001Evening. Good evening. Welcome to our April 28th board meeting. Um, in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act, NJSA, uh, 10 4-6. Adequate notification of this meeting has been publicized in the record. Please stand for the flag salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible. Please stand in a moment of silence. Thank you everyone. Miss D, can you please take attendance? Uh, we are currently working on extra seating, so I apologize for those of you that may be standing. We really weren't prepared for this. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Taylor, Mr. Focarino, present. Mr. Gaba, present. Dr. Pivaric, present. Miss Sanchez, Mr. Ramos, okay. Okay. And then we don't have any members of our student board. Okay. [Music] Um All right. At this
002moment, I'd like to have a motion to go into uh resolution 3.1 and through 3.2. Approval of the last board's minutes. So moved. Motion by Mr. Fino. I'll second. Seconded by Miss Sanchez. Uh roll call, please. Mr. Taylor, I. Mr. Focino. I. Mr. Gaba. I Dr. Porchek. Hi, Miss Sanchez. Hi, Mr. Kelesz. Hi, Mr. Ramos. Hi. Motion carries. Okay, at this moment, we'd like to move into the superintendence report of Dr. Tomco. Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. Welcome everyone. I hope everyone had an incredible break. Um, it's great seeing everyone here. Uh, I think we're going to get right into things and I'm going to do um a few uh I have a few housekeeping housekeeping things after, but we got some incredible uh announcements tonight and uh some of these winners. So, but let's
003first start with our student of the month. So, um Mr. M. Mr. Dur. Oh, Mr. Durr. Okay. And this is our student of the month. Yeah, excuse me. The light turns green. All right. Good evening. Can you hear me up? Thank you. All right. Good evening everybody. It is my great pleasure to recognize uh this month's student of the month, Rebecca Belgado Bahano, as our student of the month for April 2025. I've had the privilege of teaching Rebecca in the 11th grade social studies where she consistently impressed me with her critical thinking, her intellectual curiosity, and her leadership. Rebecca is also a member of the National Honor Society, the Math Honor Society, and serves as vice president of the um the sociodabad uh honoraria Hispanica or the um Hispanic National Honor Society. She has excelled
004academically, completing college level courses at the Rucker Business School and winning first place at the Stockton University Business Plan Competition, where she plans to actually go. Uh she's committed to go there for um her freshman year of college in the honors college and has also scored a summer internship program at the college. Beyond the classroom, Rebecca is a decorated athlete in cross country and track. A dedicated peer leader through the Lindseay Meer Teen Institute or what we call TI the TI program and a tireless advocate for student wellness and community service. Rebecca leads with empathy, purpose, and determination. and she is a shining example of what it means to balance excellence with heart. Um, congratulations, Rebecca. Um, you you deserve this honor. [Applause] Good afternoon. Hello. Okay. Good afternoon. I would like to thank the
005board members, my teachers, my coaches, my students, and my family. Um, especially Mr. Durr for recommending me for student of the month. Um, and for always believing in myself even when I didn't, and pushing me out of my comfort zone. Um, this uh recognition means a lot to me. I've worked so hard during my high school career, and I'm proud of everything I've accomplished so far. Um, so yeah, thank you very much. [Applause] Rebecca, is your family here? My grandma's here with me. Uh, round of applause for her grandmother. Uh Rebecca, one moment. Um the board would like to present you with this challenge coin. Uh thank you for Thank you for being a figure of everything we hope for in this comm this district. Thank [Applause] you. [Applause] Congratulations again. Uh we have a
006student government uh presentation. Do we know who is All right, here we are. Thank you. Hello. Oh, hello everyone. My name is Isabelle and I am the secretary of the student government and I'm here to present you with the April uh boards of education meeting presentation. So to start with from April 14th to April 17th we celebrated the spring spirit week with teamspired directly by students ideas to make sure everybody's voice was heard student collected suggestions t through polls and question boxes in our Instagram page and then use those ideas to create this team's week this week's theme. Thursday's monochrome Monday, character day, and walking Wednesday were planned by student government. While Thursday's purple shirt and jeans day was hosted by ROTC and the Blue Stars program to support military families. Each day gave students
007a chance to show their creativity and school spirit. It was exciting to see the entire school community get involved, including teachers like Mr. Dur and Miss D. Carlo, who dressed up for character day. Spring spirit week was a great way to bring positive energy and excitement before spring break. Next one, we have our pep rally. The spring pep rally was hosted right before uh break started and was a great way to bring the school together and celebrate. This time we focus more on creating an interactive and energetic event by including a v variety of fun games. Students and teachers could sign up to uh participate in activities like a three-legg race, potato sack, potato sack race, musical chairs, and a relay race to make it even more exciting. We had a team for each grade
