##VIDEO ID:hsQ76Tqbt4c## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Mr nreu here Dr pontano Mr ranc Court yeah Mr Russo here mrakia here Mr yanus here okay Mr capana and I believe we have our uh High School representative on the board of education and I bad with names I apologize Valen Valentina thank you for joining us again and for being part of the group thank you um at this time I'm going to turn it over to our uh superintendent of schools Dr Hayes uh we normally try to follow the consent agenda but we have a nice crowd this evening and and some things going on Dr Hayes Mr I'm going to ask you to please allow me to go out of order and um I'm going to ask the Board of Education and the public to please open your agendas to page 10 I'm going to ask you and Mrs calib please join me in the front Public's knowledge I'm honored this evening to be conjoined by all of the principles inide par um we have PS3 Mrs brco with us R from PS5 M Mar from ps6 Mr bner and from the Middle School Mr Lombardo and Mr and we also have Mr Pinto from the high school us thank you so much for being with us ladies G gentlemen we have some tremendous news to share with you and we want to let you know that during the Spring of 2024 14 of our students achieved perfect scores on the New Jersey student learning assessment that was done um 12 of them had perfect scores in English language arts one of them had a perfect score in mathematics and of those 14 two of them actually had perfect scores in both English language and Mathematics thank you for being here and congratulations to and you have the four names in front of you if you'd like to recognize your four students Mr BR sure first of all I'd like to congratulate my four students what an accomplishment it is but it does take a village and I want to thank the teachers and the parents people working together makes the students succeed and um I couldn't be more proud of Allison galz she scored a perfect score in bla and Allison's teacher was Miss Chong if you could just give us wave Miss CH thank you you'd like another perfect score in ela was [Applause] Isabella Isabella's teacher was um Miss catm I'm G to skip the next one is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] conat [Music] conratulations to [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] while waiting just like to thank Dr Cal and the board of education for all of your support um and implementing all the programs that really help our children reach the highest success possible so thank you very much Umar congratulations we are so proud of you you have a perfect score in both Ela and math it's a true Testament to your hard work and dedication throughout the years um we know definitely in your future you're going to continue to make us proud and we're always here to support you so the door is always open at school board it's always your home so congratulation number six good evening everyone first of all thank you all for coming this is a wonderful time for you to be here this is a wonderful celebration what's what's very important is the school and Home Connection without that we all want to be here tonight so I want to thank all the parents for all the support you give both us and of course your kids congratulations everyone I also like Mrs Rose just want to thank Dr Hayes Mrs Cal and the Board of Education without them we wouldn't be here before I bring up Janessa I was talking to her dad before and he was very surprised he's like wow you mean the school the town recognize our kids for this this is great and it's something that Cliffside has been doing for a number of years because you're all special everybody's special with you you're the cream of the crop and we only wish you all the best and Mom dads relatives please stay involved because without you they wouldn't be here I have the honor of calling up Janessa Lee who had a perfect score in ela school all right congratulations to all of the recipients tonight um getting a perfect score on one of the njsla tests is quite an accomplishment so um congratulations to you congratulations to your families uh we're lucky enough in the Middle School to have a few recipients this evening uh the first of which is our expert botanist and animal scientist and uh credit to uh to Jacob's uh perfect score should go to his Ela teacher um he had Mr Deo uh for last year U so quite an accomplishment so Jacob come on up [Applause] so the second recipient tonight um had a perfect score also on the njsla ELA test um and her teacher um last year was Mrs lose so Ashley herado asencio please come up [Applause] and this is the second year in a row this is the second year in a [Applause] row you want to do pass them you were the principal okay so we're going to do the high school students as a group I think I saw three of them show up this evening uh these three students were also um also scored a perfect score on the ELA test as well and these students had Miss Leslie lose last year in e8th grade honors so it's quite an accomplishment for her as well as the students and the three students are Alvin Katie and Isabella [Applause] got than before we break uh the board of educ here want to congratulate all parents students on achievement uh but we do owe a lot of credit to Dr Hayes Mrs Cal and the great principles and administrators and awesome teachers