001That's all right. That's what we'll do. We ready. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. In accordance with open public meetings act of the state of New Jersey, adequate notification of this meeting has been provided by the advertising in the record. Please rise for the flag salute to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible. >> Please remain standing. Moment of silence for those who have uh we've lost some of our staff members and uh anything else that's going on in the world. Thank you, Mr. Leoo. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Diaz, >> here. >> Mr. Taylor, >> present. >> Mr. Roto >> present. >> Mrs. Assan >> here. >> Mr. Ramos is out. Mr. Quzz >> here. >> Mr. Gaba >> present. >>
002Mrs. Petiri >> present. >> Mr. Fino >> present. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting? Res. >> I'll second. Miss Peter, Mr. Gaba, discussion roll call. >> Mr. Diaz, >> I >> Mr. Taylor, >> I >> Mr. Rodto, >> I >> Mrs. Assan. >> Hi, >> Mr. Kelesz. >> Hi, >> Mr. Gaba. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Peteri. >> Hi, >> Mr. Focino. >> Hi, >> Dr. Tonkco. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. Good evening everyone. Um, thank you for coming out in this storm. I hope everyone is safe. Um, I will uh get to my report um in a second, but I just wanted to uh mention um I just wanted to go over um student of the month and um the school board recognition month. um this this
003month in particular uh with regard to things that are happening um as we prepare for an election uh we prepare for budget uh I think it's important to to acknowledge uh what these men and women up here do uh on a volunteer basis um it's not easy I know it seems easy um however uh the amount of hours that they put in I think the average in New Jersey is 60 a month. I know some of these individuals put in way more than that. Um, but uh again, the checks and balances and the hard work that you put in on committee nights, I think people don't understand it. You definitely don't understand it until you're sitting up here on the day. So, on behalf of this community um and everyone here in the city, uh
004we we appreciate you and thank you very much uh for your service. Um and in saying that now I would like to call up it Miss Caruso or Miss Demo um for our incredible student of the month who is here and uh this just shows us again month after month as we see our students come up here the incredible things that are happening here uh in this district that we're all very proud of. So without further ado, Miss Crusoe. >> Good evening to the board. I am proud to present Kimora Henry as our student of the month. Kamar is an outstanding student whose dedication, leadership, and character have made a lasting impact on our school community. Throughout her four years of high school, she has demonstrated exceptional commitment to both academics and athletics. Kimar has
005been a devoted member of the volleyball team as well as the winter and spring track and field teams, consistently exemplifying perseverance, teamwork, and sportsmanship. Academically, she is a member of the Math Honors Society, Italian Honor Society, National Honor Society, and Interact Club, where she serves as a positive role model for her peers. She also participates in the Tomorrow's Teacher Program, working as a teacher assistant and supporting younger students with patience and enthusiasm. In addition, Kamar is deeply committed to service and her future goals. She has volunteered with a merry corpse and gained experience in the medical field as a transporter at a physical therapy office. Experiences and have that have reinforced her goal of pursuing biology on a pre-med track. Kamora Henry truly exemplifies what it means to be a student leader, hardworking, community-minded, and
006driven to make a difference. And it is most deserving recipient of the student of the month recognition. Kamar Henry. [applause] Good evening, Dr. Tomco and fellow members of the board. I want to start off by thanking everyone for coming out here tonight, especially Miss Caruso for nominating me for this accomplishment. I would not be standing here without the support of my teachers, friends, and family, but specifically my mom. The one who is always making sure I'm set up for success and the one who has taught me the importance of hard work and dedication. I am beyond grateful for this award and especially honored to be recognized here tonight. Thank you. [applause] >> Congratulations. Excellent job. Thank you for representing us. Good stuff happening. Okay, few things. First, um this is probably the probably the worst
007storm we've had in in in a while. I one of my younger son doesn't remember snow like this. Uh I'm up a little north, so we we got hit with a lot of lot of white snow. So, um I want to thank uh our crew, um maintenance, Mr. Rendazzo, the team, uh Mr. for Leo with the buses today trying to get those ready. Uh, everyone really came together. I know the town is working hard. I I I think it's easy to sit here and just say, "Oh, it's snowing days off. You know, you get the day off. What's going on tomorrow?" Uh, I appreciate this board supporting me on calling a delay for tomorrow. I know it's going to be sub zero almost tomorrow with the windchill. It's going to be treacherous getting here. Um,
008let's be safe. Let's get here on time. There's nothing more important than that right now. Um, you know, when I grew up around here, I remember, you know, getting the cars out from the street and, you know, putting the chair in front. My mother said, "Put a chair out front." You put a chair out front and everybody's yelling. So, we know what's going to happen here. Let's let's help one another. That's what we're trying to do. Um, I know the town is working very hard because we have a lot of walkers here and buses. So, we have to make sure the corners are clear. There's things that you might not be understanding. So, please just be patient. Send something out today about the busing. They might be a little late, right? We're might be going
