May 21, 2020 - Clifton Board of Education Meeting

001first 2020 regular board meeting please stand for the pledge of allegiance in a moment of silence hello i pledge allegiance to the united states of america america and to the republic one nation indivisible with liberty liberty justice board members mr ivy avigdrabo here miss basford here beltran here mr canova here mr daley i know he he's waving mr casper here mr pacinti mr smith here miss danny here we have a quorum mr casper can you read the mission statement sure the mission of the clifton school district in an open and reciprocal community partnership is to provide all students with a quality education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a democratic society in an ever-changing world thank you mr casper the next order of

002business is reading of the open public meeting statement the new jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the clifton board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place there are posted at the city clerk's office clifton public library administration building senior citizen nutrition center on cable tv in the local press on the district's website and mailed to presidents of parent-teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policy 0168. there are no recognition and awards presentations secondly okay and emotionally okay motion by mr smith

003and second by mr casper sorry it was a little difficult to hear rocol mr abedrabo yeah miss bassford yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yes mr casper yes mr smith yes miss danny yes there are no communications or announcements next order business there is no first reading of policy next quarter of business is presentation of reports from administration advisory committees and special committees you will now have the clifton high school graduation plans by the high school administrators commissioners tonight we have joining us mr doctor our high school principal and victoria rogers uh vice president clifton high school who's also the graduation coordinator and they want to share uh the current plans right now for our uh commencement ceremony with uh you and the community share my screen so that you can see

004our presentation okay so obviously when all of this um started to happen and we were quarantining and forced into social distancing we needed to really get ahead of the game we have 700 graduates that we need to plan for and make sure that we're keeping them safe and still celebrating them in every way we possibly could so we've had a zillion ideas come through our minds come through our computers read a lot we've researched a lot and we think we came up with a pretty pretty good plan um as of right now we are fully following the executive orders which have made it very clear we cannot host any in-person graduations um we do have full plans for a um virtual graduation which is a whole production it's not just a powerpoint slideshow like what

005you're seeing right now um it's professionally produced it's really going to be something to keep forever um and the students are still going to be invited to the stadium to have a picture taken in their cap and gown with their name announced over the loudspeaker so we think we're we're really trying to get all bases covered here um we just want to make sure that we're keeping everybody as safe and healthy as we possibly can and we're trying to give them that full experience so we've handed out caps and gowns to our students already uh they're going to use that for the videos that they're uploading they're going to use that for our pictures that we're going to be doing at the stadium and then if we do at some point have a on field

006graduation they'll have their caps and gowns already to move forward some of our important dates coming up as mr proctor just said we had a cap and gown distribution yesterday and today it went incredibly well the students were wonderful it was so great to see everyone um on the 16th and 18th students are going to be scheduled pretty similarly to how they were the last couple of days where they'll come to the stadium they'll be allowed to enter the field through one gate approach the stage they'll have their name announced as they would at a real in-person graduation they'll receive their um diploma cover they'll receive their yearbook if they purchased one their senior t-shirts um their name will be announced on the loudspeaker as it normally would and they'll get their formal professional photographer

007picture that always gets mailed to them over the summer once it's edited um june 19th is our actual virtual ceremony that airs at five o'clock it'll be a live link that everyone can access around the world if they wanted to um and our potential postponement of prom is july 30th we do have another alternate date set in august um and that's really if we are allowed to host major events at that point we will we just had to block off a date with our venue um we had just mentioned that on the 16th and 18th scheduled alphabetically we're going to kind of make a circular rotation this way there's no traffic going back and forth and we can still maintain social distancing so they'll enter on the side gate they'll approach the fields they'll have

008the entire backdrop that everybody has come to know with our formal graduation and then they'll exit through the ticket booth over by the snack stand this way they're not actually crossing paths they will be permitted to bring their parents or guardians or two immediate family members this way they can hear their name announced and thoroughly enjoy the moment um that's when they're going to receive their diploma cover cover as they would on graduation night their senior t-shirt yearbook um at least we're still going to have like a formal program to go that follows the whole ceremony through that they'll see the next day the next night so they're going to receive their program then as well mr doctor uh to go along with that pictures that they'll be taking uh they will be receiving those

009in the mail over the summer just like they normally would they normally get a picture done at the stadium at graduation this would just follow suit once they take care of all that it'll be mailed to them so that's no different the virtual graduation ceremony that we have planned for june 19th we are um using the company herf jones they're usually our supplier of some of our varsity jackets our rings when we get class rings or our state championship rings they have worked with marching order in stage clip those are pretty major production companies for anyone that's been involved in any type of video production so all three of those companies are working together and what we do on our end is we upload our graduates and their information so all of their honors and

010awards the valedictorian the national honor society the distinguished academic awards um our student council students all of them will have every student will have their their information uploaded but all of the honors and awards will also be listed automatically on their slides they can then upload a picture in their cap and gown um if they want to and upload how to say their name every every student will have a slide and their name read even if they don't access the website if they do access the website they can personalize it a little bit more they can write a personal message of up to 200 characters um you know thanks mom and dad type of thing um and they also can create a little video clip so i have listed here you can see some sample

011um videos i can click on them if you want me to but the students have received these samples so that they know what they what they're actually uploading to um and then the actual ceremonious production will include everything we've come to know at the stadium we're still going to have our band play the processional and the national anthem we're still going to have our speeches from the class president valedictorian salutatorian principal superintendent board president and mayor the band is going to play the recessional at the end we want to make this as much of our in-person ceremony as we possibly can and we think we've we're covering most of our bases there we're very fortunate to even have this opportunity uh miss rogers had the foresight to look into this right from the very beginning

012and as soon as we saw what the eventuality was going to be we received the approval needed uh from dr robertosi to move forward with this a lot of other school districts don't have this opportunity they've been blocked out so their schools have no potential to have perf jones and an organization such as marching order and stageclip um help with uh their virtual graduation and i think the end result of the surprising everyone um so far the only slight downfall i can see is that it is going to be long every student has the opportunity to upload their personal slide um i'll go back for a sec and also their video clip the perk to that is you can also search through there's going to be a search bar as part of the presentation and

013once we get through the speeches and the songs and all of the routine pop and circumstance for the graduation they can sit and watch all of their friends they can search for a specific person they can download this and keep it forever they can keep the link it is going to be part of a youtube premiere link which is normally a paid service but this once you have the link you have access to it so it's not of any charge for anyone um and then as our as we mentioned before we do have a date blocked off in july and then another potential date in august the prom is set to be at the legacy castle in pompton plains it's where it was last year it's gorgeous and the kids loved it if we are

014allowed to host the prom which means we are allowed to have large gatherings we're also going to be inviting the students back to clifton high school that morning where it'll be kind of an open house feel they'll be able to hang out we'll give them their regular class day brunch they can get their yearbook signed take pictures meet with some staff and just have that final moment that they're used to getting at the end of the regular school year the reason that we have these dates set up for prom is because we can't set up a date for graduation but it is our facility so if we at a moment's notice in beginning of august here that the governor is releasing us to have until graduations we just have to figure out how much time

015we need to set it up and and we can do that we don't need to book a date ahead of time so that's why we don't have a date or a potential date for an on-field graduation if we get allowed to do it but we did have to secure these stages for the prom with the legacy castle yes we can we can create an on-field graduation on a whim it's our own facility so we have full access to it when you're trying to plan in essence a really large party for 700 people we need to make sure that we have a place that's big enough locked off for us so that's why we needed to secure some extra dates for the prom um i think that's just about all on our end unless anybody has

016any questions i'm going to unshare the presentation now do any commissioners have any questions yeah i have one there was a sample listed there on youtube is that something that we can play yes um i will share that with all of you i'll send you the links i'll send you the whole presentation so you can review it again and in there the links are live and they're available they're generics they're not specific to our district it's just a presentation to show you what you can expect for hours so jim daley you have a question um who will be at the uh virtual graduation as superintendent i assume and will be there be any other uh staff administration or board members uh president it's going to be a production that's already been produced okay everyone will

017be viewing it for the first time it'll hit a live link at five o'clock on june 19th so we'll all be distanced in our own homes and able to view that all together everything else is pre-recorded okay so i have another question i would just like to add good mr cano thank you i just would like to add that um we are also doing this same similar format for our eighth graders and our fifth graders so the eighth graders and fifth graders will have this very similar type of virtual promotion ceremony or moving up ceremony okay so the question i had is if before september hits if the governor comes and says now we can do graduations is that something that we're also planning on doing absolutely we're not closing off any bets for anything

018the virtual graduation is simply because that's what we're permitted to host right now so we're going to cover all of our bases and do everything we can within the time limits that we're given great uh jim smith i just uh i just wanted to commend mr doctor and um rogers and your entire team on uh putting this all together i know this is not ideal for graduates it outright stinks we all feel terrible about it but given the circumstances your team has done a tremendous job on putting this together without having a lot of experience in doing it um you will going forward um if we ever have i pray that this never happens again but if uh if this ever has to be done again people will be calling clifton to uh to assist

