs uh p13 additional support staff in stipends p14 withholding of employment increment um dr rubicose is that one pope for executive session yes mr smith please okay p14 is pulled for executive session uh p15 is uh athletic paraprofessionals p16 is expedite credentials p17 is student teacher practicum field observation placements uh p18 board conferences p19 conference request p20 substitute appointments p21 personnel appointments so it's um it's all of those with uh 14 uh for executive session do i have a motion motion to move second second by mr casper discussion uh mr smith if i can ask an amendment to p18 for workshops i'm also doing my level 4 governance 4 virtual workshop as well on may 24th

103it's not on there mr richie i'm sure we could add it i'm not sure if it was on a prior meeting or not but of course we could add it thank you all right so we'll make the addition of mr adrabo for a governance four any other uh questions or adjustments okay with miss password or miss cass uh mr casper on that yeah yes that's fine thank you casey none roll call mr awad yes miss passport yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley i see him saying yes miss danny yes abstain on p18 my name only mr casper yes mr abu drabo yes sitting on p18 mr smith yes abstaining on p18 my name only motion carries okay we'll move on to uh finance facilities yes mr wad i'm not interrupt i i

104just remembered now because i got my calendar pull up i'm also taking government's training uh may 25th okay that to the agenda on may 6 mr smith okay we'll just next one mr awad right next we have finance facilities we have f1 donation the chs two donations chs three donation to school nine four donation to school 17. five approval for transportation services agreement 2021 school year six educational data services seven approval to authorize the business administrator to contract phoenix advisors to provide continuing disclosure compliance service for the 21 fiscal year eight approval to purchase two 54 passenger school buses and two 24 passenger school buses nine approval to authorize immediate emergency purchase of district-wide air purifiers using the cares x funds 10 purchase the requisition list uh 11 appointment of the auditor year ending june

10530th 21 uh certification of budget line item accounts february 2021 13 financial reports february 2021 14 modifications to the 2021 budget february 2021 15 use of facilities and 16 claims list don't move by mr kennedy second by who was that miss danny miss danny discussion president yes mr kanova um item eight we're discussing uh purchasing four additional vehicles are we gonna have room for those in our current transportation facility um uh yeah of course they replace retiring ones but i thought we weren't retiring the other ones did we ever make a decision on what we're doing with the old ones we're that's that's actually why we're only buying four instead of six um but we have a plan okay um yeah i have a question i i didn't have a chance to uh get you

106mr roosie or dr roberthosi today so i'm sorry uh to have to ask these questions here but um under the claims list there was clifton police traffic officers for the administration building for march do we know what that is i believe it's just the way it's worded maybe it shouldn't say admin building i mean it's i don't have it exactly in front of me but i can get it open but the city of clifton builds us for traffic officers oh okay but it's not for the administration building i don't believe so i think that they just put it that way because that's where the bill came gotcha um also uh under uh the geese police uh is it only woodrow wilson that we have a contract with geese police or is that the only bill

107that was on this claim list it's it's only woodrow wilson's baseball field it's the only one with an issue that we have right now or in in the past so historically really we don't have an issue over at the stadium or you know what you have you have water over there you have a lake no issues that i'm that have been brought to my attention correct wow okay the geese like woodrow they like what they're comfortable with i don't know okay good i'm glad um mr president did you hear me yes yes i had to switch devices because i could see and hear everybody but you couldn't hear me um the reason for no geese police at the other locations is because we turf the fields so the geese don't like turf they do like

108grass beautiful so maybe after now maybe after next week we won't have an issue of woodrow anymore right exactly mr daley always has a better answer than me too [Laughter] okay any other questions or discussion uh yes and i'm staining on check number two zero two two four miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daily yes miss danny yes mr casper yes mr abedraba yes mr smith yes solutions carrie okay uh we'll move into uh board member comments uh miss uh danny you are up first um good evening um keep my comments very brief today i just want to say congratulations to the um [Music] to the students who were presented uh you know who were acknowledged um for the recognition and um that's all i have for this evening thank you thank you mr

