okay good evening everyone welcome um this meeting is being held in conformance with the open public meetings Act and the time place and agenda of said meeting has been conveyed to the appropriate newspapers and post posted in the board office three schools municipal building and filed with the clerk of the burough of Emerson uh let stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please a pledge of allegiance to the FL of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all before we get started tonight I'd like to uh unfortunately share some sad news regarding a former Emerson Cavo uh Christian mazarello um former student class of 2021 uh unfortunately passed away on February 8th after short illness um his mother Susan is a teacher teacher Aid at the Bano school so uh Board of Education and the Emerson Community would like to pass on our condolences to their family and and uh this time I'd like to just have a a moment of silence to remember Christian thank [Applause] you so I this time i' like to call the meeting to order at 7:36 p.m. Mr mamona B call please Mr Grow pres Mrs Mara here Mrs ricardi here Mr Smith here Mr pdar here miss Rivers here okay the uh the next item on our agenda is actually not on the agenda because uh this person is not aware of the next item so uh I'd like to um to highlight and recognize a remarkable Milestone by a remarkable person our very own Doctor Phil missen off 30 years ago on February 1st 1994 Dr niss started his tenure with the Emerson School District now for those of us who are too young to remember 194 let me take a few seconds to take you all back so February 1994 the Dallas Cowboys have just won the Super Bowl Seinfeld is a number one TV show and this new sitcom called friends was just coming on first ever PlayStation was just launched this thing called the internet was taken off and the first ever online order was placed and no it was not Amazon it was for pizza from Pizza Hut and the big hit movies were The Lion King Forest Gump and the Sha Shank Redemption but most notably here in Emerson we had our own big hit in the making Dr niss starting his tenure as the school business administrator over the next 30 years he would go on to take roles as in room superintendent and of course now as our superintendent of schools Dr nisso if your impact on this community during this time has been profound it runs well beyond skillfully managing budgets and balance sheets and ensuring that the appropriate resources are available you've touched the lives of many students parents and Educators among others and you've been instrumental in creating an environment of learning and growth you commend the respect of your fellow peers across the county and even the state as evidenced by your inability to walk across the Atlantic City Convention Center during the school conferences without being stopped by half a dozen people who want to shake your hand and say hello it's actually quite irritating so on behalf of the Board of Education past board members the staff and Educators and of course the entire em Community we would like to express our deep gratitude for your 30 years three decades of service commitment and dedication [Applause] congratulations so in recognition of of that service we' like to present present you with this PL so thank congratulations again thank you let's take a want to take a picture let's take uh yeah let's take one of Mr Dr n off okay ready talk one more you got it okay a group come on now come on big smiles everyone big smiles thank you so much thank you thank you first let me congratulate everyone for keeping a such a a secret uh John be talking you about that tomorrow um yeah I I don't know if uh you guys are just everyone is just great about keeping a secret or I'm just oblivious to prob but um thank you um it's it's been an honor to work here uh for these past 30 years uh I had the occa uh uh the occasion this weekend to run into the spouse of one of the the board president that hired me in 1994 we had a long conversation about the about those times I was 29 years old I had dark [Laughter] hair um but it's it's been a it's been a a fabulous 30 years every day I wake up I can't wait to get to work um I I I love this place my heart and soul is in this place when I think of where we've had these conversations as early as today um where we talked about where we are with our uh our faculty our staff from the teaching staff to the administrative staff to the support staff we are at the the the greatest Point we've ever been uh during all that time and I'm you know so proud of all the people that I've I've worked with so thankful for all the people that I worked worked with um there's at least one person in the room has actually been here longer than than than than I who who should probably share the the the the plaque with me Kathy so it's been a uh it's been an honor to work alongside you and all the all the faculty and staff that have um that have come through here over the years and um lastly uh you know the the big Thanks goes to my wife uh Jen who you know has supported me uh for all this time and um all these years and you know it's been my rock and uh so I thank you for allowing me the the space to do the work that I do here um thank you all for coming coming out on a on a night like this I I uh I can't thank you enough the board office staff Chris min ministrative team uh my I hate saying my former board members but my former board members um and and the teachers I I thank I thank everyone so so much it's such a pleasure to work work with everyone so I have to wait until I was just going to say I'll pause for a little bit if anybody wants to say anything I please uh go ahead and uh come on up come on up or just stand up or um so Phil just as a senior member of the faculty and yes I was here when you were hired and I did have dark hair and i l a lot younger too um really we just want to say like thank you for all your support um over the years um superintendence before Phil and Phil have always just had faculty family um first have really cared about everybody um and just what's the whisper in the hallways is that we think that Phil is doing a fantastic job superintendent um we're really happy with the support um that he continues to give us and um just congratulations pH thank you so much thank you [Applause] anyone else before we move on to the fun part of um so I think it would be good to just take a two-minute break to the we're gonna have a presentation by the Admin team so this might be a good time if anybody wants to take a picture with Dr n all and I know that you all have homework tomorrow so anybody who wants to to leave I guess now now's the Now's the Time so all right thank you everyone presentation what doing a presentation this one a very good question kids were all I'm good how are you good but they didn't want to go okay so at this time uh the high school administration team Mr Hutchinson Mr ponack and Mrs Murphy will make a presentation for the high school go ahead Mr thank you so much and thank you for being here it's our pleasure to talk a little bit about an update for the high school we do appreciate this opportunity once a year to give a little bit of a an update on some of the great things that we're really proud of in this year in sharing that welcome our main mission site and I'm hope I'm not standing in the way of anyone's screen access tonight um is just to share a little bit of insight to our everyday experience the things we're really proud of that are going around in our school I only have 11 years to Dr niss off's 30 but I can also share with that context that this has been an outstanding school year and there's really a nice opportunity here to share things that are genuine that get us excited to come to school each day we see wonderful happening in our building and excited to show that this evening um to get ourselves started by way of introduction and presentation a little bit of newness about our admin team tonight's presenters will be our Freo admin team that's Miss Kelly Murphy myself as principal Mr Brian ponack our supervisor of instruction we've been really happy working together this year and even preparing this presentation it was really nice to reflect only on half a Year's worth of success that we've had in the building I appreciate the way for our admin team we've been able to collaborate on certain areas but also Aid communicate and T out a lot projects that have to get done on a daily or monthly basis within our school year um I do also want to mention firstly and we'll be taking a little bit of a chronological tour to the building I'm beginning with the new teachers that we have in here I've been so pleased with our newest teachers for the 23 24 school year they are experienced new teachers in that so many of the people who have come on board this year have taught in other buildings and other areas we've noticed the benefit of having that context of working in other districts and other grade levels even other subjects um in their own instruction we've been pleased to go into the room and seeing new things happening in the building there's departmental benefits as well as much as we mentored any of the new teachers to our district we are also learning a great deal from some of the new teachers that have been there um and despite even their experience status we're very pleased that on a monthly basis they've been participating in the new teacher Workshop series that happens on a monthly basis with Miss Offerman um in terms of teaching assignments talking again to that experience I've been very pleased that that experience has given us the ability to have them jump right into some of the more rigorous teaching assignments that we even offer in the building and at mid year we do a check-in on how everyone is doing that sums up a lot of the observations and walkthroughs and things we've heard and we've really pleased that so many of those have been positive experiences that are taking on the challenge of those courses getting assistance from colleagues who are experienced in Emerson and doing quite well and then lastly and as pointed Pride our teachers have that with itness and they get it that it's important to be a member of this community they are serving the district already as coaches as Club advisers both in formal stipend positions are just showing up to climb rocks with our students on a monthly basis and also as Cav fans you'll see them present on the sidelines um at robotics competitions or just cha running volunteering being part of the experience so we love that they've jumped right in to their own experience okay and we'll also be taking you guys through just a couple of highlights from the year so far as expressed in photos so starting in September we kicked off our year with our annual um Junior High and high school club fair and what's really unique about Emerson is um our students are really impassioned and empowered that if they have a club that they're interested in um at any point it could be created right so we have this club Fair every single year Mr ponac will speak a little bit more to the um Club offerings at our school but just this year we have three new clubs the chess club uh the F1 racing club