MINUTES of the PATERSON BOARD of EDUCATION REGULAR MEETING October 12, 2005 – 7:00 P.M. John F. Kennedy High School Presiding
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MINUTES OF THE PATERSON BOARD OF EDUCATION REGULAR MEETING October 12, 2005 – 7:00 p.m. John F. Kennedy High School Presiding: Comm. Chauncey I. Brown, III, MBM, President Present: Dr. Michael Glascoe, State District Superintendent Mr. Agostino Rottino, Interim Assistant Superintendent of Operations Monica Peck, Esq., General Counsel Comm. Joseph Atallo Comm. Andre Sayegh Comm. Jonathan Hodges Comm. Lawrence Spagnola Comm. Alonzo Moody Comm. Willa Mae Taylor Comm. Juan Santiago Comm. Daniel Vergara The Salute to the Flag was led by Miss Luthfa Ali, 12th Grade, National Honor Society. Comm. Vergara 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 October 12, 2005 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 Al-Zaman, El Diario, the Italian Voice, the New Jersey Forum, the North Jersey Herald & News, and The Record. Ms. Michele VanHoven: Ladies and gentlemen of the Board and Superintendent Glascoe, my name is Michele VanHoven and I am one of the choir teachers over here at John F. Kennedy High School and lead teacher for BRAVO Academy. I am very pleased to present to you this evening JFK’s Concert Choir. (Performance by John F. Kennedy High School Concert Choir) Dr. Glascoe: On behalf of the School Board and the school district, we really appreciate starting our School Board meetings off with something centered around our children. This goes without saying – Children First. This will be a new part of our School Board Page 1 10/12/05 meetings. At each and every Regular School Board Meeting, we will make every attempt to kick off our meetings with something centered around our children and this was our first time out. Stay tuned - more is to come. REPORT OF STATE DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT Dr. Glascoe: I want to remind everyone that October 17th through October 21st is designated as School Violence Awareness Week. We know that our staff and students will be engaged in many different kinds of activities and we would like your support with all of those activities, which will include guest speakers, assembly programs, and a host of reading materials, all on awareness regarding school violence. Our school district received notification that we will receive honorable mention in the New Jersey School Boards Association Annual School Communications Competition. This is in the category of Audio Visual Media – A Whole New World Kindergarten at MLK. This is the handiwork of Mitch Izenberg and we really appreciate his efforts in putting us on the map. In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Equity and Diversity Council will present a special cultural program featuring The “Rhythms of the Heart” Ensemble this Friday at John F. Kennedy High School. I believe the performance will be at 9:00 a.m. and then a repeat performance at 10:00 a.m. I hope those are the correct times. The school district also wants to acknowledge Ramadan, a month of prayer, fasting and renewal for our Muslim community and around the world. The time period for this is October 4th through November 2nd and 3rd. The staff at MJM Parent Resource Center is currently conducting their Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive for needy families of our community. I would urge all of us to support this effort, as you have in the past, with dry goods and can items, which will be collected at the Center. I think all of you know it is located at 133 Ellison Street and we are going to run this through the end of October. The collection time period will be from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. Here is a telephone number that you can call if you need additional information – 973-321-0880. There have been numerous fundraising activities around the victims of Katrina and Rita, and we are proud to announce that our students in the district have really done an outstanding job. They have raised over $14,000, which was presented to the Red Cross. Congratulations to John F. Kennedy High School on celebrating their 40th Anniversary. There was a gala event this past week and it was held at the Brownstone. I think a lot of people out in the audience were at that celebration and I am sure you remember Dr. Atallo doing the electric slide. He didn’t know I was going to bring that up, but we do have film to prove it. It was a great occasion and one of the things that both Dr. Atallo and I mentioned was that it was such a legacy and connection. You had numbers and numbers of alumni of John F. Kennedy, but you also had the teachers and they weren’t necessarily alumni. They just came back because of the connection and that is what community is all about. I was privileged to have an opportunity to be involved. The John F. Kennedy High School Social Studies Department is holding its annual voter registration drive. I understand that to date Kennedy has registered 105 students and 5 teachers. So keep up the good work. Creative Writing and Piano students from Rosa Parks School of Fine and Performing Arts will appear on the television show, Classroom Close-Up. They did an appearance back in May ’05, as I understand it, and this is going to be aired on Monday, October 17th at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday, October 22nd at 7:00 a.m., so you will have to get up early to watch it. It will be on NJN, so we certainly would like to watch that and cheer on our students. In conclusion, I would like to thank all of our principals and staffs for the work that they have done through the first month and a half of the school year. As I mentioned probably in my first remarks, because of certainly the lateness of my arrival and last minute details we worked very hard to get school off to a great start. I believe it is paying big dividends. I will be going back out into the schools interacting with the students and staff, making sure that we do all of the things that are necessary to make Page 2 10/12/05 sure that our students achieve at a high level and above all to keep Children First. Thank you very much. REPORT OF PRESIDENT Comm. Brown: First, I want to start off by thanking my colleagues. Last month we had our first Board retreat and we spent all day discussing how we are going to function as a Board. I want to thank all of my Board members for vigorously being involved and participating. It was a very rewarding experience that we all engaged in along with the Superintendent. I just want to name a few things that we established as a result of that Board retreat. We established four committees to begin to not only provide assistance and oversight for the district, but to look at ways where we can assist the administration with improving district performance and function. The four areas at this time that we have identified are a policy committee, a facilities committee, a human resources committee, and a joint governance committee. The first three are pretty self- explanatory, but the main intent and purpose of the joint governance committee is so that we can begin dialogue and collaboration with the city on how we are going to provide the best facilities and services for students. Next, I want to also thank all of the hard work that the Long Range Facility Committee put into helping us to compile our Five-Year Facility Plan. It took a lot of work and time, and I personally and on behalf of the Board want to thank them for their efforts. Also, I would like to congratulate John F. Kennedy on their 40th Anniversary. I am an alumni of John F. Kennedy, but I apologize for not being there. Also, to wrap up my brief comments, I think we are very, very lucky here this year to have Dr. Glascoe as our Superintendent, who has begun not only to grasp and harness the sensitivity of the community, but understands the needs of the children. I want to not only thank Dr. Glascoe, but I want to thank my colleagues for their support in the work that we are doing here for children and the work of Dr. Glascoe. You will see significant changes with all of our leadership up here and I am very, very proud to be a member of the Board of Education. Thank you very much. PUBLIC COMMENTS ON AGENDA ITEMS ONLY It was moved by Comm. Sayegh, seconded by Comm. Santiago that the Public Comments on Agenda Items Only portion of the meeting be opened. Comm. Brown: Last month I believe offline at the workshop meeting we talked about maybe redoing our public portion to allow, if possible, both agenda and non-agenda items to be discussed.