109casper okay so um i'd like to congratulate all of our student achievements and i'm going to link that with my comments on the referendum for next week our district since i've been sitting on the board has had so many wonderful opportunities for our students to achieve and have success in our school district so i'd like to encourage everybody to go out and vote next week on the referendum um i want i would like to have continued success um throughout our district to help all of our learners and hopefully make clifton a better place if if our referendum passes to make more students even more successful through the years to come so um i'm going to encourage everyone to vote next week it's from 1 30 to 8 there are only six schools open next week

110to vote so you'll have to check your um your sample ballot that you got in the mail they will be schools five nine twelve seventeen no sorry 5912 columbus woodrow in the high school so please check your ballots um your sample ballots that you had done if you didn't vote by mail and ballot already um i'd also like to congratulate our 98 students uh thus far that have up saying obtained the new jersey seal of bi-literacy uh there's been articles in our clinton journal so i'd like to congratulate everybody in that i'd also like to thank all of our donors uh thank you for con your continue to support our district um and making our educational system better for our students uh thank you everybody and have a good evening thank you mr casper uh

111mr awad i'll keep my comments short uh first and foremost i just would like to wish all those who are observing ramadan mubarak um i know for the next you know several weeks uh my family and i and many other families in the city and county will be uh fasting from sunrise to sunset i also would congratulate to the two young ladies on getting accepted to multiple ivy league schools it just shows you that hard work truly does pay off i wish you guys the absolute success into the rest of the students likewise um also you know sometimes you know we may get into you know uh certain discussions during our meetings but at the end of the day you know everybody has the right intentions and we are here to work for the students

112and staff and that's always been our goal disagreements come and go about policies and ideas and all that but at the end of the day everybody knows their intentions and they have their heart in the right place and that's all that matters to me i always you know wear my emotions on my uh sleeve as they say uh but you know at the end of the day i really truly do care for our city uh for our students for our staff especially you know the hard work that dr robert tosie and the board and all the staff members in our district uh working harder for this referendum because we are not only just you know affecting uh just this generation of students to future generations you know as my wife and i are expecting our

113first child in september you know this referendum you know now that i'm getting into this whole parent mode and thinking and stuff it truly is going to affect you know so many kids um in our district now and in the future and we're just setting them up with the right tools and assets to succeed and hopefully you know once this does pass and a couple years pass and we do get the results and everything is up to date and we'll see our city thriving you know our students thriving you know our community thriving and i just wish the utmost success uh to our district and to everybody that's working really hard for this referendum don't forget to vote on april 20th if you haven't voted yet vote yes mr daily always says you get 60

114million dollars of free money i know i like free money so let's go ahead and get this done and if anybody does have any questions i know that the board and especially the superintendent and his staff are ready to answer any questions um you know let's get the facts straight you know we will overcome this and i i really i hope for the best for our district and uh i yield my time thank you uh miss bashford yes good evening i'd like to thank uh all the speakers that came out tonight um uh to mr um i um franciac we do have an education committee that meets regularly to speak about education so um that would be where you would address your concerns to about um classes and students being back full-time to the retirees

115to stephanie i remember that trip i remember the teachers being a little leery of me being on that trip but um we had a great time and you guys were so welcoming and you knew that i was there for one thing to make it successful and to make sure the children were safe and to have a great time we had we had a lot of fun on that bus and i'm never gonna forget you guys how welcoming and at the end it was just phenomenal thank you i really appreciated that um to max rubin i'm so happy that you've taken the mental health issue and really run with the ball so i appreciate that um and to all the other speakers that came out tonight thank you um april 19 1994 almost 27 years ago

116april 19 1994 if anybody doesn't remember that date i remember that day because that date affected the way colfax avenue is shaped it was the day that we voted on chilton's property 1994. and i brought this up i had to ask the superintendent the date because i didn't remember how long ago it was but i remember i remember vividly it was the year before my son was born and we had a chance we had a chance to do something that would affected the clifton community for a long time so these are my personal views and opinions right now that i'm speaking as a board member that's one thing that i have to say that my personal views and opinions i don't represent my personal views don't represent anybody else on the board now does it