009a little slower. It's okay. Everyone's going to get here safely and on time or a little little bit late, but everything's going to move forward. So, um, in saying that, hopefully we don't get hit next weekend like we're supposed to. That's the rumor. Um, but we'll be ready for it. Um, the lots look pretty good. Obviously, we have to salt them and whatnot, but but again, I want to thank everyone for uh for working this weekend. Uh, it was a difficult thing. If you all know how it was at home for you, um, you know, 11 times as hard here. Um, so I want to thank all of our individuals. It's very important. Um, we have uh we're going to talk about some facility stuff. I think Mr. Leu and his report has some stuff
010in there as well, but but I will just uh like to talk about a few things with regard to that. Um, with our QACs. Our CUAC is our continuum, our count quality assurance continuum, which every several years is basically the Super Bowl for the district, right? they the the the B um the Bergen County team the offices they come in and there's uh cumulative progress indicators and there's standard operating um procedures and DPRs and whatnot all these great things that they look at from instruction and program to governance etc etc facilities is a big part of that we had our uh we had our two desk audits for curriculum we're very proud of the curriculum team and all the the teachers and administrators for putting that work in over the the first summer that I
011got here now moving into this summer. Um we we got really really good scores on that. So we're very excited about that. They're not official yet, but uh again they do desk audits now. Uh we're working very hard on our um matrix report which is our certification. I know that's going to be great as well. Our team is working very hard in central office on that. And we had our facilities walk through was it last week? Last week um where the uh the team comes through from the county and looks at three particular sites that cover each grade level. And uh we did we did exceptionally well in that area. Um and what they really were excited with is the amount of progress that we continue to make with regard to these buildings that are
012aging. Some of them are aged. Some of some of these systems are end of life, which we'll I'll talk about in a second. Um and I think when you talk about QAC, I think people think it's I got you, I got you. And that's not what it is. It's a continuum. The word the most important word is continuum there. You know, it's really not much about test scores because test scores are test scores. It is what it is. Okay? Um it's about growth in those scores, right? If your child started the year off with a 30 and now has a 70, that's pretty good growth. Maybe it's not an A, but it's pretty good growth. Okay? We're very excited about that. Um it's the same thing when you're talking about um you know, uh facilities
013pieces and corrective actions, chronic absenteeism. The stuff that we do here for chronic absenteeism absenteeism I haven't seen anywhere else. I really haven't. Our teams do everything that we possibly can to try to work with parents. We can't get kids here if parents won't be partners with us sometimes just the way it is. And the unfortunate thing is that the whole district gets a black eye for that. Okay. So, so these are incredible things that we continue to work on. Um, facilities wise, we're we're paying attention not just the the uh the major problems, but also the perception issues as well, right? Uh, the Dawson gymnasium, which I'm sure some board members will talk about later on. Um, just these things that bring more pride to the city that once was here, you know, in
014in this budget cycle coming up, uh, Mr. Leu and I put some stuff in here for hopefully the board will support with regard to the high school sign, the electric sign outside. It's disgusting. It is. um you know and when you drive by oh I'm in Garfield for the first time and let me see oh there's the oh look at that sign it's perception right it's it's stuff like that so so we're really doing a lot of incredible things um with our operations committee um we keep uh giving them updates with regard to um punch lists that our principles have miss on top of it we're trying to get her a little bit more assistance on this agenda tonight uh there's some assistance for her for for facilities procurement uh and other things so we're
015really on top of that but in saying all of that things are going to happen. And last year when I was here for the for year one, it was really um you know, basically an observation year. You know, you're brand new. You don't know what's happening. You don't really know anyone's name yet. You're trying to do the best you can. And we had some very interesting topics last year. Um so I think during the last few election cycles, I've been pretty tame, pretty quiet, and really haven't been the me that I know. So, so that changes tonight because I will say this, this board or the boards I've worked with since I've been here have inherited many issues with regard to facilities. Okay? It is absolutely no one's fault. It's no administrator's fault in the
016past. It's no BA's fault 10, 15 years ago. Okay? This is what happens when certain situations in certain districts when when uh needs are in place and money just isn't there. Right? We are an SDA district. Okay? The state has built us several buildings already and has one's on the way if you all see it on outwater lane and there's one in the works coming up. Okay. Without the help from the the state for a city like this because of some of the, you know, the ratios and taxes, the ratables, some of the things that you don't have in this city, um we would be in a lot of trouble. Okay. So some of those fixes of the past years that had to had to occur um it was very difficult to make those happen.
