001fiscal alliance thanks for that that's good because uh that that'll free me from so that's good i figured it would free you up from uh and lucy we we don't have any policy minutes so um the next meeting we're gonna have a bunch of them so all right okay okay folks just so you know real quick just so you know we are live mute me i like that one better hi mike good evening mr smith how are you pretty good good good how about yourself i am okay but i did the same thing uh judy i gotta i got the uh i got one right here so i can see the agenda and everything triscuit you have to be quiet um mike so we can't see um we can't see who's on from youtube not
002from zoom no no eric on his end can see it and we could get a he could probably get a listing or at least how many people are watching probably mike so we can't see um we can't see who's on from youtube not from zoom no no did you hear that yes that's the way for eric on his end ken see it and we could get a you could probably get a listing or at least how many people are watching probably where is i guess um mike so okay so if anyone is playing the live stream you should probably turn that off there's about a 20 to 40 second delay on the live stream you can probably get a listing or at least how many people are watching probably where is that um you should
003probably turn that off there's about a 20 to 40 second delay on the you see it see there whoo we are alive doctor josie good how are you dr robitozi how are you nice to know where that went oh there it is hey do you hear me i like mine better danny is that is that from the movie the shining it is [Music] now if those twins appear we're in we're in trouble yeah they may have other problems to worry about can you guys hear me on here yes joe yes all right hi good evening everybody frank that's right how are you i'm hanging in how about you yeah fame how are you um i just don't know why i'm not able to pull up my picture are we live oh you got you're going
004to hit the start video button it's the bottom left are we live we are yes we are all right okay mr ucci can should we be signed in already to the agenda or are we just going to be on here with you that's 100 on you um if you have if you have the agenda some other way i i could be on the votes and putting into borders okay all right is it just me or was it that video choppy we have three minutes hey hi judy hi hey oh i need to do the uh big view mr teigen gallery how are you yeah it's better when you choose to it's a gallery review there we go good hey hey everybody there's a story yeah i was just saying it's like we're at a brady
005bunch here who are we waiting on we have one two three four five uh jim gary dana we have a quorum though likely won't be here though yes i think she's not coming everyone can see in the um or community report section you could see the the attachments right under content there should be four committee minutes yeah yes okay good oh shoot yes i got them thank you [Music] i just don't know why i'm not able um eric to put in a um photo this time like i was yesterday i think he left oh he unless that's him on the tech support uh when you go when you go on the web you could do it if you go to zoom.com and log in there and log in with your account you should be able
006to do it there i know but i was able to do it before off the uh off from from my computer here i don't know why this time but you could just start you could just start radio and go live with your video if you want to yeah lucy i'm i'm here i'm going to bow out at seven o'clock um i'm gonna leave my account open but i'm gonna be silent but the same way you did it last night if you go into your zoom profile um and upload your your picture there you should be all set i know okay there you go you got it do i have it yep looks good okay hold on that was it i needed to sign into the account yep you got it i'm gonna bow out uh
007have a great meeting everyone i'm here if you need me thank you thanks eric thanks eric it seems mr percenty just joined so we either start or wait for mr daley if we want to wait a couple minutes okay well call to order the april 16 2020 regular board meeting attendance roll call of board members mr abba drabo here mrs bassford i'm you here nova here mr casper here mr pacenti here miss danny here the clifton board of education hereby resolves that due to the covet 19 emergency as referenced in executive order 103 and pursuant to bylaw 131 the board hereby suspends its policies relating to in-person board meeting and authorizes virtual board meeting to occur during this period of emergency can i get a motion for the approval of virtual board meeting still moved
008second second motion by mr smith second by miss basford roll call mr abedrabo yes miss bassford mr canova yes mr casper yes mr presidenti yes mr smith yes mr stan yes can we please stand for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence [Music] i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic it stands nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all you may sit mr casper can you read the mission statement please the mission of the clifton board of education 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 next order
009of business is the reading of the open public meeting statement the new jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the clifton board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place thereof posted at the city clerk's office clifton public library administration building senior citizen nutrition center on cable tv in the local press on the district's website and mailed to presidents of parent teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policy next order of business there are no recognition and awards presentations next order of business
010is adoption of minutes can i get a motion to adopt the minutes of the 3 220 strategic plan planning meeting and of the 3 5 20 regular meeting and [Music] oh no wait sorry wait uh i think you have them separate yeah the all right i'll just do the three can i just get a motion for the three um 3 19 20 of the minutes of the strategic planning of march 2nd can i get a motion i moved one second motioned by mr smith second by mr abu drabo roll call mr yes miss pass miss bastard yes yes mr canova i see you're muted but as you're saying yes mr casper yes mr vicente yes mrs smith yes miss danny yes 3 19 20 resolved the minutes of the regular meeting of march 5th be
011and are hereby adopted march 1920 resolved that the executive minutes of march 5th 2020 be um be and are here are adopted can i get a motion i'll make that motion second okay motion by mr casper second by mr abu drabo roll call mr rabbit yes mr casper yes mr presidenti yes mr smith yes miss danny yes next order business communication and announcements there are none next order of business first reading of policy none there are no presentation of reports from administration advisory committees and special committees board member reports we have finance education municipal alliance and technology so can we start with education yes okay let me just squeeze up for you [Music] okay so these are the minutes of the march 24th 2020 meeting the education committee meeting began at 5 30. attendees were
