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MINUTES OF THE PATERSON BOARD OF EDUCATION REGULAR MEETING

March 21, 2007 – 7:00 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 Monica Peck, Esq., General Counsel Comm. Joseph Atallo Comm. Andre Sayegh, Vice President Comm. Jonathan Hodges Comm. Lawrence Spagnola Comm. Errol Kerr Comm. Daniel Vergara Comm. Alonzo Moody Absent: Comm. Chauncey Brown The Salute to the Flag was led by Miss Jessica Hinds, 12th Grade, N.H.S. Comm. Spagnola read the Open Public Meetings Act: The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act was enacted to insure the right of the public to have advance notice of, and to attend the meetings of the Paterson Public School District, as well as other public bodies at which any business affecting the interest of the public is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this law, the Paterson Public School District has caused notice of this meeting: Regular Meeting March 21, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. John F. Kennedy High School 61-127 Preakness Avenue Paterson, New Jersey to be published by having the date, time and place posted in the office of the City Clerk of the City of Paterson, at the entrance of the Paterson Public School offices, and by sending notice of the meeting to the

Al-Zaman, El Diario, the Italian Voice, the New Jersey Forum, the North Jersey Herald & News, and The Record. PRESENTATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS Performance by School No. 21 Cheerleaders Dr. Glascoe: For tonight’s meeting we are honored to have student guests from School 21 and the Public Safety Academy. First off, I would like to welcome the School 21

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Eagles cheerleading squad. They are right through those doors and we are going to have them come out in one second. But this award-winning group consists of 15 dedicated boys and girls in grades 6-8 under the direction of Ms. Shivana Stewart, who is the eighth grade language arts teacher. The team has received numerous accolades, such as being crowned the Taub Doby Cheerleading Champions and receiving the Most Spirited Award in a Rally in the Valley Competition, and most recently taking first place honors in the seventh through eighth grade elementary category in the Northern New Jersey Cheerleading Competition. That was held at Livingston High School. So it is a tremendous honor to have these talented youngsters here for us tonight. So let’s put our hands together and welcome the cheerleaders from School 21. (Performance by Cheerleaders from School 21) Dr. Glascoe: Do we have staff members from School 21 in the audience? Would you please stand? Thank you very much. Let’s give them another round of applause. That was tremendous. Thank you. Recognition of Jose Uceta for Receiving the President’s Volunteer Service Award Dr. Glascoe: Also, I would like to personally recognize one of our students. I would like to recognize Jose Uceta who is a junior at the Public Safety Academy for his dedication to volunteer service in our community. Jose received the President’s Volunteer Service Award, which recognizes individuals who have completed a significant amount of time in serving their community. I know Jose is here. Could he please stand? Jose, please remain standing. This is your time. I need to say along with this award he received a letter from President George Bush commending him on his accomplishments. Jose, your hard wok and dedication is extremely worthy of recognition, not just here tonight but in all places. We congratulate you on this distinguished award, we wish you good luck and keep up the good work. Thank you very much. Madam President, that concludes our presentations for tonight and if it is okay with you I will just move right into my report. REPORT OF STATE DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT Dr. Glascoe: Here is some noteworthy news and you may have had an opportunity to see something about this on NBC Channel 4. Reaching Out to Save Lives – Staff and students from Eastside High School’s Interact Club helped fund a critical heart operation for Adriana Portilio who is a 12-year-old Honduran girl. Adriana and her mother came to Paterson through the Rotary International Gift of Life Program. It took two years for the Interact Club, which is affiliated with the Paterson AM Rotary, to raise $1,500 through school fundraisers. The Rotary Club matched that $1,500 and then the Gift of Life Foundation provided matching funds once again. So the total amount raised to support this youngster’s surgery was $6,000. So hats off to the Rotary Club and to Eastside High School. Advocating continual educational success for our children - one of the forerunners in this endeavor is our own Paterson Education Fund. They will host a college track workshop for seventh and eighth grade students. The workshop will help students understand the importance of thinking beyond a high school education. The location is going to be the Academy of the Performing Arts and this is tomorrow, March 22, at 1 p.m. Something that is tremendously needed in our school district and in our community is an advisory committee for special education parents. That is by federal decree and federal law that districts should have such an entity. So I am happy to announce that the Division of Pupil Personnel Services is seeking parents of children with special needs to form this advisory committee. Information can be gathered by

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calling the office of the pupil personnel services on (973) 321-0733. The first meeting will be held at the new Roberto Clemente School next Wednesday, March 28 from 6-8 p.m. If you are interested please come out and join this important endeavor. Finally, I want to let everyone know that this is budget time and we have already pushed the button to submit a preliminary budget. As you know we have meetings scheduled next Monday and Wednesday. Monday we present the budget and Wednesday there will be opportunity for public comments and there are timelines that go on beyond that. Let me just say for the moment that last year when we were faced with a similar situation coming in with a flat budget we were warned, and maybe even in some respects threatened, by the Department of Education that if you think this year’s budget process is difficult, wait until next year. That was not just a threat. If it was bad last year we can double those efforts this year, especially with the demands being placed on the school district to provide information and different sets of guidelines. Remember, we are an Abbott district, we are a school district in need of improvement, and we are also a state-operated district. With those three titles come certain guidelines. So we are getting a triple look, so to speak. As you know, we have been dealing with the auditing process as well. So I say to you now that the State Department of Education has made a proposal to all the Abbott districts that you would accept a 3% over the flat funding. Now, let me say something about our flat funding. Our flat funding really is not flat funding when you think in terms of what we have to do and must do and rightfully so with our employee salaries and benefits. That has gone up considerably from last year and so that has to be met. That is a major part of our budget. And when you say flat funding no one takes into consideration the increases in those areas. But nonetheless, the State Department of Education has proposed to all of the Abbott districts to take the 3% increase. I am not mincing words with what I am about to say and I have written proof of this. I’m sorry I did not bring the document with me but you would not be able to see it from your seats. In sending that proposal to us, the State Department of Education said that if you take the 3% let me show you the pages and pages of documentation that will go on for infinity will remove most of that. If you do not take it, we will bury you in the paperwork and the documentation that you have to present. It gets even better. If all of the Abbott districts take the proposal, the State Department of Education is willing to provide additional funding for facilities. So those are the issues that are before us. I am not very good in math, as you can tell, so I am not sure where this additional money is coming from. But that is a proposal on the table. So we are faced with this dilemma in trying to move our school district forward. Many of the initiatives and programs and the direction that we are trying to take our school district in will be shortchanged. We are trying our best not to change anything, but we will not be able to move at the level that we wanted to. Whether we move forward with the proposal or not, we will not be able to move forward one way or the other. So that is the challenge before us. Our School Board members have copies of the budget that they will take with them tonight and we come back Monday with a presentation and then on Wednesday we have public comments. Let me just stop a minute and see if our business administrator, Ms. Finkelstein, would like to add a few things. I hope I did not confuse the matter. Ms. Finkelstein: This has been an extremely difficult budget both in terms of timelines and requirements. If I look at the bulk of the teacher salaries, their increase in salaries and benefits is up about $20 million and this 3% is in the neighborhood of $11 million. In order to balance the budget and not have any reductions, we are going through some very difficult times and I appreciate everybody’s support as we go through this process because the state is not making it easy. Dr. Glascoe: Mrs. Taylor, that concludes my report. Thank you.

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Comm. Taylor: Thank you, Dr. Glascoe. Dr. Glascoe: Please forgive me. I forgot to mention that this coming Saturday we have our job fair. We still have critical needs to fill and our job fair will be here at John F. Kennedy High School. It starts around 9:00 in the morning. We hope to have a great turnout like we did last year. Whether we are able to land most of the candidates at least we will have an idea of what is out there so that we can continue to make sure that we have the kind of human resources to move our district forward. Thank you. REPORT OF THE BOARD PRESIDENT Comm. Taylor: For my report I had one of the same things. It talks about building for the future. The district job fair we do every year. We have done it for quite a number of years now. Many times you see the Board members in the street and you ask us how you can get a job. This is one way that you can apply and leave your resume in the building when you come on Saturday from 8:30 to 2:00. But if you are not accepted on Saturday because you can be hired on the spot because there are some vacancies in our district. The other is if you have a resume go to 33 Church Street on the third floor and there is always a posting of jobs that are available in our district from teachers to cafeteria to security. All the departments in our district are posted on the third floor at 33 Church Street. Each one of those postings you must have a resume for. Even if you have a B.S. degree in education and you did not get the job as a teacher and you want to be an associate, you can send your resume and apply for that job. If you have a degree in school psychology and you did not make this job fair, send your resume in. Get your foot in the door in some area so you can begin to work in our district. Everyone that does apply is not always hired on that day. You always call the office and ask where I am on the listing in the district because your resume is in for certain jobs and you should call human resources to find out where you stand. So you have to keep ahead of that for yourself. I would just like to highlight the two newspapers. At Kennedy, the building we are in tonight, their newspaper is called The Torch. At Eastside High School it is called The Criterion. I read each one of these newspapers and I would like the parents to please ask your child for a copy of the newspaper. The students do a very good job with the layouts, the stories, the photography, and the artwork in the newspaper. Many students from Eastside have gone on to become newspaper reporters and art illustrators working at Channel 9, Channel 11, and Channel 2. Many of our students have gone on to write books. I want to read just one little thing here from the poet’s space. They usually have a poet’s space here. Sometimes we have difficulty because we don’t know someone. This person wrote this poem.

It Doesn’t Really Show

It doesn’t show unless you are in a wheelchair or walking with a cane. No one really knows how much you have been through until you let it show. It does not show how each day I walk the face of this earth and it seems like nothing matters. It seems like everything I do is not enough for the people who I love. I look back at the time when I was six years old. Time does not show all the damage done to my life since I was six years old. Time does not show the pain and sadness all these people put me through since I was six years old. No one really knows. No one really knows the pain and hurt I have experienced since I was six years old. I am 17 now and no one really knows what it is like to be me. I bet you could not even walk a mile in my shoes.

This is a senior at Eastside High School. It is a very good illustration of poetry about

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life. There are many stories in this newspaper and in The Torch from Kennedy. Students, please show your parents and parents please ask your child to let you see a copy of the newspaper and you will see a lot of the stories that the students are writing. Most of the students are writing the stories. Sometimes the teachers have interviews in the newspapers, but the students do the writing. We also receive another one from Passaic County Institute and also from Rosa Parks, which I did not bring with me. They are always full of information about the high school that the children attend, the school that they love, and they want you to love it. They want you to participate with them in the school, around the school, and in the community. Part of learning is in the classroom with the newspapers. We have a section here in every school that handles the high school papers and also other communications. I want the parents and the community to keep in touch with the school that is nearest you. I have asked our Board Commissioners and they have asked me about the different schools. All of us have our own assignments of schools in the district. I understand, Dr. Glascoe, we have over 52 school settings. We have small learning communities within the larger high schools and some are off campus. Get to know the ones that are around you. Get to know if they are being taken care of, if all the things that the children need are being answered for them. Parents and community are the people who are most valuable for us to get things done in each school in this district. Dr. Glascoe has been talking about a flat budget all year since we started the budgeting in July. But do you know a flat budget is determined by you too, what you say or what you don’t say, or if you vote or don’t vote. They take a look at our community. I was at a meeting the other night and we were talking about how many votes we get in a district, like the Abbott districts and the urban areas like Paterson. 13,000 different people may come out, but I think the most we have gotten in our elections is around 6,000 different people. You have a way of voting for three people for the Board. It says something to the people in Trenton and in the suburban areas. We don’t vote on a budget, but we do vote for people who go to offices to the state legislature, to the municipal, and to the county. We vote for them. You need to stand up for the education in your area. Most everybody around us in the surrounding suburban areas have great turnouts. They vote on their budget and most of the time they vote them down and they have to go back until they can get a budget that the children and the families can live with. Our budget is not determined by us and when it is determined by someone other than us they don’t take into consideration that this is a diverse community and we like it that way, by the way. We like the different people that make up Paterson, Jersey City, and Newark. We like the different people who make it up. But we also know that we need a lot of things in a city like Paterson, which is the county seat. All our buildings such as the courthouse, the post office, board of health, all our schools and all our 600 churches are tax-free. They do not bring any money to the table for education in this city. We have to be very careful or we are going to lose our right to vote. It is not far away. Some of us are passionate about this vote because many of us have died for it in order to get it. Maybe some of you did not have people in your family who were beaten, hurt, hanged, or maimed in order to do a ballot, but I have. And many of you have as well in the different countries that you have come from. I know it is very boring to listen to someone about how you can get power to control your own Board of Education and control your life steps. I was informed that at the last election there was a 5% turnout of 60,000 people. Do the math. 5% of 60,000 eligible voters came out and voted in our last school election. That is not a good picture sending to Trenton that we care about education in Paterson. We need to get out and vote whenever there is a chance to vote for anything in our city such as education, municipal government, and county freeholders. They all control this Board of Education. We called a person here who has really no power because we are not strong in our own efforts in Paterson. Whenever there is a problem and Anna calls for ten buses and Irene calls for ten buses, we can't get two filled when there is a protest on something that is needed for our children in education in this city. But there are a lot of

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people out there who claim they are doing something for Paterson. We can't see it yet. We can't feel it. We can't taste it. We can't smell it. It ain't happening on behalf of our children. You wonder why I am going on like I am. It is because I never see the second half of the Board of Education meeting and I think it is important for me to say this before we begin our session. If I were to see the other half of the Board of Education meeting when the Board members get a chance to say how they feel about what is happening to Dr. Glascoe and this whole district and every child that sits in every seat. And we keep asking for more facilities and we keep asking for these buildings to be fixed. We keep asking to make sure that we get at least 2,000 more seats in this district. The place is overcrowded and we are trying to make sure we get quality teachers. But our Board of Education members at the end of the meeting when they have something to say we don’t ever hear it publicly. I have been trying to watch it on Channel 76 and I only see one half but not the other. We come on at 12:00 and we come on at 7:00, but it is still the same half. Maybe we will get it fixed. Maybe we can get some alumni from Kennedy or Eastside who will help us fix that piece of technology in the communication department. I used to go to this school. I went to Central when it was Central and we gave that little stand there where you stand and say a little speech. But I am telling you we can get money together ourselves here in this district for certain things that the schools need. We can do it. That part in the area where they make the films and they do the film production has not happened for the students at Kennedy in I don’t know how long. They do not have access to the full benefit of that communications room for that production room. We as citizens and people don’t have to wait for the state to come. We can give a donation to this school for that. We can earmark the money for it. I don’t have to wait until I die to give a donation to this school. I am only talking like this because I never see the other half of the presentation for the Board. I don’t know how that happens, but it happens. I know that we have been having some technical difficulties, but it has been since the summertime. Can I have a motion for the public portion? PUBLIC COMMENTS It was moved by Comm. Sayegh, seconded by Comm. Moody that the Public Comments portion of the meeting be opened. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried. Ms. Irene Sterling: Good evening Comm. Taylor and the rest of the Commissioners. My name is Irene Sterling and I am the President of the Paterson Education Fund. I have both a presentation tonight and a question. Let me start with the presentation. Comm. Taylor: Just a moment. I don’t mean to take up your time. If you have a cell phone or anything that buzzes, beeps, or makes some other kind of noise please turn it off. And while we are here please pay attention to the speaker. If you must talk go out in the hallway please because we have been picking it up on our system here. Thank you. Ms. Sterling: Thank you very much. First of all, I want to support you, President, and the concern about getting out to vote and understanding how important the School Board election is. As Paterson Education Fund has done since we have reinstituted voting in this district, we have presented or put out and published a report called Your Educated Voter’s Guide to the Paterson School Board Elections. They are available tonight and there are copies for the audience here. You can get a copy by calling the Education Fund at (973) 881-8914. We will be happy to send you a copy or get multiple copies for your organization. A number of organizations around town do a distribution. For example, Headstart gets one for all their parents and we would be happy to make

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sure that happens. The report gives you information about all the candidates, their pictures, and it also gives you information about the attendance records of the School Board members. We are really pleased that this year we are able to give you not only the regular meetings and the workshop meetings, but we also were able to get the minutes of the special meetings. And we are very encouraged that the Board has started to keep official minutes of committee meetings. It is my hope that next year we will be able to report on attendance at committee meetings as well since the Board’s work is not only conducted in front of us at the public session at the televised meeting, but at many meetings that you have in other places in your committees and in other venues to make decisions about this district. We think it is important that the pubic know about that. My question this evening has to do with NJQSAC. Again, Comm. Taylor, talking about the issue of returning to local control, the regulation that governs that is called NJQSAC. It is my understanding that the consultants who are working for the state department on evaluating us under that regulation have been in the district and that there will be a public meeting. I understand that will be on April 4. That is why I am asking this question. Can you tell us officially when that meeting will be? Because I want to encourage the public to be at this meeting. It is another way in which we send a message to the state about how important we think it is. We know that Newark had theirs a week ago. It was not well publicized and it was not well attended. I do not want us in Paterson to fall into the same situation. Dr. Glascoe: It is on April 4 and we will publicize it. I will make phone calls as well. Ms. Sterling: That is wonderful. So it is on April 4 at Kennedy High School at 6:00. I only know this because I know the person who is running the team and we ran into her at a meeting. I hope to see everyone there because we will have a chance to talk with the members of the committee present that evening about the report and about what we feel is going on. Thank you. Comm. Hodges: Madam President, I’m sorry. What public meeting is this? And why are we hearing about it from Irene Sterling? Dr. Glascoe: I am not sure why, Dr. Hodges. I know that the members of the QSAC team have been here interviewing folks. I believe you were interviewed. I’m sorry. I should not assume, but I assumed that in that interview session as well as with me that is when I was notified we would have a meeting and I was asked to try to find the most suitable date that did not conflict with elections or anything else. So by the time you were interviewed you should have been made aware of that and I apologize. Comm. Hodges: I’m a little confused. What is the purpose of the public forum? Dr. Glascoe: As I was told by Dr. Cadet, the forum was an opportunity for NJQSAC to explain the process, to summarize their findings from their visit, and then to have public comments from the community. That is what was explained to me. I was just informed or reminded that was the date that was most suitable for the district with everything else going on. But they have not completely confirmed the date yet. Sorry about the confusion. Ms. Anna Taliaferro: Good evening, Anna Taliaferro. I want to begin tonight by wearing two hats - one as a citizen, a parent, grandparent, and community activist all rolled into one, and the other as the President of the New Jersey Association of Parent Coordinators. I think there is a little bit of history that Paterson needs to understand, especially since we have a relatively new Superintendent. There are some things on the table that you need to know about. Recently, I mulled over a question that was

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asked of me. What would Paterson benefit by its parents attending a statewide conference? I want to go backwards and then fast forward. Back in the early 80’s when Abbott was relatively a baby on the scenario, when Paul Tractenberg organized the Education Law Center and made Marilyn Morheuser the executive director, we talked about going all over this state to not only convince the parents that it was important enough to support this piece of legislation that was filed, but because it concerned our kids and it concerned equity and parity, something that the New Jersey Equalization Aid Formula did not do. We would go across this state and we would convince people, myself, Marilyn Morheuser, Steve Block, and many others. Marilyn did not drive so I drove her to a lot of districts and unfortunately had to convince urban superintendents, Black and White, to join hands with us to make sure that when we fought this fight in front of the Supreme Court, because ultimately that is where it was going to go, that it was a worthwhile fight. I can recall that Paterson parents went up and down that road, a bus full of Paterson parents. But even before Abbott was filed we were engaged in putting T&E in the state constitution, thorough and efficient for those of you who don’t know, and we were successful because we threatened to shut this system down unless you recognized that our children mattered too. Then we went ahead to the Supreme Court when Debra Poritz, who was the attorney general, came to the Supreme Court after arguing against Abbott and sat there. Because Paterson parents were in that courtroom under my leadership we turned the questions around in the Supreme Court. They were not even asking questions when we arrived that morning, when Buster Sories, who I came through the ranks with, sat there and said, “Give my front seat to Anna Taliaferro.” Not because I am important, but because of what it is that I stand for. So we began to open up the eyes of the Supreme Court justices. We did not have to do that when Judge Willince was sitting there because he was a former teacher and he was fully supportive of what it is parents needed to do for our children because we were not from the affluent school districts, what they called INJ districts. There was no PEF out there. There were not other organizations out there. There were no superintendents. There were no teachers out there. But doggone it, Paterson parents were in the mix and we represented well. So when you talk to me about parental involvement you better know the road that I have traveled. Sometimes it is a lonely road because when you stand up for unpopular issues you seem to be standing by yourself. But never mind because if you have a prayer in the heart and a song on the lips you can carry a fight even when it is alone. You don’t have to worry about people being there. So I am bringing all that to you tonight because I have tried something in this district recently and it does not seem to reach the people it needs to reach. And I want you to know our history. I know for a fact that we turned this state around. David Sierra came to this very Board meeting and stood up and said had it not been for the fight of Anna Taliaferro and many others that she convinced some of that Abbott money would not be sitting in your district right now because the state sure did not want to do it. When Debra Poritz left the state Peter Vinero was the Supreme Court justice and he argued against it under the orders of the governor. Make no mistake. When Lucille Davies sits in that statehouse down there she is ordered by the governor what to do. She is hired by him. If he decides that she is a threat he will pull her out of there. I am telling you when we have to go fight for these budgets there is nobody who is going to stand in the way of these kids. So I am going to bring you fast forward and I know I am taking some extra minutes tonight because after 37 years of being out here in this Board of Education and 46 years out there as a community advocate I am due some time. Now, here we go to August 7, 1991 because before that we even had to convince Pascrell. You cut it out of the minutes last year but you better not cut it out tonight. He did not even support us. Willa Mae, he came to your school when we stood up there and argued about it when he told us that it was not about money. Hell yes it was about money because you were not telling Wayne and Fairlawn and all those other INJ districts that they did not need money to reduce class size, that they did not need