that we have throughout the dist we've been blessed as Board of Education and we have a great team that we can work with so of Applause for those [Applause] all eth graders who were now in the high school that's why I this is RO last year's eighth graders last year most [Music] [Music] maybe they could take cookies to go agenda next we go through the agenda um I think so yeah and um we'll go through the agenda and I'll make note of neighbors do you want to make special notes of um resolution I think it's 50 something that opens the launch for the juniors and then give Valentina a shout out so let's go to sorry Joe no okay so 56 57 so it's going to be resolution 55 nope it's not keep going back I know L did a special one for it Transportation comprehensive meance plan consent to for school bus surveillance joint Transportation post agreement approve the joint I thought thought is it the last [Music] one excuse me look [Music] anybody want e e e e e e e e as I during CL session there are only resoltion month and I think the only one I'd like to 17 rather and the only one I'd like toled publicly is resolution number three Ruth tambourin Rodriguez retirement effective January the 15th and I would just like to ask to note to the board that I sure we're accepting that resignation with regret uh we wish Ruth Anne a wonderful retirement and we wish her all health and happiness and we thank her prolifically for all of the service she gave all the good service great service she gave to high school throughout the years I know Mr Pinto's already shared with me she's gonna be Mis tremendously anybody else want to comment on ran I'd like to add on to that I was privileged enough and accept for Mr capano um there were four Hib investigations this reporting period three alleged one confirmed in all cases there was there was parental notification provided counseling provided and in the case of the the confirmed hi investigation disciplinary action was dispensed I'm going to ask the Board of Education to please open the agenda to page seven onto policies and procedures and I'd like to read this aloud resolution recommended by the interim superintendent of schools to Grant permission for the Cliffside Park High School administration to extend open lunch privileges effective October 28th 2024 ough Mr Pinto may want to adjust that date but I we appreciate you granting it to us effective the 28th if we can pull it off by then for juniors and seniors for the 2024 and understanding all rules and regs governing the open lunch you remain in effect Valentina thank you so much for last month's presentation you and you your fellow students outstanding job you guys did and I thank the Board of Education publicly for listening to you and for accommodating your needs thank you I think that's it for me Mr Comm thank you uh Dr Hayes I'll ask for the assistant superintendent's report please uh at this current time uh the curriculum office is working diligently on uh the curriculum audit for uh upcoming qac monitoring and uh supervisors and um myself are in the process of you know auditing all the Curriculum maps and you know forging on through with uh board policies and regulations so we've been bunkered down doing a lot of curriculum making sure that the instruction and the effectiveness is there for classroom practice um observations and walkthroughs um observations have begun less PL are in full effect and um you know for um I've been working very closely with Mr alvan on on his njsla presentation which he's going to uh speak to you very shortly um about tonight and he's going to present to you our njsla thank you thank you and for the public you know that'll be done after the meeting and uh you know the scores will be uploaded uh to uh our our our school uh website uh anything else Mrs Cal at this time committee reports uh anybody with committee reports I know there's a lot of things going on with building and grounds we we spoke about that in uh our work session uh a lot of work going on with the the lobby uh renovation delays on certain equipment doors Etc uh everybody's aware of that uh any other committee reports before we move on okay I also I know at our uh last meeting and and in the last four weeks we we've been discussing the overcrowding uh issue in the cafeteria um I know that Larry uh Pinto the principal there Mrs calibri Dr Hayes have been engaging with the the fire officials here in the buau and I know the school administrators have uh uh put together a plan to alleviate that and uh we know once the the lobby uh uh project is uh done there'll be a little bit more space down there but I'd like I know Larry not to put you on uh uh you know I know we didn't discuss this but is there anything that you can give the board uh and the public a recap what has transpired from our last meeting when we had some dialogue about the overcrowding issues ETC I know the official Greg yantas was up there he did revisit I know our professionals from Land Associates came in and gave some recommendations I'd like to turn it over to you for a few minutes to give us some sort of a recap since the last four weeks of our last meeting to where we are today and I know Greg Yantis did uh return and uh did give uh uh some uh promising news to uh Dr Hayes that that things seem like they're getting a little bit better so I'd