MINUTES OF THE PATERSON BOARD OF EDUCATION REGULAR MEETING
December 15, 2004 – 7:00 p.m. Eastside High School
Presiding: Comm. Jonathan Hodges, President
Present: Dr. Dennis Clancy, Interim State District Superintendent Mr. Michael Azzara, Assistant Superintendent of Operations Mr. Sidney Sayovitz, General Counsel
Comm. Joseph Atallo Comm. Andre Sayegh Comm. Alonzo Moody Comm. Willa Mae Taylor Comm. Juan Santiago Comm. Daniel Vergara
Absent: Comm. Leslie Agard-Jones Comm. Donald Generals Comm. Chauncey Brown
The Salute to the Flag was led by Yajaira Acevedo and Gerard Robinson, JROTC.
Comm. Sayegh 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 December 15, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. Eastside High School 150 Park 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.
Comm. Hodges: There is going to be a change in the agenda. The Report of the State District Superintendent will in fact occur after some presentations. Actually, it will occur after the public comments on agenda items only. We are going to proceed at this time to Grant Award to Roberto Clemente School from Washington Mutual Bank.
Page 1 12/15/04 PRESENTATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS
Grant Award to Roberto Clemente School from Washington Mutual Bank
Dr. Clancy: I would like to ask Lourdes Rodriguez, Principal of Roberto Clemente School, to come to the podium please. In way of explanation, Roberto Clemente was awarded the Star School status. They join Rosa Parks and so we have two Star Schools in the Paterson School District. On behalf of the Board and the school district, I would like to congratulate Lourdes and the staff and the students at Roberto Clemente.
Ms. Lourdes Rodriguez: Thank you Dr. Clancy. I have two of my fourth grade teachers with me, Ms. Blasi and Ms. Grieder, some of our children, and Mr. Brazil from the Washington Mutual Bank who is going to make the presentation.
Mr. Matt Brazil: Thank you for letting us be here tonight. My name is Matt Brazil and I am a regional manager for Washington Mutual Bank. I can honestly say it is a pleasure to be here tonight with a number of my employees to make a very special presentation to the Roberto Clemente School here in Paterson. One of the things that are critically important for Washington Mutual, outside of just the banking realm, is the effort and teamwork that we create with our local schools. We do that in a couple of ways. One way we do it is with dollars – grants. Another way we do it is with our volunteerism. Tonight we are here to make this special presentation because of that volunteerism. So it really goes hand-in-hand. Every October we have a special promotion and we call it our Class Acts. It is a wide-scale opportunity for all of our employees to get involved with the school systems across the entire country. To motivate our employees to do this, Washington Mutual has created five grants that are given nationwide. Four of those grants are for $1,000 apiece. The grand prize grant is worth $5,000. We would be very happy to be here tonight to give you guys a check for $1,000 but that is not the case. We have with us the grand prize check for $5,000 and at this time we would like to donate it to the Roberto Clemente School.
Ms. Rodriguez: We would like to present this plaque to the bank. The plaque says, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” That is a quote by Winston Churchill. We present this to the Washington Mutual Bank in appreciation for your generosity to our children at the Roberto Clemente School, Paterson, New Jersey, on December 15, 2004. Thank you so much.
Comm. Hodges: Principal Rodriguez, on behalf of the Board of Education let me extend my profound thanks for your efforts and my heartfelt congratulations. Thank you very much.
Presentation to the Jada Williams Foundation
Comm. Hodges: At this time, we are going to ask Joanne Riviello to come forward.
Ms. Joanne Riviello: Before I ask Mr. Vergara to come down, I would like to just thank Dr. Clancy, the Paterson school community, and the City of Paterson at large for helping me support a family from Paterson who is in great need. Dr. Clancy, thank you for your support and the outstanding effort we have had so far for the Jada Williams fund. To Mrs. Lyde, Mr. Moody and all of those who supported the basketball marathon, as far as myself and the Williams family, we appreciate all the dedication and hard work you have put into this endeavor. At this point I haven’t received all of the canisters that are out in the Paterson Public Schools but I will tell you that we are
Page 2 12/15/04 halfway to our $50,000 commitment that we made. So that is really exciting for us and I truly appreciate the support from all of you. At this time I think Mr. Vergara has something to say. To those of you who don’t know, this is Shakira Fairfax and Shakira is Jada’s mom. Jada is at home this evening because it is really too cold for her to come out at this time.
Comm. Taylor: I don’t know if everyone knows what is wrong with Jada. Jada has a special sickness.
Comm. Vergara: I would like to say thanks to the district for helping out in this cause. Jada Williams is a three year old and we are doing everything to support her. These children that are here tonight are members of Scout Troupe 911 in Paterson. They heard about the cause and they said they wanted to come and help. So they all got together and under the supervision of their troupe leaders and myself were able in three and a half hours to collect a certain amount that they would like to present tonight. The total is $1,200 that they will be presenting to the family this evening. I just ask everyone to please continue to support this cause, the Jada Williams Foundation. When you have students like this from our school district who are doing positive things we also have to acknowledge them. So I would like to thank all these children for a wonderful job well done.
Ms. Riviello: I was probably negligent at the beginning. Jada is a three year old. She is a twin and she was diagnosed on September 10th with ALL, which is a form of leukemia. Her mother, at that time, couldn’t take a childcare leave because she didn’t have enough time in at her job to do so. That is why I set up this fund. I can’t thank the Paterson community enough because the support has truly been outstanding and it has really been a lesson to me in terms of how we can rally together when we need to and certainly in terms of continuing the faith. If I can ask one thing of you, although your financial support has been amazing, if you can continue to keep Jada in your prayers I think she is going to make it through. I truly do appreciate it. Thank you and have a nice holiday.
Recognition of Former Board Member William M. Kline
Comm. Hodges: Tonight we are going to be recognizing an individual who I first met about 10 years ago. I must say this is a gentleman who beat me in my first race for the School Board and I have never quite forgiven him for that. I want to say that when it comes to integrity, honor, dedication and sheer love of Paterson’s children, he has caused me to come in second every single time again. Mr. William ‘Bill’ Kline has over 47 years of service in the Paterson School District. I believe he started out as a teacher, vice principal, principal, and assistant superintendent. He has been a Board member and Board President over the course of those years. His efforts have been quite remarkable, and his accomplishments likewise. This community will truly miss a man who has shown this kind of commitment to its potential future. So on behalf of the Board of Education and in grateful appreciation for your years of service to the Paterson Board of Education and indeed the entire Paterson Public School District, I wish to thank you and give you these very simple tokens of our appreciation. Mr. Kline, please come forward. Mr. Kline’s leaving was rather sudden. We ordered an additional gift for him which has not arrived but we are going to give him a pen that I have fashioned personally. Please grace us with a few words, sir.
Mr. William M. Kline: First of all, I apologize for… No, I don’t. I don’t apologize for being late because if you are the star you are supposed to make a dramatic entrance. Seriously, this is an eventful evening for me. I hate to be leaving but I am going to
Page 3 12/15/04 leave. First of all, I want to thank my wife for hanging with me all these many years. If you would just bear with me for about three minutes, I first of all want to wish everybody a very happy and healthy holiday season. Stay committed to our children. I leave a lot of friends behind, those who will serve you in my absence, and I wrote them a letter of resignation. I indicated to them in the letter some of things I hope that they will do. I want to strongly encourage Dr. Hodges to stay strong and committed to the children and the parents of this community. I want to thank Ms. Taylor because when I first left the classroom Ms. Taylor took over my class and she seems to be following me in what I try to do in this city. So I thank Ms. Taylor and I wish her well. I want to take this opportunity to set the record straight on something that I think is important. Somebody has begun to circulate a rumor that I am in ill health and that I am sick. Well, I challenge the youngest person in here to a race and I bet you I can beat them. There is nothing wrong with me physically. I have knee problems but you already knew about that. I have yet to see a knee become a terminally ill situation. So I want everyone to rest assured that I am in perfect health. As a matter of fact, I took a stress test about a week and a half ago and burned the machine out. Finally, I want to thank Dr. Dennis Clancy for his cordial relationship with me. I want to thank all the Board members for indulging me at times when I might have been a little vociferous, talking a little too much, and talking a little too loud. I especially want to thank Dr. Atallo who has spearheaded many of our efforts to try to make things better in Paterson. Regarding Andre Sayegh, my young brother, continue to support him because he espouses the kind of things for the children that we all support. To the dean up there, the gray-haired fellow Brother Moody, continue, continue, and continue. The last thing I am going to say is that I had shaved my head when I thought that things were not going right with the Board and I want you to know now that I am growing my hair back. So thank you very much for everything.
Comm. Sayegh: Mr. Kline, I would like to challenge you to that race. I want to obviously thank you for the kind words that you just shared with us. I left you a voicemail message when I heard that you were leaving the district and leaving Paterson altogether. Quite frankly, I am still in a state of shock. But I just want to let you know that about a year ago I was a liaison on this Board and I was content in my position. Mr. Kline sat me down and he has that E.F. Hutton effect on me. When he speaks I listen. He told me to run and I decided to do it. I just want to let you know that you have had quite an impact on my life. You have been very influential and instrumental. I will never forget you. Mr. Kline, we are not only losing a legend – we are losing a friend. You are an institution in the City of Paterson and you did make your grand entrance because you are a star. You are a star that is going to keep shining in all the children that you touched in this district. On behalf of the Board members, I just want to say thank you for many memories and many contributions.
Comm. Hodges: Mr. Kline, let me just say that after 47 years, thank you for a job very well done. Thank you.
REPORT OF BOARD PRESIDENT
Comm. Hodges: I am not going to keep you very long. I went to a number of schools this past month visiting their home school council meetings. I visited BUILD, Eastside High School, and I was at School No. 28 this afternoon. Additionally, last night I spent some time with School No. 15. They had a Christmas pageant and I want to commend Mr. Ortiz on his program, his organization, and his turnout of parents and family members. He did a wonderful job and he is to be commended. Last night I also visited School No. 7 and they held a concert of violins and violas. It was a splendid program of young students, elementary school students, in concert on the violin and viola. I want to
Page 4 12/15/04 commend the music teacher, Mr. Nathan Thomas, and certainly give my commendations to Principal Glover of that school. That concludes my report tonight. Every now and then we have to let the community understand and know that we are doing some things that are good as well as working on things that need improvement. Actually, I have an additional item also. I am being encouraged to show the Herald & News picture, which you probably can’t see very well from this distance. With Mr. Kline’s leaving the Board there is now an opening. The law requires the Board to fill the opening between now and the next election, which is in April. The process for filling the Board position will be that interested community members who are in good standing and meet the same requirements for regular Board members, which is citizenship since you have to be able to vote and no past criminal history, can apply and send letters of interest and a resume to the Board of Education, 33-35 Church Street. The Board will review the applications and set up interviews over the next month or so. Then the Board will make a selection. The selection will be for the remainder of the four and a half months, and then there will be four seats instead of three opened up for next April’s election - one for the remainder of the one-year term and three for three-year term positions. That concludes my report.
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. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried.
Comm. Hodges: At this point we will have public comments on agenda items only. It will be 30 minutes with three minutes per person and five minutes per organization.
Ms. Irene Sterling: Good evening, my name is Irene Sterling and I am Executive Director of the Paterson Education Fund. There are two issues on tonight’s agenda that I wish to comment on. The first is B-1 in the legal resolutions, which the approval of the submission of the New Jersey QSAC, Quality Single Accountability Continuum Checklist to the County Superintendent. I was with you last week at the workshop meeting when this was presented to you. I want to raise the question and make the comment that I am concerned that we all understand that the continuum checklist right now is a preliminary step that you are taking and that when in fact NJQSAC is passed by the legislature, probably in January, there will be an outside process which will look at the indicators on the checklist. It will be that outside evaluation, which will include community input, which will make the determination about what status we come into under the new regulation. It is very important that we understand that the self- evaluation is simply the starting place and not the ending place in this evaluation, and that the community needs to pay particular attention to this because we need to have a very high quality evaluation that will neither gloss over issues of concern, nor underestimate places where we are strong so that we can move forward into becoming a district that has control of its own operations. The second concern that I have is truly a question and it is around C-12 and the application for School No. 5. I have had the pleasure of serving on the committee that looked at School No. 5’s original construction plan. That original proposal to build an addition onto School No. 5 was to build an addition in the middle of the school courtyard. As you know, School No. 5 is in a C- shape and the proposal was the build inside that area. The proposal was also to do that construction while school was in place. Those of us who were part of that conversation raised very strong concerns with the SCC about not only using that space in that particular way, but to build that while students were in the other parts of the building would be simply impossible. The noise, the disruption, the dirt and the health impact would be significant. We have not met since that time so I am very interested to find out
Page 5 12/15/04 what in fact you are moving forward at this point. Has that design changed? Have you met community objections around that? What in fact are we sending to the SCC? Thank you.
Dr. Clancy: Addressing the specific questions, the plans for the renovation of the school include the additions into the courtyard. Those were submitted early on and in fact approved. There were some adjustments in that. We have subsequently just in the last month submitted an application to the state to approve the development of Savio Hall at Don Bosco as swing space for schools that are undergoing construction. So in the process we are looking at creating an additional elementary school to move students into while construction is taking place and then moving them back when that is completed. Whether that is the entire student body or half or large wings of students, we are looking at that. Most immediately it is in the timeline of looking at School No. 15 also because School No. 15 has a large renovation coming up and in fact those kids will be processed through the new Roberto Clemente and moving into School No. 15 in some of those cases. So we submitted the application for Savio Hall for that very reason. Absent that, we have old Roberto Clemente and School No. 11 that were also built as swing space. New Roberto Clemente is scheduled and we have held off on having any meetings until we are assured that it will be finished. It is scheduled for this winter, in February, to be completed but we are working with the principals to ensure a smooth transition. That is what we have done.
Ms. Sterling: Thank you very much.
Mr. Charles Ferrer: Good evening, Charles Ferrer, Friends of the Paterson Falls, five minutes. I have two things. I quickly grabbed this off the table and I will put it back because they said to leave it there but I just needed to speak from it. It says detailed check register for accounting year 2004-2005 by check number for run date November 5, 2004, run number 76. It says page one. I am having a little trouble with the fact that everything on here is a judgment against school. Is it my understanding that everything on here other than the rent for Temple Emmanuel is some type of judgment we had to pay out because somebody sued the school district?
Comm. Taylor: Which one are you talking about, Mr. Ferrer?
Mr. Ferrer: It was out on the table there. It is supposed to be of all the checks.
Comm. Atallo: Page one of the bill list.
Mr. Ferrer: One person received a judgment for $150,000 plus another $25,000. There were two judgments where I guess Rutgers University sued us for $35,000 and another one for almost $8,000.
Mr. Azzara: Charles, that is a special settlement that the Board approved and it is related to a special education matter. We can’t discuss it more than that. All of the payments are related to the same settlement.
Mr. Ferrer: But there are different ones on there.
Mr. Azzara: It was a structured payment and it involved the Rutgers Law Center who brought the suit, an annuity and two other things.
Mr. Ferrer: I was just concerned because that is a tremendous amount of money that we unfortunately had to pay out. I am looking at B-2 because I had some questions as
Page 6 12/15/04 to what is going on with legal. We are looking to have the State Superintendent authorize increasing to a maximum of $1.2 million for legal. I am lost here because we were complaining before about the former company and their outrageous legal bills. It is my understanding that with the current firm it is not getting any better. What are we doing that their fees have gone way above what the former law firm was charging us? What is going on in this district that we now have to increase these amounts of money? Is it pertaining to the money that we are going after that was found in all the different audits? What is going on in this district that we have a law firm that feels they need to have a maximum expenditure amount of $1.2 million? They nearly used $600,000 but that gives them too much leeway to even use that kind of money in this district. The public needs to know why we are even going to these terms. What were we paying the law firm that we got rid of that we thought we were paying them too much over the last four years?
Dr. Clancy: I can only speak to the period of time that I have been here and the process that we are putting in. This district made a commitment to go to one legal firm to represent us in all areas. So last year we may have had three or four different legal firms collecting an amount of money for different things, whether it be negotiations, arbitrations, etc. There were areas of specialty. When I first came here there was a process that had been in place that was an effort to in fact create legal counsel on site that would also provide full service so all the bills were consolidated into one firm. That being said, we consolidated all the services and brought all those services back to one firm and in fact that contract was in place in June. What initiated the increase were two things. One was an analysis of what other districts this size and with this budget and with the responsibilities that this district has in terms of settlements and outstanding court cases and other issues are doing. To bring us in line with what is budgeted for legal services, not what is expended, this adjustment was necessary to in fact have a proportionate amount of line item and a certain percentage of the budget really to protect our interests. Part of that included, and you hit it right on the head, the ongoing investigation of charges against vendors, employees and other people that were involved in the misappropriation or misrepresentation of services. I recommended and this Board agreed that this district needs to establish the fact that we have an amount of money that should be spent on classrooms and that in fact the money that was misused should in fact be aggressively sought and returned to the school district. We don’t know for sure that through the legal process that will happen but we wanted to make a very strong statement that business as usual with some of these vendors was not going to continue. So we authorized an investigation and charges to be brought against these firms and with that kind of aggressive legal representation come a cost. So this amount brings us up to what other districts our size have, and at the same time we are establishing a standard of legal representation for this Board, which befits the size of the district and the kind of representation they deserve. So this is not in any way an apology but really a clarification that I say I think we are in line with what other districts do.
Mr. Ferrer: I just need to say that no matter what amount we end up spending, we need as a community and as a district to see the results for the money that we are laying out. Some of these cases can be handled… If you have the facts, you don’t always need an attorney. I have fought battles and won battles and we didn’t use an attorney the first. As a matter of fact, we made some attorneys look like they needed to go back to school. So we need to be very concerned. I am not here to try to see any one firm get rich off of this district for doing a half behind job. If they are going to do the job, it had better be done to the satisfaction of not just this district but the people here because we are going to be looking at it. If it is not, then we are going to have to answer and I don’t want to hear about another action plan. I will deal with that in the other public portion. We want
Page 7 12/15/04 what we are supposed to get. We will settle for nothing less and everybody sitting up there needs to understand that. The firm and the people who made the recommendation for the increase need to fully understand that. It will not be tolerated that there were some mistakes somewhere along the line. In this district we are tired of mistakes. We want results. Thank you.
Dr. Hani Awadallah: Good evening, Hani Awadallah, President of the Arab-American Civic Organization, 964 Main Street, Paterson. I am just here regarding C-12. I may be misunderstanding the reading in there. Is that specifically for School No. 5, or are you really talking about authorization in general for the New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation and No. 5 is for the project? If I may, I would like to bring our concern in South Paterson in the community about what is happening in the Marshall Street/Hazel Street School, the new school there. Dr. Clancy, we used to meet practically every month, about 25 people from the community along with the Board of Education, to follow up on what is happening with that school. Now we just see demolishing, changing and removing things while the community is really blind to what is really happening. I really think this is not partnership. I have been talking for the past three meetings, three months, about the need for partnership with the community. The community should really be aware of what is happening and we should not really be facing the 11th clock. This is what is happening. Now, for example, we talk about the fact that we actually do need a pre-k center in that school and we find out that it is impossible because the maps have already been drawn. When we were meeting about six or seven months ago that was part of the options which we really might have in that school. So this is what is happening right now. If it is at all possible, we would like to make the job and this should be incumbent upon you, ladies and gentlemen, to make the community partners in what you really are doing. It is the kids in Paterson, whether it is in South Paterson or North Paterson, that you really are dealing with their lives. We really hope that we can be always aware of what is happening and we should not really be begging for this again and again and again. Thank you.
Comm. Hodges: That is a point well taken, sir, though I am still trying to see the connection to the agenda item. But that point is well taken.
Dr. Clancy: In answer to the agenda item, that application is specifically for School No. 5. We have had some interesting discussions relative to the pedestrian footbridge down by Marshall Street School with the town council. The Board and the town council have met on several occasions relative to getting a footbridge there for the students to walk over to the Marshall Street School. So truthfully I frankly would invite your group. Tell me a time and a place and I will gladly come and update you on this. We have been struggling with not the change but the approvals for several aspects of the construction of the building that was already approved relative to permits and things that are just really legal and the SCC has been involved in that. I apologize if we have been remiss in communicating that to you. We have really been fighting the battle to get it to where we have anything new to report but frankly I would be glad. Just give my office a call and I will gladly provide that update and bring your people to the table. It has been a little frustrating with the plans because in some aspects some of it is now being referred. There are some community improvements that are necessary relative to some sidewalks, which we may in fact all need to get involved in because in some cases it is not an educational expenditure that we are looking at. So I apologize for that. Give me a call and we will set up a meeting to start ahead with the planning. Regarding the early childhood program, which I indicated to you the prior month, we are in the process of locating and proposing a site for an early childhood center because the State Department of Education did approve a project to build an early childhood center in the South Paterson area. We just have to come up with a proposed site and submit it.
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Dr. Awadallah: Thank you. I appreciate that. But Dr. Clancy speaking of those meetings, those people I mentioned who really used to be on the meetings regarding the Marshall school district, there was a committee and they were always notified of these meetings. We would appreciate it if we were to renew those contacts.
Dr. Clancy: I will do that.
Dr. Awadallah: Thank you.
Mr. Eric Lowe: Good evening. Tonight I address this body of the Paterson Board of Education.
Comm. Taylor: Your name?
Mr. Lowe: My name is Eric Lowe, South Paterson, New Jersey. I live a block over from where you are building the school so at 6:00 in the morning I am a little disheveled to hear bulldozers but that’s okay. I, along with the entire community, am bothered by yet another scandal of large sums of money in this district being mismanaged.
Comm. Hodges: Excuse me. Is there an agenda item that you are referring to?
Mr. Lowe: This is the public portion, right?
Comm. Hodges: No, this is only regarding agenda items.
Mr. Lowe: Agenda items? Well, most certainly. I have a problem with an agenda item here.
Comm. Hodges: There will be a public portion after the business portion of the meeting.
Mr. Lowe: I’m sorry. I missed my place but I do have an agenda item. I will be back in just a minute.
Dr. Clancy: Does it refer to the audit?
Mr. Lowe: Actually it did refer to the audit.
Dr. Clancy: If it is the audit then it is on the agenda.
Mr. Lowe: I want to clarify again that I was at the meeting on December 8th. How many of the issues that were not adhered to in last year’s audit were again not adhered to in the audit that was done for June 30th?
Dr. Clancy: Frankly, that is part of our presentation that we are going to discuss so we can answer that really graphically for you in a couple of seconds.
Mr. Lowe: Just for the record, how many were there that were again not adhered to from the audit that was done previously?
Mr. William Moffitt: There were six reoccurring.
Mr. Lowe: Thank you.
Page 9 12/15/04 It was moved by Comm. Sayegh, seconded by Comm. Santiago that the Public Comments on Agenda Items Only portion of the meeting be closed. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried.
Comm. Hodges: Prior to going to the Report of State District Superintendent, I have been encouraged to inform you that there is a table out front with a great deal of information covering a wide gamut of things, including emergency school closings, etc. You are encouraged to please go out and browse the table to get as much information to take with you. The last thing I do want to mention is that the Board of Education met with the City Council in a joint meeting on Tuesday. We had a long conversation and put together some action items around the issues of facilities, safety and return to local control. It was extremely productive and I certainly want to take the time to thank the City Council for their hospitality and for putting together a very useful and worthwhile evening.
REPORT OF STATE DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT
Dr. Clancy: For purposes of presentation, in order to keep us on task the Board agreed that what we need to do in the future is to devote a work session to looking at some of these materials. Tonight clearly is not a work session but we did go over a lot of information with the Board and we passed out corrective action plans. But we thought an easy way to kind of do an overview on several issues we have been talking about is to do a short presentation for the Board, which may address some of your questions. If you don’t mind Board members, can you move to the front seats? I will drop the screen and we will talk from the podium downstairs. What we have tried to put together for the presentation includes an analysis of the findings of the audit report, as well as to discuss some of the things that we are doing currently and what we plan to do so that some of the areas that we have identified will not continue to occur. It is important that we realize that what we are referring to here in our audit reports and when we are talking about the audit is the audit for the 2003-2004 school year so that in many ways what we will be discussing are things that we may have already put in place as a result of the audit at the end of last year. I would also say there are things that are in fact in place currently that may have occurred procedurally at the beginning of this year that have already occurred and will be part of the audit for next year. So your audit report comes in and you submit it to the public in November for the prior school year. When we presented it to the Board at the last meeting, there was a question and there was a question that an individual asked tonight regarding how many items and what is the history of those items over the past several years. Having not been here for a number of years, I did go back and I pulled an analysis of audit reports that was pulled together by prior business administrators. We also went back and pulled together the current and the past few years as the Board requested. So I put them together to kind of give us an idea of the areas. I am not suggesting that these areas are the areas that the audit report generally is presented in but they are grouped. If you look at this, for example, transportation clearly is an area that you can pretty much identify is dealing with getting kids to and from school and taking kids to specialized services. There are some areas that include, for example, two listings for food services. That is kind of the way the audit breaks it down. So in many ways it could be confusing to understand. Is this food services and why do you have it in two accounts? But if you take a look, it gives you an overview where you are pretty much dealing here with administrative procedures in terms of accounting. You are dealing with areas where student activities are. There are a lot of accounts. You have 52 school sites. These are student activity funds. They are funds that require invoices and recordkeeping. In many cases it is not that money is misused. It is that procedurally somebody didn’t have an invoice that supported that expenditure. So in a nutshell, and I just want to point this out in answer
Page 10 12/15/04 to the question, the first number you are looking at here is the number of recommendations that the auditor finds. For example, and Bill will talk about our specific audit, we know that we had one case… We are not excusing this at all but just to give you an idea of what it means, a recommendation could simply be that we found an invoice that was paid without the documentation. Considering there may be 14,000 payments, one incident would show up as a recommendation. So sometimes the scope does not reflect the recommendation. But if you look at the second number it indicates how many are repeats from the prior year. So if you were to look through the trend of this and go down… For example, in this miscellaneous these nine for the current, and we will talk about these, are in the area of technology – the kinds of security systems and networking systems that we have in place to protect our technology. So nine of those 29 are specific to a division that we just set up last year relative to technology. There were large numbers and Bill will go over these more specifically. But I thought it would be interesting because the Board had asked us to take a look at procedurally how do audit reports in fact over time look. I clearly indicated that getting 29 recommendations is not acceptable to us. In fact, I would expect that to disappear. But in truth there has been a history of procedural recommendations and technology is an area that we really need to deal with. In most cases in the area of accounting, which is student accounting, getting students identified early enough is a factor. This is something, if you recall, I cited when I first got here. The idea of assessing and evaluating students early on before the school year is over so you know which kids are in which programs is extremely critical because in October and September you are funding and all your applications are tied to student identification. In some cases our recordkeeping on students and which programs they are in has not been up to snuff. So in many ways we need to do a better job with keeping records on individual students. I think it is partly because of an antiquated system that relies on paper and pencil, and that kind of reflects what we have been trying to do in technology. But let me turn it over to Bill Moffitt, who is the Business Administrator, and what he is intending to do here is quickly run through an overview of what we have done really quickly. We have given this to the Board in an extensive corrective action plan, which in fact anyone can get copies of. If you want a copy just let us know and we will provide you with a copy. But let me let Bill run through this.