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money to have a rigorous curriculum, and that they did not need money to educate three and four-year olds. Yes we did, and we proved it. Marilyn Morheuser lost her life by it. David Sierra has been on that trip trying to fill those shoes and indeed he has done a good job. But now it brings me to 2007. If anybody has paid their dues in this state it has been the Paterson parents. And the audacity of some to stand up there and say I go to a school meeting and I can't get but three or four parents. Look at your history because it is your history that will bring you forward to tell you what it is you are not doomed to do if you make a mistake. That is your history. And yes Jonathan, I am speaking to you and those of you who sit here and act like you don’t know because you all were not out there and we were. So now we come to this part. We come to a dilemma that I am sad to say in the 21st century we still have to argue about. Yes, I know what tighten your budgets up means. After all, my children sat in buildings when the buildings are 100 years old. We allowed Gordon MacInnes to skim 2% off the budget and did not give us back the money and misused it. We allowed a governor to say to us that we were not worthy of getting the SCC money because we would corrupt the money. I would like to know who corrupted $8.6 billion out there. It was not Paterson. So be careful my friends. When you are running for this Board you better understand who you represent. You represent us and make no mistake about it. I will wrap it up now. Courtrooms are not new to me. I sat in them long and hard. I have testified in front of the State Board of Education, in front of the State Commissioner for funding, and in front of the Supreme Court of this country. I have sat as a result of Congressman Gustus Hawkins who sent for me to come to Washington with Jonathan Cossell to sit at the table and talk about what affects our children in this country. I have been all over the place. I have been there for the national caucus. I have been there for the National Alliance of Black School Educators. Tomorrow I travel to Northfolk, Virginia on my own because this district did not see it fit to send me after working with the people who are at the helm of that organization to try to do something about a 50% dropout of Black male students. Oh yes, I am going to be there with my own money because it is important enough for me to sit at the table with the education giants and try to figure out what we should do for our children. We don’t need any core content curriculum standards to teach us how to rescue our children. We don’t need our children to learn by rote. We need them to learn with someone who is teaching with some heart. If they can't do that then they ought to give up their teaching license. At our conference that is held in April from Thursday to Sunday, we have some of the best brilliant minds coming in there to teach parents on how to help their children be successful. And I will fight to the death to get parents to the table. Know that about Anna Taliaferro. Yes, it is important and it is too bad that every one of you are not going because you will learn things that you could not learn by just sitting home. It is intense. Our parents go there and they work hard and all day long they work hard. Some of you have been there and have seen that. It is not a trip and I don’t like that classification. It is a place to learn so that parents can come back and be empowered. So don’t deny those of us who have been out here fighting and who know the good fight. We don’t have to put on. We are not Johnny-come-latelys who just decided to run for a School Board. We have the expertise. Just because we are parents does not mean we are stupid. After all, you have our children. These are our babies and I am not going to let you forget that, not after 37 years of being out here. So you ask me about where are the parents. Where are you? The name of my conference is “And So How Are the Children?” That is adopted from the Masai tribe in the bush country in Africa. Because when they ask that question you don’t have the right to say you are doing fine if the kids are not doing well. You must be responsive. To the parents of this district, to those who can vote, yes. You ought to take your last breath and go out there and vote. It is a precious God-given right and if you don’t use it you lose it. But you make sure that you vote for people who are going to represent you well and represent your child. It is a sad connotation for me tonight because this is my last year in this district. But I decided

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even against my family’s wishes that I am going to run for that School Board next year. And I am telling you now, get ready. Get ready. Get ready. I know how to represent children and I don’t need anybody to give it to me. I already have it because it is God-given. It is not man-given. Where evil prevails good men do nothing. So Willa Mae, we have been down that road. We have seen that road out there. We know how rough it can be for our children when they are uneducated. And we know that we have not done our job because we are powerful people beyond measure. But sometimes we are afraid to use the power we have. It is not about control. It is about knowing how to use power. And if power corrupts you absolutely then you don’t know the God that I serve because he sits high and he sees low. Thank you. Mr. Abdul H. Ali: Abdul H. Ali from Paterson, New Jersey. I am from the human organization. Can I get five minutes? Comm. Taylor: Yes. Mr. Ali: Thank you very much. Comm. Taylor: Good evening. Mr. Ali: Truth has a very special way of conditioning mindsets. The reason I talk about that is the curriculum does not have a heavy amount of truth in it. When you don’t have that in it, what you do to an individual that God made to have honor is it takes it out of that honor and makes it more other or a perpetrator to who he is. What am I saying? I don't know who is on this curriculum board. But whoever is on it, and Dr. Glascoe if you are a part of that, you need to take your doctoring skills and help out the mindsets. When I go to a doctor and I have an ailment he has to take a look at it and find out what is the problem with me. Then he comes up with a solution. Somewhere down the line the doctors did not come up with the solution. We got children out there dying. Did they turn this microphone off? Don’t turn that microphone off. When the doctor looks at his patient he has to come up with a remedy to get him better. But what we are looking at is knowledge and I share with all the Board that knowledge can play two roles. It can wake you up or it can put you to sleep. You are talking about enthusiasm. The reason people don’t come out to vote is because the knowledge factor in the person put the spirit to sleep. We don’t need a large amount to become victorious. We can have a small amount that is strong enough to stand the struggle. Believe me, I am not going to get into this having a thousand people when you can get five hundred who are strong and are taking care of business. Another thing, when we went to that meeting at the City Hall this Board even though it is taken over by the state you still have your own autonomy I believe. I think Joey said you did not because his head is pretty shot out too. Power will do something to you. Let me share something with you. Power that does not have any moral structure will be corrupted because you are not ordering things in the way they need to be. We stand up and we pledge allegiance to that flag and I remember praying to God before we went to the flag. So now we need to work something out on that too. I heard you say something else too. In order to get this district back, what must we do? Do they want to give it back? Or do they still want to control us? I went to a lecture and they said New Jersey was the last state to free their slaves. What I am talking is mentality-wise and ideology-wise. They might have let us go physically, but mentally they still have us under their spells and ideologies. So in that curriculum you need to work on your ideologies and let’s bring some truth in there because we do have a positive contribution not to education, but to this country. In order for the African American child to believe this and also to nourish that spirit in that African American child you need to give them their history because a child without a history is a child that is lost. We need to be found today. If education is about

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educating everybody give us ours because my daughter needs it. I am not a senior citizen yet but she needs it because I want her to be the best that she can be. She can only be the best if you give her the truth in her information. Thank you very much. Councilman Anthony Davis: Our children are dying and adults are killing them. Comm. Taylor: You need to give your name. Councilman Davis: Yes, I will. I just wanted to open up with that. Anthony Davis, City of Paterson. Last month I came here and I talked about how I met with 40 students and I also talked about having a community come together and it is not a community coming together if it is just one ethnic group that is together. I also talked about loving music. I talked about Marvin Gaye and what is going on, Sam Cooke and a change is going to come, and Michael Jackson, the man in the mirror. I also forgot to mention John Lennon, imagine this. Imagine if this was a perfect world, a perfect School Board, a perfect district, or a perfect city. Imagine if we would have a great perfect city of Paterson. Unfortunately, we don’t. So today I am here to talk a little bitter and sweet and I will start with the sweet. I am encouraged to see that we finally had a true joint meeting with the State Superintendent as well as the Board of Education Commissioners, our Mayor in the City of Paterson and also the City Council. They finally came together to meet on one accord. That was promising and I know that we are going to have more meetings. So kudos for that. I thank you. I am also happy that we just completed our annual Black History Month essay contest and the winners are not announced yet. We will come back with them. Today at Kennedy High School they had the career day and I was happy to be a part of that. Coming in and talking about government we somehow had deviated a little by the button that I am wearing. If you don’t know I am the Councilperson who put out the resolution to ban the ‘N’ word here in the City of Paterson. Other cities are following. New York followed on February 28. We passed in on February 13 and New York passed it on February 28. I am happy that by wearing this button it struck some conversation with some young people. So from that we are going to have a panel discussion with students of all ethnicities coming together and talking about the pros and cons of this slur that everyone seems to use so openly. We have an essay contest and we will have a discussion. April 17 is election day and I really hope and pray that we get out to not just campaign but to really educate our community to have them come out to seriously vote and look at the significance. On that for the first time we will have a youth group that will be hosting their first candidate’s night. I am letting you know that every youth group…(end of tape) (Beginning of new tape)…to hear and see and touch the candidates that are running this year and from this year on as a youth group we will host a candidate’s night. It will be at Passaic County Community College in the Paterson Room at 6:00-9:00. Once again, at Passaic County Community College in the Paterson Room on April 3, which is a Tuesday. I am going to give up some time from the City Council just to be with my youth to encourage them and let them produce this. I wanted to share that with you. Now for the bitter. Last Friday I had an opportunity to meet Dr. Rush and we talked from a to z about students, this district, this city, and the parental involvement. And we agreed on just about everything and what is needed to be done and how we can move this district ahead. The sad thing is that we did not agree and it has not been talked about yet in terms of parental. We want everyone to be involved in this parental conference. It is not just a Paterson thing. It is a state conference and we are encouraging everyone to come out to this conference and get the benefits that are there. I believe Dr. Rush did say he would be there. Just so you know, we are encouraged about this parent conference and we would like for it to continue. We have parents and staff members there who really learn a lot from the individuals who are there. One of the things that Dr. Rush and I did talk about is at the end of this parent

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conference we will have a meeting to talk about how we can encourage and empower our parents to come back and do the things that they have learned at this conference. So I want to thank you for that little bit of time and we will see you. Reverend Anthony Menzel: Thank you so much for letting me come before you. My name is Reverend Anthony Menzel and I am the pastor of the Spanish ministry of my church. I am also a Spanish-English bilingual science teacher at Eastside High School. This is my fifth year working at Eastside High School. I have a couple of suggestions that I would like to bring to the table. Hopefully, I will be able to get through them all. The main one that I want to bring to you all tonight is that I really feel that Paterson’s municipal government must ensure that the neighborhoods around EHS are given at least the same attention that the neighborhoods around JFK are given. I have heard that there are several police patrols around JFK after school, for example. However, around EHS this presence is not very strong. For example, two of my own students who are Latino, me being a Spanish-English bilingual science teacher, got jumped this winter walking home from school by a group of approximately ten Black youngsters. I mention race only because the violence that has occurred this school year at EHS has unfortunately been quoted with racial overtones. If my students had been on school grounds they would have been safe. Ms. Johnson and the rest of the EHS administration work hard everyday to ensure that students are safe in school. If my students were within eyesight of the school they would have been safe and rapid assistance would have been provided to them because Ms. Johnson and other administrators stand outside EHS everyday making sure there are no problems around the school. However, when my students were attacked the attack unfortunately occurred a few blocks away from EHS, too far away from the school to be seen by EHS administrators. When a Black youth, and I again say the race because obviously none of us who have any kind of reasoning in our head are going to be in agreement with racism, who saw what was happening called the police it took the police approximately an hour to respond to the call. The next day when I ran into my students in the hall and I saw how badly beaten the young man was I took him immediately to see Ms. Johnson. In contrast to the police response the day before, Ms. Johnson responded immediately and attentively. I subsequently accompanied my students to another office so that they could try to identify their attackers. However, it was not their efforts, but the efforts of EHS’s administration that led to the identification of several of the attackers. I am saying all of this to impress upon everyone here the need for the municipal government to act even more to prevent violence. The good news is that at least at EHS the schools are doing their best to keep Paterson’s young people safe. However, there will always be danger for them on the streets if those streets are not supervised consistently. Moreover, that violence will spill over into our schools robbing our young people of the education we are working very hard to provide them. The second thing I would like to mention is that there are some very good things going on at Eastside and I want to mention especially about our administration there. Our principal Ms. Johnson has a wonderfully refreshing open door policy. She opens her office to anybody who wants to express a concern as occurred with these students who got jumped. In addition to that we are really trying to focus on finding solutions to problems. The administration instead of always talking about problems is trying to find solutions. I also really feel that Ms. Johnson respects both the students and staff. You were talking about facilities issues. I taught my first couple of years in the winter in full winter gear. We would pass space heaters around the room to keep the students warm. We would light Bunsen burners to keep the students warm. I will never do that again, if I have to take them into hallway or protest or what have you. But Ms. Johnson had the respect and the courtesy to close the school or at least close the school early on several occasions when there was no heat and to me that is showing respect to both the staff and the students. As a member of the Latino community and a bilingual teacher, I also

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have several suggestions that I think will help our Latino students to do better in school. Number one, the need for a port of entry program for high school students who arrive in the United States with little or no education from their home countries. We have it for elementary but not for high school. The need for bilingual support at Paterson’s Adult High School so that overage students for whom the Spanish GED is too formidable have the ability to finish their education. Three, support for students who finish the ACES program which is geared to helping the overage elementary school students to ensure that they have all the resources they need to be successful in high school. Four, more bilingual support for special needs students who are English language learners. Five, a streamlining of the intervention and deferral services process for bilingual high school students so that they can obtain as quickly as possible the additional educational services they need. And lastly, the assessment of native language literacy among students arriving from other countries, especially those at the high school level, to determine how to best develop their English literacy skills. I just really thank you for your time and attention. Comm. Taylor: Could you give us a copy of your suggestions? Rev. Menzel: Absolutely. How would I forward that to you? Comm. Taylor: Do you have a copy now? Rev. Menzel: Yes. Comm. Taylor: Hand it to Dr. Atallo. Thank you. Do that and then send it to Dr. Glascoe’s office. Tonight our microphones are really working well. They are producing good sound. We have had trouble hearing it when it is being publicized on the channel. So they have been trying to make adjustments and they are asking us to have you move not too close to the microphone. About that far away. About a foot away. Mr. Miguel Angel Sosa: My name is Miguel Angel Sosa, Jr., resident of Paterson. I was born in Puerto Rico but I was raised all my life here in Paterson. I am very proud of my culture and of being a Latino and being Puerto Rican. I am sure some of you tonight may be asking yourself what does my race have to do with tonight’s topic or agenda. You are absolutely right. My race or any other race in this auditorium has nothing to do with the education of our children. We should all be looking through one lens, the lens of an efficient educator. Whether you are White, Black, Hispanic, a parent, a teacher, a community member, or a Board member, it is irrelevant if we are talking about race. We should be one big happy family when we talk about our business of educating our children here in Paterson. We should all judge accordingly through the lens of an efficient educator. We should ask ourselves, Do we have confident educators? Are they fair? Are they just? This is a hard one. We should ask that same question of ourselves. We should examine our hearts, their hearts, or their souls. Where is my soul in all of this? Do they really believe in improving the lives of our children? Or is their mind on swiping at 3:10? Or on how they can politically move up in the ranks? Or are they constantly asking directly and indirectly what is in it for me? Along the way our children are put in second, third, or who knows what place in their priorities. Why am I saying this tonight? I am going to make it short and sweet. I am here tonight to do two things, support my principal Ms. Karen Johnson in Eastside High School and to rebuff and condemn those people who stood up here in this podium and without knowing and without working with Principal Johnson shout false and reckless allegations. And that is not bad enough. They have the audacity to proclaim that they are the voice of the Hispanic community. I am Hispanic and I don’t believe their false allegations. Does that make me a traitor of my people? That is ridiculous. Do you know what? I am also

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representing a population here. But contrary to it being a race issue, my population is made of all races such as Latinos, Whites, and Blacks who choose to look through the lens of an efficient educator. And it is for this reason and this reason alone I stand behind Principal Karen Johnson. Ms. Karen Johnson is a committed individual and a committed professional who loves her job and everyday pours all her heart and soul 14 or more hours to a cause she believes in. She loves Eastside High School and most importantly loves and defends all the children at Eastside High School in the same manner and with passion. I can talk. I work there. I have been there for 6 years and I also am an educator at Eastside High School. Do you know where these vicious rumors came from? It all came with the Blacks versus the Latinos and all the uprising at Eastside High School and the finger pointing. It all began in the local streets of Paterson, an unfortunate situation where some African Americans beat up on a Latino a couple of blocks away and it all trickled down when the local municipalities were incompetent. It trickled down and as a result we were faced with an adverse situation with challenges of racial fighting between Blacks and Latinos, between brothers and sisters. Yes, brothers and sisters because in the sight of the Lord we are all equal. We all bleed blood and it is red. We had a handle on the situation and it is over. But in the process I want people to know that an innocent person’s name is being unfairly tarnished. It needs to stop and it needs to be condemned. Our sole purpose is to be educators. We are educating all of our students and all of our kids. Thank you for listening. Mr. Luis Velez: Good evening Board members. My name is Luis Velez. I was enjoying the speech before me. I hope a lot of Latinos and the community understands why I always encourage people to be united. I also stand on behalf and side by side with Ms. Karen Johnson, not only because today is election time or whatever. I have been involved in Eastside High School as a parent since 2001. I never noticed how good the administration had been working in Eastside High School up to now. You have to see when we have our home school council meetings. And when we are down there in the lunchroom conducting our meeting you can go to the principal’s office and who do you see there. Karen Johnson at 7:00 or 8:00 at night working hard for the next school day. Not only that, I sat down with Karen Johnson as vice president of the home school council and she showed me the plan that she has for Latino students. She signed for approval to send two bus groups of Latino children to a Latino college fair. I think that is an A+. She works hard at Eastside High School and I believe she is going to continue working. As a parent, if I am still in the district I will still work as a parent next to the administration at Eastside High School. I mentioned Ms. Taliaferro before and I learned that 350 parents were allowed to go to this conference and they are going to be reduced to 250. If we kill our parents and the resources our parents get in this conference, we are killing our children. If we are killing our children we are killing their education and we are killing the future of the people of Paterson. So you Board members when it comes to voting for something that benefits our parents please vote carefully. Make sure you are voting for the right things. And the administration, we always talk about budget. I am a parent who is involved in workshops. I am a parent who is involved in regular meetings. I even attended a conference regarding the budget. I am always involved all year round, not just at election time. I just want to advise the community to go out and vote. As everybody expresses themselves to go out and vote that is a blessing. And I want to say it in Spanish, too. (Speaks in Spanish). We can make the difference. God bless you. Thank you for the opportunity. Ms. Valerie Freeman: Good evening, Valerie freeman. I stand here this evening as a parent. First, I would like to just ask Dr. Glascoe one question because I heard of a letter that was sent to the Interim Passaic County Superintendent Robert Gilmartin. In that letter it speaks about a meeting that the business administrator and the deputy

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superintendent had with Ms. Taliaferro in reference to the parent conference for April 26-29. In that meeting supposedly they talked about cutting the numbers from 300 to 200 parents going. For the amount of students that we have in this Paterson district this district should be sending more than 350 parents to those conferences. It is a statewide conference. I just need to ask you a question. Do you know of the letter that has been sent? Comm. Taylor: Yes, we know. Ms. Freeman: That letter is slandering Ms. Taliaferro and I stand in full support of her because you cannot insinuate that someone wants the money placed in their hands and she is anxious to have the money placed in her hand. Whoever sent the letter is an absolute disgrace. When you try to stop the parents from being empowered then you have a bigger problem on your hands. At that conference that I attended last year I stood here before you and I read what I learned. And the information that I gathered and got from that conference was too powerful. You did not give it to me. None of the Board members can give me any of it. What I learned there I brought back to School 12. You need to understand that the majority of people and parents who go, all of your executive board of your home school councils and your PTAs are all parents. It is recommended by her that every one of them attend. You get that information and you come back and turnkey it. I can say for a fact that my home school council meetings made a tremendous turnaround and I used the tools that I learned there, such as health issues and how to teach your child at home. Every tool that I got there I brought back to School 12 and we had a great turnout from previous years at our home school council meetings. But I need to say this. There are three people running for reelection on April 17 and this goes to all Board members sitting there. I need to know where you stand on parental involvement and how important you think that this conference is and that they not knock it down to 200. From what I understand the money is already in the budget. It is already budgeted for 300 people. Am I correct? Or do I have wrong information? Apparently somebody is getting wrong information when you insinuate that somebody wants the money in their hands like they are going to pocket the money. That is basically what that letter stated. That letter went to the Department of Education to Senator Girgenti and to Assemblyman Alfred Steele. It is a disgrace. It is an absolute disgrace that something like that has to go out and it had our Superintendent’s name at the bottom that he sent that letter. How can I stand here as a parent and feel that you have my best interest and my child’s best interest at heart when you want to take away 100 parents from getting the knowledge on how to empower themselves to make sure that you guys do what you are supposed to do to get our children a quality education? I really would like answers because everybody is sitting here looking at me like I have two heads. I have one head, one mouth, and I have a big heart. I did not see any of you at that conference. I saw Dr. Rush last year and I know the one he sat in he had to leave there with something. We don’t go there to party. It is mandatory that you go to each workshop. If you bring 12 parents you can't have 12 parents in the same workshop. They have to be spread out. Everybody has to do a report. You have people going out on many conference and district things. Do they give you reports? Teachers who go out on conferences, do they give you reports? Not fill out that little thing that says I attended this and this is what I learned, but an actual report. What did you learn? I would give it out to anybody. I would challenge anybody. Any conference that you have been to or anybody, how many notes do you take? Do you understand? We still don’t have any answers but I think it is a travesty and it is very sad that letter went out like that. Comm. Taylor: Ms. Freeman.