008and even a teachers team. We also recognized our amazing spring athletes during the pep rally celebrating all their hard work and accomplishments. One of our highlights was a fun rock paper and scissors match between our mister and Miss GHS Fina Shaverska and Jaden Hos. Additionally, the money uh raised from the tickets that we sell from the top rally will go towards our planning our coming our upcoming spring dance which we're really excited about. Overall, it was a spirited afternoon that brought a lot of smiles and positive energy to the whole school. Thank you very much. [Applause] Thank you to our student government for everything you guys do. [Music] Yes. Um so now we have our Special Olympics athletes. Did you M Teo and Dr. Um, I had the before before we uh have these two
009incredible women speak on this on this team here. I had the honor of going up there um and seeing them uh that morning. It was pretty pretty cold and uh they uh they were working really hard. I was up in Vernon and uh I was just amazed. Not not only and I I know that you're probably I don't want to steal your thunder so you're probably going to talk about the the entire experience. I only got to see part of it, but um I was not only amazed at the athleticism and the dedication and commitment, but just how well this team represented our district. So, I want to give them a round of applause even before we recognize them. Excellent job. They're all wearing their medals here tonight. I can see so I was I
010was very very proud to be standing with you guys. I know it was pretty cold. So, um but uh but thank you for letting me uh be there. So, ladies, yes, it was very cold. I was freezing but um it was a lovely lovely day. The weather was beautiful and um I just think a great time was had by all. Um February 3rd and 4th was the two days that were uh designated for the Special Olympics and it was at Mountain Creek in Vernon, New Jersey. Um all our athletes participated in the snowshoeing events. We had 100 meters and 200 meters and um the event took place like I said over two days. Uh the events on the first day when everyone got there began with practicing and then at night there's a beautiful beautiful
011ceremony that's a ringed ceremony like the Olympics and then there's a beautiful dinner dance and everybody got to participate in that. Uh from there people were supposed to go to bed early. I don't know if that happened but um and then uh the following day were all the competitions. Um from there um you know we had you know seen the winners and you know made sure the bus got back okay had a pizza party and that pretty much concluded uh the event. What is I really want everybody to know that there's so much that goes on behind the scenes to make this happen. Starts in about November and Mr. of the car can attest testify for all the paperwork that's involved in getting this to happen. There's practices, there's fundraising, there's advertisements, there's collating, reaching
012out to families. Uh it it's a big undertaking. Um but really really worth it. Wonderful experience uh for the district and and for the kids. Um, it could never ever happen without the support of the families and our wonderful, wonderful coaches. So, I'm going to ask you guys to just stand up and we can give a big round of applause to our backbone. [Applause] Okay. Okay. Assistant coach Kim Doctor another assistant coach uh also our pizza delivery man Andrew Diko uh is ill could not come tonight but let's give him a big round of applause anyway and our head which Mr. Greg the capo Now we're going to introduce the athletes. When your names are called, come on up. And then when we are done in the life skills room, we have coffee and cake
013for you and your families. Okay. Okay. So, at the event, we had eight students participate. Not everyone's here tonight, but I'll go over all the results of it. So, we had Adam Alatiat, who's who ran 100 meters and took third place bronze. He also ran 200 m and took a third place bronze. Then we have Lexi Bonan who did 100 m and took silver second place and 200 m and she took third place. [Applause] Then we have Jason and Nicas Kennedy who ran the 100 meter who took bronze and the 200 meter third place. Then we have Tyler Hudman who took who did the 100 meter and took bronze third place and 200 meters third place bronze. We had Sed Obi who did the 100 meter took silver second place and 200 meter bronze third
014place. We have Jeremiah Perez who did the 100 meter who took a certificate of sixth place and 200 me silver second place. We had Jennity Rodriguez who did the 100 meter. She took a certificate of third place and the 200 meter she took second place silver. And last but not least, we have Rainard Rogers who did the 100 meter. He took second place and the 200 meter. He took gold first place. So I just want to thank the superintendent, the business administrator, and all the board members for making this possible for these students. Thank you. [Applause] Sure. Heat. [Applause] I know we do. We do. Wait, guys. Wait, guys. Wait, guys. Before they leave, can we just acknowledge them because you guys are leaving and we always do the thank yous and we appreciate you.