like to turn it over to you for a quick recap uh so we reconfigured uh the cafeteria to force flow through the cafeteria as opposed to stud just stopping at the entrance um so we uh we we relocated point of service we also relocated I guess where some food is served uh additionally we created uh during the passing of class or during the transition to launch uh we created uh downstairs and upstairs uh one of the issues that we had was students trying to go up the same stairs all students coming down so now we were forcing the traffic to a stairwell that's less utilized um mron also or chief of f also allowed us to open up an additional stairwell um stairwell H which previously was only used in emergencies uh has been opened for student and staff use so that is another uh access point to the cafeteria uh signage was placed up in the areas where we're concerned we also set up a number of stanions and uh taped the floor with directional markers in the ways in which students uh we need students to travel uh to allow safe travel and to allow flow uh into the cafeteria and uh I believe uh it has allowed greater movement through the building uh for capacity or for seating capacity we open aium so the auditorium is now available that's another 250 seats that are or more 320 seats that are available um we also pull out a bleacher uh each day in the gymnasium um so there's a bleacher available each bleacher can sit another 175 students and we have discussed uh during inclement weather whereas the weather turns um opening up a hallway with classrooms um we have discussed that with Administration currently right now classrooms are available uh for students and staff um uh seeking extra help or Club activities so from your your assessment uh and I know I heard from um you know the Fire official Greg yantes things look like they're they're progressing well with some changes we've made so far yes they appear to be yes okay and I know we still we're still discussing a long-term plan and and all of that to uh alleviate the overcrowding issue with the the block schedule so you know as the Board of Education knows we discussed that this evening uh there's a lot of things out on the table and Atlant associate is working with us uh we are confident once the lobby renovation is completed it's not going to uh resolve all the issues but it it's it's going to alleviate uh some of the problems but uh based on your experience uh Larry uh safety and all of that I know the administrators are around I know the fire official was present a few times uh everything is safe at this point and and there's no no issues uh on hand I'm not the expert to to speak on that but I can say that I've worked with the fire department and I've worked with the engineers to ensure that we do have proper erress and evacuations for our student population and our staff uh as different phases of the U project have changed access to the building we have continuously adapted with the input from the fire department with the input from the engineer to ensure that uh you know we can operate safely and securely uh We've also um we've also uh with the security uh I guess the security lays on we also are planning to uh do more drills during the lunch activity we have always conducted drills during lunch activity but we are going to focus more of our drills during lunch activity so the students and staff are thank you Dr Hayes anything in reference to uh you know the Fire official I know you engag you had some conversation with him he's told you that everything seems like it's flown well yeah I went to the school I think it was last Friday that he Revisited it was the day you were out in the morning was that Friday I believe it was Thursday Poss okay so it was last Thursday Thursday yeah I went over to to witness it with Chief yantas and he was pleased he said it's a th% better than what he saw the first time thank you so much and he was going to lift the abatement he said also thank you any other committee reports thank you uh Larry appreciate it um okay I'll turn it over to uh L Alano for his report thank you Mr capano Mrs Cal mentioned the qac um we have a couple other monitoring and audit projects in train two Food Service one administrative review one procurement review and as I said we mentioned CC and our annual fiscal review so right now we have essentially four audits SL monitoring projects in train and parallel going on at the same time challenging times but we will get through that uh We've also started to engage 2526 budget thank you to the board the Committees Mr capano Mrs Cali and Dr Hayes uh we started to uh look closely at the potential capital projects may go out to bid in the springsummer of 2025 we'll keep everyone posted on that and just a couple of resolutions I want folks to focus in on is resolution number 50 it's our comprehensive maintenance plan it's essentially what we have to do and submit to the accounting and state each year it's essentially a a plan of in regard to what they call function 261 it's our required maintenance is how we're going to use that function how what dollars we're going to spend on a function by school and how we're going to spend those dollars got has to be submitted and approved to the state via resolution which we will be approving this evening resolution number 51 is provision provision is our