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Ms. Freeman: Yes, I understand my time is up but listen. I stand in full support. Letters will go out to the governor, to the senators, and to the assemblymen. Letters will go out on behalf of Anna Taliaferro. I will start it and I have started it already. But it is a sad day when we come to this point. It is very sad. It is very sad day. I have nothing else to say. All I have to say is I do believe that the 300 parents will go because the parents we have rallying behind us it should happen. It should be more than 300. Comm. Taylor: Ms. Freeman, that is what you are to do. Ms. Freeman: Exactly. Comm. Taylor: I thank you for the information and you are going on the right step. You are going in the right direction. Ms. Freeman: Thank you very much. Comm. Hodges: Madam President, would you please inform the public that we have been asked not to speak so it does not appear that we are sitting here ignoring these people? Comm. Taylor: We are not ignoring you. It is just that we want everyone to speak and we want to give you the time. But we are aware of what you need to do. Ms. Freeman: Okay. Thank you. If anybody would like to respond to my questions you can contact me at School 12. Comm. Taylor: We can do it at the end. Ms. Michelle Tobias: Good evening, Michelle Tobias from Paterson, New Jersey. I came to talk about MPACT. I want to know a few things. I called Dr. Hodges on the heat problem once they had it in the school and they had to send the children home early. But when they repaired the upstairs at MPACT the basement is still cold. Can you tell me if someone will look into that heat problem at MPACT? The next question I want to know about MPACT is why is there only a vice principal in one school and there is no principal in the other school? My next question is I want to know when they put that school downtown did they think about the problem they were going to have with the parking situation for the teachers as well as the parents? I need to ask you another question. We used to have a school downtown for the pregnant girls. Why did they close the Sage School up? Why did they close that school up? Because it is still needed. I need to talk about the lunch in School 2. My grandson came home a couple of times with applications and we sent the applications back. Now here is March and they sent the application home again. When I called downtown about the application they told me it was not in the system. My grandson told me he had to sneak a lunch because everyday they were not feeding him. I know if he did not have the proper lunch papers they were supposed to give him a different lunch. Am I right or wrong? He did not get that either. Can someone tell me what happened with a few of these things I just asked you about? Thank you. Mr. Leo Ibanez: Good evening Board, my name is Leo Ibanez with the School-Based Youth Services Program at Eastside High School. I am a youth development specialist and this is Mr. Gonzales. He is the parent of a child at Eastside who had a situation and our principal Ms. Johnson and the administration helped him out. He would like to just say some words.

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Mr. Gonzales: I am a single parent with three kids. I have custody of two kids, Javier Gonzales, Jr. and Julio Gonzales. I have two jobs and I can't even feed my sons. I have to work hard to get an education and one time I came into the office and I explained my problems and she did it. I don’t know how. She did not know me but she did it. That is appreciation for that person. Mr. Ibanez: These are just some letters that I would like to read quickly. One is from his son. “School-Based is the best program that I ever went to. School-Based really helped me a lot. It changed my life completely. I came to a point where I could not trust anyone. When I came to this program it helped me understand that I should give people a chance. My biggest problem was solved by them. I remember when I used to come with negative thoughts and at the end of the day I would be more positive. Thank you to School-Based and to the principal for everything.” This is another letter from another student. “I am writing on behalf of the students at Eastside High School. I believe in my heart that she is a very good principal and always tries to meet the needs of every student here at Eastside. She has done a lot of good things for us and makes sure that we know the importance of our education. She is the heart of Eastside to everyone. We should have more principals like her because she goes around to every class and talks to all the students. She tells us to educate ourselves and that a mind is a terrible thing to waste. I honestly can say that the fights or riots that went on were not her fault. It happened in the streets so reprimanding her because she was doing everything in her power to stop the nonsense is ridiculous. If you really want to do something, open yourselves up and try to see things from her point of view because if she can't be a positive role model in my life, I don’t know anyone who can take a position and be as successful as she is.” I have one more. “I am also a student at Eastside High School and I think that Ms. Johnson is a very fit and inspirational leader. I also would like to say that she is our first female principal and a very good disciplinarian. She is the mother figure we have here and she is very much needed at our school. I am sure she has inspired and put a spark into each and every one of our lives and nothing would make me happier than to walk in her footsteps. I really would like to see her at Eastside High School during my last two years because seeing her in the position of being a leader makes me want to also go on and become the person that I know I can be. So I think she should be given a chance to finish what she started and change the school’s self-esteem. To close, I would like to say to any detractor of Ms. Johnson I don’t even want to answer. But I think someone who lived and died 2,000 years ago, Jesus of Nazareth, can answer at Matthew 7. ‘Judge not lest ye shall be judged and do not worry about the speck in somone’s eye, but worry about the plank in your own eye.’ That is the attitude that Ms. Johnson fosters in our school in the short time that I have been there and I long to see more.” Thank you. Comm. Taylor: Thank you. Did you want to share your letters with us? Mr. Ibanez: Sure. Mr. Juan Jimenez: Good evening, Juan Jimenez from the City of Paterson. Comm. Taylor: Good evening. Mr. Jimenez: How are you? Anna Taliaferro and I don’t agree on lots of things. But tonight Anna, I give you kudos. With what you spoke I agree 100% with you. That should happen. I agree with that. On the agenda tonight you have three items on the curriculum side. That is No. 24, No. 25 and No. 26. As a representative of an organization, I would like to have copies of the entire resolutions so I can study them. I also have a question on No. 26. It says authorize the district Affirmative Action team to

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carry out the state mandate as required by the state law and regulations. I want to know what the state mandate is. So if you can provide my organization with copies of those three resolutions I would appreciate that. Comm. Taylor: All copies of the resolutions are on the table. Mr. Jimenez: Not just this? The entire resolution is on it? Comm. Taylor: Yes. There are copies of it on there. You can't take it with you but you can read it. Mr. Jimenez: I want to take it with me. That is why I am requesting for copies. Comm. Taylor: Okay. We hear you. Mr. Jimenez: Last month I was here with some parents and other members of different organizations and we were speaking on different concerns of the district here in Paterson. Among those concerns was the situation at Eastside High School and also the lack or inequity of Latino representation throughout the district. I stayed after the public portion to see if I could get some answers either from the administration or from some of the Commissioners as my questions and comments were directed at the entire panel. Needless to say, I did not hear any comments concerning this from any of the Commissioners and I stayed to the very end. I have one proposal also and I spoke to Comm. Atallo and Comm. Kerr about you as an administration of Commissioners making your comments or responding to the public’s questions and remarks as soon as the public portion is closed. That way these parents and the people who are coming here don’t leave and don’t have to wait until the end to hear from a response where they probably won't be able to hear anything here but on television. And as the Chairwoman Taylor said, you can never hear the second half of the meetings on television. So my suggestion is that the response and comments are made after the public portion for everyone here speaking. Another thing, it is interesting to see how some folks come to the aid and defense of the principal at Eastside High School. That is very good. That is very interesting how the principal’s doors are now always open when they should have been open since September. It is also interesting how Luis Velez who spoke here was at the meeting where the principal made the racial remarks. I guess he did not hear them and he is coming to her defense. I am glad that employees are defending her and her comments, but if they did not defend her they would also be persecuted or fired or punished. So that is very interesting. I hope that the persecutions of the students, parents, teachers and administrators at Eastside have now been stopped. We will continue to research and look into it to see that equity is being applied. It is interesting that she now has people doing her bidding. Thank you very much. Ms. Waheeda Muhammad: Good evening, Waheeda Muhammad, 21 Market Street, Paterson. I want to give you my comments and my congratulations as far as this meeting goes that you have really and truly cleared up the picture part of the viewing on the television. But you are exactly right. We still have great work to do with the sound. But at least we can now see you very clearly. We just can't hear you. We thank you for working on that. I want to ask Dr. Glascoe did I hear you say that the only way we would get the added funding is if all of the Abbott districts agreed on something? Secondly, when you do the budget on Monday when the public is here on Wednesday, will we get copies so that we can see exactly what it is that you are discussing? Thirdly, I want to ask that when we do a presentation to parents, I want to say right here and right now that when I came to this town with six children, four sons and two daughters, it was Anna Taliaferro who taught me as a parent how to make sure that whatever my

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children needed I got. So I want you to reconsider whatever it is that went on as far as not letting these parents go and get the training that will help you. When we help ourselves we help you because then we don’t have to depend on you to do our work. We learn what it is that we can do as parents and we do that. So that makes your job much easier. So I want you to reconsider whatever it is that is going on as far as now not allowing parents to go get training. That is unheard of. We have marched and sat in and laid in to make sure these things happen. I know we are not going to stop now and say that now we are going to back up and say it is okay to deny us the knowledge that we as parents have the say about what our children should and should not have. I want all of you Board members to really and truly search your hearts because if that is what you are doing to parents, then I have to relook at you sitting there saying to me that you care about my children but you don’t give a you-know-what about me as a parent to be trained to help my children. Then I have to look at you much differently. And it is because I am a mother and a parent and an activist that I can stand here today and know what it is that I am talking about when it comes to my children. So we are not going to allow anyone to cut our legs now that we have learned to walk. We are going to run wherever it is that we have to get these things corrected. Thank you very much. Ms. Maribel Mitchell: First and foremost, I just want to give thanks to the administrators over at Eastside High School. I just want to speak loudly and say that I am proud to be in Paterson. Comm. Taylor: Could you give us your name? Ms. Mitchell: Sure. It is Maribel Mitchell. I am here to speak to the community as a whole and I am here to express my feelings towards Ms. Karen Johnson the principal of Eastside High School. I have known Ms. Johnson for many years, first as a student while attending Eastside High School and most recently as an employee at the same school. In the time that I have known her, she has always been very fair with everyone and has never shown any favoritism. If you are wrong, then you were wrong, no matter who you are or what you look like. Therefore, I truly believe that the remarks of Ms. Johnson being partial to any specific group or people are totally false. Instead, she should be praised for the commitment that she has given to the students and the community. I was overjoyed to hear the gentleman read those letters of the students. I have spoken to a lot of the students and they have expressed the same. Thank you for your time. First Lieutenant Peter Mitchell: My name is First Lieutenant Peter Mitchell and I am with an organization called Civil Air Patrol. We are the auxiliary of the United States Air Force. Before I even talk to you about our organization, I want to give thanks to Principal Miele from PANTHER Academy. She has been a great supporter of our program. The reason I am here tonight on a little lighter note is I want to talk to you about the program that we have available for the youth. Our organization being the auxiliary of the United States Air Force has three missions. One is aerospace education, the other is emergency services, and the biggest one that we are very heavily involved with is cadet programs. We are trying to get a unit going over in PANTHER Academy. I did a little research on my own and there was a unit here back in the 1940s, and incidentally it happened to be an all-female unit. That unit was disbanded a couple of years later after the war was over and ever since then Paterson has never had another until from the Civil Air Patrol here in this city. It is fortunate enough that we have had quite a number of people inquire about this program and we are trying to get it off the floor over at PANTHER Academy. I do want to make sure that everyone understands that the program has nothing to do with the school, if not you would have all known about it. It is a free-standing program. It is a nationwide program.

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If you want to do a little more research on it I can give you the website. It is www.cap.gov. There is also an inner city school program that Civil Air Patrol does have and they have one successfully going in a school in Philadelphia and they have one going in a school in Kentucky. We have got so far at PANTHER Academy six cadets that have been attending the program. We are having meetings regularly every Wednesday from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. So far five out of the six cadets have been processed through national and they have their cards and their books and all this other stuff. The program is a very interesting program. It pushes leadership and it pushes youth to move forward and become tomorrow’s leaders. The program does not have anything to do with any type of commitment with military service. After they graduate from high school it is something sort of like a JROTC program. The only difference like I said before is that it is a free-standing program and it has nothing to do with any type of schools or anything of the sort. But again, as I said, I want to thank Ms. Mielle for all her support and I wanted to introduce this to you all tonight so that you know what is going on here in Paterson. We trying to get this program going and we really want to get as many of our youth here in Paterson involved as best we can. Thank you. Comm. Hodges: Madam President, may I ask a question? Comm. Taylor: Yes sir. Comm. Hodges: Sir, is this a form of military recruitment? Lt. Mitchell: No sir. This organization is strictly a volunteer organization. It is in no way, shape or form a military recruiting organization. It is not an academy type of organization where any of the children are committed to any type of military service. It is something like the Boy Scouts, if you will. Comm. Taylor: We have the website and we can look into it and check all the information that he has given to us. Comm. Hodges: I just wanted to know because I know there appears to be a major push in Paterson in terms of military recruitment. Comm. Taylor: We will talk about that when you have your comments, Dr. Hodges. Comm. Hodges: Sometime tonight I hope. Comm. Taylor: Yes. Lt. Mitchell: Thank you for your time. Mr. Bilal Hakeem: Good evening, Bilal Hakeem, requesting five minutes of organizational time. I wanted to just say that last month when I came here before the microphone I was told by Ms. Taylor that someone would get to me regarding the Amistad legislation and the work that we are trying to do. No one has gotten in touch with me. Comm. Taylor: I know. Mr. Hakeem: I am just saying that I took the initiative and I got in touch with the right party and things are moving right now. I just wanted to put that on the record. I wanted to just say that I have a copy of the letter that was sent by Dr. Glascoe to the Interim Passaic County Superintendent right here. I would like to just read into the record a

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letter that I sent out to several people as well. “Dear Mr. Gilmartin, Interim Passaic County Superintendent. Greetings. I am taking the time to write you this letter in open and not confidential in response to Dr. Michael Glascoe’s March 15, 2007 letter to you. Although this is supposedly the age of instant communication, trying to communicate to the State District Superintendent has its limitations. But more importantly, it makes me feel as though we are not really in touch. Of course, he is a busy man and few calls are ever returned and little importance is attached to follow up, or so it seems. Mr. Gilmartin, information is intelligence. People need a better understanding of the world we are living in and the historic obligations that confront our collective existence. Therefore, this letter is an attempt to open up a new chapter of forthright leadership and positive dialogue. People need information, not misinformation. Dr. Glascoe’s allegations and assessments are seriously flawed. Number one, it has been reported to us that Dr. Glascoe and some of his staff have been working night and day to undermine the parent’s conference this year by contacting other districts and colluding with them to not support the conference. The deputy superintendent and the business administrator have constantly done things to block the success of the conference. There is no real reason to cut back the number of participants because the finances are there. I would bet you a dime to a donut that they will not even show up to the conference, and I am not a gambling man. To insinuate that Ms. Taliaferro has requested that the hotel and mail payments go directly to her reminds me of a renowned writer whose name eludes me at the moment. He once wrote that the dark ages of European civilization did not exist due to the absence of light. Those in power refused to see. I think the metaphor applies. Lastly, yes, Ms. Taliaferro is the President of NJAPC and her assistant is the treasurer. What is the conflict? My motives are clear and open. I am a parent who has benefited tremendously from these conferences. I am a simple man. I think those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. 27,000 students are in this district. 300 parents is a small number and it should not be reduced. I hope a prominent individual like yourself will honor me with a timely response.” I sent this out today to the state, the governor, and various other people. I also sent a letter out to the deputy superintendent who is sitting here in front of me. I requested a meeting with him and I still have not received a response from him yet. I did mention in that letter that if we did not receive a response, I don’t want to have to bring the news media in front of the Board of Education because we want parents to go and receive knowledge and information so they can best partnership with administration and staff and faculty. I don’t want to do that. Let’s have a dialogue. This is preposterous that this is going on. This is the first time something like this has happened. As I mentioned in my letter to Dr. Rush, the parents attending the conference do not go there to get drunk. They are going there to be informed by some of the most astute experts in education from around the country. I am going to back away from this microphone, ladies and gentlemen. I just want to say that I spoke with someone from the Parent Leadership Alliance last week and they asked me what educators were coming. Clearly this person does not understand what education is so this is one of the books that I received from one of the presenters last week, A Crisis Action Plan. It is a very important booklet written by a former police sergeant Delacey Davis that young children and adults need to have in their hands when they are dealing with law enforcement so that they don’t make certain moves or mistakes and wind up becoming a casualty. I still would like to meet with you, Dr. Rush. I wanted to be friends with most of you. There are many people that I support in this here district, critically. I don’t blindly follow and support anyone. Ms. Irene Sterling, I admire the work that she does in education and I will defend the positions that she takes. The same with Mike Tirri and others. I am saying this is ridiculous what is going on. Those parents should not be denied access. I almost missed this meeting because unfortunately we have so many boys masquerading as men and they are nothing but retarded boys. So I thank you for giving me this opportunity and last but not least, you

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can't speak, but we never really hear any response to any of this. I sent this out to my contacts in the media. I am a media person. I am a broadcast journalist and I am about to produce a local television program called Issues, Facts, and Faith in which I would like to interview many of you so people can better understand how education works. I have children and grandchildren. I have become a grandfather now. My first grandchild was born two weeks ago. My daughter graduated out of this district. She is a good academic student still in school. So that is all I have to say. I stand wholeheartedly with the Parent Resource Center and the leadership of Ms. Taliaferro. I did not know about education until I met with Ms. Taliaferro and I thank you. Ms. Tameka Bolds-Wilson: Good evening, Tameka Bolds-Wilson. My comment this evening is about the conference as well. I am quite sure you see a lot of parents are coming to this microphone this evening about this conference because it is very important to us. You often hear how people say that you don’t see parents in the schools. A lot of parents fear going to school because they don’t know their rights. If it were not for conferences, a lot of parents would not know the little that they do know. But Dr. Glascoe, you made a comment at one of your forums. You said that you wished parents and students had an interest in education like they do for their class trips. Now you got your wish. You have 300+ parents that would like to be educated on different topics for many reasons and many concerns with our children. Now the mystery person who asked you guys not to speak, can they come forward and present themselves to the parents and explain to us why 300+ parents can't go to a conference when we have over 27,000 students? Also, who will determine which parents go? If you have over 300 and you only want to send two, who gets to go? How is that determined? Can you ask this person to come forward and explain to parents who goes? We would like to know because it is important to us. The same way you have important issues regarding your lives, our children are very important to us. There are topics that are going to be at this conference and I would like to attend because I have issues regarding two of these topics that are going to be spoken about at this conference. I don’t know how concerned you really all are and how you wear these badges that say children are first. But how are children going to benefit if our parents don’t know? How do we get this information we need so we can help our children, our schools, and our communities if we are going to be selective in choosing who goes to conferences and who gets education? Here we go again playing with education. Parents are the first teachers, the first educators. If we don’t have knowledge or the education we need to help our children, if we can't receive it because we can't go to conference, you don’t have anything else going around in our schools that you can say parents come in because the Board is going to have a class this evening on special education. Parents come in and we want you to sit with the Board and we are going to discuss a curriculum. We don’t have any of that. But we get two days out of a whole year to go to a conference that could benefit parents and we can't go. If the missing person can reveal themselves and explain to parents why we can't go, we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you. Ms. Diane Thomas: Good evening, my name is Diane Thomas and I am a parent of an Eastside student. I am also the secretary for the home school council at Eastside. I am here tonight to speak in reference to comments that were made in reference to the meeting and Ms. Johnson. I would first like to commend Ms. Johnson and the administration at Eastside. I feel that they are working to try to draw parents in to help them make decisions to improve the school and give us ideas on things that we can do. As a parent I feel that is so important for the parents to come in as one, not as African American and not as Latino, to get together and try to situate some of the problems that are going on and talk to their children and find out what is going on in the school and what they feel they need improvement on. In reference to the comments about the Latinos or statements that were made on the part of Ms. Johnson, I am here to say

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those are truly false. She basically was trying to make them understand that there are a lot of issues happening with the kids outside of the school when they leave the school. It is like a merry-go-round effect. When something happens to one student it comes back into the school. If something happens to a Latino child and it has something to do with African American kids, it did not happen initially in the school but it comes back to the school because they all attend that school and there is some type of retaliation. It is basically random acts, not necessarily the individuals who had something to do with it. It could have been because they were African American or Latino. But there was nothing ever stated on one side or the other in reference to Latinos or African Americans. She basically was trying to educate everyone on what is happening and we need to come together and put ideas together to resolve these issues. Again, I just want to commend them. I think they are doing an excellent job and that is why I am there trying to work with them to also rectify some of those issues. Thank you. Mr. Julio Tavares: Julio Tavares, Passaic County Director of the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey. I want to clap for the staff at Eastside for doing a great job, especially the Latino Eastside staff that came out today to represent Ms. Johnson. I understand I guess your job is at hand and you are here because you are looking for something, making sure your job is protected. Some of you had said that the Alliance came here and said lies about Ms. Johnson and that we just do not know what we are talking about. It is funny because none of us at the Alliance have a job at Eastside or at the Board of Education. So we have nothing to gain and nothing to lose. You do. So you are here protecting your jobs. I understand that. But it is a shame that you come here to protect your jobs and not the Latino community in Paterson. Where are the students that have been beaten up? Where are the parents who were here last time complaining about the issues at Eastside? Where were you when we had a meeting with over 100 parents and Mr. Fisher was there so you could hear the parents complaining about the problems? Where were you when Ms. Johnson said that the Latino students were the ones starting all the fights at Eastside? Where were you? Nowhere to be found. It does not matter how many people come here and defend Ms. Johnson, especially the staff from Eastside. It does not matter how many rosy colored articles the Herald writes because they were not here when the parents came here and complained about all the major issues. They did not write an article about that. That never came out in the paper, but this will. I am here to tell you that regardless of what happens, the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey is here to represent the community, not self-interest, jobs or promotions. None of us is looking to become a vice principal or something like that or to get a job because their mother is working in the district. It is a major difference. We are here to protect the community and work for the community. That is why we are here. We met with Dr. Glascoe and we sent a letter to you about that meeting. I just want to reiterate that letter and I hope you received it. It was written by a spokesperson, Arthur Soto. “Dr. Glascoe, we would like to thank you for meeting with us, the Passaic County Chapter of the Latino Leadership Alliance this past Tuesday, March 16. We appreciate the time you took along with Ms. Shafer and Mr. Rojas in listening to our concerns and that of the Latino community at large in Paterson. As you now, Latinos form the majority of students in the Paterson School System. Many students are underprivileged and come from single parent homes with limited proficiency in the English language. In order for them to succeed they need a support system comprised of administrators, teachers, and principals who will be sensitive to their cultural language and socio-economic background, which Ms. Johnson is lacking. When she said that Latino students are the ones starting the fights at Eastside, she proved that she is biased and partial. We want to reiterate to you that we feel, along with the majority of parents at Eastside High School, that Ms. Karen Johnson is not someone with that kind of sensitivity. She has unapologetically and repeatedly blamed Latino students for the constant fighting at Eastside…(end of tape) (Beginning