015I was there the whole time. He did leave. It was freezing. 100%. you guys gave and it was it took my heart that you guys were out there in the cold and act like it was summertime, okay? They did every meet like professional athletes and I'm so proud to say that I was there for you guys cuz you guys were awesome and I thank you for being so awesome. You guys, congratulations. [Applause] If anybody standing would like to fill in the seats, there's seats up here in the front. Anyone seats up front here, ladies? M Mr. Rose. Oh, there you are. I was trying to text you. I didn't see you. You're hiding. Yeah. Go ahead. Uh we now want to call up uh middle school principal to talk about uh a student who uh
016just a phenomenal feat uh Ga Eveina. So I have Yeah, I do. I have some Good evening everyone. We're at the st city of champion and more. From our student of the month to our special Olympic athletes that win medals, I'd like to talk about Gianna Evolina. We talk about gold medals. Giana won a gold medal. And come on up, Gian. Come on up. Let's give a round of applause. talking about my she won a gold medal representing team USA and Mai for her age group and she's going to de Bruis Dubai. Thank you guys in Abu Dhabi. Okay. She's going representing team USA as a city of champion. We just want to recognize her. We recognize her in the city. We recognize her with the school district. and we recognize her in the Garfield
017Middle School. She's a straight A student. She's one of our top students in the eighth grade class. She practices five days a week. Mai, what else? Mai jiu-jitsu and MMA. So, for anybody who wants to get in the ring to mess around with her, you're more than welcome. But to represent the city of Garfield, our school district, is unbelievable. And that's the city of champion. And she's a champion. So let's give a round of applause to our champion. Just a footnote to this is that unfortunately it's very expensive to represent team USA for some reason against the United States with all the tariffs and everything going on. They can't represent our athletes when they go there. the that that dime falls on the family. So, uh Garfield, the middle school, Garfield Middle School is holding
018a dress down day. Anybody would like to donate, you know, to help offset the cost, uh to go out there is really appreciated by the Garfield Middle School, the school district, as well as the Eveina family. You know, they're all going out there to support their daughters and let's go out there and support our city of champion athlete. Thank you. [Applause] That's going [Applause] At this time, I have the honor of being board president under something that hasn't never happened in this district before. Um, I have the honor to honor uh our board member Alan Ferino for receiving his master board member recognition. Uh, it's an achievement that's never been seen in this district and it was done under me. So, Alan, I'd like to [Applause] classes amongst [Applause] [Music] That bag almost tripped over
019my [Music] foot. Yes. Once again, congratulations Alan on your on your achievement. Yes. just to kind of uh speak a little bit to these uh these two recognition recognitions that Mr. Furino has. They're they're they're pretty rare in the state. Um obviously first time in Garfield history uh you know the amount of work that a board member does um is uh you know is is sometimes very transparent and sometimes it's behind the scenes. Um there's a lot of work that gets done throughout the weeks. Uh I think a lot of it looks like it's you know on an agenda rubber stamp stuff and there are things that are mandatory and things that happen but um I will say that for for most of the members here that I've worked with now uh over two boards
020now um they are are very in tune with what's going on um Mr. Folkino especially um and uh to to be able to honor him tonight with this is uh is something that uh you know as a board president board president gets to do. So uh so thank you. I've learned from you these past past year I've been here. So [Applause] congratulations. All right. And then just um just wanted to go over um something that's on the agenda uh that I wanted to talk about. There are a few different positions that are posted and I wanted to kind of go over the process of how it it's um you know how it should be done with regards to budget and um uh especially since this will be my first May personnel um recommendations to the
021board and whatnot. um when when the board or the administration through the board decides to propose a new position, first thing the board has to do is open up what they call a position control and then offer a job description. Right? You really shouldn't be applying for a job unless you know what the job entails, etc. Um over the past year, uh the board and I have been talking about some reconfigurations of uh current descriptions of jobs, adding adding specific jobs, going to something what is known as a two-house model, uh where there are uh there is an elementary and a secondary program that gets to articulate with itself um a little bit smooth more smoothly. Um so that's what you see there tonight. There are several uh positions that the board and I have
022been talking about over the past uh 10 11 months um with regard to some of these changes that that may be possible here after a new board reorganizes etc. Um and we we have a new personnel committee uh and we talk about moving forward for the 2526 school year. Uh right now what you see tonight just to kind of clarify these are not additional positions. They have additional position controls, which means that the board has the ability to fill them if it wants. So, what you're going to see hopefully tonight with an affirmative vote, uh you'll see these job descriptions and these uh position controls now become part of the board's um purview. Um so, you may may remember 101 15 years ago, there may have been a position that somebody had that they don't
023have anymore, right? It's still on the books, quote unquote. Um so then moving forward uh if if that does get approved tonight then uh we'll look to possibly reconfigure this as we sit in new committees uh and then we'll post um for certain jobs. Uh and hopefully uh some of the plans that we have will will work to the best of our students um contentions and also uh provide with provide our staff um with an enhanced uh description of their jobs uh and possibly offer um some promotions uh from within um and also uh really talking we're really talking about articulation articulation both vertical and horizontally. uh we're adding a lot of programs. I know we're going to be be continuing to add programs here. So, we like to see some programmatic uh directors working
024with some of the principles, etc. So, there there's more to come. Uh but I just wanted to clarify that these aren't like seven new positions that are going to cost a billion dollars. That's not what it is. Um as the budget was struck last month, um you know, if there's a $100 in administrative line, the plan is to still have $100, uh this year coming out. it just maybe the positions look different. Um, some of some positions will be consolidated through retirements. Um, so again, we're just expanding some of the job descriptions. So that's really it. So I just wanted to clarify uh and if anyone has any further questions about that, I I'd be glad to answer those uh off off uh this meeting as well. So So I appreciate that uh and progress.
