notice of tonight's meeting has been po posted publicly and on the Bergen Record U members of the public may also watch our board meeting Live on YouTube however public comment will be limited to those that attend in person and to comment submitted to the board president or superintendent 12 hours prior to the meeting start time which will be read or summarized within time allowances you go to the pledge roll call please Miss Troy here Dr Misa here miss Molina here Mr par here Mr zepa here Mr SEO Miss Thompson Miss Wilds vice president Melman um and president Lee is absent tonight uh he informed the board and administration that he was unable to attend because of a personal reason also in attendance is our superintendent of schools Dr gadens as well as our assistant superintendent of schools Dr caramanos as well as our board attorney Mr leera and we have presid our three student reps Hannah Choy Emily gelbard and Renee km we're moving to public comments um reminder that public comments are limited to two minutes any members of the public wishing to speak please step forward and state your name and address seeing none um we will move to the Public Presentation portion of the meeting um first our recognition of First Team all County athletes um Mr receiving Parada so so Mr PR our athletic director is here with several of our athletes uh color athletes are on the way they're they're slightly delayed um so what we're going to do is well I don't want to sub uh not subject you I don't want to subject you to the public hearing on the budget to our students who are here um what I would like to do is or to the uh goal update I will ask Mr Prada to come to the podium and recognize the students that we currently have and hopefully our other students will catch up and be here towards the end of that um before Mr prda um speaks this evening I do want to point out that he was named this past week the Liberty division athletic director of the Year congratulations Mr Prada wonderful news quite an honor we take great pride in our athletic department and all that we do here all of our athletes over our programs very very very successful season I encourage him to talk a bit about that I think even more things happened yesterday about the track team that were of good news um very nice and we'll get to that it's Mr Prada the floor is yours thank you for being here thank you it's very very kind of you and thank you for the kind words um before I start I would like to thank first thank Dr Gaton Dr caranas the board of education for providing this platform so Leonia high school student athletes and coaches can be acknowledged for their hard work and accomplishments uh before I introduce our first team All County athletes from the winter season I would like to share with you a few championship highlights from the winter uh the girls swim team finished undefeated in conference play their overall record was nine- two the team won its 10th consecutive league title yes I said 10 finished third in the county tournament and lost a heartbreaker to Morris noes in the state sectional finals by two points yes two points it was it was a rough loss the girls basketball team team finished a record of 20 and S they won their first league title since 1995 in addition the girls basketball team won the Hawthorne Holiday Tournament reached the second round of the state sectional tournament and won a home state game for the first time in 20 years the wrestling team finished with a record of 11- six they qualified for the state sectional tournament and won its first group a Bergen County Title in school history now one more update I would like to share with you hot off the presses yesterday our track and field teams complete uh competed in the njic championship meet at Emerson High School both teams the boys and the girls dominated and were named League champions this is the first League championship for the girls track and field team since 1991 and the boys track and field team last won a league championship in 202 so now I'd like to get to our guests of of honor and I'll focus on who's here so when I call your name please stand up I will start with Rebecca Jung one of our swimmers who received First Team all County as an allaround uh this is Rebecca's second consecutive year as a first team allc count all-around recipient Rebecca started off the season Strong by earning athlete of the week honors in December from there she continued her Stellar swims going undefeated in every dual meet through the state tournament Rebecca finished another incredible season swimming personal bests in the 100 backstroke and the 200 IM becoming a state medalist in both events Rebecca [Applause] JN we have half of our Relay Team here so I will ask Rebecca to stand again and Sophie to join her so the 200 free Relay Team the Girls Relay Team of Isabelle U Rebecca young Sophie deia and Iris Kim dominated this event all season long going undef undefeated in the state championship meet where they finished an impressive 12th overall at the county meet the team came from behind with an incredible anchor leg by Iris Kim this propelled the team to win its first County relay in four years with this incredible performance and many others at the meet the team finished an impressive third place overall in the County Senior Isabelle Yu who is not here right now will attend Lafayette College in fall where she will continue her swim career that is Isabelle Yu Rebecca Jung Sophie deia and Iris Kim 200 free relay [Applause] team I know someone's Iris Kim couldn't be here tonight she's actually at PT so Iris received First Team all County for the 200 free and the 500 free was also a member of that relay team in her first season competing at the high school level Iris set a new standard for distance swimming in Bergen County she shattered the meet records in both the 200 and 500 freestyle Iris went undefeated in the regular season helping the team capture a 10th consecutive Conference Championship and she earned athlete of the