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of new tape)…shortsighted, contemptible, and an embarrassment to Eastside. She needs to step down as principal at Eastside High School without delay and apologize for her comments and actions. You will clearly serve our students and the parents by intervening in this matter and expediting this process. We will be observing this process with great expectation and interest. Additionally, we will continue to assist the students and parents at Eastside as well as throughout the school system to bring about the changes that they have been clamoring for so long. Please understand Dr. Glascoe that we would like to work with you in this process and in maintaining a dialogue in our community. It is our desire that you take the proper steps to resolve this situation at Eastside promptly. We believe that your position as Superintendent is to provide a framework where our children are given the very best education possible in our public schools. Again, we appreciate your service and your work for our students and their parents. We know that you will agree with us that no matter what their race, color, gender or ethnic background is they deserve nothing less than the best. On behalf of Julio Tavares, Juan Jimenez, and the rest of the Passaic County Chapter of the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey, we thank you.” I want you to be clear about this. Regardless of the dog and pony show you see today sent by Ms. Johnson, which is not present, more than likely purposely, the Latino Leadership Alliance will continue to work to make sure that the students and parents are well represented and respected in the City of Paterson. Ms. Johnson has shown her contempt for the Latino community in front of us and regardless of what these individuals have said and regardless of what you read in the papers tomorrow, it is not true. She is an incompetent individual and she should step down. Thank you very much. Mr. Quincy Battis: Good evening, Quincy Battis. I am just basically here tonight to set a track record in reference to Eastside High School and my communication on how I feel about Eastside, my views in reference to Eastside and develop some of my conversations and emails I have had in reference to Eastside. I have met with Ms. Karen Johnson who responded in my view immediately. For the record, I do not want a job in this school district. My mother is deceased. My father is retired. My brothers and sisters have relocated, sold homes, and left Paterson. I basically don’t need any of my family members having jobs in the district. I say all that to say there is no allegiance to why I am standing here tonight to defend Eastside other than I was a student at Eastside High School. I did speak with Ms. Karen Johnson on numerous occasions about weapons and etcetera. I was very vocal in speaking out and asking the district along with our Senator Girgenti and Nellie who is on the judiciary and public safety in reference to metal detectors and cameras in our school district. I was very vocal and I supported that. I also still support Ms. Karen Johnson who I think is intelligent. I remember her as a gym teacher. I don’t find her to be incompetent. I normally do not discuss or divulge my personal opinions in public portions because I do understand very well and clearly that you do not discuss personnel matters in an open forum. But I must stand here tonight to defend that school. I think the administration is doing a fine job from what I noticed tonight. I have no dislikes with the Latino community, but when I see the majority of them bickering back and forth about her doing a good job and some saying she is not doing a good job then it is the old issue of not seeing a Latino or Latina in administration at Eastside High School. When Dr. Glascoe came here I would love to see an African American male or female in Martin Luther King School. I don't know if there is anyone competent. I have voiced my concern with Dr. Glascoe about that. Maybe there was no African American who fit the criteria of being there. I don't know. But I must stand here tonight and defend Ms. Karen Johnson. There was also an email that went out in reference to Commissioner Lucille Davies. I don’t have clarity of the email that she returned to me so I don’t know if you are able to speak tonight or whenever. I need the time and date and location of the forum she is having here in Paterson according to her email response that I believe I emailed the community in

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reference to her response. Thank you. Do I get an answer on the time, date, and location of her forum? Your guess is just as good as mine. Thank you. Mr. Raul Guzman: Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the Board of Education. My name is Raul Guzman. I serve our great City of Paterson as the dean of students of Eastside High School. On this card it says I was born in the Dominican Republic and I consider myself to be a representative of the Latin community. I represent the children of our school. I represent this community that I absolutely love and grew up in. I am an immigrant of the Dominican Republic. I came here in 1978 and have never been anywhere else. I don’t want to be anywhere else. Tonight, I want to touch on three points and I will go over the three-minute mark but not by much. I want to talk about the polarization of the ethnic groups in the school system by those that pose problems instead of solutions, the unjust and unethical public criticism of the leaders in our educational community. Briefly, I will touch on the series of events that have occurred around the area of Eastside High School that some of my colleagues did touch on today. The recent meetings held pertaining to our school system geared toward one ethnic group are at the core of these issues. It is that division that weakens our community and causes a detriment to the children we serve. How can dividing the very people that can overcome the obstacles we encounter help us solve any issue? The problems of our school system do not differ much from that of other inner city schools in New Jersey. Paterson considers itself one of its great cities. We encounter the same problems that the great cities encounter. We encounter the same challenges that other major urban centers face. The difference is that before we attempt to resolve our problems our divisions destroy us from within and our children suffer. We invite those who choose to throw stones at our educational leaders to offer suggestions and solutions. That door has been open since September, yet time and time again they choose not to accept our invitation but instead continue their attempts to discredit our leader at Eastside High School. The final point as to what went on in the school, we don’t need to retouch that. But what I do need to say is that the greatest crime that went on was not that our children were assaulted, but what followed afterwards. The exploitation of what happened to our children for all kinds of games, whether it be popularity for whatever reason. That is the true crime that went on. I see around me Board members that came concerned and people from the community. Let’s get something straight. Eastside High School is not perfect. It never will be. That is the nature of education. Here is some education 101. Education is dynamic. It changes. That is why it is considered to be an entity. Like a society, it grows and it is affected by everything. Sergio Vani, for those of you who don’t follow education, says a school is a reflection of the society it is in. We reflect our society and we bang our school one way and the society bangs it back the other way and we fight everyday. That is why there is constant changing of the guards at Eastside High School because there are those who are not afraid to fight for our children time and time again. The greatest crime was what followed afterwards. We opened the doors to discuss solutions and to hold people accountable, those who should be held accountable three blocks away. As I told those parents, and I did deal with those parents who came in with their children hurt, in Eastside High School I have a voice. My name is Mr. Guzman and my word is respected. Across the street I need the same protection that any one of you here would. But those who can protect our children two and three blocks away we wanted to discuss where were they during all of this. And where were all those people who had so much to say afterwards about our principal? I have no other way to end this except to say that Eastside High School’s principal’s dedication is relentless and her will to serve our school community is unyielding. It has been so since I have known here since 1987. Ms. Jamie Bland: Good evening, my name is Jaime Bland, Executive Director for

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Jumpstart Community Training and Services. Excuse my voice. We had a trip yesterday and I had to yell a couple of times. However, I am here to give credit where credit is due. I would like to thank the Board members and basically they know who they are for their support. Some have sponsored my program. Mr. Spagnola and Mr. Moody, we know we always have to call on you for everything. Ms. Taylor, you have been a mentor to me and I am in your debt. You are the best thing that could happen to youths and people in the community. Mr. Sayegh, we thank you so much. There are times you have taken time off to support and be a part of the program. Dr. Hodges and Dr. Atallo as well, we thank you very much. Dr. Hodges, you have come and spoken and said some words that really have touched the parents on Jumpstart’s behalf and have helped us to move forward. However, I would like to also thank Councilwoman Vera Ames who sponsored tickets and buses for our HIV prevention awareness educational play that we just did at Symphony Hall which was a success. Jumpstart actually brought Passaic County, Bergen County and Essex County together for a project on HIV prevention and awareness. However, Councilman McCoy has also sponsored and supported the program and so has Councilman Davis. We thank you. I also would like to thank Ms. Karen Johnson who houses Jumpstart community training. I do not work for her. She does not even know I am here tonight. However, I just want to let you know that Ms. Johnson is there when I am there all evening. I am listening to what they are saying so I said let me come up and say what I need to say because I give credit where credit is due. I am not a follower. I am a leader. You cannot intimidate me because I will come to you and we will have to try to figure something out. I do not scare easily so there is no threat why I am here to speak on Ms. Johnson’s behalf. But she has embraced my program. We are mentoring and counseling drama workshop where we teach etiquette, life skills, anger management, and drama. However, I give thanks and a hand out to her from my program because there are a lot of schools who would not have inner city youth from the age of 15-18. Some of these kids have a lot of problems and they are at risk youth and she is still right there for us. So the ones who I hear saying the word biased, they sound like angry Latino biased to me. Get over it. I would like to move forward before that bell rings and I would like to say about the conference that Anna Taliaferro has been a mentor to me also. When I came into the conference I was mesmerized and hypnotized by all the collective information I needed to bring home to my family and to people. I just thought I was a great speaker. I would listen to her and really vibe with her. And she would mentor parents so what you did not understand at the conferences she would smooth it over. Of the conferences that have been funded she is one of the big reasons why I am right now Jumpstart Community Training Executive Director for the youth. I knew then I had to do something. What the heck can I do? So I said I will take on and I have 52 right now with another director Mr. Mark Fisher who was in here. I know I don’t attend many meetings but I find out a lot of stuff through the grapevine because I am busy working with the youth. I was supposed to leave at 8:00 but I left early tonight. But there are a lot of good people in this city. You have to reach out to them. Just give me one second. Ms. Johnson is one of them. If you parents or anybody has a problem with the school and the surroundings at Eastside High School, then you get to the Mayor’s office and demand some more security and police. Don’t just look at one lady. She can bring the horse to the water but she can't make him drink it. Thank you. Ms. Sherry Clyburn: Hello, my name is Sherry Clyburn and I am a parent of 12. I go to six different schools in the district and I attend every one of them. I am having problems within the schools when I come to people for help pertaining to my kids. I am upset at the fact that when I go to the top they send me down to the bottom to start over. By that time, time has lapsed and now my kids are behind. I have a number of special education kids. Me not understanding some of the things that you all can do to special education children I had to turn to Ms. Anna Taliaferro. She has informed me of many

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things that I did not know. But now that I do I am here at the meeting to express my concerns. My children are being lost in the system. What are you going to do for my kids? I have gone through the chain of command and now I am coming to you all because I need help for my kids and I am not getting it. I have kids who are told that they are being dropped from the roll. I have kids who are being told that they only can do x, y, and z when a, b, and c is presented to other kids. I don’t understand that. I have arranged to have meetings with Dr. Glascoe and I have to give them a name and number, which I was not even called back. So I am here to say to you today I need help for my kids. My kids are getting into trouble. There is nowhere for these kids to go. There is no recreation for them. When a child is permitted to leave a school with security, what is security there for? If the police can grab your child on the street and search them at will and demean and embarrass them, then why can't you snatch them up and bring them to the school where they belong? Instead you fault the parent for that. I had to go to court for my child because they say my child was not in school for a number of days when I know I sent my child to school. I am now being summoned to go to court and pay a fine, money that I don’t have to pay to you all because where does it go. I don’t know where that money is going and I am refusing to pay it so I guess I am going to have to do jail time. I am an advocate for my kids and in any one of the schools you go to you ask about Sherry Clyburn. They will tell you who I am because I stand up for all my kids. I am still not understanding why today I don’t get any help. Thank you. Mr. Charles Ferrer: Good evening, Charles Ferrer, Friends of the Paterson Falls, requesting five minutes. I will attest to the statement that Ms. Clyburn just made. When she is called to School 13 she is there. She is there in the morning, she is there in the afternoon, and she is there after school if need be. She has always been concerned about her children and she is right. She has not gotten the help for her children that she needs. That is just a little sidebar that I wanted to put out there. She needs the help and she has asked numerous times. The first thing I am going to start with is I started attending School Board meetings when I was 17 so that is 30 years. In that 30-year period for the bulk of those meetings there was always dialogue. People asked questions and people got answers. Madam President, I don’t know who came up with the idea to not have that dialogue. It needs to come back because we are told you will get your answers at the next meeting during our reports but we don’t hear those answers. As Brother Bilal said and I asked the question about the Port of Entry program. I know we have one during the summer but do we have year-round program? Someone else questioned it and they said it is in the elementary but not in the high schools. These are questions that can be answered right here. Where is the legal whatever that says the dialogue should not happen? It was fine for the past 30 years and probably beyond that. But all of a sudden it is not good. The Council, the Board, and the Mayor’s administration all met. So Dr. Glascoe, I will put this on the table to you. When are you going to bring the director of the SCC here so he can hear the real story about the health and safety repairs that were done in this district? Not the downloaded version off the website that the Mayor presented to him that totally made himself look like he did not know what he was talking about when he sat up there praising the $13 million of work that was done over at School 13. Meanwhile in my classroom with that big blower turned off and the radiator turned off where I can put my hand on it and there is no heat coming out of it but my classroom feels like a sauna. But we want to praise all the money that was stolen by state vendors and a management company hired by the state to do work that if they tried to do that work in any of my houses I would have them in court. And nothing has been done. So when are we going to bring them here to hear the real story and take him on a tour so he can see the real deal and not the garbage that the Mayor was trying to present that he did not even know about when the Old Rutland Center was a part of School 19? Because if

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you are going to do a presentation, before you put it out there to the public maybe you should look at it. There is no fool like an old fool. My next question is why does it take so long for work orders to be addressed? It is not just in my school but in all schools. I know that we put work orders in to scrape the paint because it is peeling all over the place from what Paint Smart did not do for the past six years. And every report it goes in requested and it is still not there. To show you that something is not being done correctly I don’t know if a work order was put in for that. But I know a few meetings ago I pointed that out and it is still right up there in that ceiling and it should not be. What is the facilities department doing? Thank you Dr. Hodges because it must have been you that got the cement put down on the sidewalk that a work order was put in on, not just because it needed to be repaired, but for a fact that if anybody walks on any of these broken sidewalks around any school in Paterson and falls, with a rinky-dink attorney that is $10,000 right there. If you go get a good one you will get more. I don’t want to get into this issue because it bothers me. Maybe I should split myself in half. A gentleman said that these students are brothers and sisters in Christ referring to what is going on. They are not just brothers and sisters in Christ. They are brothers and sisters because both parties have a direct connection to the motherland or the continent of Africa. Maybe if we start teaching the true history so that our children don’t think that they are two separate entities as politicians would like them to think, then they would understand that they are more of a connection than they don’t know. We had a sub in our building and the students could not understand him and they thought he was from Africa. I said ask him where he is from because he was very dark skinned. He was from the Dominican Republic. My thing is because we don’t have this dialogue and because our children think that there is some difference that is where the confusion comes in. No one has sat them down because even adults don’t understand the connection. But every time I call my mother in Puerto Rico or my uncle that is in Puerto Rico from Luisa to Ponce to any part of that island, how can I deny who I am? And if I call my relatives in North Carolina or South Carolina or wherever, how can I deny? We are not teaching our children. I am going to check it out but they said Al Sharpton found out that he was related to a very interesting person. Check your roots because just like we can trace them into the Cherokee, I can follow mine into Japan and Germany. Not just from my brother’s marriage recently, but going beyond my great-great-grandfather. So I can't deny. But we sit up here and we let ignorance control how we dictate. And as my young boys would say, baseball is a Spanish sport. Since when? Because they don’t know. I continue to tell them but I am just one. That dialogue needs to happen big time. Then maybe they will stop fighting when they realize they are one and the same and might be connected somewhere along the line. Thank you. I’m sorry, Madam President. I have to say this because Ms. T is my mom. 300 people at a conference is peanuts. I have attended those conferences on my own time. If I decide I want to take off that is when I take it. But I don’t and I normally go down after. That conference is important. I don’t care that Jersey City and Newark are only taking 20 people. Nobody said the two districts were the brightest anyway. We don’t follow and do what they do. We set the tone. Ms. T has set that tone and parents have learned. I don't know who wrote that letter. It did not have the main Superintendent’s headline on it. But if you did, it was wrong. If you did not, write something that says you did not. There are words I have for people who write letters like that but I tell my children I don’t use those words anymore. What is going on in this district anything that can help parents to be better, they need to be at. And to deny them that right, as Ms. Clyburn said, is denying them the right to be able to stand up for the rights of their children. If children are first then to truly make them first you need to make sure that their parents get everything that they need. If we are not bringing the speakers in of the caliber that Ms. T has had at that conference, then they need to be at that conference. If you have not attended one of those conferences, then you can't talk about that conference until you go. Because if you don’t leave there moved then you are probably one and a half

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feet in the grave. Mr. Olmedo Almonte: Good evening. My name is Olmedo Almonte and I am a proud father of two kids going to the public school here. I would like to know what the Board is going to do because this No Child Left Behind Act is not for my kids because they are far behind. I went through all channels and no one seems to care to help me. I have one who is in special education and by this time he should not be in special education. He should be in the mainstream. But there is no curriculum that puts him in the mainstream. My third grader is having some problems and I can't seem to have the help that she needs and she struggles hard. I want to know what the Board is doing about this. I speak with the principal and I go to 33 Church Street and nobody seems to listen. Meanwhile my kids are falling behind. This is not going to be a success story if it continues this way. It is not going to be a success story but I am here to make it a success story for them. I am open to suggestions because I went through all the channels and the principal does not return my calls. When I go to meetings all they do is write things down and file it up. Comm. Taylor: What school? Mr. Almonte: School 5. Every time I go to a meeting with all the teachers I am there. I told my job when they hired me that there is no more important job than my kids. So if they need me at the school I will be there regardless. If you agree with it, then I will take the job. I am serious because this has been going on for a while and I am just sick and tired. I don’t know what to do and that is why I took the opportunity to come directly to the Board and see what they are going to do about my two kids. They are not going to be a success story if this continues this way. Comm. Taylor: Mr. Almonte, could you write your name, address and telephone number for us please? Mr. Almonte: Sure. Comm. Taylor: Dr. Carcamo can talk to you right now. Mr. Almonte: Excellent. Comm. Taylor: So you put it on and I will take care of it. Mr. Almonte: Thank you very much. Comm. Taylor: She will take care of you right now and you can talk to us. If it is not satisfactory she will get to us. Mr. Almonte: Thank you. Mr. Wilkin Santana: Good evening Paterson Superintendent and honorable Board of Education members. My name is Wilkin Santana and I reside at 441 E. 27th Street. I am a teacher at School 21 but tonight I am here to speak as a citizen, as a taxpayer, and as a homeowner here in Paterson. First of all, although I do not represent the Integrity Lodge No. 57 located at Broadway in Paterson, I would like to let the community know of an event they will be having. The Integrity Lodge No. 51 located on Broadway in Paterson of the Freemasons will be having a fellowship breakfast on Saturday, March 24 at 10:00 in the morning and the donation will be $25. It supports the Freemasons of Paterson and I send greetings to my fellow brethren. As a citizen, I

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think we need to be thankful for those people who have paved the way historically for a lot of us, especially a lot of new citizens like myself. The civil rights movement opened up the doors not only to African Americans, but to Latinos, Asians, and all men and women of disadvantaged backgrounds. So I think we need to recognize that a lot of people opened the door for all of us to be able to pursue the American dream. Not just a few, but all Americans. On another note, I would like to thank all the audience members out here for coming out and speaking on behalf of children and being children’s advocates. When many Patersonians are sleeping, watching CNN or Barak Obama on the news or whatever, a lot of us are here tonight advocating on behalf of the children of Paterson. In a city that has almost 200,000 residents to only have this amount of residents tonight is kind of shameful. But I think the few of us who are here is because we care about children. It is my personal opinion that confrontational and divisional politics will not move forward the agenda for increasing student achievement. I welcome any Patersonian who has a serious, intelligent, and honest debate on how we can improve student achievement to come forward and discuss it in a public arena, perhaps the newspaper, the Herald News, or any City Council or Board of Education meeting. I think that is the kind of debate that we need to be having, how we can improve student achievement. Just to close, I would like to thank Comm. Alonzo Moody for your great service to Paterson. I am very proud of you. I served with you at the Passaic County Vicinage. I know it is your first committee and I know you truly advocate on behalf of all citizens and I want to thank you a lot for your great service. Last but not least, I would like to remind everyone that it is okay to have an argument and a debate. But I think that at the Board of Education meetings we need to be advocating on behalf of increasing student achievement in our schools, especially when we have No Child Left Behind, a lot of standards, and a lot of AYPs to meet in our schools. Thank you very much and have a good night everyone. Mr. Andrew Wright: Good evening. My name is Andrew Wright and I am a member of the Paterson Leadership Alliance. I am here in support of Ms. Taliaferro’s conference for the parent coordinators. I attended a conference last year and I learned more in those three days than I knew about being a parent in the educational system and my daughter is 16. In those three days I learned more about parent involvement than I did in the last 17 years in dealing with the school district. I also attended the National Coalition for Title I Parents Conference in upstate New York last year. I got a lot of information from there and what I found out is Paterson, Newark and Jersey City are not the only cities that are having the problems we are having. Nobody has money and the money that they do have is being allocated to somewhere else. I want to take a minute to congratulate the human resources department for presenting at the last collaborative meeting a savings of $17 million by making some changes. In regards to that, I want to know if possibly we could take some of that money for those 200 parents and apply it to the conference. If she saved $17,192,000 you can sure come up with another little bit of money to send another 100 people to that conference. I was just sitting back there thinking about this. I said wait a minute. They just sat up there and presented it as a corporate stockholder’s meeting. When a company saves money that money goes back into the company. Right? Doesn’t that money go back into the company? Can't some of it go to one of these departments to send these parents to that conference? That is something for you guys to think about. Thank you. Comm. Taylor: Thank you so much. May I have a motion? It was moved by Comm. Sayegh, seconded by Comm. Vergara that the Public Comments portion of the meeting be closed. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried.

