##VIDEO ID:UlQGpyE2TfE## e how you good good okay everyone can we please stand for the pledge Stephie I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all welcome everybody to The Cliff Park Board of Education uh meeting January 22nd 20125 uh Lou I'd like you to start with your opening statement thank you Mr capano the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public will advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies which any business affected their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of this act clite par P of sc's notice of this meeting to be published by having a date time and place there up posted in the office of the b cler or a library or a recor p Office of the Board of Ed and the offices of school numberb 3456 and the high school on January 14th 2025 and notices were forwarded to the reporters of the record January 14 2025 this is an official meeting Mr capano I'd like to take the role if I may please uh Mrs Abu here Mr capana here Mrs Freda here Mr Gara here Mr nadw here Dr pontano here Mr ranc cour Mr Russo here mrak here Mr Yi okay Mr cap thank you on again welcome everybody uh would like to start off with the superintendent's report please thanks Mr uh there are 38 Personnel resolutions this evening uh vast majority of them are perfunctory covering professional development leaves of absence substitute teachers and teacher aids but there are four Personnel resolutions I would like to speak to you and the public about uh resolution number eight is apologize I have the wrong agenda I apologize folks I I don't have the latest and greatest two resolution 8 is appointing The anav Vasquez as the high school vice principle replacing Mr Schmidt and I thank Mr pinto and his committee for the work that they did interviewing the candidates and recommending to me Mrs Vasquez and I am recommending Miss Vasquez to the board of education to replace Mr Schmidt I wish her pending her approval this evening I wish her a long wonderful career in clide Park High School resolution seven did go backwards is replacing Mrs Vasquez with Stephanie Brennan um Stephanie Brennan is a former multi language learner supervisor in the district and uh she's been filling in for Mrs Vasquez since the summer she's doing a fabulous job and I'd like to recommend making her permanent following this Vasquez two retirements I'd like to bring to the Public's attention and the boards once again number 25 we are as asking you to I'm sorry question number 26 we're asking you to accept the retirement notification of Middle School ESL teacher Mrs Park uh we wish Miss Park very very happy wonderful new chapter in life and we thank her for her service to the Middle School ESL program and lastly resolution 25 accept the retirement of Dr Edwood Meyer effect of April the 4th of 2025 and I believe Mr tabaki is going to speak to Dr Meyer's time and career with the Cliffside Park Public Schools so Dr Maya wrote a letter to Dear Dr Hayes Mrs Cal Mr aano Mr PTO and members of the Board of Education serving the students of Kista Park and Fa communities for many decades has been one of the greatest Gifts of my life the only great blessing was the gift of my daughter Madison after 42 years I CLI Saar high school and 46 years in education it's time for me to begin my next Journey having worked with many of you and your children along with your former colleagues as either as a teacher or counsel I think you know how much I truly love Renville I look forward to helping our students in the future if there's ever a need for now all I can say is thank you and your pre pre predecessors for your unyielding support trust and kindness over these 42 years I am blessed I would like to furthermore say about Dr Meyer when I started high school he was our history teacher correct our freshman year and then sophomore year junior year and Senior year he was my guidance counselor I gave him a run for his money but I uh I work through all my journey in my life and I came to where I am with the help of Dr Meyer so it's it's a little bit sad but he has to move on with his life and take care of Madison and his uh and his true passion hisort he likes to do that Co reing and all that so I want to thank Dr Meer for his 42 years of dedication to uh taking care of a lot of families and a lot of kids a lot of us adults because of him that's all I got to say yeah I I think it would be uh prudent uh with u our principal High School principal's assistance to have him here uh before the April meeting and maybe a nice plaque can be given on behalf of uh uh the Board of Education to to Dr Meyer he he he was a tremendous asset to this District Larry I think you you could handle that and maybe invite some of his colleagues to come up thank you anything else uh Dr Hayes I just wanted to let everyone know that we have our formal qac visitation from County Superintendent Fletcher and his educational Specialists on Monday I will say to you knocking wood and but confidently that Mr alfano has done a trend mendous job in preparation of their visit with our facilities and all of our fiscal paperwork that they're going to be viewing Mrs calibri and the supervisory team have done a fantastic job uh making sure that all of the paperwork that they're going to look at in the area of curriculum instruction and programing are in place and I