Mr. Moffitt: I am going to start by providing a quick review of some of the areas that Dr. Clancy alluded to as far as areas in the business office that were either consolidated or adjusted and that are currently underway in the district. That review will then lead us into the audit findings, particularly the groupings of those audit findings together in larger groups, and he will also go over in greater detail the breakdown of the organizational chart, which provides some additional details, at the end of the presentation.
Grant Programs
All fiscal duties related to the administration of grant programs and related staff have been assigned to the Business Office.
Basically we are going to centralize some of the program monitoring functions within the Business Office and that will lead to a better grant management process where we can address the various reporting and accounting recommendations in the audit.
Technology Department
An Office of Technology was established last year and the District is in the process of relocating various district functions to the new unit.
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The District is currently working on a proposal to consolidate and reorganize all technology services.
The administration engaged the CPA firm, Delotte and Touche, to conduct an extensive review of our accounting and human resource software package.
Business Operations is in the process of studying report findings.
As a response to various user complaints or user feedback, as well as some administrator’s concerns about our financial system, we took a proactive stance and took a hard look at our financial software system and decided to go to an outside, independent opinion. We also wanted to have some additional feedback and a fresh look at various issues relating to our technology resources. At the same time, we also asked our external auditors, Watson & Rice, who did the CAAF that we are talking about tonight, to take a hard look at the various technology concerns that we had.
Fixed Assets
The fixed asset module was put in place in March 2004.
Fixed asset module training was provided to respective staff in March 2004.
As a result of our concerns with the technology area, that led us to an upgrade in our system, specifically a widespread system upgrade for our financial system which included accounting. But it also had a module which was a fixed asset service. The main purpose of the upgrade district-wide was to move into a more integrated system with an Oracle database. So we put that in place in March and provided some staff training for the users of the fixed asset module also in March.
Facilities Department
Functions will be organized as: Capital Projects & Contracting Maintenance & Custodial Operations
Our facility functions were also revisited throughout the end of the summer and the early part of this year. Again, that will be addressed later but it basically split into two functional areas. Capital Projects & Contracting will be known as the Facility Planning and Inspection Unit in the organizational chart. The Maintenance & Custodial Operations function will be put into the Buildings & Grounds Unit.
Finding – Personnel
Maintain personnel records and information in accordance to District policy and procedure.
Implement a data review process.
One of the first groups that we noticed in the audit that we could put together was about three recommendations that had a lot to do with information. Like Dr. Clancy alluded to earlier, the paper needs to match the information in the system and the reports. So as audits come in they take samplings of various information sources and compare it, and there seems to be a misconnect with some of the paper copy to the computer copy. So
Page 12 12/15/04 these two areas will shore up our personnel filing system and we will implement a new data review process for that area to make sure that when we audit all that information is provided in the physical file as well as be consistent throughout the computer system.
Finding – Accounting
Observe District year-end liability and encumbrance policy.
Review all outstanding purchase orders and requisitions on a regular basis.
Ensure that all invoices are marked appropriately in order to preclude double payments.
We want strict observance of a cutoff policy when we close our books June 30th. We need to have certain records from various departments. In this case, the finding was that one of the departments did not provide the paperwork in time and it didn’t enable us to close the books in a normal course. We kept it open and made adjustments, but that is what they basically found. It was a paperwork issue coming from one department. The next two are statistically things that we talked about earlier. They did find one purchase order that was either processed or provided after either the contract was executed or the services were already consumed. Basically that is one purchase order in about 1,200 purchase orders processed each month, which computes to about 15,000 for this year. The last bullet is the one invoice that they did find in their sample which was about $350.00 and that is one invoice of an estimated 3,600 that we process on a monthly basis, which computes out to over 40,000 a year.
Finding – Purchasing
Expand District procurement policies and procedures.
Verify vendor information on a regular basis.
Ensure District policies are communicated through the organization.
Similar to the personnel issue, there is information that doesn’t match up between the vendor files and our computerized system. We did see some multiple addresses. They had the same vendor name but they had multiple addresses. So we want to go back and make sure that we really cleanse the data set as well as make adjustments to make sure there is no duplication as far as vendors, purchase orders and such. So by expanding the procurement policies and procedures and verifying the vendor information we hope to satisfy that as well.
Finding – Pupil Accounting
Reorganize responsibilities into the new Office of Pupil Personnel Services.
Maximize SEMI application for federal reimbursement.
Develop better student services reporting procedures.
Improve accuracy of District student service information.
Ensure proper documentation is available for audit.
Page 13 12/15/04 This is another area where we need to provide the source data to match up to our computer system to match up to our reporting system. So part of the recommendation group was to reorganize and that is what we currently are in the process of doing. We are reorganizing the functions into a new Office of Pupil Personnel Services. We wanted to maximize the SEMI, Special Education Medicare Initiative, application process. It is basically a federal reimbursement program where if you provide a service for a child and you have record of it, you can support the application and apply for reimbursement from the federal government. We want to also improve the reporting process of student services throughout the system in the district. We also want to improve the accuracy of that data and we want to make sure it is available in the physical file as well as in the computer file when the audit comes through at the end of the year.
Finding – New Staff Hiring
Revise the existing position control system and reconciliation process.
Implement new financial policies and procedures.
Implement new personnel policies and procedures.
This is an area that we first found about November 2003. The administration took a proactive stance and decided to do an investigation and report to find out some of the issues related to hiring of about 200 positions at the beginning of the school year. We did advise the Board at the January workshop meeting and we did take decisive correction actions at the time. We were able to correct the action and basically provide about a $7 million surplus or general fund balance, which is well within state regulations. It is also complicated by our budget process. For a non-Abbott district, it is easy and simple when you do the budget. You craft the budget, you present it to the Board, you present it to the voters, it is approved, and you have a budget. Unfortunately, in an Abbott district we craft the budget, we present it to the Board, we present the tax levy to the general public to vote on, and then it goes to Trenton and we usually will wait because it is not approved until either court cases are settled or negotiations end with the state. Some of that does feed back into how you can get out in front of a budget because those normal budget controls that we would have in place are not available to us since we don’t have an approved budget. Again, I have to stress that we did have a proactive stance and we were able to correct this by the end of the fiscal year.
Finding – Technology
Enhance firewall policy.
Improve intruder detection system.
Update policy and procedure manual.
Develop system upgrade procedures.
Improve user security authorization.
Develop disaster recovery plan.
Update technology plan.
Page 14 12/15/04 Review systems and vendor relationships.
This is the area that we wanted Delotte and Touche to focus on, as well as the auditors, and these are the main bullets that we found as a result of those two opinions. We want to not only detect but to also track intruders into our Internet system from the outside to protect the data at the district level.
Finding – Student Activities
Implement student activity policy and procedure.
Improve communication with schools.
Correct use of tax identification numbers.
Review the student activity accounts on a regular basis.
This is an area that does come up as you saw in the first slide that Dr. Clancy was talking about and we do have reoccurring issues.
Finding – Fixed Assets
Improve fixed asset procedures.
Provide additional training.
Conduct an annual fixed asset inventory process.
Verify fixed asset information.
Again, this is similar to the personnel issue. As I stated before, we did put in a module to help us with this and we are going to improve those fixed asset procedures. We are going to have a process whereby we can get information from the field, either from various department levels or school sites, which will validate some of the information that we have on our system, and have that on an annual basis.
Dr. Clancy: Relative to what Bill was talking about, the recommendations kind of highlighted to us that in many cases the responsibility for individual functions was spread out between different divisions. In fact, in many cases one person was responsible for part of that responsibility and another person in another division had shared responsibility but they didn’t work in the same division. Another issue we found was that in many cases because we are on Whole School Reform models some of the processes that exist in schools is done within one system and within one cluster, as we used to be devised, but the information would get processed back to centralized recordkeeping, whether it be in Title I or special education, and the recordkeeping was not necessarily consistent district wide. So we looked at an effort to try to say how we can organize to address the issues relative to management of technology, management of personnel, etc. There are some changes here that we are going to talk about and in most cases they deal with accountability, assessment and evaluation. An example of that is in student accounts. There is no way central office, on its own, can deal with the issue of student accounts. You have 52 schools. You have 40 preschools. You have all kinds of clubs and activities. That means the system has to be consistent, and it means that the individual building principals and the people responsible for programs have to be trained, have to have a system, and in fact have to be held accountable for
Page 15 12/15/04 management of their budgets. In fact, in many cases that really did not happen in a way that we feel comfortable with, so we are addressing that. Bill talked about it procedurally but let me just go through some slides that also happened simultaneous to the audit. We had meetings and we were working with the Stupski Foundation. We had community meetings. Many of these things were recurring and came up so we tried to address them at the same time. You are going to see here that many times people in the community identified exactly the problems that we are identifying that would have solved some of these issues. So it is a good thing we are all at the table and talking about these at the same time. It’s important that we deal with them.
Improve Organizational Effectiveness
Improve Student Programs and Services
Increase Community Involvement
Establish Fair and Consistent Procedures
Establish Accountability for District Initiatives
Our major goal is to improve student programs and services in the schools, and we wanted to improve community involvement. But who, in fact, is responsible for community involvement other than all of us? Who assigns the responsibility and who tracks this and evaluates this? These are all issues that frankly we sat down and we talked about. Who is held accountable for initiatives and the specific things that are in fact problem areas?
Address Recommendations in the Audit Report
Financial Management
Facility Management
Technology Management
Regarding some of the issues with facilities, I have found since I have been here and spending a lot of time on facilities that in many cases to expect one person to oversee the maintenance and make sure that the heat, the windows, and the air conditioning is working, and then also evaluate designs and construction may be more than one person can really take on their plate. We are looking at how we can redesign that so in fact we have two divisions – one that deals with construction and one that deals with maintenance. So you will see that as we get to it. Clearly, technology management is more than wiring. It is a matter of how you use it in instruction, how you use it for operations, how you maintain it, how you build it secure, and who handles that. So we addressed that.
Address Deficiencies in Academic Support Programs
Basic Skills Improvement (Supplemental Services)
Bilingual Education/English as a Second Language
Gifted and Talented Education
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Deficiencies that many people have noted and have been a recurring theme for the Board and for myself are that there are kids out here in this district and we don’t receive the kind of funding that supports the initiatives that the state and federal government say we must have. But at the same time we are trying to do those services in ways that maybe are not the most cost effective way of using those resources. So we are looking at how we can improve supplemental services to kids not just after school but also during school. How can we provide those kinds of services to all kids? Bilingual/ESL is another area of academic support. We have heard at several meetings that the Gifted and Talented Program, while it is offered sporadically, really has no consistency and there are large numbers of kids that really are not being challenged and we need to address those kinds of challenges. Lastly, this district is out of compliance in special education. The district has been out of compliance and it has been a struggle getting us back. We believe in some cases it is due to the way we are organized and in fact the way that we provide services needs to be changed. In many ways facilities also impact on special education services.
Improve Curriculum and Instruction
Five Year Planning and Evaluation Schedule
Relevant, Updated Curriculum
Instructional Technology
This is, to me, what I do. I think that instruction and student performance is relative to program and so we need to operate on a five year planning and evaluation cycle. People need to know which program is being evaluated and which program is in fact being planned and implemented, according to a schedule. By the way, this is a law and it should have been taking place. It wasn’t and in fact now we have it. But the truth of the matter is we haven’t been following this over time. It doesn’t show in an audit report but frankly it drives your purchases and so it really does impact your audit report. We really need to look at how we were organized for curriculum decisions.
Organization Chart
So what I am going to take you through very quickly is just a conceptual model of how some of this organization will address these concerns. This is in fact the organizational chart that existed in 2004. We have made some changes in this already. There were some positions, such as the deputy superintendent position, that we agreed would not be filled and would not be built in clearly until a permanent superintendent is on board. That person should be able to in fact hire their assistant superintendent or deputy superintendent. So we left it open and that position exists. This really deals with the superintendent’s responsibilities and then all the assistant superintendents and people who report to that person. You will note there that these are clusters and that is important. I am not criticizing clusters. It is just a different conceptual model. If you are used to clusters it meant that those individual assistant superintendents were overseeing a certain number of schools. Interestingly, you will note that we also had with early childhood actually three people responsible for the delivery of curriculum and instruction. Again, not being critical, there wasn’t a consistent coordinated linear sequence to that programming and it is by design. It is not by individual capacity or technical ability – it is by design. So we have addressed that. You can see, and the Board and I have had these discussions, that what we really tried to do is organize our
Page 17 12/15/04 key administrative staff around function. So we have divisions that are clearly set up not by cluster but by need, by function. I know it is small and difficult to read but clearly we have major programs, major funding sources, and a major process of evaluation and assessment going on. Positions should be functional and they shouldn’t be static. They should always be able to be adapted based on the needs of the district. So we have taken our assistant superintendents and everybody really has taken on assigned responsibility for a given function in the district, whether it be student services, community services, the evaluation of the district and the return to local control process that we are in, personnel services, or early childhood. Each one is now responsible for a division and a function, and that is where the budget responsibility will lie. This is how curriculum was organized before. Again, some of it is distributed among clusters. So here you have assistant superintendents who also have underneath them a language arts supervisor and a math supervisor and each cluster has their own supervisor of content area. So if you are in cluster one you have a certain language arts supervisor and a math supervisor. It was divided by cluster and at the same time you have assistant superintendents responsible for curriculum in areas that aren’t by cluster. It was kind of spread out and the responsibility kind of spread over the group. By the way, this is how the evaluation process worked for building principals. If you look at this responsibility, clearly the responsibility for major evaluations of buildings rested on the cluster superintendents. So you are an assistant superintendent and you are evaluating 14 different schools. Your responsibility is all curriculum, all operations, all community services, etc. for 14 schools. Evaluating and working with principals in 14 schools and representing parents is a big responsibility, but the amount of evaluation and monitoring you can really do relative to budget and curriculum in 14 schools is somewhat problematic. So I tried to spread that out. What I did with the division of instruction was take the supervisory people that were spread out and bring them into a division of curriculum and instruction. We have incorporated assessment, which used to be in special programs, and we have brought it back with curriculum. Each one has a person responsible for the major curriculum areas. We did that because frankly one person should know and should lead and work with people relative to language arts, relative to physical education, and relative to math. I am not suggesting that you necessarily need to have one person in charge all the time, but truly until you get yourself organized somebody has to be responsible for that subject area. I am not suggesting they weren’t, but when you have four people equally ranked within the position, who is responsible for that? So we have said let’s have one person for each area and you will note that it is not layered as much, it is much more horizontal. So we have one division dealing with curriculum and instruction. Within the area of early childhood, this will now talk to a little bit about the purpose of articulation and evaluation of schools. This is the prior organizational chart for early childhood education. We have changed it a little bit because we feel literacy and the transition from early childhood to primary grades requires articulation. So we have reorganized this division for next year. You can see the responsibilities for the early childhood program are kind of the same, except that the primary schools where the primary grades are have moved away from the other assistant superintendents and in fact they are with the superintendent who is responsible for early childhood. So articulation from preschool to kindergarten is a major priority. If you don’t get these kids in the primary grades, what is the chance by grade three of us reaching our goal? So there has to be an articulated program – pre-k through three – and this responsibility clearly comes on the assistant superintendent for early childhood education. Similarly, this was the way we were organized in curriculum. We had an individual who was responsible for secondary education. You will note that under these areas language arts and math supervisors and some of those science supervisors were over in clusters. This individual while he was responsible for the curriculum, the individuals didn’t report to that person. So again by design there was a dysfunction in articulation. So what we have done with this division because this
Page 18 12/15/04 individual also picked up some evaluation… You will note that we took high priority schools and we have given high priority schools to people who have an expertise in either language arts or mathematics. So these schools are schools that we were looking very hard at and we wanted to see a lot of improvement in them. That grouping is in addition to working on the QSAC and the assessment of individual schools, so all accountability and evaluation of programs falls under an assistant superintendent who coordinates that for the district. This QSAC process of evaluation affects everyone and it is no small job. It is a major responsibility and it is going to run several years, so this is a big task and it is one that we don’t take lightly. This will take a lot of time, but at the same time we don’t want to lose sight of the fact that we have a large number of schools that need to show some improvement. The next part is the elementary curriculum. If you look at this elementary curriculum division, you will see not a lot of curriculum but a lot of special programs. This is the way the assistant superintendent was responsible for all kinds of programs and in fact we have a division in here called director of whole school reform that really isn’t curriculum. It is dealing with the organization and expenditure of funding under Abbott. Why it was in special programs and not attached to the budget system where accountability and financial management is, is a question that we have addressed with this organization. So if you move to the new slide, we have put special programs, which include No Child Left Behind, a major initiative, and the Stupski Foundation, which is working with us on the literacy initiative, in this grouping and these are all those groupings that we did not have people responsible for. We had no one responsible for gifted and talented. Bilingual is in there. We have taken the supplemental services and put them under someone because we believe if you are going to provide supplemental services to the students in this district, and we have a large number of kids who need to get that service, this is a major division and someone has to oversee that to make sure kids are getting those services. So we are eliminating several supervisory positions that are in the area of basic skills and coordinating it under one individual. All students in this district, starting with kindergarten, will in fact receive supplemental services and diagnostic prescriptive instruction within the school day, as well as after or in extended day programs. That is a major, major reorganization and commitment for this district to put in place for next year. I realize we have worked on this with the staff in literacy and mathematics, but if you don’t provide the services in those primary grades it becomes a much bigger problem in the intermediate and middle school grades. To not have those services in the primary schools, frankly in my opinion, is why our performance has not shown the kind of growth that it should show. You can’t come back and remediate at the high school and upper middle school levels. It’s too late. The foundation and the support have to come in the primary schools, not to take away from the upper levels. But we do have to focus. You will also note that this individual also is responsible for high priority schools. Again, this individual has strength in the area of language arts. Again you will note that the evaluations now include two additional assistant superintendents so that each assistant superintendent is evaluating fewer principals. That means they can spend much more time with the principals on making sure that the management and the delivery of services is appropriate and following district procedure. It was spread out and some people had just too many jobs, so we spread it out among everyone. In personnel, it is pretty much divided and we didn’t see personnel, other than the recordkeeping and how we budget for staff. We have changed those procedures. We have actually gone to a whole new system of allocating staff to buildings, which is tied to the reorganization and will help Eileen and the staff in identifying positions. We need to pull that together but we also have to address the fact that one of the needs in this district is professional development focused on where we want to go in the future. So we have identified professional development and training of staff as a part of personnel services, and a valuable part of personnel services. You can see personnel still operates here. We now have professional development out here and this assistant
Page 19 12/15/04 superintendent also has evaluation responsibility of schools. The key is that we are coming out with major initiatives in the area of leadership training. We have a leadership management team. We are setting up academies for principals and prospective administrators, and professional development can’t be a one-person shop lost in the middle of the division of curriculum and instruction. It has to be a key role here to build the capacity for improvement and to improve our own technical services. In many cases some of these repeat offenses in accounting are frankly due just simply to not understanding the system and not being held accountable. So our goal is to do that. In the area of special education, this is but one division. Originally in special education this was it. One of the reasons why we are having difficulty in special education, besides the lack of facilities, is because if you look at this you have a lot of diverse responsibilities to provide services that really need, by law, very consistent and specific timelines and deadlines. It is very different than providing guidance or providing supplemental services. These are kids who have special educational needs and you have to spend a great deal of time on this, so we have reorganized this division and in fact we have made it a major division. We have said we are going to have an assistant superintendent who will also evaluate a school that provides special education services to kids, but in fact we have special education and we have child study team supervisors who will supervise the writing of IEP’s, the follow up on data, and all that. We have set up another section that deals with health services and guidance. In fact, we want to make sure that the guidance services and the identification of services to students is coordinated. This assistant superintendent’s responsibility is to provide all those IEP’s, all the recordkeeping, identify the students, and get them into the special services. That is a big division with big financial monitoring responsibility. In fact, in the past it has been treated as a very small department and as a result we are out of compliance. It simply hasn’t had its’ due in the organization, nor has it had the staff in many cases to provide the services. So we have relied on contracted services in many cases, which unfortunately down the pike is going to hurt you. You are not going to know the kids and people are going to be making decisions on a student that they really aren’t responsible to monitor over the years. So we are making some changes. In the past we have had a coordinator of academy programs. What we have done is we have moved out of support programs vocational and secondary programs, like Perkins and programs that deal with vocational training and applications, into where they belong, which is really at the secondary level. Those programs currently are in the secondary level and they are tied to innovative and career academies. So this isn’t a major change, except that you will note that this individual, who technically is not an assistant superintendent, is in a position of overseeing and evaluating all the secondary principals in the district. Our goal here is to share the evaluation of principals, spread it out more equally, and reduce the number of buildings people are responsible for. Those people who are not assistant superintendents who don’t have major divisions have a few more schools to evaluate. In this case, some of these schools are rather small and they have their own leaders, but when you put them all together it is a model of academies and innovation that you are looking for, not necessarily specifics. So we are pretty comfortable that we can take the moving to smaller school communities forward with this organization. In the area of operations, and we talked about this, this is the way it was before where the director of facilities is responsible for all those areas. The assistant superintendent for operations was responsible for business and technology and facilities. In many cases, when you are going through and you have a very long line of accountability and responsibility, things tend not to be procedurally followed up as closely as they should be. So we have kind of changed this a bit. We have made it much more horizontal. We have divided it so that clearly there is an individual responsible for all the construction projects, supported by architects and the kinds of people who can review specifications and understand implementation schedules with school renovations, while other people can be responsible for making sure the schools
Page 20 12/15/04 are up and operating. That is a day-to-day operation. They can’t take time out to go to land acquisition meetings. The business operation has been a little bit restructured with obviously much more people dealing with some of the accountability issues in accounting that we have had. You will note here that we are working on this technology division. We are not 100% sure. We are waiting for that report and we are studying that report on how we should proceed with that. But you will note here that we have taken the individual who used to be under special programs and we have said the Abbott provides a lot of funding and there are a lot of requirements and we want to make sure that the fiscal monitoring for that Abbott funding and how it gets spent is in fact built and monitored under operations. So we have moved that operation over to the fiscal side because all that money and all the accounting need to be pulled back where we have some control and some monitoring. We have actually moved that division here. It’s not that it is out of the instructional process, but the actual putting of the budget in place and monitoring positions and how the money gets spent is now controlled and is part of our financial management team. That means all the money is monitored through one division. We used to have fiscal monitors in five or six different departments and consistency was a problem. In a nutshell, we have tried to say we need to put responsibility for student accounting and student numbers on the individual divisions. We tried to say if you have student accounts in your building and you are a building principal, you are responsible and the assistant superintendents are responsible to see that they follow those procedures. Clearly we want someone to know that it is not acceptable to have violations of accounting practices. Clearly we have said if you are going to look at your budgeting and tie it to curriculum, people have to be responsible for the individual things. So from our perspective we think this addresses the concerns. We think that if we do this right and we do this together and talk about it and discuss it and people are brought to the table, these kinds of recommendations you won’t see next year. So that is our commitment to the district. Thank you.
GENERAL BUSINESS
Comm. Hodges: We are going to resume our meeting with the next portion being General Business but before that I am going to say, Dr. Clancy it is cold in this auditorium.
Dr. Clancy: I would like to say it is a conservation effort to save fuel, but that is not the case. We have had some problems with the heat here. We have replaced two pumps and when you replace two pumps it puts a strain on the other ones and an old one went today. They assured me it is being taken care of. It’s a little chilly but hopefully it will be taken care of by tomorrow.
Comm. Sayegh: Dr. Clancy, I am aware of the conditions here. Actually they are frigid conditions and from what I was told administrators, secretaries and even teachers walked out. This is certainly something that we need to address and I want to know when. Can we be given a timeframe and what exactly the corrective action plan is calling for? We can’t afford to have folks try to teach and children try to learn in this type of environment where you have people walking out.
Dr. Clancy: As I indicated, the two pumps were replaced and from what I understand the one went down this afternoon and in fact is being looked at and worked on now. I will have to get back to you on the specific times. I don’t have access to that information right now.
Comm. Moody: We have been having trouble with this heat for two years now.
Page 21 12/15/04
Dr. Clancy: Absolutely.
Comm. Taylor: Are they the same people that have been coming to fix this heating problem for the two years? We need to look into that.
Dr. Clancy: Well, we do. We do need to look into that. I would also tell you that part and parcel of the repair and construction to Eastside, as well as Kennedy, is the operating system. They clearly are scheduled to be replaced so in many ways we are dealing with antiquated systems that need to be tied together. They still should be taken care of so we will get on top of that right away.
Items Requiring a Vote
PRESENTATION OF MINUTES
Comm. Hodges presented the minutes of the October 27, 2004 Special Meeting, the November 3, 2004 Workshop Meeting, and the November 10, 2004 Regular Meeting, and asked if there were any questions or comments on the minutes.
It was moved by Comm. Sayegh, seconded by Comm. Taylor that the minutes be accepted with any necessary corrections. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried.
CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION COMMITTEE
Comm. Sayegh reported that the Curriculum and Instruction Committee met, reviewed and recommends approval for Resolution Nos. A-1 through A-37:
Resolution No. A-1
WHEREAS, approval is being requested to submit the revisions to the Abbott Preschool Program Three-Year Operational Plan for the 2005-2006 school year; and
WHEREAS, the Supreme Court ordered the implementation of full day, full year preschool service for resident three and four year old children in Abbott districts; and
WHEREAS, the Operational Plan for Early Childhood Programs is part of the district’s Strategic Plan and outlines the district’s effort to implement full day preschool services for three and four year olds in Paterson; and
WHEREAS, the Plan has thirteen components, an overview, recruitment and outreach, administration, master teachers curriculum and instruction, bilingual education, special education and inclusion, professional development, Headstart, community collaboration, health and social services, parent education and involvement, summer enrichment; and
WHEREAS, the Department of Education staff completed a comprehensive review of the ECPA plan and budget; and
WHEREAS, the staff have made recommendations for the budget; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Education approves the submission of the Abbott Preschool Program Three-Year Operational Plan revisions for the school year 2005- 2006 as recommended by the DOE.
Page 22 12/15/04
Resolution No. A-2
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District’s Community Learning Centers recognize the need to work collaboratively with parents to promote strong relationships between children, their parents and the school. Research indicates a strong coalition between school success and parent involvement, and when fathers as well as mothers are actively involved students elicit more positive behaviors and are much less likely to use drugs, be involved in anti-social acts or engage in sexual activity leading to teen pregnancy; and
WHEREAS, the Reconnecting Education and Dads (R.E.A.D.) Program provides a research-based elementary school curriculum and instructional program designed to facilitate father/father-figure partnership between the home and school; and
WHEREAS, the R.E.A.D. Program included a series of lessons and activities in which fathers/father-figures participate with their children using the Children’s Reader Guide Workbook and materials to promote reading, writing and communications; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School Board approves the R.E.A.D. Program to be implemented at School No. 6 beginning January 3, 2005 and ending May 26, 2005 for an amount not to exceed $6,775.00.