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Comm. Taylor: I am going to ask for a motion so we can go out and take this picture for the yearbook. We will return in five minutes. It was moved by Comm. Sayegh, seconded by Comm. Kerr that the Board take a five-minute recess. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative, except Comm. Moody who voted no. The motion carried. The Board recessed at 9:55 p.m. The Board reconvened the meeting at 10:05 p.m. Roll Call Present: Comm. Joseph Atallo Comm. Andre Sayegh, Vice President Comm. Jonathan Hodges Comm. Lawrence Spagnola Comm. Errol Kerr Comm. Daniel Vergara Comm. Alonzo Moody Comm. Willa Mae Taylor, President Absent: Comm. Chauncey Brown OTHER BUSINESS Board Member Comments Comm. Taylor: At this time those people who are on the dais now will be given an opportunity to comment on one of the issues that came before us tonight right now. Comm. Atallo: First of all let me just say that I think we need to address the format so we can address community issues in a more timely manner. So I applaud you for opening it up now. I would like to address the issue of the parent conference. Let me say there is a long history to the parent conference going back 19 maybe 20 years in the district. I have had the opportunity on my own time and on my own dime to have traveled down to the conference and spend time with them. I have done some seminars for them and I have sat in on workshops. I think it is probably one of the most informative programs the district can run. I have written two letters in support of the parent center and the parent conference, one in December and one in February. Again, in a district that spends $509 million on a total budget, I think it is a drop in the bucket what we spend to educate parents on how to become more involved and to empower them to become more involved parents with the schools and with their children. Anna Taliaferro is a living icon in this community. Again, a prophet is not honored in her own kingdom. She is not just known statewide as a state president in Trenton. She is known nationally. I have been in Washington when Anna Taliaferro has testified before congress. I have been in Washington when she was at the United States Department of Education. When she picks up a telephone and calls a senator, a congressman, a state, or federal official in education they call back right away and respond. She is taken very seriously and is highly respected. I believe a school district, particularly a school district like Paterson, needs to be parent driven. It needs to be children driven. When we say children first it should mean children first and that should mean the parents behind it. As I said before, whether I taught a course or have been a student in the course or a member of the Board, the research has shown that when parent involvement is there student success is always higher. So let me say that again. When parents are involved with their children’s education student success is higher. So we

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need to empower parents, grandparents and guardians. If you look at the cost it is a drop in the bucket. Yes, you may think it is a lot of parents, but we are a large district and it is not a lot of parents. When we consider that we serve 28,000 students, 315 parents is not a lot. I wish we were sending 3,000 quite frankly because virtually every parent that has gone when I have seen them after the conference they have said, “Dr. Atallo, thank you. It was very informative and I got an education.” I say don’t thank me. Thank Anna Taliaferro who is the driving force behind this and thank the administration for supporting it. So I respectfully ask the administration to reconsider this. This is important and for the money we spend on consultants in this district and the money we spend on administration and all kinds of programs, I think to put money behind parents and having the parents become empowered and to educate the parents is money very well spent. Anna, you have the respect of this community. You have my respect and I believe we should move in that direction. So I am asking the administration and the Board to seriously revisit this. Let’s get behind the parents and show that we say children first and seriously mean it and also parents are first with the children as well. Thank you. Comm. Hodges: The Superintendent did not consult with the Board when he made his decision regarding this situation. At some point he is perhaps going to decide to do that and maybe then he will get a better understanding of what the local sentiments are. Until such time I guess we will have to wait, but I am hoping we won't have to wait much longer because it is distressing to us to have to be put in situations like this. I am saying this publicly because I am very unhappy. Having said that, I do think that the parent conference is an extraordinary opportunity. I have attended those conferences and I think there is a great deal of information that parents can receive at that conference. But what I have not seen is parents take advantage of that conference here in Paterson. If it were up to me, the parents who came down here this night would go to the conference because that is what the conference is about, it is activism and about people who have the tenacity and the concern to show up. I have gone to those home school councils and they are not coming. They are not coming to this meeting either. And if it is that important to you, I would have liked to have seen 300 parents here tonight. It would have been important to say this is important to us. The problem is that people are going to take that lack of participation as the reason and excuse to write you off. And they have been writing your children off because you have been sitting home and sitting on the information that is so terribly valuable. And you allow people to make those decisions by your inaction, by your silence, and by your inability to come out and fight for what is in your best interest. Some folks say you get intimidated. Some folks say you get pushed around. But when you seem to want something you will come down here. When your children are truly in your minds and truly at stake you will come down here and as well you should. But we have low test scores and that is the time to come out here, too. We do have curriculum meetings and that is the time to come out here as well because then you can use that information and put it into action. I hope you do go to the conference, but I hope they also tie it to your attendance next year at Board meetings and at home school councils. If you don’t show up then, then I will vote against it because you have an obligation to share that information with people who cannot go. I think it has to be a balanced picture. It is not just your rights. It is also your responsibility because those are your children and that information can't just stay at home. It has got to get into those schools. It has got to get to those other parents who are not going down. Our children are suffering from a lack of an educational drive, from a failure to do homework, from a lack of understanding of what they are supposed to be doing in those school buildings, and from a lack of homework. It is not just what somebody else is doing to us, but what we are not doing about us. We have to look at both. It is an excellent conference and I sincerely hope you take full advantage of it. But not just down in the conference hall but also in the classrooms and in the buildings

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and, by the way, at home because that is where the information is the most powerful. Thank you, Madam President. Comm. Kerr: I would just like to say that one speaker tonight recommended that we bring back the dialogue that we formerly had with people who come to the podium to speak. I believe it is very important that people who come to this podium and ask questions get a feel from each Commissioner what is their take on those particular questions that they do ask. I would recommend to the administration that we reconsider how we go about this public portion of our meeting. I also would like to comment on the retreat. I am a very strong and staunch advocate of parental involvement in this district. From day one I advocated for it and I am still an advocate and a supporter of it. I believe that children do better when parents are involved. There is no question that the retreats that we have yearly are very significant. However, these retreats are not about Ms. Taliaferro. The retreats are about the people who involve themselves in this district with education. I believe Ms. Taliaferro has done a tremendous job and she should be commended. I don’t think we have given her enough for what she has done. But on the other hand, we need to see parents seriously involved, coming here, and making contributions not only when a retreat is called then you have those people there. I don’t know the criteria used to measure who should go on these retreats. But we should also look that this is a very tough economic time that we are going through and therefore every dollar spent is important. I don’t want to be misunderstood here and I am not saying money spent for this retreat is not important. It is important, but it should be parents who are truly involved. Don’t come to the party because it is a party. We need to have people seriously participate in the affairs of this district. Come and challenge Commissioners. Go to your parent teacher association meetings. Make sure that the schools are run properly. Don’t wait until there is a retreat only and show up. That is what concerns me. I would love to see more participation. I would love to see more parents come out to these parent teacher association meetings and make sure that they involve themselves in the total operation and function of our schools. I am not seeing that and I would love to see that. Thank you, Madam President. Comm. Sayegh: Ever since my election since 2004, I have attended every parent awareness day. In fact, this past parent awareness day in 2006 at Eastside High School Sergeant Delacey Davis gave a very riveting address which resonated with the parents who were present. I also made it a point to see all the parents off before they attended this conference and I have attended every parent breakfast ever since my election. I can attest to something that Ms. Freeman stated earlier about School 12. It is by far one of the best home school councils that I have ever seen along with Ms. Martha Colon. They get the parents in regardless of what the parents look like. They don’t target one segment of the population. They appeal to everyone in the population because it is all about the parents regardless of what they look like or what language they speak. So I have seen it work. Some of my Board members have said that when you go on a conference we want to see you turnkey it. I will tell you this. School 12 is a prime example of taking what you have learned at a conference and putting it into action for the community and the parents. You can't dispute the fact that Anna Taliaferro is a strong and sincere advocate for parents and children. It was brought to my attention as Chief of Staff for Senator John A. Girgenti that there would be some changes this year as far as the conference is concerned. Our office did everything we could but ultimately it is not something we can change. So I state for the record I have been a strong supporter of parents all the while I have been here and the record shows. But there are certain things this Board cannot do. We can voice our opinions but ultimately it is not our decision to make. Perhaps someday if we attain local control then, and only then, can we really play a major factor in the decision-making process. Thank you.

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Comm. Moody: I have not been a consistent attendant of the statewide parent conference. What I can attest to for the last 16 years since I have been here, and I have talked to most of the parents, the thing that impresses me is that when the parents come back from these conferences they are thoroughly impressed with what they received and what they keep talking about is that they work at these conferences from early morning to the evening hours. I am talking about the common everyday parents and they are excited about it. It is very evident that they learn from it. So maybe we don’t do a good enough job of taking that energy after it has been exposed and working with it once it gets back. But when they come back all I can say to you is that to me it is very worthwhile and they are energized. I think that our parents should be given an opportunity to continue with this conference that they have every year. Thank you. Comm. Spagnola: I believe the format change is conducive to communications with the people who do come to these meetings and I think with our next meeting we should continue this way. Right after the public session we should have our three minutes and this way we can address their problems and concerns because they are the people we are accountable to. Those are the people out there who elect us to this position. I have always been one for training and that is what we are doing. With this conference it is showing that the parents do have work and can make a change and have control of their destiny and the future for themselves and their children. As far as gearing them back into the mainstream and getting them more involved, that is sitting right up here. Perhaps we should look into that to give Anna a hand with that and possibly help her to continue. Once they have all that enthusiasm to channel it correctly. I will tell you right now, I see us going down to Trenton. It is them and it is us. We are going to need the parents. We are going to need their support. We are going to need each and every one of these individuals who go down for the training, each and every one of these parents who are being trained. They are going to be on the side now but we are going to have to call on them very soon and we are going to have to find the money for the buses because that is where the fight is going to be. We can make a change and it is going to be better for our children here in Paterson. They are going to be on the front line to fight for their own children. And Anna, keep up the good work. We are with you. Do you hear me? For all those years you earned it kid. You are a young icon. How is that? Comm. Vergara: Again, I am going to turn the chair this way because at the last meeting the senior citizen said she only saw half of my ear. They put the camera on me and I went home and sat down with my daughter, my son and my wife and they got as far as Dr. Hodges and the whole thing just went off. So nobody every heard what I had to say or any of the other Board members. So please, Channel 76 let’s get on the ball. To the student Jose Uceta from School 21 congratulations. I know what it is to go down to Washington D.C. and receive an award. I did receive one from Senator Frank Lautenberg and I mentioned Girgenti because they need to get together and find a way to get the resources for the Parent Resource Center to get more buses. We don’t need 300 people attending this conference. We need 400 or 500 parents attending. As a parent, I would say that you come to me first because I motivate my own children in which way they go. A parent is the number one person that we must cater to. You say children first, but the parent is the first teacher and we got to get that teacher motivated and heading in the right direction. One of these things that they put here on the Paterson Education Fund report of all the candidates running, one of my main issues is more parent involvement. I have been saying it for the last three or four years that I have been on the Board. Parents are number one. A lot of times in sports it is the same thing. In the scout programs the major problem we have in the City of Paterson is that the parents either don’t find the time or don’t get involved. So parents are very important. Ms. Taliaferro, you did an outstanding job and let me tell you if the district

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does not have the money or cannot find the money maybe I can help out a little bit. I have a 15-passenger van and you are more than free to use it to take an extra 15 parents. So, on that note, I would also like to say that I was able to assist six high school students, which were three freshmen and three juniors. I am not going to mention the high school they attend but they were about to drop out and I am glad I was able to help them. I know the parents are watching tonight. Let me know if anything else comes about with them. These young men were about to just give up. They did not and I am proud of them. One of the parents was able to also go to college, get their credits together and become a substitute teacher for the City of Paterson in our school district…(end of tape) (Beginning of new tape)…problems with their kids’ attendance. They were getting fines and their outcry was we don’t have the money. We sent them to school, I worked out something with those five parents and hopefully they won't be returning back to municipal court. The other issue I would like to address is the issue of this letter that went out to the parents saying that if you have not made any payment or filled out your paperwork for the lunch program your son or daughter will not eat. Do you know what? Let’s hold the parents responsible. Let’s hold them liable for that. The child should not go without eating. If there is a breakfast program there they eat breakfast. If there is a lunch program they should eat lunch or something has to be given to them. I don’t believe that somebody has to sneak somebody a piece of bread or an orange juice or the kid has to come home at 3:30 in the evening starving. I know my kid eats a good lunch in school and when he comes home at 3:30 he tries to empty out the refrigerator because he is still hungry. On that note, let’s go after these parents and not hold the children responsible for their acts. I am also proud to announce that this Friday I will be taking off to Camp Glen Gray in Mahwah, New Jersey. It is a little bit right across from Oakland with 32 students from our district who participate under my Troop 911. They will be going out there this week and spending hopefully great weather out in the outdoors learning about Mother Nature and getting them out of the City of Paterson for a little while. Madam President, thank you but I need two more minutes just to let the people who are watching know that an election for the School Board is coming up and it is very important that you go out and vote. Comm. Taylor: Mr. Vergara. Comm. Vergara: It is your right and your responsibility. And if you care about your children like I care about mine and all the children I have been working with in the City of Paterson for the many years then go out and vote. This might be my last time sitting here but you should let people come up to the podium and speak. When it is our turn to speak, it never comes up on Channel 76 and we don’t get to hear it. We can't even speak when we want to speak. Now they are making a change and it’s about time. Thank you Madam President. Comm. Taylor: This is the reason why we can’t do it. We can't do our business. Comm. Vergara: Maybe you should have thought about this a couple of meetings back. Comm. Taylor: You should come to meetings more often. Comm. Vergara: Maybe I should be the President and I should do it. Comm. Taylor: You should come to workshops and we will talk. Comm. Sayegh: Motion to accept the minutes. Comm. Taylor: May I speak, please? Thank you.

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Comm. Vergara: Put the clock on please. Thank you. Comm. Taylor: You broke the rules of the clock. Comm. Vergara: You broke them at the beginning of the meeting when you stood there and you just spoke for a good half hour and nobody said anything and no bells rang. Please, I just wanted my fair turn. Thank you. Comm. Taylor: If you look at the agenda… Comm. Vergara: We have no agenda. We just switched the agenda. Comm. Taylor: There is a part that says Report of the Board President. It does not give me a time limit. Nor does it give the Superintendent. Comm. Vergara: Well, it is not fair to the other Board members. The other Board members should not have a time limit also. I think what we have to say is as important as anyone else on this Board. We are all equal. Comm. Taylor: I am not going to discuss it right now, Mr. Vergara. Comm. Vergara: Thank you. I don’t want to discuss it right now. Comm. Taylor: The workshop is the time to come for that. Comm. Vergara: We can't even speak at the workshop. Comm. Taylor: We had 25 people come before us tonight and they were in support of several people in our district. One had to do with our parent leader and one had to do with our leader of a school. The questions that you asked us we are going to consider those. We will work on those in workshop for those people who do attend the workshops and those people who attend our committee meetings. We will be working on those. The NJQSAC that they have we were all interviewed who said we wanted to be interviewed and had the time to be interviewed. I don’t know if all members were interviewed by the state people. I was one of the first ones so I did not get the information that there was going to be a meeting. They just told me there was going to be a meeting later on. So I now know maybe there will be a meeting on April 4. But I do want the community to be involved in that. I want enough leeway for parents and people in our community, such as seniors and parents, to come to that meeting for the information that they have gotten and explain the process, summarize their visit, and have a public discussion. I want us to do that. Mr. Davis, who is a Councilperson for the municipal government in our city, another elected person, talked about a youth group that will have a candidate’s meeting on April 3 at Passaic County Community College in the Paterson Room from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. I would like all the young people and all the organizations and all people in the high schools to invite and send the young people to this meeting because the young people will be given the opportunity to ask the candidates questions or have questions already formed so that they can ask the candidates. I think it is a good way of getting young people involved in government and in community issues. Reverend Menzel talked about the same attention to be given to Eastside as at Kennedy. We as a Board have a problem and that is why we have begun to talk with the city in collaboration to find out ways for them to work with our children around the schools. The city has to provide the officers, the police, and also the monitoring around the schools. Some of the schools will be getting cameras so they

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can see the whole perimeter around the school. We had Ms. Freeman from School 12. I do know that they have been working together and doing a good job at School 12 with the parents there. We will be in contact with her. Ms. Tobias talked about parking around MPACT. If you see, it is landlocked and there is no parking. I will find out from the Superintendent about it. Why did we close Sage, because we have a lot of expectant mothers? It was not feasible anymore because many of the young ladies wanted to attend their regular high school and it was a discrimination factor. So that was something else that we did not use. We don’t have the school anymore. We did ask for the lunch program department with Mr. Buchholtz to send out the applications for the lunch program. Fran, were we getting $350 per student? We get money for every child who brings back a form with his mother and father’s name on it. It does not have to have a social security number. It just has to have the child’s name, the mother and father’s name, and also the address. If we did not get it back and we did not have it in our hand we did not get paid for the child having free lunch. So that was money out of our pocket. We were down $4 million because our parents did not return that piece of paper back for free and reduced. Also, the parents who needed to pay have to pay. That is one of the things we talked about and she talked about the lunch. If it was not in the system it was not in the system. We don’t know why it was not in the system. So if you got a paper we are asking that you send it back. Your piece of paper means money to this district. We should not have to pay any money out of our school budget for the food that the children eat. That is a free program because the state and the federal government all give into that and the parents pay. Mr. Jimenez asked for a copy. This is our New Jersey Administrative Code Title VI and VIA and it has all the rules and regulations in it. This is available at our public library. We do have a copy here at the Board. All Board members have it. There is a subchapter called General Provisions, Part 6A, Chapter 7 – 1.1. It has the affirmative action in it, it is the law and it tells us what to do for the district. We cannot discriminate on all kinds of areas. It is here for us to read and it is available to us. For Ms. Waheeda Muhammad, Dr. Glascoe says we will summarize our workshop meetings. That is some of the work she asked us to do because parents did not know what had gone on. Dr. Glascoe: Maybe I am missing something. Comm. Taylor: Maybe I misunderstood her. Dr. Glascoe: We would summarize the workshop meetings? Comm. Taylor: Some of the issues that we were discussing in workshop. I will ask for more information. Two of our speakers asked about a port of entry. Is it year-round? Or does the child enter one time? Is it only in elementary? Or is it in high school? So we are going to find out that for two of our speakers. The health and safety I did not understand either. I had more questions about that but I realize that was something that was pulled off the Internet and it was in our latest fax about health and safety and what the SCC had done in our district. So we will give you more information about that. On work orders, Dr. Glascoe will see to it that the maintenance department under Mr. Greuter will take care of that and make sure the work orders get done. There is no reason for this building to have that peeling paint up there in the ceiling and out in the hallway and some of the other buildings. We have to do it quicker, get to the buildings and get them done. I appreciate how the parents and our community people did come in here and speak about issues. Although we were not talking about the business that we are going to attend to in the next few minutes. We will try to get to as many of the people who spoke to us and the parents who called us. We will talk with the Superintendent and to other Board members who are the heads of the different committees that we have and we will come back and tell you information like that.