019them but uh great job to all of you and um i really hope that as mr konova just said um i really just hope that this is all going to uh uh enable us to uh give them a a real graduation on the field graduation uh so we can only hope and pray for that but thank you for your efforts the administration on a great job i'm president yes yeah um i just like to echo mr smith's comments i like to congratulate both uh mr doctor miss rogers doing a uh fantastic job thinking out of the box thinking about alternatives um i i don't think you you could have done any better than that so uh my congratulations and appreciation goes out to both you and and the entire administration on putting this together thank

020you miss danny yes i was given a suggestion by a community member uh it's something to do with the seniors i'm going to forward it to the superintendent so they could take a look at it but i just want that community member to know that anybody that on this board that is getting suggestions we are taking care of them i know we uh we've been as board members been very vocal and i thank the administration and his staff for listening to us and and to uh what they've been put forward thank you thank you any other commissioners matter if i may um [Music] i'm gonna echo the rest of my colleagues but i'm not gonna you know um go too deep in that part but the one thing i want to mention is that you

021know while we are a big district and other districts across the country are doing various things uh i'm pretty confident that that miss rogers and and mr doctor are taking the best you know chances are for our students because we are not a 50 person um senior class or 100 class we are close to a ballpark of 800 kids so the fact that you know while graduation is not only a right of a student but a right of a parent to watch and be proud of their kid of their child i'm sorry that i i'm i'm pretty confident hopefully if we're able to get out as soon as we can the next few weeks months or whatever it will be that that we are doing the best thing we can for our students and the

022health population for our town so i want to thank you as well any other commissioners okay thank you very much mr doctor and miss rogers for all that you're doing and at this point you know if you want to sign off you know there's since there are no other questions okay thank you very much mr doctor and miss rogers okay next order of business is committee board reports is everyone hearing me yes i hear you i'm just waiting for the thing to be highlighted okay because i i didn't i didn't know if it was i was hearing like a lag over here i didn't know if there was something with my internet um so i apologize if there's any lag okay so the first one we'll go through is i guess the finance committee because

023that's how it is presented so finance committee i'm trying to open up the content it's not seem to be opening okay let's just go first all right yes education okay so i have two separate minutes so first i'm going to read the minutes from the april 29th 2020 meeting the education committee meeting began at 5 30. attendees were myself board vice president judith stathford and board members joe kinova and fahim abedrabo administrators present were dr danny roberto mr mark teigen miss janina kusalevich miss heather rotello and mr eric mountain number one mental health issues and distance and distance learning doctor robert toes he's shared information about the district's approach to mental health issues related to distance learning counselors have been conducting outreach to students families and staff to provide before doing this unprecedented situation student

024assistance counselors have been responding when keyword related to self-harm or bullying are identified on district issued devices the district is maintaining a focus on outreach in the whole child throughout this this situation action was informational number two special education services miss rotolo shared recent changes to provision of services in a distance learning environment prior to the covet 19 situation telepractice for related services was not allowed as a result of this change that was passed on april 1st of 2020 consent forms were sent to notify families of the privacy and liability issues in telepractice these forums do not deny service to families that do not sign and do not prevent any further com compensatory service compensatory services follow regression and recruitment determinations by the child study team during an iep meeting ms fratello also provided information

025about cpag and invited parents to training for students with autism to be held on april 20th of 2020 action informational number three remote learning and grading update mrs kuslov shared with the committee that phase two instruction would include increased google meets with students grades six to twelve would be following a modified alternating day period schedule that is posted on the website and had been shared with families committees were meeting to determine how distant learning would take place participation and completion of work would have greater emphasis rules for behavior and distance instruction have been shared with families and followed district technology policies action informational number four njsba survey dr roberto's informed the committee that that he completed the survey that new jersey school board association sent out regarding the challenges that districts are facing during distance

026learning action informational number five uh distinguished honors dr robertosi shared the plans that plans were being developed to use social media to honor the distinguished academic honor awardees students were would still receive their one two three and four-year honors action informational the meeting was adjourned at 6 15 respectfully submitted mrs kusalevich now i have a second uh i have second minutes this is from the meeting on may 12 2020. the education committee meeting began at five o'clock attendees were myself frank casper ward vice president basford and board members joe konova and fahima drama administrators present dr robertosi mr teigen mrs kusalevich mrs rotolo mr dr uh in miss linda chavez and eric mountain number one graduation and award ceremony updates mr doctor provided an overview of the many options being discussed to discuss in regarding

027to graduation and district award ceremonies he described the national honor society induction that took place via a virtual google meet and explained how the distinguished academic awards would be posted via social media with students still receiving their well-learned honors a virtual graduation is being planned using a service provider to create a keepsake for all graduates students will have the full ceremonial speeches a brief bio and all their honors included this is being done in addition to plans for an elf site or other ceremony at a later date once the governor allows such ceremonies to take place action informational number two special education service companies miss rotolo discussed the virtual cpeg meeting held on may 12 2020. as a result of that meeting the district will develop procedures to include out-of-district placement students in district-wide communication

028ms rotolo also updated the board on outreach by the child study teams to families and gave an update on the program action informational number three grading marking period four update ms kusala mr kusalevich updated the committee on marking period four greeting discussions for elementary school preschool and kindergarten developmental report cards would continue to be used for developmental purposes grades one through five would follow a modified pass fail grading model using the existing report card codes of p for proficient and n for needs improvement due to one-on-one access at the high school level high school grading would continue using the same grading model as used doing live instruction greater emphasis would be placed on participation and lesson and completion of work there will be no fourth marking period quarterly exams the same model would be followed

029in the middle school there will be no progress reports for marking period four action informational number four calendar update dr robert toshi proposed changes to the calendar to use unused snow days to end the school year on friday june 19 2020. school will be held on friday may 23rd and tuesday friday may 22nd and tuesday june 2nd in order to allow this calendar change action informational number five federal funds dr robert tosie and mrs kusalevich reviewed what is known of the cares act the njdoe technical assistance sessions are forthcoming in anticipation of those sessions the district is hoping to direct these additional funds towards increased access to technology devices building cleaning and student mental health needs action informational the meeting at jordan of 545 respectfully submitted mrs kusalevich are there any questions do any board

030members have any questions so the next will be finance uh yes thank you madam president um i have four um minutes to report out to you okay and i actually hold your questions and because there's threads uh that go through so you might have a question on health benefits that has been over several meetings so just uh hold on to i go through all four uh the first of these meetings was on april 21st uh president was commissioner smith uh commissioner casper president danny and myself um commissioner casper and uh president danny left at approximately 2 30 during that meeting because of the balance the meeting was uh had to do with negotiations which they were conflicted out uh official administration president was dr rovertozzi the strategician mr uc mr uh thomas uh it started

031at 1 p.m and ended at 3 p.m first item discussion was health benefits preliminary renewal for 2021 the administration had the district's health insurance broker imac president uh the preliminary um and and the the attendance should reflect that as well uh renewal from it uh for medical dental and prescription many different options were discussed there was a follow-up meeting on april 28th number two charter school litigation the infiltration personnel excuse me administration presented an attentive budget i received from legal counsel regard regarding the appeal the decision of the charter school litigation the information will be discussed during executive session on april 30th negotiations number three status of negotiations with all collective bargaining groups were discussed on the next uh meeting was held on april 28th president or mr smith mr canova miss basford uh who

032i leave at 2pm and myself administration president with dr rogotozy mr teigen mr sleevage mr yusi and mr tom cevich uh meetings started at 1 pm and ended at 2 15 items of discussions with number one health benefit options the finance committee heard proposals regarding from self-insurance medical plans it was determined that the committee will not recommend self-insurance for the 2021 school year due to the uncertainty risk factors of the current pandemic the topic can be readdressed during the next budget cycle the committee is considering recommending switching dental providers from delta to aetna with an equal or better uh letter to save money on the medical premiums in uh in any way switch if any switch were to happen the committee would invite the local union representatives for discussions this will be discussed during executive

033session on april 30th and also mr uc we should add at the uh the imac individuals who were present at that during that vertical meeting uh number two public hearing on the 2021 budget mr uc stated the public hearing on the final budget for 2021 will be held virtually on april 30th the advertisements for the budget and meeting date or in the record were published in the record uh on april 21st the user-friendly budget will be posted to the front page of the district website for review the budget being recommended by the finance committee calls for a zero tax levy increase for the 2024 fiscal year number three end of year balances june uh for june 2020 mr uc presenter preliminary end of year surplus figures that would be uh as of june 30th uh

034number uh there will be further committee meetings from from now until the end of june uh for further updates the committee has until june 30th to recommend where the uh where to obligate the end-of-year surplus number four referendum discussion there was a discussion regarding the proposed september 2020 referendum in light of the pandemic the the uh committee will be discussing potential moving the referendum date to a later special election day this will be discussed at the executive session on april 30th number five soliciting donations mr canover inquired about donations it was determined local education foundations home and school associations etc would be more appropriate to solicit donations than the board of education okay uh next meeting was uh may 3rd uh president uh with mr kenova mr president myself administration uh president was dr robert

035tosi mr teacher mr yusi and mr tomasevich other attendees were laurie lama president of the cea and the cea executive team meeting commenced at 1pm and ended at 2pm item the discussions was number one dental renewal for 2021 the proposed plan to switch dental providers from delta to etno was presented by the district's insurance broker the plan would be equal to or better than uh and have some enhanced benefits the switch will allow the board and all employees to save on medical premium increases for 2021. the resolution will be on the may 21st agenda negotiations uh negotiations were discussed and the next meeting after this that was may 19th president or mr smith who had to leave at 115 because of the number of uh committee members who joined dana beltran who was also arrived

