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MINUTES OF THE PATERSON BOARD OF EDUCATION WORKSHOP MEETING

January 3, 2007 – 6:00 p.m.

John F. Kennedy High School Presiding: Comm. Willa Mae Taylor, President Present: Dr. Michael Glascoe, State District Superintendent Ms. Frances Finkelstein, Business Administrator Sidney Sayovitz, Esq., General Counsel Comm. Joseph Atallo Comm. Alonzo Moody Comm. Jonathan Hodges Comm. Andre Sayegh, Vice President Comm. Errol Kerr Comm. Lawrence Spagnola Absent: Comm. Chauncey Brown Comm. Daniel Vergara The Salute to the Flag was led by Comm. Taylor. 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: Workshop Meeting January 3, 2007 at 6:00 p.m. John F. Kennedy High School 61-127 Preakness Avenue Paterson, New Jersey to be published by having the date, time and place posted in the office of the City Clerk of the City of Paterson, at the entrance of the Paterson

Public School offices, and by sending notice of the meeting to Al Zaman, El Diario, the Italian Voice, the New Jersey Forum, the North Jersey Herald & News, and The Record.

Comm. Taylor: This past week we lost many Americans, but one special that lead this country in a time when we were not sure whether or not this country was going to be together, a similar time to when Abraham Lincoln took over the country during the civil war. Some of you may have been too young to watch the impeachment of our president at the time, but the president who took over was President Gerald Ford. He was vice-president and became president. Let’s just have a moment of silence for

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those who have passed. Thank you. Our next section is Presentations and Communications. PRESENTATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS Dr. Glascoe: Thank you, Ms. Taylor. I believe we are going to have just a brief overview of where we are with our development of our curriculum. I am going to ask Ms. Patterson to come to the microphone and give us an introduction. This is a prelude to the curriculum committee’s report, which will be forthcoming. Ms. Brenda Patterson: Good evening and happy new year. This evening it is with great pleasure that I will introduce four Curriculum and Instruction Department staff to give you the highlights of each department. This began in October when we first presented social studies and we also had math, staff development, early childhood, and world languages. Next was No Child Left Behind and technology library media. So this evening we will be hearing from physical education & health, with Anna Adams as the supervisor, followed by Petra Liz-Morel, who will be discussing the bilingual/ESL program, followed by Nestor Collazo who will be discussing the science program. Last, but not least, will be Madeline Roman who will be discussing elementary language arts. I have asked them to give you copies of the highlights and give you the information in reference to curriculum, assessment, and professional development, and perhaps a sample of the work that will come to you in disc and/or binders that will give you the complete curriculum framework with the pacing guides as well as any benchmark assessments and other information. Without further ado, I would like to introduce Anna Adams. She is the most recent addition to my staff. She is replacing Ed Leppert who retired this year. So I am proud to have Anna Adams. Comm. Taylor: Ms. Patterson, could you just go back. You say they are going to give us an overview of the curriculum, assessment, and what else? Just those three areas? Thank you. Physical Education & Health Education K-12 Initiatives 2007 Ms. Anna Adams: Good evening everyone and happy new year to all of you if I have not seen you. In the interest of time, I have prepared a 10-minute overview of the Physical Education and Health Department. If you are not aware, as Brenda did mention, I came on board approximately October 16. I believe we are almost caught up to my other colleagues. I have prepared two sets of initiatives, one for physical education and one for health. I will not read this to you, but I will highlight some of the important aspects of each of the initiatives. You will find to the left side of the folder there is a table of contents and everything I will mention is to the right in that same order. So at your leisure by all means you may look at the samples that we have. So in the interest of time first and foremost I would like to say that in the Physical Education and Health Department our major emphasis this year will be on health and wellness. We look forward to that. We have revised the scope and sequence, the pacing guides, and we are in the process of formalizing the frameworks. At this time they have been read and proofed and they are in the process of being corrected. When I came on board in October one of the most important things I had to do was a needs assessment. I needed to know where physical education was since my last stay there was six years ago. So we sent out a survey in regards to physical education and health. We have since then retrieved those surveys and they will be in the process of being collated. Once that happens I will get the information out to all of the Board members and to Dr. Glascoe. In your packet you will see that there is a sample of the physical education survey and also of the health survey. Not to piggyback on what Ms. Patterson said, but

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one of the other initiatives for C&I this year has been school visitations. I can tell you that at this point I have been in approximately 22-24 schools since October 16. That was not because I had to, but because I wanted to see as many schools as I could in such a short period of time to see what the needs were of the teachers and also of the building principals. We have established a dialogue between myself and the other disciplines. I look forward to doing a lot of cross-disciplinary activities with science, math, and so forth. You will see in the sample regarding the grade 8 frameworks that there is a lot of math, literacy and so forth so that there is progress as far as cross-disciplinary work. Our benchmarks are completed and they are all aligned with the New Jersey Core Content Standards. I have developed and resurrected some major partnerships with Montclair State. I am in the process of the reaching out to some of the colleges and universities and also the YMCA. I have also reached out this week on a wonderful recommendation from one of the assistant superintendents to Parks and Recreation. I have also reached out to Mr. Wimberly and we have a meeting next week. We are going to see what we can do with some of his facilities and ours to develop some programs after school. So that also is in process. For the academy students we have established an intramural program. Currently we are in the process of collating the interest from all of the high school academies. For any student that does not participate in a varsity sport or a sub-varsity sport we would like to see if we can have them involved in some intramural programs for basketball, volleyball, and possibly some softball yet to be collated. So I will also let you know what the interests of the academies are. To form some cohesiveness with our partners one of the things I wanted to try this year is the YMCA has challenged the Paterson Public School District to have co-ed basketball and volleyball games to form some type of cohesiveness. I thought this was a great idea. Students can also come and they can watch. They can probably house around 75 people up above where the tracks are. So I am looking forward to that and we are hoping that some of our assistant superintendents and even Board members can participate in that activity. There will be a memo out accordingly. There will be for the first time in approximately two years a major staff development that is going to take place here at Kennedy High School in the gymnasium. It will be very extensive. They will be here from 8:30 to 3:00. For the major part of the morning from 8:30 on it will be strictly curriculum benchmarks and assessment, what they should be doing and how. After that, we will have a major staff development on nutrition. You will find in your packets that there is a nutrition policy for the district. That was established this summer and I do believe it was approved by the Board. That will be a two-hour workshop in the gymnasium that day. You will find a copy of that in your folder. For health education, I look forward to having a major health book adoption series this year from K-12. I am looking forward to that especially in the lower grades. They have a lot of pamphlets and big books for the little children so they can get on board very easily. I don't know how many of you are involved or interested in the health aspect but there is a major increase in obesity in children in grades 5-8. So we are hoping that if we start early we will be able to prevent that, and the teachers will also be trained on that. Our partnership also includes the Rutgers Extension Program, which is county-based. We are going to develop some guest speakers where they come into the classrooms. It is an 8-week program. These are experts in the field of nutrition. At the same time that they are teaching these students they will be giving staff development to the health teachers and to the physical education teachers so that once that 8-week program is up they have already been trained in the nutrition process and they can continue it throughout the year. That is for physical education and also health. So I look forward to seeing that. In your packet you will see that there is a flier for our Annual Health Teen Fair. That will take place on May 2 also in the Kennedy gymnasium. I welcome all of you to come and you will also be getting an updated memo once we have that finalized. This basically concludes my presentation. If there are any questions regarding any of the initiatives by all means feel free to ask any questions if you have any concerns.

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Comm. Sayegh: Ms. Adams, you stated that a major emphasis will be placed on health and wellness and you also mentioned the alarming increase in the number of youngsters who are becoming obese. How closely are you working with food services to make sure there is a menu tailored to reduce the alarming rate of obese children? Ms. Adams: Unfortunately, I was not part of the committee. But I do know that three of our staff members, such as Elizabeth Craft who is the supervisor of nursing, David Buchholtz, and Ed Leppert who was in this position previously, were on the committee. There has been dialogue between myself and the supervisor of nursing, who will also be doing a presentation on January 10 on blood borne pathogens, which she is going to do tomorrow. Actually, they have a meeting tomorrow so hopefully I will be able to get on board onto that committee and be part of the process. But I do know that there is some process being done now from the past committee. What the status of it is I do not know at this point, but I am hoping to get involved and roll up my sleeves and see what I can do. Comm. Taylor: Ms. Adams, where does the school administrator and all the support staff fit into this? How will they know what is going on in this program? Ms. Adams: For physical education and health? I have met with every principal that I have gone to. If I have not met with a principal I have spoken to a vice-principal. I think there might have been only one school I was not able to contact the administrator. Comm. Taylor: Do they understand that it is not just throwing out a ball and saying play? Ms. Adams: They will know definitely after January 10 it is not about throwing a ball and they have already been told in those 22 sites that I have visited. Comm. Taylor: Because a lot of people believe that physical education and health education are not on the scope and not important. And the way you treat your body, move your body, and work with your body determines how well you do a lot of your lessons and also how well health-wise you are. Ms. Adams: A healthy body is a healthy mind, Ms. Taylor. I agree with you totally. Comm. Taylor: I think all of us have to get on board with this plan that physical education is important and health education is important. They go together and we want it to happen in all the schools - pre-k to 12. Comm. Hodges: Good evening. You mentioned here the intramural sports program. Actually, it is listed. Ms. Adams: Yes. Comm. Hodges: But it says for academy students who are not participating in a varsity sport. Ms. Adams: Yes. Comm. Hodges: What about the other students who are not participating, for instance in the major high schools?

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Ms. Adams: At this point I wanted to see if there was an interest so I wanted to start small. If there is not an interest at the academy level then we move up to the high school level. But I needed to begin somewhere. So at this point once I have collated the information from the academies I can then extend it out to the high school level at the comprehensive high schools. Comm. Hodges: Okay. This is just one of the nether areas that we need to do a better job of, and that is getting our kids involved in extracurricular activities. I am assuming one or two of them will go to college and they like to see extracurricular activities along with the academics. Hopefully we can provide them at least the extracurricular activities. Ms. Adams: Thank you. I agree. Comm. Taylor: Thank you. Bilingual/ESL Initiatives Ms. Patterson: Thank you, Ms. Adams. Next we will be hearing from Petra Liz-Morel who will be discussing the K-12 bilingual program. She does have discussions with the preschool centers in terms of bilingual education so that there is a total bridge. She will be discussing the types of programs we offer and how bilingual education has been challenged given the No Child Left Behind expectations for our students to be assessed in English. For all of these staff that has presented in the past and is currently presenting, we have put a process so that you will feel comfortable with this. All curriculum staff presents to the leadership team and get input from us in terms of reviewing their frameworks and their initiatives. The next step is when they come and speak to you during a Board workshop. Right after that we have asked every department supervisor or director to meet with all principals with assistant superintendents at their cluster meetings to review everything that you have seen and more. Then it is followed by an extensive rollout to staff. So there is an actual process that we put in place to ensure that all stakeholders have had an opportunity to have a discussion. We are also working simultaneously knowing that the three advisory committees that work with the Superintendent under Dr. Fulmore will also have an opportunity to work with them in informing the community about the new curriculum frameworks and expectations for children. Comm. Taylor: Ms. Patterson, you are saying that there is the assistant superintendent and the administrator. What other person in the building when they go to review this? Ms. Patterson: First we meet with the administrator and the assistant superintendents. Comm. Taylor: They meet together with the developer? Ms. Patterson: Right. After that we discuss this either with all staff that is assigned to teach the particular content on hand or at least one person at a grade level. I will you an example. If there are four people teaching social studies at grade 4 they may train one of the people and then provide time in the building for that person to be working with the other four until the director is able to go directly and meet with all staff. Comm. Taylor: This turnkeying that you are talking about is very important. The principal has to take the time and I am sure the assistant superintendent will make sure the principal takes the time because sometimes they feel that they can't leave their schoolwork or their school building and think about a framework. You are going to

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present quite a few of them to us, but it is very important that each one is given its time. It is time consuming for the developer and for our advisor who helped us with the framework. I think we deserve to give it the time it needs and everyone should know what is in it. The turnkeying by the grade level person needs to be monitored to make sure that happens. Ms. Patterson: Absolutely. Ms. Petra Liz-Morel: Good evening everyone. My name is Petra Liz-Morel and I am very happy to be here this evening to share with you a lot of hard work and something that we are looking forward to bringing to fruition very soon. I apologize I am giving you additional luggage to take home this evening. Everyone else brought folders but I brought a binder for the simple reason that I had this outline and I included the material in that order in order for you not to be scavenging through the file and trying to figure out what comes first and what is next. This is the order in which I am going to speak and when you have your time later to go through your binder that is the same order in which I am speaking this evening. First off is the outline of the initiatives. We break it down into the first handout, which includes the LEP enrollment by school and languages. The reason I included this is so that you could see where in our district the Limited English Proficient students are. You will notice that in the columns there is an “N” and an “L.” The “N” stands for native speakers of a language other than English. The “L” stands for LEP, which is the name given by the state and the federal government for all students identified as requiring bilingual/ESL services. It stands for Limited English Proficient. In this district we have adopted the words English Language Learners, which really covers all of our students. Simply because our children exit the program does not mean that we are not going to continue to monitor their needs, as well as any other student that requires language acquisition support. The ESL curriculum addresses the student’s native language whether it is English, Spanish, or another foreign language. This curriculum is intended to give teachers the tools to help them be effective through the integration of what we call language domains. Those domains are listening, speaking, reading, and writing, along with the content curriculum. The curriculum is aligned with the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. As you know, that was adopted in 1996 by the Department of Education in order to establish an educational reform in the state’s public schools and make it clear and defined what all students should know and be able to do at the end of the 13 years of public education. Also, the curriculum is aligned with TESOL standards. That stands for Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages. That came about in 1996 as well. The purpose behind that was to have ESL standards that were designed to be useful to teachers and other educators who wanted to incorporate them in their educational programs for all English language learners. As educators read through the document you will recognize that the standards are organized by grade level clusters from pre-k through 3rd, from 4th to 8th, and from 9th to 12th. Curriculum is also aligned by another standard, the WIDA standard. This is new and it came about in 2003 as a response to No Child Left Behind. WIDA stands for World Class Instructional Design and Assessment. The purpose behind these standards was to enhance the assessment system being developed, implemented by a consortium. The original members of this consortium were Wisconsin, Delaware, and Arkansas. Before they completed their consortium agreement other states came into that consortium and no longer did WIDA stand for those states. That is why it was changed to World Class Instructional Design and Assessment. That too is the standard that as bilingual/ESL instructors we are held to. The document is designed for many audiences. It is the field of education who impacted by English language learners linguistically and culturally diverse students who have been identified as having levels of English language proficiency that precludes them from accessing, processing, and acquiring unmodified grade level content in

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English. This audience includes English language learners, as well as those with disabilities, teachers, principals, programs, districts, and regional administrators. These standards have been designed with that in mind, to be the vehicle which drives instruction for all English language learners. The scope and sequence, which is part of your packet, covers grades K-12 and it is divided into proficiency levels. I have outlined all of the skills that are required to accommodate language development in all content areas, as well as the social, speaking, listening, reading, and writing domains that are so important for language acquisition, cognizant of the fact that all children are to be proficient in English and not to just focus on utilizing the native language and not having the counterpart of ESL. It is bilingual/ESL. Comm. Taylor: So the teacher and the instructor are not just speaking in Bengali? The teacher is proficient in English as well? Ms. Liz-Morel: Absolutely. Comm. Taylor: Or is there a second person in the room, one to speak the English and one to speak the language? Ms. Liz-Morel: If a person holds a certificate as a bilingual bicultural instructor they must be proficient in a native language and English as well. That is part of the requirement for obtaining a bilingual certificate. Comm. Taylor: The people that are teaching, are we supposed to understand their English? Ms. Liz-Morel: Yes ma’am. Comm. Taylor: There are some people I know in the district who are teaching and we cannot understand their English. So we need to be quite adamant about the instructor. If they need to go back to learn how to speak standard English they need to go back if the children and the parents cannot understand them. Ms. Liz-Morel: That is correct. Comm. Taylor: In our district in past years we have had people who did the bilingual instruction but we could not understand them in their standard English. They did not speak it clearly where parents could understand and feel comfortable with them, as well as the students. Ms. Liz-Morel: That is so important because they are modeling the language that the child is supposed to be acquiring. My understanding is that is the reason why the testing for proficiency in the native language and English has been altered by the state. So now folks who are taking courses at a university going towards their bilingual certification must submit themselves to a test at NYU and pay for these tests. Comm. Taylor: An oral test? Ms. Liz-Morel: Yes - oral, written, and listening as well, being that they must respond appropriately. It is structured in such a way that did not exist in the past resulting in the by-product that you just described. Comm. Taylor: I see a thing here where it talks about Creole. I know we used to do pig Latin and I did not know about Pidgin. Is that a way of speaking in Creole?

