pledge allegiance >> [laughter] >> It's over here. >> 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, with liberty and justice for all. I'd like to read a quick statement, Mr.
Rein Fischer, if I may. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to advance notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provision of this
act, the Cliffside Park Board of Ed has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, and place thereof posted in the office of the Board of Ed in the offices of the school of school number three, four, 6 and the high school on July 21st, 2026. A notice was was posted to the
West Side Park Board of Ed website July 21st, 2026. This is an official meeting. I'd like to take the roll if I may. Mrs. Abreu? >> Here. >> Mr. Capuano? >> Here. >> Mrs. Freda? >> Here. >> Mr. Nadreau? >> Here.
>> Mr. Nakaj? >> Here. >> Dr. Pontiliano? Mr. Raincourt? >> Here. >> Mr. Russo? Mr. Terabokia? Not here. And Mr. [clears throat] Yianacone? Okay, Mr. Alfano. >> Thank you, Mr. Alfano. Thank you, Board
of Education members. Thank you, Mrs. Calabrese. A couple members of our technology department who are here. Um a big thank you goes out to everyone who's been um in our buildings, in the central office working hard this summer preparing um our school buildings, but also
um the teachers in the schools and the curriculum for the upcoming school year. So, big thank you to all the administrators, all the custodians, everyone who's taken taken a big big part in that. Also, thank you uh to Mr. Alfano for addressing uh some of our summer projects, as well as members of
our Buildings and Grounds Committee who are here tonight. We have made cosmetic upgrades, but also looked at preventative maintenance in a lot of our buildings across the district. So, big thank you to those of you who have been a big help with that. Also, uh big thank you to Mrs.
Martinotti over at School 5. Um she was kind of the um mother of our pre-K program for a number of years. So, she's really taken on the role of planning and organizing everything pre-K related. We've been
blessed and lucky enough to be able to expand the pre-K program into all of our elementary schools, but she has still taken on that role of placing all of the students um in that program. So, big thank you to her and her team over at school number
five for doing that. She's taken a big load off of the central office for having to try to place all of the three and four-year-olds that we have across the district. Personnel updates, even though we are about the halfway point in the summer, we're lucky enough that we only have
about one or two positions that need to be filled. We have a couple of remaining interviews this week. So, we're hoping to have those positions filled within the next week or so. And at this point, I'm going to turn it over to Mrs. Calabrese, our assistant superintendent, who has been hard at
work this summer working with the supervisors and taking a look at summer prep work that we do every year. >> Thank you, Mr. Reinfest. I just wanted to share with the board and Mr. Reinfest and staff and families who are listening from
home. But we are definitely want to thank Mr. Mrs. Barbara Squardo, who was the director of our or the coordinator of our summer school program. And we want to commend her and her staff
most importantly for their dedication. Showing up to summer school every single day for kids when school is out is not an easy, you know, feat. As well as the teachers. And we want to thank the parents for getting them there. And the reason for summer school was to just
assist them, enrich them, and just ease them into their fall new classroom. Speaking of the new classrooms, I just want to echo Mr. Reinfest and I'm sure Mr. Alfano would join me in saying that the custodial
staff is working tirelessly this summer you know, to prepare the learning environments for our children. And I just wanted to give them a big shout-out. Our admin team has been working tirelessly the past couple of weeks, what we call rostering the students and
it really is to optimize their learning environment and tailor it to their student growth. So, I just want to give a shout out to them. I know parents are calling in and they're asking, you know, questions about where their students are going. There's so many contributing factors into that and I just want to
shout out to the the principals and the admin for looking through all of the data, all of the important information and student profiles so that we can set up for a successful school year. Um we once again are having a partnership
with Renaissance. Mr. Sabastiano and I and Mr. Rhinehart attended what would they call AI Renaissance Intelligence today. We really feel that this is going to take our Renaissance platform or as they refer to it as an ecosystem to another level.
It will definitely allow [clears throat] us uh through the AI intelligence allow us to be able to analyze our student data. More interesting is that what we really want to work on is student growth. Um so that next year we can use the data
from this year and we can propel forward and well equipping our students with like top tier resources. That's what that's how we really feel about our partnership with them. Um and we don't work for them. So, I just want to um clear.
And that's pretty much it. One of the one of the most exciting things I think maybe as a one of as an old educator is that cursive handwriting is coming back. So, the interesting part is is that we have to teach some of our teachers how to teach cursive handwriting because our
some of our teachers were never properly taught how to teach cursive handwriting. But, one of the New Jersey Department of Education mandates coming back is that all third graders through fifth-graders have to learn how to write cursive, but more importantly read in person so that
they can read maybe some old proclamations, think about some of our historical primary resources, and also just to be proficient you know, writers and readers in the future. So, but thank you very much. That's my report for tonight.
>> What's that? >> So, they'll be able to sign >> Yes, absolutely. Sign their name at the very minimum. >> Sure. [laughter] >> Thank Our times have changed. It was a requirement when we went to school, Diana. >> Mhm. >> I know it was difficult. >> Yes, penmanship is required. >> That's right.