and just started a couple weeks ago by an impassioned eighth grader the fishing club and so what we really take pride in in our school is that um we tailor our district and our community and this speaks for all three schools to our students so if students have a passion if students have an interest we do everything we can to support them and so that was something um that we start that we do every September um but what's NE is there's always a new club added so that was the club fair and then also in September the class of 2028 which is the eth grade kicked off their year with the field trip to the Fairview Lake YMCA um and it was about 8 hours of phone free team building fund they were on canoes um they were in the woods building ports they were playing volleyball and so it was just a really great way for our eighth grade class to kick off the year um next just wanted to talk a little bit more about our AP program there'll be another slide we talk about next year's scheduling already but straddling three years this most recent year our current year and next year I am really proud of the fact that we have made for the second time uh our college board AP honor role we've been recognized and You' seen that in the testing presentation for not only our performance but for um maintaining access to student groups by way of gender diversity um so students are being permitted into our AP programs we are not making it so exclusive so as to preserve scores and we are still scoring very well we earned a silver Ward which goes to the academic performance but the access badging on that is what's important to us that those scores have not just been filtered in some way um we are uh encourag ing more of our students to take on that challenge we're proud of course of this past Year's group of AP Scholars nine with distinction our highest recognition of the College Board and six with honor and then uh breaking news for this tonight we've just received word that we received from the College Board the computer science female diversity award which is given to a select number of schools Nationwide for expanding access and having students participate um female students in computer science and coding classes that's computer science a and our computer science principal so be putting out a press release about that shortly um we do also wanted to share with our board some things we're very proud of this year we've really formalized I want to thank M Murphy for chairing now our intervent intervention res Referral Services committee that meets on a weekly basis to discuss student needs based upon referrals from teachers from parents and just a general overview of the academic performance of our students both in terms of their grades behavior and even attendance records uh we also do a formal quarterly and mid-quarter review of all our based upon their economic performance looking specifically at their grades and how they're fairing we just did a semester based review right now and have some correspondence at the parents about some interventions that might be required for certain students um some uh regular areas where we might play students into is a peer coaching program that we have with our national arm Society students so we have Juniors and seniors now who are working with students who might be struggling to actually coach them not just in content not their tutoring but they actually meet every Monday with me and the NHS and we go through a game plan for the rest of their week so they come during lunch and we talk through well how are we going to get ready for exams how are we going to break down projects into smaller tasks and they really do appreciate um our students who are identified for this the opportunity to work with a positive role model and actually learn from successful student how to manage school and be successful both in home in studying and also communicating with teachers attending Al hours all those really important habits um some other places we do we had formal content based NHS tutoring uh we actually started a new algebra lab course this year which we're really proud of that's for freshmen who based upon their math 8 performance might be struggling a little bit and would benefit for going over those underlying Concepts in algebra concurrently with taking an algebra course so we've had some success stories already with students who are struggling in math 8 but now as grade nine students are fairing quite well in their algebra classes so that's a program we're going to be preserving for next year and then last we have our formal Aspire program which is a one toone tutorship with our em faculty members um and lastly any of those programs whether formal we can also supplement those with other strategies that are recommended by faculty and by our RRS committee good evening everyone uh I'm going to be speaking a little bit about student management uh I'm not going to explain every rule in our code of conduct but I wanted to just talk about a couple things that are new for this year or focuses for us in terms of our culture in general um the MinGa uh program if you're not familiar we have an electronic Hall Pass system they also use uh we we use MinGa to have students check in as they arrive each morning uh so our official attendants for the day almost like they're punching in for work uh they can show their ID to our computers that you've probably seen out front and that's through MinGa but also through MinGa uh teachers assigned passes for students to go to the bathroom so there's been so many different things over the years Dr nof I've been here for 21 of your 30 years and you've seen even more than me but we've had students carrying large passes or unique ones that were unique to each classroom we've had students wearing lanyards when it was their Le to go to the bathroom and all these different things we've tried most of which Co taught us were not the most hygienic um and uh this is a really great thing so there's nothing anybody has to touch the teachers are keeping track of it um it also limits the students and it says up there that it helps them prioritize their time in the classroom uh they have to be a little more thoughtful about how often they might ask to step out of class um outside of obvious obviously if there's circumstances we have to work with them uh they're only allowed to go to the restroom three times in the school Dead uh and we found it's been very successful in kind of monitoring and in them self monitoring how often they're actually stepping out of class because obviously they're learning at their best when they're in the room um in terms of Club participation and this goes along with culture and really throughout the presentation you'll see so many more of those pictures from different highlights from each month so you'll see a lot of the culture there but uh we have about 30 clubs in the school uh that number might be deceiving it says about 800 members obviously if you're familiar with our our students count we don't have that many students here uh so that does count for students who might be in more than one club uh but we're thrilled about the involvement uh so many of these clubs do different things there's service clubs clubs that are really just for a social aspect a way to meet people a way to maybe go out and have fun doing things like the Ski and snow snowboard club or the Rock Climbing Club uh service clubs like the club the Cal cancer Crushers uh where students are really making a difference in their community and Beyond um and you know then there's even things like the robotics club and the debate team and these teams that are going out and competing with other schools so there's lots of different types of experiences uh and we're thrilled with how much our students are accessing those chances um in terms of office hours uh during our activity period uh both high school and Junior High have opposite office hours where their teachers are available uh essentially for whether you want to call that extra help that could really just be a check-in so that people can you know ask did we have homework for tomorrow or I was just confused with number three on the homework and it might just be a quick thing some people might be using it to make up a quiz uh some people might just get along really well with that teacher and have something that they want to talk to them about and it's a good time to not interrupt a class to do so um so every week that can vary with how many students are accessing that but in any given week there's at least 50 students who are taking advantage of that time sometimes if it's a present time where there's more tests or quizzes coming up there might even be more um but that's been a very successful in itive that uh has now been many years that we've had that on our schedule uh a change for this year uh the 11th graders are Juniors uh have been they were told in September that uh if they were in good standing and they had uh less than five conduct points on the year and I won't bore you with how all that works uh but basically if they've stayed out of trouble for the fourth marking period they're going to be allowed to have open lunch or open campus for lunch meaning they'll be able to leave the building like the seniors are allowed to do uh we have seen a an exact drop of 54% uh decrease in the just amount of disciplinary infractions involving their specific grade level from last year to this year so we feel like it's been a really nice uh thing for them to feel motivated to do the right thing and hopefully that has a little to do with their maturity too I hope they're not having to think about it every day and fight the urge but uh we've seen a lot of really good things from putting that into place and we're excited about our Junior and how they behave this year um Safety and Security I just wanted to highlight um our student resource officers Officer Howard and officer koll uh they've really done so many things behind the scenes that the community might not always be aware of and something I wanted to highlight today was uh they've brought a lot of programs to the school uh trying to really teach our students how to take care of themselves how to be safe um and and how to treat others in the right way so we had a bias incident prevention presentation uh from Bergen County prosecutor's office that was set up through officer Howard and officer PRL uh the dangers of fentanyl there was also a presentation on that uh I'm excited because this is something I haven't seen our students exposed to before but that third bullet where it says ride share safety program it's called what's my name but that's all about uh students or anyone uh taking Ubers and taking lifts and all these different ride Services about how to make sure that they're doing that uh safely and not putting themselves in any danger um so I'm I'm very excited I think that's something a lot of our students who are going to college will probably be using from time to time are those presented to all of the grads uh it's a little unique to each one uh bias incident I know was grade 7 through 12 off the top of my head I believe fentol was also the entire School uh the rod share is I believe only going to be for the