camera contractor vendor they will be installing all new cameras and all new DVRs on our 24 buses right now it looks like the timing of that will be the winter break the week of December 23rd we're trying to push it for the week of November 4th they could not mobilize that quickly so I'll keep everyone uh posted on that that's exciting stuff to get our cameras and DVRs uh upgraded for the upcoming school year and Beyond that's it pretty much it Mr capano thank you Mr Valentina as the high school rep your report please um so the homecoming is coming up Friday we actually got uh 60 more kids than last year which we're very excited for I know Mr Hayes approved the Masquerade MK because it's going to be a masade uh we're going to be posting that it's only covering the eyes not a full face mask to protect your students and faculty and I also want to turn over to Myas who to speak Valentine he did a great job with the masks thank you so much really nice email evening good evening so with Junior's going on for Lun with the news uh we're going to release a form we sent it to Mr Pino and our supervisor Mr Bernstein so just to to get the students where they are during lunch and also where to see where students are moving to and where they're going to be during lunch so it goes to freshman sophomores Juniors and seniors on the form it just says where do you go during lunch what do you do during lunch are you in clubs and if you participate in lunch inside the school it's just to get more data and more research to see where all these students are going and to make it you know Junior going out for lunch and seniors going out for lunch to see where everyone is so your first name again Nicholas Nicholas thank you so much yeah Nicholas appreciate that just be aware that um you know we commended the during our work session your principal in reference to the seniors really have not given anybody a headache you know we we've looked at other districts that have open lunches etc so we've been fortunate and you know if you really can get the word out there with your team is that we we hopefully the Juniors can follow that same uh situation because you know it the high school administration has uh and Mr Pinto brought that up this evening they're really preparing you for uh you know I have a son in college and they're preparing you for the future and uh if you go to college or not and you know whatever it may be uh so it's a good system in place there some freedom but with freedom becomes responsibilities also just take that seriously with your team but there's uh just you know with junors going out and seniors going out you don't go out to Russia you know rushing causes imperfections we want to like have a safe everything's good you know not just rush to oh Juniors get out you know just wait get to get to how Juniors leave and seniors leave but we still have to talk about all the stuff question you guys thank you great job Nicholas thank you thank you at this time that uh wraps up our uh committee reports um I think the consent agenda we went through with uh completely before we call for a vote anybody from the public any comments you can come up please state your name address come up hi my name is Heather 482 Lincoln Avenue I just want to thank you for addressing our our concerns last week last meeting with the up and down hallways I really do appreciate but I have a quick question if you go to a restaurant and you want to have dinner are you going to be okay if they tell you to go sit in the kitchen I don't think so I don't think you would be okay with being told to sit at a bar that's crowded either so how is it okay for our children to have to go sit in an auditorium or room or a stairwell or a hallway so that's one of my concerns and then it goes a little bit deeper where's the sanitary option because if my son goes and sits inside of a classroom but he has a shellfish allergy and someone eats it on that desk who's cleaning it and how do you know where my son is how do you know that he's not in anaphylactic shop in a classroom with no other kids there because he's not being watched or there's no set space for him to the 11th graders being able to go out forun thank you last meeting you guys have discussed maybe putting a a boundary is that still in effect would that be in effect a boundary as to like local establishments they would only be allowed to go to because they're within specific ranges of the school no with the with the senior uh we we did not have those boundaries uh Mr Pinto put a plan in place you know they are leaving the building and it's their responsibility to return to uh so I was just curious about that do some kids sometimes don't come back Etc I can tell you for you know the vice principals and uh all the administrators really do a good job and from the reports that we get from Mr Pinto uh they are no issues is it perfect no I mean I'm not concerned about my son I I mean he's very responsible he has a good friend group and I don't think and I think he's more scared of me with him not returning to school on time and than anything else but my whole thing is like where's that where's the extra layer then where's the sanitary options where's the where's the table why do they have to eat on their laps you're opening up bleachers but why are they sitting on a bleacher why are they sitting