February 4, 2021 - Clifton Board of Education Meeting

001my my wife's cannon is uh ferrous yes sir hello yeah all right hi judy hi dana hi lucy lou smith everybody hello david hi how are you guys lucy lucy lou where are you okay we're all set and live to the world everybody hey everyone hey frank hey joe hey everybody we are live just fyi dr doctor give me the new mr daley you look really relaxed today um yes hey jim how's nicki um doing okay you know he has his um he's gaining weight he's eating better so you know the treatments we won't know for another two months what this what the uh what the scans are prayers of the skin in march oh wow all right we waiting on anyone else nope i think we're good okay good evening everyone and welcome to

002the uh february 4th 2021 meeting of the clifton board of education if everyone would now please rise for our flag salute and a brief moment of silence i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america to the republic for which it stands one nation one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you mr russie roll call mr abba drabo here mr awad here miss basford here miss beltran here mr canova here mr daley here miss danny here mr casper doctor mr smith here we have a quorum uh mission statement mr casper could you read that please okay 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

003lifelong learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a democratic society in an ever-changing world okay the open public meeting statement the new jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the clinton board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place thereof hosted 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's website and mailed to presidents of parent-teacher organization this meeting will be taped recorded in accordance with policy zero one six eight

004okay um at this time we're going to have uh okay so we're going to do um uh number six um mr dr robertazi do you want to take this sure uh thank you uh mr president tonight we have recognition of several of our student athletes from the fall season who very accomplished both academically and athletically on the field and we've invited their coaches to introduce them and just say a few words about these uh amazing young individuals so first we're going to start off uh with our let me see who are we going with first we're going to go with our girls and boys cross country team and i think coach pontes and or coach swisher is here tonight to discuss uh the students who've achieved the all county first team coach pontes or coach

005swisher are you there [Music] folks if you are joining as a participant muted thank you okay we're gonna come back to coach pontes um and we'll come back to the uh cross country team in a second uh at this time i will ask um or earl is coach tate here for our old county girls tennis uh team uh student anias jenkins coach tate are you available no i got it coach i thought thank you uh coach thank you if you wouldn't mind thank you yes how you doing guys um i don't know too much about this young lady but i know that she's a freshman and she must be really good and her name is arius jenkins arius jenkins a nice uh anaya's jenkins certainly an accomplishment to make the all-county team at any grade

006level but to make the team as a freshman certainly something that you should be very proud of and something that we're all proud of so congratulations to you nias we'll be sending you a nice certificate in the mail sorry we couldn't see in person tonight um coach while it's your turn uh coach thank you our uh our football the head coach of our uh mustang football team would you introduce the first team uh all county football players absolutely coach um we had three this year we were lucky enough to have three uh three players um our first guy um was our junior quarterback kyle vellis uh you know he was a second team player last year uh he played well you know he obviously outplayed himself uh this year to get first team honors um

007he's a leader in the classroom as well as on the field uh kyle carries a 3.8 gpa and um you know i expect him to bring us back to where we were two years ago when he was a sophomore and that's in the state finals we look to him for big things next year um our second is number 14 senior kayla bonaparte i've known this young man since he's been a little kid and i watched him grow into a four-year starter for us as a four-year starter he played cornerback and wide receiver and um he started 40 games 40 football games in his high school career he was 26 and 14. um this year we asked that we asked him to do everything for us uh you know offensively he caught the ball he carried

008the ball on defense you know he made tackles he you know made interceptions he deflected passes and on punt returns and kick returns he was our return guy so um we asked a lot of him and you know he he really provided he uh along with um you know being first team all county he was uh he was uh i believe he was in second team all group five which is the biggest group in the state of new jersey and um you know he's gonna you don't replace a caleb bonaparte but um you know i thank you for your service man it's been great um and uh last and certainly not least um number 70 senior muhammad abu drabo who was a three-year starter for us he's a two-time first-team all-county selection um he's a

0094.0 student and right now i believe he's deciding whether to go to ithaca or montclair state university um you know his season got cut short you know uh this year but uh he was the heart and soul uh of what we do and who we are and um he's just uh you know he's just a very very very invaluable piece we were 4-0 with him we were four and three without him so that just goes to show you how much he meant to us and uh those are the three selections for um for football thanks uh coach thank you congratulations to those students it's great to hear uh about what they've accomplished off the field as well they're certainly very well accomplished on the field congratulations to those students um thank you there he is

010number 10 kyle velas with uh what was kyle's gpa only a 3.8 am i wrong kyle did i get you wrong or are you higher than that no that's about right [Laughter] we got to get that up a little bit okay yeah congratulations thanks coach uh is coach uh khrushchev uh with us tonight our uh girls soccer team coach if coach is not with us tonight i'd like to recognize um one of our outstanding girls soccer athletes leila nouridh den flores uh congratulations laila on an outstanding season and thank you for all of your accomplishments over the years for our program is coach lembrecht here our boys soccer coach [Music] okay i thought coach schlemmer was going to be here with us tonight um our boys soccer team had an outstanding season um and we

011have five of our players who were selected to the first team all county so i'd like to congratulate eric dimora sebastian hernandez amir lukovic jason suarez and danny tobon um the boys soccer team for the past couple years um and for a long time have been um representing our community with great pride and they had another outstanding season so congratulations to those students uh at this time i'm going to circle back to our cross country team is coach pontes or is coach swisher with us tonight i'm here i don't know if you can hear me who who is that oh coach coach thank you could you uh say a few words about your first teamers okay i'm going to do the girls and boys together even though it was originally set up different uh both

012teams are remarkable this season and uh our girls were led by senior mia duback who had probably the best season in the history of clifton girls cross country she was won every race at garrett mountain except for one she set course records at garrett mountain for us as well as holmdel and darlington she recently signed a scholarship yeah that's mia duback um she she's was helped through our season by our other first team all county young lady as sophomore remy duback who i used to refer to the two of them as uh team duback because they're phenomenal they're both great leaders great inspiration to the team who was league champions and second in the county and finished fourth in the state section our boys team was led by an incredible season by jacob herrera who

013won every race except one also at garrett mountain set school records at darlington and uh also at garrett both mia and jacob were the state sectional champions it was probably the greatest 40 minutes in the history of clifton cross country they both won state sectional championships helping them out as another first-team all-county runner for us is senior nick ross who's put in four dedicated years improving every year to finish up with a great first team all county year and also our third and final boy and fifth overall team member to make first team old county first team first year running for us sophomore harrison schiff who was second overall on our team and we have great teams coming back and i want to thank everybody who supported us and supported all the sports through the

014unbelievable fall season the teams at clifton had a great year and it wouldn't happen without great kids fantastic parents being supportive and keeping the kids healthy and the leadership of the board of ed superintendent the principal mr doctor as well as somebody who really kept everybody focused on the higher meaning of keeping the kids healthy and that was tom leahy a fantastic athletic director i want to thank you all thanks coach appreciate those kind words and congratulations once again to all of our student athletes on an outstanding year in what was i'm sure a season like no other and congratulations to all of our coaches too thank you for joining us tonight and i'll turn it over to you mr president congratulations to uh to all the sports programs and to all the dedication and

015time that the coaches put into the programs as well so we thank you coaches for uh all that you do for our kids all right number six on our agenda is uh recognition the clifton high school was awarded a 500 and named a marine corps fit certified school for its outstanding participation in the united states marine corps fit at home challenge students participated in a 12-week work program designed by the united states marine corps students also had access to active duty marine who was available to answer any questions they had about the workouts or appropriate modifications the initiative was imperative at the time when physical activity nationwide was at an all-time low this program promoted fitness and introduced new exercises to the students so congratulations to the students who participated in the united states marine

016corps fit certified challenge and for naming us a fit certified school so we thank the marine corps for all that they do for our kids mr smith this is eric can i make a suggestion yes um for those who uh the athletes who were just recognized um if you would like to continue to watch the movie the presentation or the board meeting i would like to recommend exiting a zoom meeting and watching on the live stream and for everyone else that's been admitted to the meeting we're assuming you're here for public comment so i'm going to put you back in the waiting room and we'll bring you back to the live meeting at the appropriate time is that okay thank you that's good all right let's uh proceed uh adoption of the minutes of january

01721st 2021. so moved so moved by mr casper second second by mr canova is there any discussion on the minutes corrections seeing non-vocal mr robbie drabo i believe i saw him say yes mr awad yes miss bassford no miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley miss danny yes yes mr casper dad mr smith yes all right communication announcements so i don't believe we have any uh no first reading of policy okay board uh committee reports uh technology joe okay uh technology committee met february 3rd 2021. uh myself miss beltran mr awad was present administration president is dr robert tosie miss kusalevich mr tegen mr mountain and guest rachel harrington meeting start time was 505 to 5 50 pm items of discussion number one website commissioners inquired about the website updates discussed at the 121

018board of ed meeting related to referendum vote admin confirmed that the updates to the website have been completed the committee and admin discussed using a pop-up box on the website homepage to call attention to the initiative as we get closer to the vote number two chromebooks mr mountain provided an update of chromebooks one-to-one access the final wave of student chromebooks are on their way apps should arrive next week and the other half a week or two later this will complete the one-to-one rollout with all students k-12 having devices long-term replacement plans are discussed and budgets are being planned to address the replacements for the next school year and beyond cares and other grants funding will be used whenever possible the committee and administration discussed chromebook repairs all software repairs and approximately half of hardware repairs

019are completed in-house other hardware repairs are sent to third-party repair shops when financially advantageous previous analysis of chromebook insurance plans never proved to be financially worthwhile but administration will get refreshed quotes for future admin and committee discussion to make sure this is still the case local companies are still offering internet packages at significantly reduced prices for families with students admin will send out reminders to the community soon item number three staffing mr mountain requested additional technicians to assist with the chromebooks and other hardware repairs a formal request will also be submitted the 2122 budget is developed mr mountain also requested the expansion of the technology helping teacher stipend program item number four njsla mr mountain provided an update as to the preparations for the new jersey student learning assessments annual state testing for grades 3

020through 11. while awaiting guidance from njdoe the district is preparing for a range of possible scenarios from fully remote to fully on site and everything in between all required testing software packages and data submissions are up to date thank you mr canova uh next under uh we have any other committee reports now right uh under uh education administration we have um recognition of the all county football first team all uh county girls tennis first team uh girls and boys cross country first team uh all county girls and boys soccer first team uh covet vaccine front line workers to include district personnel and second arena of policy do i have a motion mr president yes we skipped public recognition we're still on the top you are correct thank you very much okay public recognition number 12.

