a pledge aliance 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 meeting is called to order at 7:33 can we have a roll call please Mr gr here Mrs Mara here Mrs ricardi here Mr Smith here Mr pdar here student representative M Rivers thank you uh Mrs Mara can I get a motion to open a meeting uh to the public sure I'll move to open the meeting to the public for input and comments on agenda items only seconded seconded by Mr grck all in favor I if no input from the public uh Mr grck could you close a meeting I move to close the meeting to the public for input and comments second seconded by Mrs Mara all in favor I having reviewed the agenda um Mr Smith would you mind uh adopting motion B I move to adopt all items and above consent agenda with the exception of item number 17 and request as separate consideration for those items indicated I second seconded by Mrs ricardi roll call please Mr g i Mrs Mara I Mrs ricardi I can I iony to stop you wanted to no I I'm a ad exception of seven yeah I'm no I'm I'm consenting Mr Smith yes Mr pdar all right and uh Mrs ricardi could you adopt motion C I move to adopt the the following items all items except for item 17 correct request for separate consideration roll call please second oh I'm sorry seconded by Mrs Mara roll call please Mr garc hi Mrs Mara abstain Mrs ricardi hi Mr Smith I Mr pdar I thank you uh let's move on to committee reports for facilities buildings and grounds uh Mr grck thank you uh good evening Emerson since our last board meeting the facilities buildings and grounds committee met on Monday May 6th both my both myself and M Mara were in attendance along with Dr nissanoff and Mr marora meeting took place at volano school we reviewed the district's planned summer projects which I reported out the February meeting uh we received an update on the High School tennis court project on Tuesday May 7th the project Engineers were on site to initiate surveys we were also received an update on the potential high school and baseball High School baseball and softball field project CHF project uh Mr mamora completed an RFP or a request for a proposal to be published the RSP RFP will also be sent to three vendors who have previously submitted proposals as well as to an architect information procured from this process will allow the board and administration to better assess the scope and finances associated with this project thereafter we had an extensive tour of Lano School in which we reviewed sites planned for summer projects uh which include updating classrooms uh we viewed classrooms that were planned for refreshing as far as well as those that have already been updated along with inspecting hallways of F and the faculty room uh in which they will be affected by a plan four replacement we toured volo's gym multi-purpose room the boiler and mechanical room several classrooms as well as inspected the building's exterior as I've reported in the past these projects uh mentioned in the report would be funded from The District's capital reserve account and as a reminder capital reserve accounts are established by New Jersey school districts for an accumulation of funds to be utilized specifically for projects in a District's approved long range facilities plan the committee will be a meeting again to conduct a walk of Memorial School and review its planned summer project of repairing flashing on a section of the roof this concludes my report great thank you Mr gik for uh budget and negotiations uh just one that nothing major report uh Mr Smith and I had discussions with Dr Nissen off about some uh Personnel matters no other news or updates to report until our next meeting for curriculum instruction and student achievement Mrs maritt I me it's for a report on this committee we're going to be meeting next month so I'll provide an update at that meeting great thank you and we move on to board member reports Mr gck okay uh hello again um I'd like to thank the district for organizing uh the fourth in a series of parent programs that recently took place this past Tuesday was a workshop on the topic of parenting in the digital age I was unable to attend in person but I did watch on the district's YouTube channel and I would encourage everyone else to take advantage of that stream in the program uh the parent workshops have been really well received by the community and just wanted to thank the district for coordinating those uh I'd like to wish good luck to the students who took uh or already or about to take their uh New Jersey student learning assessments or njs laas um you know uh and just thank you so much to our amazing teachers who been working with them throughout the year and preparing the students for these exams and finally I just like to wish everyone a restful Memorial Day Weekend uh very much looking forward to the the month of June uh which will be bustling with lots of awesome events and programs for our students in community that concludes my report great thank you Mr grck Mrs Mara thank you um first I want to wish a happy belated Mother's Day to all of the mothers that um comprise our faculty our teachers or our staff our admin teams I hope everybody got to enjoy a little rest bit I was happily on the soccer field in the pouring rain in the morning with a couple of the other um members of our audiences evening but otherwise it was a beautiful day so I want to wish everybody um a heartfelt happy belated Mother's Day um in line with that I also was so pleased to see when we were walking through onor volano site visit just how well um our teachers were appreciated last week um and got to share some homemade baked goods and some fruit platters and other just really wonderful nuances to the whole entire School community so again a heartfelt thank you to our teachers you guys are the fabric of our schools and um the work you do is just tremendous so thank you um a big thank you to Dr Nissen off Mr Marmora and Miss Espinosa and Mr Grow for our very successful volano site visit I really do enjoy these site visits being able to walk around literally every nook and cranny we went into the basement um heartfelt known as the dungeon in volano and we've talked about some really exciting plans about how to Spruce things up and reuse some of the um areas of volano so really looking forward to seeing that to come to fruition I um attended excuse me I did not attend the parenting in a digital