in an auditorium yes it's 200 more seats but you're taking 600 children out of the school if you take every senior and Junior you still have to account for 700 children to eat lunch and I understand clubs and I understand everything else but it's still not there like get a t putside tables remove some teacher parking have some park on the street or drive-thru or open a field or something you know they have catering tents and heaters and whatever and I understand it opens up a whole another door but it gives them a spot to sit because if you went out to eat and you didn't have a spot to sit and eat your dinner you would be a very upset Patron and you probably wouldn't return so that's where we come in as upset parents that you're cattling all of our children into this cafeteria where might be food left at the end of the day because they're not M they're not cooking for a massive 1300 people so my thing is how is all of that being settled like my son brings lunch every day because he doesn't want to deal with it he's already said Mom if I wait I don't eat so I bring my lunch so now he doesn't eat he gets pushed and shoved in a hallway and sometimes he sits on the stairs so to me that's not fair I pay taxes I want my kid to sit at a table if he chooses not to if there's space that's one thing but if he chooses not to because he's forced not to that doesn't sit right with me so going forward how are all of these things going to be alleviated so uh you know some some great comments and great points I know that uh we have the courtyards in the back that are open during good weather uh we haven't explored in climate weather with heaters Etc that may that's a great point that may be an option we do feel when the way the lobby is going to be designed that there there may be some with uh you know uh some uh stools against the walls with um you know an 18in counter we've seen that in other schools and and it's nice it gives more open space and I know we're making Provisions where they can charge their laptops their phones Etc uh we look we are looking at all these Avenues we have the engineer engaged to give us a report and give us options on staging on how we could uh you know uh divert the kids to to certain areas uh you know they are great points we are talking with the engineers and they're going to work together with our administrators and Mr Pinto to come up with a plan uh you know you brought of a great point about cleaning Etc and uh the only thing I can tell you is that they're valid points you know when you you have a 6 700 kids in in one spot things are going to get dirty but you know the condition of our buildings uh you know and our custodial staff they do a great job cleaning I'm not doubting that but they're not cleaning after every Lunch Period they're not saying hey you use this classroom hold on let me go from a table you know I could assure you that if there's an eating at the last meeting they said classrooms were opened up for children to eat in and the auditorium and the gymnasium there's no food Allowed no food allowed there's no food allowed in gymnasium so there's seating available for students so how do they have lunch at lunch period in the gymnasium and they can't eat there sorry I'm I'm just backtracking a little bit because you did say that you opened up the auditorium open so during LUN so what are they supposed to do eat outside and stand up and then go inside and sit down we have we sell approximately 550 lunches per day okay um we have seating in the cafeteria for over 400 students the cafeteria and immediately outside the cafeteria we put tables CA stud stud classrooms are available there's cleaning products in the classrooms now classrooms are available only there's right so like Wonder Girls today have pizza for all the participants in Wonder um some kids we do training we during the training we'll bring in lunch for the kids um not all the children come down at the same time so sometimes kids are in the clubs and then kids are eating and then the kids up Med Media Center has seating for approximately 75 students so there Isa was in the cafeteria every day I'm in the cafeteria there are open seats in the cafeteria there are open seats in the cafeteria some kids are choosing not to be in the cafeteria um there are seats outside we do put tables outside right um while it's not ideal no child is told they need to eat in stairwell or they need to eat on the floor we actually encourage them not to to use the spaces that we have today I was encouraging students who were sitting on the floor to go sit outside it's a beautiful there's no one sitting on these tables in the courtyard so I understand there is a disconnect but what we're seeing right I understand Aon I understand that you know what you're not going to try it's kind eror I'm tell you son up there it's chips will not get so says it's just it's just not worth the first 15 minutes you have trying to get a meal CU that some of them that might be the only meal that they're going to get that day so the first 15 minutes it is crowy and that's why we encourage Club activities to run the first portion of lunch we encourage our teachers to offer extra help at the beginning of lunch but we I can I cannot tell the students don't run down to the lunch room I mean we have we've told them to find especially the opening