March 4, 2021 - Clifton Board of Education Meeting

001hmm hi everybody hey frank frank good morning all right good evening hello hello hi frank how's everybody doing okay how are you feeling lucy my arm is just it's nice you know what at night it just really hurts really bad i guess from just the whole day of you know just it just it hurts bad but thank you i just want to see if my microphone is working you guys hear me yes we got you okay thank you hello hey good evening good evening how are you doing well thanks how about you well very good thanks good good evening miss gutierrez how are you it's me lucy danny hello lucy how are you how are you feeling oh you know what the the night time is it um i guess it's just from the whole

002day and a little bit more swollen and and just um you know just tight in the cast so just it's uncomfortable really hopefully people say even when you say oh it's your left hand you know so you don't realize how much you still use your hand your left hand even to hold the jar to open it you know um just to pick up anything you know it's just it's it's unbelievable how much you use your left hand you really don't even realize so well hopefully you're on the mend i am i'm trying thank you thank you you're welcome okay uh we're still have we have a quorum one two three four [Music] five six seven oh yeah we're good we are good okay i'd like to uh call the uh regularly uh regular board board

003of education meeting for the clifton board of education march the 4th 2021. if you all would now please rise for a pledge of allegiance followed by a brief moment of silence join with me i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america america into the regional republic with liberty and justice thank you all right mr rusi roll call mr awad here miss bassford president miss beltran here mr kenova here mr daley [Music] miss danny president mr casper here mr abedrabo here mr smith here okay um if i just uh before we start um a commissioner uh danny um had an accident and had to have a surgery on her arm so she is healing at home and not very comfortable to be on camera so i just wanted to let the public

004know that she is here she is present you see her beautiful picture there uh but uh she will not have her live picture on uh same thing for uh vice president abhijabo he is um at a wedding um but he is going to try and to uh to come into the meeting at period of time uh to go out to his car or go into another room to uh to try and join us throughout the meeting so again you may not see his picture live tonight so i just wanted the public to be aware of that uh mr casper would you mind reading our mission statement 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

005to become literate lifelong learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a democratic society in an ever-changing world thank you uh the new jersey open public meetings law the jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the rights to the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the clifton board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place thereof posted at the city clerk's office clifton public library administration building senior citizen nutrition center on cable tv in the local press on the district website and mailed to presidents of parent-teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in

006accordance with policy zero one six eight okay adoption of the minutes of uh meeting uh february 18th 2021 our regular meeting so moved so moved by mr casper exactly by who is it uh mr canova discussion changes seeing none vocal mr awad yes miss basford yes miss beltran yeah mr canova yes mr i daley him saying yes miss danny miss danny she might have stepped away mr casper yes mr abba drabo yes mr smith yes motion carries okay uh board committee reports um the public should know that the board was extremely busy uh with our committees uh working very hard so i thank all the board members uh so we have quite a few committee reports to read this evening so uh board members if you would do your best to um give a synopsis

007of their reports instead of uh reading every single word uh it'll help us get through these a little bit quicker um so i'm just going to start in the order that they're listed here so uh joe if you would do technology please yep and mine are only a few items here technology committee met march 2nd a board member is present uh for jim smith joe konova dana beltran and ferris awad administration president danny robert tosi janina kuchinovic mark teigen and eric mountain meeting time was five to six items of discussion first one was chromebooks mr mountain provided an update of chromebook one to one access while a small number of students are still in progress of signing out all devices kd 12 students now have access to chromebooks all power secretaries and other support staff

008who are need of chromebooks are also receiving theirs this week now that we are fully one to one preliminary discussions for replacement plans have begun chromebook sizes and touchscreens capabilities will be key issues in choosing models for future purchases other mobile technologies such as windows laptops and apple ipads are also discussed and will be elevated evaluated for current and future use as appropriate number two device insurance uh mr mountain provided a cost comparison between purchasing insurance for lost stolen or damaged chromebooks versus paying for repairs as needed at present the repair and replacement cost paid by the district are significantly less than the cost of insurance so it is recommended we maintain status quo and forego this option the cost will be reevaluated on an annual basis students and families will continue to be responsible

009for damage caused by malicious or negligent behavior as per the agreement signed in the beginning of the year item three training chromebook chromebook and google suite training will be offered to board event commissioners in the near future to refresh and expand skills and comfort levels with the google environment item four staffing short-term and long-term staffing these were discussed and will be considered as the 2122 budget is developed item fives microsoft renewal as student staff continue to shift to the google environment different options for the district's microsoft license renewal will discuss cost and usage will be analyzed in upcoming months in order to make the best decision for our annual review in july if renewed any renewal plan offers the microsoft office suite of programs for staff and or students to use on their personal devices

010these opportunities will be advertised as appropriate okay are there any questions for uh mr kanova on technology seeing none thank you mr canova next is policy do you miss uh bassford yes uh good evening everyone the policy committee met on february 23rd at 11 a.m attendees with uh president jim smith myself board members joe konova dana beltran from administration dr robert tussie mark teigen luis ross and also our board attorney was present the committee discussed by laura zero one five five it's up for a second a reading tonight we did agree on the um wine to put in is the board president and or majority of the board of education have the authority to discharge an ad hoc committee at any time so that it was it was put in and it's it's staying like

011that if everybody agrees tonight it will be adopted on final resolution um the committee also discussed policies uh relating to public comment at a board meeting um we are going to discuss this further but basically if a board meets if the board meeting is remote or partially remote then the board must provide a remote option to the public discussion was then held on what um information a speaker needs to provide to prior to the speaking at a public meeting name address name and school number name and municipality uh speaker may remain anonymous the committee did not come to a recommendation and will review at an upcoming meeting the committee also reviewed and discussed policies relating to dress code for student staff and commissioners policy 5511 dress code of student dress code was discussed and data

012was presented on violations and discipline policy 3216 policy dress code was discussed and similar data presented policy 9322 code of conduct of remote meeting was discussed by dealing with board member board commissioners the policy states that board members we will dress and act and and speak in a professional manner as this policy was enacted for remote meetings it was agreed to consult straus is made to inquire on non-remote meetings of dress policy for board members the meeting adjourned at 12 and mr ross submitted the minutes any questions okay thank you thank you miss bassford next um we have um uh we have a residency security committee uh the uh the public session uh uh minutes um [Music] mr uh wad would you like to read those please thank you president smith um clifton public schools

013residency security meeting was held on march 2nd 2021 um on march 2nd 2021 the residency and security committee meeting began with the customary greetings and introductions present at the meeting where the board of education commissioners president smith committee chair which was ive for ocelon uh commissioner commissioner casper dr robert tosie uh uh superintendent also um mark t assistant superintendent of mark gonzalez hamda clifton high school vice principal uh secretary security secretary brenda also security secretary nancy foster vincent uh i apologize if i pronounced his name wrong mckelly also uh mr uh gingaro recognized that individual hard work and efforts uh put forward by the registration department and security team to the committee mr jangiero provided the committee with a brief overview of security in the district including compliance with nj school drill law types of

014emergency procedures and the district's response to varying types of emergency situations second mr jingaro provided the committee with a brief overview of the district's registration and residency procedures and processes including students who reside in the state of new jersey are entitled to free public education between the ages of 5 and 20 years old and other students who are eligible for preschool under the age of 5 or special education students over the age of 20 are entitled to free public education residents more accurately called is defined at the fixed permanent address to which students return to at the end of the day in accordance with njsa18a 38-1a students who are not in clifton are not eligible to attend the clifton public school district information about how the enrollment registration process how to determine eligibility based on

015age residency and the criteria of the attendance and enrollment dr robert tosie further explained the process to deem students ineligible involves affording parents and guardian students the opportunity to present their cases to specific to residency at a hearing of the board of education as such a portion of the residency and security committee meeting was allocated for this process a total of 13 families were issued notice for ineligibility and were invited to attend uh the hearing at the board of education five of those families were presented at the hearing dr robertos facilitated the hearing in both in arabic and spanish-speaking translators were made available for the families at the conclusion of each hearing the residency and security committee members discussed each individual's case and came to as a recommendation that will be made an executive session