036at 115 causing mr smith to leave the meeting not to have an open public meetings violation mr canova had to leave at 2pm and mr presentee left at 150 administration president uh president with dr robert tosi mr t james kruse leverage mr yusi and mr thomasevich meeting started at 1 uh p.m and ended at 2 45. uh referendum update with architects and again those architects should be noted in the minute says present there was a discussion regarding the swishing switching the special election date for the referendum from september to a later date once the state approves the projects in the state aid and the state aid the district one year to hold the election to request extensions the board of education only need to modify 60 days prior to any proposed election date um so

037decisions can be made at a later date the board can accept the free approvals from the state without selecting a special election date at this time cares act number two so you see mrs cruz leverage will be attending webinars for guidance on how to apply to spend the cares act grant funds clifton will receive 2.5 million there was a decision regarding uh discussion excuse me regarding how the funds can be enhanced and speed up our one to one chromebook initiative administration will will report to the committee uh however we'll report back to the committee however there will be a resolution authorizing the administration to apply for an accepted cares grant on the may 21st agenda number three uh paying vendors cash flow mr uc stated that the district has been receiving its full tax levy

038and stayed eight on time however the district is actively watching uh for legislation for the governor regarding the next year's state aid also for governor murphy discussion must continue to pay vendors such as private schools charter schools and pct pcti as long as they're paying their staff this will be verified and there will be a list of bills on the june 4th agenda number four end of year balances mr you see president an update to potential end of year surplus he will have a better picture in june and will report to the recommendation to the committee of where to obligate the surplus transportation moa the salary guides were verified by the business office and ratified by the transportation association once ratified by the board of the contract will be written and signed that concludes my

039remarks uh for for finance committee i'd be happy to entertain any questions thank you commissioner daily do the commissioners have any questions i do have something to add to mr yusi um on the salary guides uh before we sign this some of the columns do not clearly delineate what the amounts were i assume yearly salary you know but i think that needs to be i just touched up a little bit the salary guides in terms of what uh what the category of of numbers mean there's columns of numbers on these salary guides so it's important that they're correctly identified what they represent yes yeah okay you of course you see where the columns are not in in in the in the uh mou moa is not clearly identified you know you can make easy assumptions

040but it's i think it's better since it's a contractual issue that they're correctly identified yeah i understand it was an excel spreadsheet so it could it could and without rose so it could be i guess you're saying okay thank you thank you commissioner daily technology all right so ours was combined with education so there's not much here but uh april 29th uh myself mrs basford mr mr casper administration president dr robert tosie mr tegen miss kuchalevich miss rotolo and mr mountain meeting time was 6 15 to 6 40. the item of discussion was device access chromebooks mr mountain provide an update of high school chromebooks one-to-one access for distance learning he described the middle school outreach through teachers and administration to provide devices to families in need in grades six through eight this distribution distribution

041is taking place at the nutrition sites in the district discussion was held to survey on elementary student needs devices would be distributed as needed funding for one-to-one access for all middle school students and access for students in grades three four and five has been included in the 2021 budget and on may 12th our next meeting we have myself miss fastford mr abadrabbo mr casper administration president dr robert tosi mr teigen miss kusalevich miss rotolo ms chavez mr doctor and eric martin took place at 6 pm to 6 30. the item of discussion was again device access chromebooks mr mountain provided an update of ongoing distribution of devices to families identified as in need of access for distance learning the inclusion in the budget of funds for full one-to-one access for chromebooks for all students in

042grades 6-12 for 2021 year was reviewed sufficient devices for access by all grade 3 4 and 5 students were also discussed the district will have enough devices in september 20 for grades 3 to 12 in case of feature closure possible grant funding and terrorist act options for device purchase are being explored thank you commissioner do the commissioners have any questions okay cnn moving to next order business which is public recognition for this portion mr uc will read into record the citizens comments thank you miss danny i just wanted to quickly say there there are over 50 so please bear with me um and i apologize if i mispronounce anyone's name first is martha andrea aura i am a i am a teacher at school 12. i would like to publicly thank donors choose and the

043over dec foundation i was fortunate to be chosen to receive a 1 000 amazon credit card through their kids learning program to purchase school care supplies for my students during this pandemic i'm in the process of receiving all the fun supplies and will be delivering the special care packages to my students later this month thank you vivian molina i'd like to know about graduation and requests that a haste decision to cancer is not made as the governor just this week said there is hope to hold graduation ceremonies at a later date if need be please let please give the scene class of 2020 the opportunity to walk across the football field kristen syka i apolo uh i would just like to say i am foremost a parent and also a clifton school teacher while i

044understand the reason our high school seniors time on our tradition of walking across our fields for the final time i also believe our students are children who work so 13 years deserve a proper graduation please allow this to happen even if it's late into august thank you for your time shannon a high school teacher i would like to acknowledge all the wonderful things the staff is working on during this pandemic mr mcconney and his film classes are doing great things just this morning we received an email with a link to the film festival festivities this is a great way to connect the community and keep the students involved mrs turk and her key club are still diligently volunteering their help to the community and mrs deteris robotics have stepped up to help those in need

045these are just a few examples of the wonderful things happening at clifton high school this is a shining example of what makes the school great the teachers and their students hello my name is jennifer giotto i'm a paraprofessional school 14 i want to say thank you for working so hard getting the whole staff rehired we really appreciate it thank you stephanie langner ccnms here thank you for being the voice of the public at our boy boe meetings i will share the following statement i appreciate all the support the district administration provided the staff during our transition to distance this has not been easy and their compassion and empathy are appreciated and valuable corrine misko mizkowski uh school counselor at three and four i just wanted to take a moment and thank you for rehiring the

046entire staff for next year with everything that is on in the world it is a relief to know we all have a job to return to next year whatever that may look like as a counselor i know my students will need a lot of extra support with their social and emotional components and i am happy to know i will be there for them thank you carla rodriguez grade 7 inclusion teacher a huge thank you to samantha derose for putting together all the amazing videos highlighting the wonderful happenings in our incredible district she's doing an amazing job with them keeping us motivated and inspired fran yeager special teacher at chs i just want to say thank you for rehiring the staff for the 2021 school year although this was an unexpected adventure this is distant learning

047turned out to be a learning process for the teachers as well as the students we have all learned how much we mean to our students the students have realized we as teachers are so much a part of their lives i feel i have become much closer to them in a different way this adventure presented challenges for my class but as a team we try to overcome them as best elizabeth williams art teacher at school elementary students created a heartfelt thanks art project and that thanks someone that was making their life better right now as an art teacher i was touched to see the creativity and the way the students showed an outpouring of support thanks and love for our community members like doctors nurses police teachers and siblings all working to help our students through

048this crisis the students used art a powerful way through their emotions and connect with those that they love i am grateful every day to be part of something as valuable as this leanne rosado school three grade one we would like to thank dr robert chozi mr teigen and ms kusulevitz and all our clinton administration for their ongoing support throughout our school year and especially now during distant learning without their constant communication and continuous guidance the success of our students throughout the clifton would not be possible we would like to see how grateful we are to know that all the clifton stuff is rehired next year thank you cynthia grove paraprofessional at school 14. thank you to the cliff and board of education rehiring the entire staff your encouragement during teacher week was so nice to

049have clifton schools are great stay safe kelly mcinerney the first grade one teacher at school 13 the first grade classes at school 13 were unable to field trip in may the classes and teachers wanted to give back to our community we decided to donate the money to purchase meals for the clifton fire department and the nurses at barnabas hospital alexandria barone 38th third grade teacher at school 13 i would like to first thank clifton board of education for re-hiring the entire staff in this time of stress and uncertainty you know myself and my fellow colleagues can rest easy knowing we are employed for the following school year is a blessing it has been wonderful receiving constant administration and the counseling department making sure that families of students and staff alike are being thought of and

050cared for during this pandemic the school 13 staff received personalized letters sent to our homes from our principal dr rachel capizzi on a teach on teacher appreciation week for me personally it felt wonderful knowing even with her plate full she thought of her teachers and took time to make sure we knew how much we are appreciated year long she has constantly assured us that we are doing wonderful jobs and still making a difference in the lives of our students even though many teachers are feeling like they wish they could do so much more i feel grateful each day to be an employee of the clifton public school system hello and good evening to all my name is vito fiori i am a social studies teacher at clifton high school i would first and foremost thank

051the clifton board of education for rehiring the entire staff of clifton public schools i would like to thank the clifton board of education and the clifton community for their recognition and support of teachers of teacher and nurse appreciation week during this tumultuous time school has been a sanctuary escape sense of normalcy most importantly community for our students and their families as well as the faculty and staff students have personally expressed to me how much they miss not only my class and their relationship forged within learning within the learning environment i have created but how much they missed all their teachers coaches counselors administrators friends and peers i had a noteworthy experience with my students during distant learning that i would like to share i always preach to my students that history is not only in