junior first year be senior for our first year Rolling that out um we hope that not a lot of our seventh and eth graders are currently taking Ubers and lifts to get around so that's why that's aimed and then lastly a DUI program is something that the uh police and they work with other uh community members uh the fire department the ambulance Court volunteers uh all come out to make that DUI program really impactful for our seniors and they do that every May and again officer how an officer C are instrumental and putting that together um last year they also helped tremendously we did an evacuation drill with our students we practiced our procedures if we had to leave our building and we headed over to volano school um this year uh this is not with the entire student body and all of the parents but we do want to practice the logistics of a reunification drill how we would if we ever had to evacuate to volano school how would we connect all of our students with the appropriate parents or Guardians to pick them up so we're going to be working on that this spring and again officer Howard and officer croll are very helpful in that process um some October highlights uh I always think of my first year being so blown away with what a pep R is here at Emerson High School uh I had no idea that that kind of school spirit still existed in Bergen County or anywhere for that matter um I'm thrilled to say that no matter how many years go by and it seems like kids don't always want to show that they're really into school and rah rah they're still very rah rah on this day um it's still a super exciting time you can see if you can see the pictures from where you're sitting uh students get so into the decorations and the dressing up and the cheering each other on and it's just always a great event and obviously this fall is no different um I mentioned the Cabo cancer Crushers is one of our clubs earlier uh for breast cancer aware awareness month they had a lot of nice things going on with kind of a photo booth uh thing and they were sharing the pictures out on their social media uh and it was really nice to have some uh raising some awareness about that in a fun way so this year our PTA has expanded to the Junior high so now there's a PTA um for K through 8 and so that's been really great for our school um and it's really bridged the gap between um administrators and parents and uh teachers and parents and the school and parents we really want um parents have all that access so it's been a really great partnership that we've experienced this year and so um the PTA has been excellent about things for our school programming so anything for breakfast and lunch for the teachers welcome back and teacher appreciation um which all teachers know go such a long way um as is food for anyone but um student programming so they had an amazing game show that it's one of our slides for the junior high uh leading up to Thanksgiving during our activity period and it was just like an absolute blast um they help with school wish list items for needer students and every quarter we meet with the PTA um and we give a principal's report to just what's going on in the school and what's kind of nice for the PTA is they kind of get that first access as parents to any new initiatives for trying um or we'll post something to the group and ask for feedback from parents and these meetings are both in person and Via Zoom to give the most access as possible and so we give our principal's report and then the administrators just really hang back um same with staff we had the Cabo cancer Crushers the two advisers present um about a week and a half ago at the last PTA meeting and we already have some PTA members signing up for the survivors tent for really for life which is awesome uh and then it's really open call where it's just an open Forum where parents can ask questions in a low stakes way we can answer questions and so it's been a really really excellent partnership that we're super grateful for and then our faculty we are in our third full year of our faculty plgs and so um our faculty once a month when the students are dismissed at noon we spend the afternoon um exploring different Avenues of professional development and so we have six different plgs um that teachers are members of and then there is a Lead Teacher who is the facilitator of each plg and so we have our habits of work plg which is piloting um a rubric about executive functioning and how it's separate um from the academics right but not totally mutually exclusive so that's something that they've been piloting um that our teachers will be trying out this year we have our social emotional learning and advisory plg um which has led to our advisory program that is every other week here at the high school for 45 minutes and students are placed at grade bands uh at their grade level with a teacher adviser and then actually a senior ta and they will be in those advisory groups it's kind of like a family at school for their six years through Emerson so that's something a program that we're really proud of That's Unique to Emerson um and they've been really at the Forefront of that our proficiency based pilot has been um looking at some different programming options and our scoring criteria that is in line with our strategic plan so they've been making a lot of Headway on that our diversity equity and inclusion group um Works closely with student council they work closely with a lot of stakeholders um and making sure that Emerson is the most inclusive place possible for all all of our students our school culture plg um this year their initiative is really on making the school a place where every kid really feels welcome and that they have a place um something to look forward to every day so right now they started a March Madness volleyball tournament for the whole school during activity period And so it's for junior high and the high school during activity period and what's been really neat um as administrators that we've seen is sometimes kids that don't always have somewhere to go um who we've seen like by themselves in the hallways or just kind of look for some thing to belong to are like always front row at these games cheering on their classmates cheering on their friends and so that's been a really awesome thing that the school culture plg has done they're also going to start in April um Friday greetings at Bano um the students saw a Tik Tok that went viral where the seniors dress up in the gear from their school and they have signs and they welcome the younger kids uh to the school and get them pumped up so we've been working uh with Miss Espinosa and the school culture plg will be doing that with some willing seniors uh for the spring which we're really looking forward to and then our tiered systems of support is working on a manual um for different tiers for uh supporting our students whether that be tier one accommodations which means something that we should be applying to all students or tier three for our most needy students and so we're addressing the district's strategic plan through these six different plgs um and we've been really proud of their hard work and success speaking of hard work so our November highlights we actually have a lot for November um the junior high play Puffs was a huge success um we really thank Mr Omen that he takes the time to have a play Just specific for our Junior High 7th eth graders to cultivate that interest um like Brian was talking about we had our Burgen County prosecutor's office the fentanyl presentation to our upper classman we had the class of 2029 so the seventh graders also went on the same field trip to the Fairview Lake YMCA at a separate time so they also had a really good day I'll be at a little bit colder um we had the north Jersey band Festival in Clinton which was really great it was on a Sunday and our Band theme this year was Disney and so when Emerson came out to perform although we're smaller than like Clifton High School and some schools that were there the entire stand was like pulsing with the music everyone knew the songs that they were playing so that was really great for our students um Spanish class they participated in di deos MTO celebration and so we had a lot of dedication to um grandparents some to Kobe Bryan one to Bob Saget but the kids really had a lot of fun um taking Pride and exploring people that they feel close to our Junior High game show that was brought to us by the PTA which was a blast and then I think there was one more uh the Key Club hunger banquet which was is a hunger simulation that they put on every other year um to simulate world hunger in the school and I think some of the board members were there for that so that was a really great thing oh one more and the bias crime division presentation from the Bergen County prosecutor's office as well and the classic 24 trip to the 911 museum where they actually took the train and they all had to get a metro card and practice the life of a potential future Commuter so um that was a really great day for them as well okay thank you m um I just want to give it a little interlude to talk a little about our guidance Department U we've moved through a number of programs that are designed to bring our community into the know about some of the transitional elements of moving your child from Junior High into high school high school scheduling and even preparing for a post-secondary plan for each child so we've been really pleased to be able to host still our alumni panel we're able to have a panel of 10 Emerson class of 2023 students come back and talk a little bit more about there are six months since Emerson it's a very real and uh open discussion there's opportunities for Q&A and our Junior seniors are able to talk with those Al night students they walk the halls with and really get a lot out of that experience and it's amazing to see what an advantage those students have just a couple months out beyond graduation to seeing the real world and be able to look back on Emerson with a lot of insight so we appreciate that program um we've been doing a every other year program presentation with two vendors this year we did an online financial aid night through principia prep that was especially necessary this year it was extremely well attended by our parents I say extremely necessary because of was now well known the delay in FAFSA and the um application for federal aid um it was important to have our students our students and their parents really in the know about that process we're grateful for that program and thankful for our community for coming out um our Junior fail night happened in uh December to talk a lot about some of the exciting options we have for a senior year a lot of alternative programs that are offered to Emerson students the chance to move Beyond some of just the traditional brick and mor classes that they have in many high schools and then most recently a very well attended evening here for our grade N9 and 10 parents to talk predominantly about preparing your child for a four-year plan for high school so we're grateful for that parent input and in all these programs I'm especially grateful for our counselors to being present to setting up parents for Meaningful onetoone