117represent the district but i'm going to tell everybody that um my daughter canceled her ballot easter sunday and i didn't prompt her but she does my daughter does pay attention she watches the meetings and she does she does plug in because it's really important to her she comes back to the community she volunteers when she can she's always she's always stepped up to the plate but she she votes by mail she got an absentee ballot i didn't so i asked her after she sealed it and put it on the count and said make sure it gets the drop box mom i got to go back to work i said gee how did you vote in 2008 mom when i was a senior those bathrooms are the same as they are now and i wouldn't go

118to the bathroom in them fix it make sure this vote gets out make sure that you tell people that i'm supporting it i'm an alumni of school 5 woodrow wilson and chs i walked the field of that field on woodrow wilson and i remember you wouldn't let me in the car because of the bird droppings on my feet i remember the bathrooms in every every elementary school because we went to cheerleading events and we went to events all over the city this is the chance for the community to get it right just like our bathroom in the house you want to do it over and we you've kept it up and kept it up and kept it up but now it needs a sledgehammer it's time people it's time to do the right thing 1994

119we had a chance we had a chance to make it different here in clifton so i'm hoping people get out and vote i can't tell you how to vote but i can tell you that you have a chance to make a difference from every grade level up the students at school at chs are are giving their overwhelming support they see the value in it even though most of them will not see the difference that it's going to make so i ask you all to please get out and vote and do what's right for the students of this community strong schools equal a strong community it's time to do the right thing let's reverse what we did in 1994. we have a chance thank you thank you miss passford uh miss beltran okay i'm gonna keep

120it short tonight um i would just like to thank all the speakers that came out as well as congratulate all of our students that are getting accepted to uh great schools including the ivy league but even if you aren't getting accepted to the ivy leagues everything that you are achieving even if it's going to a local college or community college is still a great achievement um i'd also like to remind everyone to please come out and vote on the 20th um there's many important things in this it's not a one-issue bond issuance there's issues pretty much for everyone whether you're into facilities like i am so i really would like the money for the boilers spoilers are extremely expensive and getting a 30 discount on something that normally would cost a district upwards of 500

121000 a piece is very um beneficial to the budget and again i'd just like to thank everyone who came out tonight to speak and um i look forward to seeing everyone in person soon thank you miss beltran mr kanova good evening everyone um first i just want to say um ms jenna galante passed away a few days ago so my good condolences to her family i know she was battling through cancer unfortunately uh you know she was called to god um for all the speakers to that came out uh mr max rubin congratulations on being inducted in the film festival it was a uh it's really a great honor just being nominated but i watched some of your short films and they were excellent so best of luck uh mr llama i love the idea

122on creating an internal test i'd love to hear more about that and how that would work uh maybe that's something we could bring up at the educational committee and start the brainstorm thank you for sharing your story with us and and i just want to wish you success in your next chapter um and getting down to i guess the uh we call the meat and potatoes the referendum or how i like to call it investing in the future of clifton uh so you've heard from us you you know what it is you know what the referendum is all about but now it's time that we hear from you so how do we hear from you we hear from you through the vote now it's your decision you have all the information at hand you know

123where the website is um if you know people in the area that don't know about it or they don't have an information about it i would now say now's the time to reach out you have a few days to get to them so they can understand what it is so that they have a proper mindset when they do vote um and reach out to your neighbors reach out to your friends make sure that people are getting out the vote you know it's a very important referendum um and as ms bassford said we can't tell you how to vote but we just want to make sure that you do vote we love to hear your comments and your feedback in these committees and the the way that we're going to hear from you in this case