017So it's absolutely no one's fault. You learn from the past but we have to keep talking about the future. Okay. This is one of my specialty areas and I think that's one of the reasons why the board brought me in um is to make sure that some of these things are fixed. Okay. Um Mr. Labou and myself have have a a list that we just uh worked with our uh construction manager um that the board will hopefully help us tweak a little bit and approve um at next next month's meeting which shows this city, this community, these stakeholders the priority um priority projects that have to occur long after all of us are gone. All right. We want this board here to memorialize that uh because we did a lot of research over the past
018month and what needs to be done next. Um this board has been committed to putting money in capital reserve. You saw that it's an audit finding because we had to do it late. Unfortunately, we put $750,000 in there. That's earmarked specifically for facilities needs. Okay. However, let me just say this. This is not a game. It's not a game. Regardless of what anyone thinks, this is livelihood up here for myself or Mr. Leu and these board members live it every day. Whether they were on this side at one point or on this side, it changes once you get up here. Okay? The livelihood of students, their comfort, the comfort of teachers, you know, all of those things, whether it's 95° in a room or 35° in a room, no one gets up in the morning
019saying, "Hey, I hope the heat goes out today." That's not what happens. All right? We lose sleep over that. We've been talking all weekend, all weekend about making sure the heat's been on in all these buildings. Okay, so to be extremely clear, once the problems occur, we are fixing them. But that's not the fix. The fix is for the first time in a long time, we have a long-term plan that we put together for this board, which I know will be accepted because it's affordable and it's what this this district needs and what these students need. We're also working on air conditioning units. We've talked about that. Now, I wasn't here in the past with what happened and what the promises were. And to be frank about it, I really don't care. All right? Because
020I I can't keep talking about that. We have to move forward. If this board directs me to do it, we're going to do it. All right? But the rhetoric, the talk, all these things to try to catch people, especially because an election cycle coming up, I will not tolerate. It's not going to happen. All right? Because the truth is very simple. It is what it is right now. All right? And day by day, we get up, our maintenance crew gets up. We have Inline, which is a vendor uh that's an expert vendor who basically has an office in a few of our schools and every morning shows up and is fixing stuff, right? No one is sitting down doing nothing about it, right? Is it optimal? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. It is not optimal. But
021the promise that I can make to all of you is that each day we are making sure that we're doing the best we can to make sure all these systems are operational even though many of them are end of life. End of life is the word, right? You cannot go to Home Depot, get a part and fix these things. The comment that one of the techs made to me when I was in there and he didn't know I was a superintendent, right? It was it was one of the schools. the the comment the tech made to me is, "Hey, this unit right here was built before my parents were dating." That's what he said to me. And that's the truth. Okay? There are original units. They have to be changed. They have to be switched
022out. We have no systems that are, you know, we have several schools that are newer, but even our newer schools are 20 years old. Think about it, right? So, those schools have the ability to monitor systems where they break, where they go down. We have 100year-old systems here that have no monitoring whatsoever. And our teams and the vendors are doing everything they can to make these things work. So again, absolutely not optimal, but and point all the fingers that you want to me. That's completely fine. I can handle it. But just know that the reason why we get up every morning and make sure it's it's that all this is done and this board is on us every morning is because we care about your kids 100%. All right? It's I say it all the
023time when I teach or when I do consulting, whatever it is, I say once it's not about the kids anymore and you're in these positions, you have to pack yourself stuff up and leave. It's very simple. Go work somewhere else. All right? So, I need to make that very clear because I understand where all I'm a big boy. I get it. I know where all this is going. All right? But that's that's that's not that doesn't work. That doesn't cut it for this city anymore. Okay? So, progress progress is happening. Transparency the best we can. All right. But I mean, I was in one room. They they were all excited. This team inline is the name of the team were excited. They got something to work that wasn't working for hours. And as we finished