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Ms. Liz-Morel: Yes ma'am. Comm. Moody: I would just like to use this opportunity to inform staff and everyone else that not only do we have the problem that you mentioned with students not being able to understand teachers very well in the bilingual classes, but in regular classes you have teachers who are barely speaking the language. I get many complaints from students and parents that the student cannot understand what the teacher is saying. I would like to take this opportunity to bring it to your attention and that we look at that. That is happening. Ms. Liz-Morel: In order to acquire a general education certification I do not believe that there is a proficiency test required as far as being able to articulate and express yourself so that others can understand you. But I do know that for the bilingual bicultural certification you are required to take this proficiency test. As of two years ago it has become so that they need to take these three sections that involve the oral, speaking, and written. In the past that was not the case. Again, as you have so indicated, we have people in the field who are not the most appropriate representatives of what should be there. Unfortunately, this was prior to the new laws and the new certification requirements. Comm. Taylor: So you are saying you grandfathered those people in? Ms. Liz-Morel: Those people have been grandfathered in. Comm. Hodges: Quite frankly, you will find it in college that not being able to understand your professor or your teacher is not going to be unusual at all. In fact, it may be a primer for post secondary education. It is the truth. A lot of foreign graduate students teach at the higher level as opposed to the professors and they don’t speak English well. But this is a concern the whole bilingual department has encountered. I am sure there have been some concerns and I am very anxious to see how that gets addressed. Comm. Taylor: That seems an awful loss to the district when you have someone who is highly qualified but cannot do the other part of it. I think that is such a loss for us if people have not gone back to being proficient in English. Ms. Liz-Morel: I am hoping that the staff development hours that we are all responsible for that our teachers are taking advantage of going back to school and taking courses as far as linguistics and phonemic awareness. As I said, modeling is such an important part of what we as bilingual/ESL instructors do. We want our children to see what is excellence, not mediocrity. Comm. Taylor: The other problem that Comm. Moody is talking about is something I am sure Dr. Glascoe will look into for us. That is a regular class, not a bilingual class itself. That is different. Those are teachers who are in the classroom, yet the children are not able to understand their standard English. They have mastered their course study but have not been required to speak standard English. I have listened to quite a few instructors throughout the district and the children just go to sleep or they do not pay attention. The parents are intimidated by them because they don’t understand and they won't come near. So I think we need to address that. Comm. Spagnola: Approximately how many bilingual teachers have been grandfathered in prior to the certification requirements?

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Ms. Liz-Morel: Anyone who has been hired in the past two years was part of the new proficiency testing. Comm. Spagnola: So we have a two-year window? Ms. Liz-Morel: Yes. Comm. Spagnola: You answered the question. Basically, two years ago everybody prior to that did not need certification. Ms. Liz-Morel: That is correct. They did not have to go through the proficiency exam. Comm. Spagnola: Okay. How many did we hire? Ms. Liz-Morel: That is something I would need to discuss with my colleague, Mr. Luis Rojas, who would have a more accurate list as far as to when folks were hired. Petra has only been in the bilingual/ESL department... Comm. Taylor: I would like Comm. Spagnola... Ms. Liz-Morel: But we can get you that information. Comm. Taylor: Just to make you aware, many of our bilingual teachers speak standard English beautifully. But there are some who do not. I am not saying all our bilingual teachers are like that. I am saying there are some and at that point some other things need to be done with the grandfathered ones in the district. Comm. Spagnola: There should be something. It should be addressed, especially if they are not functioning correctly. They have tenure and they have been grandfathered in and you know how hard it is to make a move with them. They are going to be there until they retire. Comm. Taylor: My understanding is that they are going to do part in the language of the child and then standard English. The lessons are taught in both. Ms. Liz-Morel: That depends on the program. If it is a bilingual self-contained program then the student’s native language is utilized in order to teach the skills that the children need to have at the same time they are receiving ESL instruction. So the native language is utilized in the sense that we are not going to wait until the student acquires the English or the academic English language before learning what skills are needed for them to thrive in the class. Comm. Spagnola: Could you give me a figure on the amount of teachers who are certified and the amount of bilingual teachers that we do have? Not now. Ms. Liz-Morel: We can get that information to you. Comm. Spagnola: If you could. Thank you so much. Comm. Sayegh: I observed the refugee program that emanates from School 18 and it is a language/cultural immersion program. Considering the diversity that exists within our district there is a definite need. Are there plans to expand this program considering that there are other areas within Paterson that may demonstrate that need?

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Ms. Liz-Morel: The refugee program was through the refugee grant. That expired this past June. We have continued to provide the schools with the materials similar to what was utilized during that after-school program for the refugee program, which was an intensive ESL program. We also already provide within the district the counter-piece of that refugee grant program, which involved the community, the social piece where parents were informed as to what programs or community services were available to them. Their circumstances as refugees were that they were looking for asylum here in the United States. That we provide automatically within our district. We have guidance counselors in the buildings and they know where to direct our parents. So although the program was only at School 18 it is something we have been doing throughout and all facets of that program are already available in our buildings. Comm. Sayegh: Thank you. Comm. Hodges: Is there a timetable that we use to determine how long a student should be in the bilingual program? Or is it based on proficiency? Ms. Liz-Morel: It is based on proficiency and there are other criteria that we adhere to, such as the report card grade in language arts and math, teacher recommendations, and the results of the scores from the standardized tests that all children have to take. Now we have the standardized test for all English language learners from the state called the ACCESS. We have not received the cutoff scores for this test, but every identified bilingual/ESL student has to take this test because not only does it measure their language proficiency, it also measures their comprehension cross content. That includes science, social studies, math, and language arts. Comm. Hodges: I know that there used to be a few years back a major controversy about immersion versus what it appears we are doing now. I don’t know who ultimately won. Apparently immersion did not. Comm. Taylor: I hope the child won. Comm. Hodges: They never win. The two schools of thought both had good points to them. But the question I have is without a set timetable what does the child work toward? We obviously want the educational skills over and above the language to be addressed. I guess the feeling is the language hampers that. But how do we hasten the departure from the bilingual program? Comm. Taylor: Can I overlap on that, Dr. Hodges? If a child comes into our system in pre-k and is with us from pre-k to 3rd grade and they are in this program, then that is one situation. Then you have a child who comes in and enters the school at 6th grade with no English. That is another scenario. You have another child who enters in the 8th grade. Now we are getting ready to leave the elementary level and go into a high school situation. If you have done what you had to do pre-k through 3rd grade will that child have mastered? If the teacher taught the content in the language of the child and also did ESL by that time from pre-k to 3rd do you believe the child will be able to be mainstreamed? Ms. Liz-Morel: The understanding is that every year a child is in the program they will advance one proficiency level. Comm. Taylor: What does that mean?

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Ms. Liz-Morel: Proficiency levels are from 1-5. One is the student who is entering the classroom and does not have the ability to speak in English. They only have their native language. Five is the student who has acquired what we call the academic language. Academic language takes from five to seven years according to research to develop. But that is dependent on the student. We are looking at motivation, quality of instruction, and the quality of the instructor. The understanding is that every year that child is in the program they will advance a proficiency level. If they started off in proficiency level one and they were in the program for three years, they should be at least at a proficiency level three, which places them in an advanced category. These are the students who have mastered what we call their basic intercommunication skills. Those children are well on their way to acquiring their academic English and should be able to function well in the classroom. But involving other factors, as I said, the quality of program the child was in, in the preschool will determine if that child will be out of the program by 2nd grade. It is understood that if they had a quality program in preschool they should have advanced a proficiency level. The utilization of the native language research has indicated that the transition process for our children is a lot quicker because children are coming in with a reservoir of vocabulary through a sound system that they will be able to build on. As opposed to not having a sound system at all as in English where they have never been exposed to it and they don’t understand what is being said to them, while at the same time not understanding and not being taught the skills and are falling further and further behind their counterpart English speaking partners. Comm. Taylor: I remember that in our district we settled in on bilingual and the children stayed from kindergarten to 8th grade and even into high school. Now you are talking about quality of program and quality of instructor and the motivation of the child. These three pieces if you have two of them missing your child will not be proficient. Is this a self-fulfilling program where the child stays in a program? Is that what we are trying to do? Try to explain to me why a child has to stay from kindergarten to 8th grade in a program like this. Ms. Liz-Morel: That should not be the case. If that child started off in kindergarten and received instruction we do have monitoring in place. This is why we have the children tested before and after to see if there has been any advancement in their proficiency. If that has not been the case there are other interventions that need to be put into play. Comm. Taylor: Is there a special education part to this for children of other languages who need special education? Is that built into this kind of program? Ms. Liz-Morel: When a student is identified by the Department of Special Education to go through that particular process the specialists are invited to be part of that discussion in the development of that individual educational plan. If language acquisition resources are required we as a department are to provide that. But the department in charge of that child’s classification becomes the special education department. They are the ones who are to determine who are the folks who are supposed to be part of this student’s educational plan. If that is the case they determine is it ESL or is it bilingual that needs to take place. Again, at this conversation the specialist are brought in to be part of that determination. Comm. Taylor: I am just asking a lot of questions because I see when we did our assessments that bilingual was below special education. So I am wondering what we are going to do together to raise it up. You are telling me the children are receiving their core curriculum in their native language. If that is so, I don’t recall whether or not they received their test in their native language.

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Ms. Liz-Morel: They do not. Comm. Taylor: They do it in English? Ms. Liz-Morel: Yes ma'am. Comm. Taylor: That is another drawback there. Ms. Liz-Morel: We did make safe harbor. Ms. Patterson: The reason the line is so flat is because we are assessing children. As you said, a child can be in grade 8 and come to this country in the 7th grade. They are asking them to perform in English at the same rate of competency as children who have been here their whole lives. So what you are doing is you are really seeing the performance of children tested in English whose native language is still their predominant language. If you are in the program apparently you still have a predominant language and you have not yet transitioned into English. So that is why you see that flat. What we have done, and I am on the advisory council in Trenton, we have asked for New Jersey to make request to the federal government to suggest that if we indeed now have a new test called the ACCESS test perhaps we can begin to use that assessment as a true indication of the child’s academic development and proficiency. You are not asking a child to do math in grade 8 and explain that they can do it using a language that they do not know. You are not getting any true results. Those results are not valid, no more than they would be if I went to a different country and you asked me to take an SAT right now in Russia. You are not going to be able to see what my cognitive skills are. Comm. Taylor: I am glad you are on that committee. I remember you speaking about it before. Ms. Patterson: We have had concerns about that because the only accommodation they have given us to raise those scores so they don’t look so flat is you can now include children who have been exited for two years. So if you have been exited during this current school year or if you were exited last school year we can count those children in the scores of the kids who don’t speak sufficient English. That is not a way of saying where do our children perform. All that is doing is saying let’s find a way to make the bar a little higher, but you are really including kids. Comm. Taylor: That is not what we want. Ms. Patterson: Exactly. So I just wanted you to be aware that it is not that we actually can use those results to say the children really don’t know and are not able to do xyz. What we are saying is they can't do xyz using the academic language of an 8th grade student or the academic language of a high school student who should be at the 11th grade. Hence, even at the 11th grade you have SRA in the native language. Many of our kids are caught in between. Many of our kids are not proficient enough in their native language to read Don Quixote in Spanish. So you can't give them that no more than you can give them Don Quixote in English. So they fall in terms of assessment for us in between the cracks of saying how do we work with the child? So one of the things we have done last year and this year, and you have heard me talk about it, is we have worked with both the special education department and the bilingual department to ensure that even though it is not an immersion we are asking that as many children as possible get their 90-minute blocks in literacy in the general education classroom with

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support from an ESL teacher. So we are trying to give them more access to the core curriculum in English as well as having the supports in English. Those children who are not able to function we make sure we have bilingual books. Again, bilingual Spanish books are more predominant than you are going to find Arabic books. We are caught between the availability of native language text but at the same time we are trying to provide more opportunities for kids to perform in the English only classrooms, if you want to call it that. Comm. Hodges: I guess the concern that I had you have partially answered with the five proficiency levels. What I liked about the immersion was that you forced the child to work in that academic language and that environment in English and you forced them to do it with support. The goal there is to decrease the need for bilingual education through extended periods of time. What I am looking for in this program is at least that latter part where you somehow get them out as quickly as possible and make them proficient as quickly as possible. That driving factor is what I am trying to find in this process. If we keep them in the bilingual program we are in a sense handicapping them and that is what we don’t want to do. We want them to be as proficient as possible as quickly as possible and that is my concern. Is that structure built in? Is there that drive to get you out as quickly as possible? Five years to me is a concern. Ms. Liz-Morel: The approach that you are talking about is called the Berlitz Method and what research indicates is that folks are only able to acquire rote information. Their academic language never really developed. What we are using in the bilingual department is the child’s resource that they are already bringing in to the program by providing that native language instruction where the student is acquiring the skills they need in order to be in that grade level while at the same time acquiring their ESL. One cannot be without the other. Our goal is to have the student be proficient in both languages. But we are acknowledging that the student is bringing in a resource that we can utilize to maintain or develop those skills. Many of the students who are entering our program come in with limitations. On top of not understanding what is being taught they have their own limitations as far as learning. So it is a double-edged sword for that particular child. We are acknowledging that the child is bringing a resource, utilizing that resource, advancing them to where they need to be as far as their skills, while at the same time providing them with that ESL piece that is intensive and will have them become academically proficient in the language. It is not just mimicking what sounds they hear. Many times that is not comprehension. That is just mimicking what they are hearing. Sometimes the little kids will be able to imitate what they hear on television, but that is not the academic English that will help them take that standardized test. Comm. Hodges: That is in fact how they learn at that age. Ms. Liz-Morel: At that age. Comm. Hodges: But I will also say to you that the Berlitz Method is what we teach other languages to... Ms. Liz-Morel: Older folks who have more cognitive abilities. Comm. Hodges: Absolutely. Comm. Taylor: I think that what we need to come away from your presentation is that it has to do with the quality of instruction and the quality of the program. We have to go over and look at this and share it properly with our teachers and our administrators and parents. The parents need to be in on this as well. I know many parents are going to