124is through a vote so it's very important that you make sure that um any everyone your family everyone who you're close to or your friends and family in clifton people hsas ptas etc just make sure that on that day we get out the vote that's all thank you thank you mr kenova mr daley yeah thank you mr president um first of all i would like to give best wishes to ms langer on whatever career she's and goals she's pursuing it's uh it's a great thing in life when somebody realizes the goals they want to achieve and goes after par part of your success is already there because your aspirations is to achieve goals it's often said that the best and the best people have experienced failure before they uh experience success and that's so whenever

125pitfalls you may have going forward never get discouraged and keep your eyes on the prize uh again congratulations to max reuben um he's really a shining example he does such a good job in his presentations when he's here on the board speaking to the board and to the public um he's really a credit not only to himself but he gives through even though he's a credit to himself that transfers to us all here on the board so uh i'd like to um just give a shout out to him on that um there was uh our students who have been accepted to multiple ivy league schools um this is not the first year the first time today on the television it was one that i don't know it was when the morning shows maybe use channel

126four channel two there was a gentleman from um bloomfield high school who they recognized they interviewed his family he was accepted to i think seven different ideas five or seven different ivy league schools but um you know it and it's it's just lucky if somebody picks up on it but this has happened over and over here at clifton so uh even though you may have seen that story which is great that that was uh publicized and televised um i also want to pass on that that happens often here at clifton high school so we've always been based on trying to get the best education possible and you're as successful as you want to be um and lastly i'd like to give a shout out to mr robertelli uh he speaks not as often as he

127used to but he's always articulate and on point and um i would like to really thank him for his comments on on the referendum those of us here on the board have worked hard over many years to move this forward the most of these projects have been discussed for years and like i said the opportunity now to get a move forward and the referendum's not about whether you like a field or if you want the bathrooms done it's an opportunity for money these projects need to be done there's no question about it the decision is up to you if you want the state aid or you want to foot the bill entirely in essence that's the question uh it's been explained many times i've always said i'm available anybody wants to explain why this and

128why that the superintendent any board member is out there be happy to explain anything you want we are available you can reach us at least from an initial point through an email we'll be able to call you whatever you want to do we're all here to explain uh the reasons and the reasons why this particular package is so critical we have an opportunity to get money that's never been coming to clifton in in this amount of money for such important projects so it's it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so uh with that i'll conclude my remarks and uh wish everybody uh a safe uh safe time until you see you at the next meeting thank you mr daley vice president abu dhabi president thank you very much um so we've heard a thematic we'll say multiple themes

129for this meeting one is student success teacher appreciation for the districts and the referendum so to me obviously we didn't plan this it's just the way how people spoke there's a way to [Music] intermingle these three topics right the referendum is needed as many and numerous people have said for students and teachers to excel teachers who have worked their behinds off to pay forward for what they got out of school in an environment in many who grew up in clifton who honestly grew up in bathrooms and hallways that were acceptable then and not acceptable now and students now who need a better learning environment in the classroom and outside the classroom and that could be on the field that could be in the hallway that can be where wherever but a place where students spend

130more time they do in school than they do at home you know there are people out there and i asked clifton to not listen to certain false information that's been being spread out there about the referendum the april 20th referendum vote is extremely crucial you know i talk about my kids a lot and and i'll tell you where i'm going with this this is all tied together you know i first rather referendum i was against it because of the fact there are people there who are cope with layoffs etc but then i started doing my own homework as a board member and understanding that it won't kick into a tax hole for another year and a half two years all right hopefully people then be back on their feet then my wife's saying to me

131that you know what about our our you know our kids their classmates the future of this district of missouri's kids coming in hopefully god willing under god's protection and other kids who are coming in joe canova's kids who are going to be you know moving forward in the district you know what do we want for them what kind of classroom do you want for them what kind of hallway do we want them to walk you know what do we want them to have in a district to excel on and off the field and it's not just about our kids it's about kids throughout this whole entire district it's about kids who have not even been thought of yet okay and we need to do our due diligence to put what we know back into our