016on march 4th at the board of ed meeting all decisions will be communicated via email and certified mail the committee also discussed following items that will be added to the agenda for the next residency and security uh committee detailed overview of the district's security procedures determining ways to pro uh to better promote both the bounty and announce tip line the possibility of registrations for specific grades committee chair for our salon and mark gennaro work collaborative to determine that the date of the next residency and security committee the committee requested to have monthly reports submitted for the report at the board of education meeting including the results of investigations specific of the number of confirmed residents and non-residents the number of bounties awarded to citizens for providing the information that leads to discovering that families does

017not live reciting klept in and the number of investigations that were conducted are there any uh questions for mr awad uh just for clarification mr awad uh uh vincent constantino is our domicile investigator mr vinnie thank you that's right okay thank you very much next we have education mr casper thank you mr president i have two our first meeting from december 8th 2020 uh the education committee was held in conjunction with the technology committee the meeting began at 5 p.m attendees were myself uh as a chairperson board vice president judith basford as well as board members mr joe konova and mr tahim abu drabo administrators included dr danny robertozzi mrs janina kusalavich miss heather rotello mr eric mountain and our guest was rachel harrington okay so all of these i'm going to read were informational

018um we're informational provided to the committee which i will read now so our first uh item was the linkit online assessment platform mrs kusalevich gave a brief overview of the lincoln online assessment platform it is a powerful multi-functional student database that will allow school districts to measure student growth down to the individual standard and allows for cross-referencing of teaching of teacher-made local standardized and state assessments our special ed update was given by mrs heather rotolo she described many of the special education initiatives taking place ms chavez ran nurtured heart training where 120 families were registered and over 60 participated parents were engaged in strategies to successfully defuse difficult behaviors and reinforce positive behaviors bank had a meeting scheduled on 12 15 20. flyers were sent via peach jar in multiple languages the meeting was planned

019to have breakout rooms with arabic and trans spanish translators commissioner abu drago made a connection for arabic speaking families to have a specific parental support meeting in arabic via a community organization vice president basford brainstormed multiple ways for advertising these parent forums throughout local community organizations a successful meeting between district administration and priests were also discussed miss rotolo shared that the special ed department created their own instagram page to distribute information to families special education supervisors plan activity nights for january and we'll be scheduled several open meetings for parent questions and then there was a quick device update from mr melvin who provided an update about chromebook distribution to date devices delivered in grades three to five were completed students in grades k through two needed devices who needed devices received them the final order

020of devices for the k2 will be distributed upon receipt then we had another um education meeting on february 11th the committee was held in this one um the education committee is now um separated from the technology committee we met at 4 pm attendees were myself board president jim smith and board members faras awad and lucy danny administrators included dr robertosi mrs kusalevich mrs rotolo mr mountain and mrs and mrs banning our guest um was miss rachel harrington number one we received uh miss banning gave a brief overview of our district esl bilingual program she discussed how clustering classes at magnet schools allowed students to receive additional hours of esl and bilingual instruction the district has magnet programs in four magnet schools in in spanish arabic and esl only in programs at ccms and chs she

021shared that clifton's bilingual and esl program has been a njdot model program for over a decade after school tutoring and summer programs are also available ms rotolo once again provided an update of many special ed initiatives taking place family involvement activities have been advertised via peach jar integral and the district website a program for behavior strategies was held on one twenty one twenty one a program for picky eaters is planned for two twenty five twenty a parent support group planned for 22 22 21 and an assistive technology training program scheduled for 3-3-21 family fun activities including a snowman contest in january in a favorite book scene project in march have been planned in collaboration with the njea and the cea pride grant program learning law support in an extended school year mrs kusalevich gave an

022overview of the district plans to address learning laws local assessments have shown that most typical student reading levels have remained close to expected ranges and major math content is being addressed the areas of writing and advanced programs including ap need additional support online after school tutoring has begun including for ap classes the district has applied for a grant to provide a summer learning loss program in addition to existing title 1 title 3 extended school year ic and middle school and high school summer programs a summer intervention program is also being included in the local budget if the district does not receive the aforementioned grant curriculum and pacing are being modified for september to provide additional student support all of these um there was no action taken on these uh they were also informational for uh

023the board members and the public and both of them are respectfully submitted by mrs janina kusalevich thank you are there any questions for mr casper mr president yes mr cordova i had two questions one was uh about peach jar i remember the last time we spoke about that they said there may be a calendar functionality i know we were talking about creating some sort of community calendar where uh all these events from things that are going on peachjar are basically events or things going on in the district and we were talking about possibly tying that into a calendar and putting it on the website do you know if if that functionality was discussed or if it's possible i don't have any other info on that mrs kusalevich would you know about peach jar i can

024i can look into that i remember it was discussed um and i will address it with our um pr and website um coordinators okay thanks and the other question i had was around learning loss how exactly are we determining that are we looking at things from last year compared to this year or and where students would have been this year or did we give some sort of assessment mr casper i think the best answer on that great it's an excellent question assessing learning lawsuits is a challenge but some of what people are calling learning loss is a little bit difficult to measure what we are doing is comparing trends of of the data that we do have in linkit of what students typical uh reading levels would be attaining of certain standards would be and

025we are doing comparisons with this year's assessments at the same time this year's assessments have been modified we have a very modified pacing and adjusted curriculum for this school year because of the situation and our scheduling uh remote instruction is different from in-person instruction so there have been changes we can't do an apples to apples comparison but we can do a standard by standard um as well as a comparison of reading levels and major math content which has been our primary focus as well as major uh science content right now we are waiting up to see what the doe wants to do they have actually asked districts including ours to submit our local data as they make their determination on what will happen with this year's standardized testing njsla which was um and one other

026question are we also comparing ourselves not only internally from last year to this year but uh are we comparing ourselves to other schools to see how we fared and you know if there's any areas of improvement that we could have at this time there is no comparison to other schools the entire state um suspended assessments last year actually the entire nation um and typically when we compare ourselves to others it's based on that new jersey student learning assessment it did not take place last year um and it will we don't know what's happening this year right now it is slated to take place at the end of the school year but uh that test would then be compared to the previous school year since there is a year of missing data what we can do

027is look internally at our own student growth and i think the vast majority of school districts given this pandemic situation have been very focused on keeping our own students engaged and measuring our own students growth rather yeah i agreed and and same like our board of ed meetings here i mean the pandemic did throw us into an environment where we're remote but i think our subcommittees have been even more effective because the amount of times that we're able to be engaged with each other grows so i'd be curious to see how that works for distance education in the future of clifton here and see you know what have we learned from going remote and what sort of nuggets can we take back and possibly integrate into our curriculum if i may there have been many

028very big positives the fact that they're now 100 one to one the fact that all of our teachers and students have really risen to the occasion with using all of these electronic programs that sometimes in the past were used minimally or not enough are now being used to the really to the extent that many of them were designed to be used um and we've seen quite a bit of actual of student growth internally um in the minutes it did indicate that our student reading levels are still remaining on par with what was it what would have been expected in a normal year the same with major math content now are there gaps are there groups of students who who do need different approaches and more in-person instruction absolutely but there have been definite kernels including

029this format of zoom meetings and google meets we have had more parent participation than ever before it's so much easier to schedule a parent conference when they don't have to leave the home um so this type of of communication i think is something we need to leverage moving forward um it's definitely a plus and just one more question you mentioned uh that the reading levels we were retained are you referring to raz kids in my own is that where that data is being derived from or is that just an assessment overall of teachers and their assessment of students whereas kids and ion are the instructional programs which then feed into the reading leveling done in the star that we measure in star and we will level students using raz kids but that data then goes