012myself frank casper board vice president judith bath and judith basford and board members joe konova and faheem abadraba administrators included dr danny robertozzi mr mark teigen mrs janina kusalevich and miss heather rotolo and mr eric mountain number one overview of distant learning ms kusalevich provided an overview of the district distant learning program overnight clifton staff and families were thrust into a distant learning home instruction model the first two weeks of distant learning focused on making positive connections with all clifton students nearly all families were contacted by teachers counselors and cst all staff have been fulfilling district responsibilities with some staff repurposed to new tasks high school classes are being conducted via google classroom to ensure that students are able to gain credit needed to graduate a parallel program is in place for students in grades
013k through 8. those students with connectivity are following google classrooms and all content areas students without connectivity can pick up paper packets at the three meal distribution sites at school 17 ccms and chs pre-k students have received paper packets teachers are in touch with students via google classroom email video chats and by phone students grading was discussed and will focus on student participation in distant learning or submission of paper packets more details will follow as the situation becomes continues to evolve the main instructional goal is to provide a sense of structure and normalcy for our students during this this unprecedented situation the district is working hard to make this as stress-free as possible for our families if a student or family has questions or is experiencing health or learning challenges please email your classroom teacher
014as soon as possible so that assistance can be provided action informational number two future district events dr robert teresi led a discussion about further district events an abundance of caution a safety patrol trip to washington dc was canceled all other future trips will be addressed as they arise when the district reopens committees will be convened to address how events such as prom academic awards and graduation would be handled depending upon the evolution of the evolving situation action informational number three calendar dr robert tozie shared options for the use of unused snow days further further discussion will be held as the situation involves action informational number four special education telepracticing assembly bill 3813 ms rotello shared the details of assembly bill 3813 which addresses telepracticing for related services including therapy such as counseling occupational therapy physical
015therapy and speed compensatory education for therapies for regression and recoupment was discussed letters for consent to telepractice of therapies have been sent to affected families action informational the meeting adjourned at 6 15 pm uh respectfully respectfully submitted mrs janina kuslin thank you any questions so the next will be finance mr pacenti can you take finance mr stan i do not i can't upload that uh finance okay or else i i definitely would okay joe do you or would you like me to read finance all right what are you doing i have it here okay thank you finance committee april 2nd um minutes the jim daley joe konova gary percenty and jim smith were present administration president was danny robertozzi michael janine kucilewicz and mark teigen meeting time was from 3 to 4 30 items of
016discussion budget calendar and preliminary budget to 2021. the public hearing on the budget for the 2021 school year will be held virtually on april thirtieth twenty twenty the tentative budget recommended by the finance committee has a zero percent tax levy increase while maintaining all staff and programs and adding essential instructional staff members as well the budget will be advertised approximately four days prior to the public hearing and will be presented in detail on april 30th potential legislation a 3902 delayed tax payments to board of education administration and the committee discussed the impact of the potential legislation of a-3902 the legislation would allow municipalities to defer the tax levy payments made to the district which make up approximately 75 percent of the district's revenue the legislators changed the language of the law to allow districts to
017use surplus reserve accounts and the ability to borrow funds up to their tax levy amount with the department of education's approval the district's bond council and bank provider are on top of the situation if the interest has to borrow funds to ensure payroll however michael lucci has been in contact with mr joe cunn's the sixth city city of clifton's chief financial officer and he is confident that tax payments will be made on time number three bid openings school 15 roof replacement school 17 building management system replacement the bidding openings for these projects were opened on april 2nd both bids came in significantly under under budget after the attorney's review of the bids as the lowest responsible responsible bidder they will be recommended to be awarded on the april 30th 2020 agenda thank you does anyone
018have any questions i have a comment uh tomorrow yeah there's a webinar there's a web a podcast tomorrow new jersey school boards um i believe if anybody wants any more information uh i will email you i think you guys should bounce on it tomorrow for more information on the uh on the legislation about um the tax payments and i sent it to the superintendent and i think he's going to pop on it for us thank you mr smith municipal alliance i'm miss danny if i may i'm sorry before we go to miss phone on 3902 yes okay um just from the legislative perspective uh 3902 because mr daley's gonna cover but he's not here at the moment um so 39.02 was for the record 3902 was already in the books from the past it was
019speaking to someone uh benji wembley it was just an updated um uh an update to the to the legislation itself to make sure that coven 19 is part of the bill itself now there is also uh president steve sweeney has amended the senate bill which we are waiting a couple of days hopefully next week for them to vote on that hopefully we'll have some more updates for the public as we move forward thank you mr smith municipal alliance thank you uh municipal alliance uh met on march 10th uh board members present uh lucy danny fahem abbadab jabro jim smith and joe canova uh council members that were present mr bill gibson lauren murphy and rosemary pino uh administration that was present um from the city uh city manager mr dominic villano and from the city
020lifting our superintendent mr danny robertazi dr robertazi uh meeting was from five to six thirty pm uh first item was traffic and housing concerns the committee discussed population numbers and new housing projects in the city and their potential impact on our schools there was discussion regarding land availability in clifton for future school projects including a discussion of the property where the distillery is located on clifton avenue and paulson avenue further exploration of this topic will take place in the future drop off and pick up at schools and traffic concerns were discussed with possible solutions the feasibility of permit parking near school number 12 was also discussed and will be researched safety and security the committee discussed potential future partnerships with the clifton police department including the possibility of adding an additional sro so that there
021can be one officer at each middle school we also discussed exploring the possibility of hiring class three officers in the future for school security the topic will be followed up with the city manager superintendent and the chief of police athletics and recreation the committee discussed expanding the tennis courts at robin hood park from three courts to five if that was not feasible there was further discussion of the possibility of repurposing some of the parking at the high school to expand the tennis courts there these issues were going to be brought to the city council and the board of ed respectively discussion also took place regarding basketball leagues and use of the board of education gymnasium um city and board of education partnership the committee wanted to discuss if there are further areas that the city