age I was able to watch the link it's on um Mrs gagliano's Memorial messenger um message that she sent out today to I Really encourage that it really great perspective um uh just especially for parents who are trying to navigate these electronic devices everywhere and um really really crucial information so I encourage you to take a peek at that um and lastly I wanted to report on Bergen County the School Board Association this month um we had our meeting the same day that the parenting in a digital age presentation was being held and so myself and Mr Pasdar had attended that dinner uh first I want to say congratulations to Mr pazdar he was recognized as a certified board member certification um on behalf of Emerson uh there's certain benchmarks that you have to reach as to how much training that you can complete how many meetings you attend um and he's going above and beyond for our district and representing for Bergen County at the Bergen County level so I wanted to just acknowledge you congratulations welld deserved and then briefly for the report um it was a lot about celebrations that night so we had uh few uh individuals recognized that were pretty noteworthy one of them being a board member for from Wallington who's been serving for 50 years as a board of education member and the way he spoke he was like I've had three superintendents in my time like he was he commands that board it was just a really uh cool experience to see how many people were real lifers um on the board and the commitment they have uh the other celebration was for the teacher of the year uh it was awarded to Gary Whitehead who is from The English Department in tenly high school um some that we have certainly talked about with Dr nissanoff about how he is planning on bringing that um Teacher of the Year commendations back to Emerson and he's coming up with a really thoughtful approach as to how we can recognize teachers in that regard um and what kind of evalue evaluations we could impose here um so more to come on that look me forward to that and then finally just from a county level we um completed our qack review we should be hearing sometime in July and August what our qac grade was and based on our discussions with the administration team there should be no issues um in awaiting that that score to come back we should pass with flying colors which is very exciting and our next meeting for Bergen County won't be until September so we have the summer off which will be good so that's my report great thank you thank you and thank you again Mrs I appreciate the of course uh Mrs ricardi good evening Emerson uh first and foremost I want to say thank you to our Educators while it's a belated happy Teachers Appreciation week I think that every day should be Teachers Appreciation Day I hold your position in the absolute highest regard and I can't thank the impact that the I can't thank you enough for the impact that you have on our children so from the bottom of my heart truly thank you uh I I too uh was not able to make it to the parenting and the digital age presentation because I was actually watching the county meeting where you guys were um virtually there's a everything seems to always happen at the same time but I am so grateful that our district is recording these things for parents to watch at a later time and a later date which I did and there was a lot of very useful information uh there this is parenting in a digital age is something that uh we're all navigating there was some really great insight into statistics and I highly encourage all parents to watch it um and final and last Mr Pasar congratulations what a fantastic achievement that is well deserved your contribution to the board of ed not just at a local level but also a county level is noteworthy thank you and it's a welld deserved recognition thank you thank you um Mr Smith sure so a lot of mind is going to be repeats but I do want to thanks the teachers uh belated happy Teacher Appreciation um also congrats Bruce I've been working with Bruce for two years now and I know how uh important he takes you know consideration to this role on the board not only being the president but you know really put his heart and soul in it the last two years that I've only worked with him for two years but all deserve Bruce um again the digital age I thought was great my kids are a little older teenagers so um they know about 50 times more everything about the phones and digital age than I do but it would have been great you know uh I encourage all the parents especially as they're coming to the age where their kids are get non-electronics a little bit more independently um to to click that link and and give it to 10 15 minutes Etc you know time slot the good thing is you can go back and watch it and then finally it's not really a school event but a town event I attended the baseball the Emerson baseball league uh held their annual fundraiser we had approximately hundred you know parents attend it was great um the great thing we went from t-ball kids to some folks that uh you know they're on the senior varsity team here were there and you know when you sit there and you look at those things you see how God you're looking at some going I can't believe your kid's a senior really you know and you start hearing about it and you're like well I coached them back in second grade and you know he didn't know what hand to put the glove on and now he's looking to play college baseball so so you know for a small town those those events are are are great and even if your child's past the age I do encourage people to get to participate great thank you and thank you again for the congratulations um I'll move on to uh my board president report um two things that I think are very important to um to everyone in here everyone out there uh happy belated Mother's Day um I'll wish Mrs Mara and Mrs ricardi a belated happy Mother's Day even though I I wished it to you yesterday as well so I hope you had a good day uh and I hope everybody out there had a great Mother's Day uh also Teachers Appreciation um Mrs Mara said it it's it's the fabric of our community and I just want to verbally say thank you to all our teachers out there um on be behalf of the board we wanted to show a very small token of our appreciation with some baked goods and some fruit and hopefully that made it out to everyone and uh again thank you for all you