of school when you have 300 new freshmen in the building their first priority was get to the cafeteria um and I I I would I would offer it to anybody in here to watch what's going on now compared to what was going on a month ago I I do yes I been told that there is a difference has it been like sely drastic I don't know I'm not seeing all the conditions um but what I'm saying I'm just going by my son his friends they just don't know stair off I understand it's a clean building I do Comm the school district for having clean build they're very C you know after few hourss walk but we we can assure you that the valid points we we're looking at every Avenue possible to you know um try to reduce the impact to the students so we are looking at all those things and the engineers working on a plan the fire officials been there gave us a clearance and you know he's coming back he can come back anytime unannounced and I have to say that the administration there uh is doing a nice job uh controlling everything but you brought some great points and you know we are going to discuss those things and uh we'll take it from there thank you thank you anybody else from the public please state your name and address address Mar um yes I've been told there have been slight changes so Kudos on that for four weeks of right Kudos on that Larry I think you said something about the stairwell being utilized we uh We've expand we we've opened stairwell H uh which is now accessible for the science wi to the uh driveway for what just for access to the cafeteria um it was it was accessible during emergency we had closed uh we had closed it um where we were told we understood that it was to be closed during the construction phase um we had the contractor reposition the gate and now or correct and during the use of the school the door is unlocked students can use the stairwell sure but not to assemble assemble there no not to assemble in in the St okay no I just misunderstood it sounded like they were it was opened up for them to use that as cing and so no no okay okay my my last question I'm not going to make it long was there any ever any conversation in the past before we even came last month more in addition to the high school there there definitely is we we spent a two-year plan on a comprehensive plan in conjunction with the mayor and Council and the burrow to expand the burrow had bought the synagogue property to add the parking and to add a High School annex okay that that started around the covid period on that study the study was completed you know we had projected x amount of dollars and uh now that that number has inflated with construction costs Etc uh we're still doing that study we sent it over to the New Jersey Department of Education they responded that the plan uh can work and uh we're still uh continuing to study that to put an Annex to alleviate hopefully about 400 kids if that doesn't work we're in conjunction we've been negotiating the last 10 years with Epiphany to uh possibly uh buy that uh facility we had it appraised and we're still waiting it's very hard to work with the arch dasis and to come up with a A number that tax payers can digest also but we are looking at these things okay thank you anybody else from the public please Hi how are you Hi good you name and address please uh Victor fre 56 happening how are you Victor very good thank Youk you once again just on beh of parents I just also want to thank you for looking into this matter I appreciate the that's been made however um again forgive me if uh if I'm a little lost on where we were up to this point but has there been a thought to possibly reinstate the for periods based on the uh grade levels we had that's that's a great point we had that discussion this evening I brought it up to Mr Pinto when we went in when we were in our work session and you know uh Mr Pinto gave us an analysis of other school districts and how the block lunch has been effective uh you know and uh also How It prepares them uh when they go into college or trade school and and as a board of education uh we're not administ administrators we're not professionals we're checks and balances we rely on our professionals Etc and and Larry brought to this this to our attention he's the principal there 10 years ago uh 10 years and he brought it to our attention for many years and we were resistant to Let's Stay the not go to the block schedule let's go to block schedule and then we saw after he conducted an analysis and a survey that a lot of districts are doing that and we've seen a tick in kids that are more engaged with this type of schedule test scores were going up Etc and and we we were wrong and we said you know Larry let's move forward with it and there are going to be pros and cons with it and Larry has assured us that this is the way to go and as the 10 years he's been principal there and I've been on this board 19 years we've progressed tremendously uh with curriculum activities Sports Etc so we believe in our administrators and they do believe in uh the block schedule and this board of education is going to stand behind it at this point so does that does that mean that this isings the block schedu is to stay but the Board of Education uh with our Consultants has also done a demographic study of enrollment Etc our enrollment is down in our elementary schools