024it and it started pumping heat out, the room next to it shut down. Right next to it. We were standing right there. If I did I'm I'm being honest with you. If I wasn't there, I wouldn't believe him. But I was right there. All right. It's different things happening. It's not the boilers. We have to stop talking about boilers. Our boilers are fine. We replaced boilers. It's not the There's heat being generated. It's now getting the heat out into the rooms. That's the issue. All right. Um big problem. We didn't have this problem last year. Couple reasons. One wasn't as bad of a winter last year to be honest. Right. This week is going to be subzero. It is some of these rooms are going to be cold. My house myself, I can't get it
025above 62 if I try. Right. I'm sure you're all going through the same thing. All right. Again, it's not an excuse. It's not optimal. It's realistic. We're doing the best that we can. All right. I gave everybody my cell phone number in this district. You can text me, call me anytime you want. If you have any questions, any concerns, oh, 202, whatever it is, let me know. We we'll get on it immediately. I would also like to commend Mr. Leu and Miss Randazzo. Every day we're meeting in the morning. We're there at sites. I'm usually at school 8 in the morning. Mr. Boo is all over the place. Um, again, I really appreciate the support of these teachers. I I went through one of the buildings. I I'll say I went through school late the
026other day and I I just I still couldn't believe the the smiles on their faces and they're, you know, they had their coats on, they're getting ready for the kids, they're I just couldn't believe it, you know? I mean, obviously they're not happy with it, but they they still were there and uh they were just making the best out of it. But again, it's no longer ah Scarfield. No, no more, right? So, moving forward, we have a plan and it's not free. It's not a free plan. Uh, but we're doing everything we can with grants, uh, savings. This board is committed to a cooperative which is going to make this district money and also save us on on big big items like roofing and stuff like that. So, we're we're making all these steps in
027the right direction. So, I will say progress. Um, I appreciate your understanding and um and that's it. I'll pass it on to Mr. Leu. Thank you, Dr. Tomco. I just want to echo the sentiments of course about the snow removal. Um, Mrs. Randazzo, Mr. Leo, the team um in terms of their coordination with the maintenance crew and all of our custodians um to be here in cycles to make sure that they take shifts um never compromising the safety of our employees because I think that was first and foremost that we talked about how do we get our our men and women out there to to handle the things that need to be handled and prepare for school while also making sure that that we maintain their safety. So, they they took breaks, they looked out
028for one another. So, I was very proud of of the work that was done, the communication that went on with that group. So, um I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that. Um many of you have seen the exciting progress at school 5. Um if you if you've been uh driving down Outwater Lane, you see a major major change in the skyline there. So, we're excited about that. The SDA continues to stay on schedule uh with their work. Um one of the things that I want to echo um Dr. Tomco sentiment and and appreciating the board during the the time of board appreciation and acknowledged the work that we were able to accomplish at ECLC replacing all three boilers without people even realizing um because there was no disruption. There was no frozen days. There
029were no kids, you know, leaving ice, you know, with icicles on their backpacks. Um we got the job done. This board gave the the the okay. Uh we worked with our construction management team, our maintenance team. All three boilers were changed on this agenda. we have to to be approved the electrical panel which will be giving us the notifications uh immediately if something does happen in our classrooms with temperature um being proactive with with water softeners I mean as Garfield residents we know um the hard water situation so being proactive so that our new boilers and the new heating system there is going to last another 25 plus years um with that approach that we're taking there so I want to thank the board for that as well um in terms of the business office