meetings afterwards for being a source of information but lastly the opportunity for Q&A our main goal when we prepare these slides is to make sure that every parent has chance to ask questions we're not sitting in the atorium with 350 families we're talking to smaller groups it's really important that no parent drives home without a sense of how think they can get their question answered so some are really proud of as well um being just should do my own clicking um another prompt from our guidance Department they've been actually exploring and planning A New Wellness Center a space that's available for students who might be having some difficulties throughout the day um to do that they've been do the T of some area high schools who have developed similar Wellness spaces um that include Pas Valley the northern valleys they been to Northern Highlands Glenrock um Harrington Park Etc um some of the key points that we've uh tried to address in having a wellness space would be um what is the main function how we communicating that main function to students um with so many support Personnel who are ready and willing to help students from our child study team to our guidance staff some of the other counselors that we have available to students even our nurse um who will take on responsibilities for certain times of the day to be available to our students um to talk about intake policies having the ability for our student to come in and not have to say I need to see so and so but to allow just be able to sit and relax for a few minutes and try to Center themselves talk about ideas that when you're trying to get yourself adjusted that it's not a good thing to have headphones necessarily or a phone in front of them so talking with area high schools a lot of them do want they have those things aside so as student can kind of focus on themselves and then some guidelines on the student experience that when you come in you do get offered a little bit of quiet time to yourself to have 20 minutes to just again reenter but at the end of that time if you are not feeling well to go back to class the opportunity to speak to some of those counselors and have some agency over the plan for yourself to get yourself back to the feeling ready for school so been appreciative of the context we've had from our local districts so support in allowing tours they received and we're looking forward to updating the board and central office about some plans ahead for net Wellness space that would be a 7 through 12 offer for our school um and lastly we do see that space as a chance not just for intakes and drop in appointments but a chance to run group sessions for students who might be experiencing some common or trending issues in a and I was going to speak a little bit more on Cav strong Miss Murphy mentioned uh the plg The Advisory plg uh and I like that use the word family they have their little families that we sometimes break out of our normal schedule and they get to go to a classroom we refer to them is C strong when they have those times uh we surveyed the students last year to just kind of get a feel for what they thought they were getting out of the program and uh promising numbers and certainly not 100% but the first two bullets just to kind of sum them up um just about two3 of the students said in the survey that they a felt a connection to the teacher one of the goals of the program is like everyone knows they have one staff member who definitely knows their name and they have a chance to talk to that person in a non-class setting if they ever said like I can't figure out my locker or the thing that doesn't come up in math class this is a person they can go to um so and then the other thing that they also said was that 61% said that they were feeling like more comfortable uh interacting with their peers through the program um so those are promising numbers that make us feel like we're doing something positive for the kids and we want to continue that um as Miss Murphy mentioned they've been meeting twice a month in 45 minute sessions uh moving into April that's going to change into shorter sessions but weekly uh so they're going to have a 25 minute session each week uh the teachers have been uh recently trained on some different activities uh that they can be doing with their groups during those sessions um some of them might be to help students make sure they understand things like even working with their counselors to uh be ready for their college application process and things like that for our older students but there's also a great chance for people to kind of unwind uh feel like they're getting to to know each other and uh I think our teachers had a great time kind of participating in some activities that they might be running with their own students so we've had we've had a good time with that and again that's all through the plg and their hard work um making sure everyone's prepared to make C strong successful uh the coffee house a highlight of December uh if you've never been to our coffee house it's in the cafeteria and it's it has the feel of like an open mic night although it's certainly not that because the students uh practice and prepare and are really on their aame to perform it is an awesome thing to come and check out sometime uh something I love about it personally is I'm always going to hear of some students that like for example in that picture Mr Hayes is playing the guitar and I know uh Vivian is singing Scarboro fair by Simon and Garfunkle so you always kind of hear something you might be familiar with and be surprised at what some of the kids are into um or you'll learn a new song like that you know Taylor Swift song you never heard before that that they sing and you think wow it's awesome um so it's a really fun time just to see how talented and how vastly different their interests are in terms of music and it's not only music they can have comedy acts and perform different skits it's a really fun night to come and support those kids and get involved um National Art Honor Society uh went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and as you can see from the picture apparently Mr Bliss went also uh and the Key Club which we mentioned a couple times tonight they work so hard uh and this was uh their midnight run which is something that they do twice a year uh where they bring food uh toiletries supplies uh they were out I think to six different places in Manhattan um all through the night uh helping those in need and those less fortunate uh it takes a lot of work they have a lot of fun doing it but I think they learn a lot too about helping helping others and uh class of 2027 had a trip to the Museum of Natural History um I think one of the things we real you can flip ahead putting these Together made us feel really great about how many experiences these kids are really getting um so it's been fun just to kind of see all these trips on slides uh Winter concert uh we'll have another one in the spring with our band and chorus uh junior high and High School uh there's a picture Mr hutchon spoke about the college alumni panel so those are some uh College freshmen or people in the trades uh who have come back to talk to our students and they did a great job it's with that picture that's mine I know we're going to change it around next year um just wanted to just talk about the uh AI exploration that's happening in our school we are taking a slow and steady walk into what artificial intelligence means for our students um both it's something that helps them learn but something that helps our teachers teach and understanding some of the lessons learned by area high schools from starting to engage with some of those tools uh to do so I'm really proud our teachers are going to be going um again in March to the thir of a quarterly series of meetings about artificial intelligence and how it can be used in the classroom um a lot of Bergen County high schools have been attending this it's been a good thought group to think about some context and some learning just what's out there for right now it's not going this to try to take a hard fast uh look at policy yet but we just want to have lots of conversations with teachers and students about what is out there and especially colleagues outside of Emerson um to do that we've also had a very informal lunch and learn program for teachers to be able to attend eat lunch together and learn about a new tool on a weekly basis that we've learned about to identify them learn about some of their instructional value to share that um knowledge with colleagues at a faculty meetings we had a devoted session to talking just about Ai and potential uses in the classroom ahead what we aim to do is to continue that conversation to look at the instructural impact uh For Better or Worse sometimes and some of the best policies and ways to educate our students and faculty that appropriate use of AI as a teaching tool oh pictures that must be me again so January highlights are sort of similar to the March Madness volleyball tournament I worked with the school of culture plg and um there's a a foul shot Friday once a month that goes on and that's U me with our first winner Nathan Luke the final four was a wrestler being Nathan against three basketball players and the wrestler won uh illustrating the point that anybody can win uh and more importantly everyone can participate we had a lot of kids from Junior High in high school just come out for a fun thing we're doing uh one Friday month uh and this was something new that went uh really well and I'll be honest I wasn't sure that it would a lot of credit um because this was a popup dance so the students had no idea other than maybe a few key student council members surprise is evidently a thing now right yes exactly and uh so just during lunchtime and activity period one day uh students were just kind of summoned to the gym we actually had all the seniors called down to the gym I think under the guise of there was going to be a class picture they were going to take and they got there and there was a DJ lights off balloons glow sticks all that stuff going on and uh it was really great seeing how many students stuck around for it stayed in the gym for that whole hour danced just looked happy uh so they really took to it and I thought that was a really nice nice thing I did haveit to call the DJ company and said I need to book them for a am they were a little confused um just a little bit as I talked about AP towards this year and next year I'm especially proud of the fact this year that we have 121 students taking 226 AP courses obviously a lot of students are taking more than one course um those numbers compare with some of the highs that we've had in the past 10 years especially the number of courses being taken um I'll jump to that final bullet in saying that it is not for the number of AP courses that any needed student takes um but we do want to encourage and have that conversation with counselors about experiencing the rigor of a college L the course at least one time in your high school career to make sure you have preparation for some of the intensity and especially the reading so we're really proud of that um and to keep students prepared of