thank Angelo Albin and Frank savastano for all of their help in the areas of operations and uh governance and lastly Gia favano has done a fantastic job helping us prep everything they going to look at your as in Personnel so again that visitations Monday and we hope we have good news for you by Tuesday thank you very much Mr thank you anything else Dr Hayes No Sir Mr Alano anything on finance couple items Mr capano uh Dr Hayes mentioned qack I think we've done a lot of rigor I think we'll be in good shape but as Dr hay said we'll uh let everyone know shortly thereafter um we we're completed our fiscal year end audit which is 6:30 2024 went well we had two Food Service audits procurement administrative review both went very well so we're through most of our Audits and monitorings we have one more left which is one uh Monday so fingers cross if folks can just take a look at the agenda go into Pages 13 really through uh 18 just want to quickly just go through them their resolutions 51 through 59 and it starts on page 13 uh year end and fiscal year end so this is calendar year end so our December reports will need to go to the county that are going to be approved tonight our treasur report secretary report and our transfer report they'll be emailed to the county uh tomorrow morning so I thank the board for in the public for their approval we have two resolutions after that essentially approving uh payment requisitions for two of our larger projects that are are coming to a conclusion are high school gym Lobby project and our stair Tower security doors project those are uh resolutions 55 and 56 resolution 57 we touched a bit on at the work session this is a new project that's going to start in Earnest in the late spring we're going to do a a full-blown renovation to our multi-purpose room at school number six that's resolution 57 and the last two resolutions 58 and 59 uh also going to be spring summer projects HVAC upgrades at our gymnasiums at Cliffside Park School number three and four and essentially what this is is getting the ball rolling to engage the application process with the Department of Education Dr hes Mr Capal that's pretty much it on the finance side thank you very much Mr Alano for the members of the public Mr Alano did indicate in our 2025 26 budget uh we're going to undertake uh a complete renovation of the middle of the number six School old gym that don't like to use the terminology Antiquated but it needs to be upgraded uh to uh meet uh certain codes and also it's in dire need of uh a facelift uh the recreation department utilizes it a lot and it's it's better for the kids and also uh enhancing uh our Auditorium for concerts Etc with new seating it's and that also most of our schools are are air conditioned but number six School number five School Number Four School number three School their uh uh auditoriums gyms uh and cafeterias aren't air conditioned and we were thankful with some uh Surplus dollars that we had left over in last year's budget that Mr Alano was able to allocate some dollars to bring put in HVAC into our uh number three um gym SL cafeteria Auditorium and the same thing at number four School as everybody knows uh when it comes towards for graduation or some events it can get awfully hot in those facilities so I want to thank L uh hard work and always giving us a an operating uh Surplus at the end of the year thank you so much Lou thank you at this time committee reports um I know we have our high school representative Valentina uh cannot be here but Stephanie the high school secretary of the council is here any report from high school at this time um not much as of now right now we're just trying to work on fundraising like as a school Al together um the charity of our choice to help the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires and then for Valentine's Day just a spirit day thank you Stephanie any questions for Stephanie from the board did everything end up great school year nice uh committee reports from the board Dr penano yes I'll report so good news from our athletic teams for our winter 2425 Athletics our girls basketball is 5 and8 the team will enter the county Invitational Tournament and congratulations to them on raising $1,376 at their home American Society game against clion very good boys basketball is seven and four the team will enter the county tournament and they are the number six seed in their state section bracket Bo wrestling is two and four but I did see that we had individual wrestlers compete at the county tournament so congratulations to Junior Isaiah Rodriguez he placed third in the county tournament the girls wrestling I was happy to see that is in inaugural season so have we seen the girls wrestle yet how are they doing so they had their first uh they had their first meet I believe on Friday um and I I was unable to talk to coach Tara um but I know he is happy and high on them before the season so we actually had girls come out for a wrestling they had a I was there I'm sorry 24 yes there was 24 of them against Tom on Friday they did pretty good well congratulations and congratulations to the high school for even Fielding the team I'm very happy to see that um the indoor track team has been competing at uh conference County and Invitational meets in New York and Tom's River student athletes have been successful