week honors at the individual state championship Iris took third in the 200 and second in the 500 that's in the entire State these are the highest finishes by any student athlete in the program history and she's only a more that's Iris [Applause] Kim all right I'll go on to Vincent Kim he received First Team all County for all around Vincent had another incredible season to cap off an outstanding High School career Vincent finished second in both the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle at the county meet he also holds a School record in both of these events and is also part of the for 400 freestyle record team in Vincent's three years swimming for the Lions he dominated the distance events and helped the team to a best fourth place finish at the Bergen meet of Champions that's Vincent Kim I'll hold off on our final swimmer and our two wrestlers I know the wrestlers were at practice and they're wrapping up and hopefully they'll be here soon okay I am going to now turn my attention to indoor track so Leonia doesn't offer indoor track as a program uh but the state allows schools to enter individuals in meets even if you don't have a full program so the decision was made to let our next honory run during the winter and I believe that everybody in this room will agree that it was the right decision when I share his accomplishments from this season Jaden please stand up Jaden marchan where I have 400 meter down but there were multiple events but that's where he was first team All County Senior Jaden marchon had one of the greatest seasons in the history of New Jersey indoor track he earned athlete of the week Hors was the ngic champion Bergen County Champion State sectional Champion State group champion and was the outright state champion in the 400 meter dash this was the first time in school history that a Leonia student athlete was crowned state champion for track and field Jaden holds the state record for the 600 meter and recorded the second fastest time in the nation for the 600 Jaden currently holds the Bergen County record in the 400 meter and the 200 meter dash Jaden finished third at the New Balance Indoor national meet in the 400 meter earning him the title of All American Jaden will be attending Georgetown University in the fall we will will continue to impress on the track that's Jaden marchon so we have two wrestlers to talk about and one more swimmer do you want to hold off a little bit okay I understand so let's talk about Matthew changen back to swimming 100 backstroke Matthew finished a remarkable High School career capturing the first individual County championship in program history Matthew will leave Leonia high school as the most decorated male swimmer of all time holding school records in the 200 IM 100 freestyle 100 butterfly 100 backstroke and 400 free relay he will be continuing his swimming career at Hamilton College in the fall and that's Matthew chain [Applause] moving on to wrestling I'll talk about the hibler brothers they transferred here this year this was their first year at Leonia and they did not fail to impress I'll talk about C Cher first the younger brother C at the 126 pound weight class C is a sophomore who went 43 and4 this season captured A Garfield tournament Championship Cliffside Park tournament championship in a Bergen County tournament third place finish during the postseason sich was a district Champion finished third in the region and finished second overall at the njsa tournament at the 126 pound weight class that's second in the state in that weight class C's career record is currently 53 and four that's c i Si's older brother August hi who wrestled in the 44lb weight class August is a senior he went 2 24 and3 this season and finished second in the Bergen County tournament and earned athlete of the weak honors during the postseason August was a district Champion a region champion and he finished third overall at the NJ saaa tournament at the 144 pound weight class August finishes his high school career with a record of 65 and 10 and he'll be wrestling at Northwestern University in the fall August that is our winter uh first team W County athletes I do want to thank everybody again for giving us this platform so we could acknowledge our student athletes and our coaches that are here in attendance tonight um and thank you once again for saying the kind words but me receiving an award like that is only because of the support I get from the district and the fact that I have the most amazing coaches and student athletes that anybody could ask for so when I receive an award like that it's really their award and I want to thank you pictures our very last action will pick if the students if the if the athletes and the coaches want to stand in front of Leonia sign there we'll take some photos we'll get you out it's okay Sophia big smiles for the photos we will get you out the door in one piece to go home and do your homework and go straight to bed all right so let's go take that photo I don't know why the board thinks they shouldn't be in the photo let's go Bo come on in didn't do anything supposed to that know for very impressed it's not a big District second National C of them are Nam once again congratulations to all our student athletes thanks Mr Prada for coming out this evening the second presentation this evening is that Mr Thomas Sage is going to give an update on the 2425 budget in advance of the submission to the county office Eric the floor is all yours for thank you uh Dr gadens um thank you vice president Melman I would just uh good evening board and good evening public uh tonight is Eric I apologize our wrestlers just made it here absolutely really absolutely really again for them absolutely all right so as I pointed out before the wrestling team finished with a record of 11 and six they qualified for the state sectional tournament and won its first group a Bergen County Title in school history and these two boys right behind me were one of the big reasons why as I said they