do and what you continue to do for this community um Relay for Life uh I had the opportunity and the honor to represent the board of education at the Relay for Life event that was on Saturday May 4th uh I'm very proud of myself for not saying made to Fourth be with you so I said it now said it now uh but um I just wanted to recognize the event and some of the folks that took part in it uh you know this is a a tremendous uh cause and uh I wanted to read out just a few statistics and the the the groups that were involved uh our Cavo cancer Crushers uh was the uh I guess the the team that represented uh Emerson the theme was Star Wars obviously and their motto was made a cure be with you uh 52 members participating this year I wanted to highlight some of the seniors and the juniors seniors Caitlyn mcamera Emma Rivers zuu Hill who also spoke as a caregiver at the opening ceremony and Junior kay Lee a Le Sophie nissanoff and kajel uh ther um the event raised $337,500 and the team itself raised $66,500 uh and the C Cavo cancer Crushers won first place for their t-shirt design so congratulations to them thank you to all of the folks who were involved the uh Emerson high school buildings and gr staff um and also want to thank Mrs rehack and Mrs lablanco for their uh uh participation and leading and guiding that uh event and uh also Mayor de paa and I spoke Mayor de paa uh made a proclamation and on behalf of the town for the uh Relay for Life so just want to thank them it was a great event and I appreciate uh the American Cancer Society for what they do and it was uh it was an honor to have that event at our uh at our field here uh with that I'll move on to Bergen County School Board I won't really Mrs Mara covered most of it um one of the things that we're doing as from the board of directors on the county is just revising some of our bylaws to make them more current and bring them up to date and since they haven't been revised in some a few years and you mentioned qack I want to address that and there were some um governmental relations items that are uh probably not relevant here and in terms of the njsba really um just some governance training updates for new board members which I think um everyone here has taken advantage of over the last couple of years and uh some Refresh on their website and uh Financial updates that uh in terms of the fiscal health of the njsba which which is luckily very good they're in good health financially and that's good news for us as it affects uh some of our dues um that's it for my report we don't have a student representative here tonight so I'll move on to the superintendent report okay I do have a brief at least for my standards a brief report uh this evening I think it's only been been two weeks since our last board meeting so even though it's two weeks a lot A lot has happened but before I start uh with some report what many people don't know out out uh on the internet there and and and here with regards to Bruce you know you got a lot of congratulations but I don't think um I don't think our community knows and I think they should hear just how much time effort you put into to your role here as a board member and uh for the community to know what a role you play in terms of oversight of the district it really is fantastic and so congratulations to you um you mentioned the the teacher of the year and yet yes we haven't participated in that in in a few years so I'm looking forward to working with um the leadership of the Teachers Association to work with them um to see if we can come up with a a good process that recognize uh our outstanding teachers which you know one of the hardest parts of selecting a teacher of the year here in Emerson is we have so many great teachers we really do um so uh but we're going to explore it because evidently we might be one of the few districts in the in the entire County that doesn't participate in it um and if uh our our uh employees don't want to participate in it then that that that's fine but we'll we'll work together to uh perhaps come up with a plan okay um thank you to the board uh we approved resolution today supporting the wait until 8th uh I did have the opportunity to talk with at the PTA meeting about that Initiative for those unfamiliar with this it's an initiative uh started by a group of kindergarten parents who um it's a nationwide initiative but here in Emerson it was started by a group of Emerson kindergarten parents um um who have approximately 40 plus members uh who have pledged to wait until 8th grade to purchase a smartphone for their child um and I say that very clear a smartphone um because for many reasons children may need to have a phone or a watch or air tag or something to keep track of their keep track of their children but this is about um taking uh holding off giving a smartphone to your child and coincidentally you we talked about the parent program The Analog analog parenting in a digital age that that initiative was actually on one of the presenter slides so even he was aware of that and encourages uh parents to consider that so um I think it's great that the board is supporting that initiative and I think that the parents at that kindergarten level who are going out on the limb for this uh know that we that we support them few things that happened uh May 2nd Memorial held their uh walk bike and roll event um it was great way to great way to start the day seeing kids on all kinds of wheeled Vehicles rolling up the streets the police were involved it was also a great opportunity for me to spend some time with Chief saino we talked about um plans to bring a second full-time SLO to The District in September M we're moving forward with that we're putting dates together now to interview the final candidate so everything is moving forward to have that second uh C3 next year on the third the the administrative team of the district all the principles um assistant principal supervisor of instruction myself Alice oerman we concluded our walkthroughs of our three buildings where uh the entire team spent uh an hour or so uh and in that hour or so we went 10 minutes to various classrooms throughout each of the buildings so the administrators were were able to see what was happening in some of the schools um so we finished here at the high school and uh it really was a productive event I got to tell you we we were in May after seniors have