030we're working diligently ly in line with our budget calendar. Uh evaluating um position control rosters, evaluating our current spending, projecting forward to to the end of the school year um with our auditors, and then being sure that that we meet all of our deadlines um and all the requirements with the budget this year. So, um there's exciting stuff. There's work to be done. Um and the team is all pulling in the same direction. Um so, I just want to make sure that I'm clear on that. And then the last piece uh obviously our April election uh is coming up by the end of the week. We'll have uh our updated website u page there where we have all the information for any of the the members of the community that um that wish to to
031to run and and be a part of our team here. Um so stay on the lookout for the updates to the um to the website. And that is all. >> Dr. Tomu and Mr. Leu, thank you very much. We appreciate uh all that you I appreciate all that you do uh to get the district uh running as efficiently as possible. Um with that uh any committee reports? Okay. Hearing none, I'm going to open up the microphone for public comments on agenda items only. Uh anyone from the public want to discuss about an agenda item? >> Please state your name and address. Danielle Marcella, 66 Krakust Street. Um, I see here on the agenda Paul's law and the U board putting that into effect. And I just want to say I'm incredibly proud. Um, you know,
032when this law came to be in 2020, those of us who work in healthcare were shocked that something wasn't already in existence. It's the work we do every day and never did we think that something would need to be put in place for a school district. So, I'm very excited for the district. I think that it's a need that many families will have a very positive impact on. And I just want to say thank you uh because it does have a really really huge impact. And don't forget about the cafeteria workers and the transport team. Thank you. >> Any other public comments? >> Hearing none, I'm going to move on to personnel resolution 8.1 through 8.26. Is there a motion? Mr. Gaba, Mr. Otto, any discussion? All in favor? I'm sorry. Roll full pole. >>
033Just one more time there. The motion was made by who? By Mr. Ga. And then seconded by Mr. Otto. >> Thank you. Roll call. Mr. Diaz. It's going to be a no for 810. Yes. At arrest. >> Okay. Mr. Taylor, >> 8.26. I the rest. >> 8.26. Yes. Uh, Mr. photo. >> Thank you, Mrs. Assan. >> Uh, no to 8.10 and yes to the rest. >> Okay. Mr. Keelles. >> Uh, no to 8.1 10. >> 8.1 and >> 8.10 and yes to the rest. >> Okay, Mr. Gaba. >> Uh, no. 8.7. >> Okay, Mrs. Peter. I >> Mr. Foc I >> finance. >> Hold on one second. Okay. >> Hi, Mr. Poker. Uh motion for resolutions 10.1 through 10.26. >> Mrs. Peter M. >> Any discussion? >> Mr. G. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr.
034Diaz. >> I >> Mr. Taylor. >> Hi. >> Mr. Roto. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Assan. >> Hi. >> Mr. uh Kelesz. >> Hi. >> Mr. Gaba. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Peter. Hi, >> Mr. Furino. >> Um, okay. 10.1 10.1 Abstain on check number 020515 >> 020 Nice and slow please. >> 020515 >> 515 Okay. >> 020681 >> and abstain on 10.27 >> 10.27 two. I am the rest [clears throat] education. >> Hold on one second. Mr. Gerel, we had uh Mr. Keas had a uh reimbursement check in here. He just wants to uh abstain on that check. >> I'll make that motion. >> Yeah. Anyone that went to uh >> I'll make that motion. >> Okay. You need a second. I'll second. >> Okay. I abstain. >> All in favor? >> Any abstensions or nos?
035>> What was the check number? >> 10. >> Mr. Quillis's check number was 02 0628. Who made the fifth motion? >> Who second it? >> That's what I'm saying. >> I have I also have a check here for Mrs. Assan that we're going to see from as well. >> I'm going to pull it up. I'll pull it up now. I didn't see my name under >> But that's what I was trying to say. It is all the travel to go to So, I'm going to ask for a motion to um revote on resolution 10.1. Uh >> Mr. Taylor, I second. Miss Peter. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> So that's a motion to recall the vote on 10.1. This one. Wait. Okay. Okay, I'm going to request a motion as a
036revote on resolution 10.1. >> Mr. Gaba, Mr. Otto, any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Lau. >> Yes, sir. >> Mr. Diaz. >> I. >> Mr. Taylor. >> Hi. >> Mr. Odto, >> abstain from check number 020772. >> Mrs. Assan >> I on the rest. Yes. Okay. Mrs. Assan >> abstain from check 020639. I to the rest. >> Okay. Mr. Kelesz 628 I to the rest. Okay. Mr. Gaba abstain check number 020513 I the rest okay Mrs. Petiri >> abstain from check number 020525 uh yes to the rest >> okay Mr. Focitate. I'm going to abstain on check numbers and 020681. I on the rest. Can you give me a second, please? Mr. President, I would like to make a motion to change my vote for 8.10 from no to yes. So, >> uh, there's a request.