with their personal best Madison aino will participate in the njs AA tournament boys bowling is 0 and eight but girls bowling is 8 and one and the team will qualify for the county tournament individual girls Bowlers will enter the county tournament and and the girls team has entered the state tournament as well and as for M and Coach Club side I was very happy to see that the competition cheer has been competing at the big North conference and the team won the division championships I believe that was earlier this week and will advance the BNC playoffs congratulations to the girls competition cheer very happy to see that they're doing so well um and they competed at Wayne Valley and will be competing again at Saddlebrook so it's nice to see that they have regular schedule of competitions because in my day they didn't the basketball cheer team happy to see cheering back at the basketball games they will be uh cheering at the basketball games and our dance team performed that month their state Invitational on the 18th and they took third place in the varsity hip hop category soloist senior Allison Moon placing first and Senior Al Alysa Suarez placing third and they will compete at I believe that's Bic Valley in February the team also performed at halftime in some of the basketball games so that's wonderful because it's a great opportunity for our student body and our our community to see the girls dance as well as them competing uh Sarah conrey was honored at the 20125 national girls and women's day in sports at ruers so that is basically our overall uh report on the Athletics but not only are we proud of our athletic teams because they been doing so well over the past few years but our mock trial had a significant Victory um for the first time in seven years in the history of the school that we've had mock trials they made it to the playoffs ranking number 11 in buron County so not only do we have tremendous athletes at the high school but our mock trial is doing very well I believe they faced white tomorrow and they were the number six ranked team um and they'll be playing them uary 27th so congratulations to all our athletes and our mock trial participants and congratulations to Mr Pinto on the high school because it's so wonderful to see how our students are doing terrific things and more good things to come thank you thank you any other committee reports just to touch on building and grounds as you know there's a lot of uh movement uh with the lobby restoration project uh it's uh almost complete uh now they're doing some internal uh work uh inside the lobby and um you know the high school uh um doors have been also uh installed and uh some some stairwell doors were completed uh qac as you know we're in the middle of it now but they did come in and uh do the facility uh evaluation on January 8th I believe Dr Hayes and uh we had got we've gotten big accolades that are as our schools are aging they're in tiptop uh shape and everything passed uh beautifully um any other committee reports from anybody okay at this time I'll open it up to the public anybody from the public have any comments questions be more than happy to take them sure Hi how are you Mark how are just state your name and your address please for You2 linoln sorry to hear sorry to hear about Dr Meer wow big influence on me my sister had him so if you see him tell them I said hello and good luck in the future sorry to hear Dr Hayes thank you for all your time and everything else um as you know I'm just checking in on the status uh estimated time of completion for the renovation Jo well Renovations uh should be done probably in the next less than 60 days the outside work is on hold uh the board of education has made a decision to uh do that probably early spring or in the this summer because we're thinking of doing the entire Riverview driveway all the way to Winterburn try to get some extra parking spaces uh so we have some surveying work going on and we want to install ballards in concrete and now is not the right time to do it uh so we took that out of the scope of work and we're going to have our local contract that's like a riggy or CI put some proposals in and we'll hopefully get that done soon but the lobby hopefully should be open uh I hope by by hoping by the end of uh February beginning of March anything new on Engineers Architects for any yes on Friday Mr alfano myself and our director of uh facilities are interviewing some architectural engineering firms to conduct the physical need assessment on the expansion of the high school we currently use landan Associates as their contracted in-house but uh you know on any procurement and uh you know being conservative with the taxpayer's money we want to ALS o procure some other Architects and Engineers so we're meeting a firm from angle e Cliffs that has done some physical need assessments and some expansions in the pamis area so we're going to meet we'll see and we hope to have that physical need assessment before the school year is done and as you know I've started coming to these meeting about 3 4 months ago possibly just want to reiterate my main concern and my only concern for coming today's meeting sure is our kids safety that's it safety for every one of our kids even even if you don't have kids in school you live in close side it's the only reason I'm here