021this portion of the meeting is open to citizens 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 are requested to sign their new hardcore will state their name provided for the purpose and to uh state their address and subject matter comments are limited to five minutes per person issued raised by members of the public may or may not be responded by the board all comments will be cons will be considered and the 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 employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the

022board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of the state of new jersey the board bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal right of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments mr mountain do we have yes mr mr smith i let the first several in there's about six more in the waiting room um max reuben is one of the the first entrances here yep we'll start off uh max uh we'll start off with you okay thank you uh can you guys hear me yes yep okay um hello everyone i'm max urban senior representative to the

023board of education um i just have a few points to address some that i addressed the last meeting but i found more information on them so uh first off um me um i'm if you don't know i'm the president of the student union so me and the rest of the student union uh created questions for what we want to be a potential mental health survey that we want to send out to all the students in clifton high school and if it works out at clifton high school we might even create another survey worded differently for the middle schools um in the next week or so we're going to collaborate with the student assistant counselors mr baker and miss terry and they're just going to help revise the wording to our questions before we can send

024the survey out to all the students and hopefully the survey can give staff and administration more of an insight onto what students are feeling what the most common um mental health issues students are facing and potentially it could lead to some discoveries of students who are really struggling and it'll just give us better guidance on how to help out so that's in the works a mental health survey uh the next thing i wanted to mention is upcoming sat testing um students should register as soon as possible um the next dates are march 13th may 8th and june 5th those are the three dates that are confirmed on the college board website i'm not completely sure if seats are still available at clifton high school you may have to go to another school close by maybe

025in passaic county but i would just register as soon as possible just so you get the best seat possible and if you want to do it on march you should just register as soon as possible um so that's the update with sat testing the next thing i wanted to talk about which i briefly mentioned last meeting but i have a lot more information on it now is the um oops someone came up all right the activists and academics summit it's a summit on racial equity in schools that's happening across the country and there's a lot of really big organizations taking part of it and the student union is lucky enough to have two members volunteer they're great students their names are rawan awadala and victoria olive and they're going to represent not just the csu

026but the clifton district at this summit if you go to their website the description they have is it's a virtual national summit focused on racial justice for uh kindergarten to 12th grade public schools planned by youth for a national audience and you will be able to learn directly from youth activists and adult leaders who have been fighting for school equity for years so it just sounds like a really good opportunity for our students to participate in and just to make a change for eagle for racial equity in the on a national basis it just seems like a really awesome opportunity so if you want to register to watch the summit or to participate in the summit you can register online at www.teenstakecharge.com summit and i have some more info the summit will take place saturday

027february 13th there will be sever several different presentations happening throughout the day the summit will last from 11 a.m to 5 30 p.m that seems like a lot of time but you don't have to attend all six and a half hours there's a specific schedule on what will take place during what time if you scroll down to the bottom of the web page i just provided the link for it has a schedule for what's going to happen from 11 a.m to 5 30 p.m there's like seven or eight different meetings and you can choose which one you want to attend um the last thing i want to mention during this meeting is um if you haven't been keeping up with the chs morning show i would always tune in and watch that because we're still

028making great content and providing updates on the school and what's going on and that's it for today's address i hope you guys all stay safe and have a great week thank you max thanks very much for your your great report we appreciate it okay thank you next up we have samantha and keith bassford hello everyone can you hear me okay great samantha basford mountain view drive clifton new jersey so i just want to start with reminding everyone that no one has been through what we're going through in the world right now as a person who's a part of opening plannings and safety measurements for college students the reality is is that we're planning to make plans to change those plans to make plans again and it's frustrating and it's draining so remember there are free

029resources on the internet if you need them everyone is facing mental health issues at some capacity so make sure that you're taking care of yourself but what is not okay is to bring up a board's members children in comparison and then it's morally wrong to do so so mr abedrabo i'm very sorry that your children were used as an example at the last meeting i also want to comment about zoom etiquette just like their expectations for students and teachers the same should go for the board if you want to do it in person then you shouldn't do it on zoom this is a time for you to be present 100 if you're not just excuse yourself just like you would do on the regular dais and real life taking phone calls should not happen on

030a virtual desk um maybe we can spotlight board members so those who have speaking roles can be seen on the youtube instead of people's heads floating in and out that might be something that could help you although my last name is vasford please do not discredit my statement tonight i am a voter of clifton and i'm very disappointed to have witnessing the othering that continues after the pleas of residents have made throughout my entire involvement as a daughter of an elected official i feel i need to come again and address behaviors which i have pointed out from the past but it seemed my voice does not matter as it depends on who is in the powers that be overall as a person i observe i analyze i reflect more than a normal person really should

031and to see the lack of professionalism the bantering and overall pettiness that happens on the zoom on facebook in diners need to stop besides the exceptional time when miss danny and miss basford were the women in charge there's been constant drama on a board so let's start with being a leader mr smith i'm disappointed in your comments from the last meeting you promised professionalism and in the same breath you broke that promise to say that anyone needs smoke signaling was definitely something that was petty and because you don't like being called out because of your poor time management or because of personal retaliation because of the comments that this man has made towards you is not what i expect from someone running this board i have been on executive board since i have graduated chs

032in 2008 ones that follow robert's rules and running an effective meeting if you are looking for your team members to reflect you should allow your board enough time to do that especially if they're supposed to be paying attention to them to the meeting and not their emails specifically knowing a request that was made because of legal matters multiple times shows that you cannot put your good cheek forward or handle negative feedback or balance a team with different opinions i won't even get into the comment from this summer that you made that you don't see color because on a diversity equity and inclusion level that is totally wrong and we should always be involving and growing as people no matter how much we are raised if you are going to be the true representative of students

033who are of color in this district i am a fly on the wall and i've seen letters and i've heard things so mr smith if i was miss bassford i would take that as the utmost disrespect as a colleague who despite your past history you may have not always gotten along voted for you to be back on this board and you overlook her accolades on a state level and did not want to understand her request because she just simply marches at her own beat and you need someone who marches on their own beat at every team because teams make up differences the public sees where the relationships lie on this board and i might not be the only one to come to say this and i might be the only one to say it because

034i'm not afraid and i don't need to hide behind a keyboard or make a fake account and i might be biased when i say this too that i'm tired of watching a woman who has poured her heart into this district to continue to get the shift mr smith that's five minutes okay thank you very much uh mr basford you're gonna speak on the same account go ahead i'm gonna turn my yield my five minutes to samantha okay she is an overly passionate and blunt and comes with a punch but the disrespect of chatter that i have witnessed by some of the board members makes me not upset but sick especially for the personal cause that people have called her through my time of her on the board when you were in need and you needed

035something i don't even understand how it's february board of education applications haven't even gone out and people are already trying to ice her out for next board why is it that judy basswood so intimidating to you and i'm not just speaking to mr smith i'm speaking to more i can say why on a personal level why if she could be intimidating because i live with her but on a professional level when she's pointing out facts because she has put the time to learn the things that sentence my book seems like it's reasonable for her to point out things so you don't get in trouble she has brought this up so many times so i'm gonna repeat it and i'm sorry to have to put this into public space but on my kitchen counter there is

036a cease and desist letter from mr abedrabo so why would you as a person who knows that there's things going on put two people together who cannot legally be working together it is not in someone's best interest on either side that makes no sense literally the most qualified board member not because of her years because she has been a master level board member educator she's been board member of the year she has tended many trainings that many of you have not attended you give her less commitments than everyone else and the comments you made said if you don't something along the lines if you don't want to be on committees and let other people be the burden that's not fair that's like creating a false narrative before you even put the committees out it's really

037easy to run unimposed as an uncomment so i can get the confidence that some of you may feel but don't forget that the people listen and pay attention so when you go after judy bassford you're really going after the 5693 people who voted for for her during a non-presidential election during when you can't do voting ballots they actually went to the polls you're stabbing them in the back so you're going after them have a good night okay thank you next uh who do we have mr brian montoya you have the floor are you a student uh yes i am a student okay go ahead you have the floor uh hi how are you guys um i just wanted to hop on today and just uh speak about one simple topic and it's one that has

038affected me personally which i think it should be focused on a lot more and that that has to speak about the diversity in our town and how esl students come to this country and come to this town and they try to feel comfortable and you know be part of this community because that's what we want to do as a town because we see how diverse this town is so on a personal level i have i was born here but i did not learn english because my parents are immigrants so i was not given the ability to learn english as quickly as others um there was a school nearby school number four where i when my parents decided to move to that house because it was convenient enough that it was nearby because my parents did

039not have a car now unfortunately there was no esl programs there so they had to send me out to another part school number 13. and it was a whole different environment because um it was a very small class there wasn't a lot of students it wasn't as diverse um i felt kind of like left out in reality i i felt like i was being pushed away from the class from classmates and friends and it was really difficult for me to have to go to a school that's so far away on a different aspect as you see there's two different sides in clifton one that's a lot lower class and the other one's a little better so i had to go to that side and everything would just made it more difficult to get there and

040i feel like really we should focus on that a lot more especially now especially now since we're on distance learning it's a lot more difficult like so much more difficult and i feel like this is not a focus for you guys that you guys are really focusing on and you know i came here just to give you that idea and to push that idea that you guys should focus on this more because it's not only in hispanics it's also the muslims it's everyone and it shouldn't just be looked at and be like oh that'll happen it'll get over with especially during these times where we have distance learning i have heard from a lot of family members that they are struggling kids are struggling and they're not developing and i really think that yeah you

041guys should just put more funding towards um more programs esl programs help counselor help any way that will benefit them yeah that's pretty much it thank you thank you very much um i see um mr limbrick and mr kuczyk i don't know if you want to speak about the athletics or if you had something else to say yep coach lemberg europe thank you mr smith um yes briefly um i'd just like to again congratulate all the student athletes for their recognition and to me this is a true reflection of the massive support we do receive from our school administration uh and all the staff coaches uh that put in the time and effort for our student athletes um and all our athletes that are recognized and all of them that do participate um i just