132district meaning if you see something broken fix it when mr smith and i were walking through some of these bathrooms in the district i'm sorry well the schools but we haven't seen the bathrooms in the district the fact that you see a patterned wall then a white box because they couldn't find those colored tiles has to tell you something that they couldn't find them anymore doesn't that tell you that something needs to be fixed rather than patch it up you know when you see when you see a pothole on the ground i'm sure all you curse at the state when they just patch it up and put a little black whatever on it redo the surface it's time to redo our district it is extremely important you see something wrong you fix it and we

133talk about diversity now you know diversity of our district and i absolutely agree is the strength of our district i'm proud to be the chair committee of our district of our diversity committee why because yeah i have my own thoughts but i get to hear what people in our district think and what they think i think these people are remarkable you know i i our board members really don't say much because it's it's district run and they're running with it and they're doing phenomenal i do want to give you know tip my hat to them they are doing great um dr robert tozzy you know i always say and i will continue to say i will support you in any way i can you are the ceo of our district and i am darn happy

134that you are the one running hard district in our ship i'm proud of all my colleagues but you know the one thing that just has been irking me for the past couple weeks is that certain people who say that they're further before the referendum in public but i know for a fact they're out there telling people not to do it and that's just wrong and that's just absolutely wrong you know it's not about showboating it's about sticking to your guns and sticking to your heart and running with it and i'm really just sick and tired of it now i know many people have said that it's not free money yeah you know what it's not free money you're right it's your taxes that have paid into it over the years but i get to what

135mr daley is saying it's free money that we don't have to fill for now it's money that's coming to the district that's not going to cost us any more pain to this district these taxpayers one-third is one-third i don't know about you guys i sure don't have a blank check for 55 million dollars let's take it it's important to our district it's important to strengthen our district just like the diversity is the strength of our district we are one clifton it's always a great day to be a mustang for someone who grew up in this district and kids are going to this district and if my breaks my back their kids are going to go to this district and they're they're not going anywhere so let's do it for our kids let's do it for

136our future and again i know i took a long time it's just it's important i appreciate you all thank you thank you vice president abu drabo i have to uh thank uh my fellow commissioners um you saw from the uh committee reports tonight uh that this board is actively working actively doing their duty actively doing what they were elected to do and performing a great job on all the committees so i just like to commend everybody and thank you for the great work that the committees are doing they they really are working and working well obviously to max reuben to miriam to ashley so proud of you and so proud of so many of our students for so many accomplishments to our staff and to so many of those staff members who have done such

137great things and such great accomplishments for those that are retiring after a long career for all that you have given to this district we're so happy and proud for all that you have done for clifton kids um to our volleyball team our girls volleyball team who uh who won uh yesterday i believe and is now moving on to the uh to the state uh quarterfinals um as miss basford said in 1994 uh for 12.5 million dollars we could have had this state-of-the-art complex that would have handled all of our um overcrowding needs our administration building bus garage state-of-the-art science labs tennis courts all that stuff and uh you can't even get a small addition for 12.5 million dollars today so um i truly hope and pray that people will keep that in mind and not

138overlook another opportunity where we can help our school district and better our school district we're all here for the kids we're all here to make it the very best district that we can for our kids is this going to make it great do we have the best of everything in clifton no absolutely not would i love to offer the best of everything but we offer the best that we can do and clifton can do a lot better than 100 year old bathrooms 100 year old boilers security at our elementary schools and a sporting and uh phys ed and um community field uh that is beyond embarrassing beyond deplorable our kids deserve better than that is it the best is it dynamic isn't it the taj mahal absolutely not but our kids deserve better than what's

139what's available and what's out there so this is our opportunity to make things better and i hope that the public will join in in helping make things better but just get out there and vote get out there and vote your conscience go out and vote uh your your civic duty uh so please remember on tuesday to go out and vote i'd also like to uh commend um miss uh jessica tremble uh board members have not had the opportunity or the public if you'd uh go and take a look at her virtual coming room that she made um it truly is amazing i i i tried a couple of the different things and uh some of the uh the the music and the sounds and uh just to be able to put yourself in a calming