transferred to Leon this past year the hibler brothers so I'll introduce sieg first SI is a sophomore he wrestled in the 126 PB weight class he's a sophomore who went 43 and four this season he captured A Garfield tournament Championship Cliffside Park tournament championship and a Bergen County tournament third place finish during the postseason SI was a district Champion he finished third in the region and finished second overall at the njsa tournament at the 126 pound weight class sieg's current record is currently 53 and four and that was second overall out of every wrestler in the state in that weight class Sher his brother standing next to him August hibler wrestled in the 144 pound weight class August is a senior he went 24 and three this season and finished second in the Bergen County tournament and he earned athlete of the weak honors his picture will hang in the wall forever it'll be up there as you walk through the Halls you'll see it forever during the postseason August was a district Champion a region champion and he finished third overall at the njsa tournament at the 144 pound weight class in Atlantic City August finished high school career with a 65-10 record and he will be wrestling for Northwestern University come fall August hibler once again I want to thank everybody you know this was a great platform boys we're going to take a picture with Coach all right want to get everybody back in let's do it e no I didn't get to make a okay take two Mr Thomas Sage whenever you're ready thank you again Dr gen good evening board good evening public uh for those watching on the YouTube channel tonight is the public hearing on our final budget for 2425 so this was the mission statement that I read um when I presented the tenative budget this is uh the statement that we kind of adhere to when we're you know putting together the budget as far as internally with central office administration as well as building principals directors and uh other Administration with within the district quick overview for those uh who wen't in attendance relating to the tenative budget this is a quick snapshot of the District overview pretty much one Elementary School one Middle School one high school an administrative building an Annex Building we have roughly uh over 3 75 full-time and part-time employees which was as of 10523 asssa certification and as Mr parda you know announced you could kind of see that we you know we have a lot of teams a lot of sports a lot of coaches a lot of you know over 700 student athletes in District participating in various Sports as well as this 50 over 50 co-curricular clubs and activities uh I'll touch base a little bit on this pretty much the budget uh encompasses three funds the general fund special revenue and Debt Service so before I get into the heavily you know budgeted items which I'm going to kind of Breeze through as you see here from the the tenative budget there is no revisions made based on the tenative budget for 2425 part of that is uh part of the the budget process when I submit it to the county the county has to check off all the required items which they did so they didn't require any changes to be everything was in compliance with state state guidelines in addition to that uh the other reason why there's no revision is based on our our projected numbers and our data when we did the 10 budget there has been no significant changes that we needed to adjust any lines uh for so so it's going to be based on the pentative budget pretty much that we're going to present to the the county uh to so just a quick uh budget area Focus which I'll just touch on the district wide overall the total budget is decreasing roughly about 1.6 million that's about 3.51% in total uh majority of that as you see is uh relating to the Deb service fund which is about 1.3 million that's because one of the bonds matured this year as well as uh special Revenue fund which is 1.1 million that relates to Grants that uh we have been awarded yet and we could appropriate so a lot of that is due to co money coming off that we can't you know reappropriate going forward uh in addition our enrollment changes from uh 2324 to 2425 uh we're looking at a slight projected increase of about 11 students and that's based on the state aid formula that the state provides relating to our asssa data and and historical uh years look back and these are some of the highlighted areas uh that I spoke about during the tenative budget so there is no changes there uh this is also the state a snapshot as you see state state aid has been pretty much flat from 16 to 21 then once that Reform Act took into effect we had increases um in addition to covid money that they added to the state aid uh with all districts and now that's a slight decrease based on enrollment uh projected enrollment overall decreasing from what they projected last year as well as our local uh share increasing and then this is a snapshot of the student enrollment for Leona residents only which is kind of somewhat in line with the state aid increas in as far as the years and then this is also a comparison of Leonia as well as Edgewater uh residents coming into the Leon uh School District so you'll see you know it's pretty much consistent uh Leon and edgear there is some slight increases with a little decrease for Leonia um as well as compared to Edward so this is the overall summary of the funds roughly general fund is about 43 million just shy of 43 million special revenues just shy of about 720,000 and Deb Services about 1.2 million which all said and done we're looking at $45 million total budget these are the varish revenue buckets and this is the the quick overview of the revenues so just as you see in general fund it's increased at about 1.88% 791 th000 and what I did was I backed off the prior year incumbrances which the state requires to show on the state uh budget workbook but just to give it a more comparative uh number I took those that that off the PRI year incumbrance PRI year incumbrances which is