037>> No, you cannot. Um, so I'm going to ask for a motion. Uh, Mr. Gaba is wishing to change his vote on 8.10 from no to a yes. So we're going to ask for a motion to um allow Mr. Gobble to change that vote. So Mr. Taylor and Mr. Otto. Okay. Any discussion? Uh, I do all in favor. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Diaz, >> I >> Mr. Taylor. >> Hi, >> Mr. Oto. >> Hi, >> Mr. Kelesz. >> To change his vow. I >> um Mr. Gaba >> I >> Mrs. Peter >> I >> Mr. Fino >> I >> so just for clarification >> Mrs. Asan >> I >> Okay, I apologize. >> Thank you. I'm sorry I missed that. So I don't have a chart. >> Sorry about that. So let's let's take
038a second and clarify this. >> So just for clarification, uh Mr. Gava's vote has now been changed from no to yes. Right. >> It is now a yes. >> So A10 passes. So A10 has passed for 810. >> 810. Yes. >> Okay. Perfect. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So now we're on to education resolutions 12.1 through 12.27. Is there a motion? >> I'll make a motion, >> Mr. Gaba Mr. Taylor is that second any discussion Mr. Liu roll call please >> yes >> Mr. Diaz I >> Mr. Taylor >> abstain 12.6 number five 12.7 number 28 I Mr. Roto. >> Yes. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Assan. >> Hi. >> Mr. Koulles. >> Hi. >> Mr. Gaba. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Peteri. >> Hi. >> Mr. Fogino. >> Hi. >> Facilities 14.1 through 14.3. A motion
039to approve those resolutions. Miri, >> no. >> Oh, Mr. Taylor, I'm sorry. >> I miss Peter. Second, >> Mr. Lou. Any discussion? Roll call for >> Yes, sir. Mr. Diaz. >> I Mr. Taylor 14.2 two numbers 26 27 28 I to the rest >> Mr. Otto >> Hi >> Mrs. Assan >> Hi >> Mr. Kelesz >> Hi >> Mr. Gaba >> Hi >> Mrs. Peteri >> Hi >> Mr. Fino >> I motion for policies resolution 17.1 through 17.2 Two. >> I'll make a motion. >> Miss Peter. >> Mr. Diaz. Seconds. Any discussion? >> Mr. Little Roll call, please. >> Mr. Diaz. >> Hi. >> Mr. Taylor. >> Hi. >> Mr. Otto. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Assan. Hi. >> Mr. Kelesz. Hi. >> Mr. Gaba. >> No. >> Mrs. Peter. Hi. >> Mr. Focarino. Hi. Okay.
040Now I'm opening up the meeting to the public for public comments. Please state your name and address. >> Good evening. [clears throat] Good evening. Sean Red 096 Farnum Avenue. Uh just first and foremost, I want to congratulate Mr. Folkino to his additional appointments across the community, including to the planning board and library board of trustees. Uh so congratulations. I wish you well because that's pretty impressive. Now, tonight I'm going to go back uh to talking about heating. I'm I'm glad Mr. uh Tomco brought up and Mr. Lu brought it up. So something as basic as heating should quite frankly never become a crisis. And fortunately, the uh board has approved about $117,000 in expenditures towards uh fixing heating across the district. Now, to be clear, I'm more than glad that we're finally taking the initiative
041to actually spend these dollars in the right places like our preschools and our schools to fix these heating systems, which are quite frankly out of date. However, I think that this spending in the middle of the winter when we just had a snowstorm of 10 in shows that we're spending an emergencies rather than preventing them. Now, I've spoken to plenty of teachers, plenty of parents across the district. And when I told them that the board's spending $17,000 on heating, the initial reaction is thank God. And I absolutely agree with that reaction because thank God we are finally spending these resources. However, it should be the goal of the board of education to never have a parent saying, "Thank God," about something as basic as heating. And the analogy I like to use is think about
042it like the heating in your house. You're not going to fix the heating system in the middle of winter. You're going to fix the heating system in September when it's not cold, when we're not in the middle of a snowstorm. And the reason I'm bringing this up is because I filed an open request from with the board of education regarding the ECLC and specifically the boilers. Now, I'm glad that we're taking the initiative to finally repair the three boilers, but I think it's very important to say that as of December, according to the documents I received, only one boiler out of the three boilers were actually working. That means that at any given time, you could have had children coming to the preschool and simply having no heat because according to the emails I received
043from the contractors, quote, "The last boiler had no guarantee it would remain functional." That's not me saying that. that's coming directly from in mine heating. So, while I'm glad this is being addressed, I want to know why we keep ending in this emergency mode rather than plan upgrades before we've reached this point. Therefore, I have two very simple questions. First being, when was the board first notified about the ECLC? When it was in this condition, when it only had one boiler actually working in the middle of December, and what actions were taken immediately after the fact. I'm not talking about the replacements. I'm talking about the days and weeks once we came to that discovery. And secondly, I want to ask Dr. Tomu directly, what's the plan to ensure that we never have a school
044one boiler away from no heating again? And secondly, are there any schools in our district that simply are one boiler away from no heating? Cuz I believe all parents of our community deserve to know that. Now, switching gears a little, as Dr. Tomco didn't mention we are under 3 months away from the Garfield Board of Education elections on April 21st and I want to make a simple request on behalf of voters. Therefore, I'm asking Mr. Diaz, Mr. Gaba, and Mr. Focarino to commit tonight to at least one open candidate forum because quite frankly voters deserve to hear from every candidate in the same room answering the same questions. Thank you very much. Any other public comments hearing? None. Any comments from the board to to the chair? Can I >> you? It's okay. Thank you.