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English classes to learn English. I am aware of that. So it is the quality of our services, our teaching, our programs and also our motivation. I was a teacher who taught English immersion and I used to have four to six children, such as Russian, Arabic and Spanish, in my classes all the time at School 10. English immersion was the time and they learned very well. I have a doctor, a nurse, and a technician from one of those classes. Ms. Liz-Morel: Their motivation must have been right up there, compensating for whatever. Comm. Taylor: So was mine. Ms. Liz-Morel: Absolutely. So the quality of instruction was also available. Unfortunately, we cannot say we have that across the board for all of our children. Comm. Taylor: We are going to work for it. We are going to cheer our teachers on because they can do it. Ms. Liz-Morel: As far as making sure that this is across the board and that we are meeting all of the requirements and the specifications that we need to be out there in the classrooms for our children, I have been visiting buildings and being part of what we call the grade level meetings with the bilingual/ESL teachers and modeling what is effective instruction, where we need to be at as far as our English language learners, and changing that mindset that all of our children are English language learners. So it is not just our bilingual/ESL teachers but the mainstream classroom teacher as well. That brings me to our staff development piece, which is towards the end. I have outlined a series of topics that include not just my bilingual/ESL teachers, but also the general education teachers as far as what instruction should look like, the SIOP model. That is something that is explained in your packet as well. As you look through it you will see that there are many opportunities for all of our teachers to be part of what the process in the language acquisition process is. That is included in there. Thank you. Comm. Taylor: Thank you very much. Great success to you this year! Ms. Liz-Morel: Thank you. Success for us all. Are there any questions? Comm. Taylor: We did. Science Curriculum & Instruction Ms. Patterson: The interchange is good. The Board is here to talk about curriculum and I think that is important. Next we have Dr. Nestor Collazo and he is the director of science. Dr. Nestor Collazo: Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to share some of the good things going on in science. I don’t always have this opportunity to converse with you and dialogue. If you open your folders to the left hand side you are going to find a synopsis of what we are going to be discussing with you tonight that I feel is very important to cover. On the right hand side you are going to see some of the samples that I provided for you. We will look at some of these as I get into the presentation. The science office as been committed and is committed to providing a viable curriculum for students, a curriculum that challenges them and goes beyond just learning rote material but learning science by doing. You are not going to learn science effectively if you don’t become involved in the process. To that end we have been involved in developing a standards-based framework for science for grades K-12. It is very important that we put

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into a viable format for teachers and students a science program that is meaningful and relevant to them. To that end we have been working on this assiduously. I would like to draw your attention to grade 9. I know that I started with grades 6, 8, and 9, but I want you to go to grade 9 right now. I just want to go through some of the approaches that Esperanza Anastasia, the supervisor in the office, and myself have taken as it relates to the topics that students have to know. As I looked at this and in trying to think what is the most effective way to do this I had to go look at the standards. I am not determining the ‘what.’ None of us here in fact will determine what students learn. We don’t. That has already been defined for us. In other words, there are national and state standards that tell us specifically what students are expected to know and when they are expected to know it. For example, physical science is important and we already know that there are standards that tell us when we teach students physical science, especially chemistry and physics. That has already been said to us. What is it we are going to do here? I am trying to create a framework as to how we are going to do that most effectively. So if you look at grade 9, students have to be able to apply the general knowledge about the nature and properties of matter. That is the standard. That is the benchmark. They will be able to apply those and it is very important that our students not only learn science by doing it, but are able to apply those scientific concepts. So what concept skills do I expect students at the 9th grade level to be able to learn in order to meet the benchmark? Quite frankly they need to know how to describe matter. They need to be able to describe matter in terms of physical properties and chemical properties. They need to be able to not just describe matter, but do problem solving involving matter. In other words, it is not just enough that our students learn definitions. It is not just enough that they learn concepts. It is most important that they learn how to apply these concepts. If we do not teach our students how to apply these concepts then they are really learning in a vacuum and retention of all this material is not going to occur. So as I move you into the student activities and evidence for what they have to do in terms of being able to understand and meeting the benchmark they should be able to do calculations. This is where I tell my colleagues and I have been saying it for a number of years, this is where mathematics really becomes a framework within a framework. We are not going to be able to do science if our students don’t understand mathematics. So this framework for science is really a very active document. It is not passive. Students will not sit in class and learn definitions in a vacuum. Students will learn concepts and then they will apply these concepts. They are going to be using skills of other areas such as mathematics, language arts, art, and technology in order to do this. So when you look at the student activities in evidence to support the success of meeting these benchmarks you are going to see students, and I draw your attention just a few lines below where it says a critical thinking problem. Let me just read that one moment because it is a very interesting problem. You need to build a spaceship to go to a journey to the planet Mars. Can you write a paragraph describing the physical and the chemical properties of the spaceship? In other words, we are going to have students thinking all the time. They are going to express their thinking through mathematics. They are going to express their thinking through writing. They are going to express their thinking through reading. Science is going to become second nature to them. Science cannot be to any student a process that they learn and lose. Science has to become second nature. When I get into a lab and I am trying to describe a carcinogenic process I already know there is a protocol to follow. To me that is second nature. It comes as second nature. I want science to be that way for our students as well. I want to draw your attention to page 4. On page 4 we are talking about the law of conservation of mass. Of course, that tells us that matter cannot be created nor destroyed but changed from one form to another. This really leads us into the topic of chemical equations. So at the 9th grade level you have a youngster who is going to learn the five types of chemical reactions. They are going to learn it with examples. But they are going to go beyond that. They are going to be able to predict how much of a

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particular substance you need to create another new substance. It is applying science. They have to apply concepts. It no longer can be a passive process that has students learning by memory. That is not to say that there are not some things that should not be committed to memory, but that cannot be the foundation of science learning. So as you look at this you will see that students are asked to write. They are asked to do conversions. They are asked to solve. They are asked to calculate because that is the surest way to get them to participate and to meet the benchmarks. Comm. Moody: I am looking at this and this is a 9th grader. Dr. Collazo: That is correct. Comm. Moody: I would like to know where in the educational process does this 9th grader learn this material to be prepared to deal with the first page here? Where is the foundation for this? Where do they get this from? Dr. Collazo: We have a 9th grade general science and it is comprised of physical science and the earth science. So the physical science will have the chemistry and the physics. Then you have the earth science. I have only shown you a part of this particular framework. I am not showing you the whole thing right now. You are talking about previous to this? Comm. Moody: Right. I don’t see a 9th grader being able to walk into this class. Dr. Collazo: You are right, Mr. Moody, but this is just it. They have to walk in there ready and that is why we need to be committed to this. Comm. Moody: That is what I mean. How do they get ready? Where do they get ready? Comm. Hodges: On their computers. Dr. Collazo: They have to start getting ready in kindergarten, to be honest. It is my job to ensure that they are able to compete in universities. If our students are not able to perform this kind of work we need to start training early on, you are right. But if they are not able to perform this work at this level we are going to have a very difficult time making sure that they enter colleges and more importantly are able to stay there. I am going to talk to you a little bit more about the framework and I am going to talk to you about the scope and sequence. When I get to that point I think you will see more clearly where things are going to be begin. Things will begin in kindergarten. Comm. Moody: I just want to make this point. I appreciate you talking about being optimistic and setting the bar high. I appreciate this for that reason. But I need to be able to see from the kindergarten up to the 9th grade the curriculum that is going to prepare them for this. I don’t see that yet anywhere so I am having a hard time bringing the 9th grader from out of some place. Dr. Collazo: Let me draw your attention to the science standards and indicators, the scope and sequence. Do you all have it? Comm. Spagnola: Can I just address something? Al, I think basically what we are doing here is a cognitive thought process going through grammar school. We can use it in relationship to gang awareness. Children have to be more objective, they have to make choices, and they have to think out what they do younger and younger. So by the

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time they get to the 9th grade they are already making decisions that are affecting their lives in grammar school. It is a shame but children grow up very quickly. They don’t have what we had where you could go to grammar school and just let it go by or whatever. But here is where it is happening and I really have to applaud you on this, especially here where you are bringing it and you are actually showing them how to use it like practical knowledge in their everyday life. They bring it home and the use it in a thought process. Our children are really getting to that point quite quickly. In fact, I would say that number nine could be taught to them in the 6th or 7th grade the way they are growing up so quickly. Dr. Collazo: So if we look at the science standards and indicators and we look at the scientific process that is where it begins, Mr. Moody. If you look at habits of mind, and this is what I am alluding to, it has to become second nature to them. They have to know that is the roadmap. If you raise questions about the world around them and are willing to seek answers through making careful observations and experimentation, that does not begin in the 9th grade. That begins in kindergarten. That is introduced in kindergarten through hands-on activities so that you can capitalize on their learning curve because they will absorb many things at that age. And they will be able to start getting into the habit of problem solving. You are right. If I don’t teach them how to solve problems before grade 9 this will not be a reality. But if we start early on with meeting their first indicator, habits of mind, then I think when they get to grade 9 they will be prepared. Comm. Moody: I agree with you. I am just saying that I want to see the foundation of instruction that is going to get our children there. I have not seen that yet. I guess what I am saying is that you need to get with whoever is supposed to prepare these folks for you from kindergarten to now to make sure that their curriculum lines up with this. Dr. Collazo: Exactly. I will be discussing with you the professional development and some of the other approaches that we are thinking about. You are right because we need to train teachers. Ms. Patterson: For the purpose of the presentation Nestor selected specific grades. When this is completed you will see the same layout for kindergarten so that you will be able to scaffold and say this is what a kindergarten child should do and this is what preschool children should be able to do. As we roll that up they will be able to have these activities at grade 6. So when we are completed with the framework you will be able to go backwards as well, Mr. Moody. Dr. Collazo: We have been doing other things in the office. I know you are all familiar with the synergistic labs that we are putting through the schools right now. We have the 9th grade geophysical systems programs at Eastside, Kennedy, Sports Business/Public Safety, HARP, MPACT, and Panther Academies as well. As you know this a computer delivered curriculum coupled to hands-on inquiry based. All those problem solving experiences for students are also coupled to instruction. It is a great opportunity to integrate technology into science instruction. It is a wonderful opportunity to have students be more responsible for their learning. If you visited the labs here students are assessed weekly. I am capable from my office to step into the virtual world and see how little Nestor is doing at Kennedy High School to see how well he did on that physics or chemistry segment. So this is a new phase that we have been bringing into the district slowly. We are only putting in three new labs every year. That has a great promise. Also, we have the synergistic biochemical program. We only have it at Sports Business/Public Safety Academy, but it is a hybrid program. The geophysical systems is a complete program. The biochemical systems is another complete program, but

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they are into a hybrid format. That takes care of our 9th and 10th grade requirements. They are more than 90% aligned to state and national standards, so I know we are going in the right direction with respect to the contents of the modules. We have also been working very hard on the planetarium curriculum. Right now we have a number of shows that are being presented to students throughout the district. About 3,000 students have visited the planetarium thus far. That is very promising. We are also developing a curriculum there in astronomy. Mr. Swang along with the physics and chemistry teachers are designing a hands-on and problem-solving curriculum that I want to reflect here in this framework. We are also very committed to a partnership with the Liberty Science Center. Right now we are running three programs with them and I know that everyone is aware because I always send out all these memoranda indicating dates, times, and classes that are being targeted. But essentially it is three programs, Traveling Science, Electronic Field Trips and Family Health Science. These are more opportunities for our students to see science from an academic as well as a practical perspective. We have been working for a number of years on getting curriculum approved. As you know, in May of 2005 we presented to the Board for approval geophysical systems, chemistry, honors chemistry, physics, environmental science, and forensics. These are all courses that are currently being taught in the district. We are also in the process of writing curriculum for the core curriculum course work as in the case of biology. But we are also writing curriculum for the academies that are thematic in nature. I would like to draw your attention to the medical pharmacology that we are writing for HARP Academy, which is our medical sciences academy. I guess this is as good a time as any to thank Dr. Hodges who was very gracious in collaborating with me. I wrote the section on the pharmacokinetics and the pharmacodynamics, and being a physician he wrote the case studies. He has written eight or ten studies that deal with a lot of the issues that we are going to cover in the curriculum. But this is important because we can't have a medical sciences academy where we are graduating students and we expect them to go on to the medical field or whatever those endeavors prove to be and they don’t know how aspirin works. That is a problem to me. I have a degree in pharmacology and I know that it is an important area of medical sciences. I also know that some universities are now offering pharmacology as an undergraduate degree. So it is important that we give our students every chance to succeed. So we have already finished writing the instrumental analysis course, which is important to STEM academy as it is to HARP Academy. It can actually be taught throughout the district. But those are the two academies that are focused and expressed an interest in having the course. I would like to see that become part of the curriculum for science. On the EARTH Academy thematic curriculum we have about six or seven curriculum guides for that academy so that EARTH Academy can become what we envision it should be, the Environmental Academy for Research, Technology and Health, which provides students with the academic background in science. But it is also an opportunity to study different career goals and paths. I am currently writing the biotechnology with Dr. Orango of Kennedy High School. She is a biotechnologist and I expect to write this for the academies as well as our traditional high schools. Then there is the biology, which I am 95% finished with. So I expect to be submitting these for Board approval within a couple of months. We also have the partnerships with Montclair State University, which has given me the opportunity of training teachers in epidemiology. I am going to have a meeting tomorrow at HARP Academy with some 15 teachers who are going to be learning how to design modules in epidemiology. There are 24 of them as a matter of fact. Then they are going to be going back into the classrooms and using this problem-solving approach that can be applied to areas outside of epidemiology. We finally got a partnership with UMDNJ last year where three students conducted research in their labs and it gave an opportunity to our students to excel in their sciences. There is Project SEED, which has students placed at various research institutions, not just in the biological sciences, but also in the chemical and the physical sciences. We had seven

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students who participated last year and we expect to have nine this year. With respect to the assessments, I categorized the different levels, namely the state, district, and classroom. Of course you know we have the NJASK, the GEPA, and the HSPA now in science. At the district level, I can get to monitor the synergistic systems and our office generates midterms and finals for the district. At the classroom level, the expectation for all teachers is that students are assessed periodically and that students get to participate in the labs because doing is the most effective way of learning science. They should do a lot of problem-solving exercises. As a matter of fact, you will see some of these in the walk-through protocols that we are designing in our office so that when administrators, the science supervisor, or the Superintendent gets in there they will know exactly what to look for. Then, of course, there are notebooks, scientific journals, portfolios, research projects, presentations, homework, quizzes, and note taking at various levels. Not just note taking in the classroom to listen to what is being presented, but note taking in the sense of taking this body of knowledge and organizing it into some coherent form that makes sense to that student so that he or she can process it effectively. Then we have done a lot of professional development in our department. For a team of two, I am proud we are able to do the new teacher orientation. We have been doing instructional techniques and best teaching practices such as design of effective hands-on, inquiry-based, problem-solving lesson activities for K-12, effective integration of science, math, language arts, technology, and other key academic areas that we know we need to be successful in science, and project-based learning using the Internet as a source of information and communication tool. For grades 4-12, that is a current project that I have at Eastside High School. There is biotechnology training, which I would like to begin with Dr. Orango. There is NJASK 4, GEPA, and HSPA review for teachers. This last part is important, improving teacher’s scientific background. Mr. Moody is right. If teachers are not well-versed in what I am asking them to teach I am in trouble. We are conducting at Kennedy High School, with the assistance of Ms. Jane Silverstein, the improvement of teachers’ backgrounds in life sciences, physicals sciences, and earth science. Thank you. Comm. Atallo: Good job, Dr. Collazo. I have a couple of follow-up questions. I appreciate what you have presented. I have observed a number of science programs, not just in Paterson, but in other surrounding districts. What can we do to be supportive? We can't just think about Paterson or even Passaic County, New Jersey. We have to think globally. What is going on in the science community? I know Dr. Hodges contributed extensively to the curriculum. But for those of you who are too young to remember Sputnik, there was a great crisis in the United States in the late 1950’s when the Russians were winning the space race. Then we pooled our resources when not just the Eisenhower administration, but President Kennedy said by the end of the decade we will put a man on the moon not because it is easy but because it is hard, and we met the challenge. We need to compete globally and to prepare our students for science to go out in the world of the 21st Century. To go out, as you said very astutely, not just to get accepted to college but to complete it. This is one of my big questions I ask all the time and I would love to get the data. Maybe we can request Dr. Glascoe to get this. I would like to know how many of our students get accepted to college and actually complete their baccalaureate degree. I see a lot of students around town. I see them when they graduate. We always have the privilege of shaking hands and giving them their diploma on the field at graduation in June. Then I will see them a year later. I will say, “how is school?” and a lot of them say, “I left.” I am very saddened to see that. So if we can get the data of how many are accepted and how many are actually going on to complete a four-year degree. My question to you, Dr. Collazo, is what can the Board do in terms of putting resources or money behind the science program in the area of textbooks, labs, and other areas of resource such as Saturday programs, maybe preparing them now that they are testing in the science