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Dr. Glascoe: I guess I would be remiss if I did not make some comments about some of the public statements tonight. Let me deal with the main topic of most of the comments tonight, and that is the parent resource trip to Somerset in Franklin Township. Let me say this. If the things that were said tonight, and things can be misinterpreted and taken back, are to insinuate that I don’t support parent involvement, I am just flabbergasted. Look at your school district under this administration. You have had some things put in place that support parent involvement. I support the parent resource center. My decision is a decision based on my responsibility to be fiscally responsible to this school district, not because I don’t like this or that. I agree with everything that has been said up here. If I had my druthers I would want to send a thousand. I would want to send every parent. And I, like Dr. Hodges, want to see that come back in our schools. Dr. Hodges, I understand your position, but let me just say this. I make a multitude of decisions on a daily basis and quite naturally there is staff who will disagree with my decisions. I am hard pressed to have to come to this body or any other body because a staff member disagrees with my decision. Hindsight is 20/20. Maybe I should and maybe I should not. I don't know. But in the press of trying to make decisions I deal with the facts and whether it is fiscally responsible for this school district. Now, we had 300 parents slated to go as you have heard. I looked at the numbers and I looked at my responsibility and to tell you the truth I wanted to drop the number down to 100 because I thought that would be fiscally responsible given the situation that we are facing. I am sorry that parents can stand here and say you have the money. I know where that may be coming from because for years the money was here. With no strings attached the money showed up every year and you saw what happened with that. So I made a decision to cut this number back. And with counsel and working very closely with the business administrator and the deputy superintendent and the assistant superintendent for community services and the rest of the leadership team I made the decision to cut the number back. But cutting the number back from 300 to 200 and if I were a person outside of this district and I tuned in next week to hear the tape I would come away thinking we canceled the trip. We canceled the activity. Will the conference go on with 200 parents from Paterson? I am sure it will. So I just want to make sure everybody is clear as to why I made the decision and please you can disagree with me. You should disagree with me. You should say why 300? Why not 500? But I am telling you my decision is based on my responsibility to be fiscally responsible to this school district. I wish you could just stand in the shoes of our business administrator. Every penny, everything that we are doing, it has been extremely difficult to even get to the point of submitting the budget as we did yesterday. So here we are. We are going to send 200 parents. They are going to bring back good information. They are going to be treated to a wonderful conference. But that does not say that this Superintendent and certainly this administration does not support parent involvement. I just want to end by saying a couple of other things that I think is important. Someone mentioned the director of the SCC, Scott Weiner. He has been here. He has not toured all the facilities, but he has been here and he vowed to come back. So we will hold him to that. I also want to say something of my interpretation or what I was picking up from some of the other statements made tonight, that staff members felt a need to rush to the microphone and say something that was in direct opposition to something that someone else said and that they did that because they were trying to protect their jobs or trying to be promoted. Look at your history folks. Look at your history. That is no more in this school district. Not on my watch. Look at the data. Look at what is happening. I don’t play those games. And if I find my staff members out there playing those games they are going to go down. This is serious business of educating our children. We want the very best. We want quality people. And it is a shame that our staff members, and I don’t care what side of the table they are on, come to the microphone and talk about this or that or debate this or that. Boy oh boy, if I was a conquering hero I got you because you are

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not together. We are not together. Every month we have this side and we have that side. We do it here. I must say that we are the entertainment for the powers to be who will make decisions on the future of this school district. Keep on entertaining them and you will see where we are going to be. I hate having to make these kinds of statements on the heels of presentations because too much of it may come from the emotional side, but hear me loud and clear. My job is to improve the educational system of this school district if it means I have to cut here, cut there, or bring in consultants because in 16 years we have not done it. We have to do some other things. We have to do things differently. That is the job I have been entrusted to do. Until the Commissioner says differently this is where I am. I apologize for having to even have to say these things, but I think it is necessary to try to set the record straight. I don’t want anyone out there to think that this administration or even School Board members are against parent involvement and parent engagement 110% and more if we could. Simply put, I made a decision for fiscal reasons alone. Thank you. GENERAL BUSINESS Items Requiring a Vote PRESENTATION OF MINUTES Comm. Taylor presented the minutes of the February 7, 2007 Workshop Meeting and the February 21, 2007 Regular Meeting, and asked if there were any questions or comments on the minutes. It was moved by Comm. Sayegh, seconded by Comm. Moody that the minutes be accepted with any necessary corrections. On roll call all members voted as follows: Comm. Atallo: Yes. Comm. Hodges: I would have liked to have had a discussion. Do the minutes correspond to what is going on in the tape? We don’t know because we have not seen the tape either. Never mind. Yes. Comm. Kerr: Yes. Comm. Moody: Yes. Comm. Sayegh: Yes. Comm. Spagnola: Yes. Comm. Vergara: Abstain. Comm. Taylor: Yes. The motion carried. CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION COMMITTEE Comm. Sayegh reported that the Curriculum and Instruction Committee met, reviewed and recommends approval for Resolution Nos. A-1 through A-26:

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Resolution No. A-1 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District is required to provide students with disabilities the opportunity to achieve adequate yearly progress in reading; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District has been provided the opportunity to participate in a cooperative grant agreement for the second year entitled “Providing Quality Intensive Early Literacy Instruction to Students with Disabilities; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the submission of the interim grant agreement for the 2006/2007 school year, in the amount of $177,410.00.

Resolution No. A-2 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District is committed to the improvement of the district’s curriculum and instruction; and WHEREAS, the Science Department continues to promote academic excellence through the implementation of coursework that enhances students’ learning and curiosity for Science; and WHEREAS, the Science Department of Paterson Public Schools proposes a Curriculum Guide for Biology for use at the high schools; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the Biology Curriculum Guide for use in the district’s schools for the 2006-2007 school year or until such time as they may be modified and presented to the Paterson Board of Education for review and approval: Biology Curriculum Guide.

Resolution No. A-3 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District is committed to the improvement of the district’s curriculum and instruction; and WHEREAS, the Science Department continues to promote academic excellence through the implementation of coursework that enhances students’ learning and curiosity for Science; and WHEREAS, the Science Department of Paterson Public Schools proposes a Curriculum Guide for use in the EARTH Academy; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the EARTH Academy Curriculum Guide for use in the district’s schools for the 2006-2007 school year or until such time as they may be modified and presented to the Paterson Board of Education for review and approval: EARTH Academy Curriculum Guide.

Resolution No. A-4 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District is committed to the improvement of the district’s curriculum and instruction; and

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WHEREAS, the Science Department continues to promote academic excellence through the implementation of coursework that enhances students’ learning and curiosity for Science; and WHEREAS, the Science Department of Paterson Public Schools proposes a course in Instrumental Analysis, a new Science elective fourth-year course, for use at the high schools; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the Instrumental Analysis Curriculum Guide for use in the district’s schools for the 2006-2007 school year or until such time as they may be modified and presented to the Paterson Board of Education for review and approval: Instrumental Analysis.

Resolution No. A-5 WHEREAS, the State of New Jersey under NJAC 6A:8-3.1 requires district boards of education to ensure that the district curriculum is designed and delivered to demonstrate knowledge and skills specified by the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards; and WHEREAS, New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum (NJQSAC) stipulates that district curriculum supports student achievement of the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards in every school for all students; and WHEREAS, NJQSAC District Performance Review (DPR) requires the board of education to approve written curricula that aligns with the most recent State Board approved version of the NJCCCS (2004); and WHEREAS, the district assures that the curricula of Language Arts (9-12) content to be mastered for each grade and includes grade level benchmarks; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the curricula frameworks and courses of study for use in the district’s schools for the 2006-2007 school year or until such time as they may be modified and presented to the Paterson Board of Education for review and approval: Language Arts (9-12).

Resolution No. A-6 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District is committed to the improvement of the district’s curriculum and instruction; and WHEREAS, the Science Department continues to promote academic excellence through the implementation of coursework that enhances students’ learning and curiosity for Science; and WHEREAS, the Science Department of Paterson Public Schools proposes a course in LOGIC, a new Science elective first-year course, for use at the high schools; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the LOGIC Curriculum Guide for use in the district’s schools for the 2006-2007 school year or until such time as they may be modified and presented to the Paterson Board of Education for review and approval: LOGIC.

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Resolution No. A-7 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District is committed to the improvement of the district’s curriculum and instruction; and WHEREAS, the Science Department continues to promote academic excellence through the implementation of coursework that enhances students’ learning and curiosity for Science; and WHEREAS, the Science Department of Paterson Public Schools proposes a Curriculum Guide for Pharmacology, a new Science elective fourth-year course, for use at the HARP Academy; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the Pharmacology Curriculum Guide for use in the district’s schools for the 2006-2007 school year or until such time as they may be modified and presented to the Paterson Board of Education for review and approval: Pharmacology.

Resolution No. A-8 WHEREAS, the State of New Jersey under NJAC 6A:8-3.1 requires district boards of education to ensure that the district curriculum is designed and delivered to demonstrate knowledge and skills specified by the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards; and WHEREAS, New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum (NJQSAC) stipulates that district curriculum supports student achievement of the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards in every school for all students; and WHEREAS, NJQSAC District Performance Review (DPR) requires the board of education to approve written curricula that aligns with the most recent State Board approved version of the NJCCCS (2004); and WHEREAS, the district assures that the curricula of Science (9-10) content to be mastered for each grade and includes grade level benchmarks; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the curricula frameworks and courses of study for use in the district’s schools for the 2006-2007 school year or until such time as they may be modified and presented to the Paterson Board of Education for review and approval: Science (9-10).

Resolution No. A-9 WHEREAS, the State of New Jersey under NJAC 6A:8-3.1 requires district boards of education to ensure that the district curriculum is designed and delivered to demonstrate knowledge and skills specified by the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards; and WHEREAS, New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum (NJQSAC) stipulates that district curriculum supports student achievement of the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards in every school for all students; and

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WHEREAS, NJQSAC District Performance Review (DPR) requires the board of education to approve written curricula that aligns with the most recent State Board approved version of the NJCCCS (2004); and WHEREAS, the district assures that the curricula of Visual and Performing Arts content to be mastered for each grade and includes grade level benchmarks; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the curricula frameworks and courses of study for use in the district’s schools for the 2006-2007 school year or until such time as they may be modified and presented to the Paterson Board of Education for review and approval: Visual and Performing Arts.

Resolution No. A-10 WHEREAS, Project Lead The Way, Inc. has established and is supporting working relationships with school districts to implement a high school engineering and technology curriculum; and WHEREAS, the essential purpose of the district agreement is the district’s promise to adhere to the Project Lead The Way program standards for the continued success of the program; and WHEREAS, the school district desires to implement one or more segments of PLTW; and WHEREAS, each year PLTW, Inc. will make available to participating school districts the use of designated software pursuant to a sublicense between PLTW, Inc. and the school district; and WHEREAS, the purchase of said software is supported by the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education approves the School District Agreement between Paterson Public Schools and Project Lead The Way.

Resolution No. A-11 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District wishes to provide its students after school programs encompassing an array of inclusive and supervised services that will assist them to meet state and local standards in core academic subjects, as well as providing recreation, health, technology and character education at Eastside, John F. Kennedy and Paterson Catholic High Schools; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District has planned collaboratively with the Workforce Investment Board (WIB) of Passaic County, the Passaic County Community College and Calvary Baptist Church to provide services through the WIB’s 21st Century Community Learning Center After School Career Academies (ASCA) and will serve as a member of the ASCA Advisory Council; and WHEREAS, ASCA will be operated by Calvary Baptist Church providing high school students in the community safe, drug-free, supervised, after school, Saturday and summer programs, including internships and work experience opportunities; and

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WHEREAS, the Passaic County Community College will hire and serve as payroll agent, will coordinate the educational programs at each school, and will serve as a member of the ASCA Advisory Council; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education accepts an offer to partner with the WIB for the ASCA Program to provide services to its high school students at no cost to the district.

Resolution No. A-12 WHEREAS, according to New Jersey Administrative Code 6A:14, the Paterson Public School District is required to place District students in an appropriate educational facility as per their I.E.P.; and WHEREAS, the District wishes to remain compliant with State & Federal requirements; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves payment and contracts with Catholic Community Services/Mt. Carmel Guild High School, Middle School and Preschool for providing educational services to students during the 2006-2007 school year: Student Initials Tuition K.T., M.E. $34,489.20

Resolution No. A-13 WHEREAS, according to New Jersey Administrative Code 6A:14, the Paterson Public School District is required to place District students in an appropriate educational facility as per their I.E.P.; and WHEREAS, the District wishes to remain compliant with State & Federal requirements; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves payment and contracts with Clearview School for providing educational services to students during the 2006-2007 school year: Student Initials Tuition T.W. $24,072.65

Resolution No. A-14 WHEREAS, according to New Jersey Administrative Code 6A:14, the Paterson Public School District is required to place District students in an appropriate educational facility as per their I.E.P.; and WHEREAS, the District wishes to remain compliant with State & Federal requirements; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves payment and contracts with Daytop Preparatory School for providing educational services to Paterson students during the 2006-2007 school year:

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Student Initials Tuition K.S. $24,826.22

Resolution No. A-15 WHEREAS, according to New Jersey Administrative Code 6A:14, the Paterson Public School District is required to place District students in an appropriate educational facility as per their I.E.P.; and WHEREAS, the District wishes to remain compliant with State & Federal requirements; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves payment and contracts with The Deron School of New Jersey, Inc. for providing educational services to students during the 2006-2007 school year: Student Initials Tuition K.J. $23,530.89

Resolution No. A-16 WHEREAS, according to New Jersey Administrative Code 6A:14, the Paterson Public School District is required to place District students in an appropriate educational facility as per their I.E.P.; and WHEREAS, the District wishes to remain compliant with State & Federal requirements; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves payment and contracts with The Gramon School for providing educational services to Paterson students during the 2006-2007 school year: Student Initials Tuition L.D. $25,377.00

Resolution No. A-17 WHEREAS, according to New Jersey Administrative Code 6A:14, the Paterson Public School District is required to place District students in an appropriate educational facility as per their I.E.P.; and WHEREAS, the District wishes to remain compliant with State & Federal requirements; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves payment and contracts with The Learning Center for Exceptional Children for providing educational services to Paterson students during the 2006-2007 school year: Student Initials Tuition D.G. $26,879.22

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Resolution No. A-18 WHEREAS, according to New Jersey Administrative Code 6A:14, the Paterson Public School District is required to provide services to students as per their I.E.P.; and WHEREAS, the District wishes to remain compliant with State & Federal requirements; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves contract with and payments to Loving Care Agency, Inc. for providing nursing services during the 2006-2007 school year to a Pre-K disabled student (D.S.) being placed at PS #1. Estimated services to be provided: $47.00 per hour x 8 hours x 85 days for a total of $31,960.00. When an LPN is not available, a substitute registered nurse (“RN”) will be provided at a rate of $57.00 per hour.

Resolution No. A-19 WHEREAS, Garrett Morgan Academy staff will accompany six (6) Garrett Morgan Academy students to participate in the 3-day Regional Robotics Competition at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey. Students and staff will stay over three (3) nights, February 28-March 3, 2007; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education approves this educational experience for the students and staff. A grant from State Farm and ADP will pay for the trip and all related expenses. These grants were awarded to NJCDC to support Garrett Morgan participation in the Robotics Club.

Resolution No. A-20 WHEREAS, field trips serve as an enrichment experience supporting curriculum and PANTHER Academy had a partnership with NASA and attendance and participation in Space Camp supports the school theme of aviation, mathematics and science; and WHEREAS, PANTHER Academy has sent students to Space Camp for the past five years; and WHEREAS, Space Camp is an experience which provides students with hands-on activities which are educational; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education approves the overnight educational trip to Huntsville, Alabama beginning May 20, 2007 and ending May 25, 2007, at a total cost of $28,140.00.

Resolution No. A-21 WHEREAS, the Class of 2007 at Rosa Parks High School is sponsoring an educational class trip to Williamsburg, Virginia; and WHEREAS, during the 3-day, 2-night trip, students will participate in separate tours of Colonial Williamsburg (both day & evening), Jamestown, Yorktown Victory Center, Chesapeake Bay, Virginia Living Museum, Virginia Aquarium, The National Maritime Center and Marine Science Center, which includes educational shows and presentations; and

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WHEREAS, the trip will include approximately 40 students, 4 advisors and 1 administrator, and is being organized by Educational Travel Consultants of Hendersonville, North Carolina who will provide a tour guide along with the booking of lodging, transportation, tours and programs; and WHEREAS, all expenses in connection with this trip will be paid by each participant (1 free adult per 10 students), and chaperones do not expect to receive a stipend for this extracurricular activity; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves this educational trip on May 31, 2007 through June 2, 2007.

Resolution No. A-22 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District is committed to providing student enrichment through various programs and initiatives; and WHEREAS, the District wishes to provide students with the opportunity to learn beyond the traditional school atmosphere; and WHEREAS, the District is committed to exposing student-athletes to opportunities that can further their personal, athletic and social development in various areas; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Education approves the team’s overnight trip to Disney Baseball Spring Warm-Up to be held at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex, Kissimmee, Florida beginning March 16 through March 25, 2007. The Eastside High School baseball team will incur all field trip costs, including fundraising. However, transportation to and from Newark International Airport, New Jersey will be provided through Eastside High School. The Eastside High School coaching staff will serve as chaperones.

Resolution No. A-23 WHEREAS, the competitive events and leadership academies are congruent with sound educational practices and address workplace readiness skills; and WHEREAS, six marketing students/DECA members of John F. Kennedy High School and their DECA advisors, Mr. George Silberman and Ms. Judith Rhodes, have planned to attend the DECA International Career Development Conference held in Orlando, Florida on April 27 to May 3, 2007; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education approves this educational experience for students and teachers, with partial conference expenses being paid through Perkins Grant money.

Resolution No. A-24 WHEREAS, Eastside High School is dedicated to improving academic achievement; and WHEREAS, Eastside High School has been designated a persistently dangerous school by the New Jersey State Department of Education; and

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WHEREAS, Eastside High School is committed to providing a positive and safe learning environment for its students and staff; and WHEREAS, Eastside High School aims to provide its security staff, teacher assistants to the principal, teaching staff and instructional assistants with the necessary training to enhance providing a safe learning environment; and WHEREAS, the Eastside High School Corrective Action Plan has been approved by the New Jersey State Department of Education; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education approves the Eastside High School Corrective Action Plan.

Resolution No. A-25 WHEREAS, in compliance with N.J.A.C. 6A:7 all school districts are required to develop and submit to the New Jersey Department of Education a Comprehensive Equity Plan by March 30, 2007; and WHEREAS, the Comprehensive Equity Plan must cover school years 2007-2010 to enable the district to address identified equity needs affecting its facilities, programs, pupils or staff in accordance to State and Federal laws; now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education approves the submission of the Comprehensive Equity Plan to the New Jersey Department of Education for it authorization for the implementation of the plan.

Resolution No. A-26 WHEREAS, in compliance with N.J.A.C. 6A:7 all school districts are required to develop and submit to the New Jersey Department of Education a Comprehensive Equity Plan by March 30, 2007; and WHEREAS, the Comprehensive Equity Plan must cover school years 2007-2010 to enable the district to address identified equity needs affecting its facilities, programs, pupils or staff; and WHEREAS, State law requires the formation of an Affirmative Action Team to conduct a needs assessment and develop a Comprehensive Equity Plan for the district, now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education authorizes the District’s Affirmative Action Team to carry out the State mandate as required by State law and regulation. It was moved by Comm. Sayegh, seconded by Comm. Kerr that Resolution Nos. A-1 through A-26 be adopted. Comm. Moody: On A-26, at the last workshop meeting I had asked about the makeup of this Affirmative Action Team. I thought it was top heavy with management. As a matter of fact, it is only management and one parent. I think this committee, especially with the issues that it deals with, such as Affirmative Action and equity and all that, should be made up differently. So I am still opposed to this team as it is presented. I don’t think it is well thought out and I had several questions on A-25. On A-24, I really

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was not clear with the corrective action plan. The person talked about it but I was not clear on it, so I am not prepared to vote on those. On roll call all members voted as follows: Comm. Atallo: Yes. Comm. Hodges: Yes. Comm. Kerr: Yes. Comm. Moody: Yes, with the exception of A-24, A-25, and A-26. I vote no on those. Comm. Sayegh: Yes. Comm. Spagnola: Yes. Comm. Vergara: Yes, and no on A-24, A-25, and A-26. Comm. Taylor: For me I still have problems with A-24. I will vote for all the others, but no on A-24. Comm. Hodges: Can I change my vote, please? Comm. Sayegh: What item are you trying to address, sir? Comm. Hodges: I want to change my vote on A-24 to a no. The motion carried, with the exception of Resolution No. A-24 that did not pass. LEGAL COMMITTEE Comm. Moody: There were no submissions for legal, Madam Chairman. FISCAL COMMITTEE Comm. Kerr reported that the Finance Committee met, reviewed and recommends approval for Resolution Nos. C-1 through C-9 and C-11 through C-22, with the exception of Resolution No. C-10, which has been pulled:

Resolution No. C-1 WHEREAS, it is necessary to pay vendors’ bills and claims against the Paterson Public School District, now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Finance Committee of the Paterson Public School District approves the attached bills list for March 2007.

Resolution No. C-2 WHEREAS, it is necessary to close bank accounts from the Paterson Public School District Payroll Agency, Salary Account; and now therefore

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BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the closing of Wachovia Salary Account #2030000705548 and Wachovia Payroll Agency Account #390320 of the Paterson Public School District; and be it further RESOLVED, that the account balances have been deposited into the accounts at PNC Bank.

Resolution No. C-3 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public Schools Tolerance Scholarships have all been awarded; and WHEREAS, the benefactor has discontinued the Tolerance Scholarship Award Program; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public Schools Tolerance Scholarship Account has a balance of $13.00 in interest; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Board of Education approves the $13.00 balance deposited to the “Pepsi Scholarship Account”; therefore closing the Tolerance Scholarship Account.

Resolution No. C-4 WHEREAS, the New Jersey Administrative Code 6:20-2.13 (a) – (c) requires the Board Secretary and the Board of Education to certify that no budgetary line item account has been over-expended and that sufficient funds are available to meet the district’s financial obligations; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Education approves transfer of funds within the 2006-2007 school year budget, for the month of December 2006, so that no budgetary line item account has been over-expended and that sufficient funds are available to meet the district’s financial obligations, as requested by various budget managers, and as identified in the list of transfers attached hereto and made a part of the minutes.