Resolution No. A-3
WHEREAS, the district is committed to enhancing the theater arts experiences of its youth; and
WHEREAS, the district is committed to providing enriching language arts experiences such as author visits to the classrooms; and
WHEREAS, the district is committed to providing multicultural experiences for its youth; and
WHEREAS, the district seeks to enter into partnerships with higher education establishments such as Passaic County Community College in order to meet the above; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Education approves the expenditure of $11,000 to match the $43,000 grant provided by the Theater and Poetry Project of Passaic County Community College in order to provide theater programs and classroom visits by authors for the children of Paterson.
Resolution No. A-4
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the problem of childhood obesity and its associated health risks. Junk food, aggressive food advertising, and sedentary lifestyles contribute to the problem. Nationally, 30% of all children are at-risk. Of children 6-11, 15.6% are considered overweight and an additional 15.3% are considered obese; and
WHEREAS, Fan4Kids (Fitness and Nutrition for Kids), a New Jersey non-profit education service organization dedicated to teaching children the benefits of eating
Page 23 12/15/04 healthy and staying active, has developed a unique and innovative program capable of being infused into the Paterson School District’s Physical Education Curriculum; and
WHEREAS, Fan4Kids can assist the school district in the education of children to insure they understand the problems of obesity and poor eating habits via in-class instruction, fitness activities, parent involvement, community mobilization and school- wide capacity building; and
WHEREAS, Fan4Kids will help the school district to build its own capacity to carry out future activities via professional development of teachers; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District and Fan4Kids will enter into a partnership to raise funds to implement the programs with an initial group of elementary schools beginning in grades K through 1. Support for the programs will be sought from corporate sponsors and governmental agencies.
Resolution No. A-5
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Bergen Center for Child Development, Inc. while providing educational services during the 2004-2005 regular school year:
Student Initials Tuition C.M., A.J. $22,441.27
Resolution No. A-6
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Bergen County Special Services during the 2004-2005 regular school year (Bergen County Technical School):
Student Initials Tuition A.N. $32,200.00
Resolution No. A-7
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Bergen County Special Services during the 2004-2005 regular school year (Bedside Instruction):
Student Initials Tuition G.M., R.S. $26,038.00
Resolution No. A-8
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
Page 24 12/15/04 BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Bergen County Special Services during the 2004-2005 extended school year (Godwin School):
Student Initials Tuition S.T., E.A. $1,568.00
Resolution No. A-9
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Bonnie Brae School while providing educational services during the 2004-2005 regular school year:
Student Initials Tuition A.W. $54,740.00
Resolution No. A-10
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Community School of Family Connections while providing educational services during the 2004-2005 regular and extended school year:
Student Initials Tuition C.H., M.C., F.H. $91,331.30
Resolution No. A-11
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Glenview Academy while providing educational services during the 2004-2005 regular school year:
Student Initials Tuition C.DeP., M.E., J.R. $101,635.05
Resolution No. A-12
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Gramon School while providing educational services during the 2004- 2005 regular school year:
Student Initials Tuition A.G., T.W. $62,561.58
Resolution No. A-13
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
Page 25 12/15/04
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to High Point School while providing educational services during the 2004- 2005 regular school year (High Point School of Bergen County):
Student Initials Tuition E.P. $31,396.75
Resolution No. A-14
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) placed in hospitals/treatment centers as per IEP/health is recommended; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves payment for educational instruction of students during the 2004-2005 regular school year, payment to Kidspeace National Centers:
Student Initials Tuition Q.S. $34,848.00
Resolution No. A-15
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Lakeview Learning Center while providing educational services during the 2004-2005 regular school year:
Student Initials Tuition I.V. $30,608.76
Resolution No. A-16
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Mountain Lakes Board of Education while providing educational services during the 2003-2004 regular school year (Lake Drive School):
Student Initials Tuition E.S., I.A., K.N., J.P., I.L., T.J., R.E. $309,272.62
Resolution No. A-17
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Home Instruction services to Newark Renaissance House, Inc. during the 2003-2004 school year (Bedside Instruction Services):
Student Initials Tuition T.F. $2,400.00
Page 26 12/15/04 Resolution No. A-18
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves payment to Occupational Therapy Consultants, Inc. to provide occupational therapy services to students per their IEP for the 2004-2005 school year:
Student Initials Tuition N.B., B.McL., J.Y., M.T. $18,000.00
Resolution No. A-19
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Passaic County Educational Services Commission during the 2004- 2005 regular school year (Passaic Prep):
Student Initials Tuition T.A., M.A., A.B., B.C., B.D., J.G., J.G., D.J., T.J., K.I., S.K., N.N., B.P., J.R., J.R., S.S., I.W., Y.J., J.B. $420,215.40
Resolution No. A-20
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Passaic County Educational Services Commission during the 2004- 2005 regular school year (Passaic Prep):
Student Initials Tuition W.G., J.L., L.D., B.M. $84,494.52
Resolution No. A-21
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves Letter of Agreement and payment to Passaic County Educational Services Commission/Park School during the 2004-2005 school year:
Student Initials Tuition A.C., D.L., D.G., M.O. $101,972.46
Resolution No. A-22
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
Page 27 12/15/04
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Passaic County Elks, Cerebral Palsy Center while providing educational services during the 2004-2005 regular and extended school year:
Student Initials Tuition M.S., Y.R., O.O., K.H., R.B., J.P. $462,020.61
Resolution No. A-23
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Paterson Public School District while providing educational services during the 2004-2005 regular school year:
Student Initials Tuition J.S. $1,035.00
Resolution No. A-24
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Paterson Public School District while providing educational services during the 2004-2005 regular school year:
Student Initials Tuition S.R., Z.T. $54,902.00
Resolution No. A-25
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Professional Ed Service, Inc. during the 2004-2005 school year (Bedside) (Princeton House):
Student Initials Tuition P.S. $792.00
Resolution No. A-26
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) placed in hospitals/treatment centers as per IEP/health is recommended; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves payment for educational instruction of students during the 2004-2005 school year, payment to St. Clare’s Hospital:
Student Initials Tuition PPS Students $22,000.00
Page 28 12/15/04 Resolution No. A-27
WHEREAS, the district of responsibility for homeless students is the last district of residency (N.J.A.C. 6:3-8.4); and
WHEREAS, Paterson students reside in a shelter in Wanaque, N.J.; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves placement and payment to Wanaque Public Schools while providing educational instruction to students during the 2003-2004 school year, for the following families:
Student Initials Tuition M.R., Z.R., Z.R., N.Z. $20,987.32
Resolution No. A-28
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Washington Academy while providing educational services during the 2004-2005 regular school year:
Student Initials Tuition J.R., K.D. $56,686.60
Resolution No. A-29
WHEREAS, the district of responsibility for homeless students is the last district of residency (N.J.A.C. 6:3-8.4); and
WHEREAS, Paterson students reside in a shelter in Strengthen Our Sister; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves placement and payment to West Milford Public Schools while providing educational instruction to students during the 2004-2005 school year, for the following families:
Student Initials Tuition C.B., L.B., V.C., J.P., X.M. $46,130.00
Resolution No. A-30
WHEREAS, the district of responsibility for homeless students is the last district of residency (N.J.A.C. 6:3-8.4); and
WHEREAS, Paterson students reside in a shelter in Strengthen Our Sister; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves placement and payment to West Milford Public Schools while providing educational instruction to students during the 2004-2005 school year, for the following families:
Page 29 12/15/04 Student Initials Tuition C.S. $7,447.52
Resolution No. A-31
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Windsor Learning Center while providing educational services during the 2004-2005 extended school year:
Student Initials Tuition R.R. $6,466.50
Resolution No. A-32
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Windsor Prep High School while providing educational services during the 2004-2005 regular school year:
Student Initials Tuition S.B., A.P. $67,557.64
Resolution No. A-33
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) placed in hospitals/treatment centers as per IEP/health is recommended; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves payment for educational instruction of students during the 2004-2005 regular and extended school year, payment to Woods Services, Inc.:
Student Initials Tuition J.W. $48,531.46
Resolution No. A-34
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Youth Consultation Services during the 2004-2005 regular school year (Fort Lee Educational Center):
Student Initials Tuition A.B., A.C., G.C., J.C., T.J., E.L., K.McP., A.S., R.S. $309,355.20
Resolution No. A-35
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
Page 30 12/15/04 BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Youth Consultation Services during the 2004-2005 regular school year (George Washington School):
Student Initials Tuition I.E., R.R., J.C., G.K., R.M., M.T., B.V. $235,494.00
Resolution No. A-36
WHEREAS, the approval for student(s) as per IEP is required; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the placement and payment to Youth Consultation Services during the 2004-2005 regular school year (Fort Lee Educational Center):
Student Initials Tuition A.B. $17,600.40
Resolution No. A-37
WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton was born on January 11, 1755 on the Danish Isle of Nevis and migrated to New York City at the age of seventeen; and
WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton attended Kings College, now Columbia University, at which time revolutionary fervor for his country’s independence was growing; and
WHEREAS, when war with the British broke out, Alexander Hamilton was one of the first to enlist in the Continental Army; and
WHEREAS, having distinguished himself as a brilliant and courageous soldier, Alexander Hamilton was recruited by George Washington as his Aide-de-camp, serving with distinction through the end of the war; and
WHEREAS, during the war, Alexander Hamilton discovered the Great Falls and suggested to General Washington that this location would be suitable for the future industrial revolution; and
WHEREAS, among Alexander Hamilton’s many accomplishments are the following:
1) He was a driving force behind the ratification of the United States Constitution, after having authored 51 of the 85 Federalist Papers; 2) He was the founder of the Bank of New York and the Bank of the United States; 3) Exhibiting a brilliant legal mind, he was a pioneer of the judicial process; 4) He was a strong supporter and advocate of the Black Revolutionary War Patriots; 5) He was a financial genius who created the framework for America’s enduring economic prosperity through the establishment of the Society for Establishing Useful Manufacturers; 6) An ardent opponent of slavery and a founding member of the New York Manumission Society, he also founded the first school for the education of freed slaves known as the African Free School;
Page 31 12/15/04 7) When the first Black republic was established in Haiti, he supported Pierre Toussiant L’Ouverture, that country’s revolutionary leader; 8) He was an innovative publisher who founded the New York Post; and
WHEREAS, during his tenure as Secretary of the Treasury (1789-1795) he appointed the African American Astronomer and mathematical genius Benjamin Banneker to the United States Mint; and
WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton was the founder of the City of Paterson and the Municipal Council seeks to honor this great American; and
WHEREAS, the friends of Alexander Hamilton and Descendants Committees have requested that the City of Paterson and the Paterson Public School District honor Alexander Hamilton by designating January 11th as Alexander Hamilton Day; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, by the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District that January 11th, in the instructional calendar, will hereafter be designated as Alexander Hamilton Day.
It was moved by Comm. Sayegh, seconded by Comm. Santiago that Resolution Nos. A-1 through A-37 be adopted.
Comm. Hodges: Mr. Sayegh, would you please read the last one, A-37?
Comm. Sayegh: Yes, Mr. President. There is an additional resolution attached to this evening’s agenda. A-37 calls for the approval of the designation of January 11th in the instructional calendar as Alexander Hamilton Day. As we all know, Alexander Hamilton is considered the founder of the City of Paterson. I want to stress the sense of urgency considering the fact that we do not meet again for a regular meeting until January 12th. So I strongly encourage all Board members to vote in approval of item A-37 on this evening’s agenda.
Comm. Hodges: Would you read the resolution? I will go ahead and summarize this.
Comm. Sayegh proceeded to read Resolution No. A-37 into the record:
Resolution No. A-37
WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton was born on January 11, 1755 on the Danish Isle of Nevis and migrated to New York City at the age of seventeen; and
WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton attended Kings College, now Columbia University, at which time revolutionary fervor for his country’s independence was growing; and
WHEREAS, when war with the British broke out, Alexander Hamilton was one of the first to enlist in the Continental Army; and
WHEREAS, having distinguished himself as a brilliant and courageous soldier, Alexander Hamilton was recruited by George Washington as his Aide-de-camp, serving with distinction through the end of the war; and
Page 32 12/15/04 WHEREAS, during the war, Alexander Hamilton discovered the Great Falls and suggested to General Washington that this location would be suitable for the future industrial revolution; and
WHEREAS, among Alexander Hamilton’s many accomplishments are the following:
9) He was a driving force behind the ratification of the United States Constitution, after having authored 51 of the 85 Federalist Papers; 10) He was the founder of the Bank of New York and the Bank of the United States; 11) Exhibiting a brilliant legal mind, he was a pioneer of the judicial process; 12) He was a strong supporter and advocate of the Black Revolutionary War Patriots; 13) He was a financial genius who created the framework for America’s enduring economic prosperity through the establishment of the Society for Establishing Useful Manufacturers; 14) An ardent opponent of slavery and a founding member of the New York Manumission Society, he also founded the first school for the education of freed slaves known as the African Free School; 15) When the first Black republic was established in Haiti, he supported Pierre Toussiant L’Ouverture, that country’s revolutionary leader; 16) He was an innovative publisher who founded the New York Post; and
WHEREAS, during his tenure as Secretary of the Treasury (1789-1795) he appointed the African American Astronomer and mathematical genius Benjamin Banneker to the United States Mint; and
WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton was the founder of the City of Paterson and the Municipal Council seeks to honor this great American; and
WHEREAS, the friends of Alexander Hamilton and Descendants Committees have requested that the City of Paterson and the Paterson Public School District honor Alexander Hamilton by designating January 11th as Alexander Hamilton Day; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, by the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District that January 11th, in the instructional calendar, will hereafter be designated as Alexander Hamilton Day.
Comm. Hodges: Thank you. Is there any discussion on A-1 through A-37?
Comm. Atallo: I support the resolution and what Dr. Sayegh has presented. My concern is getting resolutions at the last minute. We had a workshop last Wednesday. I support the resolution and obviously I support the whole concept. I can only speak on my own behalf, but I believe everybody does. I just think it is poor public policy and poor managerial policy to get resolutions at the last minute.
Comm. Hodges: I concur with that frankly. I am increasingly a little disconcerted by having all this literature presented tonight because I can’t get through it and run the meeting and read at the same time. It points to my shortcomings, I guess, that I am unable to multitask effectively. It does present a problem, particularly when it comes to resolutions where the wording may in fact be important and critical to whether it gains our support.
Page 33 12/15/04 Comm. Sayegh: In an attempt to accentuate some of the positive things that are happening in this district, I just want to focus on item A-2, which was presented by Mr. John James and I commend him for this effort. This deals with parental involvement. As Ms. Anna Taliaferro will tell you, there is a high correlation between parental involvement and student success. Item A-2 calls for greater involvement on the part of fathers because they play a larger role in the success of their children. It calls for dads to read to their children on a regular basis. I think this is certainly something that we need to approve because it encourages parental involvement and as I stated earlier there is a high correlation between parental involvement and student success.
Comm. Vergara: I agree with Comm. Sayegh. Another fact is that this will be of no cost to the district and I believe it has to do with 21st Century. They are taking care of the funds.
Comm. Atallo: I also concur with Comm. Sayegh and Comm. Vergara in support of this program. I was very impressed with the gentleman when he made his presentation at the workshop. However, as I suggested at the workshop, and I will continue to state tonight, we need to encourage the gentleman to reach out and meet with Anna Taliaferro and the staff from the Parent Resource Center to get involved with parents, mothers or fathers. I applaud you for this program. Work very closely because Anna Taliaferro and her staff, who all happen to be here tonight at the meeting, are quite expert in this area. They have a very successful history of getting parents involved. In fact, I was at Parent Awareness Day last Saturday and it was an exceptional event. The parent involvement is outstanding.
Comm. Sayegh: I would like to dovetail on what Dr. Atallo just stated. I think if you are going to involve parents in anything in this district you have to involve Anna Taliaferro and her office in any endeavor. On item A-4, Comm. Taylor and myself served on an ad hoc committee that dealt with fitness and nutrition. I think that we, as a district, should become more health conscious and discourage our students from eating anything that is nutritionally bankrupt. So I think this is a step in the right direction. It deals with a pilot program for all schools K-1 calling for kids to eat healthier. I also want to encourage any parent out there that it just doesn’t end there in the cafeteria. I think at home you should strongly urge your children to seek other alternatives besides Snickers bar and TastyKake. Thank you.
Comm. Hodges: We are going to seek Dr. Atallo’s leadership example.
Comm. Sayegh: That fitness guru.
Comm. Atallo: I have nothing to say. Physician – heal thyself.
Comm. Vergara: I also concur with Comm. Sayegh. Again, it is good because it is nutrition for our children and it is no cost to the district. I believe they are working through a grant and if there is no grant there will be no program. Hopefully the grant will be there and our children will be able to prosper from this.
On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried.
LEGAL COMMITTEE
Comm. Taylor reported that the Legal Committee met, reviewed and recommends approval for Resolution No. B-1:
Page 34 12/15/04 Resolution No. B-1
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education approves submission of the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum (NJQSAC) District Effectiveness Checklist to the County Superintendent of Schools.
It was moved by Comm. Taylor, seconded by Comm. Moody that Resolution No. B-1 be adopted.
Comm. Atallo: I reviewed the checklist and I have serious concerns because quite frankly I don’t agree with the checklist. It appears that the administrators who filled it out gave themselves very high grades. You apparently get rated from one to five and they gave themselves fours and fives. Then they rate the Board of Education, which I don’t know why because I don’t know why we didn’t have input on this, and gave the Board members rankings of two. I object to the ranking of a two because quite frankly I don’t think that grade is deserved in the area of governance. In terms of governance I would rate us very high, quite frankly. I don’t agree with the checklist and I will not vote to support this to be submitted because I don’t believe this is an honest assessment. In my view that is an incorrect assessment.
Comm. Taylor: The information that we received at workshop was that this was preliminary and our public happens to know that this is a preliminary step. This is not the final step. This is the beginning of trying to assess ourselves and we have not been doing it for quite some time. Granted, there are some discrepancies and there are some things that we don’t agree with. Yes, Dr. Atallo, that is correct. I thought we had low grades for this year but I see this as preliminary. This is just a draft. That is not the final document.
Comm. Atallo: It’s a checklist and I don’t agree with the rankings on the checklist.
Comm. Taylor: The checklist is being reorganized, Dr. Hodges and the Board. It is being reorganized. This is not the last. I am sure the major parts that have to do with operations, management, instruction and program will have a different scoring mechanism. It has to do with instruction and program, personnel, fiscal management, and governance. Then it has the different areas that they are going to check on. This is being changed. We were in a workshop at Parent Awareness Day with Ms. Anna Taliaferro’s group, our parents and our community, and we had a person from the State Department of Education explaining this draft to us. It is still in the stage of preparation for its final state and we all have input into that. If you have a question on it, you can call the State Department of Education and say the parts that are wrong and that you don’t agree with. If there is a problem with that, we can now at this stage of the process say something about it.
Comm. Hodges: Let me just comment here because in part I strongly agree with Dr. Atallo, particularly around the Board assessment. Had we received a two or even a one last year when this Board was engaged in a great deal of controversy and battling to determine its own identify and when we were struggling to overturn a system which, quite frankly, some of us thought ill-served our district and our children, in particular, and when there was intense turmoil and a clear lack of oversight, there would have been no question because it was well-deserved. A lot of those findings, the $20 million or $50 million, depending on who you talk to, were voted on by members of this Board. Under those circumstances, we would have been very lucky to get a two. But that is not what this Board is doing now. This Board has been substantially better, substantially more vigilant, and substantially more productive than it has in recent memory. We have
Page 35 12/15/04 hopefully ushered in a new era of responsibility in this district and down the road we hope to even enhance our own performance by some training, which I am going to announce a little bit later on. We have been self-critical. We have been hardworking - even to the point of being threatened with discussions of micromanaging, which quite frankly needed to be done in the past. So I certainly have my reservations about some of those grades and even the high marks that some of the district has. We want to have an opportunity to submit our comments and our concerns, and I think Dr. Clancy has some comments relating to this.
Dr. Clancy: I think it’s important and I think Ms. Taylor addressed one of them. We went into this because we wanted to get into the pilot part of it to have some influence on how districts are evaluated. Our intent is to make this a process that is fair and equitable, and that can be applied to every district and not just Paterson. In fact, that is what the state is trying to do. But I think large urban districts need to be at the table and have some influence on how this gets structured. Otherwise those criteria that fit only in small little suburban districts or rural districts may not apply and you don’t want to be measured according to a benchmark that is not applicable. On the other hand, part of our problem… I told the Board in workshop that John Sico and I were the two individuals who sat down and put the rating scale for governance. I think the Board needs to think of this a little differently. The other scores in there for curriculum are not the administration. The scores in curriculum instruction student performance are Paterson scores. The scores for governance are Paterson scores. They are the administration, as well as the Board. So this isn’t necessarily high scores for the administration and low scores for the Board. It is simply the assessment relative to an established criteria or rubric. We told you that we fought with the state on this but you have to understand how the rating goes. We have 52 schools. Fifty schools met the attendance standard. Two schools did not. According to these criteria, we get zero points. Fifty out of 52 schools met a standard on attendance that is pretty darn high. In fact, only two schools did not and so this district gets zero points. That is true of all districts. The standard says that all students will and in many ways that is a laudable challenge but when you apply it and look at what it says to people who because of one quirk in one school… Truthfully there are two and we need to get the standard up. On the other hand, if you look at the Board standard, and I can remember exactly the issue, the standard says, does the Board develop policy at a regular meeting and does the administration bring policy to the Board to discuss on a regular basis? There is another discussion that talks about confidentiality. Does information stay within the Board? Does the administration protect confidentiality? So in the area of rating, if it happens once it is not a good score. So it is not to say that that is where you are functioning for this district. The very fact that you have made gains in performance and that you have made gains in curriculum is a reflection in a good way on this Board of Education, not just the administration. In fact, in most cases it is more of a reflection on the community and the Board than it is on the administration. It is a reflection on everybody. At the same time, that attendance is a reflection on the administration and the Board. Do I think we did a good job with 50 schools? Absolutely! Do I think we should get 52 schools above that standard? Absolutely! But when you follow the code that is how the rating comes and while you may take it personally it is not intended personally. As a Superintendent in the district, I am not happy with our performance and I would say that we have a long way to go in performance. But I will tell you that I am very proud of what some schools and some staff and some kids have done in this district – a large number of them. But at the same time I am saying that I have a lot of work to do to make sure we get up to that standard and that is a reflection on me. So it wasn’t intended to denigrate the Board at all. It really wasn’t. It was a matter of applying a rubric that we didn’t set, I think, objectively.
Page 36 12/15/04 Comm. Moody: I would just like to comment on the attendance piece. I don’t know if you took into consideration, for example, the Alternative High School. The attendance of the students in that school previous to that school would be about 20% and now it is 80-86%, which is an amazing turnaround. But under the system there is no recognition or credit. They just come down on the side of just flat out failing in that area and that needs to be looked at.
Dr. Clancy: Well, you are absolutely right.
Comm. Taylor: That’s your input.
Dr. Clancy: I will tell you that Dr. Sico has taken our concerns and your concerns to the state because the purpose of this is to say to them, and we have actually petitioned them, to consider that points should be prorated. I think if everybody always has to get an A or nothing, people are going to have a tendency not to try things. So the issue really is that there has to be a way to award people for their efforts and we have done that. I will also say, and Dr. Hodges just whispered and asked me to say something about this, and I believe Irene Sterling mentioned something relative to the community involvement, that this survey was given to us as part of the pilot and had to be in by November 30th so we got it in. The process actually will involve teachers, principals, and community members in the self-assessment. As we move forward these community groups that we have been getting together and opening up and how we do those surveys is an integral part of how this process will take place. We have made recommendations on how that can take place and what sections are appropriate for that to take place in, and I think the state is moving that way. They also have some statistical things that they need to adjust. If you can get zero or six, it stands to reason there has to be a multiple of six that has to be your cutoff and in fact that is not the case. Their number was not a multiple of six. We have a mathematician in charge of that for our district and so he caught it and basically recommended that. You have to have your standards based on a multiple of six and they are making those adjustments. I would suggest to the Board that we will have plenty of time to make adjustments and the process will change. But the goal here is not to be as critical about a process that is in the developmental stage as it is to get ourselves in place so we can get the points and move forward as far as a district and back to local control.
Comm. Hodges: Dr. Clancy, part of the sensitivity is that while members of this Board were busy pointing out many of the deficiencies that we are now trying to address, the state was telling us that we were a terrible Board and that was their focus. They were going statewide denigrating the efforts of the Board as opposed to addressing the issues that we were trying to raise and that they, by the way, were in complete control of. So we are a tad touchy about that because had we listened to them you wouldn’t be here but your predecessor would and the conditions would have continued, and had we become the nice Board members that they wanted us to be.
Dr. Clancy: I understand.
Comm. Hodges: That is in part what the sensitivity is about. We sort of reject that notion because we were trying to fight them and the previous administration to do things for this district and to get the programs and the processes that we needed for our children, in spite of what they were trying to say about us.
Dr. Clancy: I fully understand and agree with you on this. But this process isn’t a matter any longer and whether you want to agree with this or not, sometimes you have to set what happened behind you. The only way this is going to work is if this Board
Page 37 12/15/04 and this administration and this district starts looking objectively at its data and improves itself and says we are good and we deserve to go back. This rating scale gives us the opportunity to do that. You can be objective and say we have some work to do, but in truth you have to have a benchmark to go by and I think we have to do this objectively. If you look at our scores, we ended up being moderate in performance on the first round overall. I am telling you, having been in other districts, that if you apply those same criteria to districts that are not state takeover, they will not be as highly rated. That is not to say that some of those areas that we were rated low in are acceptable because they surely aren’t.
Comm. Taylor: Not to belabor the point but will the public get this draft?
Dr. Clancy: It’s a working document but it is surely available to the public.
Comm. Taylor: In the part that the Board is concerned with, it says School Board/Superintendent Relations and underneath the indicators are showing evidence that the School Board and the district leadership develop and enforce clear policies and procedures for the operation of the district. If Dr. Sico and Dr. Clancy were going on prior knowledge of the work done with Dr. Duroy then maybe some of these might be correct. When it says at the bottom in VII that Board members demonstrate adherence to confidentiality of information, you can’t just say it was the Board but it says Board members. I am just saying that those indicators say Board members. Whenever they are specifically talking about Board members, those were the very low areas that were given here.
Dr. Clancy: Of confidentiality.
Comm. Taylor: But I think this should be available to the public so that they can see it because there is a part showing evidence that families and community members are active partners in establishing and achieving the goals of the district through the administration of a well-defined family involvement program. There are a lot of things in this, so there are a lot of issues here. I think our public and our people should know about it, and I know this was our first steps in it. But where it says the Board or Board members, this Board was never given the opportunity to do policymaking. We tried.
Comm. Hodges: But we, in fact, have six policies being considered right now by the policy committee.