030um is measured and compared and collected via link it uh using our literacy assessment folder um so that's where the lit so it is standardized and individualized and that is where the data is coming from okay thank you thank you uh let's see president smith if i may ask a question um kind of going towards what mr kanoko is saying but more of the in the post part of remote learning if we're going to compare and contrast data not just today from from when we went to remote till now but um to mr slavis through the superintendent by may um are we going to compare and contrast data in terms of in class versus remote and what has benefited our district the most because a lot of kids i would assume are many students what

031i would assume remote learning really wasn't from them and you know just like college level some prefer the online some prefer the in class um so i'm interested to see what what that would look like if we're going to do any data any research and data collection on that um yeah we do and can see what our students which students are remote and which um which students will return in person at the same time the curriculum has been designed so that students who are at home and students who are in person are following the same pacing the same instruction the same materials the same activity thank you i appreciate you and i also want to say thank you to your staff and the superintendent administration for you know obviously went into a pandemic where this

032is the first for everybody right for a full school for mostly a full school year so thank you for everything you've done um you know it's not great for anybody that's what we can do and then also mr president if i may to the chair of education i know i was on education last year uh not this year uh i will speak with you and our friend the president uh president smith about um handing off my uh connections and networks of folks that you know for the arab speaking part as well so you can work along with the leviticus administration all right thank you okay thank you next uh is uh finance mr daley uh yes thank you mr smith um for numbers present was in addition to myself dana beltran joe canova and jim

033smith administration was dr robertosi michael yusi and eric tom cevich uh the annual audit for 2019 mr hughes mr yusi and mr birch uh district order represented the annual school audit for the 2019-20 school year ending in june 30th 2020 the comprehensive annual uh financial report and orders management report were reviewed both documents will be emailed and mailed to all board members mr lurch will present during the february 18 2021 board meeting uh to imac health insurance broker 2001 for 2022 health premiums mr murillo his team briefed the committee on the current claims the potential budget for the next year the committee will be will have the broker continue to negotiate with the district's medical providers to to ensure the best possible premium rate possible b uh chapter 44 and and for those of the

034public who don't know what chapter 44 is this is confusing uh we've been operating under chapter 78 law for uh paying health insurance and for the most part that's changed chapter 44. it's uh it's reduced the amount of premiums most um employees have to pay but i'll read on here chapter 44 impact minister you see mr murillo presented the financial impact of the nj ehps new jersey education health plan chapter 44 medical contributions which are based on salary the nj ehp was mandated to be an effect uh men to be in in effect as of january 1st 2001 chapter 78 contributions are based on a percentage of the premium therefore the contributions made to the district are much lower for those who opt to enter the nj eha the impact from january 2001 through june

0352021 will be uh the current budget the the administration will budget accordingly in the 2001 22 budget for those who may have switched to b may be switching to the nj ehp as of july 1st 2021 after after the opening enrollment which will take place in may 2021 anybody have any questions on the minutes from february all right mr daley you have some more of this i know yeah i'm trying to let's go you know it's not opening for me okay here we go okay uh click the board of education finance committee february 23rd 2021 5 pm to 5 30 minutes where members present including myself was mr canova miss beltran and mr smith uh administrative president was uh dr robertosi michael yousse and eric thomasevich also in attendance was rachel harrington uh updated proposal

036for 2122 school year mr uc informed the committee that a district's health provider aetna has provided an updated proposal for the health insurance premium cost for the 2001-2022 school year the new proposal includes a 2.05 percent reduction in health insurance premium costs from the 2001-2021 school year administration will monitor premium rates until the 20 122 school year budget is due number two 2001 2021 22 state aid update mr uc community communicated to the committee that the 2021-22 state aid information has not been released by the state the district should expect to receive the state information by this friday esser ii funds aka cares two funds uh mr uc was has informed the committee that the district was awarded an additional funds by the state relating to the elementary school secondary school emergency relief fund esser2

037under the coronavirus response and relief supplemental appropriations cares act that the total amount of the additional funds is 10 million 963 dollars and six hundred and thirty nine dollars um the budget application will be available beginning march 15th in the zoo uh by may 14th the amendments can be made after the due date of may 14th the allowable users of the these funds are the same as the original esser funds plus additional allowable uses addressing learning laws preparing schools for reopening testing repairing and upgrading projects to improve air quality in the school buildings uh that concludes my notes for the um february 23rd meeting anybody have any questions okay okay uh finance minutes for february 26th uh the board of education finance committee february 26 uh 3 30 p.m to 5 50 p.m minutes uh

038president board members was myself joe konova dana belgium and jim smith uh administration was dr robertosi uh mr yusi and mr thomasevich number one 2122 state aid update mr uc communicate communicated that the committee uh to the committee that the 2021-22 state aid and information has been released by the state the district is expected to receive 55 million three hundred eighty thousand four hundred and sixteen dollars in the general uh in the general fund state aid for the 20th for 21 22 school year this is an increase of 12 756. and 42 and 421 excuse me the grammar for the 21 for the 2021 revised general fund state aid charter school aide mr uc informed the committee that the 2021-2022 charter school aide is 9 million five hundred sixty nine thousand two hundred and thirty

039six dollars this is an increase of one million eight hundred uh eight hundred and eighty six thousand dollars and five hundred from the 2001 2002 original charter school aid uh that concludes the notes for the [Music] february 26 finance meeting anybody has any questions i'll be happy to answer it all right thank you mr daly uh last we have a facilities committee miss beltran okay the facilities committee met on february 23rd from 4 to 5 pm myself james daly brent casper and jim smith were in attendance administration in attendance with danny robertosi mike usey eric uh thomas device and al marcion also attended was rachel harrington the first thing we spoke about was the inventory status of our ppe equipment mr marcion said the district currently has plenty of stock on ppe equipment such as

040mascot's hand sizing solution the second thing we talked about is the air scrubbers the sr2 funds will be paying for this administration discussed the emergent needs to place an air scrubber in every classroom and office space for the reopening of school administration is looking to purchase 1 000 air scrubbers utilizing the additional funding the district was awarded from the elementary and secondary school emergency relief run sr2 through the coronavirus response and relief supplemental appropriations act crssa uh mr marcion informed the committee that air scrubbers are available and will be arrived in time for the opening of march 8th pending and the unforeseen delivery delays the third thing we talked about was the chh kitchen renovation update from the cafeteria funds mr usi provided an update relating to this dhs kitchen renovation project with the committee

041the final drawings are in the works with the architects the goal is to have the renovation complete for the start of the 21-22 school year the initial phase of the project is to start the abatement of the kitchen and hood exhaust the abatement will not affect the school relating to in-person instruction and staff being present in school during the process the meal distribution location will be moved to chs from cgs to woodrow wilson for three to four weeks during the abatement process the start date for this uh change has yet to be determined and once the start date is confirmed the change will be made as soon as possible on the district's website and all district social media platforms ccnms partial roof damage mr marcion informed the committee of wind damage to the upper gym

042roof at ccms there are no signs of water leaks the roof damage was submitted to the district's insurance provider the insurance provider informed the district that the replacement cost to repair the section of the damaged roof is not covered under the insurance due to a 67 year old age of the roof mr marchionne received a quote through bergen uh county co-op to cover the 6 000 square feet of roof that needs to be replaced estimated cost is about 125 000 with a 30-year warranty administration will check if the section of the roof will be will get impacted by the pending bond referendum before proceeding ccms media center renovation mr marcion provided an update on the project the committee which was budgeted for utilizing maintenance reserve funds the project is underway and is going as planned

043the floors have been gutted and leveled by the contractor the contractor will be installing ceiling lighting new flooring painting new shelves to installing two new bathrooms and new furniture goal number 17 bms uh which is a um the management system for the air conditioning mr marcion informed the committee that the school number 17 bms staff training including the principal head custodian and maintenance has occurred the new system has been working very well club b bms update potential project administration will be looking into possibly upgrading the bms's daily b mr martian will obtain a quote for the cost of the committee to consider and that was the end of the minute i have a question yes ms spence um did the uh air scrubbers make it in in time for monday the eighth mrs basswood they're