course we've made um uh as a matter of practice our quarterly exam something mandatory for students so at the end of every quarter they all take in three AP exams before they sit for the formal Administration in ma um we are in that time and we are starting to Pivot towards next year and we have just uh shut down the portal as a matter of fact today I'm have having it open for two weeks for families to see te teacher recommendations for students to select electives they might be interested in or if they want to take on a challenge for a course which they're not recommended the opportunity to wave into a course um either by its title or by its level um to present someone their own personal challenge all right so for the last of the highlights so this February um the Emerson fire department brought to us the after the fire program which was uh two speakers from the seaten hall survivors of 2001 uh and they were among the most severely burned victims and when I say it was such an invaluable presentation uh we had it for our 10th through 12th graders because there's a little bit of mature content and so we already know that three years from now we are rebooking them so that the current 7eventh through nth graders can experience it um it was a lot about of course the virus but it was also about being resilient and decision- making and how to stay safe in all facets of life so whether you're in a restaurant noticing exits and we cannot speak highly enough the kids were locked in and they were buzzing about it for days um and so it was an an excellent excellent program that we're really thankful for the erson fire department um we the class of 2029 Junior High elections which was one of my highs for the year these seventh graders prepared these unbelievable speeches and they were so articulate um and it was 10 candidates for five spots but even beyond that the best thing that came out of this was that every candidate clapped for each other um even people who they were going up against and so that's something that starts in the home and so we were so proud to see that and every candidate also got an Applause from their entire seventh grade class you didn't know who is the popular kid or who was the one who was going to win and so that was a really really nice um afternoon for us as administrators to see um with our plg advisory we had a kindness week where kids uh wrote on change that they were um grateful for in Emerson and that was displayed again our SRO Glen Howard and um Mr monino one of our lead custodians helped put that up so that was a really nice display for the high school and then our schoolwide volleyball tournament so that's what goes on on Thursdays and Fridays here and it will continue until April when the winning team will play the teachers in the spring pep rally um and then this is just our spring preview and we display this um because we really think it's an excellent uh blend of educational opportunities and service opportunities and fun opportunities and the point of that is at the high school there's something truly for every single student and we take pride in that and we work really hard in making sure that our events and our programs are well rounded um and you can see there's just about three and a half months left of school but it's loaded with different activities um and so we're really excited about that so I just wanted to on behalf of our whole team just offer our thanks for your time um it really is our pleasure to be able to have a night like this to talk about things that make us proud on a daily basis and especially proud tonight to talk about what we've been able to accomplish in a half years thank you and we look forward to presenting again sometime soon great thank [Applause] you any questions for the admin team once a year in December and the alternative though in the spring we go outside for Cabo Pala which is very similar Amplified a little more of an acoustic show but I you bring a long one where the seniors come or the come that's just once a year once a year when they're home for break or a lot of times when those who went into the workforce are also home for the holidays okay a question regarding the um the March Madness School culture um program uh so March Madness is an easy one right sports related do the students have any input in what the next thing is going to be or how do you gauge that I know you talked about the seniors getting Dr in this whole fund but do do students have any input or influence on that so yes um they work closely all students with the student council the student council does a really good job of reaching out to all grades representatives and so that's those class officers um at grade wide class meetings and to their class advisers will report back um to their grade levels and they take ideas and then they'll pitch it to the student council or the administrative team and we try to make that happen to the best of our ability okay if no other questions again thank you very much a lot lot of information good stuff so thank you okay with that I guess we'll start our meeting um Mr groy if you don't mind uh if we can get a motion to open a meeting to the public absolutely uh I move to open the meeting to the public for input and comments on agenda items only second second by Miss Mara um all in favor I hi anyone uh who would like to make an input or a comment okay um Mr Smith can I uh get a motion to close the meeting uh now you're motion to close the meeting to the public for input and comments I second second by Mr ricardi all in favor I I having had an opportunity to review the uh items on the agenda can uh Mrs Meer can we get a motion to adopt all items that the consent agenda I move to adopt all items on the above consent agenda second second by Mr grolik roll call please Mr GC I Mrs Mara I Mrs ricardi I Mr Smith I Mr pdar I okay move on moving on to committee reports um the chair of the buildings and grounds committee Mr gck thank you uh good evening Emerson uh on uh February 21st uh the facilities buildings and grounds committee met at the district office from 5:30 to a little after 7:30 and in attendance was M Mara superintendent nenoff business administrator mamora and myself uh we had quite an extensive agenda um and we started by reviewing the district's long range facilities plan um has various projects and projected needs uh that go about five plus years out on this is for the district to utilize Capital it's capital reserve funds uh such projects must be on that document in order for those funds to be utilized um capital reserve accounts are established by New Jersey school districts uh in the accumulation of funds to be used only and specifically for projects on that approved long range facilities plan so we went to that in rather detail excuse me we then reviewed uh summer 2024 projects uh among them at the high school um an electrical service upgrade uh which would be be uh critical for a projected uh need for an HVAC to the high school gym in the future at theano five classrooms uh will be renovated this summer along with the 6x6 tiled hallway uh that's phase two of volo's renovation project in which all first floor classrooms with the exception of Art and music will be fully renovated however the next phase will include those two rooms as well as the second floor Memorial School uh during the summer have areas of its flashing on its roof repaired uh and that'll be done um in preparation for projected roof replacement at Memorial in summer of 2025 um the repairs that have been done in house this year have been uh agressively affecting uh any other problems we went on to other future projects uh and um we discussed repurposing several areas in the High School uh many of which based on Direct feedback from Mr Hutchinson including uh the student wellness center which he mentioned this evening uh additional office space for child study team staff a student lounge and renovating the nurse's office which uh is critical uh as part of the Energy savings Improvement program or esip the district is working with a contractor to implement an energy audit in hopes of identifying savings that can be redirected to uh equipment approaching its end of life such as boilers uh earlier in the evening uh just moments ago the board approved a resolution uh to apply for a grant from the University Department of Community Affairs for approximately $100,000 with the goal of offsetting costs for a much-needed tennis court repair at the Junior Senior High School and District administration is also seeking to collaborate with the burough for additional funds in which both those sources could significantly offset the cost for this very much need project uh Sports season's approaching and reminded field maintenance and possible future Renovations may need to be considered and the committee will be meeting again to delve into more specifics and discuss possible solutions for consideration and finally the committee will soon be scheduling walkthroughs of each of the district's buildings so its members can see firsthand all items discussed in this night's report and that concludes my report this evening great thank you very much Mr Grow for uh budget and negotiations uh Mr Smith and I have um discussed where we're going to defer our uh report to the next meeting this week uh some state aid numbers are going to come out and we'll have a little bit more information uh regarding some of the budgeting and um that's it for budget and negotiations uh Mrs Mara chair of the curriculum instruction and student achievement committee thank you so this evening we met for the first time this calendar year with Miss oerman myself um Ms ricardi and Dr nisenoff um to tackle a very lengthy academic committee um agenda we were successful in getting about halfway through a lot of really great things some a little repetitive from what we heard from our administrative team from uh the high school um but I do want to go through some highlights that I think are most utmost importance to the community as well um under data and interventions there's two topics that I want to touch upon the first is SATs so in the news we were discussing this at the committee meeting that SATs have been um not as uh or have been opted out from from colleges to be used as like this sole source of whether or not students are being accepted into specific colleges they're not using it as that same measurement that we all perhaps used um in order to apply and be accepted into uh colleges they so they pulled away from it and now they're coming right back to it so luckily enough though in 10th and 11th grade we still require the PSAT for our students so they're not going to skip a beat it the PSAT provides them with that early exposure um to what's to come and along with the SAT as well um and also correlates to a likelihood of success and having successful years in college and higher education um going forward so while we did see that some schools were pulling away from it we do now see them returning back to to SATs as a standard of measurement for um admissions the second this is probably one of my favorite things I'm so happy that um this admin team from the high school touched upon this is the habits of work rubric um that has