1 Minutes of the Paterson Board of Education
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MINUTES OF THE PATERSON BOARD OF EDUCATION REGULAR MEETING September 19, 2007 – 7:00 p.m. John F. Kennedy High School Presiding: Comm. Andre Sayegh, President Present: Dr. Michael Glascoe, State District Superintendent Ms. Frances Finkelstein, Business Administrator Monica Peck, Esq., General Counsel Mr. Mark Kramer, State Monitor Comm. Joseph Atallo Comm. Alonzo Moody *Comm. Chauncey Brown Comm. Waheedah Muhammad Comm. Jonathan Hodges Comm. Lawrence Spagnola Comm. Errol Kerr Comm. Willa Mae Taylor, Vice President The Salute to the Flag was led by Travis Gray, 12th Grade, Marching Knights. Comm. Kerr read the Open Public Meetings Act: The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act was enacted to insure the right of the public to have advance notice of, and to attend the meetings of the Paterson Public School District, as well as other public bodies at which any business affecting the interest of the public is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this law, the Paterson Public School District has caused notice of this meeting: Regular Meeting September 19, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. John F. Kennedy High School 61-127 Preakness Avenue Paterson, New Jersey to be published by having the date, time and place posted in the office of the City Clerk of the City of Paterson, at the entrance of the Paterson Public School offices, and by sending notice of the meeting to the Arab Voice, El Diario, the Italian Voice, the North Jersey Herald & News, and The Record. PRESENTATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS Dr. Michael Glascoe: We will now have the John F. Kennedy band play the “Star-Spangled Banner.” 1 9/19/07 Comm. Sayegh: I ask that we rise once again please for the “Star-Spangled Banner.” (Performance by the Marching Knights) Dr. Glascoe: Ladies and gentlemen, you just heard from a wonderful band that has ranked first place in the U.S. Band Association’s Central Jersey Regional Competition. So let me make a formal introduction to the marching band of John F. Kennedy High School under the direction of Music Instructor Juan Leonardo. The Marching Knights are comprised of 100 student musicians. They have excelled in numerous local and state competitions and are now preparing to compete in the U.S. Scholastic Band Association’s National Band Competition in Baltimore on November 16. Since only the top scoring bands are selected to compete at this level this is quite an accomplishment. This coming weekend you can hear the Marching Knights perform on Saturday at Barringer High School in Newark for the Kennedy-Newark football game followed by the Brick Memorial Band Competition in Brick Township. Now I would like to introduce to you the John F. Kennedy High School Marching Knights who will perform selections from “Images of the Caribbean: The Bullfighter Lives.” Good luck at the national competition. (Performance by the Marching Knights) Mr. Juan Leonardo: Dr. Glascoe, I would like to thank you on behalf of the high school and Dr. Miller for having performed for you tonight. This is early in the season. We have been working on this since July. We still have some work to do, but by Saturday the young ladies in front of you are going to do a tremendous job. These kids work all the time and it is a real pleasure to be here with them. I wanted to acknowledge the Raiders. They are a drum corps, a professional marching band from Wayne, New Jersey. They came out over the summer in July and did a workshop with the kids. They love the school so much they actually allowed us to use their mallet percussion for our marching season. These instruments are worth a lot of money but they said, “You guys work hard, so let us help the children of Paterson.” They are not here tonight but I wanted to thank them publicly. Now we will leave you with this nice little cadence that the children want to play for you. (Performance by the Marching Knights) Dr. Glascoe: That was fantastic. Now I would like to transition to some presentations for tonight. I would like to start off with a wonderful gift and presentation from Citibank in Totowa. I am going to ask Mrs. Irene Sterling and her guest to come forward. $10,000 Check Presentation by Manager of Citibank in Totowa Ms. Irene Sterling: Thank you Dr. Glascoe. We are very pleased tonight to accept a check for $10,000 from Citibank Foundation on behalf of the Navigation 101 program here in Paterson. This year every sixth grader will have an opportunity to have an advisor and to participate in an advisory program that will help them develop a portfolio that helps them determine what their interests are and investigate how to turn their interests into a high school program and a post-secondary program. And in the spring every sixth grader will present a student led conference with their parents and advisors. We are very grateful to Citibank for their support of this project. 2 9/19/07 Ms. Helen Stu: Irene, thank you and thank you so much for having us here this evening. As many of you know, Citibank has been around for a long time. It started back in 1812 so it is almost 200 years old. Finally they are starting to expand here in New Jersey and right now your closest one is in Totowa, New Jersey. My name is Helen Stu Blackey and I am the Community Relations Officer for Citibank in New Jersey, and with me here tonight is Judith Rosenbloom and she is the Financial Center Manager at the Citibank in Totowa, which is not very far away on Route 46 so please come to visit her. We are hoping that we will be able to open up a Citibank here in Paterson very soon. Now without further ado, we are so pleased to be able to present you, Irene, and the Paterson Education Fund with this grant for $10,000. Dr. Glascoe: They are going to take the check with them because I don’t think I can get it through the ATM machine tonight. But we truly appreciate this wonderful gift and we really appreciate the hard work of the Paterson Education Fund. We know that Navigation 101 is really going to support the achievement of our students, particularly those students in the middle grades. So once again I want to thank all of our partners for helping us out. Equine-Assisted Therapy Program Dr. Glascoe: Now we are going to be treated to a wonderful video that I saw a couple of months ago. It is really using the love of horses for therapy for some of our most challenged youngsters. Nancy Ianzano is going to talk to us a little bit about the video and we are going to watch this wonderful video and our kids in action with horses. Ms. Nancy Ianzano: Good evening. I am Nancy Ianzano and I am very happy that for tonight instead of explaining to you about therapeutic riding I can actually show you a video about it, which I think will be terrific and you will totally enjoy it. I just want to thank a few people who have helped me with this. It is a really short list. It is Laura Constable and her office, Alan Knight for presenting and putting together this video for you, Grace Ayala for always helping me with the financial part, Dr. Dorothy Carcamo, the assistant superintendents for her continued support for this program, Dr. Carreras, Dr. Poteat, and Captain Smith who were nice enough to take the time out of their busy schedules. They actually came up to the farm, saw the children, met the parents and shared the day with us. So I am very happy and thank them all. Please enjoy the video. (Video Presentation of Equine-Assisted Therapy Program) Dr. Glascoe: Do we have any of the students or parents in the audience who took part in the program? Again, I want to thank Nancy and all of the other staff members who made such a valuable program worthwhile. As you can see, these youngsters are going to be entering or have entered into this school year in a very positive and confident manner as a result of this wonderful program. So I want to thank them again. Honoring the Youth Games Participants Dr. Glascoe: I know that we have to change the tape for another presentation but while we are doing that I want to ask Comm. Sayegh to come down and join me in honoring the participants in this year’s Youth Games. I think I saw Mr. Wimberley come in also so he can join us as well. 3 9/19/07 Comm. Sayegh: Thank you Dr. Glascoe. The Youth Games were the brainchild of former New York City Mayor John Lindsey. The purpose of creating this nationwide competition was to give youth, especially urban youth, an opportunity to compete on a national level during the summer. This past summer our youth from Paterson made us very proud. They brought home gold medals, silver medals, and bronze medals competing against Oakland, California, Birmingham, Alabama, and Newark, New Jersey. So at this time I would ask each and every one of you to give a warm welcome to our director of division of recreation here in the City of Paterson, a real credit to our community, Mr. Benjie Wimberley. Mr. Benjie Wimberley: On behalf of the City of Paterson Recreation Department and our many young people throughout the City of Paterson, it was a great honor to represent Paterson at the U.S.