044not in yet they are on a truck on their way um if if they come in this weekend we'll bring in our staff uh over the weekend to make sure they're in the classrooms uh we're looking at worst case scenario they might get here on monday thank you mr president i had two questions yes go ahead mr groom um the first one uh was also about the airscovers i was looking at the data you sent over and it looks like those are hepa filters does that then mean that we don't need to keep the windows open because we're going to circulate the air to the hepa filter or is it that that's in addition to keeping the windows open in the classrooms that's going to be in addition to keeping the windows open mr genova

045but we do have some offices and smaller rooms in the district that don't have windows so now while we don't have students in those rooms we have you know maybe two staff members sharing that so they'll have the air scrubbers in there which will take care of the ventilation but in the classrooms it will be the windows and the scrubbers okay and the other question i had was about the roof i think i recall reading in there that we're replacing 6000 square feet is that just a small portion of the roof or is that the entire roof i'm going to ask if money mike mike do you have more details on that about the size of that project how how big of a part of the roof that is i'm i'm really sorry i got

046kicked out i guess it's just really windy outside can someone repeat the question no uh so i saw on the agenda or the meeting minutes rather for christopher columbus which said that we're replacing a i don't know if it was a portion of the roof or a smaller roof on christopher columbus i didn't really understand which one it was it was six thousand square foot area for 125 000. it the the specific part of the roof is um the roof above the upper jamb of ccms so it's only that one area correct because it was nothing it was relatively easy they mentioned it was relatively old should we just look into replacing the whole thing or is that not something we want to do at this point in time there's no problems with the roof

047except that section yeah mr gnaw actually one of the things that came up in committee was um waiting to to find out about the referendum because when we the referendum passes we may need to be putting rooftop units up there so we want to make sure that the roof is sound in all places and we might so we we might be waiting on a decision to do the whole thing until after april 20th yeah because i wouldn't want to do one little part and then we have to find out we have to do the whole thing anyway and maybe i even have to rip up that and essentially waste money i think it was 67 years old the roof was yeah yeah but it's not covered anymore essentially so that's what i mean so i

048don't know or should we look at doing the whole i wouldn't want to do patchwork for a certain amount of money to then find out we're essentially throwing that out the window to redo it again that's all if we were to do it it would be a complete roof for that section but i understand what you're saying if you wanted to quote the entire yeah i didn't know if that was like a pitched portion of that was just over the gymnasium i'm not familiar with the structure i didn't know if that was its own six thousand square foot area or not it it is to my knowledge it's and it's flat oh okay so then that's fine thank you no problem you're welcome any other questions for uh facilities okay seeing none our next uh

049committee report is our um student representative uh always glad to have you here max so the floor is yours always glad to be here mr smith all right so um uh just a few updates for this week a lot of them are just um continued updates from last time i spoke uh first i just want to speak about the mental health survey so it was sent out last week the mental health survey that i've been bringing up for a few weeks now it was sent out last week and they were um there were announcements on the morning news advertising the survey um and as of three days ago so as of monday which was three days ago only 184 students filled out the survey which is i mean compared to the amount of students that

050are in our whole school that's a very slim amount of students that actually filled out the survey so because um not a lot of students filled it out it was emailed to again to all of the chs students yesterday um so i'm just asking um everyone any students who are watching this or any parents of high school students uh either remind your kids or if i'm speaking to high school students you fill out the survey it's really important um the survey is meant to give the staff and administration a sense of what they can do in regards to mental health there's only a few questions on the survey and there's also a doc that has a lot of important links and emails and cell numbers to call if you're in need of assistance from one

051of the members of the staff at chs so it's really important you fill that survey out so the staff can get a better scope on what they can do in regards to mental health so yeah high school students if you're watching this definitely fill it out check your email and fill it out and high school parents watching this tell your kids to fill it out it's really important next i just want to quickly talk about the referendum citizens committee so there was a big meeting yesterday as all of you know as all of you were there for members of the public who weren't at the meeting yesterday or didn't ask any questions or weren't watching it you can still watch the meeting it's on the clifton public schools tv youtube channel or cps tv um

052it was a community forum and it was about two and a half hours long maybe close to three hours but you don't have to watch the whole thing there's different 15 to 20 minute time slots you can skip to if you only want to hear a certain part about the referendum i was lucky enough to be able to speak at the meeting last night and i think i was part of a panel with another student and three teachers and we all shared our experiences on experiences we had in the clifton school district and i think it was a really insightful meeting and if you're on the fence about of whether you should vote yes or not come april 20th or you just don't know about the referendum and want to know more definitely watch this

053meeting it should be one of the last things posted on the cpstv youtube channel um also in case you don't know how to get to the referendum website um the link is at the top of the clifton schools homepage so if you go to the clifton schools website you go to the home page there's a link in red bold at the top of the page that says clifton votes april 20th you click on it and then that's the website for the referendum it has all the information you'd need to know upcoming sat testing i always mentioned this i just wanted to quickly mention it's may 8th 2021 and june 5th 2021 you should register as soon as possible spaces may or may not be available at chs i'm pretty sure that the march 13th date

054is no longer available it's definitely not available at chs anymore and i think it might not be available period um but chances are if you wanted to sign up for the march date you would have done so already since it's so close so definitely look out for may 8th and june 5th our future sat testing dates um one thing i wanted to mention because that last meeting i was a little bit confused um sorry i was a little bit confused when one person mentioned uh how there wasn't going to be a call in portion so i just wanted to clarify for the next board of ed meeting which i believe correct me if i'm wrong is march 18th where you where you said it's going to be in person but you could still be hybrid

055if you want you could still be at home so will participants in the public portion still be able to join through zoom and will participants be able to speak through the phone um are those still options or do we actually have to go to the school to speak in person so um please just answer that when you can and also i just wanted to ask miss basford because you mentioned this at the last meeting there was an eye on mental health i think was the name of the document it was new jersey school boards and it sounded really interesting so uh please send that to me or when you can um if you type in my my name on the school email and clickingschools.net my id should pop up and you should be able to

056send it to me um but yeah if i definitely want you to send me that and dr robert tosie if miss basford isn't able is has trouble reaching out um i'll give you can give her my email okay um a couple other things i wanted to mention um oh i always do a plug-in for the chs morning show continuing to provide great updates um and also mr stepnesski is arranging um as you know there's always a all city concert every year last year we weren't able to do it because that's right when the coronavirus happened we were actually planning on having a really awesome uh project for all city but we weren't able to do it but this year we're doing a virtual all city project with the elementary schoolers the middle schoolers and the

057high schoolers um so i'm not exactly sure when that's coming out but i know there um are recordings we're due tomorrow so it must be soon so i would just look out for that when you get the chance and that's it um good night everyone and um i hope you have a great week max if you could just wait here there might be some board members that have some questions i know miss bassford has her hand up yes yes um max uh through you mr uh president smith to superintendent we did i did send it to uh dr robinson he did send it out i think you sent it to the boe email i don't think max is on it so i'll resend it to you and then if you you know max we did

058we did try at the last meeting yeah it's a really great report you can always go on new jersey school boards association's website they have multiple reports on there for different things you may want to peruse that site and look around and get familiar with it but i'll make sure you get it tonight i'm sorry oh it's it it's okay thank you so much dr roberto you wanted to say something thanks mr smith i just wanted to take a minute to thank max for his contributions last night to our community forum i think it's great for our community members to hear from our students who really are most affected by this upcoming referendum and he he said something on i'm gonna paraphrase it but he said something that i thought was very powerful and he

059said look i'm not going to be here to see any of these changes i'm graduating this year but he said i wouldn't be sitting here wasting my time if i didn't have such a great experience in the clifton public school district and the and the in the clifton public school district deserves this and i just thought that was such a mature uh powerful thing for a young man to say so max thank you again and our other student miriam gabriel was just incredible also um so max thanks again and then and then finally i i saw a video might have been last week of the chs morning show where you were doing a snl skit of uh chris farley and the man down by the river yes maybe maybe next time you come on for