sure appreciate that I just want to make that perfectly clear yeah but we can also make it perfectly clear that this board of education does not turn a tin here to nobody absolutely and we look at these things seriously we've worked with our fire officials the cafeteria is safe is it adequate to accommodate all those people no uh unfortunately when we decided to go to the block lunch uh for the educational purposes uh we did run into some hiccups for we are working through them also with now the lobby coming into play we're also looking at our food program to maybe have a grab and go there's been a lot of things in motion behind the scenes that we since I started coming I see progress every month I'll continue to come but that just want to reiterate that's my main concern thank you thank you anybody else from the public any questions or comments Hi how are you CHR how are you just state your name and your address please um Kristen tany 37 Avenue how are you how are you guys so good I am the guardian I don't know most of you guys know me some don't the guardian of Dario and Devon two students in your school that Dr pencil and you just spoke about um Athletics and how good the school is doing unfortunately I can't State the same um do you guys know what happened or nobody knows what happened some do no we're at the board of education is well versed with what transpired Steve Fogerty legal counsel guided us accordingly through the whole njsa investigation perfect so I have two kids that have been living in my house for over two years one came last year one came two years ago both of them came from Bad situations Dario's father was killed he's been with me for a while from that Devin's best friend got shot in the head next to him in the elevator I provided all this documentation to Mr fogy to give to the njs no one has given it to them apparently I spent about $10,000 on a lawyer ready unfortunately I can't do anything because the Board of Ed chose not to appeal the decision so I am looking to find out why the Board of Ed chose not to appeal a decision to protect two students in your school they came from both amazing basketball schools Brooklyn CIT Bishop Lin they came to Cliffside Park they're not going D1 based off of Cliffside Park thank God they play aaou so it's irrelevant they came to get a better life I have recordings I have videos I have like so much doc mentation that I gave to Mr fogy to give to you guys I've been asking for private meetings I've been asking to get a meeting now the season's over it's whatever it's not about basketball anymore Devin nor Dario are in school anymore The Bullying got so intense letters on my car baseball bats behind the target three police reports four Hib things finally and only finally because I was in the meeting with Mr pinto and darl happened to be there and he got a message on his phone threatening him to not walk back into the school that I was able to let Mr Pinto see that he finally take the bullying allegation seriously and now the hip is founded but the hip should have been founded two months ago when he's been harassed and harassed and harassed and harassed it's crazy how a kid went from all FS to A's and B's he has an IEP too both of them have IEP all FS to A and B's back to allf in his IEP it states he is to play basketball it's clearly in his I from third grade but no one took that into consideration you have an athletic director who I've written to emailed my lawyer has written to doesn't return calls doesn't the only one that communicates with me is Dr Hayes if it wasn't for Dr Hayes we could forget about it no one has told me how to correct this situation I'm forget about basketball at this point it's irrelevant right like they're going to do what they have to do what am I supposed to do with two kids that live in my house like what am I supposed to do with them if they were recruited to play basketball here they would have left when they couldn't play basketball anymore they wouldn't still be here so I'm stuck with two kids now that I have to pay for private tutors for in my house they're on Virtual learning they're no longer in school because of the harassment no one can fix the problem Mr Pino can't fix it he doesn't know who's doing it nobody knows who doing it until they see the messages then now someone's doing it so they approve a hi or whatever the case but when no no consequences or nothing Devon got pushed by a teacher the hi was swept under the rug but what I'm telling you is I have video I provided this it's got swept under the rug I have audio swept under the rug so either somebody's protecting somebody at this point or I I don't know what you guys want me to do I grew up in Cliffside Park I went to school here I graduated school here I lived at 440 Lincoln Avenue my entire life why do I have to go against Cliffside Park to have two kids get the same education as everybody else and do the only thing they know how to do they only play basketball where they're from they either go to jail sell drugs six of his friends were killed in the last two years I provided the documentation Mike Miller came to my house they live in my house I don't get Public Assistance I don't get food samps I don't get any free lunch I don't get anything I don't get a dollar from their parents I do this all because it's it it was what was supposed