Comm. Taylor: We tried before you came here Dr. Clancy and Dr. Sico should know that. He remembers that because these members constantly tried to get new policies for our Board.
Comm. Hodges: The real concern is that one of the major reasons that we continue in state control was the governance part of the Board. That is why it is a particular concern.
Comm. Taylor: Even though I have reservations about this, I would like to recommend that we move it. I have already moved it anyway. Make it available to the public.
On roll call all members voted as follows:
Comm. Atallo: For the reasons stated I can’t support a document when I don’t agree with the checklist. I really think it is demeaning to the Board members who have worked very hard. I vote no.
Page 38 12/15/04
Comm. Moody: I vote yes.
Comm. Santiago: No.
Comm. Sayegh: Yes.
Comm. Taylor: Yes.
Comm. Vergara: I also concur with Dr. Atallo and I believe that Ms. Taylor also is correct. This should be made available to the public and at this time my vote is no.
Comm. Hodges: I vote yes.
The motion carried.
Resolution No. B-2
WHEREAS, the District is a New Jersey State-Operated School District which has obtained the legal services of a General Counsel; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to the Local Public School Contracts Law, N.J.S.A. 18A:18A-1 et. seq., such legal services are recognized as “professional services”, and N.J.S.A. 18A:18A-5(a)(i) permits the awarding of a contract for professional services without the requirements of public bidding; and
WHEREAS, the State District Superintendent has the authority to award a contract for professional legal services and to enter into a contractual agreement on behalf of the District; and
WHEREAS, the law firm of Schenck, Price, Smith & King, LLP has been engaged as General Counsel for $180,000 per year for in-house coverage, Monday through Friday for 6 hours per day, and an hourly rate of $155 for additional services in excess of 30 hours per week with a current maximum of $350,000 for additional services; and
WHEREAS, Paterson Public Schools has numerous serious legal issues concerning fraud, malpractice, substandard work, facilities contractors, building leases, special education, procurement contracts, internal audit findings and other legal issues; and
WHEREAS, Paterson Public Schools’ current legal fees are less than 14 other Abbott school districts on a per pupil basis and are less than .3 percent of its total budget; and
WHEREAS, the State District Superintendent and Board of Education want to pursue these legal issues diligently and aggressively; and
WHEREAS, an increase in the maximum amount for additional services to $1,200,000 would be approximately .3 percent of the district’s budget; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education authorizes the State District Superintendent to increase the maximum amount allowed for additional services by the law firm of Schenck, Price, Smith & King, LLP, General Counsel, to $1,200,000.
It was moved by Comm. Taylor, seconded by Comm. Santiago that Resolution No. B-2 be adopted.
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Comm. Atallo: I am going to support the resolution but I am very saddened by it because I have been on this Board now for almost five years and month after month I was pointing out, along with you Dr. Hodges because you were there right alongside, I give you credit, and Mr. Kline and Councilman Davis when he was a Board member, the very vendors that we are filing suit against. Everyone saw it on the front page of the local papers last week. They are the very vendors that we were raising questions about month after month at these meetings. If you look at the minutes of the meetings you will see the very same people we questioned. So we are going to be spending quite a bit of taxpayer dollars for legal fees, which is required to file suit against these companies for the millions of dollars that were taken out of here for various work that allegedly wasn’t done or allegedly wasn’t done properly. We are going to be going after them but I am saddened that we have to spend more taxpayer money to go after the companies. Had they listened to what we were saying, everything turned out to be true. Everything we were saying was true and it has been documented. The Paterson School District has been ripped off. So I will support this resolution.
Comm. Sayegh: I not only concur with Dr. Atallo, but I would like to also commend him because he did lead the charge and was consistently critical of these companies that we are going after. I am sure everyone had seen the newspaper headline this past Friday dealing with these four companies that we are going to be pursuing legally. It is unfortunate that it has to come to this, but we do want to send a strong message and let people know that the days of anything goes in Paterson are over. I don’t want it to ever come to this again. It is very regrettable but we have to do what we have to do to bring these people to justice and hopefully get our money back.
Comm. Hodges: I wanted to respond partially to a particular comment. I don’t ever want to forget what happened here over the last year or two because this community needs to remember what happens when you don’t do your job, when the Board doesn’t do its’ job, and when the community doesn’t do its’ job, collectively. You sat here and let this Board do some shocking things and waste millions of dollars of your children’s money, which cost you programs and cost them educational performance. You shouldn’t forget that because your children are going to suffer the consequences of that poor performance for years to come. You school system is going to suffer, not only in school performance but in facilities on down the line. So we can’t forget. We need to pay attention to this and remember and use it for the future to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It is extremely important to us that we be the proper stewards of our educational system when we get it back and our children’s futures.
On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried.
FISCAL COMMITTEE
Comm. Atallo reported that the Finance Committee met, reviewed and recommends approval for Resolution No. C-1:
Resolution No. C-1
WHEREAS, it is necessary to pay vendors’ bills and claims against the Paterson Public School District; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education approves payment of December 2004 bills and claims, checks 117196 through 117952, 117953 through
Page 40 12/15/04 117961 in the amount of $15,336,814.30 as attached hereto and made a part of the minutes; and be it further
RESOLVED, that off line checks 117111 through 117115, 117116 through 117123, 117124 through 117125, 117126 through 117127, 117128 through 117131, 117132, 117133 through 117138 in the amount of $445,438.88 as attached hereto and made a part of the minutes; and be it further
RESOLVED, that voided checks 114601, 114756, 115267, 115389, 114800, 116962, 115949 in the amount of $74,038.75 as attached hereto and made a part of the minutes, and be it finally
RESOLVED, that cafeteria checks 117139 through 117195 in the amount of $608,889.54 as attached hereto and made a part of the minutes.
Comm. Atallo: We wanted to have a fiscal committee meeting on Monday and that meeting was cancelled by the administration. So we are not allowed to discuss a number of the bills that were raised. We normally review the bills and raise questions. I have a number of questions. I am not going to vote on the bills. I am not going to introduce it tonight and I am not going to vote on the bills tonight because we did not have a committee meeting to review them. I left phone calls with different administrators and they did not return my calls to discuss it. We are talking about millions of dollars that we have questions on. I am not going to validate expenditure of public dollars when I don’t know what we are spending the money on. Quite frankly, I have serious questions. I think from the previous resolution it has been proven that when we vote on resolutions and it is not fully explained as to what they are and we don’t get all the information, then problems arise as we have now. I have serious problems with architectural bills that perhaps are duplication of services. I have concerns and problems with petty cash that is going out that I don’t see receipts for. I have serious concerns about food service bills. It’s the same company, an out of town company, and I won’t mention the name, all the time. I have nothing against the company though I have always said that if we are going to have food we should do it selectively and use Paterson businesses. One administrator here ordered $2,630.00 worth of food in one day and I am very concerned about that. We are in the business of getting books for our children, computers, and microscopes, and this one principal ordered 10 pans of roasted chicken, 10 pans of paella seafood, 10 pans of rice with chicken, 10 pans of fried pork, 10 pans of Spanish custard, 6 pans of plantains, and 6 pans of beans and rice. That’s a lot of food and I am sure it was very tasty. I enjoy all of this but not on taxpayer dollars. Our money should go to the children and I question the judgment of this administrator in ordering this type of food for that program. But I also have to question the administration that supervises this individual for not keeping a check and balance. Again, if this principal is buying books, computers and microscopes and we knew what was going on educationally then that’s one thing. But to have a big party is not what the Board of Education should be about. I cannot condone that. I am, quite frankly, shocked that that was approved by their supervisor. Again, we have thousands of dollars in bills for food. Every time there appears to be some type of gathering there seems to be a little feast that goes along with it. I don’t think that is a good policy. I think there are appropriate times when ordering food is certainly in order, but I think it is in excess and overdone in this district. If they are going to do it, they should do it more selectively and use Paterson businesses. We have many fine establishments in the community. I am not advocating any particular one or a group of them, but I am saying to keep the business in the community. I think that is a good economic policy. Month after month I raise this issue and apparently I am ignored, but quite frankly I am not voting on it and I am not going to validate this with my vote. The
Page 41 12/15/04 people of Paterson elected me to do a job and I am going to stand by it. They attack us and they say things, but the majority of the public realizes we are fighting for the children and the money should be going to educating the children of Paterson and not to have these elaborate parties. I just don’t understand this kind of food. I don’t know how many people they were feeding, but that appears to be inappropriate.
Comm. Hodges: Doctor, perhaps you would like to author a policy statement on food for meetings.
Comm. Atallo: If we are permitted to do so, I would be happy to submit a suggested policy to the Board as a whole to consider regarding this.
Comm. Hodges: Submit it and let them say we can’t do it.
Comm. Atallo: When I go into buildings that have leaky pipes and no heat and the kids can’t study because of that, and when they don’t have books, computers and science labs, and then the administration orders feasts, I just can’t support this. I’m sorry. The other question I want to raise is this. I asked for backup material from the administration and they sent me copies that you cannot read. The photocopies are illegible. You can’t read it because it’s too light. I asked them for additional copies that were darker and I did not receive them. I just want to pass this down for my colleagues to read this. Do you agree with me? You can’t read what it is. If I can’t read what it is, I don’t know if that is by design so we won’t know what it is but I cannot vote on literally millions of dollars in expenditures when I can’t read it. I am not supporting C-1 this month. I think the Board needs to send a message to the administration. You cannot cancel our committee meetings. They are very critical for us to review. The legal committee was cancelled. We need to have the Superintendent sit in on the personnel meeting. We can’t just sit there. We appreciate the time that the committee members volunteer and we certainly appreciate the time the director of human resources gives to that, but we can’t just have a meeting where the Board members sit around and vent regarding issues. If the State of New Jersey, Department of Education says they want the Paterson School District to move towards local control, then they have to back it up and they have to mean it. That means they have to start allowing us to make decisions as opposed to just sitting around for an hour in a circle venting about issues. When I look at some of the appointments, if this was a local Board these appointments would never be happening.
Comm. Vergara: To Comm. Atallo, I agree with you but there is one item here, check number 117868, and I believe that these people have been waiting for payment for over two months. Not only that, I think they have something to do with the heating system in Eastside High School. If they don’t receive their money, we are not going to get our heat.
Comm. Atallo: We don’t have the heat now, Commissioner. This building is cold.
Comm. Vergara: I believe they are overdue. I just wanted to bring that to your attention.
Comm. Atallo: Out of respect for what the Commissioner is saying and out of respect for some of these vendors, I will make a motion. I am very unhappy and I want to state for the record how concerned and unhappy I am. I think it is disrespectful to the Board as a whole when meetings are cancelled on us. I would like to make a motion, in light of what Comm. Vergara said, that we do pass the bills, but go on record as protesting the fact that the committee meeting was cancelled. We need to review these bills. As
Page 42 12/15/04 we have seen in the past, vendors have been paid who allegedly should not have been paid and there have been business practices going on in this district that should not have been going on. I think we all agree on that. At this point the documentation is in everybody’s face. It’s not just Dr. Joe Atallo or Dr. Jonathan Hodges saying it. The state audit report says it and the law department says it. But I would like to make the following exceptions. I request that the architectural bills be pulled for this month for review because allegedly it may appear to be a duplication of services and they should be reviewed. I think we should look at the petty cash and also establish a policy on petty cash that receipts should be presented before we deal with petty cash. I have serious concerns about this food bill and the inappropriateness of it. There is apparently a resolution tagged on at the end of the agenda, which we did not discuss at workshop or at any committee meeting. I don’t support it and I don’t believe the Board should support it. I will be quite frank. If the administration attempts to push it through or veto it, I am going to be making ethics charges because I just don’t like the way it was handled. It stinks and I will talk about that later.
Mr. Azzara: I just have a comment on the bills. Comptroller Joan Constantine did check that architect’s bills for the entire year and she assured me there is no duplication.
Comm. Atallo: For the record, I looked at other architect bills and apparently that architect was hired by the district to be the architect of record at $80 or $85 per hour. They then proceeded to sub the work out to other architects at $150 per hour. They didn’t do the work. That defeats the purpose because part of the reason the work was given to that architect was the fact that he came up with a low hourly rate. It defeats the purpose by that architect subbing it out to other architects. Also, if you look at the work that I am talking about, I will be very specific. That Montclair Avenue project was a fiasco. This happened under the Duroy administration. The district leased a building in South Paterson, paid the taxes on the building, never used it, and never occupied it. The district hired not one but two architects to draw up very elaborate plans on a building that was never used by the district. It just sat there vacant and we discussed this. I know Dr. Awadallah and I discussed extensively about an early childhood center in South Paterson and then the state said we didn’t have the proper square footage so they couldn’t approve it. Why is it ready, shoot, aim? We should be making sure before we lease a building. I am quite frankly sick and tired of these sweetheart deals and that is what they are. People get a very high rent, plus the district uses your taxpayer dollars to pay the taxes on top of it. Where does that happen? If you own a building, does your tenant pay rent and taxes? If you are a tenant, do you pay rent and taxes? I just don’t understand why that is going on and that needs to be seriously investigated. This is on a building we never, ever used. That is just a waste of money so I can’t support this.
Comm. Hodges: Are you almost finished?
Comm. Atallo: Yes, those are the bills I am concerned about. If we can have a committee meeting, perhaps this can be explained to us. But since we did not have a committee meeting, this was not explained. I appreciate what the Comptroller did but I looked at the bills of this architect and I looked at the bills of another architect that work was subbed to, and there seems to be overlapping work on the Montclair Avenue site.
Comm. Vergara: To Dr. Clancy, is there a reason why some of these payments have taken a long period of time before they receive their payment?
Dr. Clancy: We have a payment that Dr. Atallo is talking about that we, as a Board and administration, agreed to table until the next meeting. So if we have questions on
Page 43 12/15/04 things, if we are investigating things, or if in fact we don’t get the bills until after the deadline, it doesn’t come on the agenda. In some cases, and I don’t know the case that we are talking about specifically, if a vendor gives it to us on a Wednesday and the deadline was Tuesday, they miss the cycle to get to the Board workshop. That means it will be two months. So on one hand, we have to hold to that requirement. On the other hand, when we have legal responsibilities and we are going to hold on to discuss it, there is a point where I have to advise the Board that you are legally obliged to pay the bill, whether you agree or you don’t agree, and that unfortunately is a Board responsibility and administrative responsibility. I would have to advise you and frankly would have to pay it. For things that were awarded in the past and people in fact did the work, you may not have agreed but an agent of the Board or the Superintendent authorized the work and the person did the work in good conscience, and legally you are obliged to pay the bill.
Comm. Taylor: I am looking at one of the bills and one of those bills that we are to pay tonight, is it the company that is supposed to fix this building?
Mr. Azzara: Dougherty Company.
Comm. Vergara: Yes.
Comm. Taylor: If they haven’t fixed it, why should we pay? I see it on the listing.
Dr. Clancy: I don’t know if…
Comm. Taylor: It’s the Dougherty Company.
Comm. Vergara: That’s an old bill.
Dr. Clancy: I am not sure…
Comm. Taylor: It’s an old bill, but it’s still the same because they were the low bidders for this particular job.
Dr. Clancy: Ms. Taylor, I don’t know if maybe that is why they are not responding – because we owe them a great deal of money. I would have to check that. I don’t know but I will find out.
Comm. Taylor: I am asking the question, did they do work already? If the work they did is not satisfactory and if they have not fixed the problem we brought them here to fix, how can we pay them? They might have done some work but it is not…
Dr. Clancy: I would have to look at that. The bottom line is that I know that they replaced, for example, two pumps. So you are paying for the replacement of two pumps. If a third pump breaks, which I understand is what happened, whether or not they could have diagnosed it and replaced all three at the same time, I would have to find that out. But if they have done work, whether it be to fix two out of three and then the third one goes after the fact and they have to fix it, you are going to pay them for the two that they fixed.
Comm. Taylor: When this company was brought to our attention for this work, we asked the question if they were able to do the work that is required on this building because it is an older building and which part of the building were they going to be
Page 44 12/15/04 fixing. I believe Mr. Lawn said the older part they were fixing. If they were fixing the older part, then they came in knowing the possibilities.
Dr. Clancy: I agree.
Comm. Taylor: So I have a problem paying that bill. I think we need to call them in and find out what is going on. I can’t have teachers and children cold. I’m cold now and I suffer from a condition where if I am cold too long I can get very sick. I can have bronchitis. So I am saying that many children suffer from asthma and bronchitis that attend our schools and the teachers, too. They have not done the job properly as far as the heating system that we hired them to do. So we need to call them in and find out what is going on. Who is the person that will do that for us?
Dr. Clancy: Well, that is going to fall under building and grounds, it is going to fall under facilities, and in fact we are going to have to do that. Absolutely!
Comm. Taylor: Who is the person – the human being – in our district?
Dr. Clancy: Well, Mike Azzara is responsible for operations and Andrew Lawn is responsible for facilities.
Comm. Taylor: So by tomorrow later in the day I can call and find out.
Dr. Clancy: I think Mike should be able to have an answer for you.
Comm. Taylor: Thank you.
Comm. Vergara: Ms. Taylor, I see where you are getting to but we also have to look at the fact that if they come to the building and they see two situations and they are told to just fix this situation and this one we will worry about later, that is what is causing the problem. Maybe they should check both situations at the same time and we won’t have to repeat ourselves again.
Comm. Taylor: That is not what they were told.
Comm. Vergara: Comm. Atallo, at our last workshop meeting Dr. Hodges made a strong statement that we needed to monitor our monthly bills. I think that is the way it should be done. We should monitor our monthly bills.
Comm. Atallo: In the interest of being pragmatic, I will make a motion to move C-1 but I have serious concerns. I think these bills need to be pulled and reviewed. The bills that need to be pulled and reviewed are the architectural bills… I don’t want to hold up people for payments but I protest what was going on. I move C-1 with the exception of the architectural bills, the petty cash bills, the food bills regarding the outside vendor for these school events, and I am very concerned about… Was the energy management bill voided out for $70,000?
Mr. Azzara: Yes.
Comm. Atallo: Those are the bills that concern me. There are an additional two bills. Regarding the staffing services, hiring staff, I think this is not a cost effective way of doing business. Month after month we get bills for thousands of dollars. I think we need to plan out our personnel needs in a more cost effective way. I don’t support that.
Page 45 12/15/04 Since they did the work on the staffing services I will recommend paying them, although I protest them being there. But I do ask that those other bills be pulled for review.
Comm. Hodges: The architectural bills, the petty cash bills, the outside food vendors, and the staffing services. Those are the four?
Comm. Atallo: Yes, sir.
Comm. Taylor: Would you name them again?
Comm. Hodges: Architectural bills, the petty cash bills…
Comm. Atallo: The Baskinger’s bills.
Comm. Hodges: The Baskinger’s food bills.
Comm. Taylor: That’s food?
Comm. Hodges: That’s right. Those are the three he wants pulled.
Dr. Clancy: If you disagree that the people should use outside services, then we should just simply say let’s say no more outside services and put an end to it and pay the people for the services that they provided. It wasn’t the food services’ problem in delivering the services. If it is for a festival for the school with all the parents, if it’s a workshop on a Saturday, or whatever it is and whatever that workshop is that involves lots of people, if we want to change the rules – let’s change the rules. If that is what you want us to do, we will do a policy and we will say no. I am suggesting that it is the wrong message to the vendor who did what he was asked to do. I am agreeing 100% with what you are saying. If you want us to do that, I understand you are going to come up with a policy. In fact, I believe we have a draft of one that we will gladly work on with you. I am just suggesting that if the district requests the service and the person provides it, it is not his or her responsibility. They did their job. If they did their job, they should be paid. We can stop it.
Comm. Atallo: I think Dr. Clancy makes a valid point and I would agree with that, on the condition that excessive food service being called in should be stopped. Let me make my point clear. I am not against having food at appropriate times. I am not opposed to having small get-togethers. When I look at that one elaborate bill, and I am not going to talk about the principal by name but you know who it is, and I will talk to you after the meeting, I think that is excessive. There was one big party at that school and I think he was wrong to do that. I think it is bad judgment and that whoever signed off on that or advised that did not use good judgment. I think if you are going to have some type of international or ethnic festival, I think we should suggest that every parent brings a dish and share. Anna Taliaferro ran an outstanding program last Saturday and the food was donated by different vendors. Most of it was done by vendors from the community, people who do business with the district, who donated food for the Parent Center. I’m not saying they are in the business of selling food. I am not advocating they donate the food. I am saying parents might want to consider looking at that. Or if we want to order food, I don’t want to be the one who says no food because I am not saying that. I am saying we have to use good judgment. I think your point is very valid, Dr. Clancy, and I will support that. I withdraw that and suggest that we pay the vendor, but I am asking very respectfully that that individual administrator as well as all administrators be spoken to and that we have a strong policy not to get out of hand with it.
Page 46 12/15/04 Comm. Hodges: Doctor, you are in charge of writing that policy so make it as strong as it needs to be.
Comm. Atallo: I wouldn’t want to step on the toes of Comm. Brown on the policy committee.
Comm. Moody: We need to remember that many of the food vendors really choose not to do business with the district because they have to wait too long and they can’t afford it in many instances. They can’t afford the long wait. We tried this several times in the past. There is not a whole lot of interest by local food catering businesses. So we need to be mindful of that. I think that this affair that we are talking about, the issue on the table, involved all the students and parents of this school. That was an affair that I think the school community planned. I don’t think it was just a party for staff.
Dr. Clancy: I understand what you are saying and truthfully I think you are both right. Unfortunately, if you go on a case-by-case basis it becomes subjective. Over time it is very difficult for an administration to set a policy when it is okay for one activity in one school and not in another. It is just easier to have a very firm policy communicated and everybody holds to it. So I fully support community activities. I agree with Dr. Atallo that in many cases it can be just as valuable if it is done by the people in the community. So I understand where we are going with this and I think we can address this. I am not criticizing the person for what they did. I think if we define the rules and set them up they will conform to them. So we will take care of that.
It was moved by Comm. Atallo, seconded by Comm. Santiago that Resolution No. C-1 be adopted with the exception of three petty cash bills and one architectural bill. On roll call all members voted as follows:
Comm. Atallo: I will vote yes on C-1 with the exception of the architectural bills and the petty cash bills.
Comm. Moody: Yes.
Comm. Santiago: Yes.
Comm. Sayegh: Yes.
Comm. Taylor: Yes, and I would like a review on the architectural bills and petty cash. I am not sure about the temporary clerical staff. I think we need to look into that.
Mr. Azzara: We did review the architectural bills. They were not duplicates.
Comm. Taylor: They were not?
Mr. Azzara: No. Comptroller Joan Constantine assured me.
Comm. Taylor: Okay, the petty cash and the temporary clerical staff. Those are the two areas I vote no on.
Comm. Vergara: My vote is yes.
Comm. Hodges: I vote yes with the exception of the architectural bills and the petty cash. I have some concerns about petty cash being drawn without any receipts. We need to get a handle on that practice.
Page 47 12/15/04
The motion carried.
Comm. Atallo: Point of clarification, Mr. President. Did everybody understand what I was saying? I was saying yes with those exceptions. I just wanted to get a clarification from the Commissioner. Are they voting to pay the bills? We asked for them to be pulled at this time. Are they supporting the motion?
Comm. Moody: Point of clarification. It seems to me that the motion was on the floor.
Comm. Hodges: The vote was already called and the tabulation was made.
Comm. Moody: But the motion that was on the floor was to pay all the bills with the exception of those three. It didn’t call for exceptions.
Comm. Atallo: So people supported withdrawing.
Comm. Moody: So when you vote yes you are voting for his motion, which automatically excluded those three.
Comm. Hodges: Well, I verbalized exceptions in particular.
Comm. Atallo: So the administration understands that?
Comm. Hodges: A yes vote is the motion that he submitted with the exceptions that he submitted. That is the yes vote and that is the motion that was accepted.
Dr. Clancy: Technically if you are amending the motion that is on the table you should vote on the amendment and then vote as a Board. So if you are saying that you wanted to separate two items out and you voted on everything but the two items, I understand that. But technically if you are going to amend the written recommendation, we should do that through motion. You move to amend, we amend it, and then we vote on it. I see how we got confused. I think everybody understood that. We will just take care of that in the future.
Comm. Atallo: Are we going to do it again procedurally or are we okay?
Dr. Clancy: I think you are okay if everybody understands that.
Resolution No. C-2
WHEREAS, there is a need to request district taxes, exclusive of debt service requirements, to meet the needs of the School District for the month of December 2004; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education approves the request of District taxes, exclusive of debt service requirements needed to meet the obligations of the School District, for the month of December 2004, in the amount of $3,001,414.25, and that the City of Paterson is hereby requested to place in the hands of the Custodian of School Moneys that amount within the next thirty (30) days, in accordance with the statutes relating thereto; and
Page 48 12/15/04 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education approves the monthly certification of the State District Superintendent/Board of Education for the month of December 2004, attached hereto and made a part of the minutes.
Resolution No. C-3
WHEREAS, the New Jersey Administrative Code 6:20-2.13 (a) – (c) requires the Board Secretary and the Board of Education to certify that no budgetary line item account has been over-expended and that sufficient funds are available to meet the district’s financial obligations; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Education approves transfer of funds within the 2004-2005 school year budget, for the month of November 2004, so that no budgetary line item account has been over-expended and that sufficient funds are available to meet the district’s financial obligations, as requested by various budget managers, and as identified in the list of transfers attached hereto and made a part of the minutes.
Resolution No. C-4
WHEREAS, Paterson Public Schools are required by New Jersey Administrative Code 6:23-2.2(a) to prepare monthly Financial Statements; and
WHEREAS, the School Business Administrator has prepared and presented the Board Secretary Report A148 and the Report of the Treasurer A149 including the cash reconciliation for the month of August 2004; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public Schools acknowledge receipt of and accept the Monthly Financial Reports for August 2004; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public Schools hereby incorporates the Monthly Financial Reports for the fiscal period ending August 2004, as part of the minutes of this meeting and note the public discussion of same for the minutes; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the School Business Administrator be directed to forward to the County Superintendent the minutes together with the Monthly Financial Reports; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this resolution shall take effect upon its adoption.
Resolution No. C-5
WHEREAS, Paterson Public Schools are required by New Jersey Administrative Code 6:23-2.2(a) to prepare monthly Financial Statements; and
WHEREAS, the School Business Administrator has prepared and presented the Board Secretary Report A148 and the Report of the Treasurer A149 including the cash reconciliation for the month of September 2004; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public Schools acknowledge receipt of and accept the Monthly Financial Reports for September 2004; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public Schools hereby incorporates the Monthly Financial Reports for the fiscal period ending September 2004, as part of the minutes of this meeting and note the public discussion of same for the minutes; and
Page 49 12/15/04
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the School Business Administrator be directed to forward to the County Superintendent the minutes together with the Monthly Financial Reports; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this resolution shall take effect upon its adoption.