been is being implemented coming this March what I love about this um rubric and we went over it with Miss oerman is that it really is the uh not mutually exclusive other half of your students journey in high school where you're not just reduced to a number or to a grade and how well you're performing on specific tests but it gives a great picture as to how your student is doing in school in the classroom what do they need to focus on do they need to focus on you know um being a little more organized with their uh assignments and do they need to perhaps comply with the rules of the classroom a little bit better there's a there's four different areas that they are focusing on in this rubric it's going to be implemented like I said coming this March um a soft launch launch for the teachers we already see this too in um like for Memorial this is the report CED that I see and I enjoy um seeing this rubric on the back of my daughter's uh uh uh marking period report card thank you um but the four major areas that this these habits of work are trying to touch upon are the responsibility and preparedness of the student the citizenship and ethical awareness of the student cell phone usage perhaps in the classroom or other areas of the schools um engagement and mindfulness and then perseverance initiative and self motivation I again as a professional woman myself I think that all of these are integral to a well well-rounded student experience here and prepare your students for success in real life real world situations so I'm thrilled for this and I couldn't be happier to see the progress that's being made in this area um under curriculum and program in social studies we reviewed a proposed world history textbook for grade n um it should be on our next board agenda for approval thank you again to the committee um that included Miss oerman uh Mr compon Mr Ledgerwood and Miss Murphy going through very thick textbooks and in particular this grade n textbook just to give you an idea of why we needed a an update is that we had not had an update um since the textbook since 1995 so we were a little overdue there are a lot of really crucial things that needed to be included in the text that we had for our students in world history um and this text I think based on Miss oper man's recommendations um really does touch upon some of the more recent 2000s that really should be um taught in that class so we're really looking forward to that um for grade six there is going to be a change in schedule it's being proposed right now and worked through again with a Comm that has been working on um a proposed schedule change and a proposed change for uh 2024 and 2025 implementation for that calendar year um currently our grade five is a grade that is a little bit larger than the rest of the grades so they have constantly traveled along as they've called it a as a bubble um that's kind of pushing the boundaries of the grade level eeking over into five sections and what this propos proposed schedule change does not only addresses the needs of that specific grade level that's a little bit larger um it also will provide a little bit more of a transitional support for students going into grade six who are then going to be leaping over to the big school um and and you know um coming into a great a high school style um schedule so what the proposition is is that there is going to be a cross curricular um period and also an exploration period both of which will move fluidly throughout the school day um they're also going to have an earlier lunch so they won't have lunch at 1:00 that's proposed right now again all proposed um at this moment but the benefit is is that it increases the small the class size to five sections and it maintains a smaller class size so that the students aren't in classroom sizes that are far larger than some of the other grades coming through um we also discussed I'll talk about qack a little bit more in um my report too with the Bergen County school board but for us we were up for our qac um audit qac again stands for the quality single accountability Continuum it's the department of education's monitoring and District self- evaluation system we have not had a qac audit in over 10 years now um but as part of cohort 2 we were up this year and so um the administrative team Miss oerman I know just based on curriculum alone been working tirelessly to get us prepared for this audit so we did have the audit last week um and things are looking really great but no official word as to whether or not we are have passed can be released until a few months from now when we are finally through our finance uh review um really exciting things if you you haven't been so excited by the presentation from the high school already tonight there's also an astronomy course an elective course that is being proposed for the 2024 to 2025 um calendar year which is very exciting um the algebra lab with Mr Hutchinson had touched upon it was had a semester pilot um it's now going to continue to a full year it seems like it's been very effective for the students that have needed it for that extra support so we're happy to see that that's going to continue um bana we didn't get into this entirely too much but I can tell by Miss opperman's uh report that the teachers at Bano are more or less radiating over Otis and the implementation of Otis um as the software pilot for them for Gradebook so that's more to come we're going to dive into that a little bit deeper at our next academic committee meeting um but early impressions are very positive so far and then on to professional development um I love this part of the committee report as well because I really do like to dive into see what our teachers if they're not doing enough all day long for our students what they're also doing professionally um happy to report that we have an O an Orton cohort 2 for the spring of 2024 through the fall of 2026 we have five more teachers that are going to be certified for through Orton Billingham um in January we had a very successful in service day with uh speakers such as John kamgno he did a training um for our faculty and I hear that the feedback was fantastic as to his presentation um we also had um mandatory dyslexia training held for prek U to for grades uh prek through three for our teachers um we had Patty vital Riley back in January also here um who is an expert in tier support groups um providing a presentation she will also be putting a presentation together before the upcoming ptaa meeting in March on family literacy um for prek through 8 uh happy to report that we have 22 staff members that are newly CPR trained thank you very much for that very important training and attending that um the administrators were able to conduct walkthroughs at volano which is then interrupted by a fire call um so much to be desired they all wanted to be there just to really gauge the best practices and and really be able to observe other classrooms get ideas um especially from that transition again from volano into the high school having that cross exposure I think is just so crucial and I'm really thankful that the administrators have made this a priority um to make sure that they are doing that so I think that might be it great great great great report thank you m Mara uh we'll move on to board member reports Mr Grow all righty uh hello again um first of all thank you very much uh Mr Hutchinson uh Mr PM M Murphy for your presentation on high school tonight um I am uh really amped up to hear about such student centered Focus going on with extra and co-curricular programming it's uh it's great to hear um I also really appreciate that you've taken efforts to empower our students uh to really follow their passions and enabling them to uh you know seek after school clubs with your assistance and that's pretty pretty great to hear um I'm really fired up about uh in a good way about um just hearing about access to AP classes um as a bit of an academic nerd I'm probably going to mess it up a bit but I'm pretty sure there's ample studies that really show just merely being participating in an AP class a single AP class leads to better academic outcomes than other classes and so I think it's a really positive thing for the district so really thrilled to hear all that and thank you very much um Dr nissanoff congratulations on your 30 years uh for your commitment and service to our schools and Community um not so fun stuff uh more boring stuff good stuff though no um February 6 myself and along with uh some other fellow board members we participated in a remote meeting of the Bergen County School boards Association and there was a wonderful presentation on community engagement I enjoyed that this past weekend I satisfied my state required training as a newly elected board member I attended a three-day Workshop in Plainsboro which was hosted Again by and organized by the New Jersey school boards Association um I probably went through about 20 different uh courses but it was really wonderful um and a lot of those workshops were on on several different types of topics advocacy governance policy Labor Relations School finance and I just it was really rewarding and um I enjoyed it thoroughly um this month there's been so many amazing accomplishments and activities going on districtwide um so many to mention uh the two all highlight is the one I attended yesterday and the one I attend to on Friday um uh kudos to parents for em uh kudos to the parents uh kudos to Emerson parents for thank you uh for uh their uh assistance in organizing um the amazing First Tech Challenge uh robotics competition yesterday our awesome uh students of the Junior Senior High School the robo cavos robotics team uh put on uh a pretty amazing display and um it was great to see and it was something my family and I really enjoyed watching uh and we are really psyched to attend uh the Junior Senior High School's production of 1776 uh good luck to uh all the students and faculty participating and break a leg uh thank you uh and that concludes my report great thank you Mr BR Miss Mara promise we're going to get to that side of this table at some point I promise um I will be brief um briefer than that my other report uh first I want to thank the Emerson Junior Senior High School administrative team Mr hus Jenson Mr ponac Miss Murphy thank you very much for that presentation it makes me want to be in high school and have all of those fun events all the time um and I can't imagine our students not having a tremendous experience at the high school level with all that you have to offer and that you you know concertedly make that effort to ensure that all of our students have something that they can participate in so thank you um wishing best of luck to the high school play this weekend looking forward to going probably not bringing my son but I will try to bring Olivia with me I think she would really enjoy it um very EXC exciting that our schools are participating in the re Across America um program this week and having their theme days of course there's big debates going on in my house I know right now while I'm not at home as to what makes my daughter unique and what she's going to wear tomorrow so wish me luck um one other thing I wanted