basically open purchase orders that we um haven't liquidated yet that rolled into the Shia budget from last year as you see here majority of our Revenue comes from taxes as well as tuition uh because we have a sending receiver in relationship with Edgewater as well as state aid so those are the three three large contributive um areas of the budget uh special revenues these are the main grants that are in the the special Revenue budget and these are recurring grants to um add to the instruction resources for our staff as well as our students same thing special Revenue this is the large decrease because of the co grants that you see came off debt service is a large decrease um as you as I explained earlier because of one of the bonds maturing these are the areas of the Appropriations that we break out on the budget software um general fund same thing it it matches its balance so it increased 1.88% salaries and benefits make up the large budget which is about 80% and then this is the appropriation side of special Revenue The Debt Service appropriation side and now we get into the larger part of the budget is the capital equipment and projects that go into the budget so as you see here there's a lot of things going on um which you could see on the agenda there's a lot of contracts that we're looking to award as well as a lot of architect proposals to move certain projects along but this is just a snapshot to kind of give you an idea of what's going on in District as far as capital items so a lot of these projects were either started in 23 24 and they're going to progress over the summer and the goal is to have a lot of these completed before the start of the 24 25 school year um and as you see in the budgeted in 2425 there's very limited if if not hardly any new capital projects because we're you know we're trying to close down all these older capital projects and we're going to um inline the capital uh project plan with the Strategic plan of addition this is a snapshot of our long-term debt as you see here we have one Bond still that hasn't matured which is as you see here year in uh from 2425 to 2030 31 when it matures it's a pretty steady Debt Service payment that we would have to make um and I would just like to add I know vice president Melman you had a question with one of the bonds uh maturing so both the both the bonds that we had currently this year they were refunding bonds I know you had asked the question last meeing uh the one bond that matured was a refunding bond of a initial bond series which was 2001 in 2003 so that was probably an old referendum at that time and then this bond is also a refunding bond which is uh the the initial series is 2010 so that and like I said usually refundings usually it's 8 to 10 years from the initial issuance uh districts have the ability to refund it for a lower interest rate to save the interest portion of the of the debt this is a snapshot of other Capital financing agreements that and leases payable these have a shorter term uh usually it's five years some of it could go out 10 years which you see the turf field is going out a little bit further which uh we look at that when we kind of you know forecast future budgets because some of these items um if not a lot are in the operations of the district with some portion being in fun 12 which is cap item and then the last part taxes overview which as I indicated there is no change so the overall taxes will decrease uh this is a snapshot for the school year 2425 so roughly taxes will be decreasing $148 per average assessed home which is about 440,000 in Leonia and then what I also like to present on a calendar year because the burrow is on calendar year so sometimes when the taxpayer gets that uh you know the tax assessment card it's on the 24th calendar year so as you see here that would be the estimated tax rate 1.9 382 per. which is also a decrease of $84 it's not as large because a lot of the the debt uh that we need to raise to pay the bond which is due in August is raised the first half of the school year so a lot of that is is added to the first part which is the end of 24 calendar year but there is also a decrease of $84 on the average home and as far as the budget schedule we're at the public hearing portion so we're at April 30 7:30 so the budget will be uh voted on by the board if it passes I send all the information down to the county uh the county basically acknowledges uh they have everything they have the board resolution it was approved because there is no change it's it's there's nothing in addition that the that the county would have to do they kind of sign off on it and then the last piece which is also on this agenda is the tax certification the a4f which that basically once the board approves it I send it to the tax assessor and collector at the burrow that you sign off it goes to the county uh tax office um in addition to the payment schedule which once that's presented to the board the board votes on it and then that'll get sent to to the borrow for you know making those payments and Nia still gives her approval because we didn't make revision so she doesn't change her vote and I'll open it up to questions and answers any questions or comments from the board sorry um I have a comment uh the fact that there uh was like no comments from the state and no revision was required um I don't take that lightly like that in that is indication to me that this district is uh well under control operated uh under a very tight management and also our ba is on top of it it means a lot and I really appreciate it thank you everybody thank you m Troy and just to add to that when I do submit it to the county the county requires and I'll give you an example so if I put in an an item for tuition a certain dollar amount they want to know what districts if it's other leas if it's uh parent paid they want to kind of know um an analysis of how you came up with that number same thing with salaries they want a detail list of all the employees in the district and