042like to make sure everybody understands how much this goes in life and how much pride and effort and time they put in and it is a reflection of our community and i'd also like to mention that i know many of these people will come back uh and help our community continue to grow and uh as far as the boys soccer team i'd also like to mention that the six uh first team all county players uh have committed to play soccer in college uh and we have eight in total right now um and the first team all county players emir lukovich will be going to rutgers university to play in a scholarship eric di mora monmouth university danny tobin rutgers university sebastian hernandez the college of new jersey danny jason suarez uh rutgers university so um

043i'm just so pleased and happy and proud of this program and i thank you for all your support thank you coach also i'm sorry eric p valcek is also um going to rutgers university thank you thanks again coach for all you do for the kids appreciate it next up we have dustin i apologize i don't see your last name hello my name is dustin keefer and i'm in third grade and i really think we should just go back to school because you can't really make friends at all and we shouldn't be talking about going to the bathroom right now we should talk about getting back to school before we talk about that and i just feel like it's harder to do school it's way more upsetting it's very angry and you can barely do anything

044all you do there is sit and do the same thing but just it's more boring so i feel like we should go back to school so it's way better than just staying home and being stuck there and doing nothing and that's my speech thank you dustin dustin you did an excellent job well done dustin can i talk for uh two minutes please sure i just want to say that i'm really proud of my son he asked me on his own he's been watching some of these meetings with us kind of over here in the background and he actually approached me so i'm extremely proud of him to step up and a lot of what i say i get from him if he didn't want to go back to school i wouldn't fight so hard and

045uh it's tough when when this is what's going on and when you see that you guys are going to give money to turfs and to new bathrooms like i'm not even angry i'm telling the truth man like i got my house 1940. i got the original bathroom what's the point if it works it works if you're going to take that money maybe take a little bit less money i get the hvac and heating air conditioning and all that may put it to that and you know why do we need turfs why do we need new bathrooms you know take some of that money give it to teachers you know you always hear we do the you know with the school five we do the all the time we go to the meetings and with the

046uh the board with what they got going on uh raising the money we do all the things that we used to the you know the trunk or treats and all the other stuff to give to raise money pizza parties and that money just really goes to stuff for the teachers to use for the kids anyway you know give them some more money let's do so let's let's let's spend the money more wiser you know it's so tough it sucks when you tell them people are going to raise their taxes and you know people are working less it's harder it's harder for people to to get going and you know i don't know how honestly i know how it works if you're you know i'm a homeowner so you know taxes can come around my pocket

047if you're not a homeowner i'm sure the rent you know are they going to raise your rent over this 200 bucks you know maybe we could use it more wisely like seriously uh you know these teachers are struggling i see my i see my son's teacher on the on the zoom and she tries she's doing such a good job but it's it's nothing against them but this is just it's not working and uh i i just don't i i can't wrap my my head around how you want to spend 40 million on bathrooms and you want to buy new turf fields what's wrong with the field now can you not play football on it it makes no sense there's way more important things especially when the kids are at home that should be our first

048priority you lost me when when you started talking about spending money in schools when when that's our last that that you know you need i get it i understand you need it but what for you need to get the kids back in school is way more important way more important than getting a new toilet or a new sink with a safety valve or all that nonsense you know please man you know it's it's real it's it's you know i get you get caught up i got so caught up last meeting hearing all this stuff i was like shocked you know and you get to kind of settle it in your head and you think about it and it just the more i think about it the more less sense it makes you know and um

049it is what it is you know i feel bad you know i'm really proud of my kitty talk and uh he wanted to talk so i thank you dustin and i appreciate you guys listening to what we have to say thank you thank you mr keefer mr smith may i just quickly respond sure thank you uh mr keefer first of all uh you should be very proud of your son he did an outstanding job for a third grader it's hard enough for us adults to be talking on these zoom meetings and in public so you should be very proud dustin you did an excellent job i just want you to know that i'm feeling very confident that we will be open in a few weeks i'm that that march timeline is looking good there has

050been a downward trajectory in the number of cases and i'm feeling very confident about that um but just like i would tell any uh any citizen of clifton i want i want you to please if you get a chance go on to our website and look at the information on the referendum if you can review that and even give me a call in my office so we could talk because a lot of the things i understand what you're saying but i think if if i can share with you more information about why we're doing the things or proposing to do the things that we want to do you may still disagree and that's okay but i think you'll have a better idea of all the why so certainly you can feel free to reach out

051to me in my office we'll talk but if you get a chance check out our website please thank you why say something okay mr mountain who's next david speer is up next and just a reminder if if you're here strictly for the athletics awards uh feel free to exit the zoom and watch the remainder of the meeting on the youtube live stream uh david speer hi everybody i know nobody probably knows me um my name is david speer my son is right here erie oh spear you might have heard of him or um he's an entertainer singer and he's uh won his uh um talent show like two years in a row and he was one of the stars in woodrow wilson's um grease and uh i think he needs a haircut and i think

052we all need haircuts here but you know uh i'm looking at everyone and my hair is like boom and his hair is boomer but um i got to tell you man i want to tell you as a guy that's that's all i ever did my whole life was perform and not i wasn't the greatest student unfortunately but i have so much respect for you teachers and educators i gotta tell you man i i i really gotta i really wanna give you guys all the applause it's a rough especially today now it is so tough with what you guys do and all this stuff this that politically incorrect stuff and i gotta tell you when i went to school was different man i mean so you guys have a really tough and i even make it

053tough on you guys sometimes you know but i gotta tell you um my son plays baseball and he studies uh privately uh with a coach rivera and um clifton's got a great you know baseball team and um he's one of the he happens to be i'm gonna tell you a little secret he happens to be one of the strongest kids in america he just he dead lifted over 400 pounds at 13 years old and he's very strong and um but but i know somebody they might want him to play football but i'm not sure about that but i want to call talk for another reason i noticed that my son and i'm i'm he's right here i noticed his personality has changed a lot since this covert thing since no school i noticed not just

054him but a lot of his students um there's a depression that's happening with these kids guys um i don't have to tell you if you if you have children yourself i think you see it i'm not really good at teaching him stuff uh i'm not that kind of guy i just don't i'm not it's hard for me you know so i can't really sit here and and homeschool him like some some parents could he's he's really struggling a lot with this lack of school and not being there these kids are deprived of other kids he doesn't have any friends that he really hangs with and the only time they would is if they were in school together and i i don't want to i know that the last guy took my thunder and the kid

055really took my thunder but i'm hoping that we could start school again and maybe if he enters the talent show it'll be live and not on tape because last year they they did a a taped version of the talent show and woodrow wilson um i'm hoping that we can get if the teachers the teachers that are feeling safe and feel like they're they're okay with the covid thing we get them back into school and the other ones that are afraid i guess they're gonna have to figure it out but i would like to see the kids get back in the school and be get we get all of us get some kind of um you know normalcy again it's rough for all of us i mean when he has school i have to stay here

056with him you know uh and just you know i can't leave him alone here so that's my my thing i i will say i think clifton the school system i had nothing but great praise for when he went to school 16 for this and now um woodrow wilson the people in woodrow wilson are terrific mr healey you guys all know mr healey by a chance uh you know what a great guy man and then the vice principal's great there and they they they put a lot they're they're so nice to him and they're nice to me too when i go there so um and he'll be in high school next year so um i think i did try to talk to you mr robert robertosi right uh incidentally are your family from naples italy yeah

057are you guys because that last name is that's exactly where the family's from yes i know the dessert the ozzy the ozzy i know what that is because my family's has the last name of pintosie and uh so but you know i don't know if you've heard him i talked maybe i spoke to you or tried to a couple of times but we got to get these kids back in school man we gotta guys we all gotta sacrifice and get these kids back in school so they they're amongst their peers and we could do this guys we could do this together we could figure this out man you know um that's it that's my spiel if you ever guys need me to sing for you guys you got me anything you need but and this

058kid will this kids are going to be an up-and-coming star we hope thank you so much guys and um much respect for all you guys much respect thank you mr spear thank you very much uh mr smith i see mr khrushchek and a couple of students on here so would you like to speak mr khrushchev yes yes thank you uh good evening um my name is coach kruczek i'm the girls soccer coach i would like to start off with saying thank you to all the board members and administration for your continued um support this year we had a very young talented player who's only a sophomore making the first team all county for the past two years she received first team all league and during freshman year she received second team all week and county

059um this season she scored 17 goals and had 12 assists in two years she scored a total of 28 goals and had 16 assists which led us to being league champions she was also player of the week for the big north conference i'm very proud of this player and her achievements she's only a sophomore and we're also getting two years out of her congratulations leila flores thank you coach krusic thank you very much and thank you for all that you do for our students thank you just a reminder for for the athletes and coaches you can continue to watch in the live stream and feel free to exit the zoom i still see a couple of students here um mr smith next up is a phone caller ending in one three three six okay yes

060yes hi you're uh please state your name and address unless you're a student um my name is mrs nicole belinsky my grandson was just uh registered in your school was still waiting on the paperwork because me and my me and my husband just got cut um a written custody but we're waiting for uh we're waiting for um um custody to the court and uh his name is malachi manning first grade and we live at 638 christian ass okay ma'am is this uh the phone number you're calling from we can have someone from administration contact you can they contact you at this number yes they can okay very good we'll have uh someone from administration get back to you and uh and answer your questions yeah i've been trying to get in touch with um the

061superintendent i've been trying to get in touch with miss tremble i've been trying to get in touch with mr gengaro and um i've been leaving messages nobody has called me back yet okay yeah it was a tough week with the snow but i will make sure that we have someone from administration we uh get back to you thank you thanks very much uh next up is mr bruncia hi can you hear me yes yeah mark bruntjack 20 holly street thank you dr robert tosie thank you uh mr smith thank you uh the rest of the board for allowing me to speak tonight uh congrats i want to give a congratulations to all the students student athletes who have been uh named all county and uh what an honor and a privilege for them so i