060a public comment you can you can do your impression for us i think i'm gonna save that for like one of my last uh addresses excellent thanks max all right well um and would you would it be okay if you answered the question about the um the public portion uh what it's going to be like next week or in two weeks if we're allowed to do a call-in or zoom yeah the max the board is actually going to be discussing that in executive session so we'll come out and make an announcement on that okay thank you um just so everyone uh may not have seen it if you go to uh the clifton high school morning show today you'll be in for a real treat from one of max's friends um who will uh teach

061you some some uh max i'm sorry i'm not putting you on the spot but you have such a great friend there and he uh he teaches everyone some great dance moves so if you uh if you have an opportunity everyone please go and check that out you will thoroughly enjoy it as i did thank you max and thank your friend uh for all that he does for the morning show i truly enjoy it and i'm sure many others do thanks again max thank you mr smith have a good week everyone you too okay uh we're now going to go into uh public recognition this portion the meeting is open to the residents and non-residents of clifton for the purpose of addressing any subject matter matter pertinent to and or directly related to the operation of

062the city of clifton public school district residents and non-residents are requested to state their name and municipality that they live in and the subject matter there they're addressing comments are limited to five minutes per person issued raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding students and my computer went down sorry my chromebook likes to uh act up here uh specifically comments regarding students 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 new jersey

063the board bears no responsibility nor will be liable for any comments made by members of the public should consider their comments in light of legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments okay i believe we have uh someone labeled floor more if you would please state your name municipality and subject matter please uh caller with the name floor more okay floor more last call okay we'll move on to the next i believe uh mr mark brunsiak you were next how you doing do you hear me yes we do thank you dr robert tozie thank you president smith vice president basford at all the school board and all the members of the board of ed i just wanted to let everybody

064know that the u.s census bureau based on a population of 8.8 million in the state of new jersey and the cdc has just reported as of today that 2.3 million doses of the coven vaccine have been administered as of today and out of those 8.8 million residents of the state of new jersey 20 of those are under 18 years old so if you want to count to 18 year olds that means 26 over 26 percent have already had the first vaccine over 26 percent of residences of residents of the state of new jersey have already had them and i'd like to know since the government has governor murphy has already stated that as of march 15 that teachers that educators kindergarten through through uh 12th grade are eligible is there any visibility on on how

065we could try to get them the vaccine as humanly possible moreover that how many of the educators in the district have been vaccinated already as of february 8 2021 the number of school districts in the state of new jersey a full in-person instruction was at 95 districts out of more than 600 today is march 4th and we're supposed to start this coming monday and again like i said last time i called in is the best news we've had since november and i'm asking the board to do everything they can we heard miss beltran before stating that she's going to get a bunch of air purifiers for each one of the classrooms over a thousand that should be in place and this is one of the you know the circulation issues and and and on top

066of it all the other precautions are there kids are going to be able to have safe schooling and people could have argued over a month ago too that they could have had it too so i'm asking this board but please do everything you can to have the kids to have the parents who ha want their kids to have in-person schooling to keep them there as best as you can and to continue that thank you for your time thank you and god bless america have a good night everybody thank you mr brunsiak um i believe next is a student uh in our clifton schools uh chloe popovich you have the floor hi my name is chloe popos i think it is great that schools will be opening the new case is reported by the clifton board

067of health on tuesday it was only which gives our town a daily infection rate of 0.03 i like that we are starting to hold activities outdoors this will help students mental health along with allowing our community to heal sporosphere always held our spa as hell and now the music programs are having outdoor spring concerts and the spring musical will also be outdoors i would like to see the holding of outdoor events extend to the many academic awards programs and senior activities which normally occur donors blank there was no hope of having any indoor events for our school rsis but why can't we hold an academic awards ceremony outside even if it's in shift we could use the stadium no dental just the words same with the prom and senior world's night i know i would

068be willing to help and so would many parents we could use tents for class day and still have a nice to film the prom could be at the stadium and we can ask everyone to not be heroes because of the dwarf i know the students would enjoy these activities even without the food which is always a cold issue i am suggesting that we start plenty of outdoor activities and myself and many others will be willing to help thank you thank you very much uh next we have uh lori lalama all right good evening to everyone i hope everybody is doing well i have a buffet of information tonight so the first thing i want to say is that i received a phone call from the governor and i'm going to play it roy it's governor

069phil murphy god bless you and thank you for everything you do in clifton and for so many as an educator in technology as a union leader uh particularly in these incredibly stressful times i cannot thank you enough you have a lot of fans out there and count me as one of them god bless you stay well stay strong and keep up the great work take care all right so i was very happy hearing that from the governor and i was teaching at the time so i couldn't pick up my phone because i'm responsible to my class plus it said unknown so i usually don't pick up unknown anyway but that was a really great thing because it brings more of a positive light to our district and that's what i think is very important all

070right number two the vaccines teachers are happy vaccines are out i've gotten my first one because i fall under the fluffy category so that worked out fine for me all right so everybody is excited about that because at the end we all want to be in our classrooms we all want to have kids and i've been doing this for a long time but uh you know the idea is to make sure our kids are safe our kids families are safe because we can't compare apples and oranges that just doesn't work so and to maintain the staff and their families safe so that's what's important there all right so i want to thank the principals and uh school six for um supplying all the hand sanitizers measuring the the classrooms to make sure we are following

071the guidelines by the department of health and the cdc so i want to really say thank you the event with laura shroff by the key club and the cea was a fantastic event we could have sat there probably until 11 o'clock at night listening to her she was very personable outgoing um gave her uh her personal life experiences which the kids could reflect on because she was in a um an abusive situation so there's quite a few people that have gone through that so there was a lot of questions and answers and it was really an excellent excellent event i would like to see her come back for the elementary school book that she wrote um the other thing we belong with the school boards association the njea the principals association and the superintendent's association

072it's called the rutgers labor management collaborative so this year dr robertosi and i get to sit on the panel at this event and we're very excited um dr sol rubenstein from rutgers runs it but also listen to the guest of honor we have the new secretary of education ed uh miguel cardona will be there so and our own um interim uh commissioner of ed will be there and the heads of some of the unions so this is going to be an outstanding program for us um let's see i think that's about it oh no one more thing the virtual latino institute that we were trying to do last year but we had to stop it because of covid so now we'll be able to do it virtual and it'll be conferences for the parents in

073spanish so it'll help the um association and it'll be different topics so we just got the okay to start planning it this afternoon at 4 30. so that'll be a positive thing for our parents and uh and the topics that we'll choose um i think that's about it all right thank you everybody have a good night thank you uh miss lama you know i i was gonna call you down the road uh but it my call isn't gonna mean anything now that you've had a call from the governor so congratulations on that and uh i just wanted to say thank you um to you for the three great teachers last night that spoke um at our meeting your association be very proud of the job that they did and i just wanted to say thank

074you for that i appreciate that mr smith i was listening too it was really a very good uh presentation by all absolutely thank you very much uh next we have uh donna thompson hi yes good evening uh doctor wrote with josie and the boys staff i'm just gonna make it quick um we've had some time to um i guess adjust with this uh the covid and everything and i just had a question about the senior kids what's going to happen with them as far as graduation is there any plan into doing something maybe outside because it's going to be in june you know i know a lot of um schools have um drive i'm not sorry driveways have a parking where you can have something there or maybe they have like maybe a little park

075across the street from the school where they can maybe hold something there for the kids or you know just something for them because a lot of them haven't been in the building and they haven't been around their friends and you know it would be something special for the kids i know it would be for me and my family i mean i don't know how anybody else feels but to have something like that for my daughter who's last year for fifth grade and she's gonna be going to another school and hopefully that won't be virtual as well you know this will be something good for the kids for their mental you know for their mental health to see their friends and really connect with them before they go off in different directions to other schools and