to be done and then Delio did so good so Devin Kate after his friend got murdered like I just need guidance no one has said to me no one has appealed it so I don't know what the problem is I don't know what was said I no one has told me how I recruited them why I recruited them like you guys have no documentation so why would you not appeal it when I gave you all the documentation to say that they weren't recruited can I interject please pleas okay so the njs njsi daa is its own entity in the State uh and it's a very tough to-do organization that polies uh all these uh regulations a complaint was uh alleged that the Cliffside Park uh was in violation of it's a recruitment rules uh and uh Mr porito and Mr Pinto received that complaint uh they gave documentation indicating that the complaint was invalid it went down to the njsa and it was returned to us that the complaint is valid and they ruled against us so the Board of Education was well aware of it and what we do as a board of education we're here to checks and balances and uh Dr Hayes called uh our legal councel uh fog and Hara Steve Fogerty came up looked through documentation Etc also looked at the document that Mr poro and uh Mr Pinto responded to the njsa telling him that there were no recruitment violations at that time uh we felt confident that we can win this case unfortunately the NS njsa came to a decision that uh uh we were in violation of so-called recruiting uh Mr Fogerty came to the Board of Education discussed the violations that I can't share with the public uh but he did indicate that this is probably a case that we're not going to win and if we were to take this case on an appeal and lost the appeal we would be jeopardizing the athletic uh program for the next two years uhhuh you'd be put on probation for two years correct we'd be put on probation for two years if you didn't violate anything else that wouldn't matter but what I'm getting at is if you put the documentation in that I didn't recruit the kids cuz I gave even after that meeting after it came back I gave the documentation again you didn't recruit the kids everyone said I didn't recruit the kids obviously cuz they would have already left if I recruit everyone except the njs I correct but they didn't file the violation against me I can't go after the njsia correct it's against Cliffside Park and we did go after them and after we sent the letter to them that Mr porfo and Mr Pinto filled out objecting to them indicating that we had never question too but but hear me out let me finish and I agree with you and and and I commend you for what you're doing and what you you've done for over these years because you're a good standing woman and you've done a lot of good things for for those children but Mr uh Fogerty came back to the board of education and said this is not a winnable case and as your attorney I recommend you don't move forward with the appeal okay and the Board of Education took Mr foger's recommendation and uh we did not go forward with it Mr fogy wanted to be here this evening uh but uh he did prepare a statement that I'd like to read uh the njsa issued a complaint alleging that Cliffside Park was in violation of its recruitment rules with regard to The Residency and enrollment of four student athletes based on evidence the njsia daa had received the complaint was issued to the athletic director and the high school principal who responded to the complaint in an effort to refute the allegations and established that the student athletes were not enrolled for recruitment purposes and we still do believe that regrettably the njsa did not change its position based on the evidence submitted by the high school administration to refute these allegations faced with the serious consequences and penalties of an unaccessable appeal and after Consulting with Council regarding their likelihood of a success of appeal the administration determined not to pursue the further the appeal we were taught as when you you get elected as a board of education uh member trustee checks imbalances and the state initiates let me finish the state initiates let listen to your professionals Steve foger is one of the best uh school district attorney in the state of New Jersey and he recommended not to move forward with the appeal all right but we have two cops on the board right correct you guys arrest someone but you have no evidence on the person you're just supposed to be like they're guilty I'm not quite sure ask a question they never gave you one piece of documentation except letters that were written by people back here by athletic directors people that don't want kids that are better than their kids playing that's all this was about so instead of like you guys like fighting for them because they they're playing for Cliffside Park they put up a banner he put up a banner last year he the number one scorer on the whole team he could be playing anywhere burn kathle D he could play anywhere he chose to come here the problem I can't move him it's not a big deal like he's not going to get looks from Cliffside Park it was never about that he hasn't IEP you have a great special education department I have a very hard time moving him somewhere that's what this has been about the whole time so what I'm asking you is how is it that two kids have a problem you're you name four one is not