Resolution No. C-6
WHEREAS, Paterson Public Schools must complete a Close-Out Report for the 2003- 2004 No Child Left Behind Carry-Over Application for project period 9/1/03 – 8/31/04 in the amount of $1,354,511.86; and
WHEREAS, this report shows the expenditures on Title I $465,164.29, Title I SIA $35,876.58, Title II-A $398,490.54, Title IID $131,613.33, Title III $231,698.99, Title IV $91,668.13, which totals in the amount of $1,354,511.86; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District accepts the Close-Out Report for the 2003-2004 No Child Left Behind Carry-Over Final Report expenditures totaling $1,354,511.86, returning in the amount of $136.32.
Resolution No. C-7
WHEREAS, the Carryover dollars that are available for use in Title I, Title I SIA, Title II A, Title II D, Title III, Title IV, and Title V for the 2004-2005 No Child Left Behind Application; and
WHEREAS, the Total Expenditures for Title I $12,562,886.09, Title I-SIA $404,623.33, Title II-A $2,618,896.48, Title II-D $184,526.89, Title III $725,796.41, Title IV $245,070.88, and Title V $262,398.41. Total Expenditures in the amount of $17,004,198.49; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District accepts the Carryover Application for project period 9/1/04 – 8/31/05 in the amount of Title I $1,081,564.91, Title I-SIA $89,818.67, Title II-A $124,152.52, Title II-D $159,310.11, Title III $86,615.59, Title IV $86,131.12, and Title V $82,176.59. Total Carryover $1,709.769.51.
Resolution No. C-8
WHEREAS, the Paterson School District is in a collaborative partnership with community centers to provide preschool services to resident students; and
WHEREAS, Sonshine Christian Academy, Inc. is a contracted provider of preschool services for three and four year old resident students; and
WHEREAS, an adjustment to their contracted FY’04 budget is appropriate to resolve a correction to the per pupil rate from $7,507.95 to $8,881.00 for 26 children; and
WHEREAS, the New Jersey Department of Education has approved this budget adjustment; and now therefore
Page 50 12/15/04 BE IT RESOLVED, that the contracted budget amount for costs at the Sonshine Christian Academy be amended to include a one-time adjustment in the amount of $33,770.07.
Resolution No. C-9
WHEREAS, the New Jersey School Boards Insurance Act, enacted in 1983, enables school districts to cooperate with each other to make the most efficient use of their powers and resources on a basis of mutual advantage in the areas of insurance, self- insurance and related services; and
WHEREAS, the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District desires to secure protection, services and savings relating to insurance and self-insurance; and
WHEREAS, the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District has determined that the best and most efficient way to secure protection and services relating to insurance and self-insurance is by cooperating with other school districts across the State of New Jersey; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, by the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District, on this 15th day of December, 2004, that an analysis be prepared to determine the cost savings of participating in the New Jersey School Boards Association Insurance Group; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, by the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District, upon the recommendation of the Assistant Superintendent of Operations, on this 15th day of December, 2004, shall participate in the New Jersey School Boards Association Insurance Group as of July 1, 2005, if it is determined by the Board of Education that the services offered by the New Jersey School Boards Association Insurance Group result in significant savings to the taxpayers of the State of New Jersey and the City of Paterson.
Resolution No. C-10
WHEREAS, the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District desires to secure the most effective and efficient energy products and services; and
WHEREAS, the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District has been securing energy products and services through South Jersey Electric and Gas, and PSE&G; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, by the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District, on this 15th day of December, 2004, that an analysis be prepared to determine the cost savings of participating in the Alliance for Competitive Energy Services; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, by the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District, upon the recommendation of the Assistant Superintendent of Operations, on this 15th day of December, 2004, shall participate in the Alliance for Competitive Energy Services as of July 1, 2005, if it is determined by the Board of Education that the services offered by the Alliance for Competitive Energy Services offer significant savings to the taxpayers of the State of New Jersey and the City of Paterson.
Page 51 12/15/04 Resolution No. C-11
WHEREAS, the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District desires to secure the most effective and efficient telecommunications; and
WHEREAS, the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District has been securing services through Verizon and MCI; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, by the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District, on this 15th day of December, 2004, that an analysis be prepared to determine the cost savings of participating in the Alliance for Competitive Communications; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, by the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District, upon the recommendation of the Assistant Superintendent of Operations, on this 15th day of December, 2004, shall participate in the Alliance for Competitive Communications as of July 1, 2005, if it is determined by the Board of Education that the services offered by the Alliance for Competitive Communications result in significant savings to the taxpayers of the State of New Jersey and the City of Paterson.
Resolution No. C-12
WHEREAS, the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District is required to authorize the School Business Administrator to submit construction projects to the New Jersey Department of Education for review and approval; and
WHEREAS, the purpose of submissions to the New Jersey Department of Education is to enter the Section 13A Grant Agreement School Facility Projects with the New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation to execute and implement the construction project application listed below; and
WHEREAS, the subject construction projects are consistent with this requirement; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Education of the Paterson Public School District hereby authorizes the School Business Administrator to submit application for the construction projects listed below to the New Jersey Department of Education; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the purpose of submission is to enter into the Section 13A Grant Agreement School Facility Projects, and execute and implement the construction project listed below for Public School #5:
1. That A/E services for the investigative or feasibility phase for the scope of corrective work are needed to resolve the water infiltration into the school. 2. This investigation may include services of experts such as architects, engineers, masonry experts, roofing consultants, etc. to determine type and extent of work that will be required to permanently stop water from entering into the school. 3. This investigation will also help determine the quality of the work already performed by the contractors during the recent health and safety construction phase. Surveys of existing roof slope, storm water management, work not included in the health and safety scope of work, etc. 4. A full analysis to determine the course of ongoing water infiltration into the building.
Page 52 12/15/04 5. The investigative phase will include the use of destructive probes. This may involve removal of small samples of roof or brick areas to help make a determination of what lies below or behind the brick wall or suspect roof construction.
The total cost of expert investigative work is estimated at $50,000.00.
Resolution No. C-13
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Athletic Supplies (Re-Bid), PPS-128-05; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and
WHEREAS, a bidder’s proposal was inadvertently omitted because it appeared initially to be missing the Consent of Surety; and
WHEREAS, the vendor informed the District that Consent of Surety was submitted and the District re-evaluated the bid documents and determined that the Consent of Surety was in fact submitted; and
WHEREAS, the District determined that this bidder is the lowest responsive/responsible bidder for various items; and
WHEREAS, the original bid summary tabulation for the Athletic Supplies (Re-Bid) bid was revised to include this bidder; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract(s), as per the attached revised bid summary, for Athletic Supplies (Re-Bid), PPS-128-05, for the 2004-2005 school year, to the following vendor(s):
East Orange Sporting Goods, Inc. Metuchen Center, Inc. 459 Pleasant Valley Way 429 Joyce Kilmer Avenue West Orange, NJ 07052 New Brunswick, NJ 08901 (348 Items) (113 Items)
Levy’s, Inc. Flaghouse, Inc. 6116 Bergenline Avenue 601 Flaghouse Drive West New York, NJ 07093 Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07604 (125 Items) (22 Items)
Riddell/All American 669 Sugar Lane Elyria, OH 44035 (10 Items)
Resolution No. C-14
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Athletic Supplies for Winter & Spring (Re-Bid), PPS-134-05; and
Page 53 12/15/04
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Athletic Supplies for Winter & Spring (Re-Bid), PPS-134- 05, for the 2004-2005 school year, to the following vendor(s):
Metuchen Center, Inc. Dol-Gray Enterprises, Inc. 429 Joyce Kilmer Avenue 64 Division Avenue New Brunswick, NJ 08901 Levittown, NY 11756 47 Items Awarded 37 Items Awarded
Pro-Look Sports R & R Sporting Goods 37 East Center, Suite 302 104 Ridge Road Provo, UT 84606 N. Arlington, NJ 07031 2 Items Awarded 289 Items Awarded
Resolution No. C-15
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Audiology Equipment, PPS-135-05; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Audiology Equipment, PPS-135-05, for the 2004-2005 school year, to the following vendor:
Audio Enhancement 14241 South Redwood Road Bluffdale, UT 84065 Not to exceed $17,500.00
Resolution No. C-16
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Natural Gas Procurement, PPS-244-05; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Natural Gas Procurement, PPS-244-05, at a price of
Page 54 12/15/04 $9.925 per MMBTU, for the period of January 1, 2005 through June 30, 2005, to the following vendor:
South Jersey Energy 1 South Jersey Plaza Folsom, NJ 08037 Not to exceed $1,500,000.00
Resolution No. C-17
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Plumbing Supplies & Related (Re-Bid), PPS-245-05; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Plumbing Supplies & Related (Re-Bid), PPS-245-05, for the 2004-2005 school year, to the following vendor:
Grant Supply Co., Inc. 901 Joyce Kilmer Avenue P.O. Box 7061 N. Brunswick, NJ 08902 Not to exceed $30,000.00
Resolution No. C-18 was pulled.
Resolution No. C-19
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Elevator Maintenance & Repairs (Re-Bid), PPS-249-05; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Elevator Maintenance & Repairs (Re-Bid), PPS-249-05, for the 2004-2005 school year, to the following vendor:
GS Elevator Industries, Inc. 2100 88th Street North Bergen, NJ 07047 Not to exceed $40,000.00
Page 55 12/15/04 Resolution No. C-20
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Closure of Underground Oil Tanks, PPS-251-05; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Closure of Underground Oil Tanks, PPS-251-05, for the 2004-2005 school year, to the following vendor:
Aurora Environmental, Inc. 1102 Union Avenue Union Branch, NJ 07735 Not to exceed $50,000.00
Resolution No. C-21
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Elevator Maintenance & Repairs, PPS-246-05; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District rejects all bids, as per the attached bid summary, for Elevator Maintenance & Repairs, PPS-246-05, for the 2004- 2005 school year, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:18A-22d, the board of education wants to substantially revise the specifications for the goods or services.
Resolution No. C-22
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Vehicle Maintenance, Repair and Towing Service, PPS-250-05; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and
WHEREAS, a Bid Bond was not submitted, as required on the Technical Specification; and
WHEREAS, a Certificate of Surety was not submitted, as required on the Technical Specification; and
Page 56 12/15/04 WHEREAS, the bidding laws permit the Board to reject a materially non-responsive bid; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District rejects all bids, as per the attached bid summary, for Vehicle Maintenance, Repair and Towing Service, PPS-250- 05, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:18A-25, Guarantee Certificate.
Resolution No. C-23
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District has identified a need to provide temporary transportation for special education pupils for the 2004-2005 school year to participate in the following worksite, Food Basics; and
WHEREAS, informal telephone quotes were received by the Transportation Department; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that this Board of Education ratifies the action of the State Business Administrator in awarding a temporary contract to:
Route Contractor Total Per Diem TFB1 Murphy $65.00
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the State District Superintendent authorizes this action and the action is affirmed by the Paterson Board of Education.
It was moved by Comm. Atallo, seconded by Comm. Santiago that Resolution Nos. C-2 through C-23 be adopted.
Comm. Taylor: I would like to see some clarification on C-12 regarding the question that was asked by the public about how that building is being structured.
On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried.
Resolution No. C-24
WHEREAS, the Paterson Public Schools caused an annual audit to be made by a public school accountant pursuant to NJSA 18A:23-1&2; and
WHEREAS, said “Comprehensive Annual Financial Report” and “Auditor’s Management Report” for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2004 were filed in duplicate with the Office of the Commissioner on November 5, 2004 pursuant to NJSA 18A:23-3; and
WHEREAS, a Synopsis of the Audit has been made available to the public by the audit firm of Watson & Rice at the Board Meeting December 15, 2004; and
WHEREAS, the School Business Administrator presented these reports, findings and recommendations to the Board at the Workshop Meeting on December 8, 2004 and at the Regular Meeting held on December 15, 2004, and representatives of the audit firm of Watson & Rice were present to discuss the reports; and
WHEREAS, a Corrective Action Plan has been prepared and disseminated by the School Business Administrator in response to the audit recommendations; and now therefore
Page 57 12/15/04 BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public Schools acknowledge receipt of the “Comprehensive Annual Financial Report” and “Auditor’s Management Report” for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2004; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public Schools hereby incorporate the Synopsis of the Audit and each specific audit recommendation and the resulting Corrective Action Plan as part of the minutes of this meeting and note the public discussion of same for the minutes; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the School Business Administrator be directed to forward to the County Superintendent the minutes together with the Corrective Action Plan Audit Synopsis; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that this resolution shall take effect upon its adoption.
It was moved by Comm. Atallo, seconded by Comm. Taylor that Resolution No. C- 24 be adopted.
Comm. Atallo: I have reviewed the audit extensively as chair of the finance committee. I know that my colleagues on the Board have had an opportunity to review the audit. We are very concerned about the results and findings. There were 29 areas of non- compliance and I believe 14 or 17 are repeats from the previous fiscal year. Six to 12 are repeats from the previous fiscal year and there seems to be about a half dozen that are consistently coming up. My findings, based upon my analysis, are that a number of these areas of deficiency are procedural and can be tightened up through tighter managerial procedures. That should be done aggressively by the administration. As I stated in the workshop, and I will give a very condensed version for the public, the findings are found by the independent auditor and the administration’s responsibility is to come up with a corrective action plan. Let me clarify that. First, this audit closed June 30, 2004 and Dr. Clancy started July 1st. This is under the administrative watch of his predecessor, so the criticisms are not directed at Dr. Clancy. My criticisms are that each year there were multiple deficiencies in areas of non-compliance. Each year a corrective action plan was submitted but obviously the corrective action plan was not effective because the deficiencies kept popping up. So we suggested collectively that we do a three-year analysis of the last three fiscal years, the last three audits, and the last three corrective action plans. Let’s look at what was implemented and why it was not effective and didn’t work so we can come together with a comprehensive corrective action plan that we think will address the needs and resolve the majority, if not all, of the areas of non-compliance. Hopefully all of them will be resolved so that we can have an audit report next year that cleans these up. I thank the Board members for their time in reviewing this last Wednesday. I know at the workshop we spent a lot of time reviewing this and I thank the Board members for their time on this project.
Comm. Taylor: I had spoken with Dr. Clancy and I understand the first part of C-24 to acknowledge receipt of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and Auditor’s Management Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2004. Then it said we are forwarding to the County Superintendent the minutes of the meeting together with the Corrective Action Plan and Audit Synopsis. The corrective action plan was a plan that was given to us. We had asked for the breakdown from the last three years – 2002, 2003 and 2004 – but that was on the table when we got here tonight. I need to look at it and I need someone to explain some of it to me. I am not that astute enough to understand all the areas in the corrective action plan that they had from 2002 to 2004. I would like to know more information about it so I think we need to look at this. I also said that the corrective action plan needs to be looked at before we send it to the
Page 58 12/15/04 County Superintendent. The way it is written, it is as if it is the corrective action plan that we have all looked at. Is that my understanding of it?
Dr. Clancy: You are required to accept the audit report and we are required to submit a corrective action plan.
Comm. Taylor: It says in the resulting corrective action plan and it has nothing to do with anyone else except…
Dr. Clancy: At the last meeting, if you recall, we changed this wording at the Board’s request to indicate that you received the audit and the correction action and we are submitting it to the County as per regulation. It gives you plenty of time to have a specific sit-down and look at the specifics. We were simply meeting the requirements of giving you that and submitting the corrective action plan.
Comm. Taylor: Paterson Public Schools acknowledge receipt of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and the Auditor’s Management Report for the fiscal year. Then it says the resulting corrective action plan. But we have not…
Comm. Hodges: Only received and not approved by the Board.
Mr. Azzara: There is something in the resolution that says that.
Comm. Taylor: Right, I hope so. This needs to be revisited by this whole Board again so we can go over it step-by-step.
Comm. Hodges: We are not in any way saying that we approve of the corrective action plan, only in receipt of it.
Comm. Taylor: I understand that, Dr. Hodges, but we have a way of just letting it pass by and not reviewing it and going over it again. Do you understand me?
Comm. Hodges: You are absolutely correct. I think we should schedule a date to review the corrective action plan at the next workshop.
Comm. Taylor: We have a lot of questions as to why we still have these hangovers all the time.
Comm. Hodges: Let me finish. If we can have a firm date that will maybe address some of our concerns.
Dr. Clancy: I think when you set your date for the next workshop we can plan on a date.
Comm. Hodges: Thank you. At the next workshop we will be discussing the corrective action plan.
On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried.
Resolution No. C-25
WHEREAS, the district engaged the law firm of Schwartz Simon Edelstein Celso and Kessler LLP to provide special counsel services for various matters; and
Page 59 12/15/04 WHEREAS, the firm’s bills totaling $114,032.36 were tabled at the Regular Board of Education Meeting in November for further review; and
WHEREAS, said bills were reviewed and it was determined that $114,032.36 represents all moneys due to Schwartz Simon Edelstein Celso and Kessler LLP for services rendered; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education authorizes the State District Superintendent to pay to the firm of Schwartz Simon Edelstein Celso and Kessler LLP the amount of $114,032.36 as payment in full for services rendered.
It was moved by Comm. Taylor, seconded by Comm. Santiago that Resolution No. C-25 be adopted.
Comm. Atallo: Dr. Hodges, let me say this in a calm and collected way. I don’t support getting resolutions at the last minute. Had we had committee meetings, this could have been addressed. We had an extensive workshop meeting, which went until midnight last week, discussing many issues. This was never put on the table to be addressed. I have serious concerns. First of all, the action form for this law firm involved a $30,000 cap. There was a limit. I do not recall ever receiving any approvals for the cap to be extended beyond $30,000. Mr. Azzara, is that correct? Was there a $30,000 cap?
Mr. Azzara: That is correct. The only resolution we have on file had a cap of $30,000.
Comm. Atallo: How much money were they paid up until this point, about $70,000? I know they were paid at least $70,000.
Mr. Azzara: Close to $100,000.
Comm. Atallo: How much?
Mr. Azzara: About $100,000.
Comm. Atallo: They were paid $100,000 so far. So that went beyond the action form and the cap. That was out of order. Mike, this is not a cross examination but you were familiar with it and I just want to raise the questions for the record. They were recommended on the action form, which I have a copy of, by Mr. Johnson who was the in-house counsel. I understand he recommended them to watch the office while he was trying a case in Newark. Wasn’t that the original intent?
Mr. Azzara: Not on the initial action form.
Comm. Atallo: That was not the original intent to hire them?
Mr. Azzara: No.
Comm. Atallo: What were they hired for?
Mr. Azzara: To handle the Control matter.
Comm. Atallo: Control Custodial matter?
Mr. Azzara: Yes.
Page 60 12/15/04 Comm. Atallo: Once they were on board, Mr. Johnson, as in-house counsel, assigned them numerous cases. Isn’t that true?
Mr. Azzara: Yes, he did.
Comm. Atallo: I have concerns because while the in-house counsel was in Newark trying this case, he had them out there trying this case with him, as well as an additional firm. I believe it was Bastarrika & Guzman. So we had three cases getting paid by the district to litigate this case where they were harassing, excuse me, litigating against the principal. This cost a lot of money for the district. After they lost the case they sent another bill, which they filed exceptions. We met and Mr. Sayovitz was there and he agreed with our position. This was outrageous. They filed exceptions without getting approval from the district and were charging us for something that was never asked to be done. Those exceptions were withdrawn. Then after Dr. Clancy notified the firm in writing that their services were no longer required, we found out on their letterhead that the former in-house counsel, who recommended this firm to the district and recommended all these cases to be litigated by this firm for large amounts of your dollars, Paterson tax dollars, is now hired by this firm to work with them as an associate. I think that is highly inappropriate. It gives the appearance of impropriety and raises serious ethical concerns. When I was down in Atlantic City for the New Jersey School Boards conference with others who sit on this panel, there was Mr. Johnson at the door greeting everyone. I think you can’t be representing this district and bringing somebody from the outside as an employee, and then gain an economic benefit. I think that is wrong and I cannot support this. This is wrong, wrong, wrong. I cannot support this at all. If they want to take legal action against us for not paying it, you tell them Dr. Atallo has no problem filing an ethics complaint because this is nonsense.
Comm. Hodges: That is a confidential matter.
Comm. Sayegh: Dr. Atallo, are you suggesting that we table item C-25?
Comm. Atallo: Not table it – vote it down. Vote no and send them a message. You can’t have this buddy system. People came into Paterson and asked, how much money can we make off Paterson, New Jersey? That is why we had to file this lawsuit against these other companies. As you know, more lawsuits will be forthcoming. We have to send a message that Paterson, New Jersey is not for sale. We were elected by this community to protect the taxpayer’s dollars and make sure the children get a good education. Those are our priorities. These people are bringing their buddies, they are making these deals, and it is inappropriate. I can’t support this. I am going to vote no and I think we should strongly send a message out that the vote is no. The Paterson Board of Education and the Paterson School District is not for sale.
Comm. Hodges: I would just caution members to be more circumspect about future possible legal actions.
Dr. Clancy: I think it is important to note that this bill came before the Board. We have already tabled this bill. The current Board Counsel held this bill before even submitting it to the Board, so we have held this bill now for several months. In fact, I think it is now probably at least four months. I think you need to act on it, regardless of your feelings. I think you should take your position and vote. Clearly, there are legal responsibilities that we have and again it comes down to there is no sense spending more district money on an incident that perhaps may result in even more expenditures for the district if you are legally responsible. From my understanding on this, this bill has been outstanding. As a Board, you have an outstanding bill and you have to pay your bills. If
Page 61 12/15/04 you want to go the route of saying it needs to be looked into and we question the bill, and we should, that is a separate issue. I do have to advise you that if you have a legal responsibility to pay your bills, you may be right in the long run but it may in fact cost you an awful lot of money. Unfortunately, in many ways that is the nature of legal responsibilities.
Comm. Hodges: Are you saying that there is some mechanism to look at this bill further?
Dr. Clancy: I am saying that if you ask us to look into it further we would, but I am also saying that we were asked to look into it, we did look into it, we tabled it, we looked into it again, and in the end there is an outstanding bill for services rendered. We can continue to look into it but you still have a legal obligation to pay your bills. I am sitting here advising you as the Chief Executive Officer that if you wanted us to even go further into the investigation we would, but understand that you are going to have to pay the bill. That is just your responsibility.
Comm. Atallo: I agree with the premise that we should pay our bills that we are responsible for. But according to what Mr. Azzara said, there was one action form to hire them with a cap of $30,000. There were no other action forms. So we paid them for what we were responsible for. If Mr. Johnson authorized cases for them without getting authorization from the Board to increase the cap or further action, then we are not responsible for that. Mr. Johnson, on top of it, decides to negotiate employment with them. That creates a very skeptical picture. I am very suspicious as to what went on there. I don’t see a responsibility to pay this bill. If the in-house counsel authorized them to do work, he should have come to the district and followed the process and procedure. We have no legal obligation. There was one action form for $30,000 and they were paid over $100,000. They went beyond that. Unless there is an action form authorizing them to do this work, you don’t move forward. People don’t move forward without contracts, and a law firm of all people would know that. Unless they have a contract, they don’t move forward. If I am sitting on my porch and you come and paint my house and I never authorized you to do it and at the end you say give me $10,000 for painting your house, I never asked you to paint my house. I can sit there drinking lemonade while you are painting the house. There is no contract. I think a law firm, of all places, would understand about contractual obligations. So I respectfully disagree with the Superintendent. I don’t believe we have an obligation to pay these people at all. There was no action by this district or by this Board to authorize them to do that work. We have no obligation.
Comm. Taylor: I recall that when we believe it is a bill that we shouldn’t pay and we decide to vote no on it and the Superintendent, after his own investigation, decides that it is a bill that we must pay because they did do some work and they can show paperwork, because they have a paper trail for it, we can vote no and he can veto.
Comm. Moody: I want to know the recommendation of the administration and the opinion of the attorney on this matter.
Mr. Sayovitz: I reviewed the bills and I did confirm that Mr. Johnson had authorized the firm to do the work. The problem with someone acting on behalf of the school district is that the person has what the law refers to as a parent authority. Dr. Atallo, in your analogy, which is a good one regarding the porch, if the husband says I didn’t authorize it and the wife did, she has the authority to speak for the family. In this case, the co- general counsel Mr. Johnson had the title, which gave him, to the outside world, certain authorities. I am just explaining to you what the law is.
Page 62 12/15/04
Comm. Atallo: That’s not the law.
Mr. Sayovitz: Let me just finish. I, therefore, concluded that the possibility of protracted costs and litigation associated with this fuzzy situation was not worth it and I approved it under those circumstances.
Comm. Moody: You approved what?
Mr. Sayovitz: I approved the payment that the services had been rendered.
Comm. Hodges: The concern that is immediately raised is that anybody can then say we have legal limits but they are going to circumvent that and contract out. We have time and material bids but one of our facility persons say that although our cap is $50,000 and this is a $300,000 job – just go ahead and do it. The district is then, by your example, bound to pay that bill.
Mr. Sayovitz: I think that those are absolutely the correct questions to ask in these circumstances and it was my judgment that where the firm had done work and had participated in litigation, this was not a matter that was worth spending further costs to litigate.
Comm. Hodges: But is there anyone that we can hold accountable for going over these established caps, which they were all aware of? Otherwise, if we are unable to do that then there is no point in having a cap because it will happen again tomorrow.
Mr. Sayovitz: I do not know the circumstances as to how he went over the cap. I do not know how that happened. I don’t know whether Mr. Johnson had the approval of someone else or not. I have no way of knowing that.
Comm. Hodges: Irrespective if he did or not, the caps still exist.
Dr. Clancy: You asked me what I would recommend. In looking at it, I clearly recommend you pay it because I wouldn’t want to pay this firm one more penny. So from that perspective that is my recommendation. On the other side of the coin on your latter question, that is a problem and it is a very difficult one in a school district. I can give you an example of that because it shows up in audit reports, including ours. A teacher gets a brochure and in that brochure it says we have this excellent reading program and it is available to you for free on trial – 30 days/no cost. A teacher sends in the card and that free package shows up at the school. They try the package and put it on the shelf because it is not worth the effort and it is not a good package. They put it on the shelf and they forget it. They miss the 30 days. That is now a confirming purchase order but the district never authorized them to purchase that set. They didn’t return it in the 30 days. The district is obliged to pay it. In a nutshell, it ends up being a confirming purchase order which is a violation of account practices. I am not criticizing the teacher. Obviously they didn’t follow the procedure but they are trying to find good materials. Clearly we need to hold them accountable but there is a case of an agent, the same as your attorney, who acted and the company did what they know was going to happen and they do it deliberately. So as a district you have to set procedures up that say we will not honor confirming purchase orders, if you do this you will pay, and even then it is questionable whether you can hold them accountable because as an agent of the district if they say they don’t have any money it is a question. You are acting in the defense of the district. I would say, including time and material and any other issue, that you have taken steps. You no longer have the same superintendent.
Page 63 12/15/04 You no longer have the same attorney. Those are pretty big steps. The issue is once you have taken those steps and you have a new legal counsel and you have a new superintendent, you have to take the steps that we are not going to authorize that kind of material and truthfully people have to be held accountable. We have talked about this as a Board. The time and material and the use of contractors is a problem in the area of facilities and we actually agree. We can set a policy that says only in emergencies do these things occur. You have to try to hold them accountable but in this kind of retrospective analysis of a situation, I have to advise you that I think it is a loser for you financially. If that is the case, it would be not in your best interest not to pay this bill.