and our enrollment is up about 35 kids in the high school we are also engaging Fair View uh of where they're projecting their enrollment is going to be so we're looking at every Avenue uh to try to try to stay ahead of the curve with uh you know enrollment and and and the population uh before that we always you know our desire was to to build this Annex to the high school we possibly if the annex doesn't move forward we may have to put an addition on the uh the high school we also look at what the impact would be to the taxpayer I know that our priori is first and foremost safety our children uh but as a board of education we have to look at our $66 million budget and how it impacts the taxpayer and what we could afford this this board of education and this school district has no Debt Service The Debt Service we had was paid five years ago when we put the we built the number six school edition and that was $6 million but today the cost factors uh which again we do consider them every day is to put a an addition on a building is about a million dollars in classroom so we got to make sure we have those resources we also have to have our checks and balances but we I can reassure you that we we don't turn a tin ear and we're looking at these Avenues appreciate that I just I just hope that in the interest of the children and their ability to continue excel at the rate that they're excelling based on the presentation prior to this uh session um I just hope that it's it remains in line with that idea and you know we get to that point sooner than later because the you know with the capacity issue in lunch from I don't know if time would be on our side at that point my final my final concern is again about the uh I just want to revisit the part about the the stairwell being repurposed as an entry point um I just wanted to be sure that there was no any any consideration or implementation of that doesn't come at the expense of the any compromis of an evacuation option I I have to uh let you know that our Fire official Greg gontis takes these matters seriously he's visited the site numerous times and I could assure you that the administration at the high school will never compromise the safety of our students I can assure you that and Larry if you'd like to interject I'll turn it over to you the stairwell was opened to ensure in the event of evacuation we can get everyone out of the building um that's why we we asked can we open the stairwell um we also thanks to uh the engineer chief of office a whole number of individuals also access access so we want our students to be able to access the building and access the building safely with minimal obstacles as possible um I think this this the project that's undergoing in the high school right now is kind of compounding the sense of I guess claustrophobia per se I mean the project is compromising once the Project's completed I believe these issues we haven't had these issues years enrolment is up but it's not up significant so I think once this project relieves itself I think the students will be much more comfortable have morees right now they don't have a large that would be beneficial to have that back just until that until the project is seen through said is there is there another has another area repurchased as an evacuation that there's no additional entrance the entrance is the main main entrance that's the only entrance to the building that stairwell is that stairwell was taken offline during the project that St roll is back online it does nothing more than provide Eris Ingress for students from the driveway into the media center and into the science I could assure you that um we're working uh extremely uh hard to to resolve the issues um I can't I can speak on behalf of the Board of Education here uh Teddy's been here 19 years with me uh and everyone else has been here a long time also uh we're not going to turn it to in here and we appreciate your comments and suggestions and we hear it on the street also and I can tell you that we're fortunate here in Cliffside Park uh that we have ad rators that uh care and and bring concerns to us and we rely on their feedback but I appreciate your your input it's it's it's really valid thank you also anybody else from the public one last thing sure entryway that's being built right now yes what's the just here what's the purpose of that what was that what's the purpose of that space that space first of all the space was outdated from the 60s okay and uh we we had to do some infrastructure work on piping wiring Etc and uh walls were crumbling uh floors were starting to come up Etc and we decided to expand it because as Athletics are starting to expand we need a little bit more space for for the school Etc this is the part off the the driveway correct correct right a glass enclosure yes yes correct but also there's a Lobby in there that that's another 50 to 55 ft by by 25 30 existing one correct yes and we've taken all the walls down Etc to make it an open Flow we took columns down Etc to get more space more flow into it and to update it as you know uh so it was outdated it was built in the in the 60s but not meant to be used for a place of assembly no but but uh meant to use as a a place where people can come engage with one another possibly against the walls like I said we'll have we'll have uh counters