025Thank you. Um Miss Dri, good evening. I just would like to give a quick update on our buildings and grounds. First, uh, and foremost, I'd like to say a a thank you to Miss Stephanie Randazzo and the entire custodial and maintenance staff who worked very hard, uh, and they were in during the spring break. Um, a lot of things have been accomplished. Some of the highlights are uh in Garfield High School. Um we are proud to say two of our water bottle filling stations have been installed. We've also concentrated on the Frank M. Dawson Jr. um Memorial Gymnasium and it is about 95% painted. We've also concentrated on the hallway walls in that area, the ceiling and so forth. Um, I have also have a purchase order for custom wall padding uh for the memorial
026gymnasium which is to be approved um on the meeting uh tonight by the board. Um in addition, the basketball back stops have been um serviced and we're hoping to get them up and working. Um, also on the agenda are some custom logo logo windc screens for the uh exterior athletic complex and also to cover the bleacher area. So we have a lot of things going on and most importantly uh something that was um brought up uh time and time again um we have ordered 100 foot of guard rail for the seml avenue and also for the opposite side on Palisad where the the two corners meet and that's for the safety of the all who are playing there and anyone walking on the sidewalks. That should be done hopefully by the next meeting. Um I
027did also check with uh an update with Dakota um contracting. They are working on the backs stop extension and right the last thing I heard from them um which were on vacation last week is that they are uh it is on back order and we should be seeing that soon. I apologize to anyone here that's having I've seen the videos and pictures of the softballs and the balls that have been in people's front yards and things and um we're doing our best to get that straightened out sooner rather than later. And one exciting thing is on the board is we are going to be um starting an esports program. So, on the board is a um purchase order for all the equipment for uh we're going to call it an esports lab that's going to
028go on Garfield High School. So, that's something exciting. And last but not least, uh because there was many things going on districtwide, we're doing an updated energy audit and the first things that are going to be started will be um LED lighting in the schools. So, we're doing anything we can to see how we could save money um throughout the buildings. And that is it. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Derich. Um, briefly, um, so just a little bit of transparency and something that we're going to be experimenting with in the future. Uh, we're going to be moving public comment to before the votes. Uh, we're going to try that out just so, uh, a lot of the things that have transpired throughout the last year. I know that, uh, people would like their input uh,
029before their input heard before we actually vote on items. So, we're going to be presenting that and giving that a trial run to see how that works out for us. So versus having everybody speak at the end when the votes are already done, we can actually hear input from you guys before we actually, you know, uh, vote on items. So that's something we're going to be starting after the reorg and everything of that nature. Uh, just something that I feel would help the community out a little bit better so they feel more heard than they have been. Uh, thank you. Uh, at this time I'd like to move forward to see if there was any committee reports. I believe not because of everything going on. All right. So, um, let's move forward. Uh, motion to
030go into personnel 7.1 through 7.18. I'll second. Motion by Sanchez. Second by Mr. Porchek. Um, Miss Dal. Mr. Taylor. I Mr. Focino. Hi. Mr. Gaba. Hi. Hi, Dr. Dr. Pivor. Hi. Miss Sanchez. Hi. Mr. Keles. Hi. Mr. Ramos. I. Motion carries. Okay. A motion to go into finance 9.1 through 9.24. Motion by Mr. Taylor. Second. Second. Second by Mr. Ferino. Mitch. Mr. Taylor. I. Mr. Focarino abstain on 9.1 9.2 9.12 I on the arrest. Mr. Gaba I Dr. Porchek I Miss Sanchez Mr. Killes I Mr. Ramos I motion carries. All right. Motion to go into finance. I mean, sorry. Motion to go into education 11.1 through 11.21. So move. Motion by Mr. Fino. Second by Mr. Gaba. Mr. Rich. Mr. Taylor. I Mr. Focarino abstain on 11.6 11.11. I the rest. Mr. Gaba. I Dr.