Comm. Hodges: Are there any other new comments? We can’t belabor the point because it is getting late.
Comm. Atallo: I do have new comments. I have serious concerns. I was surprised to see this on the agenda tonight. I don’t support last minute resolutions. I want to see them ahead of time at the workshop so we can have full, open discussions, which wasn’t done. Also, I have discussed this issue with other attorneys and it is a funny story. Mitch will support me on this. About four or five years ago we had a bunch of lawyers in a room arguing about who did what and then Mitch and I stepped out and said we were not going to pay any of their bills. Five minutes later we came back and suddenly they were all together because they wanted their bills paid. I know it is very hard, Mr. Sayovitz, because you practice in Morris County and they practice in Morris County and you interact with these people. But I have spoken with other attorneys.
Mr. Sayovitz: No, I don’t interact with these people.
Comm. Atallo: Well, the point is that I respectfully disagree with your legal opinion on this. We don’t have a contract with them and I will tell you why. Attorneys are legal experts. They are held to a higher authority. As Dr. Hodges would deal with a medical issue because he is held to a higher authority as a medical professional, they deal with contracts and they know what contracts are. They had a contract for $30,000 with a cap. That was the only contract they had. For them to do work beyond that, it was done at their own peril. I think they are being wise guys. I think the in-house counsel was a wise guy. I think they are both wise guys to sit down and cut their little deals. That is what it was. They sat down and decided to give all this work to the firm of Schwartz Simon Edelstein and then Mr. Johnson mysteriously becomes an associate of the firm. That stinks. That stinks to high heaven and we need to look at what the in- house counsel is doing. He is not going to escape on this. Ethics charges have to be addressed and I am seriously concerned about any administrator that would approve this. I am shocked, quite frankly, that it shows up as a last minute resolution and you say we need to pay it. There is no contract. The contract said a $30,000 cap to do legal work and they went and did $100,000 worth of work.
Comm. Hodges: Anything further, Dr. Atallo?
Comm. Atallo: I just want to express my absolute outrage at what I think is an injustice to the Paterson School District and to the children. Again, they are trying to play this district for fools. As we had to vote on that resolution to litigate against those other companies, I am sick and tired of being considered fools, and I believe my colleagues are sick and tired also, by these people who come in from the outside to play Paterson. They had a contract for $30,000 and that is what it was. There was no contract for this. This is an unauthorized activity and I would consider any payments unauthorized.
Page 64 12/15/04 On roll call all members voted as follows:
Comm. Atallo: This is an outrage. I vote no.
Comm. Moody: I vote yes.
Comm. Santiago: No.
Comm. Sayegh: I object to the blatant cronyism in this matter and in protest I vote no.
Comm. Taylor: No.
Comm. Vergara: I definitely have to agree with Comm. Atallo. I vote no.
Comm. Hodges: I also will vote no.
The motion did not carry.
Comm. Hodges: Dr. Clancy, I know you are obligated to veto this action.
Comm. Atallo: No, he is not. He is not obligated to veto it.
Comm. Hodges: I know you feel obligated to veto this action, or perhaps you don’t, but if you do I will certainly put together a comment for the Commissioner to explain our position on this matter.
Comm. Atallo: I will contact the Bar Association in writing on this firm and what they did. Paterson is not for sale. This Board needs to stick together on this, ladies and gentlemen.
Comm. Hodges: I think the Board has already spoken.
Items Not Requiring a Vote
PERSONNEL
05-A821. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Annalesa Williams Act. Soc. Stud. Chair/EHS $74,438 11/15/04
05-A822. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Olanrewaju Alade Perm. Sub./GFA $30,321 10/25/04
05-A823. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Julietta Stas Inst. Asst./EHS $28,298 11/15/04
Page 65 12/15/04 05-A824. Approved compensation for Mark Roland to work in the Apple Care Special Edition Extended Day Program at John F. Kennedy High School, for the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not to exceed $10,560.00.
05-A825. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Takisha McDowell HSCL/RPHS $10.50/hr. Pending
05-A826. Approved compensation for Lisa DeAngelo to teach 8th grade Algebra at School No. 25, for the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not the exceed $5,940.00.
05-A827. Approved compensation for teachers of the handicapped for career orientation, from October 5, 2004 through February 22, 2005, at an amount not to exceed $660.00:
Jennifer Varano Martine LaSassa
05-A828. Approved compensation for instructional assistants for career orientation, from October 5, 2004 through February 22, 2005, at an amount not to exceed $920.00:
Robin Tanguay Alvaro Merino
05-A829. Approved compensation for part time instructional staff according to the procedures and guidelines of Adult High School grant funds, for the 2004- 2005 school year, at an amount not to exceed $28,578.00:
Frances Botti Vilma Carranza Bassima Mustafa Candido Vilas
05-A830. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Michelle Vicente Tchr./No. 1 $46,260 11/22/04
05-A831. Approved internal transfer of Heidi Freeman, from special education instructional assistant at Eastside High School to instructional assistant, effective November 1, 2004.
05-A832. Approved compensation for staff working in the Twilight/Rebound Program at Eastside High School, for the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not to exceed $171,560.00:
Tracy Brand George DeLaTorre Bonnie King John McKeon Raul Guzman Joseph LiVecchi Lance Jones Khamis Aburmeteh Anthony DePasquale Arthur Larro John Walter Vanessa Vitello Patricia Valenzano Ann Carlock
Page 66 12/15/04 05-A833. Approved compensation for coaches in the Eastside High School Winter Sports Program, beginning November 1, 2004 through March 31, 2005:
Name Position Henry Baker Head Basketball Michael Baker Asst. Basketball Edward Black Head Basketball Kim Rousseau 1st Asst. Basketball Linda Hicks Asst. Basketball Ray Lyde Asst. Basketball Shawn Collins Head Bowling Richard Flores Head Indoor Track Raul Guzman Head Wrestling Omar Polanco Asst. Wrestling Roman Ruderman Asst. Wrestling Travelle Pinkett Cheerleader Advisor John McKeon Athletic Academic Advisor Christopher Hiel Head Strength & Conditioning LTC Gerald DeCola Head Color/Honor Guard LTC Gerald DeCola Asst. Drill Teams Winston Codling Head Drill Teams Mauricio Branwell Head JROTC Raider Team
05-A834. Approved compensation for coaches in the Eastside High School Winter Sports Program, beginning November 1, 2004 through March 31, 2005:
Name Position Tony Reed 1st Asst. Basketball Xavier Fitzgerald Asst. Basketball Bruce Lindsay Asst. Indoor Track
05-A835. Approved compensation for coaches in the Eastside High School Fall 2004 Sports Program due to resignation and/or transfer:
Name Position Christopher Hiel Head Strength & Conditioning Winston Codling Head Drill Team
05-A836. Approved compensation for staff for overnight supervision at Frost Valley YMCA for HARP Academy, from November 8-10, 2004, at an amount not to exceed $1,200.00:
Timothy Caspare Paul Healy Lecia Minor Mildred Miller John Super Christopher Toomey
05-A837. Approved part time appointments:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Grace Cornacchia World Lang. Tutor/ULA $25.00/hr. 9/7/04
Elena Sweeney Tutor/ULA $25.00/hr. 9/7/04
Muaya Jacobs Monitor/ULA $12.00/hr. 9/7/04
Page 67 12/15/04
Charles Mason Monitor/ULA $13.60/hr. 9/7/04
05-A838. Approved appointment of Maria Pena as Food Service Substitute, at a salary of $6.75 per hour, effective November 11, 2004.
05-A839. Approved transfer:
Name From To Eff. Date Juan DeMiguel Tchr./No. 14 (.2) Tchr./No. 26 (.2) 11/1/04
05-A840. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Diego Jativa Chief Cust./EHS $38,791 11/16/04
05-A841. Approved compensation for staff of Eastside High School working in the Saturday SAT Program, during the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not to exceed $13,860.00:
Khamis Aburmeileh James Avino Janelle Vega Dilber Yildirim
05-A842. Approved compensation for staff teaching an Algebra I course to grade 8 students, beginning October 2004 through June 2005, at an amount not to exceed $5,940.00 per teacher:
Raad Dandan Omoluwa Eimakhu Charla Holder William Roman Claire Bussanick Mercy David Victor Alegria Erik Polo Alfred Quaynor Elizabeth Babones Sylwia Mokry Isaac Alvarez Eloy Huamanchumo Janelle Vega Samuel Ayres Serge Laguerri Donna Lisanti Lisa DeAngelo Vivian Gaines Joshy Mangalthil Dilber Yildirim Ahmed Salama Akshay Patel David Mitchell Lee Chong Gopi Tadakamalla Anibal Cintron
05-A843. Approved payment of stipends for John F. Kennedy High School staff for coaching in the Winter Sports Program, beginning November 26, 2004 through March 15, 2005:
Name Position James Ring Head Boys Basketball Frank Peragallo First Asst. Boys Basketball James Hargrove First Asst. Boys Basketball Charles Spinella Basketball Frosh Marquette Burgess Head Girls Basketball Carmella Crawford First Asst. Girls Basketball Clarence Pierce Asst. Girls Basketball
Page 68 12/15/04 John Prescott Asst. Girls Basketball Gary Moore Head Wrestling Joseph Almazi Asst. Wrestling Joseph Ribitzki Asst. Wrestling Joseph Meyers Head Bowling Kenneth Samra Head Indoor Track Ronald Thomas Asst. Indoor Track Mary DeMoor Athletic 1/3 Academic Advisor Sarah Williams Cheerleaders Ines Guzman Cheerleaders
05-A844. Approved stipend for Michelle Van Hoven as Music Director for the John F. Kennedy High School Band, for the 2004-2005 school year, in the amount of $5,447.00.
05-A845. Approved stipend for Kimberly Smith as Band Majorette Advisor for John F. Kennedy High School, for the 2004-2005 school year, in the amount of $4,949.00.
05-A846. Approved compensation for James Bonadies for working in the breakfast program at the International High School, during the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not to exceed $2,970.00.
05-A847. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Janet Rivas Cafe Monitor/No. 15 $7.25/hr. 11/1/04
05-A848. Approved compensation for Jason Rieder as computer teacher for the Ace Mobile Lab Unit in the after school program, from October 25, 2004 through July 31, 2005, at an amount not to exceed $18,678.00.
05-A849. Approved compensation for new staff of School No. 15 participating in after school Whole School Reform Model training in concept and utilization of currently used applications, at an amount not to exceed $5,000.00:
Fidelina Mendoza Yvette Lozanski Pamela Wilson Joselyn Cruz Elizabeth Toledo Audrey Mocco Ivan Hecht Paulette Szalay Toni Setteducato Gloria Pinkos Renee Farley Debra Milordo Betsy Diaz Mark Mendelsohn Marcy Jatovsky Maria Aguilar Janet Dawson Joseph Sisco Lenora Stansfield Michelle Kline Theresa Cleaves Celia Morales Sonaly Rodriguez Peter Healy Yvette Kless Alfreda Ward Sharon Loder
Page 69 12/15/04 05-A850. Approved transfer:
Name From To Eff. Date Michael Young Inst. Asst./No. 28 Inst. Asst./EWK 10/1/04
05-A851. Approved reassigning Eliu Pomales as personal assistant for a student at School No. 28, effective October 14, 2004.
05-A852. Approved compensation for Luis Apaza as math teacher for the 11th grade HSPA Program at John F. Kennedy High School, from August 12-27, 2004, at an amount not to exceed $1,188.00.
05-A853. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Bindu Jhangiani Guid. Cnslr./JFKHS $43,600 11/8/04
05-A854. Approved change in status for Julie Reyna, from permanent substitute to teacher, effective September 1, 2004, at a salary of $43,900.00.
05-A855. Approved hiring Joselyn Rodriguez as a student worker for the PEP- 21/SES Program, beginning October 2004 through August 2005, at an amount not to exceed $9,360.00.
05-A856. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Natalie Bray Psych./ECE (part time) $30,255 12/6/04
05-A857. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Jacqueline Joseph Senior Spec./Facilities $34,196 11/8/04
05-A858. Approved creating two position control numbers for cafeteria lead monitors for the Urban Leadership Academy.
05-A859. Approved creating four position control numbers for cafeteria monitors for the Urban Leadership Academy.
05-A860. Approved transfer:
Name From To Eff. Date Dori Christmas Tchr./JFKHS Res. Tchr./Cen. Off. 11/29/04
05-A861. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Louis Ferrazzano Inst. Asst./MLK $27,898 11/8/04
05-A862. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Tara Parker Inst. Asst./No. 6 $27,898 11/15/04
Page 70 12/15/04
05-A863. Approved hiring high school and college students as student tutors for the PEP-21 SES Program in the 16 Category I schools, beginning November 2004 through August 31, 2005, at an amount not to exceed $84,700.00:
Partiner Moore Donna Ramos Maireidys Morel Tia Suber Tavia Young Tatiana Soto Nelsi Morel Luigi Luzardo Marcell Bates Jocelyn Chia Angie Retuerto Julian Franco Octavia Gamble Lissette Hernandez Alycia Moses Quashinda Kellam Keynah Washington Amber Williams Brandon Williams Victoria Estrada Jevond Williams Luz LaFontaine Shateriah Hall Jarred Ferrer Asja Ward Carmela Ciarla Natwari Martin Sandy Candiotty Rosarela Candiotty Daphnee Laurent Tasmiah Choudhury Shamyra Gatling Ernest Bachelor
05-A864. Approved changing account number for Michael McMahon, effective September 1, 2004.
05-A865. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Irina Lombardo Tchr./No. 20 $41,600 11/8/04
05-A866. Approved compensation for Thomas Whiteley for working in the breakfast program at School No. 14, during the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not to exceed $3,960.00.
05-A867. Approved substitute teacher applicants:
Mariela Apaza Laiza Cintron Gladys Dauila Ladrunda Gary Natasha Gooding Adrianne Hagans Montrise Jordan Myrlaine Joseph Mohammad Karain Rakeen King Alan LaMonica Ana Martinez Alarys Medina Erika Ortega Rosemarie Pereira Terrence Randall Arthur Redmond Kashann Stewart Brian Winslow
05-A868. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Quasheema Arrick SCL/No. 21 $10.50/hr. 10/25/04 Office of Stud. Attend. $25 travel stipend
Page 71 12/15/04 05-A869. Approved creating five position control numbers for cafeteria monitors at School No. 20.
05-A870. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Sabrina Gerald Senior Ccord. Spec./DSS $32,194 11/1/04
05-A871. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Aida Luciano Cafe Monitor/NSW $7.25/hr. Pending
05-A872. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Clarice Windbush Cafe Monitor/MLK $7.25/hr. 11/1/04
05-A873. Approved changing position control number 4411 from grade 1 teacher at Martin Luther King, Jr. School, to grade 3/4 teacher.
05-A874. Approved changing position control number 3894 from kindergarten instructional assistant at Martin Luther King, Jr. School, to instructional assistant.
05-A875. Approved changing position control number 2453 from BSI instructional assistant at Martin Luther King, Jr. School, to kindergarten instructional assistant.
05-A876. Approved changing position control number 2729 from grade 1 instructional assistant at Martin Luther King, Jr. School, to instructional assistant.
05-A877. Approved changing position control number 3368 from Bilingual/ESL kindergarten teacher at Martin Luther King, Jr. School, to Bilingual/ESL teacher.
05-A878. Approved reassigning Nicholas Fiumara as personal assistant for a student at School No. 28, effective October 14, 2004.
05-A879. Approved compensation for staff of School No. 3 assisting in the development of the Whole School Reform Model during the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not to exceed $3,960.00:
Shirley Glaubach Christopher Graber Ismari Perez Marlene O’Connell Ruth Windish Judy Zangara
05-A880. Approved compensation for staff of School No. 3 assisting in the development of the Whole School Reform Model during the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not to exceed $2,489.00:
Nadia Almaita Lidia Zerquera
Page 72 12/15/04 05-A881. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Ventura Garcia Cafe Monitor/No. 3 $7.25/hr. 11/29/04
05-A882. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Migdalia Chico Cafe Monitor/No. 26 $7.25/hr. 11/1/04
05-A883. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Donna Hammond Cafe Monitor/No. 26 $7.25/hr. 11/1/04
05-A884. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Elayne Young Cafe Monitor/No. 26 $7.25/hr. 11/1/04
05-A885. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Madeline Carrano Cafe Monitor/No. 29 $7.25/hr. 11/1/04
05-A886. Approved appointments:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Evelyn Ramirez Cafe Monitor/IHS $7.25/hr. 11/8/04
Carmen Ramirez Cafe Monitor/IHS $7.25/hr. 11/8/04
05-A887. Approved internal transfers for STARS Academy for the 2004-2005 school year:
Name From To Jose Alva Personal Asst. Inst. Asst. Jaden Pinkett Inst. Asst. Personal Asst.
05-A888. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Mary Anne Louis Guid. Cnslr./EHS $73,265 11/1/04
05-A889. Approved hiring Dayana Cafa as a student worker for the Department of Student Support Services, from October 25, 2004 through June 30, 2005, at a rate of $7.50 per hour, not to exceed $4,680.00.
05-A890. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Richard Martell Cafe Monitor/No. 17 $7.25/hr. 11/22/04
Page 73 12/15/04 05-A891. Approved compensation for staff of School No. 27 participating in cadre meetings to plan staff development during the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not to $1,980.00:
Irene Brunt Roselle Mastrogiovanni Patricia Liguori Mary Ann Hoppe Salvatore Seminerio Marlene Harvey Joanna DeMarco Patricia Montalto Jill Cisneros Anna Fattorusso Ryan Kelly Pamela Green
05-A892. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Evelyn Jimenez Cafe Monitor/No. 27 $7.25/hr. 11/1/04
05-A893. Approved payment to staff serving as mentors in the Provisional Route Program:
Donna Kerwein Liza Otto Michelle Pappolla Lisa Portelli Gladys Morales Blanca Godinez Bonnie Miele Vincent Napoleone Timothy Reilly
05-A894. Approved transfer:
Name From To Eff. Date Theresa Fraser Spch. Lang. Spec./ Spch. Lang. Spec./ 10/19/04 DAS DAS, 3, 12
05-A895. Approved hiring Giselle Robles as a part time clerical assistant in the Department of Early Childhood Education, effective November 1, 2004, at an amount not to exceed $6,300.00.
05-A896. Approved termination due to abandonment of position:
Name Location Eff. Date Ludovina Ramos Cafe Monitor/No. 12 11/30/04
05-A897. Approved termination due to abandonment of position:
Name Location Eff. Date Edita Collado Cafe Monitor/No. 12 11/30/04
05-A899. Approved creating a position control number for Home School Community Liaison at the Academy of Performing Arts.
05-A900. Approved compensation for staff of Eastside High School teaching computer repair after school, during the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not to exceed $14,850.00:
Dan Verrico Carol Maloney
Page 74 12/15/04 05-A901. Approved payment of unused accumulated vacation days, as per policy, to the following employee:
Name Days Alicia Walton 10
05-A902. Approved payment of unused accumulated vacation days, as per policy, to the following employee:
Name Days Berdie Gregory 10
05-A903. Approved rescinding resignation:
Name Location Eff. Date Claudia Zapata SCL/No. 21 9/1/04
05-A904. Approved compensation for staff serving on the Professional Development Committee as required under NJAC 6:11-13.3, during the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not to exceed $21,000.00:
Teresa Carter Robert Salviano Ivan Madjar Dante Petretti Layne Williams Richard Vincenti
05-A905. Approved compensation for staff working in the Paterson Community Learning Center After School Program at Schools No. 6 and 10, beginning October 25, 2004 through May 27, 2005, at an amount not to exceed $50,688.00:
Antoinette Young Udetta Garache Kanene Henry Irene Cheski Beverly Hill Alberta Monroe Gloria Naparano Juanita Williams Audrey Wilson Shelton Prescott
05-A906. Approved compensation for staff working in the Paterson Community Learning Center After School Program at School No. 10, beginning October 25, 2004 through May 27, 2005, at an amount not to exceed $16,896.00:
Tonya McCombs Thalia Salgado Beverly Hill Alberta Monroe Gloria Naparano Juanita Williams Audrey Wilson Shelton Prescott
05-A907. Approved compensation for Craig Redmond as Assistant Band Director (Percussion) at John F. Kennedy High School, for the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not to exceed $4,365.00.
05-A908. Approved compensation for David Lowe as Pep Band Director – Basketball Season at John F. Kennedy High School, for the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not to exceed $2,035.00.
Page 75 12/15/04 05-A909. Approved contract with Garden State Environmental to conduct training to custodial staff and teachers who may use hazardous chemicals, as required under the Right to Know Law, as well as the recently adopted Public Employees Occupational Safety and Health “Hazard Communication Standard”, at an amount not to exceed $2,400.00.
05-A910. Approved longevity stipend for Gilbert Rhein, teacher at School No. 21, for completion of 10 years of service, in the amount $700.00.
05-A911. Approved longevity stipend for Beatriz Quiroz, fiscal monitor, for completion of 10 years of service, in the amount $700.00.
05-A912. Approved creating a position control number for a social worker at School No. 21.
05-A913. Approved 4.9% salary increase for Michael Azzara, Assistant Superintendent of Operations, plus the conversion of $3,000.00 in insurance benefits, retroactive to September 1, 2004.
05-A914. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Alba Mitchell Secretary/No. 5 $30,494 10/27/04
05-A915. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Tayron Glover Inst. Asst./No. 27 $27,328 11/15/04
05-A916. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Little McElveen HSCL/No. 28 $10.50/hr. Pending
05-A917. Approved hiring student worker, Kendra Virgo, to work in the Communications Academy to produce television programming after school at the John F. Kennedy Television Studio, including district news shows, Board of Education meetings and other events during the 2004-2005 school year, at an amount not to exceed $1,000.00.
05-A918. Approved change in status for Indra Venkatbabu, from permanent substitute to teacher, effective September 1, 2004, at a salary of $46,525.00.
05-A919. Approved compensation for staff working in the Theater and Poetry Project at School No. 24, from October 1, 2004 through August 29, 2005, at an amount not to exceed $48,046.00:
Dennis Vroegindewey Charlene Izone Faith Ann Hodges Joanna Urbaez Irene Zottarelli Edwin Hernandez Jennifer Doherty Cathy Cosenza Lenni Benicaso
Page 76 12/15/04 05-A920. Approved leaves of absence:
Name Location Eff. Date Type Nancy Holtje Tchr./ECE 1/14/05-4/22/04 Family/Med.
Lakeyba Brown Tchr./No. 12 10/15/04-10/31/04 Family/Med.
Eugene Clegg Tchr./No. 8 11/1/04-11/30/04 Family/Med.
Robin Decter Tchr./No. 26 4/28/05-5/30/05 Family/Med.
John DiPetrillo Tchr./PAA 11/15/04-12/8/04 Rescind
Leslie Fodi Tchr./No. 9 10/14/04-4/15/05 Family/Mat.
Rosemarie Kaplan Tchr./No. 2 12/14/04-6/30/05 Family/Med.
Natasha Laderach Tchr./No. 10 11/1/04-12/17/04 Family/Mat.
Bernadette Murray Tchr./No. 9 10/1/04-10/31/04 Rev. Fam./Med.
Mary Nazareth Tchr./No. 4 10/7/04-11/12/04 Family/Med.
Michelle Pappolla Tchr./No. 29 3/4/05-6/30/05 Family/Mat.
Enitza Rodriguez Tchr./EHS 11/18/04-12/31/04 Family/Med.
Gisela Rosa Tchr./HARP Acad. 10/4/04-11/19/04 Medical
Patricia Spiliotopoulos Tchr./HARP Acad. 4/19/05-6/30/05 Family/Mat.
Lynn Van Dyke Tchr./MLK 10/15/04-10/22/04 Family/Med.
Yasmin Viruet Tchr./EHS 12/1/04-12/15/04 Family/Med.
05-A921. Approved leaves of absence:
Name Location Eff. Date Type Grace Guardia Inst. Asst./No. 18 1/1/05-1/31/05 Family/Mat.
Mindy Espinal Sec./EHS 10/15/04-11/2/04 Family/Med.
Sharone Re’Voal Sec./Spec. Progs. 9/29/04-10/22/04 Ext. Fam./Med.
Michele Payton Security/No. 18 10/21/04-12/31/04 Family/Med.
Issac Williams Inst. Asst./No. 6 10/8/04-10/31/04 Family/Med.
Wayne Witherspoon Inst. Asst./JFKHS 10/12/04-12/15/04 Family/Med.
05-A922. Approved returning staff to active employment:
Page 77 12/15/04 Name Location Eff. Date Gina Brizzolara Tchr./No. 9 10/4/04
05-A923. Approved returning staff to active employment:
Name Location Eff. Date Annette Lemon Fd. Serv./Cafe Servs. 10/12/04
Sadie Zeigler Inst. Asst./DAS 10/4/04
05-A924. Accepted resignations and retirements:
Name Location Eff. Date Type Ceasar Castro Tchr./No. 27 10/25/04 Resignation
Nancy Garrity Tchr./No. 13 1/1/05 Retirement
Julia Goryn Tchr./EHS 10/4/04 Resignation
Walter Heyer Tchr./EHS 1/1/05 Retirement
George Hirschberg Prin./MPACT Acad. 1/1/05 Retirement
Eleanor Lyght Tchr./JFKHS 11/1/04 Retirement
Jennifer Motta Tchr./No. 25 12/6/04 Resignation
Julie Reyna Tchr./AHA 12/13/04 Resignation
Marianne Silane Tchr./No. 20 1/1/05 Retirement
Jessica Troupe Tchr./No. 1 9/1/04 Resignation
Rose VanTol Tchr./JFKHS 12/16/04 Resignation
Anne Marie Whittington Nurse/Pre-Colleg. 9/29/04 Resignation
05-A925. Accepted resignations and retirements:
Name Location Eff. Date Type Mohsina Alom Inst. Asst./EHS 9/1/04 Resignation Joan Kirwan Supv./Spec. Progs. 1/1/05 Retirement
Carey Koehnen Inst. Asst./No. 10 9/27/04 Resignation
Gladys Santiago Inst. Asst./No. 24 1/1/05 Retirement
Sadie Zeigler Inst. Asst./DAS 1/1/05 Retirement
05-A926. Approved transfer:
Name From To Eff. Date Celeste Mancinelli Sp. Lang. Spec./ Sp. Lang. Spec./ 11/15/04 DAS, 2 No. 2
Page 78 12/15/04
05-A927. Approved vacating position control numbers 5485, 5706 and 5719, and transfer Dawn James and Claudia Suero to Edward W. Kilpatrick School as cafeteria monitors.
05-A928. Approved transferring Stephanie McKnight, cafeteria monitor, from School No. 13 to School No. 6.
05-A929. Approved transferring Claudia Suerro, cafeteria monitor, from Dale Avenue School to Edward W. Kilpatrick School.