022and board of education could partner to save money it was decided that the city manager and superintendent would meet to discuss ways this could be done in addition the use of board of education facilities for city council and town hall meetings was discussed and all agreed that there would be no issue in allowing that to occur as long as the proper protocols were followed at that time we had set a next date uh for june obviously that will have to be um amended uh just to give a little update on the tennis court situation um the athletic director had told um had told us that um number one obviously our tennis courts at the high school need to be um to be updated but also if we want to be eligible for any county and
023state competitions that our courts are not um in regulation for that um so that is why there is the need to um either have the courts moved over to robin hood park um in cooperation with the city where we would use those courts for our high school program or if we kept it at the high school that we would need to increase the three courts to five uh thus adding two more courts so there would have to be some um changes made at the high school uh with land and such to be able to add two more tennis courts at the high school um and on that same note uh just shortly after this meeting um our good friend on the city council um mr bill gibson was admitted into the hospital and uh fought
024his way and i'm happy to report that he is home now and recuperating at home and uh we wish bill all the best in his uh his recovery um and that is the municipal alliance report thank you any questions technology joe thank you so the technology meeting was held on march 24th 2020 board members present were myself miss basford mr abu drabo mr casper administration president mr robertosi uh mr tegen ms miss rotolo and mr mountain meeting time was from 6 15 to 6 50. items of discussion first number one options for holding a virtual board of education meeting were reviewed various options were discussed models from other towns were evaluated item two chromebooks one to one all high school students have been assigned chromebooks middle school one to one initiative is included the proposed
0252021 school budget for implementation in september device distribution was discussed number three student access to hot spots and devices were discussed district connectivity survey results were reviewed limited time limited time free access to internet from local isp providers has been promoted any questions see none next order business is public recognition the april 16th today's meeting regular meeting of the board of education is held virtually so there is no in-person session at this point i will turn it over to mr uchi to read into record any emails that we have from the public thank you we received two public comments in the last few days um we posted about the school meeting first is from chloe popovich many students are concerned with the cancellation of yearly events such as junior prom career day academic awards dinner
026et cetera will be scheduled at a later date or will they be cancelled for for the year some events like honor society and deduction will be held online are there plans for some sort of family event in the future and that concludes closing thomas thank you and we have one more don apology [Music] let's start by thanking everyone i know this on education was thrust upon the administration and the students abruptly i appreciate all the time putting this together i have a question on online grading it seems some assignments are ungraded or not counting toward a student's average a nameless staff member has told the students that if many do not do well on an assignment it is not counting i included two screenshots you can see that in this course that every assignment during
027week three of online learning was not counted [Music] don't bother working hard because if your classmates don't work then you will not get credited or we just encourage the students to form secret unions where they all don't do the assignment at all i am also at a loss on quarterly grades if you don't want to give quarters to give it quarterly grade that is your decision but to miraculously give every student a 100 on the quarterly museum scene consists with the district's educational goals it is our goal to pass everyone or is our goal to pass everyone or is our goal to educate everyone these aren't mutually exclusive but shouldn't education be greater than passing just give them a marketing period parade without a quarterly exam and that concludes comments [Music] thank you next order
028of business is education and administration can i have a motion to accept um ea yes i just think his audio is lagged i wouldn't can anyone here miss danny hello okay can i have a motion to accept ea one through five moved motion by mr abu drabbo second by mr kanova any discussion can i have mr casper read number one into record ea thank you opposing delay and transmission of quarterly property tax revenue to school districts whereas assembly bill 3902 would authorize the department of community affairs to permit municipalities to delay the quarterly transmission of property tax revenues to schools during guber national declared emergencies and whereas the new jersey's public schools are highly dependent on property tax revenue to support education programs and whereas the clifton school district local property taxes constitute to 71
029of school revenue and whereas a delay in payments from municipalities would result in a financial crisis for school districts seriously disrupting the educational process bringing it to a hope and whereas the clifton school districts monthly payroll costs are approximately 11 million dollars and monthly health insurance premium costs are approximately two million nine hundred thousand dollars and whereas local school districts by operation of law are restricted to carry a surplus no greater than two percent and whereas the clifton school district surplus account is limited to three million six hundred twenty five thousand six hundred eleven dollars and whereas although public school buildings are closed during the current health emergency the education of our students is taking place through remote learning and home instruction and whereas continued timely transmission of school property taxes is critical for the
030education process to continue without interruption and whereas even though municipalities are designated as the authorities to collect property taxes these taxes are levied for specific purposes eg municipal school county fire district and these obligations must continue must continue to be met and whereas as currently written a 3902 which is intended to ease a financial burden on municipalities what place a severe strain on school districts and the students and families that they serve and whereas the clifton board of education recognizes the impact of the current public health emergency on the state and local governments as well as local school districts but believes this legislation would worsen the situation for our communities now therefore it be resolved that the clifton board of education urges the state senate and the governor to oppose a3902 and be in further