052the past it's made every day i ask students to consider how and if covid19 will be taught to students in the future the students were engaged and excited to think that they are experiencing history as it is being made as they composed their short essays among many of the responses students were able to understand that the importance of social studies education is to produce active and engaged citizens and that even in times of darkness and strife we turn to lessons learned from the past as we look toward the future i love working for the clemson public school district my students inspire me daily to help mold and shape our future i am so grateful to work with the most talented individuals and the most amazing amazing students i have found at home in public schools

053and wish to express my deepest gratitude to my new family dominique rizzo 4th grade teacher at school 14. i just wanted to personally thank the board for all the positive comments and ongoing support you have given the teachers during the time i especially want to thank you for rehiring staff we really appreciate it also i would like to thank the parents who continually with their children at home and assist the teachers in keeping our scholars on the right track for success please stay safe and stay healthy clifton strong marion saba resource room teacher at school 15. i am a teacher at school 15. i just wanted to reach out and thank the board of education for their words of encouragement appreciation week i also wanted to thank my fellow teachers and staff at school 15

054for making distance learning a positive experience we have all been working together and helping one another to get through this challenging time for both the staff and more importantly the students the positive outlooks and collaboration has definitely been a breath of fresh air thank you again xena fife at ccms i just want to let everyone know how proud i am to be part of the school district they have managed to do so much for the students in such a short amount of time i appreciate all those i have had the pleasure to work with these years and thank you so much for allowing me to be part of such a great district shout out to all the supervisors who don't get any recognition for all the time they have been putting in these past two

055months ian cutler i am a bsi teacher at school 12. i have had the privilege of working in that for the past two years i have always loved my experiences as a teacher in clifton but i must say i am so impressed with everybody that i work with from our district supervisors to my building principal mrs canning and assistant principal mrs ray and all my colleagues and mostly and mostly our students although this has been so challenging for everyone i'd really love to see how our community has risen to the equation our google meets have been a highlight of each and every highlight a highlight of each and every day i teach one bonus of being a bsi teacher is that i get to visit many virtual classrooms each day and see such a wonderful

056experiences in each one it was it was wonderful that they just kept our entire staff working the positive comments from our administrators parents students and the board for teacher and nurse appreciation was amazing and finally i must commend the philosophy that has been presented to us that our students and their families well-being is really the utmost of importance we want to be as stress-free as possible for everybody i'm certainly proud to be a school 12 panda as well as a clifton mustang monique de turri robotics teacher at the high school thank you for rehiring all of my tenured colleagues in in this complicated time it is encouraging to be able to feel some sense of stability knowing will be we will be working together in the fall as a member of the science department we

057have been diligently collaborating to make sure all the students are receiving the highest quality of distant learning i value every one of my students and wish to con congratulate my 55 seniors over half of my students have been joining me in the evenings for our weekly google meets an engineer series where local industry professionals have been discussing their careers and giving students insight into their particular engineering concentration the mechanical mustangs robotics team has also been attending google meet to week with our five montclair society of engineers volunteer mentor to continue their training in programming and cad computer aided thank you for the one to one chromebook initiative which has made this tradition transition a little bit easier i'm looking forward to my next four weeks of school and continuing to be part of one of

058the many planning committees already working for a smooth transition whether distance learning or face to face in the fall about halfway through rebecca monero thank you for your wonderful words of inspiration during teacher appreciation appreciation week i am grateful to be working with all of you the board and administrators have shown our district and community how important it is to stay connected i am so proud of my third graders during this quarantine and distance learning i am pleased to report that 100 of my students show up each day on our google meets with a smile and knowing that they worked hard we have built beautiful relationships and continue to have fun learning with new concepts we all miss the classroom and nothing to take away school the school atmosphere champions through it all keep positive

059and stay strong clifton friends lynne maracovitz paraprofessional at school 14 thank you dr robert tozie for the time to check in with the staff and providing words of encouragement and inspiration so that we may continue to provide the best we possibly can for the children in our classes thank you for the sincere appreciation provided during teacher appreciation and nurse appreciation week including the paraprofessionals in your message thank you for all that you have done and will continue to do to lead the district during this time of certainty we are clifton strong thank you matthew moore clifton school 14 kindergarten thank you to to the board of education and clifton public schools as a whole for being extremely supportive of its teachers staff and students good evening my name is alyssa minnelli i teach mathematics at

060clifton high school as a non-tenured teacher i want to send a huge thanks to our board of education the unity they create through this challenging time by rehiring all of us is a testament to the strength in public school district the bonds that i have continued to colleagues students and their parents through phone conversations google meets and emails make me so proud to say i work for the city of clifton as one of their teachers thank you for your continued support and bully and belief in the positive power of education during these unprecedented times catherine jergens my daughter is at kindergarten school number eight yesterday i asked her teacher about kinder about the kindergarten stepping up ceremony because we because we haven't heard any news about that that there will not be a kindergarten stepping

061up ceremony this year i would like to know if this is a district or school decision and why what what is the reason behind it not having a kindergarten graduation ceremony will be disappointing for our kids kindergarten graduation is an exciting milestone for our kids so why not celebrate it even if it is a virtual celebration especially because of the current circumstances the little ones have been going through a lot on their first year of school it would be nice to recognize their accomplishments sila martone 14 special ed teacher i hope all is well with you and your family i am a special education teacher at school 14 and i just wanted to let you know that i appreciate your very kind and awful words during teacher appreciation week this whole situation has been quite

062an adjustment but at least for me the support that i've been receiving from my clifton family has been amazing and honestly needed and honestly needed to get through this thank you for all that you have done and will do it is appreciated janet destefano clifton high school i would like to take a moment of your time and personally thank the board of education for rehiring all the staff for the 2021 year i am so grateful to work for a district that has foresight to see the need of our students and and their families to keep education health and the well-being in the forefront during these challenging times as a graduate and daughter of a graduate and now an employee of the clifton school system i know how incredibly dedicated inspiring and dynamic the teachers support

063staff and nurses are to our students it is because of dedication to their craft clifton offers such quality programs to our students thank you for allowing the staff to work through shine and show our students and fellow and future students of clifton how amazing we are i look forward to serving our district at clifton school nurse throughout the school year and years to come keeping our students their families and staff healthy and safe each and every day karen lieberman grade 7 language arts teacher at cc ms she just wanted to say thank you for rehiring all the staff jessica farnell i would like to take a moment to express the pride i feel as both an educator and parent in the clifton school district as an educator i thank you for assuring our staff that

064we do not need to worry about our jobs during these uncertain times we treat we appreciate being recognized for our hard work my husband and i also have three children in the district our oldest is graduating ecms and our younger two attend school number nine although we are sad that our eighth grader and fifth grader are moving up without proper goodbyes with their teachers and friends we are focusing on the excellent education and the love of learning their teachers and administrators have instilled in them this is certainly a gift that will last a lifetime to dr parker miss gaba and mr yeager as well as all of the teachers at ccms who have positive positively influenced our son thank you to mr healey and the entire staff at school nine thank you as well when

065we think back on this historic time we will remember all the great people who loved our family and helped our children both in school and at a distance thank you for your time stay safe and healthy alexa who is school number 13 thank you for rehiring the entire staff and for your wonderful words of inspiration celebrating teacher nurse appreciation week students in my first grade class have been enthusiastic about responding to journal prompts and sending picture fun educational activities that reinforce reading and math skills jeff labriola ccmsr teacher i just wanted to share some good news one of the art lessons i made with my eighth grade art classes at ccms was creating posters to thank essential workers students had to incorporate the style the art style of romero britto in their poster brito's style

066is full of optimism love and hope students were encouraged to create patterns to represent essential workers when done students were asked to hang their post in their front window or their front door one student whose mother is a nurse at val hospital asked her mother to display her beautiful poster in the hospital the student sent a photograph of her mom other nurses and doctors in front of the poster and it was shared on our social media pages i was very proud of the efforts put forth by my students and of course all our essential workers linda kowalski sila a preschool i would like to dr robert tosie janina kusalevis mark teigen and the board of education for everything that they have done during this pandemic this leadership team has kept us all informed with transparency

067guidance and support the guidance and support by the above team has allowed educators and nurses with the ability to provide our students and families during this difficult time every step the leadership team has made has been a benefit of our education and support staff custodians secretaries nurses and most importantly our students and their i'm not only an employee member of the clifton community as along with my children and grandchildren who attend school 13. nicole zyrowski school nurse at school 11. dr cozy mr teigen mrs kusalevitz and members of the board of education i would like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your support and kind words not only during the past several weeks of distance learning but especially during nurses week the letters of support the emails and the video monetize

068were very much appreciated i would like to also thank you for ensuring all of our positions and secure our all of our positions are secure and we will be returning next year knowing this frees up enabling us to focus our attention where it belongs on our students so we may continue to provide the care and education we have always i am so proud to say a member of clifton school district clifton strong i hope everyone's family is well my name is caitlin wendt i'm a resident of clifton extremely proud to be a special education teacher at chs unfortunately i will not be able to watch the board meeting tonight as i will be taking care of my grandmother who beat cove my team after spending 41 days in the hospital though i am not able

069to watch tonight i would like to send a message to the public comment section i absolutely love my job at chs i'm i am incredibly appreciative and grateful to the board for rehiring myself and all the staff i would like to thank you all your and all i would like to thank you all for your kind words and recognition in regards to teacher appreciation week thank you for all that you do louis vargas personally i hope this email finds you all safe and well i understand that these are trying times and i applaud the board's ability to find ways to conduct business as usual as possible with that in mind it has come to my attention that there are no plans to conduct any commencement ceremonies for students reaching that milestone at the conclusion of