062want to give them a shout out as well and uh this is just a continuation of what we've been discussing over the past few meetings it's very frustrating when you hear these students to be able to participate in group activities yet the students and the parents do not have an option to send their kids into the classroom when the cdc director just said days ago that the schools can safely reopen that a study from the cdc late from the cdc published late last month found little evidence of virus spreading at schools in the u.s and abroad when precautions were taken which is exactly what the school district did for those maybe five days that some of these schools were open back in october and this is the frustrations that you hear from the parents last

063last meeting they forced us to listen to you know having a referendum on a bond for kids that aren't even in the classroom yet and you can't how does anybody not see parents who are absolutely frustrated as a result of this we're asking for the parents to have a choice to send their kids in school the precautions are there that they're saying that they're they're wearing their masks inside the classroom in addition to having some sort of plastic barrier in between them as well you know one parent called last week she's taking her kids to therapy another parent called last week their kid is pulling their hair out while they're in in the while they're in there today mr spear if i got your name wrong i apologize he's talented his hex son he's losing

064his mind over here depressed and this is what drives people crazy and you know i just keep on saying i don't think anybody has a problem voting yes on this referendum but get a short date to get the parents to have the option to send their kids into school for goodness sakes and and i hope the board attorneys are are paying attention to this too because the neighboring district just had to just have to file a lawsuit for the teachers to come back in a neighboring district over here it's an absolute disgrace so this is what this is what lays ahead these are the difficulties and i know dr roberts you try to do as best as you could we're going to reassess over here so i'm asking if we cannot have parents have a

065choice to allow their kids in school i'm asking for the board to reassess this referendum to a later date when we can guarantee that the parents have an option of sending their kids to school that's what we're asking for these are mental health issues where most of these kids get the most of their mental health issues addressed at the school but they they can't go there they can't go there so that's what i'm asking for the board you guys are trying you guys are saying you're doing the best you can it's not good enough for a lot of the parents in august about half the parents wanted to have their kids go into class so that's what we're asking i don't know how many in how many different ways we could say it that's what

066we're asking for these other districts are opening up they file losses their kids are hurting themselves what is the health department going to say do they have statistics on the kids that have mental health issues as a result of these of this remote learning these kids are extraordinary these these all kind of kids that they're they're almost super human because of how good they are but what about the other kids who don't have all those talents they need something and their parents need the option to get them back into school thank you and god bless america thank you mr mr smith may i briefly um respond sure thank you sir um mr bronziak i i hear you i hear everything you're saying and as i mentioned briefly earlier to mr kiefer um i'm feeling very

067confident that we will be able to open up schools in a few weeks and it's not about whether or not our teachers want to come back our teachers will come back because they love kids they love their jobs but i want to clarify something about this cdc article that came out because this was a big thing the other day so the cdc did make this big announcement that schools can reopen safely but what people don't realize what the cdc said is that it's safe with several measures mask social social distancing hybrid attendance increased ventilation and expanded testing so the masks are easy the social distancing is easy the hybrid attendance is easy what is very difficult right now is increasing [Music] and ventilation testing we don't have the capacity to expand testing we're a school

068district we don't do that the health department doesn't have that capacity the only way to increase ventilation right now is to open up windows which is not optimal in the month of february which is why i believe a reassessment at the end of this month with a reopening in march is is a wise decision at this point and finally i understand people would ask the question how why would we vote to approve a referendum when students are in school but i would encourage everyone to look at this not in the short term this referendum that the board is proposing will make lasting changes in our district that will affect students for the next several decades not only that we can't stop looking into the future while so much of our attention is focused in the

069prison this covered thing is going to go away we're going to be back in school we're going to be back in school better air filtration and circulation is a major part of this referendum so our more efficient heating security vestibules modern bathrooms ada accessibility but all these things are one to three years down the road so it's not like hey let's do the work where kids aren't in school this is a three-year project that will affect our schools and our kids and our staff for decades so i would ask for those of you who are questioning how can we ask voters to vote on this referendum when kids aren't in school we'll be back in school before the vote will be back in school before any shovel is even dug into the ground to begin

070any of this work so i appreciate mr brunswick everything you said um and i anticipate and i'm feeling very confident that we will be opening schools in march thank you mr smith and i won't interrupt any more i just wanted to clarify that thank you dr rubitosi uh next mr mountain uh next up is manuela i apologize i can't see the last name it's cut off but manuela manuela orango manuela rango you have the floor all right next if you want to move on the next would be nelson andrade nelson andrade you have the floor nelson andrade you have the floor okay right let's go to the next one next would be uh just iphone whoever's logged in with the name iphone okay if you're logged in with an iphone if you would uh state

071your name and address and you have the floor okay next will be um i see mrs lieberman uh mrs lieberman mrs lieberman it's your turn to speak where is mrs lieberman oh there she is mrs lieberman uh it's your turn mrs lieberman you could uh just state your name and address and uh you have the floor if you're on mute you could talk okay just a reminder if you're just here to watch the meeting you can do so on the youtube live stream um the next participant is a phone caller ending in hi uh my name is jennifer pagano i live on avondale ave i've called in multiple times i'm calling for the same reason as mr brunsiak we are asking to please open the schools please open the schools you gave the parents an

072agonizing decision in the beginning of the year to decide are we going to have our children home or in person we agonized we made a decision you took it away all i'm asking is to give us that choice back i know dr robert jose you're saying that you feel confident in march that they'll be back i just i can't believe it until i see it i am the caller that called about her child going to therapy we have another therapy session tomorrow it's not great it's not going well my child was up all night last night agonizing because his teacher suggested that they might do a project where they make lava lamps but he can't do that because he's at work with me in a dental office all day he doesn't have the luxury of

073being at home because he have two parents that are essential workers and he comes to work with me so he doesn't have that luxury so my nine-year-old agonized and stressed all night over making a lava lamp because he's not in school it is not fair to these children that they are having all of these mental issues and i would like to address the caller that called in and spoke about me bringing up mr abu drabbo's children i did not bring his children up he brought his children up when he was responding to mr kanova i brought it up when he was minimizing it and said that they're bored i did not bring his children up get your facts straight because that's not what happened i am asking you please open the schools i know that

074it's a hard decision but these children need to be in a classroom they need to be in person in a classroom virtual learning is not the answer imagine math is horrible it is not the answer and dr robert tosie i wrote you an email regarding imagine math a while ago it's awful it hasn't gotten better my child is being told just do two lessons you don't have to pass them how do you tell children that it's okay to fail a lesson you just have to get something done that's ridiculous please please open the schools thank you mr mountain who do we have next uh celeste bethan court um miss bethencourt you have the floor if you state your name and address for the record miss bethencourt you have the floor miss beth in court last

075call hey mr matt we have anyone else uh no one's in the waiting room this will be it you know when else emotionally closed public recognition motion by the navajo second second by mr canova okay uh unfinished business um the appointment to uh the new jersey uh school boards association alternate um i will be taking the alternate since no one else uh wanted to do it so [Music] mr casper you're the representative and i am the alternate is there any other unfinished business seeing none next uh now under education administration we have one through six do i have a motion second the movement mr casper's vice president abu drabo discussion mr mr president um i have a question on e a that's ea six that would be a second reading of the policy um i

076have a number of concerns i wrote to the president and to the attorney um i think it should either be able to go back to the committee to address the concerns in general um i don't want to see any policy that's going to create a lot of confusion um the question is does it short the powers of the president does it short the uh the ability of a board member to put a resolution um so it's kind of i understand what it is i don't have a general problem with it but i want to make sure we're not creating um conflict in language here policy versus what uh the what rights are there or abilities to do under the current situation so mr mr president mr daily that wasn't that was the standing language that

077was on that we changed i think a line in it i don't have the um the original one we talked about the only thing that was changed in this policy was about um board members going through administration to talk to vendors or um people because that's that's standard of what has to be done all that other language has been standard in this policy for years we never changed anything else this policy was like this yeah the the the item i'm looking at here in our first reading is the ad-hoc committee will be automatically destroyed upon submission by the ad hoc committee of its final report to the board okay that's what i'm talking about what the intent was if all right what the intent was due to the fact that the uh when i was

078chair of the legal committee i wasn't we weren't able to finish our work um so i did some research on ad hoc committees usually an ad hoc committee is released after the final report goes to the board they issue their final report and that's it and then they're released that's the only thing that we put in there the committee agreed upon it uh it did cause a lot of hardship on myself and the committee because we went back and forth with emails it needs to be stated because it's not in there it's um it's a gray area uh there's a lot of gray areas and and robert's rules of orders doesn't speak to it so we wanted to make it specific that when there was a release of the committee it's just a simple phrase

079is that it's not tying anybody's hands it's just saying that upon final report of the of the committee then the committee just spans and they go away because the ad hoc committees are the purview of the um board president of the board president committees are supposed to be voted new committees are supposed to be voted on when they're formed via the board i don't i don't have a general uh issue but i do want to make sure that the wording here does not obviate the powers of the president or the ability of a board member to move an issue they had no intent to do that jim it was to finalize the process because there was a lot of argument via emails that the other board members weren't apprised of on the on the legal

080committee and you know what that's what policy is for the one of the most important things that any board member needs to learn as a new coming to an older board member you we we are run by policy so you could be on any committee in the world the most important policy your most important committee in the board of education is policy it sets the way it sets the tone and the only reason why i brought this to the committee is during the course of the year there were several faux pas that were going on and we brought them to the committee and the committee actually worked on it in the last three years i can honestly say being the chair of the policy committee i think for nine years the last three years it

081was the was we actually got work done we actually got true essence the last two the last year and a half since dr robitazi has been in our our lead we actually had work done i mean we were flourishing before then we were always stifled because we would get to committee with the new idea and it would be two votes to one and it wouldn't move forward we voted to have the policy book years ago renewed and uh updated and looked at and revised and researched by school boards we had it done we spent all this money and then they never got instituted so when dr robert does he came here as the pr as the chair of the policy committee that was one of my major concerns of him that we had a ton

082i i can't even remember dr roberto how many was that it was like it was it was a we had a stack of policies that were outdated they weren't in they weren't in um in condition so with it with his help we got it done and the board is actually in a good place and you know when you don't update your stuff it and you don't do certain things it all goes against new jersey cusack when you're not functioning so this was just to make a final ending to a process that was confusing all summer that caused a disruption in the force as i would call it and a disruption amongst members and it was just to say okay this is what the committee does this is when it ends and that's it and it's