045Appreciate that. >> Um just to kind of reiterate um unfor so so the maintenance the maintenance on heaters, boilers, etc. obviously that that past past um boards not just this board have done that. Okay. Not too many not too many um uh and this is something you don't you don't know uh sir, but I you know something that is is is kind of widely known. Um boilers don't go on until October 15th. So that's the that's kind of the staple day that's been like that for the 30 years that I've been in this. Um I think that not too many individuals put their heat on in September to see if the entire system works. It's not really it just doesn't happen that way. um when we get them maintained over the summer and and you
046know they we do the best we can but as the systems are working as they're pumping harder to put more heat out as it gets colder and colder this is when we're coming up with some of these issues. So again, not optimal, not an excuse. It's just basically um unfortunately the way it is. Uh for the EC ECLC, I will tell you this. I was just as surprised as anyone else in seeing that email that you that you uh had requested open public records. Um that came from an inline it was inline employee I think or oh sorry not inline from Seammens. Correct. Um who said that uh I think when they say board the board says no. I don't think they mean an actual board. They just mean someone who works at the board.
047So it could have been anybody. Could have been a teacher. It could have been a superintendent. It could have been we don't know who it is. We've actually tried to see what what the reason was. Um but again immediately when we realized that that was the issue um some of the SDA monies were put towards that and as as you can see we we got on it right away to to fix those because we worried about some of the redundancy uh in that not working. So uh again we do have boilers operational every school. Um do we have one down there somewhere? No, just wanted to make sure. >> Had we had a a boiler that was leaking at school 9, but we repaired that. We had we had a team there from CJ Vanderbeck
048that worked on the boilers. >> Right. So, we have several teams that are different places that are doing it. So, again, this is a daily topic for us because we want to get through this uh this season, but then moving forward, uh we have a plan in place for the board to replace the whole system. But, but again, you know, times are tight, right? Money's tight for everyone. our heating bills go up just like everyone else's. It's not free, right? Um so our our uh energy bills here for this board have doubled actually over the last year. Um so we're looking at some of that stuff. So again, maybe more efficient units would will help us or more efficiency obviously that will help bring the cost down. But as we're now getting into a budget
049cycle, this board is going to have a very challenging several months here as Mr. Lebu and I bring out to each individual here. um you know a tax increase when it's already on the backs of the taxpayers for everything else that's happening. Uh I don't know where the town's tax increase is coming in. They went with a 0%. So they're they're going to have some needs as well. Um but this is this is not going to be an easy budget cycle. Um we're talking about an infrastructure change just to school aid alone that has to be upwards of $750,000. Okay. um to make sure that every day everyone can get up and and everybody's comfortable in every room. So, it's not, you know, hey, let's just write a checkout or we would obviously have done
050that already. Also, the disrupt disruption to the school. Um, you know, we were talking, do we put sopets on the outside for new pipes pipes out? I don't know. I hate that you say this, but I'm going to say and be transparent. I don't know if there's asbestous on those pipes. That's a whole other thing, right? So when we get to that part of the project and this board and I tell this board in August that we hit an asbestous wall or pipes under a wall that have a speestous on it, everything stops. Right? So there's there's I've been doing this for a very long time, referendum projects and projects like this. So um this is nothing new. The main thing I'd like to just reiterate um is that this board is going to with
051along with the administration promise this community a list of priority projects that we will put capital reserve to which has never been done here before. I shouldn't say never which has been done here recently and that's this board right here that is just has made that promise and we're getting on that list next week the operations committee. Uh and we appreciate that because again we we're living this every day as as well as all of you are. So, thank you. >> Any board member comments? M. You want to go to agent? Go ahead. Agent >> Mr. Diaz. >> Uh, so guys, you know, we did just did that Paul's law thing, which is a big deal for me when I ran last year. Um, it's going to be a major major improvement. I think it's