031resolve that this resolution is delivered this resolution be delivered to governor phil murphy state senator stephen sweeney assembly speaker craig coughlin and the 34th legislative district's representatives in the state senate and general assembly the mayor municipal council members city managers and chief financial officer of the city of clifton and be it further resolved that copies of this resolution be sent to the new jersey school boards association and the new jersey education association thank you roll call all right question mr smith uh question on number four without mentioning well there's no names in it anyway uh to the superintendent those are the uh the added district placements so students that so my question basically is during the shutdown these students are not going to these at a placement schools correct that's correct they're not physically going
032but they would still be being provided instruction from those schools okay but no transportation then that's correct okay because there's a there's a transportation cost in b sorry it's um mr smith that's probably because it's a 10-month placement so it's included in the tuition but that that that's pro-rated so if it's not utilized they won't be paid gotcha okay thank you welcome roll call fur yes mr daley mr casper yes mr piscinti yes mr smith yes miss danny yes yes next order business personnel can i get a motion for p1 through 18 [Music] questions comments concerns roll call mr rabbit driver yes miss passford yes mr kenova yes mr daley he's muted mr casper yes mr picenti yes mr yes miss danny yes next order of business is finance can i get a motion for
033f1 through 11. motion by mr casper second second second by mr abu drabo questions comments roll call yes mr haley mr casper yes mr pacenti yes mr smith yes miss danny yes next order of business board member comments so we'll just start with mr canova because i believe miss beltram went last time uh so i want to start start the night out on a happy note i want to say uh happy birthday to my little girl lydia turned nine last week uh we had a nice little parade for her everyone came across with their signs and waving and and honking their horns the police even came by and did a little roll call and sang happy birthday happy birthday to her which i thought was just amazing um that's the service that the clifton police
034are doing now and that's just you know amazing at this time where everyone is just stuck in the house and it's it's pretty difficult especially having a young girl that has a birthday so i do appreciate that and say thank you out to the community and i want to let everyone know that they're doing really a great job uh the other thing is today is my wedding anniversary with my wife 10 years so it's been a long ride for us um stuck through every bit of the way we've been together over 21 years at this point uh 10 years married uh definitely the love of my life my rock uh and i love her so thank you to that um also her birthday tomorrow so happy birthday to her a lot of things in april
035for me um but some of the things that at hand one thing i want to talk about is you know in the technology committees we've been pushing this one-to-one initiative and i know we've been talking about these things and trying to get them in budget and it's difficult because budget being what it is you know you only have so much money um and thank you to dr robert tozie and your team uh for getting this all done for for the high school at least this came right at the perfect time it could have been a better time where where we could have really been in a terrible situation where people didn't have these machines so you know thank you and produced your team for that that's really amazing that we that we got that done
036um i know a lot of these students are giving us feedback and they're saying that things are going well and things are progressing they're using google classroom my daughters as well they're starting to use these these digital uh pieces that we're putting in in place um my on reader and all these other all these other software packages which are great they seem to love it they do miss their friends but they do say they love being at home so so thank you for that um one thing that that i mentioned at our our finance meeting which i do want to highlight here is this budget year we're going out to zero percent in the tax levy so that means for the taxpayers and for the people of clifton especially in this time of difficult finances
037we're essentially giving you zero percent on on your your increase um we could have obviously went to two percent we could have taken that we decided not to so i just want to commend you know the board the administration here everyone working together getting a budget out that's fiscally sound know it takes a lot of determination it takes a lot of time effort and energy put into this budget and i just want to say thank you to everyone i appreciate you for that especially during these times um of course you know mr gibson you know our thoughts and prayers are with you i know you're still working working through this this covert incident um it's just it just shows that this is not to be taken lightly everyone needs to stay home they need to
038do their part they need to to wash their hands make sure you're not cross-contaminating make sure if you don't have to go out you shouldn't you shouldn't be you should be ordering in you should be getting your groceries delivered i've been using services like omaha steaks and and we've been doing some a lot of cooking inside uh if i do have to go out shopping i do um usually i just go out myself i don't know no one else especially with my wife being pregnant so i definitely want to send her out but just be cautious at this time make sure you're looking out for for your elders your seniors on your block people that you know that may need some help you know check in on them give them a call see what's going
039on see how they are now is the time where it's very important to stick together it is a very difficult time but we will get through this together um you know i always said it takes a village and and our village here is clifton and we need to look out for each other there are going to be people who just don't have the means right now and we need to make sure that we're getting out to all of them we're reaching out and we're letting them know that we're here and i think that's the most important important part throughout all this and huge thank you obviously to our teachers our administration for jumping on this it's not easy to take a whole curriculum that's in-house and move it into an online world it's very difficult
040very difficult to get those those same uh modes of instruction to a student who's who's at home through a laptop especially at a younger age so you know kudos to everyone i think we're doing a great job um this was all thrust upon all of us but we will get through it together thank you thank you mr kenova mr daly mr daily are muted mr casper could we go to you and then we'll come back to mr daly no problem okay so i'm gonna just keep mine short um i'd first like to thank everybody uh for being on tonight thank you to all of those who are watching us this evening on our youtube channel i'd like to thank all of my fellow board members for um helping everybody in this time of need and