related to me I have no idea what you're talking about and the other one was never eligible to play so that's another thing that they didn't even know he was never even eligible to play he had FS when he came here and he had left before the decision was even made there was an issue so it's to kid what would you guys like me to do with him how is the athletic director this is his job right he's an athletic director his job is to know the rules every single time I had a conversation with him I have emails of this is this okay is this okay yes no big deal everything's good do I need everything is good I followed his guidance so how is it that he doesn't have a problem Mr Pinto doesn't have a problem nobody has a problem except me and these two kids that's what I want to know as a board okay to recruitment so then why is there no penalties against them against who against Mr poro I I own a company I have employees if something happens guess who's responsible it's my problem right Mr poro uh was in agreement on the appeal and when before sending down those documents on the appeal the Board of Education and Dr Hayes asked Steve fogy look to look over them was the poo and I'm not defending him in any way they go out of his way to indicate that there was no recruitment here and he tried everything in his power to reverse their philosophy down there at the njsa we can't control their outcome it's a board it's regulated by only thing you can do is when they say this then you say but it's not recruitment appeal the only thing there's more than their appeal just so you know you know that right there's three more appeals after that which we would not have lost which I had a private meeting with foger and I showed him everything and then once again figured basketball season's going to end we'll sweep it under the rug until after basketball season the problem is it's not going to go away well I think Mr Fogerty uh took all those things into uh conclusion and at the end after evaluating everything he did make a recommendation to the Board of Education not to move forward and the Board of Education concurred with with him not to move forward because he is going to jeopardize certain things but moving forward I'm sorry I believe you've had some dialogue with Mr uh Fogerty and Dr Hayes that there's other possibilities that you may be able to uh accomplish where where the athlete can come back and play next year if I adopt an 18-year-old I have to adopt at a cost of $77,000 to me again after $10,000 I have to adopt an 18-year-old when he already led me so he could play basketball in Cliffside Park it's not about basketball so he can get an education you're saying so like but do you do you see how you guys left me no option I don't understand left you no option what do you want me to do with them I can't answer that for you our experts are telling us that unfortunately this is the situation that the njsa ruled against us Christian and and there's nothing we can do at this point you know if you'd like to make an inquiry to the njs IAA I did okay and what did they tell you they I have to go after you that's what they told me I have to sue the Board of Education and go through another process for $30,000 I understand Christian you don't understand I no don't understand I do understand and I feel your pain but but there's nothing we can do you guys legitimately took kids getting straight after to A's and B's to straight us and and like they were good enough to come he was good enough to play last year he was good enough to play last year so how was he good enough to play last year but not good enough to play this year because people wrote letters because people wrote letters Christian because they're upset and I I agree with you but the njs Ia ruled against us it it ruled one thing against you you put in documentation with the wrong leases and they and they you got to number two that was coming out of Mr Pinto you got to number two they never made the full 18 questions that's all like that's what I'm saying do you guys as a board know all of this absolutely so the whole board knows all of the questions they read all the answer like they know this it's impossible we did not go into all the details I know myself and Mr tabaka knows as the President and Vice President because we spoke to Mr Fogerty with Dr Hayes and he recommended to us then M Steve Fogerty came in and spoke to the entire board that was present that evening at the work session and Mr Fogerty indicated as per his statement that this was not a winnable case this board of education would have done anything to try to win this appeal but according to our expert that is probably one of the best attorneys in the state here when it comes to school boards he recommended not moving forward and as a board of education we had to take into consideration also the taxpayers cost of moving forward on an appeal and the possibility of losing the appeal and jeopardizing the other athletic programs in our district so what's going to be the cost when I have to sue the town of close what's going to be the cost then I I can't answer that for what's going to be happen when I put out the pressure he's like what are you guys going to do as as fathers mothers like what are you guys going to do that you totally neglected two kids we did not totally neglect I I have to