how we came up with those salary amounts uh so there is like their there this it's almost like a checklist that they have to go off of and sign off that everything is in compliant there's a uh the system generates an initial report that that we're in compliance with our administrative costs are consistent with County average we don't exceed any any um in any areas that we shouldn't exceed so I appreciate that Mr try any more questions or comments from the board thank you Mr tomasovich we really appreciate everything you do thank you thank you thank you thank you at this point Miss Melman and I are going to come to the podium we're going to make a presentation on the district and Board of Education goals update just switch those slides won come up there so before we uh before we get into the the Board of Education goals and update I just want to uh take a moment um the very soon in about seven weeks I'll be at the one- year anniversary of my time having joined Leonia and I I just want to point out to the board and to those who are watching at home and to the students that are present members of the public that I'm absolutely delighted to be here among you I I think that this is been a wonderful year for me personally I love what I've I've experienced I love what I've seen to he Mr pad give his presentation the work we're seeing at the three schools has been absolutely delightful so I just want to begin by saying that out loud and express my gratitude for all we have there and on the Gratitude theme as for being grateful to the board for being so supportive along the way I do want to call out specifically uh Eric and zanti I couldn't ask for for two better colleagues to work with at the Board of Education offices uh care deeply for the district care deeply for the children are engaged and enthusiastic and they're wonderful colleagues and so I just want to begin by saying that out loud but thank you for that getting to the presentation itself uh I'm excited to offer what we have here so so March of last year March of 2023 um the the board and the school district adopted three School District goals really basically bowled down to the idea of number one of finding gaps that we're seeing across the schools in academic performance and social emotional learning uh the second part was to create a defined communication plan for how to share information with the public and the third was around um the operational educational expend expenditures versus the revenue sources that exist so I will I will speak to the first two Mr Thomas evage will speak to the third and then for the Board of Education goals Miss melin will speak to those um so I want to point out that for goal one in in terms of identifying the gaps the question was well if you want to identify gaps well what are you looking for and in the work this year what we've done at the board level at the board office level um we a lot of on quantitative data that we could look at that things that we could measure things that we could uh you know atti a number to and also qualitative data what are we seeing over the course of our time here we didn't want to rely on a single data source we want to rely on anecdotes we want to rely on suppositions the data that we had and so you see on the left column there that we have teacher observations and student report cards State performance reports in our data our educ climate data system which has been fantastic this year uh the work of our intervention Referral Services team um the njsi which is the school culture survey which is going on right now you should have all received that survey and that link to do that uh we are live across the staff received those links yesterday all the links were working went out to the community last night um over over 3,000 people got those emails and they're beginning to autop populate using the password giving feedback so that's NJ SCI and then the Sabal screen are coming for 24 25 so on the left there you're seeing a variety of ways in which we met measure uh the district and what we see on the right you see qualitative um we put teacher observations in both categories because while there's a number we attached to teacher observations on the left on the right there is anecdotal data that we observe that we see um we also qualita uh data is that we in the buildings a lot um I call them touches where that is basically at least 10 times per week we intersect with the school it could be each morning greeting the children at the high school it could be coming to a teachers classroom here going to a campfire it could be going to a lunch period at the middle school it be sitting in a teacher's class informally things like that so we have uh each morning at the high school I mentioned up there followed by various visits also um at at last count I do track this is that um in the beginning of April um we had attended about 80 plus school events and activities 80 different events uh projected we will go over about 115 to 120 by the end of the school year uh that will be award assemblies senior nights it'll be weekends it'll be swim meets on the weekends it'll be coming back on a Friday night for a school play it'll be at the ACs Gala on Saturday night things like that and so what I want to say to the public and to the board is is that in looking at goal number one we didn't want to rely upon a limited data set or a single way of collecting that data we wanted to see the whole the whole big picture of what we have in front of us um and these are our takeaways on our left we identified our successes well first things first uh all of Leonia all of Ed order to be very proud of their children very proud of their children 2,000 children a day pass through our doors 2,000 kids a lot of people small City 2,000 people every day and overwhelmingly overwhelmingly they all meet and exceed our expectations we see it all the time whether it be athletes being honored whether it be students in the school play activities here at ACS at LMS we see hardworking