041i'd also like to thank all of the teachers the administrators for all the hard work that they've been doing um talking from experience this is one of the hardest the one of the hardest things is trying to put the curriculum all online for our students and um parents are concerned parents will email parents will call but we've been getting through this together and even though it it is hard at times but we're getting through and i'd like to also thank our first responders for taking care of our citizens um i'd like everybody to remember to stay safe out there and if there's anything that you would ever need just make sure you contact us don't be afraid to uh send that an email or give a call and one of us will be there to
042help thank you thank you mr casper i i have i have uh jim on the phone here he's gonna talk to him for some reason his his microphone isn't being recognized okay good hi everybody um sorry for the delay the technical difficulties um my comments are circulating on our ability to finance um as we look forward uh into the coming days and months we're not 100 sure exactly what the state is going to do about providing our funding nor do we know for any surety how much the municipality is going to collect in taxes in the upcoming quarter the uh one good thing that i hear heard today is from the governor indicated that he's to attempt to borrow money from the state treasury and backfill any shortfall and revenues for the state if that
043does come to pass the state will be able to fully fund their budget and um we'll be able to move on but as as of this right time right now um everything is up in the air so uh we're hoping for the best but we need to prepare for the alternatives as we go forward that being said i wish everybody to stay safe stay in your home as much as possible take all the precautions that are prescribed by the professionals and hopefully we'll get out of this in the near future rather than further down the road thank you thank you mr daley thank you mr konova for helping out there mr smith you're freaking out mr percenty oh you know what okay i was trying to remember the seating sorry i'm so sorry mr picenti
044that's okay that's okay um first i want to uh say hello to everybody um i know this last couple weeks has been difficult not only for the board but for our residents in town i would like to thank the students and the teachers our staff and administration for the hands-on work they've been doing um at this difficult time i know it's not the ideal situation that we are in but uh from all the feedback so to you dr robertosi congratulations uh your staff doing a one but we not must not we must remember the parents because they've been thrown in this and they've been um put in a position to actually become teachers so with the support of dr robert tosi's staff and our teachers the students um the parents are doing a fantastic job
045and i want to thank them um and last you know the weeks have been long for me uh being at the first responder for clifton i just want to go to the families of of all our residents that have passed away um through this uh terrible virus it's been a tragic and um my heart goes out to them and the condolences from the police department and my family to all all our clifton residents to the people that have the virus mr gibson and people that that are recovering um i wish you all well please don't think this um or lying down it is a serious thing um and we need to continue to fight together remember we are all uh here for each other and we are clifton strong so uh that being said it's
046still today it's still a great day to be a mustang thank you thank you mr pacenti mr smith thank you uh mr presente to uh i want to thank you personally and to your entire police force to the uh firemen the emts the oem the all those involved in in the city um [Music] i happen to have a police scanner here so i happen to hear all the great work that you people are doing and just to all the first responders the doctors the nurses and everyone involved in this you've just been uh amazing just amazing and um i you know i can't begin to thank you and i know the citizens of clifton truly appreciate all that you're doing and not only for clifton but i know you help out in other towns as
047well uh between fire and police and emts we all help each other out and all of you should be commended uh for the great job that you're doing and have done uh under these circumstances it's it's not been pleasant um i know both physically and emotionally it's uh truly been a a trying time for everybody and i just want to commend you all thank you and please extend that out to your police course for me as as well um on that same note um we forget so many people um that are involved in helping but um are grocery store workers uh and we have one right here on our our board a grocery store owner who's been working tremendous hours to make sure that the public has the items that they need to survive at
048home and in doing this over the last week uh her grandfather passed away and i just like to let dana beltron know that myself and i know i speak for the entire board that uh we send our condolences to her family and the loss of the grandfather and we thank her and her father and all those involved in her store and all grocery stores around um for giving us the ability to be able to go and get our groceries and such there's so many people to thank in this process that you would never have thought of thanking uh before um but truly all those that are involved in this uh truly thank them uh and now we hit to education um dr robitazi to you and your staff um i can't begin to to express
049uh my thanks uh to all of your staff from from the top to the bottom from the bottom to the top everyone has pitched in and has been involved in this and has done a great job in a very trying time not something that's been rehearsed a lot of times um and i i just can't express to you how grateful as a board member i am but also as a as a citizen uh to see your staff go above and beyond uh as a former teacher i know the teachers have done a tremendous job in uh in doing a lot of work many teachers will say they wish they were back into the classroom because uh the work would be different but uh it's a lot of work at home and don't think anyone's sitting
050at home uh even though they could be in their pajamas and they could be in their slippers the work that they're doing um is is tremendous and and i have to thank our supervisors everyone down the line our custodial staff our our food service people to get lunches out uh before the break it was every day of the week breakfast and lunch uh was given out um and now with the break now we have it uh three times a week uh and they they're given enough food for those days that they're not collecting the food um i have to thank all those people um um mr martin garrow who really has stepped up to the plate and has organized the whole food distributing process and i was out there with them all for about the
051first three weeks of the process handing out food and seeing how the process was was done and i have to say that we have taken many steps to remain safe and i think many districts have followed our steps um but our numbers have been uh tremendous i believe uh wednesday we gave out uh in excess of 2200 meals that's a tremendous feat to be able to put together in a very short period of time so again i thank everyone in the school system uh involved in that in this process it's been tremendous and uh as mr percenti said parents students all of you need to be commended on on the great job that you're doing parents didn't expect to be thrown into this but i know that they probably give a much more respect to