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area? What can we do? Could you present something through the administration through the Superintendent that we can do such as a Saturday supplemental program? I know that we had a fabulous program going at PANTHER Academy earlier on under Dr. Sico when he was here and those students went on to do very well in the science areas. What can we do? Is there something you can present to us that we can supplement? I don’t think it would cost a lot of money compared to what we spend money on and what is wasted on money. I was reading a letter to the editor today from Chief Spagnola about the $50 million that walked out of here unaccounted for. Comm. Taylor: Question. Comm. Atallo: Everybody else talks, Willa Mae. I waited until the end. Comm. Taylor: We are not finished. This is not the end. Comm. Atallo: All I want to say to you is what can we do to be supportive of the science program to have it move forward in a progressive way? Could you get back to us through the administration with some type of report or some suggestions that we could talk about at our committee meetings by getting some funding behind it? Thank you. Dr. Collazo: Sure. Thank you. Comm. Taylor: That is not the end of what I have to say, Dr. Atallo. Comm. Atallo: I am just here to help. I am just being my indispensable self. Comm. Taylor: I spoke to Dr. Glascoe on the notebooks at the classroom level. I did not see it in your chart. I don't know where the notebook is - the notebooks, the scientific journals, the portfolios, and the projects. Did it begin in kindergarten? Dr. Collazo: Yes. Absolutely. Comm. Taylor: These things need to begin in kindergarten. Dr. Collazo: Exactly. Comm. Taylor: Otherwise, I never see a child with a notebook, a portfolio, or anything that resembles a journal. Dr. Collazo: It has to become a habit, Ms. Taylor. We need to start from very young. Comm. Taylor: Those are the things I am interested in, in the classroom when you develop them. A notebook and a scientific journal can be had way before you get your lab. The technology you may not have but you have the language that goes with it and the problem solving. You have that and you can do that. Dr. Collazo: Exactly. Comm. Sayegh: Dr. Collazo, there has been added emphasis placed on taking an interdisciplinary approach to education. You mentioned math. But are you making efforts to incorporate history and language arts? Is that being undertaken? Dr. Collazo: Absolutely. Sure. I know you visited the McNair Academy and you saw that it was interdisciplinary in nature. We were able to combine five different academic

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areas. So I am a strong supporter of that because I know that science is an area that encompasses all those other areas. In other words, I am not going to be successful if a student cannot handle technology, cannot do the math, or cannot write a paragraph. My job is going to be almost impossible. So in my professional development, and I think I mentioned it at the end, I make sure that I speak to teachers about the strong tie between math and science. Because let me tell you, there is still a separation. It is a very difficult message to get out there. Something as simple as doing metric conversions is strictly math but it is all for science and application in science. So it is a tough message to have to get out there but it is one that I have to be committed to because I know that success is very dependent upon being able to bring in all those areas. Comm. Hodges: I was threatened by the President not to ask any questions, but I am a distance away from her so she can't reach me immediately so I will go ahead and ask a couple. I think one of my concerns as a “scientist” this is the underlying reason I was so concerned about note taking. You can't be a scientist unless you take notes. You can't record data. You can't analyze data. You can't do any of these things unless you have a firm understanding of that process. That is why it is extremely important to me as a scientist and I am heartened to see that we are embracing that and beginning to understand the real value of this as a tool. Language as it applies to science is extremely important. I know we have the 90-minute language arts blocks and it is extremely important to me that science be a significant part of that. It does not have to be just literature. I think that we really need to spend a lot of time incorporating science into that process so that when students are learning they are learning science as well, even if it is called the backdoor method. There was a discussion last night about changing the sequencing of physics. I am sorry that you were not at that conversation. Comm. Taylor: We will invite him at the next one. Comm. Hodges: That is right because we would like to have that input. The discussion is placing physics before biology and chemistry, and changing the math that is used to teach physics and incorporating elements of that math earlier on in the elementary school. It is new here but it is happening in other districts and there are some reasons because it does help support the AP courses in allowing students to take AP courses. We have begun talking about looking into that process. Lastly, as part of this teaching mechanism we have to consider having students debate some of these issues. What is a human being? So you are talking about conception. You are talking about that whole process and the child has to go and learn about the process and then debate, which means defend his or her knowledge of the issue. That is an extremely powerful way of teaching and it can be done at a very early age and in every single classroom. And it can be done independent of the teacher, except for the part where the actual debate occurs. You can teach those skills very early and then refine them throughout every single grade. What you in effect do is have the child learn on his or her own at home while they are preparing their defense of whatever position they decide to take. It is extremely powerful and it can also lead to Dr. Rush’s brand new debating team that he is putting together, which we are all very anxious to have occur. But I think those are very powerful tools which math, science, literature and social studies lend themselves very well to. But you will find it in other areas as well. I hope that we embrace that aggressively. Thank you. Comm. Atallo: Dr. Collazo, I support the concept of actually reversing the order of science study in terms of the curriculum. Studying physical reaction, chemistry secondly, and then getting into biology makes more sense in my mind. Traditionally, we studied it in reverse order long before I went to high school. I think it makes a lot of

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sense to study it in a reverse order. I think that has academic merit to look at that. Secondly, what happened with our partnership with NASA? I know NASA was very instrumental in helping us with getting the PANTHER Academy going, one of the few high schools in the United States that has an operational planetarium. What is going on with that? Have we been in touch with Dr. McDowell from NASA who is a graduate of the Paterson Public School System and was very instrumental in helping us get those initial grants? For those who don’t know, Dr. McDowell is a graduate of Eastside High School. He created the patent on the space suits. So when astronauts go into space it is because a graduate of the Paterson Public Schools developed a patent that treated the material that allows them to go into space under those intense temperatures. So what is going on with that partnership? Is it still active? If not, what can we do to reactivate it? Dr. Collazo: Unfortunately, when the grant dollars were lost somehow the partnership dwindled. But you are right. We need to reach out to them and we need to make a connection there because after all that is the theme of the academy, space sciences. So we need to address that issue. I am focused at this point on getting all operations regarding the planetarium in order because I needed to focus on developing three levels of curriculum. One is for the academy itself where students can go in and work on the planetarium and study physics and astronomy. The other level is district-wide where we have children K-12 visit almost everyday for two shows. We are now working on a third level of the curriculum, which would involve bringing in the community for shows and perhaps looking for other avenues to attain grant dollars. Right now we are in the process of completing an application for some grant dollars with the Paterson Education Fund. But you are right. We not only need to reach out to NASA and to that former graduate, but also to other avenues who would be willing to support the planetarium, which is an expensive initiative. Comm. Atallo: What I would suggest is, having raised the issue of meeting with the appropriate administrators, we have people that do write grants for the district. I guess maybe a letter can be sent to Dr. McDowell to revitalize that relationship. Maybe we can get some suggestions from Dr. McDowell or whoever the contact people were at the space administration at NASA and try to get something going again. I would think since they initially got involved with the project that they would have a vested interest in seeing it be successful and to continue. It is one of our showcase facilities, one of our newest facilities. It has a unique theme. It has a unique academic setting in having an operational planetarium. That is very unique to a high school setting and I think we need to optimize that, move on that, and develop it from a scientific perspective. Dr. Collazo: I agree. Thank you for the support. Comm. Kerr: Dr. Collazo, let me commend you for your presentation. I am indeed impressed with what this district is trying to do in science. However, my concern is that you mentioned that in putting this program together it was just you and one other person? Dr. Collazo: That is correct. Comm. Kerr: In everything you can write the best plans, but if you don’t have the resources to implement it, it is a total waste. So I am just wondering if you have identified the resources in this district that can adequately help you to achieve the goals that you have set out to achieve in this plan. Do you see where there is something?

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Dr. Collazo: I need to understand the question. Are you speaking in terms of helping me look at the curriculum framework? Comm. Kerr: The framework and also the teachers. Do we have the teachers who can effectively implement the plan that you have laid out? Dr. Collazo: Let me address the first question. Do I have the expertise in the district to help me with this? The answer is yes. Is the mechanism in place for me to use these individuals? The answer is no. I do not have a mechanism in place right now where I can ask a teacher or teachers who have high expertise in the areas of physics and chemistry. By the way, I have people with advanced degrees in those areas. I have two physicians working in this district. So I don't have access to them because there are other operational issues that need to be resolved prior to that. Do I have expertise in the K-8 world? This is an important question. The answer to your question is I don’t feel very comfortable with the level of expertise throughout the district. I have to be honest. We don’t like hearing these things but I am currently working with a number of teachers who are not well versed in the areas that they are working in and it is not the fault of this district. I think we are going through a major transition right now, not just Paterson, but many districts, with this issue about being highly qualified. According to the federal guidelines, and I don’t know about other areas, but I imagine math probably has the same concern. House standard matrix does not make you qualified. I am going to be quite honest. A person who has a degree in science and has had laboratory experience and who understands with a certain degree of expertise the life sciences, the physical sciences and the earth sciences to me is a highly qualified individual for science. Then we need to couple that to being highly qualified as it relates to instructional techniques. You can have someone with a PhD in theoretical chemistry but if that person does not know the workings of the mind and the learning and all of these things we are going to have a problem. At the high school I feel very comfortable with the expertise. When you start talking about the middle grades I try to hire individuals who have advanced degrees. In fact, I have hired about four or five individuals. Comm. Kerr: How about the earlier grades? Dr. Collazo: No. I work with the teachers and I try to go over concepts with them. In my professional development we always teach the concept. I am not just going to give you activities, hands-on or otherwise, if you don’t understand the concept. That is a problem to me. Comm. Kerr: Comm. Moody spoke about not having the foundation. That is where we need to get back to, to make sure that we are laying a firm foundation to build on. If we don’t lay a firm foundation then we are going to frustrate ourselves and the process at a later date. Dr. Collazo: That is why professional development is so important. I have been trying to work on a number of grants that will allow teachers to be exposed to a certain number of courses in science that would make them more viable and more expert in the area, but it is difficult. Comm. Kerr: Thank you. Comm. Taylor: Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Collazo.

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K-8 Language Arts Literacy Initiatives Ms. Patterson: I would like to thank the Board for engaging the curriculum department. I think you can see that we understand the urgency of providing a world-class education for our children. We are going to do whatever is necessary to move the content knowledge of the staff as well as providing for the students. It is going to take some time, but it is not going to take as much time as we would like to have. We just have to move forward and without setting these frameworks in place I think we are going to get what we always got. But we don’t want to do that. So once we see what the expectations are and translate that to our teachers we will be better able to provide what the students need. Our final presentation for this evening is Madeline Roman who will discuss some of the language arts literacy initiatives at the elementary school. I do want to allay any questions. All the directors have an opportunity to work together as frequently as possible around providing those integrated experiences of curriculum. We walk through life everyday and we don’t separate when we are doing language arts from when we are doing math and from when we are doing science. So we are trying to make sure that we begin to do that more frequently in the design of our curriculum activities. So you will notice that when Madeline speaks to you there have been times when she has had an opportunity during science and after-school programs collaborating with math, science, and social studies departments. We want to meet the needs of our kids. Ms. Madeline Roman: Good evening and a happy and healthy new year to all. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. With all that said let me just start by saying that it is the charge of the office of language arts K-8 and academic support programs to ensure that our students can read in order to read to learn, which is what all my other colleagues have been talking about, specifically with science. It is important that our kids can actually read the textbooks that are given to them. It is my charge to ensure that that happens. With all that said, I am going to try to be as brief as possible. If you open your folders, on the left hand side you are going to see three sheets of paper with some bullets. What you see here is a list of all the language arts K-8 literacy initiatives that we have ongoing. I am not going to go through every single bullet. I think that in your leisure you can read these folders. I apologize for adding to your load, but you can take them with you and look them over. I only brought out a sample of grade 3. I did not want to bring a whole bunch of documents to add your load, but I did bring with me a sample of the grade three language arts framework. That is going to be on your right hand side and we are going to refer to that back and forth. I need you to see how it has been aligned to the standards and how it is also aligned to the district benchmarks and all the assessments that we are in the process of administering. With all that said, on your right hand side mine is in color and I apologize that yours is not. This document that has Grade 3 Language Arts Strand 3.1, I am only going to show you on that first page if you look on the bottom column where it says ‘reads aloud longer text and chapter books with proper phrasing’, that is a direct progress indicator that comes directly from the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. In your middle column what you are going to find under that big indicator is what are the specific skills that the kids need to master on that particular grade level. That is the second column. On the third column what you are going to find are the activities or the assessment pieces that you will see if you walk into a classroom that would show whether or not those students have mastered those skills. That is how the framework is divided. So that one in terms of ‘reads aloud longer texts’ has to do with fluency, being able to read something that sounds like spoken, not like it is just word-by-word. In order to do that, there are certain skills that the kids need to be able to do. I am not going to read it all for you, but on the right hand side you have a document that says Teacher Book Grade 3. This is the benchmark. This is a first marking period district benchmark that is

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administered for the first marking period. We have one for every marking period in grades 1-3. We are in the process of creating grades 4-8, which should be completed by the end of this month for every marking period. So if you look at the indicator there in terms of fluency and reading longer texts for third grade, how is that assessed and how do we know whether or not our kids have mastered that? If you look in that packet benchmark number 4, it is very important that you see the alignment of how we are creating our curriculum and assessments. This document here that says ‘3.1.4’ is telling you that is grade 1, first marking period, benchmark number 4. And it lists the skills that you are assessing by administering this benchmark to the students. This one particularly involves fluency. Also, we have developed a scope and sequence. Dr. Hodges, I know you are going to be happy about this because we have had discussions before about kindergarten and what they should be doing by the end of kindergarten. When we developed our scope and sequence we looked at the New Jersey standards and we said we as a district can decide when we are going to introduce a skill and when we expect those students to master those skills. So based on a conversation I had with Dr. Hodges many other times we went back to kindergarten and we said if they need to be able to do this in third grade, what should then be introduced in kindergarten, developed in first grade, mastered in third, and then fully applied in the rest of the grades level? That is how we looked at all the standards and the progress indicators and that is how we scoped and sequenced those skills. You only have a sample of it. The document is a bit thicker and I did not want to load you with all that. You will be receiving the entire framework with all of that in it. That is basically one sample of that grade level. I also want for you to look at your left hand side. On your left hand side you are going to see a summary or an overview of the different initiatives that we have going on for grades K-5 and 6-8 and everything that we are in the process of doing. It is ongoing. I have also provided you with a copy of what it is that we use in terms of our core reading program in K-5 and what we use in grades 6-8. What is the reading program? We gave a list of those for you. Then, of course, since I also am charged to do the academic support programs, which is the intervention, I also gave you a list of all supplemental programs that were purchased for intervention instruction. Meaning, for those kids who when you have administered the DIBELS or DRA are far below grade level and need additional instructional support. So we have purchased materials for that and usually it is the academic support teacher’s role to do that intervention instruction. So you have a list of that. As a matter of fact, in that packet you have a chart based on your DIBELS and DRA data. Those are your screening assessments. Based on the data it has a list of the resources that the teachers have in their classroom to help those students meet those particular skills that they are weak in. Every teacher has this. In order to make it easy for all of you to read because there are a lot things going on, I put together a chart that looks like this for K-5 and 6-8. If you look at it, it will tell you this is your core reading program within your 90-minute uninterrupted literacy block. It tells you into your 2, which is your strategic intervention and what is utilized during that time. It also tells you for your TF3, your intensive intervention, what is it that we do during that time and what is the recommendation in terms of additional instructional time for those kids. We did the same thing for grades 6-8, just a little summary and overview on that. We have also established protocols in terms of when we walk into a language arts literacy classroom. What is it that we expect to see in terms of the learning environment and in terms of the instructional delivery? What is it that the 90-minute block should look like? So we have developed a literacy block implementation walk-through that we use. All teachers have received this document because if we are expecting them to do this, they need to know exactly what we are expecting them to do. So they receive a copy of this and every single grade level has one because it changes as we go up the grade levels. We have one for K-8 and it shows you on your right hand side the oral language, the skills and strategies, the language arts, differentiation of instruction, how much time should be allotted to each