140situation i know many staff many kids will enjoy this tremendously and a great amount of work went into this so i commend jessica on doing a great job with that um i'd just like to quickly just make a comment about the donations that were made tonight um throughout time uh many people come back and donate things to our district and we are so appreciative of those donations and um i just wanted to commend uh the donations that we had on our agenda tonight we had uh from right here in town a law firm coradina and papa they donated a replica of our mustang mascot it's made of a hundred percent recycled aluminum and that was donated to the high school um miss joanne santiglia she made a generous donation of a hundred dollars to go

141toward book fines for our seniors so many seniors you don't have to pay some of your book fines because of this wonderful donation by this wonderful generous person uh school number nine uh mr mrs uh eric uh schneinbacher of park ridge donated a large number nine and uh school number 17 our former superintendent of schools mr william lease the technology center at school 17 was named after him and uh his son and uh his family in his memory has graciously donated five thousand dollars to that technology center so we truly are grateful and thankful to all those people that donate to our schools and to our kids uh it truly is appreciated and uh i just wanted to make reference to those people um so thank you dr robertosi thank you mr president i'm just

142going to share my screen for a minute i just want to have a graphic of i'm not doing a presentation i promise i just want a graphic up while i'm speaking so just give me a second and i just want that just give me a thumbs up if you see the screen good all righty i'm gonna be um very singularly focused um during my comments tonight on this upcoming referendum which is ladies and gentlemen five days away please please please take your opportunity to vote on tuesday this is a local decision that will affect our local community that will affect our kids for the next several decades and this decision will be made by the local people but only the ones who vote so remember that our school district benefits from its strong community and

143our community benefits from the strength of its schools we truly are one clifton so in-person polling is available next tuesday from 1 30 to 8 p.m the polling locations are school 5 school 9 school 12 christopher columbus middle school woodrow wilson middle school and clifton high school if you are a registered voter in the city of clifton you most likely have already received or will be receiving a sample ballot in the mail that sample ballot will tell you your polling location there is a chance it is different from the november election had a lot more polling locations unfortunately because this is not a national election the county passaic county board of elections uh condensed the voting location so you will be able to find out where you're supposed to vote on your sample ballot if

144you don't get a sample ballot or you're still not sure you can go on our website and you can type in your address and it will tell you where to vote if you have any problem doing that call my office and we will let you know what your polling location is the website also has a has a link excuse me has a link where you can find out your your voting location but i just said that if you are a vote by mail person if you have already been voting by mail and you're one of those people who signed up to continually vote by mail you should have received your mail-in ballot already that mail-in ballot must be postmarked by april 20th please sending it earlier is advised unfortunately if you're not registered to vote

145it is too late and if you wanted a mail-in ballot it is too late to request if you haven't had a chance to go on our website take five or ten minutes to learn about all of the projects any piece of information you want to know about voting or the finances of this 168 million dollar referendum there's an extensive list of frequently asked questions and if there's a question that's not on the website you can send an email to oneclifton at cliftonschools.net and you'll get a response within a reasonable amount of time again local decision local cost benefits are local students benefits are kids clifton kids most of the funding comes from local taxes these decisions are being made by residents who were elected by their neighbors this board of education all nine board members

146unanimously have voted that it is time for this referendum the citizens of clifton of 40 60 100 years ago voted to pay for major construction so the students today would have schools so the discussion can't always be well this should have been done already or we need to postpone this for a few more years this board has decided the people who you have elected have decided it's time we have stretched as long as we can out of a concern for taxes this board has historically been very conservative in raising your taxes they are very cognizant that new jersey pays the highest property taxes in the nation the board knows this that's why next year this board is proposing a zero percent tax increase that's why last year going into this school year this board proposed

147a zero percent tax increase and that's why the year before the tax increase was point eight percent this is unheard of it's unheard of so we have to also think of the taxpayers investment in our buildings you have to invest in your home by renovating your home you need to invest in your school buildings to make them last and to make people want to stay in your community and make people want to come to your community so in closing ladies and gentlemen almost 10 500 students rely on this school district our primary goal is to educate them having new clean efficient facilities helps students feel more safe and feel more comfortable and ultimately impacts that learning so we have an amazing staff that rises up to meet their academic needs and their social emotional learning