052the job of a teacher now than they did prior to this so we've all learned from this um but great job and continue to do the great job whether we're out of school or in school continue to do the great job um i'd also like to um thank eric mountain and the entire technology a team again this was something that was put together so very quickly and he's been tremendously busy because all of our instruction has been online instruction making sure that each kid in the district has internet access and has a computer to be able to access that um that's a tremendous feat in itself so i commend all those in the technology uh as well for a great job and um to our friend mr bill gibson uh again continued great health um
053and i know that you can beat this thing and to all those people that have been affected by this terrible virus um learn from clifton we are a strong community we are mustang strong we are clifton strong we are truly proud to be mustangs and if anyone can pull this together it's all of us here in clifton so i commend all of you and clifton for the support that you've given not only to the educational system but to our first responders and everyone involved and my condolences go out to all those that have been affected or afflicted in some way by this terrible virus we can only hope and pray that this all could be a thing of the past very soon and i give ask god to give strength to the scientists and those
054that are working on to develop a vaccine for this that it could come quickly and swiftly so that we don't have to worry about this in the future so please stay safe everyone and god bless thank you thank you mr smith mr abu drabo uh i want to thank everybody first of all for for hi how are you sorry about that guys i want to thank everybody for for making this possible in terms of administration board members and even the public as well i mean i'm looking i'm looking at you guys but also following youtube where we have five thumbs down and i'm sure that's probably because certain wifis and whatnot and i'm asking the public to just bear with us as you know we not only the public but also having meetings like this
055is not easy or the norm of what norms will be in the future um so starting off i want to say as you saw my daughter um i got plenty of birthdays anniversaries just like joe to make up and i'm sure we all do too between my daughters last month my son's next week and our anniversary i just passed um so you know we all have makeups to do in the future we all have uh things we gotta we gotta look forward to after all this um all these abnormalities are over regarding a3902 as i mentioned and mr daley also can get can add a whenever he wants is that um the senate president did put an amendment to the bill itself hopefully it'll help with what the assembly bill has put out but as
056a reminder that 3902 as as gruesome as it may seem um uh it's been in play and it's been in effect for for quite a while it's just an update for for coping 19. so as we figure out from the legislative factor and the finance committee hopefully we'll get to put our brains together and figure out speak to our legislators on how we can thrive as a district uh doing these abnormalities and when we come out of these times i want to personally thank power of one the boys and girls club and personnel from our district people like samantha rose and others who are helping out and saying if you know i'm giving her props she should say stop it but it's people like that who who are out and about um when they could
057be at home doing nothing um and quarantine themselves but yet they're helping out in areas like that i want to thank mark and janine as well uh for being our superintendent's left and right arm as well as his the rest of his administration as well i know janine has also been on some sites helping out with food distribution so i i applaud you for that um whoever doesn't know the palestinian community center at lakeview ave has been giving out lysol masks gloves if you need them stop by they'll give them out um people have asked um for supplies and we when we when we've passed it off one second please thank you love you thank you uh sorry about that um and most importantly take care of your families um you know your kids are
058important your wives your spouses your great your parents your grandparents they're important we got to take care of and whether some people don't understand that this is real we got to make them make them know that this is real unfortunately we're losing people left and right um say county throughout state new jersey and it's not a joke we you know as everybody has said and everybody has heard them i wish councilman gibson the best of luck speedy recovery he's always been a fighter uh whether in uniform out of uniform so i wish him luck our first responders mr percenty the rest of the force of the clifton for the police department fire department even people like my wife who who were also as other essential personnel you know keep yourselves um safe and healthy come
059back to your families and just take care of yourselves as well as as you're out there in the field um condolences to the to the mack family um the burke family who lost a first responder in little falls in the fire department as well who's related to one of our former teachers miss burke um and and dana beltran who lost her grandfather as mr smith said you know it it's it's it's not easy it's not easy losing whether it's cover related or not copyright it's not easy and and and i wish you all uh best of luck um i ask for everybody to just to pray for everybody pray for humanity pray for what's going on pray that we come out of this soon and and everybody's swiftly and healthy and and capable of just
060carrying out what the normalities are um and mr uh and to our superintendent just three things if you can also just touch upon when when you have the opportunity to talk which is obviously a lot of folks have questions on problem graduation um prom is a student's right the seniors right to go through it's already passage graduation is every parent's right of passage um you know my daughter's five and i can't wait to see her graduate from god gives me the years so you know it's it's it's a passage that we all get to experience and unfortunately this passage has has set us astray off the tracks so hopefully if we can see something do something beyond once once we're back into our normal lives whatever that definition of normal is um if we can
061see if we can do something in that sense one question a a parent from school five asked me um is uh their fifth grade parents are curious of what happens with the money that was raised during their tagging does it sit there does it you know what can that be done with it um how is that appropriated it can be used at a later date once the school year is over so and that's that's all i have thank you thank you mr abdrabo dr robertosi you want to go first um vice chair basford do you want to go yeah i didn't go yet no i know i was going to do you after dr robert josie okay again let him go sorry if you but if you insist okay he usually goes after me anyway
062yeah i'll go i'll go after this password or after you miss danny thank you uh okay i have a have an announcement from the um chs graduation signs are on sale uh jen algieri reached out to me and they're selling them and they're asking for everybody to pitch in and buy a sign so her email address is j-e-n-a-l-g at hotmail.com dr robituzzi if you could put the uh sign up on our website they have to be ordered by april 30th she wants clifton covered in signs for the graduation class um there's various signs various prices she wants our community to show the class of 2020 that we all support them so i hope maybe this can be a community service project um kudos to the staff parents and for the children for stepping up um