083not tying anybody's hands it's just saying when the when the committee uh recommends its final report they're done they do this on every level in this from this from from local to to state to county to federal that when when when a um a committee is done they they finished their report and the committee is released out of charge it was just finalization because everybody on the committee was was for it nobody had any issues on it at all well i i just want to make sure is that that's because it is a statement and it raised some questions where it could go so i'd like to have that address maybe you could put it a little bit additional language that does not obviate the powers of president or an ability of the board member

084to raise an issue um and that and you can still have that language i have no problem with it if you could just send me the email with the information and then uh we'll present it when committee finally meets okay thank you very much thank you so motion to uh to set taylor's back to committee and they'll send another um first reading at the next sport meeting right number uh excuse me mr president i don't think it would go for a first reading it would still go for a second what we need to do is we need to revise it and then we bring it back to commit we bring it back to the board whatever okay but thank you okay motion uh to table um uh ea six it is as long as as

085long as the um mr casper who motioned and mr abu drab second are okay with that then we can do a straight vote i'm okay okay motion the table roll call to table so we're doing just a table not not one through five one table on six first okay no problem all right mr abramo mr awad miss bashford yes mrs beltran yes mr canova yes mr daly yes miss danny yes mr casper yes mr smith yes okay ea sex's table just clarify thank you for indulgence [Music] all right so now we have uh a uh one through five there was a motion and a second on that is there any discussion on that seeing none roll call mr abu drabba mr awad yes mr bastard yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes

086miss danny yes mr casper yes and mr smith yes okay next we have on their personnel we have resignations retirements legal of absence maternity leave of absence amendment leave of absence of maternity leave of absence amendment of appointments additional appointments for the 2021 after school programs additional appointments for the 2021 pbsis team members athletic paraprofessionals student teacher practicum observation placements conference request substitute appointments and personnel appointment do i have a motion for uh one through fourteen motion second second by vice president abu drabo discussion seeing none roll call mr abu drabo yes mr awad yes miss bassford miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes miss danny yes mr casper yes mr smith yes motion carries hey under uh financing facilities we have certification of budget line item for the accounts we have financial

087reports for december modifications to the 219 2020 budget and the claims list so i have a motion one through four so moved daily taken by vice president discussion yes mr daley yes miss danny yes mr casper yes mr smith yes yes motion scary okay next we have board member comments um you went first last time so miss bassford you're up first yes um good evening everyone um first off i would like to wish i would like to wish uh congratulations to the the winners of the um i'm looking for my notes the usmc fit at home congratulations to all the members all the all the team players that won the cross um country first team my deepest and sincere condolences um from myself and my family go out to mayor james anzaldi and his family

088on the loss of his brother ross may his memory be a blessing to all of you and may you find peace through these dark days of um of your grieving um secondly um i'd like to thank all the speakers from coming up and i'm sure um as long as i've been a board member things were never addressed by our superintendent and i really like to say thank you to dr robertosi for actually looking at the people and maybe i i don't know if i'm putting you on the spot but maybe when you you have your um your prayer view to speak you can speak about what we're doing for the mental uh well-being of some of the students um it's a concern to me i keep on bringing it up to you when we speak

089or whenever i have a chance i'm a little i'm a little concerned about it and um that's that's one of my worries about the mental well-being because everybody's suffering from every other way um two weeks ago at a meeting i asked for minutes of the diversity committee i haven't heard from anyone i'm still waiting on that uh two weeks ago i had an open discussion and i um i objected to something um so the next day the friday after our meeting i took the time to research something and i called two parliamentarians in the state of new jersey i had to dig them up on the internet and i found i found them it was it was a little difficult to find parliamentarians and um i'm gonna apologize to mr watt i didn't want to

090call you out it wasn't about you it was about the process i i'm as my daughter would tell you i am very very very um i'm very strict when it comes to processes because without them we have chaos we have chaos and wherever i am whatever i sit on whatever board i'm in i i do do that and i apologize to you if you if you thought that was going after you it had nothing to do with you so when i spoke to the palmentarians it was about the word member and that's the gray area and my issue was that all along for the years that i've been on this board 10 years anybody that has voted on meeting minutes that were absent always abstained because they weren't here to witness so being that you

091weren't a julia uh duly um sworn in member of the um the board i just took that to be you know like everybody tells you error on the side of caution so i figured that was the right thing to do um but i find it a bit confusing why it takes to monday morning after the meeting that i get an opinion from the attorney and i'm upset because if we're gonna have opinions or we're gonna have debate and that's what these that's what this is for like like the one caller that called in we're all allowed to have our own opinions and have our own sense of direction and our own our own voice because if we were all the same we would be robots and it would be boring and we all bring color

092to this board with with different things that we do so um i'm gonna yeah i'm gonna say this out loud is that when there's a question it should be answered right away so there's no debate that there's no there's no there's no um misunderstanding and that's why i get upset is because the only time i see the legal counsel get up on their chair is when i speak that's not true it's on tape okay so um and once again i hear somebody in the background so i don't know what it is so the words that i've learned was gaslighting trust professionalism and i i must i must apologize to anybody out there that i have been a part of unprofessionalism and thank you to all the speakers but thank you to the one most special

093speaker that came tonight from the class of 2008 samantha basford um samantha is my um is my voice of reason she watches the tapes she watches the meetings she'll call me up the next day and beat me up unmercifully she is my biggest critic and she'll tell me when i've done something wrong she'll tell me when i've done something right she'll tell me when i'm when i'm i'm absurd and i have to tell you samantha i am most proud of you tonight you are a product of the clifton public school system and for you to sit there five minutes before the meeting after you watch the tape and write that little speech bravo my dear money's well spent on your education for all those years that you were from kindergarten to 12. and i thank

094the board of education for allowing my daughter to have that face to be that well-spoken person and i hope to my daughter and to all the young students out there because my daughter is teaching me all about intersectionality and about the word other ring and i encourage my fellow board members to research what othering needs othering means like when you're when you're left out and you're pushed aside because you're not valued just like when you know you take a group picture and you leave somebody out that's othering it's a form of bullying and how do we as adults sit here and make decisions that are based on appropriateness if we cannot set the example for the students ourself so i gave my daughter a promise that i'm going to be more professional and try to

095do things but i'm also going to ask everybody else to be more professional because when you see something and you don't say something shame on every one of you for letting it happen and it has happened for months and years i rose above rose above it but my daughter took enough and she saw that meeting and she got disgusted so bravo to you um with that being said i think we're gonna not meet before thanksgiving uh happy day i mean thanksgiving happy valentine's day i wish it was thanksgiving because i that's when i had a quarantine i want to go back to the the weeks that i lost out of my life um policy has to meet so uh dr robitazi i'm going to ask you if we can come up with a date and

096i'm going to ask the people that are on policy if we could stick to the old the method that we used to the same time every month the same day every month because it worked beautifully we we've we've had a we had a good run and i thank everybody for their input and their professionalism thank you okay next uh miss feltron okay i just like to thank um all the callers tonight uh sharing their impassioned opinions on the happenings in this district i especially applaud uh the student speakers both former and current speakers students clifton is molding some confident kids i hope we are just one month away from opening i really do the the kids need it the parents need it society frankly needs it um i hope we get back on track and

097give the kids the education they deserve i hope everyone has a nice valentine's day and stay safe if the storm comes again on sunday and that's all i have tonight thank you thank you mr kanova good evening first i just want to congratulate the student athletes who received awards tonight great job i do want to express my condolences to the zaldi family on on mr ross make the rest of the piece um so my comments on i'm getting back to school everyone knows it that you know i'm a proponent for for getting back um i was i was glad to hear dr robert tosie tonight express um positivity and and that we will be getting back uh hopefully if those numbers continue the way on the trajectory that they are right now um and and

098i look forward to that and one thing i do want to bring up though is our referendum um i know i think i know one maybe even multiple spoke about it but the problem with the referendum um is that i think people are are tying it to what's going on right now and the referendum isn't something although it's happening right now it's not something that is just for right now in this time period this is something that for the next 20 or 30 years we're going to read the benefits on and the reason why it's time to strike now i think we mentioned in the last meetings as well one is for the issue of uh of the state allowing us to reduce the cost and where they're going to pay basically a third of

099the cost for this but the other one is the time right now where the interest rates are low and we don't really have money out you know in bond referendum so this is the one time we have in one position we have where if we do pass something like this it's going to be at a very low rate and i think i mentioned last time as well that it's almost 2.2 million dollars every year for the next 25 years or so they'll be getting this money from the state um so that's the reasons why we're doing it now i i can understand why you're bundling the two together but but please try and separate these two because i'm with you i want the schools open as well but i don't want them open enough to

100say that i'm just going to foil the whole plans of of the the district over the next 25 years because i think that would be a detriment detriment to their success as well maybe even more so in this case so um please take a look at the website as as dr robertosi mentioned there's a lot of information there if you if you have any questions you can email any of the board members or our superintendent i'm sure that you'll be gladly assisting and walking you through what it is we're doing but it's very important that we get the message out to the people let them know what it is that we're doing and how this benefits our students benefit our students in the long run thank you mr daly thank you mr president um just

101a couple of items um like to extend my condolences to the insalty family on passing of rostenzalde uh i know this family has been a uh center focus of the community for a long time and um we wish them uh our blessings and the passing and to uh relieve their sorrow and their pain losing a family member it's never easy to go through that uh the other thing i would like to know is uh or not no but i just like to to speak about um it has to do partially with the referendum but we have budget coming up we're going to be working on the budget with the administration and i've talked to the superintendent uh many times about this i think we need to put more money into some remedial and supplemental education

102due to the long time that the students been out um i think we can do that but i think it's important you know not only that the students go back i think it's very important that the students go back uh hopefully that will happen a lot sooner than later i hope that the super bowl parties don't bust the numbers and give us another setback just everybody be careful because that's part of this equation and i'm looking at giving the administration an opportunity to use some of this money uh outside of the general education to help students who have uh who have really struggling during this virtual training that virtual teaching um as an account and i know miss beltran's also there's a many people don't don't have an understanding that um money is not money