076maybe even other parts of new jersey we don't know so that was my uh my question for tonight thank you very much uh mr mountain has just told me that there is nobody uh left waiting to speak seeing none uh president smith motion to close motion second second by mr casper okay all right we will move on with the agenda unfinished business i don't see any uh next we have education administration uh we have um ea 1 and ea 2. what's your pleasure so moved so much jasper second final is there discussion seeing none roll call mr awad yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes miss danny yes mr casper yes mr abedrabo yeah mr smith yes motion's carried next we have uh personnel uh p1 resignations p2 retirements p3 leave of

077absence p4 maternity leave of absence p5 amendment of leave of absence p6 amendment of maternity leave of absence p7 amendment of appointments p8 appointment of mentors p9 change in employment status p10 additional appointments for the 2020-21 21st century community learning center minds in motion after school program uh p11 additional appointments for the 21 after school programs p12 additional appointments 2021 pbs is team members p13 conference request p14 coaching appointments p15 reappointment of substitutes p16 substitute appointments and p17 personnel appointments so move by who was it mr vice president abu drabo second second by mr daley discussion seeing none roll call yes mr daley yes miss danny yes mr casper yes mr avadrabo yeah and mr smith yes motion scary next d we have finance facilities f1 is approval for transportation services agreement 2021 school year

078f2 approval to authorize the immediate emergency purchase of district-wide air purifiers using the care act funds p3 is the claims list do i have a motion so move mr smith my agenda reads one two three four f and five i have two uh one and two are transportation services agreement for the 20 20 21 year i have two of those and then my number three is the emergency purifiers and four is the claims list and five is finance i don't know if anybody else says that but that's what i'm saying under d under uh uh d yes number five i believe is just saying one through four it's just over it's an overview i believe by mistake if i'm not mistaken number two is is the same as number one and there's blank uh i

079could answer miss password yeah you you must have um opened it right before i changed something that they would there was a duplicate of those two and i i got rid of one of them that was the blank one so if she refreshes it it should come up it should yes so it is just the one through three that mr smith um this password you want me to wait okay all right so it's uh uh uh f1 through f3 okay so we add a motion in a second roll call please mr gerward yes miss password uh yes i vote no on check number two what excuse me two zero one nine one six thank you all the rest of the strengths yes mr kanova yes mr daily miss danny yes mr casper yes mr abedrabo

080yes mr smith yes motion scary all right next we have uh board member comments uh today we start with uh mr canova uh good evening everyone so to mr mark uh brunswick um munciak brunsiak sorry uh i do i do uh sympathize with you and and i'm glad that we are going back to school on monday i know my daughters are excited um they bought new masks they're ready to go new outfits um and uh they're very excited to see their friends in school there's one thing i'm being on being virtual and there's not quite another thing being in person being able to even just that time before school after school in between switching classes um you know conversating with them it's different and they were excited last time and they're excited again so i'm

081glad to see that um and i'm also glad to see that we have those air scrubbers going in in the next rooms and if i'm not mistaken dr robert tosi we are we are quarantining different this year right when if someone gets deal with some with the virus in the classroom it's only going to be the people they're in contact with as opposed to a whole class getting quarantined is that correct uh that's not necessarily uh correct mr canova it's going to be depend on the individual circumstance uh every single case that comes up will will be spoken about with our um the clifton health department and on a case-by-case basis the size of the room is going to matter um but yes okay the the best rule that changed was the rule that if

082you have two cases you have to shut down so that was really the best news so at least we won't have the yoyo effect with the entire school being in and out so that's good the only just that i could mention this more when i speak is the only you know concern is is with really with clifton high school just because of the sheer numbers uh cases and um and the number of cases and how many teachers that could affect but other than that there will shouldn't be any reason for us to have to close the school based on the current guidelines yeah okay thank you and uh so the the only uh so for me i think that's great we're offering people the ability to be in or out you know depending on on

083what they choose and i think really no that's the best way to go getting everyone back that's a different story we still do have six feet of distance we still do have people that need shots um so until that happens i don't know what that's going to look like but at least there's an option now where if people want to be back they can be so i think that's great and um to chloe and then there was another quality they called in about outdoor activities i think that's a great idea i think doing something outside distance um at least like i said you know gets you out there gets you speaking to your friends it gets you uh at least excited about being in a school year it may be a little different but at

084least you'll get through it um and it's a lot better than just sitting at home and doing nothing so i would definitely support that and uh to laurie i think that's an amazing honor to have a governor call and recognize you for all the hard work you do and you do do a lot of hard work and you most definitely deserve it so congratulations on that and i'll keep it short and sweet tonight and that's all my comments thank you thank you mr kenova next mr daley thank you very much mr president um uh i'll be very brief tonight uh thank you for all the speakers um and i i had got some feedback i don't usually get too much feedback from the public but uh last night um i did get several pieces of

085feedback about the quality of the teachers and the students that are in our education system um i mean we all know that but it's it's really really great that it's recognized by others who are not involved with this stuff on a day-to-day basis uh my my last comment is 55 million free money the referendum million dollars of free money referendum 55 million free dollars you can't find this anyplace else and those who are the naysayers on this and they may have some legitimate answers or questions but you're not going to the bottom line is not you're not going to find 55 million dollars to do these improvements anywhere except if you do the referendum it's a critical component thank you mr daley uh miss danny thank you um i really just want to thank the

086speakers and um you know i don't have much more than that because i'm just a little bit of pain here so thank you thank you miss danny mr casper okay thank you mr president um so of course i always like to start off with thanking all of our retirees uh thank you for your service to our district um one of these days i will be able to say i can retire so please enjoy yourself i'd also like to congratulate one of our own i was able to sit on the committee for the boys and girls club this year so i'd like to congratulate one of our own her name is rawan awadallah i hope i said your name right she is the boys and girls club's youth of the year this year so i just

087want to congratulate you if you're on i'd also like to congratulate our students of the month i was able to read i picked up the clifton magazine today and i started reading it so congratulations to all of our march students of the month um i'd like to wish everybody uh good luck on monday going back to school to our student and our our students and our staff uh please remember just to be safe um mrs lalama i also got my first vaccine and i've been in school for the past few months and then out myself so i hope everybody uh just stays and remains safe and um i'd like to thank uh three people this week i was able to get into school number five virtually this week to read so uh thank you mrs

088bender mrs santa suso and mrs wisnowski um mr smith i see we have matching ties on today so uh here we go happy birthday dr seuss have a good night everybody thank you mr casper uh mr awad uh my comments will be very brief first and foremost uh thank you president smith for everything that you do and all the assistance uh you mr casper do when i reach out uh superintendent robert tosi thank you very much for you and your staff i don't know if the public heard mr daily correctly but yes there's 55 million dollars of free money and i don't know i agree with mr daley i'd like some free money 55 million for this referendum uh it is basically a nice chunk of the bill that could basically modernize and bring our

089schools to uh up to date where our teachers and our students could thrive in a healthy safe secure environment where we're such in a competitive global market worldwide where other countries around the world their schools are way more advanced than the situation we're in and their students in their educational systems thrive so much more yet we are basically always budget cutting the teachers our schools and our facilities and we expect magic and some magical results to come out from our students sometimes we got to look ourselves in the mirror and put the blame because we allowed it to get this far so i really hope everybody did uh tune in yesterday if not to watch a youtube channel as max said earlier you know there's a lot of great things and upgrades we can do

090to our schools and i really hope we do get these votes for the current future generation and let's go mustangs thank you everybody and have a uh good evening thank you mr awad miss basford um yes good evening everyone uh first i'd like to say today is march 4th national grammar day is celebrated every year on march 4th because it is it is the only date of the year that is a complete sentence and it's also a very dear friend of mine's birthday so march 4th lindsay march 4th um a lot of people don't know that but that there you go a little grammar lesson so i would like to thank um the teachers from school 12 miss paisano miss gaglio miss carabello um miss uh fabiano and miss coleman from school five uh miss

091bosh miss nichols and miss cantonero from school eleven miss admire miss rhodes and from school eight uh miss porter for having me virtually in your classroom i i am a presenter i used to present in high schools virtually this last year um i've been a little bit um my job has been a little transitioned into something else but i have to tell you the uh the teachers do a wonderful job from what i witnessed if anybody challenges how remote learning is easy i challenge them to sit in front of a computer all day long and read a book to students the best question of the day came from school 11. uh and the student asked me what i actually do and i had a little blurb i told them all that we are policy makers