disagree with you this board of education did not do that we would have neglected those children we would have not responded to the NJ A's first had to respond inquiry yes and we did resp and we did everything and then just stopped and we and I'm not defending the administrators in the high school but I have to tell you they did everything in their power with Steve Fogerty's guidance to try to change the mind of the njsa and we were not successful we didn't do anything we sent I have the paperwork no I have the paperwork did everybody have to I have it I I don't think you didn't get past question too it you sent in leases that's all that they saw they never saw anything else I have to disagree with you we sent in an extensive amount of information and I believe you opra that information I yes okay so I'm telling you what we we were able to send and I think moving forward if you'd like to have another discussion with our board attorney be more than happy to arrange something but we're guided from our board attorney and he suggested don't move forward on the appeal and we really thought about this hard because we want to appeal because we feel that we weren't treated right by the njsa but you have to understand the njsa is a powerful organization that implements regulations and policies and they strongly believed we were in violation and not to compromise the entire Athletic program we decided to not appeal it based on Mr not in violation right based on everything I gave you guys you just stated that right I do but unfortunately the njsa feels that we were in violation but what's right and wrong you talk about checks and balances like what's right from wrong I I understand but if somebody's doing this much of an injustice to two kids you appeal it get the at least then we know which people wrote the letters we already know which people wrote the letters you everybody knows who wrote the letters no I I don't know who wrote the letters okay like the parents time you wrote the letters that's why they come the athletic director I I I don't think this is the form excuse me excuse meot the letter Christian I understand uh you may not agree with us I definitely don't we were guided super disappointed you guys as human beings okay well well I I I beg to differ okay because everybody on this board puts in a lot of time and effort and we had to make a decision to protect the rest of the Board of Education and the high school decision to protect your athletic director that's what this is about he was the one that when I brought each child in told me to bring the kid in just so you guys know I I think that I have Texas I have recordings I'm telling you I have all of this it's not not going to be good for the board with what I have I promise you for no reason you guys are pushing my hand because it's not fair to these kids this kid is on Virtual learning understood a D1 Athlete on Virtual learning not playing basketball cuz I can't put him anywhere I understand at this time we're going to move forward and if you'd like to have some conversation again with Mr foger we'd be more than happy to set something up anybody else from the public have any questions or comments this evening I please come up and State name and uh uh address 319 New Jersey so talking about the checks and balance my question is if everyone was aware of what was going on my son is one of the players of the basketball team Jam Galas why nobody thought about the rest of the players why nobody thought about letting the parent know that this whole situation was going on and it was coming down so that at least it gave us option of what do with my kid my son is now a senior I can't move him to any other school because if I do he has to sit 30 days but he's still playing correct he's playing now okay so what's what's the reason well he's playing now but he doesn't have his team that he played for last year so Dario was playing with him last year was not playing now he played all summer he had a team we were looking forward for a great season right now I come to find out the day before or maybe a week before the season started that there is no team team the coach got banded now he a whole new coach my the coach got what banded from the team no he didn't get banded from the team the coach is paperwork wasn't in order and this is not I'm not talking about Personnel matter his paperwork wasn't in order and we can't talk about that okay well this is the information that I have what I know to misinformation okay so he has a new coach right a whole new team um he was very stressed out he was very frustrated he didn't have his coach he doesn't have his teammate is a whole team now a whole new coach and I was questioning as to why why why didn't I know about all of this you guys know about everything that was going on with the nji all of that I didn't know anything about this I tried to like transfer my son to another school but your son wasn't affected with the investigation he wasn't affected he wasn't affected with the investigation can I just jump I I I really have an obligation to jump in and just listening to this as a former superintendent I can't sit here and say we are not allowed to discuss student issues in open public session and I would venture to say and I'm not speaking for anybody else but I don't think anybody would be allowed to talk