031Pivore. Hi. Miss Sanchez. Hi, Mr. Kelesz. Hi, Mr. Ramos. I Motion carries. Okay. Motion to go into facilities 13.1 through 13.2. Motion. Miss Sanchez. Second. Mr. Taylor, roll call. Mr. Taylor, I Mr. Mr. Furino uh abstain at 13.2 I on the rest Mr. Gaba I Dr. Porchek I Miss Sanchez Mr. Keles I Mr. Ramos I motion carries all right lastly motion to go into policy 16.1 through 16.2 motion by Miss Sanchez seconded second by Mr. P Warick roll call Mr. Taylor I Mr. Focarino I Mr. Gaba Hi Dr. Porroek Hi Miss Sanchez Hi Mr. Killes I Mr. Ramos I. Motion carries. Okay, that that concludes our voting session of this meeting. At this time, I would like to open up the floor for public comment. Um, public comment, we have a brief statement. Um, you
032have it. Okay. I know it gets tiresome, but we have to re repeat it just for the people that haven't been here before. The Garfield Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest. Please be advised of the following guidelines. Uh members of the public who would like to address the board must state their name and address um their name and address. Each member of the public will be limited to offering no more than five minutes of public comment. No participant shall speak more than once. As as this is a public forum forum, public comments may not in any way be disrespectful, vulgar, or threatening toward any member of the board, district, faculty, administration,
033or staff. If any public comment comments violate these guidelines, the speaker will be asked to refrain from offering any further public comment regardless of whether they have time remaining. Uh in addition, the speaker may be interrupted and his or her privilege to comment terminated if the speaker's comments are disruptive or otherwise violate these guidelines. On behalf of the Garfield Board of Education, thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. All right. Uh we welcome your public comment. Anybody who's uh ready to speak, please approach the mic. Um standard name, address. Don't start my time there, Kurt. Uh, Arlene Catiri, 184 Newton Avenue. Obvious congratulations on your win by the way. Oh, thank you so much. And I was I was really surprised Mr. Tomco didn't invite us into the caucus just to
034get a feel of it. Some board members thought we were invited, but we weren't. I just want to make that clear. But here's some of the things. This all has to do with 7.9 right through 716. I'm sure most of you are aware of when I worked for the school, we had excellent, excellent curriculum directors. We had a director of curriculum. We had eight curriculum supervisors. We had a director of special services that I don't understand why that's on the agenda. We already have a director. I understand that the assistant director of special services is ret um retiring. We have 14 case managers. We have one child psychologist. We have four certified behavior behavioralists. We have two SAT people. We have five high school guidance counselors. We have three middle school counselors. We have a
035director of guidance. We have a director of safety. We have an assistant to the assistant of of of a director of safety. We also have 25 guards. I mean, and all these positions that you are posting, most of them, and I I could be wrong, need a principal certificate. If you have a principal certificate and you're not in a principal's role right now, obviously you're going to get a boost in salary. If you're transferring a principal from a school into that position, that means replacing a principal. I like to know where we're saving money. You also have an extra principal since too bad we're closing Head Start and I understand why we have an extra principal. That principal should be bumping the last principal that was hired. We are here and Mr. Tonka, I wish
036her here to save this district money. Think about the children first. I don't see one thing on this agenda that refers to anything like Wilson reading to help these kids learn more phonics. I haven't seen anything on this about spelling. I haven't seen anything on this about math. It's all creating positions for right now. There's too much there's much more important things that need to be done besides all these directors to or unless you're you're saying our director of whatever is not doing their job. So, we need a director to the director. It's not making any sense to me. And that's about it. Thank [Applause] you. Good evening. My name is Jerry Leford. 77 Morris Avenue, Garfield is where I reside. I was the former federal program supervisor for 15 years. Prior to that, I
037worked as a full-time assistant federal program supervisor for a year and a half. Prior to that, I had five years of experience as a half-time supervisor working in the office in the mornings and teaching in the afternoon. Happens to be at school number eight. I had a lot of experience. I had a lot of opportunity to learn what I needed to learn moving forward prior to being what's the appropriate word promoted to that position. U Mrs. Peter mentioned a word that is exactly what I want to speak about tonight. Wilson is one of the words she mentioned. That's what I'm here to speak about. Dr. Frank Rosco, who was then the assistant director of special ed, and I behind the gym un under the old gym where our director and assistant director or two co-directors
038now have their offices is where I had my office. Dr. Rosco is just a few offices around the corner from me. Dr. Rosco and I spoke in detail about the problem of students not being able to read. It is a critical problem about which I am passionate. Part of my education was in ESL. I was an ESL teacher. My bachelor's degree was in music education. I was a music teacher. So I have a diverse background. I also worked in the corporate sector after a very bad experience teaching music in a urban area. I'm not going to mention the district, but it was really in the ghetto. I was um uh very naive. I thought I was going to bring the love of music to these poor, underprivileged children. And honestly, they chewed me up and
039spit me out. I did not teach for a number of years and I did not go back to teaching until I was 38 years old. In that time I had the opportunity to work in the corporate sector. I worked in finance. I was the national advertising coordinator for Toys R Us when they were in Saddlebrook, New Jersey. I worked for them in Manhattan. So my background is not that of a typical teacher or typical supervisor. Just I want you to know who I am and where I'm coming from, what my background is. The Wilson reading program was put together and brought to Garfield by Dr. Frank Glasco and I to address the needs of the students in this district who have difficulty reading. So as an ESL teacher, I will tell you when you acquire