103there's money for some things and money is not for it so your operational money is good for one year so it's not like we're taking this money that we're going to use for the referendum and going to divert it into the classroom that cannot happen there's laws against that there's accounting things like that so this is a capital project i've been on the board in excess of 12 years and when i was on the board there was virtually nothing going on there was no program to make improvements in terms of windows and terms so we were able to start to turn that around and put some capital dollars to our long-term assets such as boilers windows all these other things that are expenditures that go over a long period of time and as mr canover

104said it's basically we have a decision here do you want the 54 million dollars or you want to take it out of your taxes so that that's where this really goes we have an opportunity here to get over 30 percent nearly 35 of our money back from the state there is no other vehicle that does that other than going through a referendum uh and i think the uh superintendent was very eloquent and saying that listen this isn't gonna happen over a month or or a week or something like that it's going to happen over three years but the improvements will be there for a long time all the issue all the projects that are in that and some might argue one versus the other um because we were going to get a full 35 34

105back from the state that's why we put these other things these all those things in the referendum are needed it's it's if you've been around the district if you go if you're if your children have been active in the district whether it's athletics or or in the classroom and i know the teachers are always big about uh hepa filters or or mirror filters um listen uh there's always another pandemic around the corner so if we are unprepared if we are unprepared you're going to relive what we're going through right now so it's it couldn't come at a better time to approve this referendum and i'll be happy to talk to anybody individually and explain it uh but um these these are very necessary improvements and will pay dividends for decades uh i wish everybody happy

106valence day valentine's day and everybody stay safe and warm thank you very much thank you miss danny uh yes i'd like to start out with um condolences to the anzaldi family on their loss and like to move in just to recognize that it is black history month and so hopefully um you know teachers are um i'm sure dr robertosi has put out something that you know um they maybe um in this virtual world or something bring some attention to it especially with diversity being a topic so um just want to put recognition there and um definitely congratulations to all the students who were recognized today really speaks highly of the coaches and the talent that we have at clifton in terms of coaches students staff the other thing that i would like to speak about

107is um you know the school reopened and um i do think that nothing is as good as in person speaking as an educator myself um i think that um and and i don't know how this will play out um you know i i do feel that um you know uh in speaking with dr arbitosi that he you know he definitely does want to see pools open and that that's the projection um you know barring that there's no issues with uh high rising numbers or anything uh one of the things that i do think about since i'm in a district that has opened is that um there are some students that they're afraid to come in and so we do have i had school today well i always say school but i taught today and normally

108i would have had about 75 students in the classroom and i had none they were all virtual even though some of them were slated to be in but they chose to participate remotely and a lot of the students that i do find that come usually i have about one or two in the classroom they say that you know they they just feel robbed of the sense that even though they're in school it's not school as they know it it's not the socializing factor and a lot of them tell me well i don't really like care to come to school because my friends aren't there a lot of my friends are staying home so i don't know how that'll play out in clifton but i do think the socialization is a huge part and when talking

109about you know the um students being upset and you know some i know with suicide rates and everything i think that um i would personally just personally me like to maybe know and i don't know if um dr robertosi is already doing something um i know there's a buzzword social emotional that's in education but like what can we maybe moving forward if we get the students and some parents decide to opt and have their children not attend school and now other students don't feel like it's that social hour because again it is very different um you know what what could we do to help students you know in terms of if they are suffering something to maybe raise awareness with students where can they go um you know i think that more than ever now

110because that's what i'm finding that although we are in person it's not like the students are coming in and they're excited and they're like wow we're here we're back i mean what i find they're saying is oh i thought it would be like last year but it's not there's no one here my friends aren't here or the few that are there aren't my friends and the socialization isn't there and it's still you know the masks and i mean we have desk shields and everything so it's not school as we know it and so i just feel that um that issue of students feeling upset um that you know maybe to look at something in regards to that because i feel that though you open the building it's not school as they remember it or school

111for the purpose of what they need that socialization aspect which we in a sense can't make happen um or could we do some things to help them uh whether it's in the hybrid whether it's in the virtual um and i don't know the answer to that again i'm just an educator and as an educator the things i'm seeing the things that students are sharing with me and what they're sharing is they miss the socialization not necessarily like and some say yes i i learn better when i'm in school but the majority are saying i miss the socialization aspect um and i don't know how to solve that um but maybe there are experts in that field and dr arbitozi um you know knows something so if if he does or or knows where to turn

112to i mean that's something i would just like to hear because i do feel bad for those students that um some of them say i've been robbed of my friendships and that for me as a teacher it's it's hard to hear and i'll tell you as a teacher you know i've been robbed of my students and i feel you know i don't feel good because i feed off the energy of my students and it is very different you know having them in a zoom setting and i am in a school district that is open and again i would have seen about 75 students today and i saw all my students virtually but not one of them in person and it's very very different um and they don't speak you know i mean you have to

113really push and get them to do it so i don't know the answers um but i'll be honest i mean i'm not thrilled either and i wish we could all just go back to normal it it hurts me as well too because i love being a teacher and i feed off the energy of the children we all do and i think we're all missing that i don't know how to find it or you know how to help my students who i don't even know if they are struggling because they're not going to talk in that meet setting um we don't call it zoom we call it a meet but it's essentially the same thing um so to close i just want to say happy valentine's day and um you know i hope we find answers

114and i hope everybody gets you know what they're looking for thank you uh mr casper all right thank you mr president um i'll first start with um a few congratulations so um i would like to first congratulate all of our outstanding first team sports recipients this evening i'd also like to congratulate all of our retirees this year again and thank you for your service to our district um if you were able to see the uh the clifton magazine today i'd like to congratulate all of the students of the month um we have four students of the month again for february so they were honored in our clinton magazine um i'd also like to congratulate the students of the rotc for completing the at home challenge um i'd like to just briefly speak on the opening

115as well um in my district where i am now also we were off two weeks we were virtual two weeks we go in for four days and unfortunately we were closed back down because there were two separate cases so that's just one thing when we do uh finally reopen is what we're going to have to be looking at first it started with our school where it was closed down for two weeks then it went to the other two elementary schools where they were also shut down and then our middle and high school then went down because there were two separate non-related cases so that's my only fear um going back in and opening our schools is having to start closing down our our schools again but um i do have to say the students that

116i have i know ms danny you're at the high school level but at the elementary school level my kids really enjoy being back in school when they do come in and i have to tell you that my students are better at wearing masks than some adults that i actually see i never hear one complaint about my students wearing masks in the classroom and um the best thing now with virtual is that i get to know more about my students and i get to engage with them in their home setting and the best part is um everyone else in the class gets to meet everybody's pets so that's the best thing about being virtual right now even though i'm happy to be back in school myself so i'm actually looking forward to um opening school one

117of these days in a safe manner uh where all of us can where all of our students and teachers can be safely back in our schools and to end i hope everybody has a happy valentine's day thank you everyone thank you mr awad good evening everybody i would also like to send out my condolences to the mayor uh mayor zaldi for the loss of his brother um also congratulations to all the students students of the month student athletes for all your accomplishments uh may many more accomplishments continue uh in the near future i would also like to personally thank mr casper uh for basically sending one of these little guys robert google's laws to my house and um basically i i also requested mr casper if it was fine with him if he can be

118a mentor and like a big brother as i'm a new member to the board and as i'm trying to transition and learn as much as i can especially with you know many policies and uh how things uh work and the ins and outs uh i would also like to personally thank uh mr uchi and the superintendent uh any questions i ever had and any time i needed something or you know needed to be aware uh they're always you know quick to answer uh to the president and to the vice president mr smith and mr abedrabo uh with the committees you guys i know you guys worked extremely long hours and extremely hard and um have always reached out to me and uh i reached out to you guys actually uh with questions and how i

119can basically uh be a good chair and basically uh participate to the highest of my knowledge and also to miss danny i know you recently had a grandson little noah congratulations on that hopefully the little one is growing by the day uh hopefully once coveted and all the chaos calms down we can actually meet the little one when it's safe and sound and to all the parents and to the little guy if i'm not mistaken his name was dustin uh which was he did very outstanding coming on today very very very honestly i get shy sometimes with public speaking and he came out and executed like a peter we hear your concerns we hear uh i know uh uh dr robert tosi he works really close with the health department and everybody wants their um

120children uh back in schools i mean we all know like the highest level of education and basically the best quality would be in person at the same time we also got to think about the risks like mr casper said we don't want to quickly reopen the schools and have them shut back down um you know we don't want to put any students or staff members at risk hopefully you know as mr uh dr robert hosey said the numbers are going down we're heading into that cur right direction and uh that's pretty much it you know every single day you know as i learn more about this board i'm really blessed i work with a wide range of great individuals we do have an amazing staff and superintendent in our district to our teachers to basically

121everybody that's behind the scenes that many people don't see their faces as much they are doing their best to their ability and hopefully you know things will get back to normal and we will move forward with the referendum hopefully you know this is something basically not just for this current generation for 10 20 30 generations ahead you know our education would improve you know our facilities will be up to date and it's something you know we could all be proud of and basically giving our children you know the best of our abilities trying our hardest and working as a team um hopefully we i would just like to just say one last thing uh when it is safe for students and staff to go back to schools personally as a board member once i hear

122our health department and our superintendent thinks it's safe uh this is just my personal opinion i feel like us as members of the board we should lead by example and have our meetings in person to show the parents and the students that it is safe enough for us to go in person it is safe enough for the staff the students and everybody else likewise but for us to basically say yes students and staff should go back into school it's safe while we're sitting here in our homes safe and sound that's not leading by example you know i feel like as a commissioner we should we should be the first ones to go back when the time is correct and students in schools should follow and that is pretty much it thank you everybody uh happy

123holidays and i wish everybody well thank you vice president abu drabo thank you president smith uh i want to apologize for my kids coming into this shot um with telling goodbye we gotta always gotta balance uh our business and our family at the same time uh when we're doing these virtual meetings and virtual business and i will never tell my kids to go away so that's i'll leave that there and i said that for a reason um for i'm gonna address mr rubin and mr montoya as the chair of the diversity committee um now the chair of that difference to me because before uh this year we did not have a diversity committee on the board of ed uh diversity um the board members have always been invited to the administration's committees um over the