where you know a good 50 to 75 kids can engage in there based on square footage of course the Occupy load abut but not a place of assembly no it's it's it's that's but correct I'm getting that but that's my point right it's still over I'm sorry no you can't be really as simple correct right but that small addition right doesn't take into consideration the overcrowding because it's a place of assembly okay so when you say oh they can go there and and didn't say that excuse me when we went to high school remember the history Wing yes okay it's not the history wi when we went for the history R so you know how you come out that door you come out to the to the fo area the outside area then you come into the gym the three doors off the driveway no I'm inside the school by the history room when we went to yes then you come out the door there then we're in the outside then you go back into the G the triple doors outside okay so the problem now is everybody's using one staircase to go into the cafeteria by the special education that's their case right so now once that project's open once that's open again the kids can come in from the high school I mean from the history Wing come down and then come into the come into the cafeteria both ways no I get that so so there's where they're so there's where they're choking now they're choking in that stairwell so we never we're not saying to hang out there and all that we're saying it's going to eliminate the choke so I get that when we were in school remember we used to pick different staircases to go you can't but you can't compare we have three launch per but still you still alleviate the choke right now you're putting 200 probably in sail ball correct I get that you you follow me I'm agreeing with so we're not using as assembly it's going to eliminate the 200 to like 150 and then you spread it out yes I get that I get the used for we used to stand there and hang out and everything else go buy the pay phone back in the day there was a pay phone there but my point is my point is it's it's an addition right I get an entry way you want to modernize I'm all four I get it but we did it but hold on we did a whole new gym okay we put air conditioning in the gym listen to me so we just finished all that we put the air yeah but Daddy you're not you're not making your point better you know Mark I hold done but if your son graduates and if it's raining outside and we got to do it hosted inside you're going to want the air conditioning hold on I wrong I'm going to want my son to be safe and not overid so don't even bring up Teddy don't even bring up the the gym don't CU you're wrong on this one that's your opinion if's wrong with the gym my my point of coming back coming back was my question the addition the glass enclosure as the entry and I understand you want to modernize it make it inviting for also better flow during events Etc absolutely and I'm agreeing with you J am good but it's not a place of assembly to bring extra kids in it's not that that's why we didn't say that and my point is the the issue is the overcrowding I understand Larry with the means of egress and opening up a stairwell and and Coring kids a certain way that's great and I'm I'm appreciative of that that has been done in the past few weeks I really am I sincerely but it doesn't that small addition off the front it's not alleviating the overcrowding we're not disagreeing with you there but that's what I'm saying but it was specifically said oh the kids can go into this space and hang out it's not a point of assembly right but again we we've told you in previously that kids have an area that they can go have lunch Etc Larry indicated that and by doing with the lobby it's it's the overcrowding is going to alleviate a little bit we are looking at other avenues we spent three years with the Department of Education at the state to try to get this Annex up and running and I understand the solution is we all want to fix the overcrowding issue it's not going to happen overnight it's not going to happen overnight and if it's dollars and cents and if we go out to a referendum today to ask to put on a 4 or $50 million addition onto the high school I can assure you that the in the of Cliffside Park that referendum is going to get knocked down because if you look at all the referendums in the state of New Jersey that have gone on in the last 5 years maybe 10% of them have passed and they weren't really big expansions we are looking at different Avenues I've told you we're looking at the Epiphany we're looking at uh possibly this Annex with with the municipality we're looking at those Avenues I agree it takes time I just want to clarify that that place is not appoint of assembly for over gra thank you any other questions thank you at this time uh Mr Alano anything else on your end uh no Mr capano Dr Hayes no sir I'll ask for a motion to approve the October 23rd 2024 consent agenda please of a motion from Mr Russo and a second uh from dreww okay thank you so much roll call Mr Alano Mr Capo Mrs Abu yes Mr capano yes Mr NW yes Mr ranc Court yes Mr Russo yes Mr Baka yes okay so move thank you everybody for attending this evening's meeting um and I'm going to ask for a motion uh to uh close the meeting that's and I'll second it and uh we'll ask uh our um presentation this evening to continue our njsla e