05-A930. Approved change in status for Latoria Scott, from permanent substitute to teacher, effective September 1, 2004, at a salary of $43,900.00.
05-A931. Approved reclassifying position control number 5184 from Supervisor of Technology Computer Literacy to System Analyst, to be funded out of No Child Left Behind.
05-A932. Approved change in status for Jennifer Valentin, from permanent substitute to teacher, effective September 1, 2004, at a salary of $42,100.00.
05-A933. Approved change in status for Anthony Malanga, from permanent substitute to teacher, effective September 1, 2004, at a salary of $40,100.00.
05-A934. Approved change in status for Troy Soto, from permanent substitute to teacher, effective September 7, 2004, at a salary of $40,100.00.
05-A935. Approved change in status for Tania Rodriguez, from permanent substitute to teacher, effective September 1, 2004, at a salary of $40,100.00.
05-A936. Approved change in status for Samantha Drummond, from permanent substitute to teacher, effective October 27, 2004, at a salary of $40,100.00.
05-A937. Approved appointment:
Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Kimler Williamson System Analyst/Sp. Progs. $45,000 11/1/04
05-A938. Approved compensation for Kenneth McDaniel for earning a Doctorate degree, in the amount of $2,000.00, effective September 1, 2004.
05-A939. Approved adjustment to salaries of staff based on equivalency credits, retroactive to September 1, 2004:
Name From To John Brewer $41,000 $43,000 (BA, 4) (BA+30, 4)
Jaime Cangialosi $41,000 $43,000 (BA, 4) (BA+30, 4)
Page 79 12/15/04
Cheryl Daniel $40,700 $42,700 (BA, 3) (BA+30, 3)
Jane Janovsky $41,000 $43,000 (BA, 4) (BA+30, 4)
Gerardo Joven $40,400 $42,400 (BA, 2) (BA+30, 2)
Perla Kleinendorst $43,000 $45,000 (BA, 8) (BA+30, 8)
Norma Menchon $41,900 $43,900 (BA, 7) (BA+30, 7)
Ann Morris $41,600 $43,600 (BA, 6) (BA+30, 6)
Michelle Pappolla $41,300 $43,300 (BA, 5) (BA+30, 5)
Magaly Perez $41,600 $43,600 (BA, 6) (BA+30, 6)
Melania Cedeno $41,300 $43,300 (BA, 5) (BA+30, 5)
Libardo Rendon $41,000 $43,000 (BA, 4) (BA+30, 4)
Cynthia Stuart $40,400 $42,400 (BA, 2) (BA+30, 2)
Larry Umana $40,100 $42,100 (BA, 1) (BA+30, 1)
Ilmadeliz Vega $40,700 $42,700 (BA, 3) (BA+30, 3)
Shane Zeigler $43,000 $45,000 (BA, 8) (BA+30, 8)
Nicole Almazi $43,300 $44,800 (BA+30, 5) (MA, 5)
Eugene Amato $57,684 $61,184 (BA, 14) (MA, 14)
Nicole Booker $40,700 $44,200 (BA, 3) (MA, 3)
Montserrat Pascuet $47,562 $51,062 (BA, 11) (MA, 11)
Page 80 12/15/04
Fadime Cangoz $43,900 $45,400 (BA+30, 7) (MA, 7)
Carmen Coldiron $49,562 $51,062 (BA+30, 11) (MA, 11)
Biagio Conforti $49,562 $51,062 (BA+30, 11) (MA, 11)
Jennifer Decker $41,000 $44,500 (BA, 4) (MA, 4)
Darcel Deodato $45,766 $49,266 (BA, 10) (MA, 10)
Betsy Diaz $41,000 $44,500 (BA, 4) (MA, 4)
Noha Elashri $43,300 $44,800 (BA+30, 5) (MA, 5)
Gerald Glisson $40,700 $44,200 (BA, 3) (MA, 3)
Olga Grajales $77,234 $80,734 (BA, 17) (MA, 17)
Helen Guarente $41,000 $44,500 (BA, 4) (MA, 4)
Vanessa Guzman $43,000 $44,500 (BA+30, 4) (MA, 4)
Jehad Hazin $42,700 $44,200 (BA+30, 3) (MA, 3)
Gayle Hopps $79,234 $80,734 (BA+30, 16) (MA, 16)
Michele Iuele $41,000 $44,500 (BA, 4) (MA, 4)
Christine Johnson $45,000 $46,500 (BA+30, 8) (MA, 8)
Sandy Joseph $43,600 $45,100 (BA+30, 6) (MA, 6)
Nicki Kelly $42,700 $44,200 (BA+30, 3) (MA, 3)
Rosa Kopic $40,700 $44,200 (BA, 3) (MA, 3)
Page 81 12/15/04
Colleen Lavorgna $41,000 $44,500 (BA, 4) (MA, 4)
Donna Lisanti $59,684 $61,184 (BA+30, 14) (MA, 14)
Audrey Mocco $41,600 $45,100 (BA, 6) (MA, 6)
Michael Ollo $52,878 $54,378 (BA+30, 13) (MA, 13)
Sharon Reibel $43,900 $45,400 (BA+30, 7) (MA, 7)
Timothy Reilly $41,300 $44,800 (BA, 5) (MA, 5)
Joseph Ribitzki $41,600 $45,100 (BA, 6) (MA, 6)
Jason Rieder $41,000 $44,500 (BA, 4) (MA, 4)
Frances Lopez $42,400 $43,900 (BA+30, 2) (MA, 2)
Jennifer Schmid $43,600 $45,100 (BA+30, 6) (MA, 6)
Nadia Stern $41,600 $45,100 (BA, 6) (MA, 6)
John Super $43,000 $46,500 (BA, 8) (MA, 8)
Sherri Thompson $43,000 $44,500 (BA+30, 4) (MA, 4)
Clifton Thompson $41,300 $44,800 (BA, 5) (MA, 5)
Jamie Utitus $40,100 $43,600 (BA, 1) (MA, 1)
Andre Alston $61,184 $62,644 (MA, 14) (MA+30, 14)
Gina Bergen $43,300 $46,260 (BA+30, 5) (MA+30, 5)
Georganna Bradley $49,266 $50,726 (MA, 10) (MA+30, 10)
Page 82 12/15/04
Lorraine DeAngelo $51,062 $52,522 (MA, 11) (MA+30, 11)
Celeste Dunham $47,655 $49,115 (MA, 9) (MA+30, 9)
Pamela Gary $44,200 $45,660 (MA, 3) (MA+30, 3)
Patricia Harvey $43,900 $46,860 (BA+30, 7) (MA+30, 7)
Linda Kearney $49,266 $50,726 (MA, 10) (MA+30, 10)
Carol Anne Kunzig $51,062 $52,522 (MA, 11) (MA+30, 11)
Mary Anne Louis $72,165 $73,625 (MA, 15) (MA+30, 15)
Marc Medley $44,500 $45,960 (MA, 4) (MA+30, 4)
Fatima Muhammad $45,400 $46,860 (MA, 7) (MA+30, 7)
Emma Ordonez $45,400 $46,860 (MA, 7) (MA+30, 7)
Helene Prevosti $43,600 $46,560 (BA+30, 6) (MA+30, 6)
Kimino Rutherford $42,100 $45,060 (BA+30, 1) (MA+30, 1)
Eugene Signoretti $51,062 $52,522 (MA, 11) (MA+30, 11)
Judy Zangara $59,684 $62,644 (BA+30, 14) (MA+30, 14)
Robina Puryear $70,522 $71,381 (AMA, 1) (AMA+30, 1)
OTHER
05-A898. Approved submission of the district’s Quality Assurance Annual Report (QAAR) for the 2004-2005 school year to the Passaic County Superintendent of Schools.
Page 83 12/15/04 PUBLIC COMMENTS
It was moved by Comm. Sayegh, seconded by Comm. Santiago that the Public Comments portion of the meeting be opened. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried.
Comm. Hodges: Three minutes per person, five minutes per organization. I apologize for the lack of heat in the building.
Ms. Althea Hilton-Lindsey: Good night, my name is Althea Hilton-Lindsey and recently the Academy of Performing Arts began sending my handsome, loving and intelligent son, Jonathan Lindsey, to the office claiming he was not wearing proper uniform. In fact, since September Jonathan has been wearing the same clothing in accordance to the uniform guidelines that were outlined. At the beginning of the school year several students were reprimanded for not wearing uniform but never Jonathan. At last month’s home school council meeting a few parents were concerned about how the school enforces the uniform policy. I had no complaints as Jonathan was never, prior to that time, told that he was not in compliance with the uniform policy. Additionally, the uniform policy was adopted shortly before school began in September but the school continues to amend and change it. Jonathan has had bouts with bronchitis and I purchased vests and sweaters for him to wear on cold days. The school decided that students must only wear blue vests and sweaters. This was not a part of the original uniform policy for 7th and 8th grade boys. Jonathan was told that his blue shirts were either aqua blue or other wrong shades of blue, although the uniform policy did not indicate any particular shade of blue. It surprised me, therefore, when the Assistant Superintendent Dr. Joseph Fulmore made a recommendation for my son to be transferred to another school because of non-compliance with the uniform policy. There are no grounds for such a recommendation, which leads to my next and greatest concern. My son continues to be unfairly targeted. Since Jonathan has been in the Performing Arts Academy, there have been several formal and informal uniform policies. We abided by, and still continue to abide by, the uniform policy as it was presented to us. In an attempt to show Dr. Fulmore that the claims of the school that Jonathan violates the uniform policy were fabricated, I asked him to call the school and ask if Jonathan was wearing uniform on a day that I was at his office. He immediately called the school and as I expected they told him Jonathan was not in uniform. I then explained to him that Jonathan was wearing a shirt that Jonathan had been wearing since September, and that it was only recently that they claimed his shirt was the wrong shade of blue. This was after I had already purchased more of the same. I told them that any reasonable adult would see that Jonathan’s shirt was within the guidelines of the uniform policy and encouraged him to go over to the school and make his own determination about Jonathan’s uniform. He later, on the morning of December 15th, this morning, told me that Jonathan was wearing what he considered a powder blue shirt, the same color he was wearing, and that it was acceptable. Yet, on the next day, December 7th, he wrote the letter recommending Jonathan’s transfer. I came here to a meeting once before to address another concern and when I came I was given the wrong information. I was told it was a regular meeting but it was a planning meeting. I spoke with Dr. Clancy’s assistant and she took some notes and said he would get back to me. He never did. Is it possible for me to have the three minutes for that meeting, please? I have another concern that I must raise, if you would allow me. I will be very terse. I promise. Please. I waited a long time. I came here on another night. Please. I just have another concern I must raise. If you say no, then fine. Two more minutes, please. On a previous occasion in the school, I received a call from a Mrs. Felice that Jonathan was suspended for three days, as per Dr. Fulmore’s recommendation, and that his suspension would begin the following Tuesday because they needed him to
Page 84 12/15/04 perform that Monday. I told her that if Jonathan was suspended his suspension would begin promptly and that because I had no notification of any problem I wanted to schedule a meeting immediately. I called the Board of Education because I needed someone to accompany me to the meeting. I did not want to go alone. I also asked a friend to come with me. When I arrived at the school they told me that we could not meet. When the Board of Education member, Mr. Vergara, came to the school, they told him he had to leave. Mrs. Felice told him that Board of Education members were not allowed in their school. I made a statement in the school. I said I would not be treated like Anna Taliaferro. They became highly upset and said don’t mention her name because she was not there. That surprised me because while I was at the school at a previous meeting Dr. Naddeo told me that Anna Taliaferro was a liar. She said Anna Taliaferro bribed the judge in a case that she had pending against them. So who holds the school accountable? I have a 17-page document that I would like to leave with you. These were only excerpts from that document. Thank you.
Comm. Vergara: Can we see that document?
Ms. Anna Taliaferro: Anna Taliaferro. I bribed a judge? Where is this coming from? We have something on our hands here. That is outright slander, defamation of character, and I am going for the whole nine yards. God have mercy on you. I did not come here… Let me say the reason why we need to be in constant vigil all of the time. Parent involvement is a very serious consideration on my part. I came here tonight to thank all of you for supporting the efforts of the Parent Resource Center. To you, Mr. Moody, for attending, and to Danny Vergara, whom we have not seen from time to time but he came out and supported it. But for those stalwart Board members like you, Dr. Atallo, who is always there for us and who ran around and did not think it was beneath you to go get food and ice cream that was donated to us. We appreciate that. The parents enjoyed it. The staff that was there enjoyed it. To you, Andre Sayegh, my young brother, you had better stay strong. That is just the message I have for you. Don’t bend your back. To Ms. Taylor, who is still hanging in there, God bless you because God knows this community needs it. To Dr. Hodges, whom I was getting ready to crack on tonight, I am going to let it go.
Comm. Hodges: Your time is running out.
Ms. Taliaferro: You are a day late and a dollar short. To you, Dr. Clancy, because the parents needed to know that they have your full support when you are trying to involve them in the education of their children. That is so critical. I just wanted to thank you. I hope you have a happy and blessed holiday. It looks like some of those legal bills are going to be talking about Anna Taliaferro.
Dr. Albert Prince Rowe: I am Dr. Albert Prince Rowe, 415 19th Avenue. I want to commend Dr. Clancy for the presentation on the 03-04 audit. First to recognize problems and then to try to correct them, no matter how miniscule they may be, I think is outstanding, second to have an action plan to improve the shortcomings, and thirdly to do this publicly to let the public know what is going on and not be afraid of it, I think is outstanding and takes a lot of courage. I want to congratulate you for it. Mr. President, three years ago you were hailed as the unchallenged champion of the belief that it takes a village to raise a child and every person in the community should be involved in the process of that child growing. In other words, there should be community involvement. We looked at you as the individual who was the great advocate for community involvement. If a person wasn’t involved, we said that person was not responsible. You are the person who said that the Board should be open and it could only be accountable if it encouraged and supported community involvement, as the State Commissioner and
Page 85 12/15/04 Stupski Foundation have recommended. I don’t know where you are now. I hope you haven’t taken a 180 degree turn because your voice in your position was so important and it was at a strategic time in our history that you came forth talking about community involvement. Let me talk about the selection of the new school superintendent. There ought to be community involvement. The community should not try to usurp your authority or demean your integrity, but it should be involved. There should be a broad- based committee of people who would review the applications and then make recommendations to the Board, whether the final three or five, and then the Board would make that decision. But the community should be involved in every phase. A group of us are sending a letter to you and I want to read it to you. You will receive it after I have read it. It is addressed to the President of the Board of Education. “The purpose of this letter is to express our concern and dismay that the Paterson Board of Education has refused to have any significant community involvement in the selection process of the new school superintendent. Concerning the superintendent of schools, we are outraged regarding the limited scope and extent of your search for a superintendent as evident by the advertisement in the news media. Please know that we are appalled to learn that some Board members are overtly opposed to significant and meaningful involvement of the community in the search for the new superintendent. This is an attitude of arrogance and irresponsibility. The following are concerns with reference to the above. It is imperative that the person selected as the new school superintendent be experienced with a proven record of success in an urban, multicultural community. The complexities and demands of the Paterson School District demand nothing less than an experienced, well-seasoned professional who is a competent educator and a tough-minded administrator. As promised by the State Commissioner of Education and the Stupski Foundation, we demand that there be meaningful and significant community involvement in the entire selection process. In the near future we will contact each sitting School Board member for clear and unequivocal public support on community participation in the selection of the new superintendent. The community fully supports the contents of this letter.” It is signed by Reverend James Simon, President, Paterson Pastor’s Workshop; Linda Smith, President, Paterson NAACP; Dr. Hani Awadallah, President of the Arab-American Civic Organization; Irene Sterling, Executive Director of the Paterson Education Fund; Dr. Albert P. Rowe, Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church; and Reverend Kenneth Clayton, Pastor of St. Luke’s Baptist Church. Copies have been sent to the School Board Commissioners, Mayor Torres, the Superintendent, and Ms. Laura Longmire, Chief Learning Officer of the Stupski Foundation. Thank you very much and Merry Christmas.
Comm. Hodges: Dr. Rowe, let me just answer your question as to where I stand.
Dr. Rowe: Good! You will be the first one who answered.
Comm. Hodges: I still believe in community involvement, but I have yet to see it sufficiently, except in instances like this. What troubles me is that when we are having real, meaningful discussions on curriculum and finance, that same community isn’t here. They are not writing me letters. They are not asking me questions about their involvement. They are not showing up at these meetings. The Board of Education goes on once a month every month and the trouble that I have is people come out for just these occasions and want to make their contribution, which I have no objection to. The problems that this Board of Education has languished under have been going on for years without that involvement, without that concern, and without their letters. That is the problem that I have. I haven’t changed at all. I am begging for involvement. I support and I embrace your efforts tonight, as well as efforts in the future. But my concern has been that if you are a community member and you want to make a contribution in terms of choosing the next superintendent, it would be helpful if you
Page 86 12/15/04 understood the complexity of the issues that are before this Board. I am not talking to you, sir. I am talking to the community. But when they don’t participate, when they don’t come out, when they don’t follow these issues, particularly the curriculum side, it is difficult to understand how their contributions can be truly meaningful. That is the issue that I stated, not denying or refusal of the contributions of parts of the community. I have always asked for it and will continue to do that. But the problem that I have is what I just stated and I hope that clarifies my position.
Dr. Rowe: I appreciate that. In the last year I have put in more than 40 hours of volunteer service.
Comm. Hodges: Yes, you have.
Dr. Rowe: Irene Sterling and Dr. Awadallah have put in even more, and there are at least 10 or 15 other citizens that have put in as much or more. That is some 25 folks that I know who in the last year have put in volunteer time because they felt that there was hope. They felt that their contribution was going to be appreciated. But if you think that the door is already closed, decisions are already made, and you are wasting your time, folks are not going to come. I tell you that there are folks here who are concerned. There are folks who are committed. And there are folks who will lift heaven and hell to make this school district better if they believe that those who are the professionals are going to listen. I think you remember back in July some 30 Patersonians went to Fairfield in a matter of one hour to say that they were concerned about the school district, they were concerned about the children, and they were concerned about Stupski Foundation coming here working with our school district to transform it from a good to a great district.
Comm. Hodges: Absolutely!
Dr. Rowe: From the top to the bottom, you have the folks who are concerned. What we want is participation and we do not want to usurp your authority. We demand that you take full responsibility and I was happy to hear you say you were not happy with being graded with a two. I was happy to hear that, but I don’t think you deserve more than that now. But keep working at it. Maybe we, as a community, have not reached the status we ought to be at, but we are working at it. I had fallen out and given up for about 8 years, but Dr. Awadallah said I can’t do that. I said I would get involved again. I felt you didn’t want us and there are hundreds of people in this city who are not involved because they don’t think that you will let them make their contributions. The professionals don’t have all the answers and I know that better than anyone. Listen to what I said. You were a knight in shining armor at one time and I am just hoping you haven’t changed. I hope you haven’t changed.
Comm. Hodges: I’ve gotten older.
Mr. Charles Ferrer: Charles Ferrer, Friends of the Paterson Falls, five minutes. I will just say I don’t think that we have changed. It is more that we have gotten tired. It’s good that new people are coming up because we are tired. We have been beat down. We had to go through the nonsense. A simple incident is Paint Smart. Yes, their owners are in jail now but let’s be real about the situation. It’s not because of solely what they did to Paterson. It was because there were two other districts that they messed with that didn’t stand for the nonsense. Comm. Santiago will back me up on this. Before two years ago I came to this School Board about Paint Smart and how they painted my school. We couldn’t get Board members who sat on the facilities committee to come to that building to look at the paint that was peeling off the ceiling. It wasn’t
Page 87 12/15/04 until Comm. Santiago came there and brought the pieces of paint back to this Board that sat at that time with current Councilman McKoy as the president that we tried to tell them there was a problem. His statement was they couldn’t take the word of one person. When you can’t take the word of one person who is a resident in this town and who cares about this town that makes people not want to get involved anymore. But the bottom line is he didn’t take my word then but he should have read the paper on Friday. Once again, where he was wrong I was right. But every day I still have to look at that paint hanging from the ceiling in my school and worry about whether a child will look up at the wrong time and have the paint from the ceiling fall down into their eyes. I am looking now. There is paint there. Did they paint this auditorium? There is a situation getting ready to happen over there in that corner. But do we really care? Just like tomorrow when the children have to come back to this school, will it be like it is now? But we want to pay people. Once again, we get tired because we were beat up by the people that we were supposed to be trying to get to work along with us. I have some questions, Dr. Clancy, through the chair. In your presentation you had a family outreach program. Can you explain to us the difference between the family outreach program and what goes on through the Parent Resource Center? That is one thing I would like to know. You also spoke about SES services. Someone can correct me if I am wrong but it is my understanding that there are over 16,000 children that are eligible for these services in this district, but that number is not being serviced. It may be more like 1,400. If that is the case, what programs are in place to help the children that don’t fall into the category that we got funding from No Child Left Behind to service? SES money only services the schools that fall into a category that needs to be serviced and though there are schools that are doing well, within those schools are still children that need services. What is being done for them? Lastly, I have been reviewing your postings for principal positions. I am not trying to get into personnel. Are you familiar with New Jersey Excel? Under New Jersey Excel, Model III says that teachers or educational specialists with three years experience can go forth and get a supervisor certification and then a certificate of eligibility for a principalship if they comply with 350 clock hours of instruction, plus 120 hours of school based supervision internship. If we have programs like that available and approved by the state, why is this district now putting a stipulation that they want people with five years experience? That may be a good thing. When you have a program that is out here for New Jersey that everybody else can take advantage of, how are we going to say we want you to have five years experience when this 18-month type program is available? We do have some administrators that never held classroom positions and some may not even have three years of experience, and they have become administrators.
Dr. Clancy: In the order of your questions, within the community services, we have met and we are still meeting on exactly where we want that division to go. Within the family outreach component, which includes the Parent Resource Center, the parent liaisons, and expanding that to include a social worker to help families with program, it is in fact not defined yet what services. There are translation services. We are putting in the whole area of choice so that parents have a center to exercise special permission requests and centralized registration. So the role of the Parent Resource Center is expanding, as well as the whole priority in the district is expanding, and its intent is to expand the involvement of the community, not limit it. Our commitment as a district is to expand it, not limit it. On supplemental services, you are accurate in terms of how many kids in this district should be receiving supplemental services. The difference is that the money that is set up for SES is for supplemental services through providers that can be offered either after school, on Saturdays, or during the summer. The way that this district has used those funds, we have been providing it after school for an extended length of time. A lot of people prefer that because it gives them a place to have their children. It cuts down on the amount of supplemental instruction available for lots of
Page 88 12/15/04 kids because fewer numbers get more time. But the difference is that when the federal government and the state government allocate the money to support the programs, they give you minimal amounts of money with the requirement for the people who do that to do it by priority order. Just like in the old Title I, certain schools qualify based on socioeconomic and others don’t and those schools don’t get any federal funds. In this case, if you are not a Category I school or you don’t meet the requirements, then those supplemental services cannot be spent on that building. So you are right. This district does not serve every kid who is qualified but that is because the federal and state government simply does not fund equitable services for every kid that should be getting them. In answer to your next question, which dealt with the fact of what are we doing about it, the very purpose of all this discussion about taking and looking at instruction differently is that you can’t rely on those supplemental services, SES, to provide supplemental instruction for kids who need it. It has to be built into the fabric of the day and we have to use district resources to do that. You are frankly not getting enough money to provide the kind of supplemental services that they need. So for next year we are looking, and there is no question that this is a big change for this district, at the idea of building into literacy blocks for math and language arts instructors to go into classrooms and provide diagnostic prescriptive work with the teachers. So working together every student beginning in kindergarten straight through will receive supplemental instruction throughout the week during the school day. We are looking at revising the way that we do supplemental services. I don’t want this to be interpreted as a slam against after school programs because that is not my intent. Some of the grants that we have written for 21st Century will bring in recreational programs for kids and study tables. I think it is essential that schools do that for communities. But no one can show me anywhere that after a kid is done with six hours of school in a day that giving them three more hours is helping his academic performance. We are looking at extending the year or extending the week with our supplemental money, and providing instruction during the day. I applaud your question. It’s a big task in front of us but the challenge is to get services for every kid, no matter what grade they are in, throughout the year. And we are going to do that next year. We are going to write our grants to support that so staff is in those positions. Your last question deals with principals. We have a group of 12 prospective administrators and administrators who are in an in- service program with Temple University. Dr. Stepherson and I in fact were down there yesterday in Princeton with people from Newark, Trenton and Paterson. It is a program to develop administrators within your district. We were down there and we kind of went through a grilling on leadership and what administration is. Our purpose in this district is to really put the educational onus and responsibility for what goes on in a building where it belongs and that is on the educational leader of the building, which is the building principal. Those people who are in those positions need to have the skills, the knowledge and the experience to run a building. If they can’t do that, they won’t be there because you can’t hold teachers accountable and parents have to be comfortable in coming and talking at the table about what is going on. Principals have to facilitate that. That puts a lot of pressure on who is a principal and who is in an administrative position. I don’t believe, in some cases, people can go from a classroom into a role in a school that is a high priority school and necessarily, with all the good intentions, without some experience as either an assistant principal, a team leader and other kinds of opportunities, be as effective as they would be if they had those experiences. In some cases our obligation is to see what is out there and to hire people who have a proven track record and who are successful. That is not excluding people who are in your district and who have the capacity to be successful. That is why we are starting three academy programs to build the leaders within our district. If people go through our training program they will have experiences in the district that we can demonstrate their success in. I am not ruling the state program out. I am simply saying that if I have to make my choice to make change more effective, it would be to hire people who are
Page 89 12/15/04 proven in their skill levels to move some of these schools forward. So we are setting our bar high. You are absolutely right. It is not to rule them out.
Mr. Ferrer: What happens to people who are already in this district and didn’t have the experience but went out and passed the test? They had no classroom experience but passed the test, had the master’s and got a position.
Dr. Clancy: I can tell you there is a person that I met in Newark who came out of Paterson. I met her yesterday. I am here and I was a teacher in Ohio. I wanted to be an administrator and my job, Montclair, hired me. I went out of district to find a job and in fact it was a great experience for me to do that. I am not saying that I would in any way not support our teachers becoming administrators. I am simply saying that I want to get the best educational leaders in the buildings for our kids and if we have people who are proven, it would be like getting Pedro Martinez versus somebody else to pitch for you. If you can get number one on your team you would like to do that first. If I can do that, I would be glad to do that. I am not ruling our people out.
Ms. Sandra Bosque: Good evening, I am Sandra Bosque but tonight I am here in a different capacity. I am the advisor to the Interact Club at Kennedy High School. In January, Rotary International will be celebrating 100 years of rotary. In an effort to celebrate 100 years and the season of the holidays, the students are collecting teddy bears to donate to the prosecutor’s office. They will be bringing them down Monday at 10:00 a.m., God willing we don’t have that snowstorm, to donate to the prosecutor’s office. If anyone would like to contribute, just get the teddy bears to Kennedy before 9:00 so we can have them on the trolley to get them to the prosecutor’s office. In another vein, we have after school programs at our grammar schools but we don’t have any crossing guards. They were told that the city doesn’t want to pay them and the school doesn’t want to pay them, but our children are the ones who are at risk here. If there is anything that can be worked out to get something done so those kids have safety when they leave the schools at 4:00, it would be appreciated. Thank you and happy holidays.