070the year though i understand that we are living through remarkable circumstances and realize that these are unprecedented child unprecedented challenges have forced everyone to make tough decisions surely the decision to make an effort to provide our deserving children with an honor that they have earned is an easy one in accordance with the direction from assistant commissioner abdul saleem hassan division of field services new jersey department of education concerning graduation services the abortion every effort possible to at least provide students with a virtual celebration of their achievements other school districts have committed to make the effort to provide a virtual commencement ceremony for their students such as nutley and lavala and the capabilities and tools such as zoom which can host up to 500 participants at a time there is no reason that we couldn't virtually

071host every graduating class this year as a father of a kindergartner and school aide i have seen firsthand the school district's resilience and ability to step up and respond to the challenges we've all faced i believe together we can make all the necessary accommodations to provide a memorable ceremony for honoring our kids parents and staff elizabeth stefanko a paraprofessional i want to i want to thank you clifton board of education for the decision of rehiring the entire staff next year it means a lot to us our families our students we would like to take a moment to acknowledge the hard-working fourth graders at school one every april we have a science fair in the gym we were not able to do that we extended the date changed the display boards to google slides and they

072are being presented presenting them to each other in google meets the students are supporting each other cheering them on and asking great questions we gave them a challenge and they rose up to the occasion great job so far we are halfway through we are almost halfway through all of our presentations dawn ward that's my deep appreciation for the time and effort you put into keeping our entire staff intact during these most challenging times in the words of maddie s step and neck unity is strength when there is teamwork and collaboration wonderful things can be achieved thank you for your support and inspirational leadership together we can continue to be clifton strong my name is harry hichman marola this is my first year as a sixth grade art teacher at woodrow wilson middle school i was

073at school 12 as an art teacher for seven years before this although i loved the district all along this year especially i felt extremely supported between my principals maria romeo christine bertolo joe mankin and the wonderful supportive emails from mrs kusulevitz really did feel that we were all in this together and it helped these students i just wanted to reach out and say thank you i have a feeling i'm not the only teacher that feels this way my name is joanne bunowski i am an aba paraprofessional and i've been working for the district for 15 years first of all i'd like to thank dr cozy and all the commissioners on the board of ed for rehiring the entire staff it's very confusing to know that we have your support through these unprecedented times and to

074dr robertosi your constant communication with the staff is truly appreciated and you have my heartfelt thanks for that i can honestly say that i am proud to be part of this district and it is truly a great day to be a mustang i would like i would also like to send a shout out to the administration at woodrow wilson the daily emails and positive messages are a breath of sunshine during these trial times again my heart appreciation to all thank you diane zecker zacchacino a school nurse at school 15 i would like to thank dr robert tozie mr teigen mrs kusalavitz and the board of education members for their support during this difficult time distance learning is new to all of us the administration has been so supportive of all the staff as we learn

075this new process i really appreciate all the transparency this board has shown that has not been present in the past the teachers and i work i work with have all done a fantastic job navigating this new way of teaching as most teachers in the district thank you for continuing to support our staff by rehiring everyone for next year everyone is under so much stress that one thing you took off of all the non-intended personnel's minds as a nurse in the district i would like to thank you for your well wishes our nurses that very much appreciated we may be working behind the scenes now but once but now once we reopen we'll be front and center to keep everyone safe working on working together we all benefit thank you all again for your support and

076appreciation margarita escobar thank you for backing up the staff during these difficult times my name is jeanette hugh and i am a paraprofessional at chs i would like to thank you very much for rehiring the entire staff upcoming school year at first i found remote teaching challenging and now seems to be very positive i found my pleasure to be involved with four of the teachers i work with and really enjoy our google meets with our students they all seem to have adjusted well to this new way of learning i found out yesterday that one of our students was accepted to pcc and we are all very proud of her donna popowicz the online calendar calendar today is progress report day but there is no fourth marking period progress on the parent portal are they canceled

077lori lalama good evening dr robert tosie teaching mr levis mr uc and the board of education commissioners derelice gutierrez student representation staff administrators students and the community as the president of the clifton education association i want to thank everyone for their hard work during these challenging times situation has been very difficult on many levels however clifton public schools has risen to every problem with resilience to protect protect the children families and the community the staff has gone above beyond facing a new way to teach correspond with students and their families continuing to update their technology skills while their own situations at home we have developed as a district more unity to confront anything that comes our way we are appreciative for the hiring of our staff and the kind words during teacher nurse appreciation week

078thank you for all you do for our students and staff [Music] thank you for supporting our staff during this uncertain time richard carr i would like to take a moment to thank you for rehiring the entire staff your tremendous work is greatly appreciated heather boyko cdc guidelines were released for schools where does a district even start do committees get formed to see if the criteria can even be met how do we even come up with these amount of buses needed to social distance catherine falco of resource teacher thank you recognizing the teachers during teacher appreciation week and bringing all the staff back we appreciate it christopher tootstow uh phys ed teacher at cliff at the high school i hope this email finds you and your family well i wanted to take this time to thank

079you personally for hiring our entire staff back for the upcoming year during this challenging time together one thank you again and finally karen phillips thank you for rehiring the entire staff thank you again miss danny that can public comment your microphone was off could you repeat that mr your microphone was off during all that was it did you repeat all those please you deserve it thank okay so motion by uh miss bastard second by mr casper all in favor opposed hi somebody hearing me okay so we're taking up did you say a five minute break or just a minute five minute break miss bassford is somebody not hearing me no i was giving mister five-minute break she was just joking i make a motion i'm having a little trouble hearing i don't know why okay

080so there's no there's no break nobody wants a break everyone's good okay all right so next order business is education and administration can i get a motion um to approve ea one through eight so moved motion by mr casper second by mr smith um could i have missed basford read uh ea one into record yes uh my pleasure uh resolve that the clifton board of education recognizes joe canova as a 2021 alternate state delegate the board commends mr ken over for his dedication leadership and vision as a school board member as well as his contributions at a state level congratulations thank you thank you are there any other questions okay are there any questions regarding ea one through eight see none roll call mr abadraba yes miss basford yes miss beltran she left i'm sorry

081i'm sorry uh mr canola yes mr daley yes mr casper yes mr mr smith yes miss danny yes next order business personnel can i get a motion to accept p1 through p26 someone moved um motion by mr casper second by mr smith any questions madam chair i have a question um yes with the renewals for the teachers contract at what uh renewal stage would it be tenure is it the first contract second third fourth fourth yeah four years in a day um mr robert josie is um is anyone saying anything at this point yeah i have i have uh one question on uh our principles um there is approval for principles for helium and kenning and i assume they're taking uh replacement uh mr puzo and lazani the slanted um the only reason why i

082raised that was traditionally when we have somebody that uh of a principal level or something we like to recognize them at our meeting come up say a few words but obviously we have a virtual uh meeting today and that's that that's really not possible but i'd just like to um have uh dr robertosi to verify that so we can at least give a tip of the verbal hat to them as they start their careers as principals uh mr dale yeah there's there's no appointment of principles tonight there is an appointment of a vice principal um and he it was p17 p17 um that's just the that's the reappointment those are our non-tenured these are already our administrators they're just being reappointed again they're non-tenured okay just just for checking because i had two uh they're

083just giving me a point we do have we do have two elementary principles retiring right um i will have recommendations to replace those principles at the june uh 18th board meeting okay thank you you're welcome here so can we have a roll call since there are no other questions mr abedrabo yes miss passford yes mr canola yes mr daley yes mr casper yes i have to abstain on p24 mr smith yes it's danny yes motion carries so um uh dr robert trophy is yes thank you thank you miss danny uh at this time um board members as you know when we when we appoint an administrator vice principal principal typically they like uh to come to the meeting to thank you so we've asked mr waka to join us upon my recommendation and your vote

084he was just appointed as the new vice principal at clifton high school replacing mr kumba who's retiring so i believe he just wanted to say a few words to the board how are you uh of course i wanted to thank all the board members that are here i also want to thank mr robert ozzie mr teigen ms kusalevich of course i'm looking forward to working with mr doctor i want to thank him i also want to thank all the administrators the teachers school nurses custodians as mentors to me over the years i think most importantly i would like to thank all the students that i've developed relationships with um as an eighth grade teacher this past year uh and i think all teachers have felt robbed of important times their kids but i'm super excited

085because i get to take the next step with my eighth graders to the high school uh and lastly i want to thank my wife and my family for all the support they've given me over the years and so again thank you thank you mr white so the next order business is finance can i get a motion for f1 through f10 so moved motioned by mr casper second bye questions scene none roll call mr abidraba yes miss bassford yes mr canova yes mr daley yes mr casper yes mr smith yes miss danny yes motions carry next order business is public recognition do we have the second portion did anyone submit any comments i actually do have a couple if i could go through them real quick so at this point mr p will read into record

086the citizens comments for the open um public recognition portion is that these are just three that i received after the meeting started is off is that on the agenda it's it it's not there but i i it it is there it can be added in the minutes yes yes it was a last minute decision i believe yes all right virginia sheehan i just get clarification on that first please i i'm not following it was ironic okay miss gutierrez yes we'll just make it easy uh good good evening mr smith yes i recommended that we have like we normally have a second public comment section at the board meeting where members of the public can make comments on any item that on anything that's not on the agenda because the first public comment portion is for

