Cliffside Park board swears in member, elects officers and reviews vendor appointments

The Cliffside Park School District Board of Education opened its May 1, 2025 reorganization meeting by reading the public-meeting notice required under New Jersey law and confirming the meeting was posted in the Board of Education offices.

Two individuals took the oath of office during the session; the transcript records one sworn member as Lisa Freda. The board then moved to officer elections. Jerry Tarabakia was nominated and, after a second, elected board president in a voice vote. Omaros Garcia was nominated and elected vice president after a second. “The ayes have it,” the presiding speaker said after the votes passed.

In addition to leadership actions, the board reviewed routine annual appointments and contract items covering roughly 100 vendors, contractors and professional services. The board packet included a range of renewals and new contracts: auditors (Wilcox Company), architects (Land Associates continuing as architect of record; ENV Architects added for cafeteria work), security/alarm services (United Federated Systems), bus vendors (Interstate for larger buses and TOMS for smaller buses and vans), and other service providers such as CJ Vanderbeck for boilers and Allied Fire and Safety for extinguisher inspections. TD Bank was listed as the depository bank.

The district’s qualified purchasing agent authorized a bid threshold of $44,000, meaning capital projects above that amount will go to open bid. The board noted active and upcoming procurement work: a recently awarded multipurpose-room project and a scheduled bid opening for gymnasium HVAC work at schools 3 and 4. The speaker said the district has about 25–26 buses and expects to retire older vehicles and accept two new state-contracted buses.

Health and safety items included a planned transition of the district medical consultant from Dr. Jonathan M. Dominguez to Dr. Meece effective July 1, 2025, and continued AED maintenance for 22 defibrillators across the district. The board also recorded a vendor change for food-service equipment maintenance and two inspections per year, and a new contract for a weather/outdoor-warning system described as providing lightning detection for athletic fields at roughly half the previous vendor’s cost.

Program procurement highlights included a multi-year contract for the Renaissance program that the speaker said had been budgeted at $1,000,000 but obtained for about $700,000 over three years; the speaker reported positive staff feedback on the investment. The district also confirmed continued use of Zonar for GPS bus tracking and cited annual AHERA asbestos inspections with no findings.

The board scheduled its annual ethics presentation by Vic Lapier for roughly 25–30 minutes during the meeting and noted the board signed an ethics code/resolution to be sent to the county. The meeting concluded its reorganization business by approving the reorganization agenda following a motion and verbal roll-call affirmations.

What’s next: the board will report back on bid openings for the HVAC projects and on the medical-consultant transition; no final policy actions beyond the reorganizational votes were recorded in the transcript.