received their colleges acceptances and we walked into senior level classes and we were on a Friday and how engaged all the kids were very very impressed um we mentioned uh the the analog parenting into digital age that was actually our fourth parent program this year that we sponsored uh that was a result of community input from our strategic plan it was a goal of the Board of Education to provide parenting education and we're really working hard to continue that um we have some work to do in terms of um boosting attendance as much as we would like to some of those events um but we recognize that we're going to keep going though uh yes teacher appreciation week was um was great great to see um I had the opportunity to uh uh go to all three buildings with with Bruce and uh it was H it was kind of kind of kind of a fun day to bring Bruce into the schools um last week last week was the I think it was Friday was the eighth grade dance at the harworth Country Club um talk about uh Mr Smith talks about this you know seeing seeing children when they're real small and then they're they get old it's the same thing when you see them at the eighth grade dance these kids that were just like this just only a few years ago um and how and how they've grown up they had a great time they had just a wonderful time and they're always so well behaved um the uh you we talked about the the Relay for Life the only thing I'll add to that it's just it seems like every time we're turning around we're having these wonderful community events that are happening here at our schools and it really was a great Community event I got there a little later in the evening but even late in the evening so many kids were involved so many uh uh members residents from Emerson were still involved and and uh hanging out it was just a a Wonder Wonder F day I want to give a quick shout out and congratulations to Jessica Espinosa who has been elected to the chairs to go through the chairs of the uh Bergen County um principes and supervisors Association kind of speaks to uh you know her her level and her status uh amongst that in in that organization so we're really proud of her um for that we talked about some of the conflicts you know the difficulty of of attending all these things because so many things are happening at one time but you haven't seen anything yet I by my estimate we have about six weeks between now and the end of school my I don't know when I'm going to eat dinner for the next uh for the next six weeks but um but it's going to be a a bit of a bit of a marathon looking forward to it um and all the end of year events all the concerts all the awards ceremonies graduations Etc so we'll make sure that the board's well informed of what the all those dates and times are and that concludes my report just one thing that say Chief s did I say Chief yes you did my apolog I certainly meant Chief Savino great thank you I wanted to make sure he recognition thank you Dr Nissen off and uh move on to business administrat report Mr mamore thank you so the 2425 budget process is wrapping up right now so thank you again to the board and to the finance committee uh for a successful budget process um as you can tell from this agenda we're starting to transition now thinking about 2425 uh budget year so the future budget year so some rfps have been awarded uh some contracts have been awarded and if you notice to um one resolution to notice uh number 42 so with resolution 42 this is just recognizing that the school district is going to be involved in a class action lawsuit from um the loans Goldman and Spitzer uh law firm and this is against social media companies that have um almost purposely targeted um young youths so kind of going in the same realm as what we were talking about with the digital uh parenting um so if you just read through the resolution it kind of details uh gives a little bit more of a detail also it's for lawsuits seeking uh monetary and non-monetary damages um from the social media companies also we're starting to get our buildings ready uh for summer projects in the uh summer of 2024 and uh we have booked our New Jersey school board's Workshop October 21st to October 24th so everyone is registered so if you're interested in going please let me know um we'll also start getting the hotel reservations ready also they book up quickly um and that concludes my report great thank you Mr mamora the uh Bruce if you don't mind sure one one thing I just want to remind everybody about the change of the calendar coming up for Memorial Day weekend that will be off that Friday as well as that Tuesday a Memorial Day weekend just wanted to remind everyone about that great thank you uh that concludes the reports we'll move on to the uh public input and comments uh Mrs ricardi would you mind opening the meeting I motion to open the meeting to public for input and comments I second seconded by Mr Smith all in favor I I I would just like to say on behalf of the staff um thank you to the board for providing our um teacher appreciation treets last week um it really was received um The Platters of cookies and the fruit um we really did appreciate it we're excited when we saw the node and Dr NN and Mr Pastor walking through the building so um again we just really appreciate it um we know we're appreciated um but it's just nice to have a a little sugar in the teachers room all I'm glad to hear thank you thank you okay if no other comments uh Mr Smith you close this up close it for the public I move to I motion to close the meeting for the public for input and comments second seconded by Mrs rardy all in favor I and uh Mr grck if you could close us out please sure I move to close the meeting to the public and adjourn at 8:02 p.m. to discuss an ex itive session Personnel legal matters and shared service agreement with the buau of Emerson in the conference room of the Board of Education offices no action will be taken at this time the board will return to open session upon completion of discussion and may or may not take action at that time the next meeting of the board of education is scheduled for June 17th 2024 at 7:30 p.m. in the high school media center second thank you m all favor I and I think that's it thank thank you everyone have a great uh rest of the day and have a great Memorial Day weekend good night good night thank you for coming sorry if anything I'll just be the second