087items on the agenda but for the second public portion it's for anything that's not on the agenda um in order since we're going to be continuing these um virtual meetings in order to make sure that we're complying with the open public meetings act i recommended that we give the public an opportunity to send in comments um for things that are not on the agenda after the board meeting has started so that it would be read during a second public portion and it apparently uh the agenda was already put together when um when i made that recommendation so that's why we're doing it this way did that answer your question okay yeah and the reason dude we're following we're following is the open public meetings act allows people to have to be able to make comments

088on things that are not not on things that are not on the agenda and what we're doing by requiring them to ask the questions ahead of time it's always on items that are already on the agenda so this gives the public an opportunity to comment on something during the board meeting something that they've heard at the board needing so you're just separating them out that's all that's correct okay okay in this particular case it might not be um either on the agenda or not on the agenda but wow we'll go with it so virginia sheehan mishi my name is i'm sorry i am a special education teacher at school 11 and i am so grateful for everything this district has been doing to support us in this difficult time i am so pleased to see

089that the staff has been rehired for next year and knowing that these caring and wonderful professionals will be with us next year makes us hopeful for whatever 2021 brings our way despite the challenges we have still been having meaningful lessons with our students today with the kindergarten classes of school 11 i hope the bilingual read-aloud of the story of marisol mcdonald doesn't match a story that celebrates uniqueness our world language teacher senora sonora pizzi read the spanish part and the rest of the kindergarten team miss montano sega and mrs angelio assisted when we called on children to share a picture of and reflect and reflect relevant the story it was a successful lesson and all the students enjoyed it this is tina robinson i know i missed the phone i know i want to truly

090thank the board of education for all their work during this pandemic i believe each and every one of these individuals should be recognized when this pandemic is over we individuals in the city of clinton would not have had half the information had it not been for dr robert chose sending emails and the board keeping us informed they have gone above and beyond and are deserve our praise i thank them all and barbara martinez high school spanish teacher thank you for your wonderful words of inspiration celebrating teacher nurse appreciation week and for rehiring the entire staff during these difficult times thank you thank you so now uh next order of business is board member comments i don't remember who was it um was it mr daley mr casper i remember i thought that's what i thought

091it was mr daley okay mr casper okay so i'll keep it short again uh good evening everybody i i'm happy to see everybody again uh through these difficult times i know it's uh rough so we can at least get to see each other uh first i'd like to thank uh miss rogers and mr doctor for their uh for their presentation i hope um people's questions uh have been answered i'd also like to congratulate mr waka um good luck in your new position starting next year i'd like to uh thank all of the retirees um enjoy your retirement and i would like to thank you for your service to our district um i'd like to thank all of our uh all of the people that commented tonight it was great to hear how uh happy many

092of you were um under our circumstances and i'd like to thank all of our teachers and our staff members for doing um for continuing to do a great job with working with our students in these trying times i'd also like to i'd like to congratulate joe mr kanova congratulations and um last but not least uh happy birthday mr abedrabo thank you everybody have a good night thank you mr casper mr smith uh yes um mr um dr robitazi and um the assistant uh superintendents mr yusi the entire district [Music] people cannot imagine the amount of work and time that goes into running a district but now running a district from separate locations and separate uh from your building with a lot of the files and information it's just amazing how well uh all of this

093has come together and that's because everyone has worked as a team and um while i appreciate all the people that uh called in and and wrote in to thank uh administration and the board um we also thank you we all have to work together as clifton as one to make this happen and if we don't it's not gonna work and we need to continue that in the future and it shows that when we work together and we do good things in clifton good things do happen and people are very satisfied and happy so let's hope that that continues going forward uh we may have some real tough decisions and and uh things ahead of us so we're going to need everyone's uh help and and support on that and that goes along with the public

094hearing from the public and knowing your thoughts what we're doing is a tremendous help and i think mr daley or somebody mentioned at the last meeting you know this board has been actively working over these weeks as well we've been holding committee meetings we've been holding uh different forums and attending different forums from the state from the new jersey school boards um so we've been working just as hard to uh to help make the district uh run smoothly but uh dr robitazia please your entire staff needs to be commended um this has really been uh something that has been uh not planned and not predicted and not mapped out and for all of this to go so smoothly um obviously there's been some some rough spots but most people don't know the rough spots and

095uh we've gotten through them and to thank the the parents and the students um without their support without their cooperation without their help um i know many parents a couple of weeks into this wanted to run out the front door and we thank them that they didn't and they stood by and the school year is almost over and we've almost made it through and uh i commend clifton as a district uh please remember on friday nights to remember the support of the class of 2020 with clifton stadium uh lighting of the lights at 8 20 p.m please tune in to facebook to see that facebook live um i would like to just spend the rest of my time uh talking about um a former educator in clifton uh who has passed away um from the

096uh from the coven 19 um he was a uh in charge of our uh supervisor uh dr barry muscari uh and i had the pleasure of working with dr miss gary from uh way in the beginning of the inception of residency um my committee and and uh barry muscari we put together residency for clifton and um he was just a true truly remarkable person um i know judy uh judy has worked with him as well and i'm gonna save some of my time to give to judy to talk about barry but um clifton was truly blessed um to have such a wonderful educator to have such a wonderful person uh working our district uh he had moved on to king university and did tremendous things there and wrote some great books and i just want

097to show my support from myself and and clifton uh to uh barry muscari's family and uh thank you for allowing to share barry with us for many years and um sorry that he had to be taken away in this way with this horrible and terrible virus so on that no please everyone remain safe remain healthy and um we'll see you at the next meeting thank you thank you mr abdraba thank you miss danny um if some of you see my screen blacked out once in a while um was breaking my fast i apologize please take no offense to it uh but i was listening at all times um congrats mr mr walker um listen our administrators by far um are the best i've ever seen in it throughout any other district and uh you know

098i say it's every meeting i guess this is going to be my it's gonna be this is gonna be my plug-in and i think it'll continue to be so because of you know the fearless leader we have at the helm of the ship um so you know i i i'm proud of our district i'm proud of where we are i'm proud of where we're going and i truly am and you know he laughs every single time i say it and i plug it in but you know it's it's true it's how i truly feel going seeing from how when i first started my my in my tenure as a border bed member my you know i've seen how things have shifted from the beginning to the latter part and i you know and while i

099can't i'm not saying that the previous person did not do anything he did we had a great board great super but i also see a lot of momentum a lot of a lot of things shifting in terms of how folks are looking at our district whether it's parents whether it's teachers administration whether it's us as a board member it's gelling it's meshing things are moving forward and there's no there's there's no quarrels between anybody so i thank you for that um which brings me to my next part um you know i'm not gonna give this whole teachers are the backbone of america deal but they are i'm not gonna say teachers are great and important but they are and i'm sure we all realize that especially parents now you heard me yell at my daughter

100as big as this thing i can't wait till these kids get back to school i can't wait till my daughter's at school not with her 24 hours and i'm sure joe you can you can attest to that too well you have more patience than i do so never mind but at that s at that sense he does so but at that time it's there's a lot going on that's out of out of our control why do i say that and when i say us i'm talking about us as parents there's a lot of con a lot out of out of control and when i say us i'm talking about us as board members and as as administrators in schools which will go into my next part which is parents listen we know and i said

101this parents have every right to watch their kids graduate i remember when my father first installed saw me graduate he cried he's going to kill me later on he probably yell at me after after he's heard i said this but still he cried i was the first kid to graduate high school uh in my family um he did not he didn't have the chance you know it's interesting because you know his i had my grandfather's name so um which was his middle name so and he just basically inverted our names and looked at it as though he graduated high school so i understand the importance of what it is seeing your kid to graduate high school um from from a a a you know from a father stance for my father but unfortunately there are

102some aspects that are out of our control um because of what's going on on the state level are we all asking and talking to our various you know connections throughout state to see what we can push i mean um jim you can you can back me up on this if i'm wrong but uh president sweeney sent a letter over to to the governor today urging that we have in-person graduations so stuff like that works reach out to your legislator reach out to your representatives you know for us it's the 36th district in clifton speak to folks if you know anybody reach out to them it helps us as well and they don't think they are that board member again from clifton calling me so you know if we if we do it as a team

103if we do it as a state i think they'll get the point that this is important uh in the meantime the administration is doing a good job to do an alternate graduation um that's not in person at least something is better than nothing and i meant it before we're not a 50 person senior class we're not a 100 person senior class we are 10 20 100 times more than that um so it's great to see what they're doing and i do appreciate it um joe you know i said before you have paid more patience than i do um you're a great colleague on the board you're a great friend and you know congrats on on everything you're doing in terms of moving yourself forward on the board and as a delegate um uh so that

104i'll give you and i'll end it off i'm sure you all either turned off your tvs or your computer because i'm talking too much but ended up by saying ramadan's almost done i met i mentioned i was working my fast two days and two days away um uh happy ie to all our um anybody celebrating i don't put too much emphasis on religion as much as i can i don't but um to give some sort of normalcy as i do with every other um community and religion in our town of course um you know happy eat uh rum run is is tough fasting putting yourself out there is tough for 30 days trust me i love food and my kid you hurt me yeah when i told my daughter don't make me that sandwich because

