09-18-19 Regular

MINUTES OF THE PATERSON BOARD OF EDUCATION REGULAR MEETING September 18, 2019 – 7:10 p.m. John F. Kennedy High School Presiding: Comm. Nakima Redmon, Vice President Present: Ms. Eileen F. Shafer, State District Superintendent Ms. Susana Peron, Deputy Superintendent Robert Murray, Esq., General Counsel Comm. Emanuel Capers Comm. Robinson Rondon Comm. Jonathan Hodges Comm. Kenneth Simmons Comm. Manuel Martinez *Comm. Oshin Castillo, President Comm. Joel Ramirez Absent: Comm. Eddy Olivares The Salute to the Flag and Posting of the Colors was led by the John F. Kennedy High School JROTC. Comm. Ramirez 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 18, 2019 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, on the district’s website, and by sending notice of the meeting to the Arab Voice, El Diario, the Italian Voice, the North Jersey Herald & News, and The Record. *Comm. Castillo enters the meeting at 7:12 p.m. PATERSON READERS, TOMORROW’S LEADERS Page 1 09/18/19 Ms. Shafer: Good evening. If we have any children in the audience, they can come forward and select a book. Are there any children? They’re all home doing their homework. REPORT OF STATE DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT Ms. Shafer: Welcome to the 2019-2020 school year. We opened up rather smoothly, except for some bus situations and those situations were dealt with immediately. We continue to monitor the buses and the companies that are not fulfilling their contract the way in which they should be. I started on Monday visiting all of the freshmen throughout the district and spending a period with them in an assembly-type program talking about the importance of ninth grade and the transition from eighth grade to ninth grade, as well as some of the available opportunities for them. At this point, I’ve completed three and I have two more this week and the remainder next week. We did see some success in our Advance Placement courses from 2017 to 2018. We doubled the number of students who earned a score of three or higher. We went from 43 students to 86 students, and we also increased the number of AP courses that are available to our high school students. Fifty Paterson Public School teachers won a $200 spending spree in the dollar store to decorate and buy items for their students and this was a donation from Mike Adams who plays for the NFL. Cicely Warren, our assistant superintendent, oversaw the process and it was a success. In going back and forth over email with some of the teachers they were really thrilled to have that opportunity. I participated in the P>TECH Summer Bridge Program. Our P>TECH freshmen had a Summer Bridge Program for two weeks and they had an Interdisciplinary Project Presentation. I also attended the New Teacher Orientation. We prepared a video PowerPoint for all of the teachers to see from me on day one. I went to some of the schools where new principals were being introduced to parents and that was at Dr. Frank Napier, Dr. Hani Awadallah, and Young Men’s Leadership Academy. I participated in the city 911 Memorial Ceremony for Kenneth Lira who was killed during the 911 attack. Yesterday, Darryl Strawberry, from the New York Mets and the New York Yankees, was at Eastside High School talking about the effects of drugs and alcohol. We have been holding Mock Reviews for the HSPs, the Highly Skilled Professionals, in completing the scorecard, which is a report that will be going down to the State as to how we’re doing in transitioning to local control. As you know, we just completed our first year. There will be two more reports that will be sent this year and there is the actual scorecard that they keep track of. It will be presented at the November State Board of Education and right after that they will be presenting it to our Board right here. I visited over the first two weeks about 25 schools and will continue to visit the schools and meet with the principals and visit classrooms as time allows. We held our second All City Band meeting. This is an event that we’re trying to put on, on November 27, which is the Eastside High School/Kennedy High School Turkey Bowl at 6:00. We want the halftime show to be any alumni who participated in band or flag or dance when they went to schools, and also all of our students who play instruments in grades seven through twelve. Come out! It should be a great show. That concludes my report, Madam President. REPORT OF BOARD PRESIDENT Comm. Redmon: There is no Board President report at the moment. Page 2 09/18/19 PUBLIC COMMENTS It was moved by Comm. Martinez, seconded by Comm. Ramirez that the Public Comments portion of the meeting be opened. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried. Comm. Redmon: Just keep in mind that each person has three minutes allotted to speak. Ms. Rosie Grant: Good evening, Madam Chair, Commissioners, Madam Superintendent, Madam Deputy, staff, and community. I would like to present to you our Educated Voter’s Guide for the 2019 School Board election. There are some available on the table over there. As of Monday, they will be published on the Paterson Education Fund’s website in English and in Spanish at paterson-education.org. So, I invite you and I invite the community to log on and take a look at the voter’s guide so that you can make some informed choices for our School Board. Thank you to all the candidates for participating in this year's voter’s guide. I’ll also announce that the candidate’s forum will be on Monday, October 7th. We will gather at 5:30 and start filming soon after. So, we encourage people who are coming to be there at 5:30 here at the John F. Kennedy complex in the TV studio and I brought you copies. The second thing I would like to announce is that I've started a Go Fund Me because I believe in arts education and I love music and I would like to see 100 people march at the Thanksgiving game. I won't be here because I go away for Thanksgiving, but I’ll see the reports. It's on my Facebook page, Rosie Grant, it's on the Paterson Education Fund Facebook page, and I encourage everyone here and everyone hearing this to please give. I can't tell you how much to give, but I do know that if 100 people give $50 each, that’s our goal and the band can have all the instruments, uniforms, and supplies that they need for the day. Please give to the Facebook campaign. I gave the first $50 so that I could put my money where my mouth is. Thank you so much. Ms. Denise Pelosi: Good evening everyone. My name is Denise Pelosi. I am a teacher at School No. 5. I've been in the district for 19 years and I love my job. I'm never out. I come every day and I do what I have to do. I follow the rules and I follow the procedures. But I had a situation this summer that completely frustrated me to the point of me being here. There was nowhere to turn, so I decided that I would tell everyone at once what the situation was. Bear with me while I go through exactly what happened. I will not name the people in the situation because for some of them it was part of their job description. Since I'm rarely out, I had to buy back my sick time. I have 180 sick days. Every summer, I buy back 10 of them so that I can use that as my summer pay. Here's what happened. On July 15th, you usually get your payment. For the last two years, I did not. This year, I called payroll first and I asked what happened. They said: “I can't find your name on the paperwork.” I said: “What do I need to do?” They said: “You can't do anything because the person who handles that is not here.” I said: “Who's above that person? When she's out, who does the job?” They said: “There isn't anybody but we’ll look into it.” The following day, I went down to HR and said that I wanted to speak to someone who could help me with this. A woman came out and said: “I really can't help you, but I don’t want you to go unattended. So, I’ll speak to you.” I explained the situation. I handed in my paperwork on June 28th, I saw her put in the envelope with everybody else’s, and lo and behold mine was gone.

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