092that we all there's nine of us that were all elected officials we don't speak for the board we speak for ourselves but the best question of the day was how much do you get paid and when i told them nothing they wanted to know why i did that so i was a little stumped on that answer but we all laughed and i and i told them because it's a way of giving back to the community it's a way of me helping other people that that that can't help themselves and it's a way of me being a voice for people because i i told them that the community the people elect us and it was a really it was a lot of fun they were so gracious they were so well behaved dr roberto your staff

093did a wonderful job and and to the teachers out there that are struggling with this platform um thank you very much god bless you all because it's not easy what you do every day i was exhausted when i got done i i was off for the day i just laid down and i i mean that was it i was i was that wiped out uh so i don't know how you do this day in and day out i i applaud each and every one of you and and i thank you from the bottom of my heart um i sent i will send max the um the mental health from new jersey school boards dr feinstein will be very happy that you uh are requesting it and if i could ever give you him as a

094reference i'm sorry about my dogs barking in the background uh chloe um is also doing a fundraiser for women's uh feminine products you will be receiving a donation from my house uh lorila llama wow isn't that awesome that governor murphy took the time to to call just you um he somebody must have told him you're doing a great job so thank you laurie for all you do and to the the two speakers that spoke about outside um activities for the students i hope that this information goes to the education committee and probably facilities um so we can figure out a way to do it better we have we've had a year that nobody that nobody else wants to relive i know i don't want to really reload this year so maybe we can figure a

095way to do it better and celebrate every single student in a better way in a better venue and give the students exactly what they deserve um with that being said i think that's it i don't think i miss anybody um but to all oh uh to my fellow colleagues if anybody has anything i will be attending new jersey school board's legislative committee on saturday there's also a sub-resolution meeting if anybody wanted to put anything on the agenda i'm on that committee as well so please reach out to me and i'll make sure that your uh your questions or concerns are asked thank you thank you miss bassford miss beltron i'll also keep it brief tonight um i just like to thank again all the callers that called in i'm really enjoying all the public participation

096in our meeting i'd also like to congratulate all the students of the month and also all the success that's been going on in our sports we haven't been uh so focused on all the different sports teams that are still playing but they are out there uh doing it with masks and having to practice with limited crowds and not being able to do in front of their parents cetera so i applaud them for all the hard work they're putting in as well i'm really happy that we're going back to school on monday i've been looking forward to this for a long time everyone knows that i've been a big advocate of getting the children back into the classroom so i'm really happy that those that choose to go back in are going to be going back

097in and hopefully we'll be able to keep them in if everyone follows the social distancing protocols and again for the referendum we really need this money i sit on the facilities and the finance committee so i see how we have to choose to do things and not do others and this will give us an opportunity to really do a lot of the things that we we hope to do um all at once to give our kids the best environment and also our employees the best environment to work in and that's all i have for tonight thank you miss beltran vice president abu drabo thank you president smith um first of all congratulations mr laura well deserved and uh noticed for hard work we have the uh cea uh lucy danny uh commissioner danny feel better

098i know that you had your injury and you're just recuperating at the moment so feel better and uh i'm sure i'll feed myself at least if anything let me know um you know a reminder of why we do this um from you know this past week of dr seuss's birthday as many have mentioned on the sport my colleagues i the fortune opportunity to read to ten classes at five different schools this week broken up between monday and wednesday and tuesday and wednesday and it was a privilege it was a privilege because you know they said thank you but i i returned it back so it's not about thank you to me because it's something i feel that at least i feel should be done right the students should interact should see at least who the

099board members are while they are were there while they were in grades kindergarten first second third and fifth uh to whom i read to um our discussions were you know what do you think board members do the underlying message of the book and tie them back into their today's lessons in class and their feelings about what school is today the safety of everyone going back and most importantly uh turning their negative thought about the next school grade level to a positive thought and i think we had a great discussion um and it was great i mean they are kids but we got to treat them you know if you treat them like kids act like kids and treat them like big boys and girls will act like boys and girls and that's exactly what they

100did and that's a definitely a great representation of what the school district is about they were very well composed even for kindergartners to fifth graders and they were they were awesome to speak to so um dr robertson thank you for facilitating those through your through your principles at the various locations um and the teachers are just phenomenal as well and that also speaks for the leadership of uh miss loyola as well because i'm sure she has a lot to do with the futures that needed their representation um other than that listen to school's coming up uh we had a great meeting last night i'm not gonna talk too much about that and nothing about that really besides everybody said we need the money but school's coming up i'm sure many are excited to go back

101many of the students i read to are very excited to go back so uh i'm confident in supernova charlie's decision to have them go back and like i said uh danny you know your great superintendent i'm behind you all the way you're the ceo of this district anything you need on there thank you good night thank you vice president abu drabo you know i uh you know some people last night were were calling we're talking about um this 55 million dollars that the state is giving us for our referendum as a as a coupon and i tried to to figure out the analogy and um after i thought about it there are many ways that this is a coupon and the biggest way that i could think of it as a coupon is coupons have

102expiration dates and our coupon for this referendum has an expiration date and that's this referendum because the state is not going to give us 55 million dollars or 1 million dollars or any million dollars for doing this referendum next year or any other board of education that puts in for it next year will not be getting uh this 35 percent that we're getting back from the state so this coupon does expire and um i always hate when i had a goodbye at the supermarket and i saw that the coupon expired and how angry i got and um i just asked the citizens of clifton uh don't let that coupon expire uh you know what the right thing to do is and if you have any questions um and you don't want to ask us anymore

103and you're you're tired of hearing the board talk about it you're tired of hearing administration talk about it please call the schools talk to the principal and if the principal allows that maybe you could you know talk to a student on the phone or something and let them tell you what it's really like if you don't want to hear it from us anymore um i think this board has done um an administration has done a tremendous job to put forth uh the best opportunity to um fix some much needed problems in our schools with this referendum and is it a commitment from the public it absolutely is it is most certainly a commitment to uh the the kids of this district in public schools and as i've said in history when we look back on

104the referendums in this town and when we when boards have come before and have asked the public and have put a sensible project together and ask the public for their help the public has always stood up and said yes for kids yes for schools and i know that's what's going to happen again on april 20th i know you'll do the right thing um but like i said you're more than free to continue to ask us questions but if you don't want to ask us any more questions there's many other people to talk to and get the answers from other people but please do your homework please ask questions and please be ready to go vote on april 20th um that 55 million dollar coupon is is truly something that can't be lost and i know

105we keep talking about it um i wish we had like uh flashing across the screen you know like uh like bob's furniture or some people like that that you you they flash sales across the screen well i wish we were flashing that 55 million across the screen because people have to remember that that should be up front in your mind that if we don't do it now and we wait we lose 55 million dollars and that's a lot of money what is it a third of the project funded by the state that we lose so keep that with you um as mr casper had stated um um i had the opportunity to do some uh reading in our classrooms and i thank all the schools for their invites um with meetings and some other commitments

106i couldn't get to every school and i apologize and i hope next year that i can get out in person to all the schools but i thank all the schools that didn't ask me and invited me to their to their schools um but i was fortunate to read at the school number five virtually um and i read it two classes um so i'd like to thank miss miss santa susso and miss siosi for inviting me to read for their second grade class at school number five and to miss wisnowski and her third and fourth grade special ed class i thank them for the opportunity to read to them um both of those were truly special to me a true honor and um i asked um miss wisnowski to ask her special ed classes third and

107fourth grade if they could tune in to uh channel 77 tonight and that i would mention them and that i would thank them for this beautiful tie that they gave me it will remind me of the time that i did spend with you and i was honored to to be able to do that um as i try to do in the community i try to help others in the community and a good friend of mine chris lisner asked me to assist her in a program of a retired phone company employees that go out into the community and help the community in various different ways and she was had two locations that she was going to the this uh program called the pioneers it may have a new name now but um basically they're a volunteer