Dr. Clancy: We did have a conversation with Safety Patrol. Crossing guards are the responsibility of the city and in fact we are looking at the implications of after school programs for students who are involved and where that responsibility lies. The more programs we offer, clearly the more resources they have to provide. So we are working on that collaboratively. I am not sure of the resolution but they are aware of the problem.
Dr. Hani Awadallah: Good evening, Hani Awadallah from the Arab-American Civic Organization. If you would just allow me, I want to make an announcement for our community in Arabic for just a few lines regarding the forum which is taking place on January 19th for the involvement of the community. I will read it in Arabic for just a minute and I know Dr. Hodges is going to be counting his minutes in there. I have a lot to talk to you about, Dr. Hodges. As a matter of fact, I was leaving but when I heard your comments I came back. I am making up for my voice, Dr. Clancy.
Dr. Clancy: I hear that.
Dr. Awadallah: I don’t want him to corner me as he did last time. This is for the Arab community. (Dr. Awadallah proceeded to make an announcement in Arabic.) Thank you for that. Dr. Hodges, I am now getting to your message and your answer to what Dr. Rowe had to say. I really was appalled honestly to hear your response to what he had to say – that you never received or you might have received something from the
Page 90 12/15/04 community regarding curriculum and this and that. It is not really the community who should really come back to you, Dr. Hodges. It is you who really should get to the community and ask for their position regarding anything that you might think is vital to the community. I also think you implied directly or indirectly that those people actually are not really interested in such things, or they are not really qualified. I could really have misunderstood you. But I just want to tell you one thing. Most of those people in there are very qualified for that and I can just tell you what I have been doing for the past 37 years as a Professor of Chemistry at Montclair State University. I was involved in the following things and I am not really trying to boast here. I am sure that Irene Sterling is just as much qualified. Dr. Rowe is just as much qualified. But I just want to tell you here. With all due respect to the man of the street, you are really dealing with professionals here. As a Professor of Chemistry at Montclair State, I was involved in the following things. I was involved in the selection of a president of the university. I was involved in the selection of two deans and three associate deans. I was involved in the selection of seven department chairmen over 37 years. I was involved in the selection and screening of more than 30 faculty members. Right now I am the head of the PAC, the Personnel Advisory Committee, in the Chemistry Department at Montclair State University. Right now we are in the process of screening 66 applicants who are applying for two positions – one of them in Medicine and Chemistry and the other one in Physical Environmental Chemistry. So, Dr. Hodges, there are people who really are concerned. I also don’t really have to tell you what my involvement is with the Paterson School System. For the past four years, I happen to be a member of the School Management Team at Kennedy High School. I am practically involved in every aspect over there, including budget and curriculum. Just this afternoon I was involved in the translation of this for the district. I consider this my duty for our community and I spent about two hours in front of the computer typing this. So please, Dr. Hodges, just as you are concerned, and we are not trying to minimize what you really are contributing, there are many people in this community who really are just as much involved and concerned with the education of our kids here in Paterson. For you to say that you cannot really see it because you don’t get letters, I really think that is the poorest of excuses you can really choose. With all due respect, I really think you should really go back. You are the man who really used to come down from the stage and stand with us here. Now all of a sudden you really are beginning to forget it, Dr. Hodges. You are the man of the people. You said you could express yourself better coming on this line. I really hope that you are still the same Dr. Hodges we knew before.
Comm. Hodges: Dr. Awadallah, perhaps I was unclear but let me be clearer. First of all, the qualifications for sitting on the Board of Education are simply that you are a citizen of the United States of America. It does not require you to have any level of training and I at no time implied that it did. Number two – I have over the past three years made it my business to reach out to as many parts of this community as I possibly could, including yours. I have been tireless. I have gone to walk up and down the street. I have gone to churches. I have gone to synagogues. Yes, I have even gone to several mosques, as you know. I don’t apologize to anybody in terms of my outreach in trying to get people to understand the importance of their involvement in the educational process. I have not changed since sitting in this particular seat. I am still doing it. The point that I was trying to make was simply this. The people who signed that letter are not the only people who are interested in being part of that process, which I tried to explain to you before. There are lots of people in the community and there are lots of people who have ideas, some of whom have not put the time that you and the good reverend have expended in examining the issues. But they, too, are part of the community. They, too, feel that they have a right to come in and participate. I am not saying that they don’t, but I am saying to you that the length and breadth of experiences are vastly superior to the numbers of people who signed that letter.
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Dr. Awadallah: Having said that, that shows if they really did not bother to send you a letter or to communicate with you, at least those people who signed this letter showed their concern and that is what made them actually write this letter. They present it to you and to the Board members, as well as to the Commissioner of Education in Trenton and the Superintendent. So actually they are as much concerned with your utterances for the past two or three months. Yes, you are right. But the community members, first and foremost, are the people whose kids are really being educated and for anybody to preclude those people away from the screening process, I cannot really emphasize that enough for you. At least one member from the community should be involved in the screening process. For you to go and advertise what you really have advertised without the involvement of the community is very unbecoming. I really think the community should be involved. You cannot really ask somebody to start learning the job of a superintendent on the job, and that is really what your advertisement somehow actually conveys. I know the time is late already but I really think all of you, ladies and gentlemen, should think of the community. They are the taxpayers of this community. They have had enough. You have been saying that long enough, Dr. Hodges, that they really have been cheated. It is really about time. These days are very crucial days for the educational process in Paterson. Before anybody else, even before you, the community should really be involved. You can really choose anybody from the community, but the community has to be involved in the screening process. There is no question about it.
Ms. Irene Sterling: Good evening. I didn’t really want to speak at this session but I feel I must at this point because I urge you to read the letter that we signed carefully. A number of things have been spoken of by Dr. Rowe and Dr. Awadallah right now that are not in the letter. The letter requests that the Board find a way for the community to be involved in the process. That letter does not request that members of the public sit on the screening committee or have other roles, other than what you laid out before in the process that you put forward. I would not have signed that letter if it said that. In the end, this community and all of us have to recognize that as much as we want to do a variety of things, there is a rule of law here and there is a rule of procedure here. The Board of Education sets out the rules by which it will hire superintendents. We have to be understanding of that and help you do the job. There are a number of ways that this Board can reach out for community wisdom as it makes its decision. The Paterson Education Fund has suggested to you that when you come to an agreement about a set of candidates, of finalists, that is when you take them out to meet the community. Not only because the community needs to meet them and have input, but there needs to be a mutual assessment. We need somebody to come to this district who loves this district, who loves us, who loves our kids, and who wants to work hard enough to do all the things that have to get done in order for us to move forward. There is tremendous talent in the community and a tremendous amount of talent in the people who work for this district. We have to find ways to come together and to work together and to work through the differences that face us, and work on the problems that face us. We have to hold the Board accountable to be present in its work. It disturbs me to know that given the agenda that you had at the last workshop meeting that when you closed that public session a Board member left and did not participate with you. That is the place where we need to hold you accountable and you need to hold each other accountable. You need to work with us to move this forward. I firmly believe, and the Education Fund firmly believes, in the community’s responsibility to take its proper role. You need to work to define that in a way that allows us to help you, but keeps us in an appropriate role in this. What we do now leads the track into the future. This district and this community are coming out from oppression. We are coming out from ten years of not being in control of ourselves and we are going to have to work really, really hard at
Page 92 12/15/04 boundary keeping, at accountability, and making certain that the track we lay gives us an increasing and improving school district so that we get the education our kids deserve. It breaks my heart that the first person who had to wait until 10:30 tonight to speak to you is a doctor in education, a math specialist who works at our local university, and is having this situation with her son. That kind of lack of respect in the story that you were told tonight is the kind of thing we have to overcome and we can only overcome it by being respectful of our roles, working back and forth, and working at that boundary keeping. Thank you.
Ms. Linda Smith: Good evening. Like Irene, I was not going to say anything tonight because I really expected the letter to speak for me. I am Linda Smith, President of the Paterson Branch of NAACP. I am not going to speak long because it has been a long night and I have an 8:00 meeting in the morning, but I just needed some of the Board members to understand. I may not have been here for every Board meeting, but I have had someone here. I always had a representative from NAACP in the four years I have been president. We may not always have had the opportunity to speak and we definitely didn’t have any control, because this district was not in control of its citizens and it still isn’t, but we do need to be more respectful of each other. Everyone in this community has a role, whether the role is to sit up there as Board members or to sit in the audience as community members and citizens. We all have a role and we all have a responsibility. I am just asking that you respect that. I am asking that you respect that, Dr. Hodges. I am asking that you respect that, Dr. Atallo. I am asking that you respect our role as citizens in this city and respect the fact that we have a right to speak, whether it is at every meeting, every six months, every four months, or every day of the week. We have a right to speak when we have something to say and I want you all to respect that. Thank you.
Comm. Atallo: When were you denied the right to speak?
Ms. Smith: I don’t want to hear anything from you, Dr. Atallo. I really don’t. Not at this point. It’s been a long night.
Comm. Atallo: Your issues are irrelevant.
Comm. Hodges: Dr. Atallo, please excuse me. I don’t think that anyone has denied anyone in this community the right to speak.
Ms. Smith: No, I am not saying that. But let me say this. What I am saying, Dr. Hodges, is that whether I speak tonight, next month, the month before, or a year from now, when I speak and when I have something to say, I will say it. I will say it, Dr. Atallo.
Comm. Atallo: You have always been free to say what you want. You have been treated respectfully.
Comm. Hodges: Dr. Atallo, please. No one has attempted and certainly I haven’t shown any member of the public any disrespect, hopefully not even accidentally. I have been very respectful of the public. In fact, I continue to encourage the public to voice their opinions. I haven’t stopped doing that.
Ms. Smith: And I appreciate that, Dr. Hodges. I appreciate that from you, but that does not come from every single member of this Board. That’s all I want to say. Thank you.
Page 93 12/15/04 Comm. Hodges: The comments were aimed at me in particular so I am going to respond to them. I haven’t changed in that respect and I don’t think sitting on the Board I have done that.
It was moved by Comm. Sayegh, seconded by Comm. Vergara that the Public Comments portion of the meeting be closed. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried.
OTHER BUSINESS
Board Member Comments
Comm. Vergara: I would like to start off by saying farewell to one of our colleagues, Dr. Jones, who has resigned. He will be missed. I wish him the best of luck in all his endeavors. We had a meeting with the City Council and the School Board members and I think it went very well. I think we need to attend more so we can have more communication with the two entities. Councilman Goow brought up a safety issue, which is of most importance, and I know that Captain Smith will adhere to this from our Councilman with the situation at John F. Kennedy High School. The kids are constantly bothering the homeowners across the street and it is a danger not only to the homeowners but to our students. There have been confrontations there and it is still ongoing. As I traveled through there today I saw again children sitting on people’s porches that didn’t belong there and some of these people are even afraid to come out of their house, or into their own homes, at certain times when the children are around. So I think we should look into that. I want to say congratulations for a job well done to the Roberto Clemente School. Their principal is here today but we have to acknowledge the students. Also, congratulations to Dr. Stepherson. She will be honored on January 27th for Outstanding Contributions in Education by the Paterson Rotary Club. I hope to be there to be by your side to support you. Ms. Taliaferro and the staff of the Parent Resource Center did an outstanding job. I was at the Christmas Parade and I got there a little late, but I saw the outcome and I heard the parents talking so much about it. They would like to have another one. To the members and students of Scout Troupe 911, you did a great job. Keep up the good work and thank you for your help with the Jada Williams Foundation. To the Jada Williams family, I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I wish you the best. To all the family members and students, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Let’s start our new year with a prayer that our district will go forward and that we will all be able to accomplish our goals and be successful. Thank you.
Comm. Taylor: I attended the Parent Awareness Day, in addition to the meeting with the City Council and the Board of Education. I learned many, many things. I also attended the meetings that we had that Dr. Clancy called with the home school councils and the PTAs. I would just like to throw out some of the things that the parents thought they would like to work collaboratively on with the Superintendent and the district.
1) Parents would like for the district to provide more public forums that will allow an opportunity for dialogue with the administration. 2) Parents do not feel welcome when they show up at a school to check on their children. 3) There is not enough communication regarding district activities. 4) Students need to be celebrated and given recognition district-wide more regularly. 5) Parents want to be contacted, not only when there is a behavior issue with their child but also when things are going well.
Page 94 12/15/04 6) The parents requested that a district directory be provided to them as to who is in the building that their child is in.
We have also had quite a few meetings all throughout the district but I think I will let those go and talk about the attendance. I notice on the attendance stats that you gave to us that from the beginning of the year, and I don’t think we had very many days in the month of September, as the months have gone on into November we have many, many absences and tardiness. I don’t know if these are the same children that are late all the time but I see one school had 317 and 467 late in November. As the months go on, I hope we are going to decrease the lateness and the absences. Otherwise, we will not score high in that level when they ask about the attendance this year. If this is the way the trend is going, then we are going to have a problem here. I think each month I have asked that we get a better form for the reporting of suspensions. On them my request has been for the racial ethnic background and not just the gender. So I am asking that everybody in every school have the same reporting sheet of paper so that I can understand it better. I will know how many boys from each different race were involved in suspension and that is something I need to know. Mr. Vergara, you made mention about the fire drills and I saw them as well. I recall, as an administrator, I had to empty my building and I had over 1,000 in School No. 28. We had to get it emptied in three minutes. I am wondering why it takes 10 and 20 minutes to empty a building now. I don’t know. You can answer that for me. But I think that we need to practice and the parents and children need to know that when there is a procedure to get in and out of a building we all need to cooperate and do it. There are at least two fire drills or ways of getting out of your building at least two times a month and we need cooperation from the students, as well as have the parents instruct their children to follow the directions of the staff when that is happening. That is too long for them to take to get out of a building – 20 minutes. There were some 10, some 15 and some 20 minutes, so we need to look at that. There are so many areas in our district that I think about the education of our children, proper staffing, as well as children not being able to have the after school program – not enough of them. I have always said that we still need more children participating in those programs. I still need to get a report. I need to see the monthly report for the companies that have been servicing our children because if they have been servicing our children for the last five years and our children have not gained in the schools that they have been participating in, then we should not hire them again ever in the district. I am looking at them. There are some companies that have been here for many, many years and our children are still below the level of the way they should be educated. They are supposed to be helping them raise their standards and it is not happening. I would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays and enjoy the vacation – the staff and students – and come back safe.
Comm. Sayegh: First, I would like to see that this heating situation is improved immediately. It is unfortunate that anyone is expected to try to work in these types of conditions. Therefore, I ask that the administration move to quickly resolve this. I also want to thank Natalie Jordan and Yolanda McArthur for the fine work that they do at the Eastside Café. They invited me for a Thanksgiving dinner and I am very appreciative of the invitation and also, of course, of the exquisite cuisine that was served – the fine cuisine. Some Board members have referenced the joint City Council/Board of Education meeting. It exceeded my expectations. I felt it was very productive. In fact, one resolution that came out of this meeting was that we were going to create a Joint Affairs Committee to tackle the problems that overlap, whether they be issues that deal with facilities or school safety. I also know that the district is making an effort to attempt to instill financial literacy in our classrooms. I applaud Dr. Sico. I saw him today at School No. 5 and I saw him at School No. 21 yesterday. I don’t think it is ever too early to emphasize the importance of money management. We want our children to one day
Page 95 12/15/04 go to college and they will be on their own. Exercising this independence means that they will have checking accounts, hopefully savings accounts, and of course credit cards. So we want our children to be fiscally literate and I would like to see them expand this program so everyone is afforded an opportunity. While I am thanking one assistant superintendent, I also want to commend Dr. Fulmore for helping facilitate the process with the Public School Uniform Survey endeavor. The results are in and they are overwhelming. This has to be parent-driven according to state law and when asked if they felt the district should implement some type of policy dealing with a dress code, close to 1,600 parents were in approval and about 200 or so said they did not want any type of dress code. So we let the parents speak and now it is up to them to make sure that this is implemented and enforced. My last note deals with the Board rating. I also don’t agree with it. I have served here on this Board in two different capacities – as a liaison and as an elected member – and I have seen a seat change occur. There is a world of difference and I have commented often to our President that I really look forward to coming to meetings because I think we can get something done. We don’t have our babysitter anymore or, as Dr. Hodges once eloquently stated, our overseer. That misconception that we can’t function as a Board has been debunked and I actually take exception to anyone that calls into question the commitment of this man, Dr. Hodges, to our community. I have seen firsthand our President, Dr. Hodges, visit churches and go to home school council meetings. In fact, we went to five yesterday and we intend to go to many more. He is a knight in shining armor, and he is also a champion for children. He is doing the right thing. He exemplifies the utmost professionalism. He is the best President I have ever seen here on this Board and I have been here for three years. Things are getting done and even more is going to get done. He will involve the community and he has to this point. I ask that those who are interested in getting involved reach out to him, place a phone call, invite him to a meeting, and invite all Board members so we can all go and discuss how we can all be a part of this process. On that note, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday. Be safe, spend it with friends, and spend it with family. Thank you.
Comm. Atallo: Spend it in Paterson.
Comm. Sayegh: Spend it in Paterson and spend your money, too.
Comm. Hodges: I’ll pay you later, Mr. Sayegh.
Comm. Atallo: Dr. Sayegh was very much on point in the remarks he made. Dr. Hodges doesn’t need defending in terms of his involvement with the community. I will just highlight very quickly some of the things he did this week. We attended four events on Sunday. We were at a church for Sunday services, we attended two community events in the afternoon that involved youth, and then we attended another church event Sunday evening, which went on until almost 9:30. That was on Sunday, everyone’s day of rest. Dr. Hodges was out there meeting the community and reaching out. Last night we attended several schools that had some holiday functions. School No. 15 had an excellent program. School No. 7, which was in the paper today, had an excellent program. We went to School No. 21 and then we went to another community event after that. There were four events which Dr. Hodges was in attendance at last night. So Dr. Hodges doesn’t need to be defended as far as his community involvement. His record is outstanding and excellent, and he knows he has our full support as President. He is an excellent President and we support him. We may not always agree on the issues but once he realizes that I am right… Intelligent people clearly can disagree. Sometimes there is a lot of gray in this area but if anyone is the soul of integrity whose heart is in the right place for the children of Paterson and this community it is Dr. Jonathan Hodges. I will defend him to anybody. Maybe that’s the wrong term because
Page 96 12/15/04 he doesn’t need defending. We have an excellent President and this community should be aware of how many hours he puts in. When some people who spoke tonight representing organizations were silent when a lot of this nonsense was going on, Dr. Hodges was at the forefront with us pointing things out. Tomorrow the US Attorney’s Office will be making some announcements. I am not going to make them tonight. Let them make the announcements tomorrow and I think people are going to be surprised about what is going to be unraveling in this community. They should thank the leadership of Dr. Jonathan Hodges and the integrity that he has. I was emotionally moved tonight by two things. First was honoring Bill Kline who has been a mentor and a friend to me. We worked together and we have been on the Board together. Again, he is someone else who is the soul of integrity and honor and we will sincerely miss him, not just as a Board member but as our friend. I was going to say something before but I didn’t know what to say except that we will miss him dearly. He was such a great asset to this Board. He was a straight-shooter, he told you what he felt, and he was an honest and upright public official. You can’t ask for more than that. He loves this city, he loves the children of this city, and he always did what was best for this community. That’s a man who should be respected and honored. I am very sorry to see him move on but we will always respect him. The second issue is the vote tonight on the law firm. I am glad to see the Board stand together as a team. As I said before, and I will say it continuously, and we should all let the word go forth in this time and place, the City of Paterson is not for sale. This Board of Education is not for sale. We are here to protect the public interest, the taxpayers, and, most importantly, the children and the education of the children of this city – our children. They are the future of this community and I was so proud to see everybody stand tight. I respectfully request the administration not to veto this resolution. If they want to challenge it, let them go to fee arbitration and justify their charges to this district when they didn’t have authorization. Let them go to fee arbitration and we will meet them on the battleground of the Bar Association and meet them head on. They can address it there. Let’s see if they have the nerve and audacity to come back and do that after the nonsense they pulled with the in-house counsel. That was an incestuous relationship that should have never happened and I think that needs to be reported to the appropriate authorities at the Bar Association. That is absolutely wrong. Let me comment about the council meeting. We had a historic meeting last week – the City Council and the Board of Education. It was very productive and we want to thank the members of the City Council and our colleagues here for coming together to deal with issues of mutual concern. We hope to meet in the future on that. I want to comment about the reorganization plan. Tonight was the first time we actually had a chance to see it and walk through it. I have to say that while I respect the time and effort that went into it, in clear conscience and without mental reservation I don’t agree with it. I don’t agree with the reorganization plan for a number of reasons. First of all, it doesn’t make sense to me to make these changes in midyear. I don’t think this is the time to make the changes. Secondly, with all due respect to the Interim Superintendent, he will not be here to implement these changes. While he has a vision and I agree with some of the issues, some of them I quite honestly don’t agree with. I don’t think they are going to work in Paterson at this time. I think some of the moves will not cover the large number of schools that we have in the suitable manner that it needs to be done. I request that that be considered. Thirdly, we are in the process of picking a new superintendent and I believe, in all fairness and from a professional standpoint, the new superintendent should be the one to implement his or her vision and put together his or her staff to implement that vision. To inherit changes in the middle of the year and then come on doesn’t make managerial sense to me. I am asking that that be revisited. That is a concern to me. I am also concerned about the meetings. I think we need to have committee meetings and interact. When we have dialogue we can move things faster. I want to congratulate Anna Taliaferro and her staff on an outstanding Parent Awareness Day. There was a very large crowd of
Page 97 12/15/04 parents. The speakers were very interesting and informative. It was a great community day. I know the Superintendent was there and a number of Board members were there. I saw Mr. Vergara, Comm. Taylor, Comm. Sayegh, Dr. Hodges, and Mr. Moody. I think it was a very positive day for the school district. I want to congratulate Mr. Vergara and Troupe 911. I had the opportunity to attend his awards dinner. It was an outstanding event, Danny, and I just want to compliment you and your wife and the staff that works with you on all the work that you do with the youth of our community and with Troupe 911. It was a jam-packed event and the students had a great time. Comm. Vergara, I think every student got an award, or jackets, or baseball memorabilia. I want to congratulate you for doing an outstanding job with Troupe 911 and thank you for inviting me and allowing me to participate with that.
Comm. Vergara: Thank you.
Comm. Atallo: On that note, I would also like to ask the moving forward with the superintendent search. If everybody read the packet, as I know we have, one of the things we need to do is meet with the representative from the New Jersey School Boards Association to have an interview orientation. I think it would be prudent. I want to pass this on to our President, Dr. Hodges, to poll the Board members who are here now and the Board members who are not here now to get some common dates once we come back in January. Maybe we can get some dates locked in to meet and have the orientation. Then we need to meet and start screening candidates. We really need to move on this thing. That is a project that the community has called for. In terms of community involvement, I have always supported community involvement and I have always been respectful of all parts of our community. We are one community and one big tent. As Dr. Hodges said, and they have seen me, we have reached out to religious institutions, churches and mosques. We have gone to social organizations, community groups, and parent groups. We have reached out on weekends and in the evenings. Any community event where we are invited we try to make sure that there is Board representation there. I think they have cloned Comm. Sayegh because I don’t think there is an event that he is not at. But Dr. Hodges is right there with him and the other Board members are active as well. So I think community involvement is important and we will reach out to all responsible community groups to meet and interact in the search process, and in all aspects of the school district. I urge everyone not just to come out when we are picking a superintendent but to come out on other issues. As I said before quite candidly, a lot of people were silent when all this nonsense was going on. They were silent. We were out there and everything we said turned out to be true. As Dr. Sayegh says, I don’t want to say we told you so but we told you so. Now we have to spend money to go after the people who should have never been working here in the first place. We were saying that month after month. At this point let’s begin anew and work together as a team to move this district forward. Let’s let people know in Paterson and outside Paterson that Paterson is not for sale and that this School Board supports educational excellence. Thank you.
Comm. Hodges: I want to thank you for your comments. Rather quickly, I meant earlier to ask for a moment of silence for Mr. Michael Godfrey, an instructional assistant at School No. 6, and Ms. Lynn Van Dyke, a kindergarten teacher at Martin Luther King, Jr. School. They both passed this week. I was negligent in doing that and I do apologize. They will be missed. They had years of service, which I understand was exemplary, and we are sorry to hear of their passing. I did want to issue a remark about the Parent Awareness Day program, which was excellent. I wish to encourage the community to take advantage of these opportunities to pick up very, very valuable information when we have them again in the future. The program on December 4th was very good and it should not have been missed. We need dates from the Board members not just for
Page 98 12/15/04 what Dr. Atallo was saying but we had requested some Board training. I spoke to the Commissioner a couple of days ago and he has agreed to give us the training. We just need to pick two days in January or early February so that he can give the trainers choices. We need one day but we need a couple of dates on which we can be available so that he can offer them to the trainers. We need to get that by Friday and I will be reaching out to you to try to get that information from you as soon as possible.
Comm. Atallo: Point of order, Mr. President.
Comm. Hodges: Dr. Atallo, can I finish my report?
Comm. Atallo: Go ahead.
Comm. Hodges: Thank you.
Comm. Atallo: I said nice things about you.
Comm. Hodges: That was then – this is now.
Comm. Atallo: I understand. That seems to be a Paterson trait.
Comm. Hodges: If I may, doctor. I am not going to belabor the point. I am very concerned and actually heartened that the community is expressing such a profound interest in the workings of the Board of Education. I am not opposed to finding mechanisms that are effective for their inclusion, as long as it is a reasonable mechanism and does not in any way lengthen or diminish the work that we have to do. I don’t imagine that it will and if it is the Board’s pleasure we can try to find some way. However, I am not varying from my position that there are a vast number of groups out there, and people and entities, who are all rushing to the table at this last moment and who are expressing an interest in this activity when there hasn’t been similar interest in the others. It may not have been people who have expressed an interest here tonight but they aren’t the only people who are out there. I have some grave concerns about that and that is in part the reason for some of my hesitance. I will do everything in my power to help the Board produce a process which is effective and which yields the best possible person for the superintendency because that is what this district needs. In fact, the Commissioner, as part of his conversation, was a little bit concerned about the fact that our ad did not appear in the national journals. It was online but did not appear in the national journals and he intends to do something about that before the process is over to help get that ad in the national journals. With that, I am going to conclude my remarks. I wish to extend a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to the Paterson community and to the members of the Board and the staff of the Paterson Board of Education. Thank you very much and good night.
Comm. Atallo: Are we going to set dates tonight or are you going to get back to us?
Comm. Hodges: We will pass it around.
It was moved by Comm. Sayegh, seconded by Comm. Vergara that the meeting be adjourned. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:50 p.m.
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