to mention to the after the fire program just because it touches my home so much with um the fire department as well I just want to thank the high school for giving the opportunity to have that fire program to be presented here um my husband gave me the same feedback that the room you could hear a pin drop and that the students were so engaged and I do hope that not only does it teach them all the valuable lessons that those speakers who again were super engaging had taught them during that time period but I also hope that they walk away with sense of just um you know service to others helping others um and perhaps get another insight into something else that they could participate in in our community just out outside of the school but at our community at large so thank you for allowing that to come in um wishing happy retirements to giovana and to Kenneth we voted on that in our agenda this evening although very sad because they're long standing members and pillars of the Emerson um school district and I know they've worked alongside Dr Nissen off for many many years still haven't caught up to him yet but they've worked alongside him for many many years and I know that they're both going to be very tremendous shoes to fill so thank you to both of them um Dr Nissen off there's not much else I could say but so happy to be working alongside of you seeing you reach this Benchmark you deserve every single bit of Praise um that everybody has had to offer and I'm sure there's plenty of other people that are sitting at home feeling the same way that we all do so thank you um and last but not least the Bergen County school board's meeting as I mentioned we are under our qac audit review um the Bergen County interm Superintendent Lou deliso was one of the ones that came to our school last week and he reported that um our cohort is underway 10 out of the 25 schools had been completed um with their audits as of the beginning of this month um and we of course fall into that uh cohort cohort as well um let's see and there is one um there's a ton of new legislation that was reviewed about security drills with students with disabilities um and the participations of these of students there's supposed to be staff training offered by the New Jersey Department of Education by school Spa Safety Specialists um and that Specialists can help train others to help make sure that all of our students are included in all of these security drills and everybody is fully aware of how to accommodate every student including all students with disabilities to ensure that they are participating and aware of what is happening so very exciting to see that legislation coming through um one of the things that we've talked about both Mr Pasar and I from the county level is that there has been a staffing shortage when it comes to our teachers and they are trying to pass new legislation to certify a pathway for par professionals to address this short uh Staffing shortage the Department of Education has to create a pathway to instructional certifications for power Professionals in public schools and some of this legislation is going to help try and um create that pathway so that we don't have this ongoing shortage that we do there is another bill that is um aimed to eliminate an April budget vote so that school districts with an April election which we don't fall into but no longer need voter approval as long as the budget is within the 2% um cap so I'm going to be tracking that legislation as it continues to make its way up um and that's all from bur County thank you Mrs Mara Mrs ricardi good evening everybody I won't go as into depth as everybody as so many things have already been touched on um but congratulations to Dr nof for your well-deserved recognition on your 30-year tenure ship if we say it one more time we're going to have to start adding on more years I'm just kidding don't worry you'll earn them fair and square uh but congratulations I'm very excited to be working alongside you going into your 31st year um I would also like to thank the administrative staff for the presentation that that you just presented to us uh it it's fantastic to see what's going on in the school uh how many events that you truly have had within the first you know several months of the school year um to Mrs Mar's point it makes me a little jealous that I did not have half of the the opportunities that the the students here have but also so very excited excited for what it is that they they are what they have at their fingertips um to really explore their passions um and and they're able to expand their friendship circles and it's fantastic so thank you for that I to uh attended a governance one training uh separately than will though I opted for the ACT your own pace throughout the month of February um and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to have been able to rewind and fast forward uh but it it was a very in-depth uh course I can appreciate why they want you to do that within your first 90 days of being on the school board um it was very informative and I'm grateful to have had the opportunity of going through those courses uh today I had the pleasure of sitting in my first academic meeting thank you Mrs oerman for really giving a nice indepth level of of uh of everything that is going on everything that you just heard Mrs Mara talk about we discussed at length and uh and I know that this is only skimming the surface of it all so I'm very much looking forward to uh to getting more elbows deep into everything and I appreciate all the support that's been provided thus far I have too attended the uh the County Board of Ed meeting um which was very informative and I'm grateful to have to also have that opportunity of being able to uh attend it virtually um as I don't know if I'm going to be able to attend the next one in person but what I was able to attend in person was this past weekend was the robo Wrangle robotics competition which was absolutely fantastic to see what it is that our students here can do it's absolutely mind-blowing and we walked away from some of the competitions with my son saying is that how they build the robots that go on Mars and the answer is yes this is where it all stems from so once again it is a testament to everything that the students are learning here in Emerson um and how it can be applied for them moving forward into the future so that concludes my report thank you thank you Mrs ricardi and Mr Smith I'll try to be even briefer because I think this is the longest meeting I've been to in the three years here but uh I do I do want to thank uh and congratulate Phil um you know I I've worked with Phil for the last year and a half here but I've known him for just about 16 years better half uh outside of school coaching uh you know socially with our daughters growing up together so uh I do know this man um lives and breathes for Emerson and Amon schools and the children so uh even going as far as coaching when I was like man you you're with the kids all day and now you're going to come up come out and assist and Coach with me so um so I I you know very happy Phil is where he is uh for for myself and for the community uh definitely the right person we want there so uh I want to thank the administrative team um you know some great programs um I I I did personally enjoy two of them won the um the ride share I think that's super important I think that's something that it's getting younger and younger with children I I know Mr Pon joked about seventh and eighth roters but unfortunately sometimes there just is children maybe not in Emerson but in other communities that they have to do that so I I think that's that's tremendously important um I got to kick out of the commuter one because I did it for 13 plus years one of the reasons I moved to Emerson was because we have a tray line when I was in working in the city um and it is different um different uh can be very fun can be uh horrendous at times but um it's a lot nicer I went through it when the World Trade Center was being rebuilt so uh they they they got a nicer look at it but um I think that program is great uh I think that's thinking out of the box I saw enthusi how enthusiastic all three of you were talking about all the programs so so thank you not only for putting together but showing how much pride and and care you have for it so um so I'm just going to end there since everybody's probably exhausted we'll go from there great thank you Mr Smith uh board president's report so I'm going to combine the board president's report by buron county exective report and the New Jersey school board report into one in uh speed round style so uh training uh thank you to Mr gik and Mrs ricardi for completing their training I know that sometimes that's with all the things that's going on it's hard so I appreciate you doing that and I think you appreciate the value of the training so thank you for your time with that admin team Mr Hutchinson Mrs Murphy Mr ponack if that doesn't give you confidence and comfort in the programs that this high school offers I I don't know what will uh it was great the breadth and depth of what we offer and uh I really appreciate the work that you do not just the presentation but what goes behind it so thank you and please pass it on to Mr ponek as well um Mrs ricardi mentioned the what did you call it Robo Wrangle I I hadn't heard that but said on the I know that uh Mrs ricardi attended as did Mr grck I attended as well I I had no idea what the rules were what they were doing how they competed but it was very impressive this place was buzzing there were 20 teams from across Bergen County in this First Tech Challenge tournament and uh again it you could see the how it would Inspire thought and creativity in in some of the younger kids especially who were attending it so it was just it was it was something new for me I appreciated it and I encourage everyone to try it um girls basketball congrat ulations to the girls basketball team for winning their first round of the state sectionals they uh their quarter final round is tomorrow night or tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 in Mountain Lakes um so congratulations to coach milon and the team and good luck tomorrow um I'm thankful to Mrs marrow for covering the buron county stuff so I don't have to do it um High School play 1776 uh I encourage everyone to get out there and see it and uh in terms of uh Bergen County School Board happenings with executive board members we have an event this week coming uh in two weeks coming up where we will be honoring some uh some recipients and I will provide a little bit more uh information on that after the uh the event uh and then New Jersey school boards I did attend an in-person meeting in Trenton on a Saturday that started at 9:00 a.m. um I'd like to thank my wife for working me through the trauma of getting ready to go to that but I will tell you the training was amazing I'm happy I went um there was a training on Communications and collaboration and some best practices that I got to uh to pick up on and working with some of the other uh state school board members so um that's it for my report uh we'll move on to uh student representative report Miss thank you I