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one of those pieces, and what should be included under that instruction. On your left hand side this is what we use sometimes when we walk into a classroom and we are checking off we saw this and we saw that but we did not see this and so forth. On the left hand side in terms of learning environments during your leisure time you can see and read what is expected of the classroom itself and the setup and what is the classroom. Instructional delivery is the teachers, how is it that they are teaching? Are they using best practices? What does that look like? So this is the tool that we use for that. We have in every elementary building a literacy coach. So we needed to also be able to hold them accountable to making sure that they are actually implementing the responsibilities under a literacy coach. So we created what we call language arts coach monitoring protocol. This is for us to use to make sure that the coach understands what the responsibilities are and when we walk into a building these things better be evident in terms of their job responsibilities. Every single grade level in K-8 has also one of these charts. Every teacher has received this for their grade level. We have a six-day rotation schedule. We have teaming in the schools. There are times when you are going to walk into a building and they are not going to be doing exactly just that because the day before they had an assembly or they went on a field trip. But we needed to somehow give teachers an idea as to this is your new core program, which is Harcourt Trophies in K-5, and this is what it should look like on a six-day rotation schedule. For day one it tells you in minutes how much time you are going to dedicate to that and that can vary. It also tells you for differentiation of instruction, which is one of our key areas within our 90-minute block, what does that look like? You have small group instruction, you have guided reading instruction, and you have learning centers during that time. And it gives a little explanation about that. Every grade level has one of that and you will be receiving the full packet with the frameworks. In terms of professional development we have done quite a bit. But the office of staff development, along with Rosetta Wilson, who is the coordinating director, have met numerous times and we have created a calendar for the 2006-2007 school year in terms of putting together staff development for literacy. That has been ongoing and we have that in place. In your sheet you also see some bullets in terms of what we have done so far, what training we have given our building-based coaches and what training we are giving our district-based coaches so that they can go into the buildings and support those coaches at the building site. That is all listed there. Are there any questions? Comm. Atallo: You mentioned during your presentation you have literacy coaches and you have mathematic coaches. Who selects those coaches? Ms. Roman: It is the building principals with also the central office C&I staff. We are involved in the process of interviewing and then making a selection from that. They have a teacher representative in that committee and that is how they are selected. Comm. Atallo: What is the criteria? Ms. Roman: According to the posting they have to have I think five years of teaching experience within their content area, which would be language arts. Comm. Atallo: So if someone is a mathematics coach in an elementary school, would it be a false assumption or a proper assumption to assume that they have an expertise in mathematics? Ms. Roman: They should have an expertise in mathematics. If they are the math coaches they should be the person who has all of the expertise to be able to, because remember if you are a coach you are modeling lessons and you are supporting instruction. So you should have that expertise.

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Comm. Atallo: Who monitors and evaluates those coaches? Ms. Roman: The building principals. Comm. Atallo: Thank you. Comm. Hodges: I don’t wish to involve myself in the administrative function in this district. Far be it from me to do anything like that. But I would like to offer the suggestion to enhance Dr. Rush’s debate program, the introduction of debates on these issues as part of learning in the classroom. Ms. Roman: In the middle schools in grades 6-8 we have purchased research labs. With those research labs, which are connected to social studies and science themes, it is interdisciplinary, they are going to be doing a lot of research. Within that research they are also going to be doing a lot of oral presentations and a lot of debates. That is part of that. Comm. Hodges: Excellent. I am looking to see that developed into a district-wide structure. I am hoping that we can harness that because I think if we can get large groups of students engaging each other in conversations about a wide variety of topics it enhances their understanding of those topics and their ability to communicate, which is what language arts is all about. Ms. Roman: That is where even the state has asked us to lead it into in two years. There is a lead model that they would like us to lead into in the middle school level and it involves that type of research and collaboration. It involves stations. They are no longer called centers but they are called stations where you group students and they are then to do some research, present, and develop PowerPoint presentations. They are to do a whole lot of these things. Comm. Hodges: Again, it is a way to backdoor teaching and hence extending the classroom day without actually having to have teachers be there to do it. The students are learning on their own and actually participating in that process. And they are learning how to study on their own since we did not include our study skills program yet. Ms. Roman: I have to interject here because I think I am going to make you happy by saying this. In that packet here that you see I have included not only a best practices sheet for teachers to understand what are best practices for each grade level, but we also have included with the help of Ms. Wilson, and we have to thank you for this, an appendix where we have note taking. What is the objective of note taking for the district and also per grade level? Comm. Hodges: I did run across that. Ms. Roman: So it is there and it will start in kindergarten. It will start in different forms in kindergarten, but it will start there. Comm. Hodges: Again, I don’t want to assume the administrative function or in any way interfere, but I would also hope that we can find some ways to enhance articulation of teachers not only between grades, but intergrades to discuss best practices and also to discuss what they are seeing in the students and in the good and bad of teaching that is going on between the various grades. I think that would be helpful.

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Ms. Roman: In that walk-through document that shows best practices in terms of delivery of instruction and learning environment, I have charged the building-based literacy coaches to not only give them their grade level, but also give them the grade level before and after so they can see this is what is expected in the first grade. If I am a third grade teacher, this is expected in the second grade and this is expected in the fourth grade. How can I then monitor my own teaching in third grade? The other thing is the binder with the frameworks and all of the documents that you see here, every singe teacher will receive a binder with all grade level frameworks. They don’t just have third grade. They are going to be able to see what a first grade and a second grade teacher has to do, and it gives them some additional ideas. Comm. Hodges: Thank you very much. Comm. Taylor: Thank you very much. When I see the full document I will be very happy. It looks like it is going to be great. Ms. Patterson: Thank you very much. That concludes the curriculum and instruction presentation for this evening. Comm. Hodges: Thank you - really. REPORT OF STATE DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT Dr. Glascoe: I just want to follow up on the presentation you just saw as my report tonight. I guess I want to start off by saying Rome was not built in a day and the lack of curriculum and the alignment of a curriculum in Paterson just did not happen overnight. But what you have seen here is a group of people who now make up the newly formed curriculum and instruction department coming to you with the pieces of a curriculum that will quickly be in place. As you can see their passion and their thoughtfulness in putting this together, not just for show here, but to move our district forward. It is important that we understand that these individuals are taking this charge on not because they have the kind of roles and responsibilities that say you are tied to a desk and all you do is write curriculum. They are expected to be in classrooms. They are expected to interact with their colleagues across the curriculum. They are expected to do troubleshooting when things are not working properly in individual schools. Those things still go on. But yet they have worked extremely hard to put this information together. They will be the first to tell you that they are not satisfied because we are not done. But in a short period of time we will have this curriculum firmly in place. The thing I want everyone to understand is that once we have this curriculum firmly in place the real ballgame starts, because now it is down to the implementation and the monitoring of what we have in place. That will be the key to how we move forward with this district. Those individuals that you saw tonight and many of the others who are sitting in the audience are going to be the key players, along with our local instructional superintendents and our principals, to make this work. I do want to make just one last comment about some of the interchange and some of the things you heard here. You heard something about no mechanism being in place regarding developing curriculum. It is not as much as no mechanism being place. Rather, this is the first time that we are pushing and asking folks to put a mechanism in place to put together a curriculum. Remember, we have not had one in a long time. So now we are asking folks to do things that we just have not done before. So it is not a matter of not having those mechanisms in place. It is a matter of doing things that we have not done before. It is all about change and it is about meaningful change to move our school district forward. I am proud of the work that the curriculum and instruction department is doing under Brenda Patterson’s direction and we will continue to move forward. Thank you very much.

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Comm. Hodges: I don’t often say this, but let me say that I was impressed with what I saw tonight. I am heartened that we are beginning to really decide to challenge students in different ways and reach them where they are and provide them many opportunities to learn. That is extremely important. Having said that, I did... Comm. Taylor: You are ahead. Comm. Hodges: I’m sorry. I am not here to stroke people. I am here to get the best I can for children. Until it is all here and until we are the best district in the State of New Jersey and indeed in this country I am going to be dissatisfied. Dr. Glascoe: Why are you apologizing? Comm. Hodges: So barring politics please understand that. I have to be honest and I have to tell you what I saw was good. I have to commend you. However, I did not see the district’s financial literacy piece and I will tell you that NJASK, the program that is funded in cooperation with the YMCA, has a financial literacy piece. They also have a stock exchange program going on with whoever those people were. And Gary Shearer, the assemblyman out of Passaic, has submitted legislation to require it statewide. We actually had the program first. We had three banks prepared to give us a head start. We have not taken advantage of that. These other people are now way ahead of us and I am very concerned about that. I would like to see that put in place. I would like to see that addressed aggressively. Financial literacy should be taught throughout the curriculum K-12 as these banks promised to assist us doing. We have to take advantage of it. That is an integral part of these children’s lives as potential adults and we have got to make sure that they receive that training. I was happy with what I saw but there is more that we need to do and I will be asking for it very shortly. Thank you. Comm. Taylor: I realize that we are not quite finished with all the guides yet, Dr. Hodges. That is yet to come and we are almost finished with that. We have a couple more to go. Dr. Glascoe, is there anything else? Thank you. GENERAL BUSINESS Curriculum Comm. Sayegh: The curriculum committee convened on Tuesday, January 2. Comm. Taylor: You might have it on your desk. Comm. Sayegh: Yes. Before you, you should have documentation of last evening’s minutes from our meeting. The curriculum committee convened on Tuesday, January 2. The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. The members present were myself, Dr. Jonathan Hodges, Comm. Errol Kerr, and President Willa Mae Taylor. Pertaining to items A-1 through A-27, I raised the point about the district saving money in the area of special services. This has been a frequent inquiry made by the committee. Dr. Dorothy Carcomo, the assistant superintendent of special services, stated that efforts were being made to keep students in-district but also cautioned that we do not have the appropriate physical space to accommodate all of our students with special needs. Lack of adequate facilities is a hindrance. Moreover, Dr. Carcomo stated that some students must be sent to other districts because of their unique set of circumstances. Comm. Hodges asked about the purpose of the academies and an action plan. Comm. Kerr inquired about the duties of the transitional counselor. Moreover, Comm. Taylor

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asked extensive questions about individualized educational plans and student placement. The committee requested a site map and additional information pertaining to special services in our district. Dr. Carcomo assured the committee that that information is forthcoming. Item A-28 was previously pulled from a past agenda after the administration acceded to the wishes of the committee. The committee had asked that note taking be included as a part of the action plan. Ms. Brenda Patterson and Ms. Rosetta Wilson were present and distributed binders bearing the requested revisions. Each member was given information to review before the next workshop. The committee extended an invitation to Mike Kineric, director of the division of assessment planning and evaluation. He was asked to brief the committee about the level of assessment that was taking place within the district. He also highlighted measures being taken to make the district more data driven. Mr. Kineric also explained the venture the district is exploring that has worked in other areas. Science sequencing, which would call for physics to precede biology and chemistry, is under consideration. Furthermore, math would be re-sequenced to assimilate with the aforementioned changes. He went on to explain about the cultural change that has taken place and the increased emphasis on accountability. Mr. Kineric also mentioned that he works very closely with Ms. Patterson and Ms. Wilson. The meeting was adjourned at 8:27 p.m. Are there any questions pertaining to the minutes? Thank you, Mme. President. That concludes my report for this evening. Comm. Taylor: Are there any questions on any of the resolutions in part A in curriculum? Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will go forward to legal. I believe you have a copy of the minutes. Legal Comm. Moody: That is from last month. Comm. Hodges: That man needs a laptop. Comm. Moody: In last month’s meeting there was an error in the attendance. We had marked Dr. Atallo absent-minded. I mean, absent. We had to correct that. Comm. Taylor: That was at the last meeting and Comm. Moody and Dr. Atallo were present. That is what we had to include. Absent were Comm. Brown and Comm. Spagnola. Comm. Moody: Correct. There were no submissions in the legal agenda for this month. Since there was a meeting scheduled but there was no business to discuss we talked by telephone to the committee members and the consensus of what they want to report in the committee is that the legal bills are within range of where the legal committee thinks they should be every month. We are very happy with that. I just want to let you know and I hope that you keep them down to this range from now on. Other than that, there was no business to discuss. Comm. Taylor: Thank you, Comm. Moody. We will go to fiscal and I believe you have a copy of the notes in your hand. Fiscal Comm. Kerr: The fiscal committee met on January 2 and I would like to read into the minutes what happened there. The members present at this meeting were Errol Kerr as Chairman and Comm. Taylor. The members absent were Dr. Joseph Atallo and Mr.

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Danny Vergara. The staff present at this meeting was Superintendent Michael Glascoe and Business Administrator Ms. Frances Finkelstein. Comm. Taylor: Excuse me. Before you continue, we did have verbal notice that Dr. Atallo was not going to be there. He had come into the office earlier in the day. Are you going to explain it? I did not read his minutes, so I am just saying that on the record. Go on. Comm. Kerr: Okay. Opening of the meeting, Ms. Finkelstein reported that she had a visit from Commissioner Dr. Joseph Atallo earlier in the day requesting answers to some specific items of expenditure listed on the check register in Resolution C-1. She obliged the committee by answering most of the Commissioner’s queries in his absence for the benefit of those present. The one she was not clear on she said she would research and have for the workshop. I remarked that Comm. Atallo needs to demonstrate greater respect for protocol and work through the established committee framework instead of going outside showing utter disrespect for the standard operating practice. I further made the observation that Comm. Atallo, being a member of the fiscal committee, has a larger role and responsibility to filter his concerns through this committee. Ms. Finkelstein, wanting to eliminate the need for individual Commissioners coming to her for volumes of printed material, recommended to the committee that the fiscal committee meet twice a month for the express purpose of going through the scheduled check run. This would not only provide the committee with the information it needs, but would also help reduce waste and cut costs to produce those voluminous amounts of documents, only to have them left behind on tables and in the trash after meetings. To facilitate the change she said she would have the actual check runs available to the fiscal committee with all the supporting documents available for inspection and any queries it may have on those days. The idea seems plausible to us and we adopted her recommendations. Also, we made the decision to set aside every Thursday of the week before the workshop meeting and likewise the Thursday before the regular meeting for this exercise. The meeting place will be at the Board of Education office on the second floor at 33 Church Street. Ms. Finkelstein informed the meeting that the Pritchard custodial contract expires in June. She said the present contract is a $6.9 million one and they are looking at the possible COLA adjustment of 3%. This, she said, would still fall below what the general market is asking and we have no recognizable problem with this service. Dr. Glascoe made the point that in the negotiations with Pritchard he would be asking that they increase they black seals. He states they will likely grant this request in order to secure our business. Asked by me if he was satisfied with the service being provided by Pritchard he responded by saying there are some things that we need to do on our end that we are not doing. Holding these service providers accountable is paramount. He said whatever we tell them to do is what they will do. Comm. Taylor asked if all the schools have people in them employed by the district to perform janitorial duties and Superintendent Glascoe replied yes. On C-3, Comm. Taylor queried expenses listed under caption Whole School Reform. She said she was not aware that we still had the program going on. In response, Dr. Glascoe pointed out that the program still exists on a county and state level. However, the expenses she cited were expenses tied to the curriculum initiative of this district. On C-5, Comm. Taylor asked about the HVAC for School 6. She needed to know what it does. In response Ms. Finkelstein said she would get information and pass it on to her at the workshop. With no more business to discuss the meeting was adjourned at 8:50 p.m. Comm. Sayegh: To the business administrator, I just need clarification on item C-1. The vendor name is Avia. I believe that is the proper pronunciation. Do you have a question about that as well? I just need clarification. The vendor number is 3793209 in