040a new language, your first skill is to understand that language. The second skill is to be able to speak that language. The third skill is to be able to read that language. And the fourth skill is to be able to write that language. Not just our ESL students, not just our special education students, but general education students in the diverse population of Garfield needed remediation in phonics and learning how to read that was not fully addressed in the reading curriculum. Yes, it was excellent, but it was not excellent enough. It was not excellent enough. The Wilson program was brought into our district. Wilson is in Massachusetts. You must pay for 10 people to be trained if you are bringing a Wilson trainer into your district. You must pay for their transportation, for their lodging, and
041for their food. We happen to have been fortunate enough to have one of our reading specialists, and I will name her because she's no longer employed. Linda Papora was trained to become a Wilson trainer, which meant Garfield could utilize her services and not have to pay for lodging, transportation, or food. We also did not have to have 10 teachers being trained in one cohort. Leford, that's five minutes. You need it in Garfield. That's all I'm saying. Title two pays for it. Title two can provide the funding for it. And Linda Papora might just be willing, and I don't know because I'm speaking off the top of my head, but she just might be willing to come into Garfield and work per DM or per hour and train teachers who have not been trained in this
042district for three years, 102. Let's keep going. You're so neat to be able to read. Miss, I believe you were heard already. You were heard already, please. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next. Anyone else? Anyone else? [Applause] My name is Christian Allen. I am the pastor of House of Worship Christian Church and I've had the honor of serving this city since the year 2008. In the year 2008, our Lord Jesus Christ commissioned us with a divine mandate to serve as a radiant beacon of light and hope to the city of Garfield, New Jersey. This sacred vision was brought to fruition in 2010 when we established our presence at 105 MacArthur Avenue. For a decade, we faithfully ministered as a modest congregation numbering between 50 and 75 devoted members. However, following the onset of COVID
04319, the pandemic, it has been a great challenge for us. We were left with just eight people in our congregation. However, today we are we are seeking a sanctuary large enough to accommodate a flourishing multitude of people because since CO 19, our church went from eight people to this Easter weekend in the city of Garfield, gathering 950 people year after year, year after year, our church has multiplied exponentially, doubling, tripling, and quadrupling. And it's a just a testament to God's favor and providence. Today, we are looking to to gather in a home in Garfield, but we don't find a place large enough. And we are looking for a home in the city of Garfield. Over the past year, we've found ourselves with an increasingly unattendable situation to find a facility that's right now, the one
044that we have is no longer adequate for us. There are men and women of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, languages who are seeking refuge in our community and hope within our doors. We are a resolute in the behalf that God has commissioned us, positioned us to be both the hope and the solution for the city of Garfield, to his to the city of Garfield, the board of education, the council, to the mayor. Nice to meet you, by the way. God has called us both. and he's called us to serve this city, to be an instrument of transformation. And it is our honor to serve you. And it's our honor to be here. And we remain firmly convinced that our continued presence within Garfield is ordained by our Lord Jesus Christ. Though various guys were not in
045church. I love you, but we're not in church. Though various opportunities have arisen and offers of facilities and invitations to relocate in neighboring municipalities, we have said no because God called us to Garfield and we're determined to remain faithfully to that divine assignment. In the recent days, we have received new communication regarding our gatherings held at Garfield High School and previously at this middle school right here. These developments reaffirm our deep conviction and this this attack reaffirms our conviction that our work in this city is not yet complete. We're committed by God's grace to continue advancing his kingdom with the heart of Garfield within the heart of Garfield. And we've engaged in direct communication with the board of education, the office of the superintendent, the city of Garfield, the fire department, and the department of
046the building building occupancy. We possess documental proof that our certificate of occupancy and have and have collaborated closely with the fire department to ensure that our gatherings of Garfield High School are fully compliant within all legal and safety requirements and with the board of education. We've also come here to communicate that we're not gathering for free. It's important to to clar it's important for us to clarify that we did not hold sustained gatherings at the middle school for an entire year. Rather, we we only met here twice during the month of December, specifically for Christmas services, after which we resumed our regular assemblies at the facility located at 319 Past Street, formerly known as Diana's Pastry Shop, where you all would get bread. Now, we serve the bread of life. We're humble and we extend
047our apologies. Mr. Mayor, I'm very sorry if our gatherings at the school have have caused any unintended harm, disruption, to hurt the city of Garfield. Our unwavering mission has always been and continues to be to safeguard to serve this community with compassion, grace and truth that Jesus Christ himself, Jesus exemplified. To esteemed members of the governing body, the board of education, the honorable councilmen and council women who bear the weighty responsibility of directing the affairs of our city. We wish to express to you the solemn truth both that you and I, we have been appointed by God to serve Garfield. As scripture declares, it is the Lord who solely raises up those who govern. Those earthly, though earthly votes may have confirmed our leadership or your leadership here, this is sustained in the hand of
048God. You have been entrusted and appointed by Jesus to govern this city. And we're here to partner with you. We're not here to attack you. We love you and we're praying for you. In the light of this divine mandate, we recognize that we will all one day stand before God and give an account for the stewardship of our roles. With that in mind, we pledge to continue to serve with humility, integrity, and fervent commitment to the flourishing of this city. In this room, there are a few of us represented. Now, you can stand up and make some noise. Out of the 950, I only have a minute. Last stop, families who move from all across the United States, all across the United States to serve the city. And I have one question to ask you.