063i'm sure myself and jim the seniors on the group are going to get make fun because we have our head or we call them in my house our cans but um some of us need them because we have hearing issues and it just makes it a lot easier for us to navigate these devices um it's been rough on a lot of people these last couple of weeks we've we've had a lot of issues so um frank and i frank casper and i and we're a little late frank it's 803 have been doing something at 8 o'clock every night we've been taking turns doing the lord's prayer or the our father and we go live on you on facebook so you could check us out every night so i think somebody else is taking our lead
064frank and doing our our father or the lord's prayer we started doing that a week before mr councilman gibson came home and we dedicated it to him okay um miss basford we cannot hear you we'll wait a few minutes she praying let's give her here she is you're muted miss basford miss basford you're muted we believe that the power of prayer really worked to mr gibson so we're going to ask everybody to please continue to pray listen to dr fucci on tv when he gets up and he tells you what to do to our first responders pray for them everybody everybody the clifton pd the clifton fire department the nurses the doctors everybody out there listen to them condolences to everybody in clifton there was some cornerstone people that we've lost this week that you
065turn you you just you just can't believe what's going on to dana beltran through all her trials and tribulations that kid knew that i was having a problem getting distilled water and she pops up at my house with a case of distilled water even though with the loss of her grandfather her papi and i have to say to her thank you dana from the bottom of my heart for being a kind soul knowing that i needed something and you still went out of your way your true true good soul of a person and you will be blessed one day even though you're going through such hardship right now and when you decide to memorialize your grandfather we will all step up to the plate for you um happy anniversary to joe conover and mrs conover
066rose i have a happy birthday that i have to say to jackson pet jackson ramichammachar happy birthday to our superintendent thank you very much i have a little poem that i want to say you know me and my poems it's hope if you all only carry one thing throughout your life let it be hope let it be hope that better things are always ahead let it be hope that you can get through even the toughest of times let it be hoped that you are stronger than any challenge that comes your way let it be hope that you're exactly where you're meant to be right now and that you are in the right on the right path where you are meant to be because during these times hope will be the very thing that carries you
067through and that was written written by nikki bannis because we are thin strong thank you everybody thank you miss basford um okay so danny i'm going at this point okay um so first of all i'd like to say thank you to all who are watching that you are staying home staying safe that at least in this time you have the opportunity to bond with your family maybe even do a zoom with other relatives i know that as a teacher some students have told me that they're getting to know their parents so um you know since they're obviously in this position where they have to be with them and um they're talking and communicating so maybe something positive in that way um i'd like to say thank you to all those that are helping in the
068coven 19 fight and risking their lives doctors nurses firefighters police um our own gary pacenti um and all the others thank you very much for what you're doing and um you know people prayer chains to add them to their prayer chains and you know because it really is um horrible um you know as it obviously unfolds we'll have more people that we know that have passed that touch our lives because they've passed from over 19. um i want to say condolences to those that have passed from the virus and those that are fighting the virus stay strong um to dana beltram um so sorry for your loss at this time when you're trying to do so much to um help your community and that you just have to deal with this that's really difficult in
069this time um but your trooper definitely saw that um to the gibson family um i know you took five steps you know um it's a giant leap for mankind there um and um you know just speedy recovery and hope it's you know 5 10 20 in your back to your old self uh the last that i want to say is um a thank you to the staff all of the staff the teachers during this difficult time who really again had to shift their their set their way of teaching and had to alter lessons to create lessons that will fit this new virtual learning um you know again as a teacher i just really commend them on that and then of course there are the parents who have to become teachers um i commend them on
070that on trying and being patient and you know difficulties when you have three children different levels and you're trying to help them all that's very difficult i know um for the students um for just having to adjust to this virtual learning world and that um again you're stuck at home and the weather becomes nice and we don't know how long it'll be but again take the opportunity to talk to your parents get to you know know your parents maybe things that they've gone through um some hardships in their life definitely a great time for maybe like sitting around and having that chat um then also you know thank you to all the custodians the administration everybody else that is doing their part in the school district you know to help to try to bring as
071much normal to a situation that really is um you know not normal and really again just to try to combat this i mean we're all in this together as a team and so you know stay safe stay stay inside stay home and just remember clifton strong and that's all i have dr robertosi thank you miss danny good evening commissioners and members of the community who would have thought just a couple months ago uh we would be in this situation that that we're in uh where we're we're all home and having a remote board of education meeting it's certainly uh nothing that we were prepared for i don't think anybody was prepared for but uh i have to tell you i'm just so proud of the way our administrators and staff have adjusted to this uh
072to this new reality let me just first start off by by sending my condolences to any member of our community who has lost a loved one uh due to the uh covet 19 virus or for any other uh reason please know that you are in my thoughts and prayers uh for those members of the community who are affected by the virus um wishing you a healthy speedy fast recovery and hope you get back on your feet soon i too would also like to recognize and thank those people who can't stay home those first responders our clifton police officers mr pacenti one of our own board members who's out there putting himself on the line uh every day our firefighters john beagle from the health department who i've been in contact with regularly all these people