about other students to you because it's two things that we have to hold confidential student matters and Personnel matters and I'm just being honest I understand you all very frustrated but I feel very uncomfortable here with a board member discussing two things students who were by name which we are never supposed to do in public meetings and employees because we're not supposed to discuss Personnel or student matters so I I have to just note my discomfort because I know that we're not supposed to talk about these issues publicly back next month with Steve f i if you'd like we we can set up a meeting with Steve Fogerty and be more than happy to discuss em request in this meeting so everybody here and nobody responds me I did you send it specifically to me oh boy send it to the board and nobody respond 20th requested an emergency board and Steve fery guided us that it it wasn't necessary at this point and like Dr No told me that Dr Pantano did indicate a lot of stuff is is Personnel matters and we really can't discuss it but I wasn't aware of that I was just ignored I'm sorry so I'm I'm bringing this up and I'm here today because I did send this email out and nobody responds to the email and this is why I'm here I'm not want to come out to any of these meetings I've been a cide resident for over 13 years now you know I'm affected because my son is playing I'm the one who comes home to my son frustrated after every game um and I just wanted an answer as to at least as a parent at the very least why I didn't have the option or the opportunity to know of everything that was going on so that I can be able to transfer at least at the very least transfer my son out and that he can play for the season I was left out without an option because if I did transfer him out he will have to sit at the 30 days or if not he's playing like he is now but you're I I still don't understand and I I I I don't think we we want to go further but your your son is playing he is an athlete correct okay so I don't know why would you transfer him out if he's playing on the basketball team and a basketball team is is playing well from what we're told from the athletic director and the coach he's playing well yes okay why would you transfer him out then because it's a brand new team but teams change things happen right and I understand that but every all of this happened at the very last minute I understand okay and and that's all I'm asking we received the complaint at the last minute from the njsa and we did respond and try to do everything you guys received it way before I found out I found out not necessarily November 26 25th no we're not in agreement with how njsa sent this at the last minute to us and I understand that I was just questioning as to why wasn't I aware at least a heads up to be prepared I think it was a personal matter with u you know few uh students and and and again you know I don't think the Board of Education or the athletic director had the you know the requirement that he had to let you know the program was still moving forward and the kids were still playing unfortunately the njsi doua said that certain athletes couldn't play and that was a decision that we didn't make the njsa that governs athletic sports in the state of New Jersey made that decision and I'm not in agreement with their decision this this board of education is not in agreement also but we concurred with our attorney how to move forward not to compromise the rest of the athletic program I'm definitely not because I know Dario played all last season you know I know he lives in town I drop him off myself thank you thank you so you said to have a meeting with who if we'd like we can try to set up at our next uh uh public meeting with our attorney Steve Fogerty and he may be able to answer your questions better than I can okay he he he was the one that made that recommendation he couldn't come this evening but he did send a statement to us that I read out this evening thank you anybody else any questions or comments anybody on Virtual uh Mr savastano yes Mr Muller you can come up so I I know we don't see eye to eye or people may not like me in this audience or whatever it is it is what it is okay but what does this have to do with no I just want I just want to read it my question to you is NJ a IA whatever is that's specifically just for sports correct correct so Kristen's argument why can't the kids just go to school oh they they can go to school they can go to okay maybe I'm misunderstanding because he was threatened and bullied and it's a founded hi account not left on my car we're not going to get into that that's a personal just there's regulations that we have to I misunder anybody else from the public Mr savastano anybody from virtual I'll make a motion to the meeting well we we still have to finish up on on an approval of the agenda at this time can we please uh get a motion to approve the January 22nd 20125 consent agenda we have a motion on the floor second I second Brew roll call please okay I'll take a vote call now uh Mr the bru yes Mrs Fredo Mr Garcia yes Mr NRE Mr nadw yes uh Dr pontano yes Mr Russo yes mrak yes okay Mr cap so move thank you at this time can we get a motion to uh close the meeting I'll make a motion a second okay all in favor thank you everyone thank you everybody have a good evening thank you so