052good to give the nurses uh extra tools and resources. Obviously, I had my own personal experience with that. Uh we had our first CPAC meeting and it was a major success. A lot of people came through. So that was a uh you know I look forward to that as well and congrats to the student of the month. >> Okay. I was going to congratulate you on the pause. That was a great idea and I'm sure it's going to help everything. And um just Sean, when you look at our budget, I I was on the other side at one time, you see $135 million. I thought to myself, they should fix everything with that money until I sat on this side and I was privy to see what the payroll is. You're talking about close to
053$80 million. Talk about insurance costs with them going up Jack 27 29%. Public service has doubled. We are looking at facilities money maybe in the realm of 20 million. What does 20 million get you? We are doing our best and every morning I hate to look at my phone because it's going to be Dr. Tomco saying a boiler went down. I don't even want to look at it because that's like a nightmare. Uh again, I'd like to congratulate the student of the month. Uh Mrs. Randazzo, maintenance janitors. You're doing a great job. Uh the dedication for uh Mr. Dawson's gym was unbelievable. And uh CPAC again, Adrian, Larissa, you did a great job start getting that off the ground. And I want to thank you. >> Any other members? Mr. Quillis, I >> I'll start
054with the uh the meeting we had here with the special education parent advisory committee. Um I think it's super important that this occur. Now we what we want to see as board members is for the parents to get involved. Uh as many as you know special education it's a big part of what's happening here with our children. We want their parents to understand what's going on, the process, and they make the commitment as a committee to be part of the people that's in charge of what's going on uh with special education. It is super important because that's what they uh miss, what's her name? Mr. Teio had mentioned they want the parents to create that committee to be involved and for the first time for that meeting uh it was a good meeting. There was
055a lot of people there and I think it's important that we are moving in the right direction uh where people need to understand that uh we we're listening to what's being said to them and we want them to be involved and this is why this is being brought up. So kudos to the whole community for coming out and participating in this. Again, Paul's law is important that we continue to educate and inform the community of why this is important and wherever what we can do as a district to make sure that the facilities uh can be that we have so we could put the stuff in in our facilities. um to the Frank Dawson family. What an amazing tribute to Mr. Frank Dawson and naming the uh the gymnasium. I guess they call it the
056new one. Uh it was it was amazing to hear uh of what Mr. Dawson has accomplished in Garfield, how he changed and he helped uh change lives and educate and inform and inspire and inspire many youth out there and and it's good that uh uh we can continue his legacy. It's important that there's a lot of people in Garfield that does a lot of good and sometimes they're forgotten. maybe this community can start reminding us that we need to remember those who did a lot for Garfield and this community. To the student of the month, congratulations. Um again, we are proud that you have accomplished everything you've wanted and we are excited that your future looks very bright and I thank you for this opportunity, Mr. President. >> Any other comments? Uh first want to
057congratulate Miss Kamura Henry as being student of the month. That's a great achievement to her and her family. I want to thank uh those who have retired and resigned from our district for their dedication and service to the district. Uh we postponed a presentation to uh Arlene Barquette's family who uh succumbed to her ailments. Uh we will miss Bquette for a long time. I want to congratulate the Dawson family on uh the dedication of the new gym as the Dawson Memorial Gymnasium. Also uh Dr. Tomo, thank you for uh including the resolution for B uh board recognition. I want to thank the board for uh approving the proclamation honoring the 250th anniversary of our great country. And I want I got a couple different things here. So, uh it was good to hear that CUAC
058is seems to be on target for a positive report. And I'm glad to see it's been a long time coming, but steel has finally risen at school number five. That's a great achievement. And uh certainly with the implementation of a co-op, we have an opportunity uh to help the district financially and uh with the heat, we really appreciate everything that uh this administration as well as the dedicated deploys of and staff uh do what they have to do to get things going the way they have. Uh the boilers have been working all year long. Uh just just like sometimes you start your car, you find I have a flat tire, you got to fix it. You can't fix it in the summer or when you don't need it. You have to fix it when it's
059the problem. Uh with that, uh wish everybody a happy new year because uh we haven't had a meeting since. Uh happy Martin Luther King Day, happy Valentine's Day, happy President's Day, and anything else that I've missed in between. Uh with that, can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Mr. Gam, Mr. Otto, all in favor? >> Any opposed? Thank you very much, everybody. Stay warm.