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the amount of $200,000. I think it pertains to the E-Rate. I just needed clarification on that. Please speak into the microphone. Ms. Finkelstein: That was a payment outstanding from June. There was documentation that was required and some legal involvement was necessary. That is an appropriate payment at this point in time. Comm. Sayegh: Is that the money that was recouped? Dr. Glascoe: Yes. That is what I wanted to add. We held up payment in hopes of recuperating the money and with the help of Congressman Pascrell as you well know we did. That is when we paid them. Comm. Sayegh: Thank you. My next question pertains to the vendor name St. Anthony’s School, vendor number 508 in the amount of $13,354.00. Actually, I am posing this question to the Superintendent. The plan for Urban Leadership Academy, I believe that is the school that is being housed at this site, is to have it here for how long? Dr. Glascoe: I don't know whether we entered into a five-year lease or not. I would have to get back to you. I’m not sure. Comm. Sayegh: Okay. Do we envision having Urban Leadership housed elsewhere in the future? Dr. Glascoe: Not really because we have nowhere else. We went through an intergalactic mission to nowhere trying to find a suitable place to move out of the synagogue. In fact, we had gone to the local churches, and when the archdiocese had their problems in closing their schools down we jumped at the chance. In fact, if you recall we were trying to secure St. George’s as well as St. Anthony’s. So we still have a portion of Urban Leadership Academy at E. 40th St. Comm. Sayegh: Right, at the River Manor. Eventually International will be leaving Don Bosco Tech. Are there plans to put in a different academy or use it for another purpose? Dr. Glascoe: No. It is funny you brought that up because we have different situations, the what ifs when projects move on. Are we going to go with swing space? Are we going to try to expand this or that? We are meeting to try to put a plan together that we will bring back to the facilities committee for discussion. Comm. Sayegh: Thank you, Comm. Kerr. Comm. Kerr: Are there any more questions? Comm. Atallo: Mr. Kerr, I am quite surprised and disappointed at your remarks. If there is anybody who is utterly disrespectful, sir, it is you and I am going to tell you exactly why. Who arbitrarily calls a meeting on January 2 without calling the members of the committee to be there? Obviously, the majority of the committee members were not there. You could have called me on the telephone. You have my phone number. All you could have said is, “Dr. Atallo, we would like to have a meeting next week before the Board workshop. What is a convenient time that is mutually convenient for all of us?” That would have been the polite and professional thing to do. But to arbitrarily just call a meeting and send a memo out saying we are meeting at 7:00 on Tuesday night

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without talking to the members, and you did not talk to Mr. Vergara who is a member of the committee and you did not talk to myself, that is rude and utterly disrespectful, sir. Now, you are new to the School Board and you are new to school operations. I am not. I have been doing this a very long time. I have seen administrations come and go. You want to be used as a dupe to make public comments about me. Let me say this. Those who said that I would be gone - they are gone. They are either in jail, on their way to jail, or they are dead. Comm. Taylor: Dr. Atallo... Comm. Atallo: I have the floor. Let me make it very clear to you... Comm. Taylor: It was in the mail. It was in our mail last week. Comm. Atallo: What was in the mail? Comm. Taylor: That notice that told you when it was going to happen. Comm. Atallo: Who apparently calls the meeting? Comm. Taylor: You never read your mail. Comm. Atallo: I read my mail. Comm. Taylor: You need to be careful. Comm. Atallo: I read my mail. Comm. Taylor: You did not read it that day because that was in the mail last week. I made sure the office staff put it out for us. Comm. Atallo: What does that mean? Comm. Taylor: You should have read it. It said what day we were going to meet because the school was on vacation. Comm. Atallo: Who decided the night we were to meet and what time? Who decided that? Did you decide it? Did Mr. Kerr decide it arbitrarily? Who the hell are you? The queen? You are a Board member. You sent me a directive? I don’t work for you. Who are you to tell me you sent a letter out? What does that mean? Is that an order? Is that a directive? I could not be there last night. Comm. Taylor: You signed on. You were elected. We are doing the committee forum of doing our business. Comm. Atallo: What is the committee? Comm. Taylor: And you decided not to show up. Comm. Atallo: No. Comm. Taylor: I saw you at other places but you did not show up here. Comm. Atallo: You sent a memo out.

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Comm. Taylor: You need to get it straight, Dr. Atallo. Comm. Atallo: No. You get it straight, Ms. Taylor. You don’t send letters out. Comm. Taylor: You just did not read about it. Comm. Atallo: Of course I read it. The polite, professional thing to do would be to call people on the phone and say let’s find a mutually agreeable time. Comm. Taylor: You just wanted to argue with people when got here. Comm. Atallo: That is number one. Number two, I don’t know if you don’t know what is going on. With the corruption that went on in this district you people continually stumble over the truth and you pick yourselves up and continue on as though nothing has happened. We talked about the audit report and last month I pointed out all the findings that are wrong. There was a front-page article in last Saturday’s paper highlighting it. If you look at today’s Record and if you saw the editorial page they are saying send in a monitor. The Paterson district needs fiscal oversight. Yet, you refuse to even discuss the issue of the audit report. What is this fiscal committee here for? Comm. Kerr: Dr. Atallo, can I respond to you? Comm. Atallo: Go ahead, sir. Comm. Kerr: The minutes you see inside there reflected your going to the business administrator completely circumventing the committee process. I am saying that is not protocol. That is all that is saying. It has nothing to do with anything else. Let me finish. All I am saying is that if we are on a Board and we have committees of responsibilities, there are things that they need to do and you are a part of that committee so you work within the framework. That is all I am saying. If you don’t work within the framework you are breaking down a system that we are trying to build. That is unacceptable. I am not attacking your person. I am just attacking your behavior in this instance. That is all. Comm. Atallo: You don’t think in retrospect the appropriate thing to do would be to call the members of the committee on the telephone and say let’s have the meeting before the workshop? What is a mutually agreeable date and time? Comm. Kerr: No. Comm. Atallo: You can arbitrarily call a meeting on your own and say be there? Comm. Kerr: Listen, you set the meeting up and I got this. I did not set the date, but I got it and I was present. Comm. Atallo: Who set the date? Comm. Kerr: Listen, I have a responsibility. My responsibility is to show up when there are meetings and be there and be a part of what is happening. That is what I presented when I ran for this office. I cannot pick and choose. That is my thing. Comm. Atallo: Who sets the meeting dates and times? I am at committee meetings. The President does not set regular meetings. We set the meetings as a Board, as a

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body of the whole, and we vote on it at the beginning of the year and say these are our meeting dates for the year. Committee meetings are very informal. The appropriate thing to do as chair of the committee would be to call up the Board members on that committee and say let’s find a mutually agreeable time and place. That is the proper thing to do. Do you agree with it? Comm. Kerr: Let me ask you this. Fine. I messed up. I should have called you. I did not call you. Comm. Atallo: So are you apologizing to me? Comm. Kerr: I apologize for not calling you. Let me finish, Mme. President. The next time I will call you and you promise the next time you will show up. Comm. Atallo: I will show up if we find a mutually agreeable time. Comm. Kerr: That is unacceptable. You can't do that. Comm. Atallo: What do you mean? One person can't pick the time and say you will be here on Tuesday night at 7:00. That is wrong. Let me explain something to you, Mr. Kerr, very clearly. We are Board members. We are all duly elected. I am entitled to get any type of public information or backup information that is relevant to voting in an intelligent and an informed manner on this Board of Education with this elected body. If I contact the administration and I ask the Superintendent repeatedly how do you want me to handle the backup material and he has said contact the business administrator, which I have done, I am entitled to that backup information. I am not going to be denied information. Comm. Kerr: The question is not whether or not you are entitled to it. We are just trying to establish rules and protocols. And don’t tell me a trained person like you would deny that process. Don’t tell me. Comm. Atallo: You don’t have a process. You are trying to dictate terms and that is not going to happen. It is just not going to happen. You don’t understand the law. The law is very clear. If a Board member wants to get public information and backup information to vote on resolutions we are entitled to get it. I don’t need the permission of a committee chair. I don't need the permission of the Board President. I don’t need the permission of anybody. I request it in a polite way, which I always do, and I expect to get the information. And I am not going to be denied information. I certainly am not going to call you or anybody else to get information. That is not how it works. Comm. Kerr: You are saying anybody and everybody should call the business administrator and say I want this and that and they are to drop everything that they are doing to facilitate... Comm. Atallo: I did not say drop everything. That is not what I said. Comm. Kerr: You are taking time out of their day. But if we have everything organized, if you and I dialogue about a particular issue we can make one request and get the information. Comm. Atallo: You did not call me, Mr. Chairman.

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Comm. Kerr: Because I don’t know what you are thinking, you don’t know what I am thinking, and you don’t know what other people on the Board are thinking. Comm. Atallo: You have my telephone number. Comm. Kerr: Everybody cannot go to the business administrator and request information. Comm. Atallo: Mr. Kerr, at every meeting I always say through the administration and through the chair I would like to get backup information on certain bills. I circle them, I submit them, and I usually get them within a couple of days. What is your problem with that? Comm. Kerr: Because you are on the fiscal committee and you should work through the fiscal committee. Comm. Atallo: Even if I am not on the fiscal committee I am a Board member and I want to see it. You have a foolish policy from the beginning of last April of not even having a fiscal committee. You had $50 million walk out of here and for the last eight months you did not even have a fiscal committee. Who do you think uncovered the corruption and the mismanagement? The tooth fairy? Who do you think that came from? And what did your School Board President do? Remove me from the fiscal committee. Comm. Kerr: If there is no corruption in the district you will see one because you want to see corruption. Comm. Atallo: Did you miss the $50 million that walked out of here? Comm. Kerr: Dr. Atallo, we have to stop this, grow up and do the work. Let’s not be petty about it. Comm. Atallo: $50 million is petty? Comm. Kerr: I respect you as a person and I want to respect you as a person and I want to work with you. Comm. Atallo: You can't read a memo into the record with misstatements and false truths and say I was disrespectful and I did not show up. I did not show up because you called a meeting when I could not be there. Comm. Kerr: I did not say you did not show up in the there. Comm. Atallo: So I asked for the information. Comm. Kerr: I said you showed disrespect for the committee process and protocol. Comm. Atallo: I don’t need to go through a committee process to get information. Comm. Taylor: I had the office staff call Dr. Atallo, call you, call myself back to confirm and also to call our other member Mr. Vergara. Every committee person on here knows that I had the office staff call each committee every time we are to meet. This time I gave you at least four to five days before we met because we knew it was a holiday and I know you have other things to do. I have office staff and I have the check off sheets to

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show you how often we called and when we left a message, when we got the answering machine, or when we got a human being. I am trying to run the business of this Board of Education the way it should be. But yet I have interlopers who will go all over the building and other places saying things all over the district that confuse and confound people and make people fight each other. I don’t think that is the right way for us to go as a Board. I am telling you I have made a record since I started of who I had called by our office staff. If you want to see it and Dr. Atallo wants to see it I have it. I am only trying to make this run smoothly in committee form and Robert’s Rules of Order. That is what I am trying to do. Comm. Atallo: Robert’s Rules of Order have nothing to do with getting public information. Just let say this. I don’t want to yell. I want to finish one point. Do you want to say something and then I will respond? Comm. Kerr: Wait a second, Dr. Atallo. Comm. Atallo: I have something to say. Comm. Kerr: You will get an opportunity to. Just hold on a second for me. Comm. Hodges: Let me just say something very bluntly. Being rude and boorish is not a substitute for an argument. There should only be one person talking at a time. If that is not happening, we are all making a mistake. Over-talking people does not make your point any clearer or cause you to win your argument. First of all, as I understand it, Ms. Finkelstein does not work for the Board. She is under no obligation to answer anybody’s questions unless she is directed to do so by the Superintendent of Schools because that is who she works for. Comm. Atallo: That was done. Comm. Hodges: I am not through talking, Dr. Atallo. If there is to be any access to the Superintendent’s staff it should be at his direction. That is the way it is supposed to work. That is the way it is always supposed to work, not just here. Throughout the district it should be at the behest of the Superintendent of Schools because they don’t work for us. We should not be dropping by and saying I need this and I need that. It should go through the Superintendent of Schools if that is the way he wants to operate his system. That is the way it is supposed to work. If we don’t like that, it is unfortunate. But if he has established that there is nothing any of us can do about that. We are entitled as Board people to ask for information and I certainly know that I ask. But I don’t go to Ms. Finkelstein or other people unless it is done at the permission because they don’t have to talk to us. Comm. Atallo: Let me finish my point. Jonathan, you just finished saying you were writing the curriculum. Comm. Hodges: I did not say that. Comm. Atallo: I see you jumping around the district talking to all kinds of people all the time and I don’t have a problem with that. You can talk to whomever you want to talk to. I said to the Superintendent way back when he started that I need to see certain backup sheets and Dr. Glascoe said if you want to get it go see the business administrator. That is the procedure we have been following. Is that not correct, Dr. Glascoe? Has there been any problem with that? I asked you and you said to see the business administrator. Is that correct, sir?

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Dr. Glascoe: Yes. That was correct. But we are talking about a new process now and I hope you heard it. Comm. Atallo: What process is that? Dr. Glascoe: The Chair just went over a new process. Comm. Atallo: Who determined this process? When was this process determined? Do I have to go through you? Comm. Kerr: I know I am small and I am not important, but yes. Yes, Dr. Atallo. Comm. Atallo: Two things are happening here. Either this Board is extremely foolish or is being extremely corrupt. I’m sorry to say that because with all the things that have gone on here to stifle Board members’ inquiries and the lack of intellectual curiosity because if I don’t ask for the backup sheets nobody else asks for the backup sheets. In light of the history... Comm. Kerr: Wait a second. You are so preoccupied with your thoughts you have no room for anything else. Comm. Atallo: You don’t ask any questions. Comm. Kerr: Listen to what I am trying to say here. The minutes say Ms. Finkelstein will make available to the fiscal committee all the documents and all the backup information that we need. We are going to set two meetings per month for the check run and go over all the documentation with all the backup information. Is that not reasonable? Comm. Atallo: I will tell you why it is not reasonable and this is what I think is really unfair. I think you will agree when I point this out. Do you think it is fair for you to arbitrarily pick a date and say that we are going to meet on this date at this time before the meeting? Don’t you think it would be fair and reasonable for you to contact the Board members on that committee and say let’s do this in a collegial way and as a team? But I don’t see a team and I don’t see collegial. I see we are going to meet on this day at this time. That is what your memo says. It says we are going to meet on Thursday. We made the decision. Who is we? Two of your committee members were not even there. We made the decision to set aside every Thursday of the week before the workshop meeting and likewise the Thursday before the regular meeting for this exercise. The meeting place will be at the Board of Education office on the second floor. Don’t you think it would be more reasonable and professional to contact the members on the committee and do it in a collegial way? You do know what the word collegial means? Comm. Kerr: No, I don’t. Comm. Atallo: You don’t know what it means? Comm. Kerr: You are assuming that I don’t so I will say go ahead. Comm. Atallo: It means in a cooperative way. I am reading your memo and there are a lot of things here I don’t understand. But you contact the Board members and you say let’s meet at this time. Is that good? If not can we meet at this time?