148needs this referendum is a parallel effort to what our teachers do and our staff does on a daily basis to address our physical building needs and i recall the words of one student who said to me at a meeting that parents and teachers are always constantly telling students to do their very best this referendum ladies and gentlemen is an attempt to provide the facilities to support students so that they can do their best please take the time to vote on tuesday april 20th and thank you very much mr president that's all i have thank you dr robertosi [Music] okay we'll now move on with the agenda next would be a new business i see no new business uh next would be uh executive session uh the board will be meeting in executive session on uh

149on a personnel matter do i have a motion to convene an executive session second by mr awad discussion mr smith action may be taken when we get back action may be taken yes uh roll call please um mr awad miss basford yes ms beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes miss danny yes mr casper yes mr avadrabo yes mr smith yes mr smith could we just clarify with dr robert tosi about how much time we're going to be in executive session just so the public knows yep i expect um that i will need to speak to the board for about 10 to 15 minutes and then depending on questions and answers maybe another 15 20 minutes so i would say conservatively i would say 45 minutes tops but i'm hoping it's a half an

150hour thank you okay mr mountain if you could uh please uh direct us into the breakout room yes sir thank you all right everyone back in all right uh return from executive session uh roll call mr usey you're muted mr russie i apologize for that uh mr awad you sit here we're waiting i think miss password's still returning i'm here oh no you're here i'm sorry i'm trying to count everybody i apologize miss bassford miss beltran i saw her somewhere mr canova here mr daley see him saying here miss danny yes mr casper here mr abedrabo hello i'm alex i'm here mr smith here uh if we just wait a second i do not see uh miss beltran right now so if we could just wait a second to see if she is coming back

151in mr mountain you don't see her yet right no mr smith i don't see her at all okay it's a good time to remind anybody who's watching the live stream that we have a referendum on april 20th please vote and what does that vote for in case you haven't heard referendum uh i don't know if i have nina's cell does any canadian texture it'll be april 20th polls are open from 1 30 to 8 30 pm and how many locations will be open at schools five nine um christopher obama's middle school woodrow wilson middle school and clifton high school and how much is the state paying um well we're asking for 168 million dollars and the state is going to cover one-third of that almost 55 million dollars in state aid and if this vote

152doesn't pass will we ever see that state aid that state aid will be long gone and then this board will have to regroup and decide on a plan for the future and when's the last time we actually fix this district up i don't know what president when the last time mrs smith i texted dana she's not answering back because that's what you just entered i believe is joining right now what's up with the last referendum in 1994 i was in fourth grade just want to put it out there if our boilers are 100 years old who the heck was president 100 years ago i'm curious miss beltran are you back in george washington yes i am sorry my phone died okay no problem we just wanted to wait for you okay uh the board met

153an executive session uh to discuss uh some personnel matters um and miss gutierrez if you read a resolution yes happy to thank you mr smith so the resolution that is uh going to be uh voted on now is p14 for personnel resolved that the clifton board of education accepts the recommendation of the superintendent of schools to withhold the employment and adjustment increment of the following individual for the 2021 2022 school year and that is for employee id number zero one zero dash two zero two one so the resolution is being amended slightly uh to add the words and adjustment before the word increment okay do i have a motion so moved by mr casper second second by vice president abu drabo any discussion seeing none roll call mr awad yes miss bassford yes miss beltran

154yes mr canova yes mr daley yes miss danny yes mr casper mr abigail yes mr smith yes motion carries um again to uh all those celebrating uh ramadan uh fahim and for us wishing you a happy ramadan uh and if you just keep uh in your thoughts and prayers um mr daley um as he's uh going through some uh family issues uh just to keep him in your thoughts and prayers all right motion to adjourn back in motion by mr awad seconded by mr casper roco or any objection seeing none thank you all very much meeting is adjourned good night everybody everybody good night