105she's still trying to force me to eat and so you're fasting i forgot so it's you know you got to put yourself out there and the point i'm saying is because we we we have to give to take we have to give to take an education we have to give to take as parents we have to get to give to take as individuals so hopefully by giving this graduation we get to take ourselves in a better health standard moving forward but again um i want to appreciate i want to say thank you most points to my colleagues as well because my colleagues um as much as we we argue we disagree we still work as a team uh no matter what and again that's with administration with mr t with with with janina with you

106know um superintendent robert ozzy uh but i i appreciate you guys i always appreciate you guys and i'm going to say right here right now so thank you thank you mr abu drabo miss beltran okay mr canova can you hear me oh yes yes sorry yeah sorry i was driving home from work um just closed the supermarket i'm sorry for my app since the last couple of meetings um as you know supermarkets have become the epicenter of this pandemic that's been going on unfortunately i haven't had time to splice myself to come to the meetings but i have been involved in the floor and the background so i always want to thank all of my colleagues for stepping up to cover up for my absence and i really appreciate the town in general a lot

107of people have reached out to me saying kind words the losses that uh my family has experienced throughout this pandemic um and i'd also like to thank danny roboto he's taking my phone calls at weird times with weird questions and out of the box ideas that i've had to try and you know give us graduations whether it be drive ups at stadiums or in person in some way and i really think that danny will figure out a way for us to have the best possible graduation and everyone seems sees continue to stay safe uh you know respect the orders when you're going to places you know wear the mask it really does save lives um and that's all i have thank you sorry for uh having to leave and come back that's okay thank you

108miss beltran uh mr kenova hey thank you everyone uh first of all thank you for the resolution for the recognition um so just so you know a little bit about this position there's a board that governs all the boards in new jersey and i am the alternate delegate for passaic county so what does that mean that means if the person who is appointed can't be there i would be the person to represent and have voting power at that point um and and when even when they are present i'm going to attend all the meetings so i understand and just keep abreast of all the situations but what does that mean for passaic county for clifton it means that i get to advocate for our community which is something that i'm over the moon about because

109um as you know i've been very vocal about different situation situations that we've been put in for finances and for fair funding so i can't wait to get a crack at this and i could have done this without everyone here on the board guiding me and i really do appreciate all my colleagues on the board so thank you um and you know there's a saying i think i said it last time is that they said it's easy when things are going easy the things that when things are well it's very easy to run the district it's very easy to do these things but it's in times that we're in difficult times it really shows the true characters of the individuals and i love hearing these these stories of individuals helping out for for food distribution

110for um in education contacting the students contacting the parents working with the children i see videos posted where um administration are there with their kids having a science experiment and this might not even be somebody in a science position but you know that's what they're doing and they're trying to get get the word out there help students help people understand these subjects and get get through some some difficult times um and and just i'm showing compassion i saw them spinning the wheel for pbsis um you know for that positive behavior side of things and really that's what it's all about it's about everyone sticking together and and i am proud you know going back to what mr abu drabbo said we you know we are proud of this town everyone's really stepped up here and

111and i really do see a difference and i hope some of those things continue on because um you know sometimes you go down south and you hear about you know that southern southern mentality where people say hi to you and they're very friendly and i'm seeing that now it's nice you know that's not really what we do here in jersey or new york area but it is nice and i hope some of that continues around here um thank you to the ideas and information sent from facebook as you know we can't reply to those things so we do send them on but just so you know we do hear them uh so if you want to keep tagging us you know that's fine we'll just continue to bring that information forward um graduation this is

112as you know i work for a college and this is for me the best time of the year is to see those students walk across that stage of graduation you know you hear these stories about children whose first time graduate um you know coming from from a family that you know didn't have or other other ones couldn't graduate for specific reasons and seeing them walk across and seeing the parents and the excitement on their face you know it's really special and i honestly do hope that before september we can do something like this for our kids it's really it's really something they deserve so i'm really hopeful that you know things change i'm hopeful that you know we've we flattened this curve i hope that we flatten it for the rest of the way before

113september so that we can get out and give them a proper graduation that's really what i'm hopeful for you know unfortunately that may not be the circumstance they may not come down to that to that point because you know there is a health issue out there which you know we can't take lightly so it is a balance between health and and a balance between you know giving these students a proper graduation obviously we choose health first um that's just not the unfortunate circumstance but i applaud our administration for putting together what they did for our students i think it's a really great thing to see here i think you know what even even some things that we're seeing that are happening now may even change the scope of what we do for for students you

114know we're seeing a lot of students that are getting educated going on their laptop and using these resources and using virtual environment here um maybe that is a tool we could use going forward who knows so there is some light at the end of the tunnel there and you know i hope that we can look into those things when we do come out of this um i do have two things that i'll bring it up another later but uh for a prominent project graduation i know we discussed a little bit about putting funding towards that from board of ed you know i wonder if you know during these difficult times if we could just flip the bill for these students as a part of their their graduation you know uh they missed out on all

115the senior privileges for the year i think you know maybe that's the least that we could do but we can discuss that later uh happy birthday to fahim i know probably the last place you want to be is at a meeting here for your birthday but happy birthday to you uh many more and uh memorial day you know thank you to everyone serving of all of our veterans and and everyone i wish you happy memorial day may not be like the memorial day you planned you barbecue and all but you know spend time with your family spend time with your loved ones and thank you good night thank you mr canova mr daley uh thank you madam president um a few comments um first of all i'd like to again uh thank uh miss rogers

116and mr doctor on working so hard and giving uh our students the best graduate we could possibly do under the circumstances uh again they thought out of the box they researched uh and that's that shows a lot of spirit about what they do in their day-to-day jobs just not doing their job it's the spirit in which they do it so congratulations to them and all our staff who have stepped up to the plate and and put that spirit into their hearts and done a great job during this trying time and thank you uh congratulations mr wonka well the best in in your new position um and mr kenova i know joe's passion because before the years he got on the board he and i would discuss uh the underfunding situation that faced our school district

117and you know through his efforts and others but he was a big part of the team in in the course to get more attention to our underfunding and i know he'll do a great job at his new position as the assistant alternative uh delegate and fahim happy birthday i hope you have some birthday cake later on uh enjoy and enjoy your family um again uh we're missing graduation as a board member the things that uh i really look forward and enjoy the graduation the athletics award dinner the scholarship awards dinner the national honor society um and especially the graduation course you see it up close and a student comes up and gets the diplomas some are mystified some are truly happy it's always great to look into these students faces and as they get their

118awards and recognitions and go to another stage in their life um it really does wonders for me i i really take a lot of joy in seeing that every year unfortunately we don't have that this year but we're going to go forward um in in that note uh we are in historic times and i know my father and my mother talking to me about the depression and world war ii and the rationing and my father talked about how he had to change careers because he worked on wall street and wall street collapsed of what he had to do to change his career and support the family and uh my mom would also talk about rationing during war two so um i got a secondhand um glimpse into history personalized but i did not live through

119that we did go through uh 9 11 which we will all never forget and this is another time that replicates those issues and i have a uh suggestion for the superintendent um as they go into next year it would be a project i think would be interesting project for the students to do kind of a documentary of what's going on during this pandemic uh the documentary in terms of what's going on in clifton and of course the board of education is a big part of that um and i know it'd be uh it's a dual thing it's not only preserving history and archiving history for the city of clifton but also it's a learning experience for the students with interviewing people both on the board and city officials and what happened so hopefully this does

120not last too much longer but i would make that recommendation as superintendent and the staff we have very capable staff that can work with the students and put i think a very interesting documentary about uh julia historic because we have the technology to uh leave some real footprints it's not just verbal written it's visual it's spoken and that would be an interesting project for the students that would be able to archive uh our history during this uh historic times and mr daley who knows it might even become as popular as the tiger king well so and and lastly uh memorial day um i think i'm the only veteran who's uh on elected uh board in clifton right now um and a lot of people confuse memorial day with veterans and um i've always said because

121i was asked to get a memorial day uh event many years ago and i said the the obligation of a veteran is to remember those who passed because obviously we're still here we did serve but it's more important we have to be the voices of those of god who have made the ultimate sacrifice and that's what memorial is uh day is about so it is an interesting summer but more important it's important that we take a little time just to understand what the sacrifices that were made during uh our fights for freedom and preserve freedom throughout the world so with that i wish everybody a happy and safe and healthy memorial day uh do your best to practice best health uh issues that we've been taught and directed to follow uh but also um do

122your best to communicate with your fellow citizens and if you do see uh i think you're gonna have the avenue of flags up over at city at city hall as they usually do and do a great job there so just give a few thoughts and a few prayers those have gone before us uh with that i'll conclude my remarks thank you thank you mr daily miss basford yes good evening i hope everyone this our comments find everybody well healthy congratulations to mr watcha uh happy birthday fahim lucia cake and you a cake now when we all finally get together well i could officially run for president now i'm 35. so you'll be uh you'll be getting a cake and uh we have somebody in the family that cooks very well so i'll have to go