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Comm. Kerr: Dr. Atallo, you may say I can't meet on this day, but there are 12 months in a year. Comm. Atallo: We have not had a finance committee. Comm. Kerr: Just one second. There will be 24 meetings. If we can deal with 12 it is okay and if you have concerns you are going to show up at the meetings that you need to show up at. Knowing you, you will show up at those meetings. Someone else might not show up because that meeting is not as important to them, but you being so fiscally sensitive will want to show up at those meetings that you need to show up at. Comm. Atallo: What if I can't be there on Thursdays? What if Mr. Vergara can't be there on Thursdays? Who is going to meet? Are you going to sit there in a room alone? Comm. Kerr: So do we wait until you guys can show up? Comm. Atallo: You are not hearing what I am saying. Why don’t you away from this meeting call me and Comm. Vergara and the three of us can just informally discuss a mutually agreeable time that would be acceptable that we can meet. Then we will meet and call the administration and ask them is this a mutually convenient time that we can meet with you. What is wrong with that? Comm. Kerr: Have you investigated the times there? Have you investigated whether or not you will be able to meet at that time? Or are you just saying we should have called you? Comm. Atallo: As a matter of process you should have called me as a Board member. You should have called Comm. Vergara as a Board member and said when are you guys available to have a meeting and let’s see what is good for you guys. Let’s put together a schedule and let’s call the administration and find out what is mutually agreeable for them. That is the way to approach it. Comm. Kerr: What you have in your hands are the minutes of the meeting that was held yesterday. So if it is not agreeable to you can you report back to the committee and we have the dialogue then and the discussion. Comm. Atallo: The dialogue does not have to be here at this point in time. We can talk after the meeting like reasonable people. Comm. Taylor: Mr. Kerr, the reason we came up with those two days was because Ms. Finkelstein said that it would be good for her to have the checks ready for us to look at. Then if we had any questions we could say it. The next one would be after the Board meeting before the other one. It was the in-between time that we were looking at checks and bills that had to be paid and if there were any questions our committee could decide it. I am not sure, Fran. Do you remember all the details of why you selected it? Ms. Finkelstein: It was my recommendation, committee members and Dr. Atallo, only because what I was thinking is that we would look at all of the bills and the backup information before the checks were run so that if anybody had a major problem with a check it would not be cut. But yet you would have access to all the information and you should have a bills list of payments pending but not actually cut as checks. This would

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then give us time to have you do the review. If there was anything you needed additional questions we could research it. A day or two after that before the actual meeting we would run the checks and have them to you for the respective meetings. Comm. Atallo: If we have a process in place to review it that is fine, but I am not going to be denied access to review public records. Just like last month I asked for records. I don’t want to hear the nonsense about we are not going to see it. We are going to see it. We are going to see everything. Comm. Kerr: There is no denying and there is no scheme to deny you. It is just creating a process. That is all. That is all we are asking for. We all work in the system. You are on the fiscal committee. You come and we work together. You ask your questions and you get your answers. But we want you to work within the structure and that is all we are saying. Comm. Atallo: You do agree that as Chair you should be calling Board members to have a mutually agreeable time. Is that correct, Mr. Kerr? Do you agree to that? Do you think that is fair? We should not arbitrarily call meetings. We should talk. Comm. Kerr: I will get back to you, Dr. Atallo. Just give him a second. Comm. Sayegh: Thank you, Comm. Kerr. First of all, Dr. Atallo, your lack of professionalism is appalling. Comm. Atallo: Please Andre. You can flock to your flunkies. Which stooge are you? Moe, Larry or Curly? Don’t you have to go do a little dance? Comm. Sayegh: I invited a young man who graduated from Rosa Parks to come and watch our proceedings and you proceeded to use vulgar language, and took a condescending tone with the President and with the Chairperson. Your lack of professionalism is appalling. You owe the young man in the audience an apology. He is excelling at Syracuse University and for him to observe a Board member to act irresponsibly, use vulgar language and to disrespect not only the chairperson of the committee but also the President is something that is not an example we want to set for this young man. Comm. Atallo: I did not use vulgar language. Comm. Sayegh: Second, the curriculum committee meets regularly on Mondays. Yesterday we met on Tuesday. I did not call a single member and yet they made it a point to be there because they felt it was that important and they rescheduled everything just to be there. All the members were present. If they wanted to be there they will be there. Comm. Taylor: Who is the student? Comm. Sayegh: He is right there. Comm. Taylor: What is his name? Comm. Sayegh: Curtis Eatman. Comm. Taylor: Curtis, welcome.

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Comm. Atallo: Through the chair, I wrote a letter of recommendation. Mr. Eatman approached me. He was a graduate of Rosa Parks High School. Mr. Eatman approached me as a senior and I wrote a very strong letter of recommendation. Isn’t that true, Mr. Eatman? Say yes. Mr. Eatman is acknowledging that. I know Mr. Eatman very well. Comm. Sayegh: I’m sure he is very disappointed in you. Comm. Atallo: I don’t think so. Comm. Spagnola: I would like to just request some clarification in regards to vendor name Johnson. It is for $150,000. I go to the back page and in the body of the backup that we have here the original allowance was $300,000. It is on page 3 all the way in the rear. Do you have that? There is a $200,000 request for increase. Comm. Taylor: Which one? Comm. Spagnola: Johnson Jones Architects. On the back page there is a request for $300,000. That is what we have approved them to go up to. They are requesting two extensions for $200,000 each. Dr. Glascoe: This is the architectural firm that worked with our long-range facilities plan committee. There were a series of situations in putting the report together electronically as well as in hard copy. Believe it or not, twice the electronic receiver or hookup on the state level had to be revamped and we had to do pieces of the report over to resubmit it back to the state. This prolonged his services to us and there were other things that added more time to it. This last payment was a payment that was outstanding as a result of all the work that he had done, the additional work. Comm. Spagnola: How much did we pay so far for the facilities plan altogether? You said this was the last payment. Dr. Glascoe: I think it was $350,000. Comm. Spagnola: That is the total? Dr. Glascoe: Yes. I would have to go and check but that is my recollection. Comm. Spagnola: Do we have a finished product now? Dr. Glascoe: We have a long-rage facilities plan on the books but keep in mind that is just a working document. It is to be changed and tweaked over the course of time. Comm. Spagnola: For the $350,000 he gave us something to work with - a draft? Dr. Glascoe: Yes, and he worked with the full committee over the course of time in putting together the entire facilities plan. It was a huge committee. Comm. Spagnola: Do we have a work product that I or members of the Board can view? Dr. Glascoe: You have seen the long-range facilities plan. Comm. Hodges: You have copies of it.

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Comm. Spagnola: We have the finished product. This is what we are talking about, the one that was sent to us. Dr. Glascoe: Yes. Comm. Spagnola: Okay. So they have not gotten paid yet? We got that a while ago. Dr. Glascoe: That is correct. Comm. Spagnola: We are talking a while ago. In fact, I think that was about 6-8 months ago. Dr. Glascoe: And I did say the payment was outstanding. Comm. Spagnola: Okay. Comm. Taylor: Ms. Finkelstein, all the ones that Dr. Atallo circled for us and discussed, did you managed to get the answers to all of them? Ms. Finkelstein: Everybody has the package. Comm. Taylor: This one? Ms. Finkelstein: Everybody has the package. It is about a ream of paper thick. Comm. Taylor: Like this? Ms. Finkelstein: Yes. Comm. Taylor: Because he circled a lot of them and we discussed them during the meeting. We asked Ms. Finkelstein to make sure that you got the answers to all the ones that you had circled and the ones that we asked about as well. Comm. Atallo: And I thank you for that. I have a couple of other questions. Comm. Hodges: Excuse me one second. Comm. Kerr: Dr. Hodges was on and then I gave Comm. Spagnola the opportunity. So let him speak and then you will go. Comm. Hodges: I am a little tired of being told that if I don’t agree with you that I am corrupt or that I am foolish. My goal, Dr. Atallo, is to educate children. It is not to drive the Superintendent out of the district, as is yours. Comm. Atallo: No. My goal is for accountability. Comm. Hodges: I am talking now. You said what you wanted to say before. I am talking now. My concern here is to educate children, to see that they leave here a lot better then they came in. That is what I want to do. I don’t care what you want to do. I have seen what you are trying to do and I hear all over town what you are trying to do. But what I am trying to do is educate kids. And if I focus on that and if I choose to focus on that and not on driving somebody out of the district then don’t accuse me of being corrupt. It is unnecessary and you know quite untrue. I am not here trying to cheat

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people. I could care less and you know it. My single function here is to raise the educational standard. And if I don't like what you are doing in terms of trying to manipulate the political process to get who you want where you want to get them that does not mean that I am corrupt. It may mean that I am just a little bit more decent than perhaps you are. I don’t have the time or the energy to waste trying to get myself a job in the system. My primary and only focus is to see to it that those kids read, that those kids compute, and that those kids leave here able to be a lot better than I found them, not to do what you are doing, whatever the hell that is. Comm. Atallo: May I respond to you? Comm. Hodges: Please do. Comm. Atallo: First of all, I get around town here, too, and what I hear is what happened to the Jonathan Hodges of two years ago who used to question things all the time. You don’t question anything anymore. That is what I hear. It is like your evil twin took over. That is what people tell me. I am not here to drive anybody out of here. What I am here to do is get accountability. What I am doing now is the same thing I have done since the day I came on the School Board seven years ago. It is nothing different. It is three superintendents later and I want accountability. That is what I want. When I suspected there was corruption when I came on this Board I spoke to you about it. I showed you documents and you agreed with me. You said, “Joe, you are right. There is corruption here and let’s go after them.” And we did. All I am saying is I just want accountability. I want the dollars to go to the children for their education. You sit back, there is an audit report and you were silent. Your silence was deafening. The test scores came out and your silence was deafening on the declining test scores. There have been other issues in the community and you have not spoken out as Jonathan Hodges did two years ago. That is what I am saying. What is going on with this? I have a right to my opinion just as you have a right to yours. For you to disagree and say I am indecent, I have never been indecent. I have never asked for anything for myself here. I have not packed this place with my family. I have not packed this place with my cronies. I have not done that. I have not come in here and said hire a relative. Have I? No. And I have a lot of relatives in Paterson of all different last names. You would not even know who they were, but they are all relatives. I never brought one in here. Not one works in this district. I have not brought anybody like that. So to make the statement about decent or indecent I find offensive. I find it amazing that I tend to be the only one asking questions on the bills. You think it is strange as an academic exercise when the legal bills skyrocketed from the firm we had before to this firm and I was questioning that firm just as aggressively and holding them just as accountable when it was $30,000 a month. You know that is true. Comm. Hodges: Is that a question that I can answer? Comm. Atallo: No. That is a statement. I have a number of questions but to say you are the one here for education and good things and I am not. I took people on that I knew for many years who I saw as people who were corrupt and individuals who were mismanaging this place and who were here and we ran them out of here. Comm. Hodges: I did not attack your credentials in attacking that issue. What I said was that you were attacking mine for doing what I am doing. And you just saw the impact I had on the curriculum, Dr. Atallo, which is where I willing to put my function. As to being silent on the so-called audit report, if you recall while you were giving your litany of repeating what was already said in the audit report, I was the one that asked for the timetable on the action plan, which you overlooked. I am the one who asked for

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that. I am the one who said this is nice, but let’s see when these things you say you are going to do are going to take place. I am the one who asked for that. That was not you, Dr. Atallo. What I am simply trying to say is you can go ahead and raise you questions. I don’t have any problem with that. In fact, I have supported you in many of your questions. But the point is when you decide that people who don’t agree with you are corrupt, which was your statement, that is what I resent. Comm. Atallo: I said foolish. Comm. Hodges: I don’t have to agree with you. That is the problem. We can disagree. I don’t have to agree with everything that you are doing or your methods. Comm. Atallo: Of course not. I don’t have to agree with yours. All I am saying is that it just amazes me that when it comes down to questions dealing with millions and millions of dollars… I will give you one. Last month we voted to go out to re-bid the security contract. For a $4.5 million contract there was one bid. Sound management practice would call that you would go out for more bids. Comm. Hodges: And I voted to table that. Comm. Atallo: We should go out to re-bid. Comm. Hodges: I voted to table that, as did you. Comm. Atallo: What is happening with that? Comm. Kerr: Dr. Atallo, I believe we have voted on it. I don’t recall what the vote was. Comm. Atallo: The vote was 5-3 and you voted to approve a one-bid contract for $4.5 million. I don’t understand that. Comm. Kerr: That is my right. Comm. Atallo: I just don’t understand it. Comm. Kerr: That is my right. I chose to vote that way and I voted that way. Comm. Atallo: To protect the public interest we need more bids. Do you understand my logic? Comm. Kerr: I understand your logic and what you are doing. Fine. But if you put a bid out and one company came up with an offer and nobody else does, and to me in my judgment it is a reasonable offer, why should I run around the streets trying to get more bids? It is a reasonable offer. Comm. Atallo: One should direct the administration to re-bid. First of all, I would have to look at the specifications and see what they actually say. But I can't believe in this post 9/11 era when you have so many security people and retired law enforcement professionals who formed security companies that nobody wants to bid and does not want $4.5 million from the Paterson School District to provide security. I am not saying the company is good and I am not saying it is bad, but our role as good stewards of public funds is to make sure we get the best deal for the public.

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Comm. Kerr: But how can you validate a company that they are going to use whatever mechanism they have that you don’t know to recruit employees? We have no control over that. Comm. Atallo: Yes, we do. In the specifications we lay it out. We make it very clear and we have a lot of control over that. Comm. Kerr: You still can get folks in there that have shady characters. You can. Comm. Atallo: You have to do a criminal background check. Comm. Kerr: We don’t know. Comm. Atallo: Yes, we do know. Mr. Kerr, one of the specifications is that a criminal background check is required. Comm. Kerr: We can discuss that, but we voted on it. Comm. Atallo: We do know. Comm. Kerr: We have voted on it. Comm. Taylor: It is tabled and we have not had a decision yet. Comm. Kerr: We have not had a decision on it. It is tabled. So we will revisit the issue. Comm. Atallo: The contract is up. When do we plan to revisit it? We are on a month-to-month basis. Comm. Kerr: It is kind of unfair when you say nobody questions anything. That is not true. Comm. Spagnola questions stuff. Doesn’t he? Comm. Atallo: Comm. Spagnola is a wise man and that is why I supported him for his election. Comm. Kerr: This Commissioner certainly does. This one does. The chairwoman of this Board does question stuff. So it is unfair for you to always come and say we don’t question stuff. You are really putting something out in the public that is not truthful and every single member of this Board resents it. Dr. Atallo, we are going to stop it there. We can have a private discussion on that. Comm. Atallo: I will be happy to talk to you privately just like you should have called me on the phone and said is this a good time to meet. Comm. Kerr: Comm. Atallo, I am going to call you. Comm. Atallo: And we will talk my friend. I have three questions on the bills. I raise this every month and I am going to state it for the record. The Windsor School, the Windsor Academy, and the Windsor Prep was a school that had serious criminal problems. They said they changed their administration and their board but I still have concerns. I have not seen any documentation that changes were made. I think it may be prudent for this school district to look at alternate schools that provide these types of services for our students. I am going to go on record. I raised that and I am raising it again. The next issue I raise is J.H. Cohen. This is the forensic auditor. We have

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another substantial bill. I would like to know from the administration when is it going to end. It is a bottomless pit. Where are we going with this? You will get back to me? Maybe you will get back on how we are going to pay the bills because every month this comes in. My other concern is with Public Service Electric and Gas. We have a bill here this month for $332,000. Once again, I live in Paterson and all the Board members do. I ride around at night and I look at the schools lit up. We have asked the administration to please send out a memo directing them that the last ones to leave please turn out the lights. We are burning a lot of electricity. If people ride around at night and look you will see that to be the case. The other thing I will raise again is with the American flags. I had to call the office because one of the flags was flying upside down. That is a sign of distress if they have the flag flying upside down. If you go to other schools like the Performing Arts School on Smith Street the flag is all torn and tattered. Why is it flying like that? We need to have those flags addressed. That is my concern. Finally, my other question is with the legal bills. This month we received a bill of approximately $20,000. Is that the monthly bill? Is that a partial bill from last month or this month? Why is there a dramatic difference? Last month the bill was $132,000 and this month it is $20,000. It is a legitimate question I am asking in terms of discrepancy. Mr. Sayovitz: One was a partial bill and the month before was part of that month as well. Comm. Atallo: So last month was actually $152,000. Mr. Sayovitz: That was two months worth. If you add the two months together that is what it was. Comm. Atallo: Thank you. Ms. Finkelstein: Dr. Atallo, after I had the initial complaint about the lights and the flags I did report that to the facilities management and the sector chiefs asking that they follow through on that right away. I apologize if they have not done that. I will go back again. Comm. Atallo: I thank you. The reason I called you is that no one else was around on that day. Everyone was gone for the holidays so I reached out to you. I would be happy to follow the rules as long as we know what the rules of the game are. But you can't change the rules and say these are the new rules. No one discussed this. We are going to have this system and you have to go through me. If five of us decide we are going to run the Board with committees and you have to report to us if you want to get information, then that is not really fair. We are all duly elected and we are entitled to information. If I have the impression that information is being withheld and they are trying to stifle my getting public information then that red flags it and that raises serious concerns. You know what is going on in the city. You know about the investigations. You know about the subpoenas. You know about the grand jury. It is no secret. We want to know everything that is going on. We are elected officials and we are entitled to know. Comm. Kerr: Dr. Atallo, you come back to that matter but the minutes clearly state that you are going to meet twice a month. Comm. Atallo: Let’s see how it works. I will work with you.