049Do we matter or do our votes matter? It was Jesus himself who commanded us, saying, "You are the salt of the earth. You're a city on the hill." Chris, that's that's And we have a life that cannot be hidden. We love you, Garfield. Jesus belongs to Garfield. Heat [Applause] up next. Okay. Next. Anyone else? Can I have like two separate times cuz I want to touch on the the church. You have five minutes. Wow. It's rude. I don't know whether or not. Those are the rules. It's 5 minutes. All right. For the uh parishioners of the church, I know why you're here. Because of a post that I put on social media the other day. I was answering the many calls, emails, and texts that I received from residents. I don't know if everybody here
050knows that I am the new mayor of the city of Garfield, and I had to answer them. I did not put down the church. I just wanted to make sure I put out there that it was legal to do if it was being done correctly. That's what I put. You can read the post. It's there. Now, I did say I mentioned Mr. Ramos. Is there a special favor going on? Because he's the board president. I did post that and there's a reason why. Because people are asking me these questions. So, I post it on Facebook. I have nothing against anyone's religion, any church, any gathering. I just want to make sure that I answer the residents of Garfield correctly. If I put anything in that post that's incorrect, I apologize. I thought I vetted the
051information properly and I put it out there to answer the residents that were calling me. And if you don't think so, if you doubt what I'm saying, I could show you at least two dozen emails, two dozen texts, and probably 30 phone calls that I received. So, I just want to the church, that's my message to you. Nothing against anyone that worships the Lord. Nothing. I just want to make sure it's being done right because people are questioning me. That's it. All right, let's get into the board of ed stuff now. Okay. Uh real real uh short and sweet. Student of the month. I'd like to congratulate the young lady Rebecca. Just keep reaching for the stars. Your accomplishments are tremendous. I'd like to congratulate Mr. Alan Foggarino on becoming the master board member for
052getting recognized for that. It's an accomplishment that I believe Mr. Taco said has never happened in our district before and is very rare to happen in the state. I want to recognize you and congratulate you, Mr. I also want to congratulate all those athletes that performed at the Special Olympics. Um, I heard the teachers that were there. Mr. Topco was there. It was cold cuz I remember seeing pictures on Facebook and uh you know your your actions and your uh competition was noticed by everyone and I'm very proud of you and every if you're still here I'd like to congratulate all of them. [Applause] Also also I'd like to recognize Ganna Eveina. We recognized her at our council meeting last week. Her uh she's a straight A student. You you heard Mr. Riggs up here
053saying it, so I'm not going to bore you with very very impressive what this young lady does. Practices 5 days a week, uh you know, trains with boxing, uh jiu-jitsu, MMA fighting, and and still gets straight A's. That's very impressive. So, I want to congratulate her. And like Mr. Rig said if there's anything that we can do to support her as a as a city, let let's all uh get together and do that, please. So, I want to congratulate her and the family. Now, Miss Neridge, you know, you did in your little report that we got two bottle stations filled. You got stickers placed somewhere. I I didn't really hear you because there was I just didn't hear you correctly. uh guardrails, which is way overdue. The guardrails should have been put up when that
054field was open because it's very dangerous over there. Um the back stop extension. I was going to bring that up. I'm sure it had to get out somehow because mysteriously now it's already on order, back order. That thing should have been put on. That should have been ordered a long time ago. I'm getting calls from residents in that area that the balls are going in their yard and it it shouldn't. I mean, it's not nothing big to get an extension. It's not nothing big at all. It should have been done. And you also said, "We're getting LED lights." I want to bring this. Do you remember this, Mr. Status? You could take your stickers, your LED lights, and your two bottle stations. What about the boilers that give our children heat during the winter months?
055When are they being ordered? Mr. Tonko, I'm going to advise you. Why don't you you you have a lot of connections. Call the state or or or the uh SDA. Ask them. It's a necessity. We need this. We don't have the money for it, but maybe they can fund it for us. I know when I was the board president, I believe I don't think Mr. Leo's here, is he? We got a boiler from the state. I think we got $285,000 to replace a boiler. So, Mr. Bronco, I would appreciate you checking that out, please. You know, Mr. Duridge, Mr. Garfield, you're at 10. All right. Thank you, Mr. Kaiser. Thank you. Much appreciated. [Applause] Anyone else? Okay. Chair, thank you. Um just wanted to just go over a few things that were brought up um
056with regard to Wilson and all the reading and whatnot. Um so there's there the three-year timeline. The Wilson reading program is still prominent here. Um that's why one of the job descriptions you see there at 17.16 includes MTSS, a director MTSS. That's how expanded that program's been. I think the teachers will tell you that. Um it's a little bit different than it was when it first came about many years ago. Um we do have train to trainer here. Same thing still. So those things are still happening. Just want to make sure that um you know none of this is replacing anything that's been successful here that our teachers do with day in and day out. Uh what this is doing is enhancing some of the roles uh of individuals um that may be put in
057places or or um you know to support uh the staff, support the administration. etc. Um, so to go back with what Miss Peter said, these are not um, you know, again, these are not added positions. These are positions, position controls of things that this board uh, has been talking about. You're coming on things we can that we can talk about moving forward. There's no positions connected to it. These are just um, position controls and job descriptions. If you if you uh well now it's approved when it becomes public then the job description uh with regard to uh all the directors on 7.9 that's just uh one description now for all the dire directors together it's not additional uh there already is a director of curriculum there already is director of special services there already is