073who work in supermarkets people who sometimes you you may take for granted some of the things that in normal times we don't think about so all of those people on the front line thank you i'd like to especially thank our staff who are working the meal distribution for those of you who may not know we still have meal distribution at school christopher columbus middle school and clifton high school monday wednesdays and fridays from 10 to 11 30 a.m so when this situation was thrust upon us we didn't have a lot of time to prepare but i am overwhelmed and so grateful to those staff members or our teachers uh paras uh principals uh administrators who've really gone above and beyond to try to make this as stress-free as an experience for everyone and i want
074to reiterate that for for those in the community who are listening we know that everyone is dealing with a lot right now it could be from the virus itself it could be due to lack of employment because of what's going on we don't want this remote learning this distance learning environment to cause more stress if it is for any reason please contact your child's teacher please contact your child's principal please contact me if we can help in any way we do not want this to cause stress today governor phil murphy did make an announcement regarding a reopening of schools but i want to caution that he said may 15th is a possibility of reopening so i want to be clear that what the governor said today was that there is a possibility we may reopen
075by may 15th there's certainly a possibility that may 15th comes and they add another 30 days and we get shut down for the rest of the year either way we will have contingency plans in place but the earliest date that we will be back in school is may 15th the governor also issued some other executive orders recently that the community should be aware of testing or state assessments are suspended for this school year a big relief for many there are other rules and regulation changes in regards to teacher evaluations for this year and i want to talk especially now to our seniors [Music] senior year is is that year that we all looked forward to when we were in high school it's a time of uh milestones senior proms award ceremonies graduation um what i
076do want people to know is that we are working on contingency plans for most of these big events um i'm not going to get into details on what those are yet but in the event that we do have to shut down for the rest of the school year we're going to do our best to have some semblance of these events for our seniors some sort of graduation some sort of prom you know academic awards ceremony i know next week we have the national honor society ceremony which we're going to be doing virtually um and while some of these contingency plans may not be the best case scenarios we certainly want to make sure that that our kids have something to look forward to to those student athletes who are worried about the spring sports season
077i know that's difficult especially if you're a senior if we are back in school uh by may 25th the njsia has said that there are models in place that will allow for a shortened season there may not be state tournaments but there may there is a possibility still that there could be a shortened season for those student athletes out there i'd like to give a big thank you to uh miss lori lalama and the clifton education association um i'm sure maybe many of you have heard lori has come up and spoken about different pride events that are held throughout the district uh pride is money that comes in from the association and the njea and typically it's used to um put on events at schools parent parent events student events but since we're not in
078school lori was able to get those funds directed to um provide meals to our first responders in clifton so lori is using those funds to have the police department get catered dinner on april 21st and april 28th the fire department is going to be getting catered lunches and also st mary's hospital uh first responders are going to be receiving a catered launch over the different shifts so um very proud of the cea the clifton education association and his leadership for for repurposing those funds and and doing something good with it i'd like to remind everyone that on april 30th we have a board meeting and at that that night will be our budget presentation um the board will vote on our budget there's no longer a public vote on the budget uh again as was
079reiterated earlier in the finance committee and by mr kenova our proposed budget this year is a zero percent tax increase and now more than ever i think that's really important for our community so big thank you to mr uc and the business office for putting that um for putting that together um and on april 30th please tune in and you'll be able to see that budget presentation that's all i have for tonight i wish everyone uh good health uh and please please be safe and stay clifton strong thank you dr robert ozzie next order of business is new business does anyone have any new business just if i can miss danny if i can regarding to the superintendent uh regarding that school five question danny um with the the money that they raised can you
080just talk about um [Music] uh how that could be appropriated what's what's the use for it how does it get directed if you don't mind it's actually a very good question uh if we're talking about uh are these the funds that were collected for the washington dc trip or are these funds for other events that i'm not quite sure about all i was asked if it was the money raised during tagging that's all i was asked okay um i don't have an answer to that but i will have one um for the next time we are together and i will give the answer publicly miss bassford uh if it's tagging it would be washington dc okay so obviously you know there's going to be no washington dc trip in in the month of may i
081mean even if we are back in school we're not going to send buses of fifth graders to washington dc um but again if we have those funds and if we're able to do something over the summer we will then you know maybe try to do that um as for those parents those parents who who raised funds or put in their own personal money of course they will be refunded all right so next order of business will be to go into executive session um to convene for the purpose of i will turn this over to ms gutierrez yes hi good evening the board is going to go into executive session to discuss issues regarding pending litigation and also negotiations with one of the bargaining units because no action is going to be taken the board is
082going to adjourn the meeting right from executive session in order to be able to turn off the live stream on youtube as has been said before and as is obvious to everyone these are very unusual times so normally we would exit the meeting after the executive session but in order to be able to have actually have a private executive session on this uh on the zoo meeting uh the board is going to uh close the live youtube streaming and then continue the private executive session on uh on zoom but no action is going to be taken tonight miss osford yeah i have a question could you just read what we're going into executive about we're going into executive session to talk about pending litigation and also about negotiations with the um uh teachers uh uh
083collective bargaining unit thank you association with the clifton education association thank you can i have a motion motion motion by miss pastor sorry look up look up mr abaddra it's like the brady bunch he's right above you and mr casper looked down um okay so um roll call for all in favor opposed okay so at this point we will go into executive session if we could just be turned off the live feed and if the tech support can let us know when we're turned off on live feed so if everybody in just a moment i will confirm when that's definitely turned off okay