Resolution No. C-5 WHEREAS, Paterson Public Schools are required by New Jersey Administrative Code 6:23-2.2(a) to prepare monthly Financial Statements; and WHEREAS, the School Business Administrator has prepared and presented the Board Secretary Report A148 and the Report of the Treasurer A149 including the cash reconciliation for the month of December 2006; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public Schools acknowledge receipt of and accept the Monthly Financial Reports for December 2006; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public Schools hereby incorporates the Monthly Financial Reports for the fiscal period ending December 2006, as part of the minutes of this meeting and note the public discussion of same for the minutes; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the School Business Administrator be directed to forward to the County Superintendent the minutes together with the Monthly Financial Reports; and

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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this resolution shall take effect upon its adoption.

Resolution No. C-6 WHEREAS, the State Operated School District of the City of Paterson will provide Chapter 192 instructional services to nonpublic school students during the 2006-2007 school year in accordance with State regulations; and WHEREAS, Catapult Learning, LLC is an approved agency engaged in the business of providing Chapter 192 services to nonpublic school students; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, to revise the total cost of Chapter 192 less 2% administrative fees charged by the District approved at the September 20, 2006 Board Meeting per Funding Statement in the amount of $2,147,545.00.

Resolution No. C-7 WHEREAS, the submission of the No Child Left Behind Application for FY 2007 is an annual requirement; and WHEREAS, this grant must be submitted and approved by the New Jersey Department of Education; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District approves the submission of the Revised No Child Left Behind Consolidation Application for Title I, Title I SIA, Title IIA, Title IID, Title III, Title IV and Title V, for the fiscal year 2007 in the amount of $18,469,471.00. *There was a decrease in Title III entitlement from $1,491,806.00 to $1,286,595.00.

Resolution No. C-8 WHEREAS, the United Rhythms & Vision, Luis DeJesus, Director, donated three programs during the month of January: The International Folklore Museum on Wheels, valued at $5,000.00, The Carnival of the Rhythmic Hearts, valued at $3,500.00, and Mentoring Through Puppetry, valued at $2,500.00, for Public School Number 3; and WHEREAS, the United Rhythms & Visions also donated a mural that restored the image of the auditorium at Public School Number 8. The value of the mural is $19,000.00; and WHEREAS, the United Rhythms & Visions will have a dedication to the Children of Paterson; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District acknowledges and accepts these donations.

Resolution No. C-9 WHEREAS, the State of New Jersey allows boards of education to establish tax-sheltered deferred compensation plans under Sections 403(b) and 457 of the federal Internal Revenue Code at no expense to the board and at the option and discretion of the non-bargaining unit employee(s); and

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WHEREAS, the Board approved tax shelter offerings at its July 19, 2006 Board Meeting, with the understanding that additional firms would be approved to provide participants selection options; and WHEREAS, the following firms are providing such services to public school districts in New Jersey and have received positive references from districts in which they are providing services; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the following firms are authorized to act as an agent for the employer in any transactions necessary for the establishment, execution and maintenance of accounts purchased or sold for non-bargaining unit employees eligible for participation in deferred compensation plans under Sections 403(b) and/or 457(b)2 and 3 of the Internal Revenue Service Code. The firm(s) listed will indemnify and hold harmless the employer and any individual member of the governing board, representatives and employees from every claim, demand and suit that may arise from failure or negligence to meet the requirements of this agreement, but not based on erroneous information provided by the employer, its representatives or employees. In addition, firms previously approved to provide 457 services are approved to provide 403(b) services to non-bargaining units with the same hold-harmless stipulation. Additional firms approved: Primerica Financial Services, Duluth, Georgia The Vanguard Group, Inc., Valley Forge, Pennsylvania Resolution No. C-10 was pulled.

Resolution No. C-11 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Athletic Supplies and Related, PPS-112-08; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Athletic Supplies and Related, PPS-112-08, for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years to the following vendors: Varsity Spirit Fashions R&R Trophy & Sporting Goods Co. 6745 Lenox enter Court 104 Ridge Road Suite 300 No. Arlington, NJ 07031 Memphis, TN 38115 Riddell/All American Flaghouse 669 Sugar Lane 601 Flaghouse Drive Elyria, OH 44035-6309 Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07604 School Health Corp. Metuchen Center, Inc. 865 Muirfield Drive 429 Joyce Kilmer Avenue Hanover Park, IL 60133 New Brunswick, NJ

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Circle System Group A.A.E. 653 Bushkill Street 1000 Enterprise Drive Easton, PA 18042 Royersford, PA 19468 Sport Supply Group, Inc. Dol Gray Sports, Inc. Passon’s Sports 64 Division Avenue #113 P.O. Box 49 Levittown, NY 11756 Jenkintown, PA 19046 Gilman Gear Levi’s Inc. P.O. Box 97 6116 Bergenline Avenue Gilman, CT 06336 West New York, NJ 07093

Resolution No. C-12 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Uniforms District Wide, PPS-113-08; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Uniforms District Wide, PPS-113-08, for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years to the following vendors: Belle Uniforms Universal Uniform Sales Co. 266 Main Street 33 William Street Paterson, NJ 07505 Newark, NJ 07102 Primary – Discount 20% Secondary – Discount 0%

Resolution No. C-13 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Silk Screening & Printing Services, PPS-114-08; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Silk Screening & Printing Services, PPS-114-08, for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years to the following vendors: Alpha T’s, Inc. B.P. Services, Inc. 380 Totowa Road, 2nd Floor 198-B Market Street Totowa, NJ 07512 Elmwood Park, NJ 07407 Primary Secondary

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Resolution No. C-14 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Office Supplies and Related, PPS-115-08; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Office Supplies and Related, PPS-115-08, for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years to the following vendors: CMF Business Supplies W.B. Mason 3622 Kennedy Road 535 Secaucus Road South Plainfield, NJ 07080 Secaucus, NJ 07094 Discount 37.5% Discount 31.1% Supply-Saver Corporate Express 1324 Wyckoff Road 28 Eastman Road Neptune, NJ 07753 Parsippany, NJ 07054 Discount 25% Discount 25%

Resolution No. C-15 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Elementary Science Supplies and Related, PPS-116-08; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Elementary Science Supplies and Related, PPS-116-08, for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years to the following vendors: ETA/Cuisenaire 500 Greenview Court Vernon Hills, IL 60061

Resolution No. C-16 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Catering Services District Wide, PPS-136-08; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore

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BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Catering Services District Wide, PPS-136-08, for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years to the following vendors: Nicholas Markets, Inc. 195 Browertown Road, Bldg. #2 West Paterson, NJ 07724

Resolution No. C-17 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Copy Paper District Wide, PPS-139-08; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Copy Paper District Wide, PPS-139-08, for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years to the following vendors: W.B. Mason Co., Inc. 535 Secaucus Road Secaucus, NJ 07094

Resolution No. C-18 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for Temporary Employment Services, PPS-142-08; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for goods and services; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for Temporary Employment Services, PPS-142-08, for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years to the following vendors: Gleason Personnel, Inc. Beattys Services, Inc. 141 New Road 127 W. 127th, Suite 308 Parsippany, NJ 07054 New York, NY 10027 Primary Secondary Joule Staffing Services 295 Pierson Avenue Edison, NJ 08818 Secondary

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Resolution No. C-19 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District solicited proposals for PC, MAC and Printer Repair Services, PPS-145-07, for the Department of Technology; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District encourages open public bidding for goods and services; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District recognizes the need for obtaining the lowest responsible bid for PC, MAC and Printer Repair Services; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District awards a contract, as per the attached bid summary, for PC, MAC and Printer Repair Services, PPS-145-07, for the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years to the following vendors: NPA Computers, Inc. 751 Coates Avenue Holbrook, NY 11741 Not to exceed $29,000.00

Resolution No. C-20 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District has identified a need to provide out of district transportation for special education pupils for the 2006-2007 regular school year; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District has agreed to jointure with other districts through the Essex County Educational Services Commission; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District agrees to provide transportation service using the Essex County Educational Services Commission, 369 Passaic Avenue, Fairfield, New Jersey 07004 as follows: Route #MILT06 for $19,504.80 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this action is authorized by the State District Superintendent of Schools and is affirmed by the Paterson Board of Education.

Resolution No. C-21 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District has identified a need to provide school year, out of district transportation for special education pupils; and WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District has agreed to jointure with other districts through the Passaic County Educational Services Commission and the District agrees to the terms of the contract agreement; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Paterson Public School District ratifies the action of the State District Superintendent in approving the contract for the 2006-2007 school year; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the total estimated cost of the jointure agreement is as follows:

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Route School Est. Cost Per Route Surcharges PAPS Windsor School $8,133.36 $244.00 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this action is authorized by the State District Superintendent of Schools and is affirmed by the Paterson Board of Education.

Resolution No. C-22 WHEREAS, the Paterson Public School District has identified a need to provide transportation for Paterson special needs pupils to in district schools for the 2006-2007 school year; and WHEREAS, at a bid opening held on February 15, 2007 sealed bids were received by the Transportation Department; and now therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that this Board of Education ratifies the action of the State Business Administrator in awarding the bid contracts to: Route Destination Total Per Diem Contractor RP10 Rosa Parks High School $62.00 Trans Ed BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this action is authorized by the State District Superintendent of Schools and is ratified by the Paterson Board of Education. It was moved by Comm. Kerr, seconded by Comm. Sayegh that Resolution Nos. C-1 through C-9 and C-11 through C-22 be adopted. Resolution No. C-10 was pulled. Comm. Atallo: I discussed this with the administration and some of the Board members earlier requesting that two items be pulled from the bills list for review. I will give the vendor numbers and purchase order numbers as opposed to the name. The first one would be vendor #323340 and purchase order #0707781. I discussed that with the administration and I think they understand why we are requesting that be pulled. On the second one, we were at the committee meeting and the Chair, the President and I discussed the contractor who was charging us $55 an hour for clerical staff. We would like that pulled for further review. We are a public entity and we have an obligation to the taxpayers to get full value. We are going to request the administration to review these proposals from these contractors and when they submit them that they have a breakdown on hourly rates. The other one is #502140 and the purchase order number is #0707800. Comm. Kerr: Dr. Atallo, give me those numbers one more time. Comm. Atallo: Yes, sir. The first one is vendor number #323340 and the purchase order number is #0707781. The second vendor number is #502140 and the purchase order number is #0707800. I will give those to the business administrator now so she has the records along with the names. Dr. Glascoe: I don’t know whether you were going to bring it up but we wanted to go ahead and pull C-10. Comm. Kerr: Yes, I mentioned it.

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Dr. Glascoe: Okay, I’m sorry. Comm. Moody: Are you pulling these purchase orders that Comm. Atallo just read off? Comm. Kerr: Dr. Atallo, do you want these pulled? Is that what you were trying to do? Comm. Taylor: That has to do with 10? Comm. Atallo: No. These are C-1 with the approval of payments. I would like those pulled for further review. Comm. Kerr: Should we have a vote on this? Comm. Atallo: I don't know if we can do it administratively. Do we need to do an up or down vote? I will make a motion that we pull these two bills for further review. Comm. Kerr: I would recommend that you make a motion, we second it and then vote. It was moved by Comm. Atallo, seconded by Comm. Vergara that vendor number #323340, purchase order #0707781, and vendor number #502140, purchase order #0707800 be pulled from Resolution No. C-1 for further review. Comm. Taylor: It is C-1 and we had all the bills. Comm. Atallo: We had two bills that just came in on the list that we received over the weekend. These are additional ones. Comm. Taylor: Mr. Chair, you did know about these two and you talked with Ms. Finkelstein about them? Comm. Kerr: Yes. Comm. Atallo: Maybe she would like to comment. I think she is trying to get your attention. Ms. Finkelstein: Madam President, the business administration agrees with Dr. Atallo’s request and we will pull them for subsequent research. Comm. Hodges: So you intend to pull those bills then? Comm. Atallo: Would the Chair want to go into executive session for a minute and I will give my rationale? Comm. Hodges: She is agreeing to pull the bills. Comm. Taylor: She agreed but I was just not knowing which ones these were and I don’t have them in front of me. That is the only reason I am questioning it. But if Ms. Finkelstein and Mr. Kerr agrees, I will also at this time. Comm. Sayegh: There is a motion on the floor. Comm. Kerr: There is a motion on the floor. Comm. Taylor: I know there is a motion on the floor.

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Comm. Hodges: There is no second. Comm. Atallo: Mr. Vergara seconded it. Comm. Hodges: But the administration is already pulling the bills, so you can withdraw your motion if they decide to pull it. Comm. Atallo: Just to memorialize it we will take an up or down vote so we have a memorializing on the record. Comm. Taylor: Mr. Chair, at our fiscal meeting Ms. Finkelstein said to us that she was going to and she did do what she said. She was going to pull the bills and put them in order for contractors and for vendors and she did do that. We can see it very easily and very quickly. The next step according to Dr. Atallo we just got these because of the snowstorm that went on that we were not able to get them and we could not meet again. But I just want to remember that we will have to talk about them in our committee before we get to this level. That is all I want to say. Comm. Kerr: Okay. We will now vote on the motion. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried. Comm. Kerr: Any further discussion? Comm. Vergara: That was on C-1, correct? Now we are going to C-10? Comm. Kerr: C-10 is pulled. There is no discussion. Comm. Atallo: This is for C-1 through C-22? Comm. Kerr: Yes. C-10 is pulled. On roll call all members voted as follows: Comm. Atallo: I abstain on C-1 and I vote yes on the rest. Comm. Hodges: If there are any references to the YMCA, I don’t recall, I will abstain on that particular item. Otherwise, I vote yes. Comm. Kerr: Yes. Comm. Moody: Yes. Comm. Sayegh: Yes. Comm. Spagnola: Yes. Comm. Vergara: I will abstain on C-1 and yes on the rest. Comm. Taylor: Yes. The motion carried.

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FACILITIES COMMITTEE Comm. Taylor: Do we have a report on facilities, Dr. Hodges? Comm. Hodges: No. Comm. Taylor: Dr. Hodges, have you seen the comprehensive maintenance plan? Comm. Hodges: No. Comm. Taylor: Dr. Glascoe, is this something that has to be into the State Department of Education by a certain date? Oh, it’s overdue. Ms. Finkelstein, when was it due? In December? Ms. Finkelstein: It was due in December and it came up as we were preparing for QSAC. Comm. Taylor: As we were preparing for QSAC? Comm. Hodges: We have not discussed it in committee. Comm. Taylor: I have not had a chance to look at it and I don’t think any of our Board members have had a chance to really review it or discuss it. We have not discussed it in workshop. When we are discussing maintenance of buildings and grounds we just don’t have it. Comm. Hodges: Nope. Comm. Taylor: This is another piece we just don’t have. I am not sure how we can proceed on a maintenance plan. Comm. Spagnola: We are going to have to shelve it. Comm. Taylor: I will entertain a motion to table this. It was moved by Comm. Spagnola, seconded by Comm. Vergara that the motion be tabled. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried. POLICY COMMITTEE Comm. Taylor: We have no submissions from the policy, so we will have two minutes for each Board member. Items Not Requiring a Vote

MOTION TO ACCEPT THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE STATE DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT TO APPROVE AND ADOPT

THE PERSONNEL MOTIONS AS DESCRIBED BELOW 07-B165. Approved stipend for John Prescott as assistant girls basketball coach at

John F. Kennedy High School, effective November 26, 2006, at an amount not to exceed $6,069.00.

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07-B166. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Rose Farrell Tchr.(English)/JFKHS $51,371 2/20/07 07-B167. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Demetrius Sims Cafe. Monitor/AHA $7.75/hr. 3/19/07 07-B168. Approved hiring Jane Emsbo as a consultant to conduct a workshop for

staff in grades K-2 at CJR/School No. 9 on the subject of Orton-Gillingham, From Theory to Practice, on March 15, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $300.00.

07-B169. Approved compensation for teachers at MPACT Academy working in the

After School Enrichment Program, from January through March 2007, at an amount not to exceed $6,630.00:

Christopher Lewis Donna Marino Timothy Raimondo 07-B170. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Alejandra Chaca Cafe. Monitor/No. 15 $7.75/hr. 3/19/07 07-B171. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Benita Gray Cafe. Monitor/No. 15 $7.75/hr. 3/19/07 07-B172. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Eva Pichardo Cafe. Monitor/No. 15 $7.75/hr. 3/19/07 07-B173. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Alexander Rizos Tchr.(Soc. Stud.)/JFKHS $44,071 2/12/07 07-B174. Approved transfer: Name From To Eff. Date Lori Harvell Supv./Lang. Arts Dept. Supv./Spec. Prog. 2/26/07 07-B175. Approved compensation for Peter DiGiacomo as scheduler at Eastside

High School during August 2006, at an amount not to exceed $850.00. 07-B176. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Adrian Tooley Perm. Sub./No. 13 $22,000 2/21/07

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07-B177. Approved compensation for staff working in the After School Wrap Around

Program for the Department of Early Childhood Education, from January 22, 2007 through August 31, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $13,776.00:

Winnidred Johnson Simone Bailey 07-B178. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date David Cozart Principal/DFN $93,200 1/15/07 07-B179. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Christopher Pringle Principal/No. 28 $110,500 2/26/07 07-B180. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Edna Nieves Cafe. Monitor/No. 16 $7.75/hr. 3/19/07 07-B181. Approved compensation for staff of Eastside High School working as

Saturday detention teachers, for 22 days, at an amount not to exceed $4,488.00:

Arthur Larro Anthony DePasquale 07-B182. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Heather Pollak Inst. Asst./DAS $29,071 2/5/07 07-B183. Approved contract with Princeton Center for Leadership Training to

provide staff with five critical components of the High School Advocacy Planning and Implementation training sessions during the 2006-2007 school year, at an amount not to exceed $50,000.00.

07-B184. Approved internal transfers for teachers at School No. 15, effective

January 31, 2007: Toni Setteducato Susan Donnelly 07-B185. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Janice Doerner Tchr.(K)/No. 25 $44,071 3/5/07 07-B186. Approved contract with SkillPath On-Site Consultants to provide staff

development to 120 PEA secretaries, in the amount of $17,000.00.

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07-B187. Approved stipends for PEA secretaries who successfully complete courses for the annual secretarial training at a maximum of $200.00 per secretary.

07-B188. Approved compensation for Amy Romero as a dance teacher for the

Paterson Community Learning Centers After-School Program at Schools No. 6 and 10, from January 22 through June 30, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $3,740.00.

07-B189. Approved utilizing substitute teachers as substitute secretaries to fill in

when secretaries are out from either schools or central office for an extended period of time:

Maria Lopez Rasheeda Thomas Stephanie Williams 07-B190. Approved compensation for staff of John F. Kennedy High School working

in the Saturday HSPA Program, from January 20 through March 3, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $14,280.00:

Muhanad Alagha Nicole Dupree Dori Christmas Amy Distasio Lorraine DeAngelo Maria Izquierdo Renee Cleaves Joseph Pardine Muhammad Ali Mathew Acheril Charles Coronato Eric Polo Victor Alegria Gina Compitello Russell Craig Gin Sanchez Maria Cefalo Janet Abyad Cecilia Arango Richard Vincenti Maria Gagliardi Timothy Reilly Danielle Hoffman Jerry Engstrom Kimberly Smith Lynn Yakimik Jane Lenosky Milan Vasic Antoinette Price 07-B191. Approved compensation for staff of HARP Academy working in the HSPA

Prep Program, from February 5 through March 3, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $3,468.00:

Joseph Kolinsky Tatiana Mikhailovsky Patricia Spiliotopoulos 07-B192. Approved compensation for Andre Alston as Supervisor in the Rebound/

Twilight Program at Eastside High School, from January 22 through June 8, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $17,920.00.

07-B193. Approved compensation for Horace Perkins as Teacher Assistant to the

Principal in the Rebound/ Twilight Program at Eastside High School, at an amount not to exceed $3,230.00.

07-B194. Approved compensation for teachers working in the Rebound/Twilight

Program at Eastside High School, from January 22 through June 8, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $62,016.00:

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Judith Hall Salvatore Ultimo Simonette Erb Carolyn Hobbs Joan Mandel Tatiana Mikhailovsky 07-B195. Approved compensation for teachers working in the Rebound/Twilight

Program at Eastside High School, from January 22 through June 8, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $1,292.00:

Rocio Fernandez Kimeka Patterson 07-B196. Approved compensation for instructional assistants working in the

Rebound/Twilight Program at Eastside High School, from January 29 through June 7, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $10,752.00:

Heidi Freeman Shirly Noble 07-B197. Approved compensation for staff serving as substitutes in the

Rebound/Twilight Program at Eastside High School, from January 22 through June 8, 2007:

John Super Raul Guzman 07-B198. Approved compensation for teachers serving as substitutes in the

Rebound/Twilight Program at Eastside High School, from January 22 through June 8, 2007:

Thomas Easterbrook Diana Scimeca Joseph LiVecchi Narlin Nicholas Delores Clark Bonnie King-Cook John McKeon Shawn Thompson Aburmeileh Khamis Turkan Sezen Banmali Banerjee William Roman James Avino Mary Prendergast Oliver Butler Shenita Davis Keica Holmes Yasmin Barnes 07-B199. Approved substitute teacher applicants: Therese Bishara Markular Boons Christine Carafello Kellyann Charles Eileen Deiulio Erick Estrada Sabrie Iussein Nilima Minu Robert Mold Yvonne Romero Carlos Solis Dorka Thomas 07-B200. Approved hiring TanaReid Productions, Inc. to present an assembly for

students of Schools 21, 25, 26, Rosa Parks High School, and Great Falls Academy, and a music workshop for Rosa Parks band students, in celebration of African-American Heritage Month, at an amount not to exceed $2,400.00.