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Comm. Kerr: So you can't say anybody is covering anything. Everything will be opened up. You go through with your fine-toothed comb and whatever you unearth you have it. So nothing will be covered. But we want to establish a framework in which we operate so that everybody knows what we are doing and how we are doing it. We just don’t want the sparks to be flying in every other way. We want everything to be harnessed and channeled in the proper way. That is all there is to it. Thank you. Facilities Comm. Taylor: Dr. Hodges, do you have anything to report on facilities? Comm. Hodges: We have not met again. Because of the holidays we are going to have to meet shortly to discuss some pressing matters. I have to reach out to the individual members to make those arrangements. Policy Comm. Taylor: The next section is policy and I have a tape and I am writing the people who spoke to us about the GPA. Dr. Atallo, I am going to try to reach out to the people who spoke to us that night in the public meeting and to all of my Board members so we can have a meeting together on their views in working with us on the GPA for extracurricular activities for the district. I am going to send a letter to the people to find out what kind of days. I will probably give three dates so we can meet and they can select a date. Comm. Hodges: I do have a question regarding policy for the Superintendent. In our packet there was a policy submitted that came from the state regarding expenditures and travel that I believe you adopted summarily. I was simply asking why we simply did not go through the policy committee. Once that edict came down you could have referred that to the policy committee and gone through our regular process. That would have enhanced our process, as opposed to the way it was done. We want to get in the habit of handling these types of things on a routine basis. There are some other things that we can do and that we need to do and we sort of have stopped. There is no discussion in there. That is simply a matter of putting it out to the community and letting them understand that this is going to be adopted because of the way the state has implied it. It would have been just a pro forma type of activity, which is actually what you have made it. Dr. Glascoe: Given where we are with the auditing process and everything else we are looking at, I just took it upon myself to move this forward, not exactly as a directive from the state, but guiding us in moving forward and cleaning up our fiscal problems. Your point is well taken about the policy committee. I probably would have at least approached this through the policy committee. But the problem I have is we don’t have a set time to meet and if we can do that as we have tried to do with the other committees that might help. Even with our legal committee we know it is sometimes unnecessary to have to call folks in to meet and we have set up some guidelines where we can either do a conference call or the committee meets and we keep our attorneys on the phone on the other end so that they are not traveling for one item. If we can do that with policy, then I can be much more diligent. I apologize. Comm. Hodges: In the absence of the sitting chair, I think we would have to appoint an acting policy chair. I am particularly concerned about our limited prerogatives just as I am sure you are concerned about yours. So we want to maintain and actually enhance it so it becomes a matter of routine for us and it has not been in the past. We can adopt

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an acting chair for the policy and that way we can move forward because there are a number of issues that have to be addressed, the next one I can think of being grammar district-wide. Comm. Atallo: My grammar? Comm. Hodges: No. Being enforced. We can look at yours too if you wish. We can put that on the agenda. For the record, that was a question. Comm. Taylor: For the policy committee the chair was Mr. Brown and he is out ill. He sent us a letter saying that he was not going to be available because he has a medical leave from his job and he is not permitted to participate in any kind of functions throughout the city. The other people on the policy committee are Dr. Hodges, Andre Sayegh and Lawrence Spagnola. Are there any other people who would like to be a part of the policy committee? Are there any other Board members? Comm. Sayegh: I nominate Comm. Hodges. Comm. Taylor: I know Larry is on with legal and Andre is curriculum. Could the three of you get together, call each other, and set up something for a policy meeting? I can be the fourth one, but you just have to let me know. I don't work. I am retired. Larry and I are retired but I know he has another agenda and so do I. But call each other and let me know. Then I will call the office staff and I will put the date down for when we are going to meet. I did have you down for Mondays at 7:30. Comm. Hodges: Oh, no. Comm. Sayegh: That is old. Comm. Spagnola: I think if there is nothing pressing as far as policy is there policy that has to be reviewed, any items that we have to look at? There is not a committee here. Comm. Hodges: We do have to move forward. There were a number of them we have not really gotten to. The one that really concerns me is the Moody policy because we told people we would get back to them and involve them in further conversations. But there are some other things around grammar and trying to make sure that certain types of behaviors are instituted in the district around grammar. Comm. Spagnola: Are you talking about the teachers? Comm. Hodges: Absolutely. I would like to see it emphasized, not administratively by the way. Comm. Taylor: There was one that we had talked about at one of our Board Forwards having to do with attendance of students and suspensions. We had to go revisit that in the policy, as it existed. It was called attendance policy. Comm. Hodges: In addition to that, as part of the Urban School Board meeting they brought in some people to talk about what NJQSAC is going to require. One of the things that is going to be required is that there be a routine review of the policy manual every single year. So we are going to have to take a look at that approach and try to decide to get that done. We have to review our policy manual and make sure it is updated and is completed on a regular basis. That has to be done in some form or fashion. We have to determine how that is going to work.

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Dr. Glascoe: With that, it is probably more setting up a process of reviewing a group or category of policies each year. You have that continuous process of rolling them through. That is very important. Comm. Hodges: So we have to put these items into place and that is another one of the discussions that has to occur. Comm. Taylor: Thank you. We did meet with Dr. Atallo and myself. Mr. Moody met with personnel and human resources this evening before we had our workshop. We have to set another date because we had put something else on a Thursday. I don't know whether or not if we look at that Thursday before and the Thursday after if the 5:00 before might work for us. If it is okay with the rest of the committee people. Dr. Glascoe: Ms. Taylor, if I may make a suggestion. Because of the lateness of the evening and we have just gone through talking about different dates for policy committee meetings, I don’t think we all have it together, which date is appropriate and which committee is meeting when. We may need to sit down or we can do it over the phone and look at all of these on the calendar so that we can make sure that we get the greatest number of Board members out to these committee meetings and get going. I just don't think we can sit here now and throw a few dates out. This is the second time we have done that to the personnel committee. We just did not have the list of committees in front of us and each time we do that we have to remember we should have the list of committees right before us, and their dates, so that we are not infringing on those other committees as we did last night. Fiscal Comm. Atallo: Excuse me. Point of order. Under facilities there seems to be additional resolutions, C-13 and C-14, which were just dropped on our desk tonight. There are substantial numbers to review and I don’t feel comfortable voting on any resolution unless we had a chance to review it. I don't think anybody has had a chance to look at these. Has the facilities committee had a chance to look at these, Dr. Hodges? Is this something you just saw tonight? Comm. Taylor: C-13 and C-14, Joe? Comm. Atallo: That is correct. Did these go through you, Dr. Hodges? Comm. Hodges: I have not seen these either? Comm. Atallo: It may be prudent that we take time to review these considering this is dealing with substantial amounts of money. I am not saying to do it right now. I am just saying we should review them before we vote on them. Dr. Glascoe: I have to apologize. I don’t know why this would be listed under facilities. Comm. Atallo: I tend to agree with the Superintendent. These should fall under fiscal, as opposed to facilities. Did Mr. Kerr get a chance to see these at all? Comm. Taylor: They are out of place. Comm. Atallo: They seem to be.

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Dr. Glascoe: Obviously that is out of place and that is a fiscal matter. We will provide you with a response to that. Comm. Atallo: Thank you. OTHER BUSINESS Comm. Hodges: I see that one of our members is a published author and it is a very useful document. But more to the point, Dr. Glascoe, today’s letter to the editor suggests that you are considering privatization. We have not had a formal discussion on that but it is on the minds of some people. I would like to know where we are with the cafeteria situation. I know we were looking into that overall operation and trying to come up with some approaches and you were going to get back to us. I said the word ‘us.’ It was mentioned at the workshop. Comm. Spagnola: How long ago? Comm. Hodges: A month or two. Comm. Taylor: A month ago. Comm. Spagnola: It was four months ago when they were here. Comm. Hodges: They were not here four months ago. Comm. Spagnola: Yes. Time goes by when you are having fun. Comm. Hodges: It must. The question is we were looking into... Dr. Glascoe: One of the things that we were trying to get through was part of negotiations. That was in session today and hopefully we will have some feedback tomorrow that will help us dictate the direction that we are going in. One of the things for sure as you know in the meetings that we have had is that there are many items along the lines of management that have to be taken care of, changed, adjusted, and the like. Privatizing may not be the answer and we won't know that until we know what we are dealing with, especially with negotiations and what we are dealing with on the management side. There are many ways of privatizing these entities. The staff and I have talked about some of them and we are coming back once we finish meeting with staff in looking at the plans that food services has to make some major changes. We will come back to you folks in the same setting that we had previously to let you know the direction that we are going. I am hoping that we will be able to do that hopefully within less than two weeks because time is of the essence right now. Comm. Spagnola: I am glad you brought that out because basically we were going out for bid and that is usually what happens when you privatize. So my position was clear when that was brought out that I would be against privatization. It is not the catchall. It is not the cure-all. We have had a bad situation with privatization as far as the janitorial people who are working here. These people worked here 20 or 25 years and all of a sudden the doors are closed. It is not fair to the people and it does not show loyalty to the people who worked for you. In all honesty there are ways of looking at this. I agree with you, Doctor. I understand that you are looking at management also. There is a lot of money out there that we should be getting. It is reimbursement from the federal government. You say every district has the same problem. They can't get the people to fill out the forms. It does not necessarily mean it can't change.

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Dr. Glascoe: I don't think I said that every district has that problem. Comm. Spagnola: You said that problem is throughout. When you have people who can get it they just don’t put it in. They just don’t fill out the forms. Dr. Glascoe: There is a whole lot more to it than that and part of it is management. Comm. Spagnola: Exactly. Comm. Hodges: We need a larger discussion and perhaps when you come back we can have that discussion so that people can have a better sense of what the overall issues are and then they can better inform the public once they have all the facts at hand. I, like you, don’t like privatization and I have spoken out against it. But I have also said that my primary concern is the education of these children. I don’t know whether it was security or the custodians. I think we asked them to review that decision and it came back that we saved $11 million. Or was it $4 million? I don’t remember which number it was but that was the answer we got back. When we did the cost analysis it showed that it was either $4 million or $11 million that we saved. Comm. Spagnola: We are talking about over and above besides this. We are not talking about food services. We are talking about a loss over a period of time of two years. Comm. Hodges: They have been losing steadily. Comm. Spagnola: It is a situation where it does not pay for itself. Comm. Hodges: Exactly. Comm. Spagnola: That is the key. Certain things are not going to pay for themselves. Comm. Hodges: My position is similar to yours. I don’t particularly care for privatization. On the other hand, I recognize that the state is turning the screws and they are insisting for the accountability that Dr. Atallo is asking for. This is fine, but it also means we can't do business the same way. So we are going to have to utilize some strategies and that may ultimately mean things we don’t like because we can't take away from the educational needs of the children. That is where I draw the line. I am far more interested in educating the kids that I am in doing some of the other things that we are doing here. Comm. Spagnola: But I feel that we are looking at it the right way because we are talking about accountability and management. Comm. Hodges: Absolutely. Comm. Spagnola: So we are looking at it in an area. We are not talking about the little old lady that is making $20,000. She can only scoop once. Comm. Taylor: If you have your Board assessment could you please make sure that I get it or you get it to the main office because I am having it collated? About our feelings and about how we work as a Board and what our expectations are. It will probably come up in our next Board Forward, which is in March. It is on March 31. You helped make it, Dr. Atallo.

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Comm. Hodges: Please call him. Comm. Atallo: Point of order. I have to agree with Chief Spagnola. In terms of the cost analysis that was presented regarding the custodians, those numbers were based on a certain premise that it would cost us $4 million if in fact those custodians who were working here at the time had to come back, since many of them were at the top of the guide, this it what it could cost. Of course, in the 10-year period of time they have been here many of them have retired and some have moved on to other careers. It is called a preferred eligibility list. By law you would be required to offer them the jobs. It would be unlikely that after 10 years all those people, about 400, would actually come back. So they were basing it on that number. That is what was happening. I think the Chief was very clear on it. Since an article was raised by Dr. Hodges about the letter from Chief Spagnola... Comm. Hodges: I did not mention anybody’s name. Comm. Atallo: In today’s paper there was a letter in the Herald & News by Chief Spagnola. It is a public record. It was in the local paper. There was also an editorial in the other local paper in The Record called “Send in the Monitor – The Paterson District Needs Fiscal Oversight.” It says, “The state monitor would have brought authority, including the power to override the Superintendent and the Board of Education. The district was taken over by the state 16 years ago and it is politically unappealing to put even more power in the hands of the state. But there is no excuse for incompetence or worse. The results of another audit, the one ordered by the State Supreme Court for all Abbott districts, are expected this month. The State Department of Education is also doing its own internal audit. Unless these findings prove unexpectedly glowing, the state’s decision should be obvious, send in the monitors.” It is not just a monitor. It would be a team that would be coming in, in terms of oversight as far as what we do. That is in today’s paper in The Record. It was written by the editorial board and it is in today’s paper. If you don’t have a copy I will make arrangements for you to get a copy. Also, we have autographed copies of the Chief’s letter. Did you want to follow up because I had one more question? I know we had covered this. We tabled the resolution on the security contract. It was tabled. What is the status? Are we going to go out to re-bid? What is the status of that at this juncture? I could not hear you, Mr. Sayovitz. Mr. Sayovitz: It has to be brought back on the table once it has been tabled. I don't know whether anything is pending if that is what you are asking. Comm. Atallo: I thought we made a motion or we gave a directive that we wanted the administration to go out and re-bid. That was my interpretation. Comm. Hodges: No. You tabled it. Comm. Taylor: We tabled it, Dr. Atallo. That is in our minutes here. But we all received and we can't talk about it now. Comm. Atallo: We received what? I did not receive anything. Comm. Hodges: Quite frankly, that was my next question. I had specifically requested information about the training. Not the fact that we are having training, because I know you are having training. All I got was the fact that you are having training on xyz. I understand that. I wanted to know what was the training because that was the original

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issue. We were supposed to change the specifications and require certain types of things to occur. What I was looking for was to find out what kinds of things these people were supposed to do. When we go see the security guards and they are talking to the students in a less than professional manner I want to know that was covered in the training. When they are doing some of the other things that go on, such as when one was watching television in the hallway during class time, I want to know that was covered in the training. They have a rough job because I have seen them struggle under very significant situations. But I wanted to make sure that we covered the scope of the professionalism that we are looking for in our training. That is what I was looking to find out. I did not see that. That was my reason for voting to table that measure. Dr. Glascoe: I thought that we had two responses from Captain Smith regarding that at two different Board meetings and I thought those questions were answered. If you want more specifics we will just have to provide that to you. Comm. Hodges: I can show you what came in that packet about the training. It was just an outline that there was going to be training and the categories of the areas. What I am trying to say is that I want the syllabus so I have a better understanding of what was covered in the training program. That was so terribly important because we were saying they were not doing xyz. Rather than blame them, let’s train them appropriately and then hold them responsible for what we have trained them to do. Dr. Glascoe: Okay. Comm. Spagnola: We want accountability. Comm. Hodges: Absolutely. Dr. Glascoe: We will provide the syllabus then. Comm. Taylor: There were several questions. It was moved by Comm. Moody, seconded by Comm. Spagnola that the meeting be adjourned. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 10:10 p.m.