108group that go out into the community to give back to the community and one of their projects was um dr seuss's birthday read across america and she asked if i would assist her and so as a good friend i agreed and needless to say the um that friendship is uh you know um what's the word uh on the rocks right now because um i had no idea um of the commitment that i was getting into in the uh the costume that i had to war and the tale that i had to have on the back of me um but um i was very fortunate to be able to go and um be with the kids at the clifton boys and girls club and i commend the administration of the clinton boys and girls club on

109how safe they had it set up they had me in a separate room behind the glass uh a glass wall um and the kids uh came up on a on a seat in front of the glass and i was behind it and they were able to take a picture with the cat in the hat um so it was a real uh just to see their their smiles they're waving at me um it just was absolutely amazing um and how thrilled i was to do that and i'm glad that i had the opportunity to do that and it was so good the next day the the pioneer group asked me to go to another school in fairlawn so i was able to go to the sapling school and this is a school that just has um

110i say very young students um there is pre-k and pre-pre-k and uh there were two uh kids there that were six months old um and seeing them and waving to them through a window and having them smile at the cat in the hat is um um it it just really touched me and i was happy to be able to help my friend and to uh to be able to do that so and i thank mr casper for helping me out with um um the uh the accessories that i needed uh so i thank you for that and uh i always look forward to uh to the first week of march because of dr seuss's birthday and um being able to connect with our schools and i remember last year going into school five and i

111believe it was uh you know uh eight or nine days later is when everything shut down so i was so fortunate that i was able to go in and read to them personally so i'm looking forward next year uh at this time to be able to do that uh in person so i thank everyone for that and i just wanted to um you know i know all of us the nine of us um we run for this position and we know that the commitment that's involved in this but i just have to thank uh my fellow commissioners um these past uh probably the last two weeks you saw from the committee reports how busy uh we were with committees and uh the finance committee met numerous times uh we have negotiations going on education uh

112facilities i think mr awad had his first experience of running his first meeting as a chairman of of residency security um uh just so all of you working we have um a municipal alliance meeting set up for uh march the 11th so this board is working so hard uh for the citizens of of clifton and we joke about it all the time about you know being paid so much money and we're not paid so much money and we know that and we know the commitment that it takes but i just want to commend all of you as as the president um setting up those committees that i knew each of you would work hard but really uh seeing that list today of committee reports really showed um how busy we've been um and not to

113mention last night we had a special referendum meeting we'll continue to work hard for the referendum and monday night this board will have another meeting we're asking our representative from new jersey school boards to come in and do an ethics training for the board members so we'll be virtually on another meeting on monday night so you guys have really put a tremendous amount of effort and work in and i just wanted to say thank you for the continued work you do for for the the kids of this district and the citizens of this town so thank you all very much dr robitozi please thank you mr president uh commissioners very excited that uh kids come back to school on monday i know most of our staff uh you know just can't wait to see children

114again to hear them running around the halls um i just want to be a realist now i expect us to open and stay open for the rest of the year and when i say i want to be a realist i want to be a realist that we will have coronavirus cases okay we may have a case on the first day back on monday and we'll follow our protocols we'll exclude the positive cases we'll quarantine the contacts but i am 100 certain that we are putting our staff and children in a safe environment not only are we wearing masks students are behind a desk shield students are six feet apart windows are open air scrubbers are flowing so it's going to be great to have kids back and i'll be visiting the schools to say hello

115um i just want to remind people with spring break coming up in uh three weeks that there are travel restrictions that come from the state of new jersey and so if you travel outside of the immediate area pennsylvania connecticut new york depending on the circumstances you very well may have to quarantine when you come back so that that is part of the health survey that is an absolute requirement for all parents uh and staff to begin filling out daily um and we need everyone to be honest it's not a i gotcha it's it's just to protect everyone so if you're unsure um call your child school you can speak to the nurse they can give you guidance but please answer that survey honestly please do it every day so that we can open and stay

116open and ensure that everybody's safe i want to congratulate our academic decathlon team under the leadership of mr matthew stewart at clifton high school the academic decathlon team has made it back to the nationals for the second year in a row uh they finished sixth place overall in new jersey and second place in all of new jersey out of the large high schools which is an incredible accomplishment i'd also like to recognize the gold medal winners in social science julian cerrone literature brian wiglinski and in the essay julian cerrone so uh congratulations to those students and mr stewart for all your hard work and good luck in the nationals uh we know that you'll make us proud i also want to take a moment to recognize one of our outstanding teachers at clifton high school

117jessica farrell i just learned this week that jessica started a volunteer group called vaccine angels started out as a a facebook group started out that that jessica was helping some of her family members get appointments for vaccines and realize that a lot of people were having a hard time either they didn't have the technology they didn't have the capability of making these appointments so so jessica started this this i think it started as a facebook group vaccine angels and since she started this group she has personally helped people get vaccine appointments uh in new jersey which is just incredible um she is now helping some of our staff members make appointments i think we we she's uh helped almost 100 of our staff members get appointments uh too i know she has some help so

118i also want to recognize laurie jaeger from clifton high school kim nicholl and danielle quinlan from ccms continue doing that great work it's it's it's about paying it forward so congratulations to you folks and great job uh finally on the uh on the referendum i just want to update uh the board about where we are in the process as you all know i thought we had a very successful community forum uh last night um which will replay again a few times on channel 77 and channel 40 for fios um we have our citizen committee which will meet again on march 16th our website is live and frequently updated our one clifton magnets have arrived and they'll be going home to students uh next week and board members will be getting theirs we just are at

119the tail end of finishing up uh a short video under the direction of mr mike mcconney uh and his uh excellent skills uh we're also gonna have some students do mini videos there was a postcard that was mailed to all homes in clifton uh about two weeks ago and there will be another postcard uh in early april so we're trying to get the word out to uh to get the vote out on april 20th to get that 55 million dollars in state aid to make much needed improvements in our schools the hsa leadership has been very helpful we had a meeting with all the presidents um they will be out reaching to all of their uh individual school groups and uh some of them are going to be hosting their own kind of mini referendum

120uh forums for people so that's really fantastic uh so if you haven't checked out our website yet please do remember the referendum date is april 20th and we have the opportunity to improve our schools for decades to come thank you and have a great night thank you dr robitazi okay we'll move on uh to uh f a new business does anyone have any new business mr president yes mr canova um since we're our referendum is coming up in april and uh i know they have they do have meetings virtually for for city council at least i don't know what other meetings are in the area just like um when people run for board of ed generally they go around to different places and they let them know that these things are going on is there

121a way where you as our board president can represent us and speak to the community at these various venues about the referendum to get the word out uh yes mr kenova i will gladly uh do that as well and i was going to speak to the board about the board helping out with that as well so uh we could talk about that uh further but absolutely i will uh be more than happy to speak anywhere uh to help this referendum for sure okay thank you any other new business okay seeing none um executive session um we have um a a student matter to lease anything else other than the student matter no so hopefully executive session will not take that long will uh action be taken or action could be taken no action will be

122taken okay so no action will be taken will adjourn from executive session then just one comment before we go in if i may um we did promise max that he would get an answer to his question about um public comment on remotely if the meetings are in person and remote there is going to be you will have to provide opportunity for public comment remotely so i just didn't want him to believe without having that question answered okay is is that legally yes legally speaking if if the board is having a meeting if it's only in person without any remote then public comment is remote i mean i'm sorry public comment is in person but if there's going to be any remote aspect to the board meeting which i think that we've already had this conversation

123that there's going to be it'll be a combination in person as well as with remote access for certain board members uh then the public can be in person as well as remote for public comment okay okay uh motion to uh go into executive session so moved second mr casper taken by miss basford uh mysteriously take a roll call on that or no um yes yes roll call please mr rawad yes basford yes miss beltran yes mr daley yes miss danny yes mr casper yes mr abedrabo yes hey mr smith yes okay mr mountain if you could take us in you