07-B201. Approved termination of cafeteria monitors due to job abandonment: Tanisha Farrissier Maria Torres

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07-B202. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Carlos Rosa Pers. Aide/No. 3 $29,071 2/20/07 07-B203. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Yvonne Brown Cafe. Monitor/No. 28 $7.75/hr. 3/19/07 07-B204. Approved compensation for teachers participating in the Alexander

Hamilton Fellowship Grant, from November 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $49,490.00:

Melissa Alarcon Diana Allen Robert Allen Christine Alsharif Salvatore Balsamo Domenico Carriero Raymond Carroll Miguel Castro Wendy Cox Frank De Vivo Theresa Delano Milena Eason Stephen Gambuti Julie Gill Jeffrey Gutt Nellie Jenkins Susan Little Dwayne Maultsby Stephen Nebus Edgar Nieves Tamara Robinson Kenneth Roman Selemy Ruiz Michael Shanahan JoAnn Smith Peter Somoza Chris Toomey Lorraine Zoeller Elaine Negron Tricia James Dianne Scimeca Kristian Perez Simone Erb Christine Garibell Anthony Licamara 07-B205. Approved compensation for teachers participating on the Alexander

Hamilton Fellowship Grant vertical team, to disseminate information to social studies teachers at scheduled workshops, from January 15 through June 30, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $8,976.00:

Melissa Alarcon Christine Alsharif Salvatore Balsamo Raymond Carroll Theresa Delano Stephen Gambuti Stephen Nebus Selemny Ruiz Michael Shanahan Peter Somoza Lorraine Zoeller 07-B206. Approved stipends for teachers attending the National Writing Project

Conference at Rutgers University on Saturday, February 10, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $1,425.00:

Phyllis Gordon Lories Slockbower Louise Albert Helen Benicaso Beverly Lape Karen Rinaggio Dawna Pazant Nancy Correa

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Christine Alshaif Mahzabeen Choudhury Yolanda Ravelo Kristina Garnett Julie Nunez Lori Pirro Olga Lara Mercedes Lorenzo Jackie Chritiano Elly Marriquin Jorge Ventura David Harris Ann Hazley Cathy Winick Gayle Woods Tracey Pearson Linda Monnett Bill Lami Patrick Cecala Gary Pagan Joanne Llinas Sara Mustafa Natie McGuire Kate Siegel Sumaira Toor Barbara Jarosz Layla Abayhan Patricia Gordon Patricia Boatner Theresa Beagin Millie Brooks Deborah Robinson Lisa Mayer Jayne Barry Diana Lockner Clarie Malachowski Ruth Ferraro Lymaris Santana Cynthia Stuart Heather Crawford Pamela Paternoster Anita Bozzo Victoria Sanabria Andrea Luckey Sherri Rothstein Sandra Nunez Danyel Cicarelli Celia Pino-Morales Rogelio Suarez Mary Ke Alburg 07-B207. Approved payment for staff serving as mentors in the Provisional Route

Program: Esther Daw Sherron McGoldrick 07-B208. Approved transfer: Name From To Eff. Date Debra Ajimobi Soc. Wrkr./Nos. 29,7 Soc. Wrkr./Nos. 26,1 2/5/07 07-B209. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Josefina Cordova Cafe. Monitor/No. 5 $7.75/hr. 2/12/07 07-B210. Approved removing position control numbers 6369 and 6139 for student

worker from location 730. 07-B211. Approved compensation for Milena Eason for participating in the

Alexander Hamilton Fellowship Grant, from January 17 through June 30, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $1,000.00.

07-B212. Approved termination: Name Location Eff. Date Falilat Fatiregun Tchr./ECE 3/23/07

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07-B213. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Travis Nelson Pers. Aide/No. 6 $24,999 3/5/07 07-B214. Approved revised Bloodborne Pathogen Exposure Control Plan and

providing training to district personnel as required by state regulations, for the 2006-2007 school year.

07-B215. Approved research by Dr. Robert Apsler of the Princeton Center for

Leadership Training of the New Jersey Peer-to-Peer program at Schools 9, 15, 21, 18 and 24, from February 22, 2007 through September 30, 2008 as stated in the Title IV Safe & Drug-Free Schools Grant and to secure future funding.

07-B216. Approved hiring John James as a consultant to facilitate the Reconnecting

Education and Dads (R.E.A.D.) Program at School No. 10, beginning February 22 through June 30, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $10,000.00.

07-B217. Approved compensation for teachers working additional hours in the

Paterson Community Learning Centers After-School Program at Schools 6 and 10, at an amount not to exceed $12,104.00:

Adela Joyce Randi Pointer Judy Gajadhar Esther Daw Jahmeela Mattocks Lisa Tutunjian Tamisha Windley Dorian Butcher Stacey Gersten 07-B218. Approved salary adjustment for Abelito Solis, to minimum instructor pay in

the JROTC at Eastside High School, for the months of June 2006 through November 2006, in the amount of $940.00.

07-B219. Approved reimbursement for Marianne Harms in settlement of PEA

Grievance 05-37, effective January 25, 2007, in the amount of $305.43. 07-B220. Approved leaves of absence: Name Location Eff. Date Type Michael Reilly Tchr./No. 12 12/1/06-1/15/07 Fam./Med RoseMarie Kaplan Tchr./No. 2 1/2/07-2/28/07 Personal Moishe Williams Tchr./No. 26 2/1/07-4/4/07 Fam./Mat. Valerie Dade Tchr./No. 6 11/22/06-2/28/07 Fam./Med. Evangeline Marcelin Tchr./No. 6 1/8/07-4/2/07 Fam./Mat. Tara Kearney Nurse/No. ULA 1/2/07-6/30/07 Fam./Mat. Barbara Malawer Tchr./No. 20 11/30/06-1/19/07 Fam./Med.

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Carlene Anderson Tchr./No. 12 1/16/07-2/14/07 Fam./Med.

Sherry Murray Tchr./ Spec. Servs. 1/22/07-3/2/07 Fam./Med.

LeighAnn Kwiecinski Tchr./ No. 13 10/4/06-2/28/07 Fam./Mat. 07-B221. Approved leaves of absence: Name Location Eff. Date Type

Nasima Choudhury Inst. Asst./No. 6 12/21/06-1/15/07 Family Marsha Belton Sec./Dept. HR 1/8/07-2/19/07 Fam./Med. Florence Liguori Sec./JFKHS 12/19/06-1/5/07 Fam./Med. Wanda Rosado Cafe. Mngr./GMA 1/8/07-2/19/07 Fam./Med.

Stacy Fuller Pers. Aide/AHA 1/16/07-1/31/07 Family 07-B222. Approved returning staff to active employment: Name Location Eff. Date Julie Benitez Tchr./MLK 12/19/06 Emma Kimbrough Tchr./No. 12 1/2/07 Vaughn Platt Tchr./No. EHS 1/3/07 Narlin Nicholas Tchr./EHS 1/2/07 Arthur Neufield Tchr./EHS 1/2/07 Tasha McKinney Tchr./No. 18 1/2/07 Christopher Lindsey Tchr./No. 28 1/2/07 Tina Krankel Tchr./No. 19 1/2/07 Roger Sangster Tchr./EHS 1/2/07 Lauren Cocca Tchr./No. 27 1/2/07 07-B223. Approved returning staff to active employment: Name Location Eff. Date Nasima Choudhury Inst. Asst./No. 6 1/16/07 07-B224. Accepted resignations/retirements: Name Location Eff. Date Type Robert Howell Principal/No. 29 7/1/07 Retirement Linda De Luccia Tchr./No. 10 1/1/07 Retirement

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Barbara Cockfield Tchr./No. 20 1/1/07 Retirement Melvin Joyner Tchr./No. 10 12/2/06 Resignation Mitchell Izenberg Tchr./No. 24 1/1/07 Retirement Robert Gut Ath. Dir./JFKHS 2/1/07 Retirement Angela Medina Tchr./I.H.S. 2/1/07 Retirement Marisa Mazzone Tchr./No. 17 11/30/06 Resignation Julio Pina Tchr./JFKHS 2/12/07 Resignation Linda Crescione Princ./No. 9 7/1/07 Retirement Mary Nazareth Tchr./No. 4 1/1/07 Retirement Darlene Rankin Princ./No. 18 7/1/07 Retirement Rosalie Odigbo Tchr./No. 5 1/1/07 Retirement Mary Ledgard Tchr./No. 5 7/1/07 Retirement 07-B225. Accepted resignations/retirements: Name Location Eff. Date Type Annette Deprospo Sec./Accts. Payable 1/1/07 Retirement Leticia Glover Inst. Asst./EHS 11/22/06 Resignation Siham Varoqua Inst. Asst./No. 27 1/1/07 Retirement 07-B226. Approved change in location for Karen Perry from Location 860 to 730. 07-B227. Approved transfer: Name From To Eff. Date Dolores Shields Sp. Lang. Spec. Sp. Lang. Spec./ 2/5/07 STARS,12,14,6 6,14,12 07-B228. Approved change in status for Tara Parker, from permanent substitute to

teacher, effective November 1, 2006. 07-B229. Approved returning staff to active employment: Name Location Eff. Date Laura Almanzar Tchr./No. 3 1/29/07 07-B230. Approved reinstating students into the Edu-Met System due to returning to

work, effective September 2006: Carlos Frias Veap Keca Tahrod Smith Wade Warren

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07-B231. Approved internal transfer for Tahia Fahmy, from grade 4 teacher at

Urban Leadership Academy, to academic support teacher, effective January 26, 2007.

07-B232. Approved transfer: Name From To Eff. Date Mary McGuire Tchr./ULA Tchr./No. 8 1/26/07 07-B233. Approved transfer: Name From To Eff. Date Mitchell Waddell Pers. Aide/BUILD Pers. Aide/No. 7 1/29/07 07-B234. Approved rescinding transfer for Glenda Campbell, instructional assistant,

and return to School No. 25. 07-B235. Approved termination of cafeteria monitor, Sonji McDaniel, due to job

abandonment, effective January 22, 2007. 07-B236. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Edward Cisneros Vice Principal/No. 2 $76,622 4/2/07 07-B237. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Juanita Green Secretary/No. 25 $27,237 3/12/07 07-B238. Accepted resignation: Name Location Eff. Date Jessica Valois SCL/No. 29 1/26/07 07-B239. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Carrie Blunt Cafe. Monitor/No. 15 $7.75/hr. 3/19/07 07-B240. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Dorothy Johnson Cafe. Monitor/DAS $7.75/hr. 3/26/07 07-B241. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Amika Tate Cafe. Monitor/DAS $7.75/hr. 3/26/07 07-B242. Approved compensation for staff of Garrett Morgan Academy working in

the HSPA Prep Program, from January 27 through March 3, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $1,600.00:

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Steve DiSebastian Karen Flaherty Akshay Patel 07-B243. Approved reclassification for Barby Lovely from Field Trainer to Catering

Manager, effective February 5, 2007. 07-B244. Accepted resignation: Name Location Eff. Date Isaac Williams Inst. Asst./GFA 1/30/07 07-B245. Approved abolishing the position Food Service Internal Monitor, Eliezer

Martinez, effective February 5, 2007, plus two weeks pay in lieu of notice. 07-B246. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Lynette Pinckney Tchr.(Gr.5)/AHA $44,071 2/12/07 07-B247. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Maria Cousins Conf. Secretary/Supt. Off. $49,000 2/12/07 07-B248. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Medellin Tavares SCL-Stud. Attend./ $11.50/hr. 2/21/07 No. 21 $25 travel stipend 07-B249. Approved compensation for part time instructors according to the

guidelines and procedures of Adult High School funds, for the 2006-2007 school year continuation program, at an amount not to exceed $8,160.00:

Jerry Engstrom Lucia Fiorillo 07-B250. Approved compensation for part time instructor, Vilma Carranza,

according to the guidelines and procedures of Adult Education funds, for the 2006-2007 school year continuation program, at an amount not to exceed $4,080.00.

07-B251. Approved payment for staff serving as mentor in the Provisional Route

Program: (Barbara Tanis) 07-B252. Approved payment for staff serving as mentor in the Provisional Route

Program: (Hilda Goldberg) 07-B253. Approved processing payment of non-accumulated sick days for Virginia

Newman, less $110 substitute per diem pay, from February 8, 2007 through June 30, 2007.

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07-B254. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Auntie Boker Tchr.(Envirn. Res.)/ $44,071 2/26/07 Comm. Servs. Dept. 07-B255. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Shawnta Holman Café. Monitor/No. 5 $7.75/hr. 3/12/07 07-B256. Approved payment for staff serving as mentor in the Provisional Route

Program: (Luretta Jones) 07-B257. Approved transfer: Name From To Eff. Date Marilyn Holloway Tchr./No. 10 Tchr./RPHS 2/2/07 07-B258. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Omar Veloz Graphics Coordinator/ $50,000 2/12/07 Communications Dept. 07-B259. Approved compensation for Stanley Sumter to chaperone students

attending a 13 week program at Fairleigh Dickinson University, from February 2 through April 28, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $2,431.00.

07-B260. Suspension of employee, with pay. 07-B261. Accepted resignation: Name Location Eff. Date Belkys Olivo Cafe. Monitor/No. 2 2/1/07 07-B262. Approved substitute teacher applicants: Muhammed Ali Jose Almonte Alia Al-Qatarneh Jhilda Blankenship Alex Canas Bryant Davis Carl Davis Albania Fermin Dilenia Hernandez Miguel Jimenez Soniya Johnson Barbara Kikolski Luciano Martinez Afia Mathlib Cecelia Mendoza Veronica Pareja Mercedes Perez Nakentorche Roney 07-B263. Approved the reinstatement of Leroy Walker as substitute teacher for the

2006-2007 school year, effective February 1, 2007.

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07-B264. Approved termination: Name Location Eff. Date Lisa Young Conf. Secretary/Human Resources 2/5/07 07-B265. Approved compensation for Eva Razzak in settlement of PEA Grievance

No. 05-06, in the amount of $6,250.00. 07-B266. Approved payment of unused accumulated vacation days, as per policy, to

the following employee: Name Days John Bodoky 7 07-B267. Approved returning staff to active employment: Name Location Eff. Date Mercedes Vargas Tchr./Nos. 28, 29 2/7/07 07-B268. Approved transfer: Name From To Eff. Date Alex Tahbaz Psych./HS Acad.,18 Psych./DPPS 2/26/07 07-B269. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Layton Robinson Cafe. Monitor/DFN $7.75/hr. 3/26/07 07-B270. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Martha Flores Cafe. Monitor/No. 9 $7.75/hr. 3/26/07 07-B271. Approved appointment: Name Assignment/Location Salary Eff. Date Nargisl Sultana Cafe. Monitor/No. 19 $7.75/hr. 3/26/07 07-B272. Approved travel stipend for Vincent Mingione, from October 2006 through

June 2007, in the amount of $405.00. 07-B273. Approved compensation for staff of Edward W. Kilpatrick serving as

substitutes in the breakfast program: Robert Fox Joseph Gaita Sharyn Wickman Sherry Graczy Lisa Papienuk Rosa Guerra Gladys Crespo 07-B274. Approved transfer: Name From To Eff. Date Tara Parker Tchr./No. 27 Tchr./No. 17 2/12/07

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07-B275. Approved the reassignment of Guillermo Wong to the Department of Pupil

Personnel Services, effective February 8, 2007. 07-B276. Approved the reassignment of Arthur Everett from his custodial duties at

133 Ellison Street, effective February 8, 2007. 07-B277. Accepted resignation: Name Location Eff. Date Yanilda Guillen SCL/I.H.S. 2/6/07 07-B278. Approved payment for staff serving as mentor in the Provisional Route

Program: (Barbara Tanis) 07-B279. Approved payment for staff serving as mentor in the Provisional Route

Program: (Gloria VanHouten) 07-B280. Approved internal transfer for Nicole Booker, from academic support

teacher at School No. 26, to grade 2 teacher, effective March 1, 2007. 07-B281. Approved internal transfer for Helen Morgenstern, from academic support

teacher at BUILD Academy, to language arts teacher, effective February 26, 2007.

07-B282. Approved compensation for Nicholas Willis to teach in the Rebound/

Novanet Credit Recovery Program at John F. Kennedy High School, from February 12 through June 23, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $6,120.00.

07-B283. Approved compensation for staff to teach in the Rebound/ Novanet Credit

Recovery Program at John F. Kennedy High School, from February 12 through June 23, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $42,840.00:

Quana Phillips Clarissa Castelli Timothy Reilly Nellista Bess Nicole Dupree Mary DeMoor Florita Cotto Kathleen Renegar Milan Vasic Mary Chowhan Deborah Huffin Shelton Prescott Maria Izquerdo 07-B284. Approved compensation for instructional assistants working in the

Rebound/ Novanet Credit Recovery Program at John F. Kennedy High School, from February 12 through June 23, 2007, at an amount not to exceed $4,320.00:

Boris Salazar Clevans Robinson 07-B285. Approved substitute teacher applicants: Yanelis Arriola Harry Cooper Yolanda Dock Matthew Gavin Jacqueline Rogers Wendy Santana

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Samantha Schuller Andrew South 07-B286. Approved transfer: Name From To Eff. Date Barbara McKoy Pers. Aide/No. 29 Pers. Aide/MLK 2/20/07 07-B287. Approved changing Derrick Hoff from Acting Principal to Principal of

School No. 6, effective February 13, 2007. OTHER BUSINESS Board Member Comments Comm. Atallo: We already had the comments. Comm. Hodges: You said we could only talk about one thing. Never mind. Forget about it. Comm. Spagnola: Start anew next time. How is that, Jonathan? Comm. Hodges: I do have a comment because I am concerned about the military recruiting. I really am and I can't let that go. I don’t know whether you saw the article about the National Guard recruiting station that opened up on Ward Street. Of particular concern to me was the statement that they found the Paterson demographics to be appealing so they came here to recruit. They did not open up recruiting stations in the counties or the cities that were not so terribly in favor of this war because those demographics were not quite as appealing. I find that to be very distressing that they come here to take advantage of the poverty, the poor education, the ignorance, and the kids who don’t understand what is going on. They find that environment appealing. I think this town has to stop being played for a fool and recognize that their children should mean a lot more than that. Unfortunately, what it means to them is not necessary what it means to us nor should it be. I am distressed that we are not doing a lot more to safeguard and protect the interests of our children, particularly around the opt-out provision that we have available to us. The last thing I am going to say, Madam President, is the divisive voices in this community tonight heard another set of voices that appealed for perhaps a different approach. We have differences and we need to address those differences with ideas that help bring us together and help further and advance the interests of all the children, not just one narrow segment of it. When you continue to do that then all you do is open up the gaps as opposed to bridging them. Thank you. Comm. Kerr: Madam President, may I say something? Comm. Taylor: Yes. Comm. Kerr: Next Monday we will have a preliminary presentation of the budget. It is very important that we have parents turn up and learn watching that budget and how it is going to affect the education of your children. Too many times we come here and believe that everything is done because the School Board or the Superintendent wants it that way. We need to understand that it is not the Superintendent and it is not the School Board, but the biggest part of our problem resides in Trenton. So we want all of our parents to come out and make sure that they understand what is happening because in the coming months it is going to be tough. You heard what is happening

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here tonight. A lot of our field trips will be cut out I suppose because of the so-called flat budgeting. It is not really flat. It is beyond flat. So I hope that our parents and community understand this and everybody come and make sure that they understand what is going on. In the coming months it is going to be much harder than what they are hearing tonight. Thank you, Madam President. Comm. Sayegh: Madam President, I want to thank Dr. Fulmore before he leaves along with Dr. Glascoe. Ed Dinger, who is a Patersonian and who happens to be a sales representative at Lowe’s, which just recently opened on Route 20, reached out and following proper protocol I contacted our assistant superintendent of community services who then contacted the Superintendent. Lowe’s wants to be a community partner and invest in the district on a number of projects. The other thing I would like to bring to everyone’s attention is that there is a voter’s guide and it is going to be mailed out to over 13,000 homes. It is called an Educated Voter’s Guide for a reason. Please, not only read, but carefully review all the records of all the candidates. It has a list of who has attended meetings and who has not attended meetings and what each candidate believes. So please take the time and thoroughly review this voter’s guide, which will be sent out to over 13,000 homes. Thank you. Comm. Vergara: I would just like to mention about the Art Society presenting a show here on March 29 at 4:30 and March 30 at 6:30. Unfortunately, they put in a request for the facilities here at Kennedy High School in this auditorium back in December 2006 and again in January 2007. Apparently because of our budget meeting here these 40 students will not be able to rehearse for their performance. Being it is a dancing talent show they are doing and the students really needed to rehearse for this maybe next time we can find somewhere else we can move them in this big high school and they can have a place. I really feel bad for them because they have been planning this for a while. The other thing too is Comm. Sayegh mentioned about the booklet that is going out in reference to the election. Let’s not judge a book by its cover and let’s see who truly is about the kids. Nobody should be here because they have their heart set on their own personal agendas or because they have their heart set on a political agenda. Have a good night. Thank you. It was moved by Comm. Sayegh, seconded by Comm. Moody that the meeting be adjourned. On roll call all members voted in the affirmative. The motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 11:15 p.m.