124past six months under um miss danny's leadership when she appointed people so to ms basford that's why board of ed committee minutes have not been put together because there were there were no board of ed uh diversity committee so hopefully mr roberts tells you we can get the information to miss basketball so she can have them um she can be aware of what happened which was run by your administration and your personnel in in the district uh mr uber mr montoya uh the racial justice and the asl programs um let's touch the touch upon the racial justice programs i would love to hear through the administration how that's set up and any feedback that can bring um to the administration and the district and maybe that's some some notes like that mr ruby mr we

125can give the board a bet in terms of what's been held what's been helpful that he has learned and other people learn in the district student-wise and how we can learn from them uh esl programs um believe it or not i don't think i've ever said this but uh being first generation born in the states i myself was an esl programmer when i was younger my parents spoke arabic more than english and so it means in return i spoke more arabic at home than than english i can't say i know how it feels for students who are older to come to this country and try to juggle a new language it's difficult being you know being bilingual and multilingual is difficult especially when you're coming into somewhere um when the language is the primary that

126is your secondary so um perhaps we can we can see what the strikes are there and how we can and help our children through the policy or through the administration and and make it easier for them to acclimate uh mental health has always been an issue for all um and it's becoming harder and stronger and miss samantha basford you're absolutely right um college is now are putting more money and more personnel into mental health because there is um a transition between from the high school to the college and then going into the college life uh and i applaud you for what you said um in terms of that work and that effort sam i you know i've always said you are a strong minded person person and you know keep it up and i really

127do mean i said it to you and i said it to others um and i still continue to say it uh when you're not in front of me because it's true um congratulations danny on your grandson and prayers to the anzaldi family um there's a good showing today at the at the wake and uh you know prayers uh to you and your family mayor and zoldi uh i'm going to take a little personal time on this one congrats to muhammad abu dravo and all the student athletes uh that were honored today excuse me sorry my pen dropped um being a student in itself is difficult and juggling not just athletics but juggling juggling being a student and doing something you're passionate about um is takes a lot of prioritization and a lot of time to

128keep up your grades and do what you're passionate about and what you love whether it's working whether it's it's athletics whether it's band whether whatever it may be chess and extracurricular mr gone uh to the caller i believe that was her name yes you are right you did not bring up my children uh you did not initiate bringing them up i spoke to i spoke about them in a manner of what i see in my own household and relating and i cannot fully relate to all families and children in the city of clifton because my kids are still at a younger age um but i have a little taste of what's really going on um so there's you shouldn't have to explain yourself i'll leave it at that um i'm going to talk about something

129because it was brought up today and i'm going to talk about it briefly and i'll tell you why i'm going to talk about it but i'm going to talk about it briefly because what i'm about to discuss is not a priority to me it's not a priority to me because we are on the board for our children for our personnel in this district through the administration and for our residents in the city not to play back and forth and say he said she said so what i'm about to say is here and this is the letter that was brought up i don't shy away from it i don't hide behind it you put something out there you better go hundred percent 150 percent full force behind it and stand behind it and i stand behind

130it and nothing any names i'm just going to read a quick paragraph and that's it we write on on behalf of mr him abhidrab a member of the clifton board of education which you are also a member in connection with false defamatory statements you have made about him including but not necessarily limiting to in writing so it is clear we write to you in your personal individual capacity not in your capacity as a board of member or otherwise so i just want to put that paragraph out there um you can translate how you want to but that's all i'm going to say about it because we need to focus on getting our kids back in school we need to focus focus on hvac we need to focus on the issues at hand why we're all

131sitting here in a meeting and the whole city is watching us to make sure we get the proper information so that they feel their kids are safe they're receiving the right education and that their tax money is being put at in the right place thank you uh thank you um uh miss gutierrez uh would you mind um if you could comment on the um what was brought up on uh voting on the minutes if you could uh address that please sure thank you mr smith can you hear me okay yes sir okay thank you uh at the last board meeting there uh mr uc uh had sent me an email or or we spoke i forget which one it was now uh after mr awad had voted on the minutes of a meeting that he

132had not attended uh i needed some time to be able to actually look it up in robert's rules of order so i did that and the following day on friday i sent an email to mr uc mr dr robertosi and to the board president and that email states please accept this email in response to your question regarding a board member's ability to vote on minutes of a meeting or which the board member was not present i reviewed robert's rules of order 11th edition on page 355 it states it should be noted that a member's absence from the meeting for which minutes are being approved does not prevent the member from participating in their correction or approval as such a board member is allowed to vote on the minutes of the meeting even if the board

133member was absent from the meeting in question please let me know if you have any other questions kindly share this information with the board members i don't know when that information was shared i'm assuming it was either that day or the following monday i i'm not privy to that i wasn't copied on that email um i i try to correct things that are a problem when i see them uh and i try to uh make sure that things run smoothly i in in order to provide legal advice sometimes it's necessary to actually do some research and off the top of my head i didn't i've never seen a problem with an absent board member voting yes on minutes um and so but i went back to the source also which is robert's rules of order

134if um i'm i'm happy to read the whole section but i quoted from that page uh from that section on page 355. i'm not sure with whom uh mrs basford spoke which parliamentarian she didn't state exactly what they said to her uh and that's fine i'm sure that other people have different opinions but i went right from uh quoting from what's in robert's rules of order um what you have what you showed mr awad is um is a condensed version i have that also but i quoted right from the original one from the 11th edition so i hope that that clarifies the question if there is mr mr smith can i speak well it's my comments right now i'll okay i'll let you address it right after okay sure um and and i'll i'll probably

135preface uh your remarks i think one of the questions that miss basford had is and i'm not speaking for her um i think she was addressing um that at the time of the meeting that minutes he was voting on he had not been installed yet as a board member um so would that according to what you looked in robert's rules would that restrict even though he wasn't a board member at that meeting that wouldn't restrict him because he wasn't installed yet not according to my review of robert's rules of order he the minutes are sent ahead of time he had the minutes in front of him before so there's nothing in fact okay may i it's just two minutes and then miss password on page on page 354 reading and approval of minutes the chair

136says the secretary will read the minutes however in organizations where copies of the minutes of each previous meeting as prepared by the secretary are sent to all members in advance the chair announces that this has been done and the actual reading of them allowed is omitted unless any member then requests that they be read i'm going to skip some of the things that are in parentheses if for any reason there are minutes of other meetings in addition to the last meeting that have not been read previously they are each read and approved first in order of date from earliest to latest in all but the smallest meetings the secretary stands while reading the minutes a formal motion to approve the minutes is not necessary although such a motion is not out of order after the

137minutes have been read or after their reading has been omitted by unanimous consent as described in the previous paragraph and whether or not a motion for approval has been offered the chair asks are there any corrections to the minutes and pauses corrections when proposed are usually handled by unanimous consent but if any member objects to a proposed correction which is in effect a subsidiary motion to amend the usual rules governing consideration of amendments to a main motion are applicable after any proposed corrections have been disposed of and when there is no response to the chair's inquiry are there any corrections or further corrections to the minutes the chair says there being no corrections or no further corrections to the minutes the minutes stand or are approved or approved as read or approved as corrected the

138minutes are thus approved without any formal vote even if a motion for their approval has been made the only proper way to object to the approval of the secretary's draft of the minutes is to offer a correction to it it should be noted that a member's absence from the meeting for which minutes are being approved does not prevent the member from participating in their correction or approval the practice of sending to all members advanced copies of the minutes as drafted by the secretary has both advantages and disadvantages it is natural for the members to prefer to study the minutes beforehand to be better prepared to offer corrections and this procedure generally saves time when the minutes come up for approval on the other hand the minutes do not become the minutes and assume their essential

139status as the official record of the proceedings of the society until they have been approved and before this happens the secretary's draft may be materially modified in the correctional process members may miss some of the corrections or neglect to mark them on their copies or may not get them right unless the chair repeats them very carefully with the result that many inaccurate copies of the true minutes is finally approved are likely to remain in existence only the secretary's corrected copy or a retyping of it is official in such a case that's the end of the part in the minute in the uh robert's rules that addresses the approval of board minutes okay since we're on this discussion ms bashford you wanted to say something all out any other board member yes i brought this up

140under my comments i don't need i don't know why we need this lengthy discussion on it but the parliamentarians that i did speak to or for from association i don't have my notes with me here they said the gray area was the word member and when the person was actually sworn into the to the organization i like i said i apologize to mr awad i don't understand why this is a group gang up but i guess this is what we're gonna have from now on when i bring something up i'll deal with it on my own case it's all right another thing mr smith um i did bring up my concerns my attorney's name is jeffrey varkata payne from priscilla panisi and barcatapain he requested me not to be on a committee with mr uh

141mr fahim abu drabo because he sent a cease and desist letter to me and sitting on a committee with him makes him prejudice against me as i am in the minority on this board probably alone on this sport i don't feel like i have representation so i go to my own attorney and pay him out of my own pocket he told me to i asked you very nicely on the phone when we spoke the saturday before the last meeting to not sit me in a committee with mr abedrabel i was very specific i was very i re-watched the minutes of the meeting last month from last last meeting about 10 minutes before i came into the meeting and i was very specific about that same thing i want to know why my my let me

142finish let me finish i have the floor no this is my comments i allowed you you gave me excuse me mr smith i'm speaking why do you have to constantly interrupt me i can't you respect the fact that i want to make a point i am not out of order you gave me the floor i too give me a time limit you answer her quit her statement that's it if you wanted to address something else you should have done it under your time i'm only following the guidelines of robert's rules no you you actually you're not because you're the chair you're supposed to say even keel like switzerland and you do show prejudice towards me because i didn't support you and vote for president listen i asked you to do me a favor i'll have

143my attorney contact you thank you refrain is there any other board member that has a comment about uh the voting on the minutes seeing none finishing my comments uh i also would like to uh uh send my condolences to the insalty family um friends uh friends like the insultees are are some really good people and uh people that are very dedicated to the city and um knowing that they have friends uh that are there for them not only at the time during a death of a family member but throughout the entire year so i i send my condolences to the insalty family and on the passing of their brother ross our maintenance crew i'd like to thank our maintenance crew for doing a fantastic job on getting all of our schools the parking lots the