know the administration shared a lot of information about what's been going on in the school and from a student perspective I can genuinely say the amount of opportunities and ways to get involved here is superior so with that I'm just going to keep it short I wanted to say that the Key Club has started collecting spring clothing for their upcoming midnight run I also wanted to wish a good luck to the play 1776 that opens this Friday and I hope everybody gets the chance to go out and see it and finally the cavoc cancer Crushers hosted the kickoff event for the upcoming Relay for Life of pasag Valley which will be held at the Emerson high school May 4th the team is also in the middle of donating teddy bears and L uh LP blankets for those battling cancer and we just wanted to thank the Emerson Community for the donations and support that's all good job great thank you uh superintendent's report okay I'll uh I'll so try to go as quick as I can um again thank you uh Mr Hutchinson and and Kelly and Brian for uh a great great presentation they talked about how proud they are of the program and the work that they're doing and you know just know that we are all really proud of that of the job that you're doing and the work that's going on in the high school we can see it uh more importantly and I think Emma will back me up I think the kids recognize it they see the hard work not just of the administration but all the teachers and how much time and effort they put uh into making experience for the kids a positive one um I'm not going to talk anym about qack but we did really really well and I got to give a big thank you to the to the entire uh staff Alice our administrators John uh giovana worked so hard we went through just about all the uh components with the except exception of Finance which John will have to go through in uh in April but by all measures we think we did we did fairly well a comment about the after the fire just one comment about that after the fire presentation you know we talking about 30 years in 30 years I've seen a lot of uh Assemblies of students and and programs and I I I I sat down in the back of that room uh what I thought was going to be a fire safety presentation for uh 1617 and 18 year olds and I'm thinking to myself oh boy I hope this goes really really well uh it was probably the best assembly presentation I've ever seen for in a in in a high school uh and yet that you could hear a pin drop in the auditorium uh there were tears coming out of many children you saw many many kids wiping WIP wiping the the tears in their eyes um it was so impactful so well done uh a a great presentation and you agree 1,00% um I'd like to just take a moment without mentioning any any names we did have unfortunately uh a week or so ago a medical emergency that happened in the school after school at 3:00 um so at a time where perhaps not uh a little after 3:00 3:30 perhaps were not all the children or all the staff was around it was in the hallway in the back hallway and I just have to commend the students first and foremost who who responded faculty Administration uh and addressing it I won't get into the details of it other than just to say how proud I am of um uh of our students and our faculty and our and our administrative team for how they uh handled that situation the child is fine uh um but it was uh it really it was a team effort and uh very very proud of them um okay uh yes we talked about some of the parent nights again this was a one of the goals uh in the board strategic plan is to provide parent training events and we're really trying to focus on that trying to find every opportunity we had a very successful uh family math night last month this month uh uh March 5th right before the PTA meeting is a family literacy night led by uh Patty Riley we're looking forward to that we held our uh prek and kindergarten registration we have uh some of our prek and kindergarten teachers here uh I'm I'm happy to report that our registrations are right on target uh we will be in business next year we're going to continue to fill our classrooms uh the the registrations are right about where we were last year um and and right around where we expected um uh some things happen we talked a lot about the high school but some things happening at the elementary schools as well as we know we had read Across America day coming up uh clubs and activities at both Memorial now is it with something new uh and clubs at volano school are now uh all active volano is gearing up for their volano play coming up soon um Emma great job on uh on your report I uh I I'm watching her checking off all the things as everyone all the things that she that she had prepared and she's checking them all off um so that but thank you for that um 1776 we've talked about it you know our theater theater program here in Emerson it is a source of Pride it really is um you know when we say come on out don't just come on out to support it come on out because it's going to be a great show I know it I I I know it's going to be a fantastic show so coming out for that we talked about the robotics competition um what I was so excited about was how many of there was so many Memorial kids running around and and watch watching what was happening and and I am hoping that that uh that that event inspires uh inspires the children to get into uh Robotics and and and computer science and Fields of that sort and it's I thank the board members um uh for for uh for taking the time to come out and and to see that because you know uh investing in uh stem programs it takes a lot it it was it's was great for you to see uh the fruits of that to see it in action um so that when we come to you for expansion for some of those programs especially down to our younger levels you you'll you'll you will uh support that um I lastly I'll I'll leave with just a great big thank you to to everyone again once again um for uh for surprising me with this little recognition for the kind words uh that were said and uh for the support that that uh everyone has given me over the years so uh with that on my report great thank you Dr nof and uh uh Mr mura business administrator thank you um so it's an exciting time right now for the business office a lot going on uh it's the night before the bud uh budget address that the governor is going to give tomorrow um which which is exciting because we'll know what our state aid figures are by Thursday um by this time we'll start to get a finance committee meeting on the books um and start to tweak the budget a little bit more uh we're also looking at different summer projects right now and planning out uh where we're going to go with that um just to highlight a couple of the resolutions that are on tonight's agenda too there was uh resolution number 24 which was from the New Jersey school Development Authority and it was was uh intended for emerging capital projects so it was State funding that we're happy to receive it was well used towards uh HVAC projects and resolution number 26 which I'm excited about it's a grant opportunity so we are going to be submitting a competitive Grant to hopefully help offset some of our costs associated with the uh tennis court renovation project that we're looking to do um as was mentioned before qac is almost finished we have one more component left and that's the fiscal component um hopefully we'll get that done between April and May so it's still going to be a little bit and and of course um I'd be remiss if I did not mention Dr niss off um just congratulations on a a wonderful achievement you know not only the Emerson Community uh that has benefited but the professional community of school business administrators too I know firsthand um you've just been an inspiration to me and and a model a role model and a model career for young school business administrators to uh to follow so thank you and congratulations to you great achievement and that concludes my report great thank you so with that um I'd like to uh Mrs ricardi would you mind a motion to open a meeting to the public I make a motion to open the meeting to the public for input and comments I second seconded by Mr Smith all in favor [Applause] I okay if no comments can I oh yes I'm sorry are you good um I just wanted to come forward and have a quick discussion about excuse me do we need to have uh name and address um just come over here and just state your name and address she's my neighbor so I'm laughing neighbors two of you Jasio 30 Patrick Avenue um just wanted to bring forward um and I noted some things for the Aspire program were on the table for tonight or at least somewhere in the agenda so um I just wanted to bring to light the fact that um I've had a 14-year-old go through volano school and I now have a fourth grader in volano school and the concept of aspire has changed drastic um I understand that this is definitely related to some of the federal funding that came through the schools um just wanted to bring to light that it's it's leaving a pretty big gap in where it used to be for the sense that children that do not meet the needs of the current Aspire program there's nothing else out for kids who might need a little extra help um and I say this in hopes that we can potentially get some funding and get some of the what we used to have in the past of Alano School school for children so if you have a child that maybe needs a little extra help in math or writing but they don't meet the needs of needing an IEP or additional education there frankly isn't really anything for them and in the past there used to be a program similar to what is currently Memorial as called basic skills um and that just doesn't exist in Bano um I think that everything changed during Co and with that grants came because of kids that were lacking um because they just basically were behind in reading but now there is nothing for the gap of children behind in math or behind in writing to just give them the little extra help they need to catch up or maintain grade level so I hope that you just think about what we could potentially do and see what type of support we can give Bano for kids that need a little bit extra great thank you thank you okay no other comments uh Mr Smith would you make Mo to close it me sure I move to to close the meeting of the public and adjourn at 8:14 p.m. to discuss an exe executive oh got to close the I moved to close the meeting for public input and comments a second seconded by Mrs ricardi all in favor I trying to get and um Mrs ricardi would you mind closing us out sure I move to close the meeting so hold on yep okay I move to close the meeting to the public and adjourn at 911 p.m. to discuss an executive session legal matters and Personnel in the conference room of the Board of Education Office es no action will be taken at this time the board will return to open session upon a completion of discussion and may or may not take action at that time the next meeting of the board of education is scheduled for March 18th 2024 at 7:30 p.m. in the high school media center all in favor I second oh I'm sorry that's okay seconded by Mrs Mara all in favor I great thank you everyone thanks for coming out have a good night it's a long meeting I tried to save his 30 seconds