123and ask him for a favor um achievement awards uh i saw they were online i'm very very happy to see the names of all the students to the to the seniors that are achieved the four-year award congratulations job well done what an achievement having four years of academic award yep great it's just it's outstanding um uh i'm so happy to hear uh all the messages and emails that we got from uh the staff so that's uh that's that's a testament to what they're doing and all the things they're doing it's very exciting memorial day is a day of remembrance for anyone who died during the american uh in the american armed forces um fyi there's a little group of uh very dedicated berkeley college people that are going to be putting out flags on memoriam

124six feet apart but we'll be doing that on memorial day or the saturday before well with weather permitting so i jumped right to that that one to get out of the house for a field trip it's well deserved and well needed um so um the other night i got a phone call from gloria labruza uh she was the secretary for the counseling department at the clipton board of education years ago and uh she retired before my my uh journey on to the board i did a lot of work with gloria for casa because she was the one that used to give us the names of the students and the names of the the award recipients and the poster uh people but she told me a story about barry muscari and she read me an email

125from his wife jane webber and it was a very heartfelt um email and he was fighting and he was uh really coming about and they thought he was going to be transported to another facility and it didn't happen and he passed away so i just i have a letter uh actually it's it's barry's um bio that we um that was in a book from three years ago when clifton against substance abuse um celebrated its 30th anniversary and barry was one of the recipients because um barry during his tenure as um on the and the clinton board of education uh mr lease one of our former superintendents encouraged him i like the word encouraged him to be um on the planning committee of a committee called clifton against substance abuse and he served as a trustee

126from 1987 to 2004 and he was the vice president of planning in 1993 1996 and he was the one that helped write the grant that designated clifton against substance abuse as a municipal drug alliance so we are very sad and that's clipping against substance abuse i talked to my colleagues today we are we are very very sad for his passing because in his in his bio is a plethora of things that he has done to touch not only clifton students but clifton's uh but students throughout the state through his work at king college and also all his work throughout the year in in substance awareness and substance abuse so to his wife jane uh heartfelt um condolences to you and everybody in your family we are saddened by the loss of barry muscari and deepest

127condolences from the members of casa um that's all i have tonight thank you very much oh uh save for memorial day thank you miss basford um so i just have a few comments um i'm going to keep it brief i'd like to say happy birthday to mr abu drabbo okay and um to mr kanova congratulations um very well deserved it's you know i know you'll do really well in the position and um you know again just you've been so active in clifton so very well deserved congratulations on that and mr walker thank you uh congratulations on your position um to vice principal and i'd like to take a moment to thank all the speakers um that came out and spoke today there were so many it was um really so nice to hear about everybody

128saying that you know we were you know we rehired so many and you know again it's just such uncertain times and we don't know exactly what to expect in myself being an educator um i just know that you know again it's it's been a challenge and as mr kanova said it's been quite a learning experience as well um but uh there you know there's a part of me that just wants to get back to normal get back to the classroom it is really nice to have those um personal relationships and you know bond with the students and students that need the in-class um experience it's really great for them the social aspect of it from them so you know um kind of can't wait to get back into the classroom um and hope that transition

129is smooth in september and to all the retirees thank you for your dedication to the clifton school district um i'd also like to say a big thank you to students um you know we're right there in the home stretch so you know just keep it going um to say thank you to the teachers who are making it possible the parents who have to work with students uh the administrators and everybody else that's involved in you know ensuring that you know the children of clifton get the education that they deserve so i just want to say thank you for that and happy memorial day again thank you to all those who served and um be safe and that's all i have for this evening thank you dr robertosi thank you miss danny i'm just going to

130turn it over to mr uchi uh for one more public comment that he missed mike very quick from our school nine principal mr healey he just wanted to wish i want to wish couldn't i wish to congratulate him walk on his appointment to vice principal at clifton high school he is a smart personable and committed to providing his students with the best educational experience as possible mr walker is widely applauded addition to our administrative team that's all thank you good evening uh commissioners and those who are uh watching at home um i really want to thank uh all of the staff members who took the time to send in a public comment tonight uh certainly was not expected uh and it was a bit overwhelming and it was very nice nice to see um so

131we appreciate the fact that you appreciate us um it's always my goal to make sure that the staff members who love our kids have their jobs but i only make the recommendation i recommend to the board that you get rehired and the board says yes we're going to do everything in our power to make sure you have jobs so um i'm glad that we were able to do that and thank you for all those kind words uh thanks to mr doctor and miss vicki rogers for their graduation presentation i know it was said but please let me reiterate again if we can have a ceremony in june july or august i vow to you that we will now we're not going to break the law we're not going to violate the governor's orders but i

132have a feeling from what i've heard the governor talking the past couple weeks that there may be a way that that there may be some sort of uh loosening of the restrictions enough so that we can hold some sort of ceremony in our field so it's the least that we can do for our seniors and i want to get it done and i promise you that if we can under the guidelines that exist we certainly will do that happy birthday fahim we shall eat soon congratulations joe uh on your appointment as a state alternate i i will tell you this there's no one that i would rather rather have representing uh clifton and passaic county than than joe canova he will represent us well uh he will stand up for for what he believes is

133right and uh happy to have you and put clifton on the map even more than we already are at the state level so joe congratulations i know you will make us proud thank you i do have uh one announcement to make tonight uh for our commissioners and for anybody who's who's watching at home we are unveiling our new district website tonight uh if you go to our current website there will be a link to our new website it is um more sleek uh much more easy to navigate much clearer uh it's on a different platform a much more aesthetically pleasing platform and i'm just so overwhelmed at how how nice it is and i think if you check it out i encourage you to i think that you'll really enjoy the formatting of it and

134how it looks i would remind uh the public that right now will be at least until the end of the school year we'll be running our current website and the new website at the same time and at the end of the school year we will just transfer over to the new website we know that there are people out there who are already familiar with our current website so we don't want to throw you off this will give you some time to to navigate to our new website and check it out it is only a preview website right now on a production server and so don't bookmark that website yet because it will change when we do the full rollover but please if you have a chance uh check it out from our website and thank

135you to uh jeff horn samantha derose uh and eric mountain for the hundreds of hours of their time that they spent um making it look the way it looks they're just an amazing team and i'm so grateful for them uh as the month of ramadan comes to an end and the holiday of feast eid al feeder starts this weekend i would like to say eid mubarak happy holidays to our community members students teachers and administrators that are celebrating i hope that you enjoy this holiday and finally while memorial day weekend is typically the kickoff to the summer um i know it feels a little different this year but i do want to remind everyone the reason for the holiday uh it's a day where we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country

136to preserve what we believe in to preserve our freedom so please on monday if you have an opportunity hopefully you'll be with family um but please take a moment to a moment of silence or just a moment to remember those uh who lost their lives in service of our country and and finally uh finally finally there were a couple things that came up in public comment tonight that i would just like to address um for the board there was two comments about kindergarten um graduation or promotion ceremonies we have been spending a lot of time uh worrying about you know our seniors our eighth graders and our fifth graders so we have a virtual ceremony prepared for those students um to be very honest we we were not um planning on doing a kindergarten ceremony

137this year uh but i will discuss this with our elementary principles and see if it's something that that we can do um and if we can do it we certainly will and there was a public comment from miss popowicz that i would just like to ask if mrs kusalevich could respond about the progress reports janina are you there yes um good evening uh yes um our teachers have been working extremely hard with these shortened days and working to reach out to every student on a regular basis to ensure that they are finding assignments completing assignments participating and there's been such an incredible um time involvement for our teacher outreach um that a decision was made not to have the progress report because the teachers have been every single one of our teachers has been in

138weekly by multiple times a week contact with our students and their parents um so given that amount of time necessary to keep our students engaged focused and accountable for their work we made the decision not to have the progress report but we have been taking input on grading on how to handle distance grading when we have such multiple um options and platforms going on um so that is why there is no progress report but there will be a report card the high school one as was shared in the committee minutes and the middle school one will follow the same grading system that we have been using um with a heavy emphasis on students participating in the meet completing their assignments getting their work sub committed to their teachers um at the elementary level we're looking

139at the same thing participating in your meets completing your assignments and being in regular contact um at the same time at the elementary school from one to five it will be um a modified pass fail with um and k and pre-k will continue with our regular report card thank you miss danny that concludes my comments thank you thanks janine thank you next order business is new business is there any new business okay i have two the one just the ones i brought up in uh public comment before um the graduation and project graduation you know we had discussed these things earlier saying that you know do we want to fund them or do or at least for project graduation we ask the question do we want to fund it i don't know can we bring

140that back to finance to have that discussed find it mr daley your microphone's muted yeah yeah i'm sorry about that yeah there's no problem with that uh bringing it up i think it was kind of show because it wasn't any for this year um i don't think there was any intent to ignore it but um you know we were given some guidelines by our attorney on how to proceed with that and um you know we can bring that up for discussion uh since we were not going to have it this year there were there was no urgency to get into it but we can always revisit in planning for next year thank you so the next order of business is executive session and we will be going into executive session to discuss personnel matters ms

141gutierrez do you know of other um personnel i know it will be no the only thing we have is the is the one personnel matter that we're going to be discussing okay no action is going to be taken so we will adjourn in executive session yes okay could i have a motion to go into executive session don't move second by mr daley second by second oh stop i'm getting old um i'm older than you all in favor aye aye opposed pass okay so we will be going into executive session and adjourning from there