058an assistant director which is not part of that job description so these are just uh some of these are just changes some of those positions to enhance some of those roles um they're they are uh again um nothing that's that is going to change what the board has already struck as a line item for the amount of money they're spending on administration. So it it should be the same. So um but again that's for when this board reorganizes to make that decision. These are just uh position controls that are put in here. Doesn't mean they have to be filled. Uh just to be clear on that. Um directors and supervisors right now uh are in the same unit. um which is something that we're we're uh you know something that's an anomaly to me uh
059but it's a Garfield thing and it's uh it's a unit thing. However, those those positions are on the same scale. So there won't be much uh if any of a change a lot of these promotions or a lot of these uh new positions that uh individuals may garner uh maybe lateral moves as well. So that's but again that's not even you know tonight with the affirmative approval of the board now the board can sit down as it reorganizes and talk about this and what we're going to post moving forward. The one of the most important things on that we haven't talked about is the lead teacher position. Uh and what this does is I think we had this years ago here but what this does is it allows uh a teacher to take on more
060of an administrative uh role uh in the absence of his or her um principal. Uh some of that's got to be negotiated as an impact. Uh, but we can't do that until the board uh approves it, which they did tonight. Um, I um and I I've in all my years doing this, I' I've never invited new members to a caucus. I don't know if that's something here, but I I didn't do it last time either. I would have if that was if that was the something to do. So, again, that wasn't done purposely. Um, but I I've never done that. Um, but moving forward after the board reorganizes, we can look at these again. Maybe there's a post, maybe there's not. Um but this is again what we've been talking about for the past 10
061months uh with regard to articulation and different things that that were some needs. So that's the thing at this time I'd like to open up the floor for board member comments. Um anybody like comment? Mr. President, first I want to thank you for uh recognizing the loss of the pope this past week during a moment of silence. Uh in addition, thank you to you, Mr. President, Vice President Quillis are my fellow board members, Dr. Tomco, Miss Durich, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate the recognition you give me tonight. And uh I also want to thank my friends and most importantly my family for their support and my wife who has tolerated some of the time away from home so I could accomplish some of these things. Congratulations to the student of the month, Rebecca Delgado. Uh the
062grand national winner for my Thai, Giana Eveina, especially the Special Olympigans that we had recognized tonight. Uh it's just amazing as to what they were able to perform. Uh again, thank you everybody and I appreciate uh the recognition tonight. Oh, hand clap. Exciting. All right. had to help you out there, Alan. All right. Uh, anyone else? Any other board member comments? All right. Um, so I'd like to thank everybody for for making it out tonight. Uh, there are a couple things that I would like to address. So, being that, um, the church came out, I'm hoping, Mr. Garnto, that you look to correct the items that are on your post. Um, there is a separate thing that, you know, there's there might be some undertones or something hidden behind the scenes that maybe I'm not
063aware of and that we can have a man-to-man discussion about. Um, wrongs that could have possibly been done in the past that I'm in discussions of correcting that have been done to you that I maybe not may not have been as uh in the loop as I should have been about the things that were going on and a little bit ignorant to the things that I voted on. So, I look forward to possibly finding some kind of union to where, you know, you don't have to meet with all of us, but you can meet with me and we can have these discussions and actually move this city forward. There's certain issues that we could address, but I'm not going to put them all out here. I'm looking and I'm hoping that Mansin and you correct
064the things that are online. Being that uh the lawyer sits next to me does not mean that I have my own personal lawyer. We saw that in a post. you know uh things are sent to me whether I want to you know I don't know if people are doing it intentionally to to continue the conflict between you and I which I don't feel is necessary but you may feel is necessary understand that I have no animosity towards you in any way shape or form there may be have been an issue uh during my grandfather's wake because you caught me at a bad time and any man in this room will know we had our issues beforehand exactly and I did apologize, but that's neither here nor there. The fact the fact that you have continually
065attacked me for my Bible study, for my faith, for all these things, they're all online and I come here and I ask you in front of all these people to begin to correct these things and speak. There's is I'm right across the street from you. You can ask me these questions and we can talk rather than you having to go broadcast things online trying to have this negative angle on everything. There's no need for it. I'm going to be honest with you. There's no need to defend what happened today that you and I respect everyone here. But you know what? You used the wrong platform to do it. Did I? Did I? Yes, you did. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm addressing. Uh, no they did not. You're making stuff up again. Again. Again. You're making stuff
066up, but I'm not here to debate with you. I'm not here to debate with you. All right. Mr. Mr. Garto, please. Yes. It would be nice if you corrected those things. You said you want to work with the community. I'm asking you. I'm not telling you. I'm asking you to correct things. Mr. Garto, please. You have to have the court. please. Okay. So, um I'd like to thank those of you that won your election. I look forward to working with you in the future regardless of my stance in whatever it is in in this position on this board. Um I'd like to thank the community for coming out. I'd like to thank the community for expressing their concerns and their needs. Uh regardless of everything that is going on, we look forward to serving the
067community in whatever capacity that we're able to as well as everyone else that's that's here. Um, I thank you for your time and I hope you guys are able to enjoy the rest of the week. We look forward to seeing you again for the second reorg of the year next week. Thank you. At this time, I'd like a motion to close the meeting. Motion by Miss Sanchez, second by Mr. Ba. All in favor? I