144sidewalks and all that uh snow removed in a very uh timely manner they worked very hard to get it done and uh i commend them uh for a job well done in doing so especially at the high school in getting it ready for today which was the um the snow date for the uh in the injections the vaccine they did a tremendous job the high school looked great and we were able to go forward with the vaccines uh as it was so great job to our maintenance crew uh all the award recipients uh today congratulations and our to our athletes and again to their coaches for all the people that did a uh tremendous job in coaching all of our wonderful athletes our coaches put a great deal of time and effort in um and

145i commend them uh for the job that they do in our district um as mr awad allotted uh allotted to i uh did appoint mr uh commissioner frank casper as mr awad's mentor um he has met with mr awad numerous times already um i know you're doing a fantastic job and you will do a fantastic job mr kasper so um i know mr awad is in some very good hands um miss danny you know uh something great and on having a new grandchild is something that you should uh profess to the mountains and let everyone know and be proud that you're a grandma um so uh i i know it was a little complicated in the beginning but uh i'm so glad to hear that your daughter and noah are doing great and welcome to

146this world so congratulations to you and uh march monday march the 8th i have confirmed our ethics training um with kathy hellowa so board members if you would mark your calendars for monday march the 8th uh will be our ethics training uh with uh uh miss kathy hello from the school boards uh who will be conducting that for us uh that being all that i have uh dr robitosi uh your comments thank you thank you uh mr president um good evening commissioners and members of the community uh for mr uc uh mike we're gonna need to advertise that date march 8th for a meeting mr smith i'm assuming a 6 p.m start time yes okay 6 p.m start time ethics training of course it is it is a public meeting people can join um so

147we definitely need to advertise that uh so good evening once again uh commissioners i just want to give a few updates uh tonight and i want to reiterate what i stated earlier that i am feeling uh very confident that we will be opened we'll be able to open schools within a few weeks and in march the last two weeks since our board meeting there has been a decline in the rates of covet in the community i'm hoping that that trend continues because what happens in the community impacts uh our schools and the amount of people who bring the virus into our schools and it impacts how many possibly hundreds and thousands of people would need to be quarantined we know ventilation is an issue it's going to be much easier to open up the the

148windows in in march and get fresh air in as opposed to the cold air in february those are just two small factors that that play into it there's a lot of other factors but i'm truly truly hoping that uh we'll be open for business uh in march i'd like to um just give all of our commissioners an update on what's going on with the referendum and the communication uh campaign to get the word out so it's only february 4th the campaign uh the vote for the referendum is on april 20th so we don't want to overwhelm the community with too much information now um but you'll you're going to start to see the communication campaign begin ramping up over the next few weeks so the citizen committee that was formed and met last march or

149the end of february has regrouped we had a meeting a couple weeks ago we have another meeting coming up in february another meeting in march and another meeting in april our website is live it's frequently updated um we've added a new feature this week where if member of the public can look at the video of the presentation from our last meeting and there's a time driven index which allows people to search for a specific topic regarding the referendum um we have announced the referendum to the community on our social media uh via letter from me to the community within the next two weeks um all of our students will be receiving their one clifton magnets remember that's one of the driving forces of this referendum that we are one clifton to come together to do

150this for our schools we're determining the best way to distribute these uh magnets to uh our families and community members they don't carry a specific message but it's just about supporting the idea of community pride in our schools we're working on a video production with mr mcconney's skills and guidance we will most likely involve students and i'll probably be asking some of the commissioners those who aren't camera shy to to join us uh we'll be a little more active on social media with posts beginning mid-february two or three posts per week and also in the work tomorrow i'll be sending an invite to all of the hsa presidents and leaders for a meeting which tentatively is going to be on february 17th uh that invite will be going out tomorrow because i want to be

151able to meet with our hsa leaders to provide them information on the referendum campaign and see how we can mobilize their help we're utilizing our high school students to get the vote out to get the word to get the vote out not only amongst their peers who are eligible to vote but recent graduates we have tentatively set at least one public forum which uh for now is going to be on march 3rd that date will be finalized next week and that public forum will be for any member of the community who wants to ask questions we'll have our architects on hand we'll have the financial advisors key members of the school staff of course i'll be there and we'll record that and we'll keep that available on our website and then we also plan on

152having some mini zoom meetings hosted by our citizens committee and perhaps others um to bring it to a more personal level so please if you have not already been to our website www.clift slash vote referendum date is april 20th voting will start by mail approximately april 1st and we're looking forward to opening our schools very soon with this proposal though we're looking forward to improving our schools for decades to come and then finally on the mental health issue which has been on the topic of of many of our minds for a long time i just wanna i jotted down a few of the things that i know for sure we're doing in clifton to address uh mental health some of these things are mindfulness mondays uh character education lessons grades k through five our counselors

153and our sacs are doing small group and whole group counseling sessions uh we just had stigma free week in december where the focus was on mental health our teen center at clifton high school is still operational and operating virtually we've implemented the second step program in grades kindergarten and first our pbsis district-wide initiative has been focused on mental health all of our teachers were trained on trauma-informed instruction and to prioritize mental health amongst their students and we sent out a survey in december to our families asking them what types of resources and workshops they would like to see and what would help them so mental health is on our mind it will continue to be on our mind even when we return to in-person instruction and when we return to in-person instruction we will also

154be providing more academic support for those who may have either fallen behind or just need extra help and that will be done through after school tutoring saturday sessions extended summer sessions and whatever it takes it's on the table i know this board will support utilizing uh money from our budget to make sure that that happens so that's all i have tonight i want to thank uh thank all of the speakers tonight congratulations to all the student athletes and have a wonderful night thank you dr robotozy all right next on our agendas new business is there any new business for the floor i have something mr smith yes i have two things uh first i want to apologize to you and mr lee miss gutierrez i should have waited until it was my turn to speak

155uh i would have been able to uh interject properly it was your it was your turn to speak but um that whole thing should have been done separately on the new business or they should have been on their own business when we were voting um i want to address a word that was used by a speaker last meeting and um this is a word that is uh that is very uh i don't i don't know how to articulate this but the they're in the special needs world the r word is very upsetting and there was a speaker that spoke last last meeting and he used the word and um i need to i need to bring this up because i i got a lot of feedback on this at the last meeting the r word

156is a euphemism for the for or the word that um words that are considered offensive and disrespectful when used to describe or insult individuals with intellectual disabilities or to insult people places or things by comparing them to individuals with intellectual disabilities i'm going to ask that if anyone does brings that word up again and speaks it is almost as bad as cursing on the air and i would want them to be shut off right away um the special needs community was offended and appalled that we didn't mention it that nobody addressed it and the person was allowed to continue so i'm gonna yield to i'm gonna yield this to my colleagues that we have to address this when it happens and it should never happen again i don't care who the person is they should

157be cut off and also i'd um there's a one other thing with our zoom i don't understand why all the board members are not pinned so we don't move around we stay in the position where we are and that how come when people join our meetings they're not muted upon entering our meetings so they don't make um a disruption to our our um our thing and that's one of the things that i i want to know because when there's somebody speaking and somebody's unmuted it's really distracting to them and then you don't hear what the person's saying and we have to make every effort to to fix that um i watched another um community's meeting and they don't show the speakers you only hear their voices and that's to protect the people that are watching

158this that's to protect to make sure there's no obscenities or um people aren't doing anything inappropriate so uh i just wanted to bring that to technology i think i sent that to joe the other day all right that's all i have thank you um yeah miss bassford i can't agree with you more on on that i just want to get again a legal answer on that my understanding was that we have to allow the public to speak what they wish and if it is something that's not appropriate um we could take action is that correct i i'm reading the open public meetings act i just want to make sure we get it right i agree with what you're saying 100 i just don't want to cut somebody off if we're not legally able to do

159that so um so there's a fine line there that has to be walked because uh mrs bassford is right that um you shouldn't be we have to unlock the we have to allow the public to speak and we shouldn't be turning the cameras off or muting the somebody that's speaking that when it's their turn to speak simply because we don't like what they have to say having said that we also are not required to allow somebody to use obscenities uh while they're speaking or to use language that is um offensive uh such as such as the word that she was uh mentioning um so what i didn't hear it um had i heard it i i would have interrupted um and and and at the very least what we have to do is interrupt the

160speaker and and remind them that what they're the terminology that they're using is offensive and not acceptable and we'll take it from then and then if they continue to do it then perhaps we would have to stop them from speaking but we have to very tread very lightly on people's first amendment rights but those first amendment rights also there's a line depending on what it is that they're saying or how insulting they are so i think it's something that we do need to be paying attention to and we would and we would stop that at the very least interrupt it and remind them not to use that language and then see what happens after that okay and in terms of muting people upon entry there's nothing wrong with that that's done that's it's a it's

161a way to manage the meeting okay any other new business dr robertos mr smith i was just looking back at my emails and i want to clarify the last email i saw with miss hello the date for ethics training was set for march 1st unless that changed after that meeting yes yeah march she's booked on march the 1st now so we we set it for second choice which was march the 8th got it thank you just wanted to confirm okay anyone else uh seeing none we do have um two uh short items for executive session um action may or may not be taken one is a litigation matter and the other one is a contract matter correct okay i'm aware of the litigation matter i'm not sure what the contract matter is mr roosey has

162the contract matter got it i have a safety concern for executive too okay okay motion to go into executive so move second i don't know what to do is b all right is everyone here one three four five six seven eight nine okay we're all back okay we uh the board met in uh executive session uh we discussed uh contract matters uh and a uh litigation uh settlement um do i have a motion to if if we could have a roll call please mr smith you're right real cool mr abu drabo here mr awad here miss bassford president miss beltran here mr kenova here mr daley here miss danny here mr casper here mr smith here hey so um would anyone like to uh mr roosie will read uh the motion uh into record and

163then if i could have a uh motion and a second please so it's a it's a settlement on a litigation matter resolved on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the board approves a settlement in the amount of two thousand five hundred eighty-six dollars to resolve a claim under docket number p-a-s-l-zero zero one six eight one dash two zero be it further resolve that the board authorizes the superintendent business administrator and legal counsel to take whatever steps are necessary to effectuate the purposes of this resolution so moved by mr casper second by vice president abu dhabi any discussion seeing none roll call mr abu drabba yes mr awad yes miss bassford yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley miss danny yes mr casper yes mr smith yes motion carries okay uh thank you

164all for uh attending tonight and uh the meeting is adjourned [Music] good night everybody have a good night everybody good night good night take care