>> Teachers would look >> Stay in the lines. >> Stay in the lines. >> Wow. >> It was back when the Common Core came in. So, when the Common Core came in, prior to the New Jersey Student Learning Standards, they took out get ready and because there was so much for
teachers to do, you know, and that wasn't mandated, that's why they would call it the core, like the core of an apple, we just stuck with the core and penmanship went out the you know, but a lot of that memory and rote memory is coming back. >> Life on the way up and life on the way
down. >> [laughter] >> You might be teaching it. >> Call for volunteers. We need volunteers. >> [laughter] >> Well, thank you thank you for the curriculum update. Um, do we have any committee reports to
share? Okay, just a couple agenda items that I'd like to point out. If you could turn to page five, so resolution number 27, um we did uh approve a couple more teachers
for our morning care and after care program. I guess this is just another cheap plug for our morning care and after care program. Morning care starts at 7:30 in the morning, after care runs until 6:00 at night. We have information on the website. We have information on our
social media pages. So, all are welcome. We are also selling or having as an option coupon books. So, if there are families out there that don't need the full 5 days a week and they might only need 5 days a month,
they can purchase a coupon book and they can use those different coupons throughout the month as they see fit whether they're in the morning or in the afternoon. So, please register your your kids if that's something that you would be interested in. And if you turn to page
14, page 14, resolution number 35, we have our back to school night dates. So, parents of any school age children who are wondering when back to school night will be, the dates are there as well as our
school calendar. And page 16, resolution number 38, this is a state mandated requirement. Every district needs to have an emergency remote pre-K to 12 plan for
remote learning. Not only completed and updated, but also posted to the website. I think we can all agree that if we are using that again, we're not going to be too happy, but we do have that plan done and it will hopefully be approved this evening.
And resolution resolution number 39 is something that we are extremely proud to announce is that we are having our partnership with CarePlus reinstated. CarePlus was with us for a number of years
and we are going to bring them back and they are going to have clinicians on site to help students with any type of mental health, uh, concerns. Teachers, administrators, counselors, they can make referrals of any students
to Care Plus, whether they're having issues, uh, emotionally, or with their grades, or with, uh, problems at home. Um, issues coming to school. What Care Plus will do is assess the student, um, and they will provide those resources at
school. They will also provide resources at home. Because what they are trying to do is build bridge with the school and the home, providing the the necessary resources that each student deserves, um, to get the help that they need. And the best part of this program is that
there it comes at no cost to the school, um, and no student will be denied. So, whether student has insurance, does not have insurance, Care Plus is going to work through, um, all of those concerns, all of those issues, will provide support to any student who does need it.
And finally, on page 18, resolution number 40. Um, Nicole Rowe, who was our new director of special services, she created a procedures manual, um, that will be, uh, available to parents, students, staff
members, members of the Board of Education, and community, that outlines anything one would need to know regarding special [clears throat] education. We do have parents who may be wondering why their kids are struggling, why they might be falling behind, um,
and if they believe that, um, their student may be in need of an IEP, a 504, or just added support, this manual will walk you through the process of getting the support and the help that you need. So, uh, we're very proud of that, and a
big thank you to, uh, Ms. Rowe for putting that together. Uh, at this time I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Alfano. I don't know if there's anything, um, buildings and grounds and finance-wise that you'd like to like to address. >> Just a couple of quick items to touch on first. Thank you, uh,
we're closing our our year quantify our surplus for the year ending 6/30/26. Auditors will be in in a couple of weeks to do their first blush of the audit. We're well into our new year 26-27. We'll be engaging with all of our key
business centers with the help of Mr. Alban in regards to see where we can be a little bit more efficient with our expenses and maybe some capture some incremental revenues over the year over 26-27. And now we are engaging with the US Department of Agriculture to start the
application process to potentially implement a after school supper/dinner program. We'll keep everyone prized of that. And if folks can turn to pages 28 to 32
those resolutions are number 65 to 69. That's essentially an overview of all the summer programs major summer programs that we've engaged in the summer of 2026. Our programs such as
multiple floors we're going to be renovating at schools number three, number four, and number five. We're doing site work significant amount of site work external site work at school number three. Doing external masonry site work and stair work at the high school.
So those pages those resolutions 65 to 69 is essentially is an overview of all the key major facilities projects that are going on in the summer of 2026. Additional two bathroom renovations at
school four etc. etc. Some good stuff some good progress but very special thanks to the buildings and grounds committee and Mr. Capano for all his help in getting these projects off the ground and managing them. Of course well like with any major
project there's always some unknown factors when you lift up the hood so to speak. So, we appreciate the buildings and grounds and Mr. Capano's support. And that's pretty much it on my administrator notes. >> Okay, thank you. Um Mr. Sabatino, are there any
questions? Any questions or concerns from members of the board? >> Well, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. >> That's Mr. Capano. May I have a second, please? >> Second. >> That was Mr. Raincourt. >> Mr. >> Second? Okay, I'll take a
a vote. Uh Mrs. Abru? >> Yes. >> Mr. Capano? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Freda? >> Yes. >> Mr. Nadeau? >> Yes. >> Mr. Nakash? >> Yes. >> Mr. Raincourt? >> Yes. >> That is it. And we have a motion to adjourn. >> So moved. >> I'll move.
>> I'll second.