MINUTES OF THE PATERSON BOARD OF EDUCATION REGULAR ...

1 st . Lo and behold, we did not really get any word back from the Superintendent’s officeuntil maybe some time around July 2 nd or 3 rd . I did talk to Mrs. Lyde about that and shesaid actually the selection has been a little tough on the quality of people who reallyapplied. I accept that. Speaking of forums, you want the public to be involved insomething like that, such as the selection of the principal of our biggest high school. Ithink the office of the Superintendent and whoever is in charge of this process shouldreally have made the preparations that were necessary to get the Board or the SCLreally involved. For myself, I really would have loved to be involved in that. After July Iwill be leaving for overseas, so I cannot really be involved in the process, but I wouldreally have loved to be in there. When we really talk about involvement of the publicand public forums, the public should definitely be represented by the SCL, especiallythose people who really represent the community. They should definitely berepresented in there in such an important process as the selection of the principal. I justreally cannot accept that we can be excluded in this manner. It really happened – thesame thing which we were talking about regarding employment. Lots of hanky-pankyreally takes place during the summer in getting people who really nobody knows to beselected as employees. I hope that we avoided that this year by having employmentand giving contracts right on the spot. What is happening now with this selectionprocess I really don’t care for, to tell you the truth, and many people also on the SCL atKennedy do not really care for it either. I hope that will not really be repeated in anyother positions where all our kids are entitled to have the best of candidates for suchvital positions. Thank you.Mr. Frederick Mutooni: Good evening, Frederick Mutooni, 197 North 7 th Street. I takethis opportunity to thank the school because of the summer enrichment program youare offering. This summer enrichment program is very beneficial, especially to olderkids, because a lot of kids who are over 12 years old don’t really like to attend the city’srecreational programs. This enrichment program is an opportunity for these kids to besomewhere to study and to learn. The only drawback of it is that soon it is going to endand a lot of kids, probably over 10,000 kids, will again be loitering the streets. Many ofthem feel that they are too old to be attending these city recreational programs. I dohope the Board will consider maybe for next year to have these kinds of programs go onfor the entire summer so that we can keep these kids at bay. It is very hard to controlthese kids when they stand in the house and say they have nothing to do so they aregoing to walk out. I know Dr. Glascoe mentioned schools that need a lot of work, butmaybe many of you are forgetting School #10. I don’t know if many of you are familiarwith School #10. If you are new in Paterson and you go to School #10, you won’t evendare to stay there. It’s a school that is surrounded by drug dealers, prostitutes, boardedhouses and garbage, especially boarded houses. I do believe that the Board shouldconsider convincing the owners of those boarded houses that have been there for manyyears so that the school can use those spaces as parking spaces. It is a shame theway that School #10 looks. The other day I drove over there and someone painted avery nasty word by the door on the backside. That is a school that you should look atas a priority. It’s not a school the way it looks. No wonder why the kids act like that.Please consider the teachers who teach there, too. They have nowhere to park. Thecommunity around there gets very annoyed with the teachers coming and parking intheir spaces daily. That community owns the property over there and everyone overthere has been complaining why can’t the school buy some of those boarded houses. Iunderstand the owners of the properties don’t want to sell, but there is a way to go toacquire those properties, maybe through the state or the so-called eminent domain. Butit is very important that you consider School #10 and I would like every Board memberand every community member to drive around School #10 and ask yourself if you wouldfeel comfortable with your child there. Would you feel comfortable with your son ordaughter or relative in that school? It seems like you guys collectively and all of us havePage 5 7/19/06