faculty and staff overwhelmingly the level of dedication that we're seeing from our teachers and our support staff members is very strong School admin administrators I guarantee you right now that if we sent a text message out to the group chat to the administrators they would all reply within two minutes on on a week night from their homes um we've actually had to tell them to slow down a little bit like on the weekends on the emails be with your families like our school administrators so dedicated so involved um and our parents our parent Community our families um very very um they're very good in terms of boundaries they let the teachers teach and they work very closely with our our our principles and our staff members definitely strong parents and families and then also we're seeing student improvement over time if you look at any of the reports that we generate from the state or internally our children grow in proficiency as when they're with us those numbers Trend upward over years and then obviously in the district we have a growth oriented mindset that we want to grow as a district I think in Mr Thomas Sage presentation you saw that very ambitious Capital project that we have that is an actual physical way we're trying to grow that's physical but even metaphorically um we're trying to get better at what we want to do here so on the left there's no doubt that the district is is pivoted towards growth pivoted towards working with the great Community um and there's a lot of energy on that side of the column on the right side well obviously you know it's not always all good news you have to identify gaps what's the Delta right where are the holes where are the things we want to close um on the right hand side our data has identified a series of subgroups that need additional help through academic support programs the groups that are struggling Leonia groups that traditionally struggle in many school districts uh multilingual Learners students who arrive to the country with a with less of a commit of the English language students who require special education services while we have some incredible strong growth there I do want to point out in their state test scores students who qualifies econ economically disadvantage and also our Hispanic subgroup our students who struggle um so we are working to close those subgroup gaps and I'll talk a bit about that in the next slide we've also noted one thing I picked up on very early was and this was coming in the door I was told us we really need to develop a districtwide gifted inal we really need to have that that's one that's obvious and very clear and need to be taken care of it needs to be threaded through at a K12 component who receives those Services what we could do for them that's a gap that we've identified that we're working to close and then also we want to the data collection for our social emotional learning um we work very hard to know our students well we do want to quantify that data through a variety of programs that we're bringing in on our left we are successes on our right we see the gaps that do exist so how are we going to close those gaps and I I don't want to list every single item that we're seeing here I'll just give some of the highlights there uh first things first the multi- systems of support that basically means is that we work very hard to identify children who were in need and then we match that need with the type of support that they get academic social emotional uh family support whatever it might be um and this you know it's the king of act in education right this is called RTI response to intervention a lot of names for this basically what we are doing there for that for that is that we're no longer guessing we're not saying that oh this child's having a hard time maybe it's this instead we're having teams in each of the schools that recognize a student need as identified from the data that we're seeing through edge of climber what our teachers are seeing and then we are matching the need to those students so right away we're trying to have that really granular direct the student help that they need um a lot of professional development we see sheltered English instruction we see PD on multicentury reading and database science programs we've brought on Family Support power professionals those are dedicated staff members specifically to work with families that may need additional assistance to succeed in school all three schools do have those positions F on where we have staff members working with families for the purpose of working directly with them where there may be a language barrier we have dedicated Family Programs right now Dr k mod has a math task force that is being that working revising curriculum and working at our Title One ir and our gifted intelligent programs so those are things that we're actually doing right now that we want to do and all things we're doing in the future for our social emotional gaps with have the data collection I've mentioned through Sabers we brought on a Emily lamb our district student mental health and wellness coordinator an excellent addition to the school district she's done a fantastic job for us this year we have students support power professionals and also our staff on for youth Mental Health First a training to identifi the gaps anecdotally qualitatively quantitatively and this is what we're doing to bring that to close those gaps goal two I want to move on to the second goal it was identified by the district last year that having a defined communication plan would be a good idea reach out to the public we identify the four components of the audience who you're speaking to what does quality communication look like what are types of communication example emergency or emergent pressing communication good news logistical when there a night function what supports the community as well as outside Community engagement and then we have six different components on the next SL I'll speak more about them that we use to identify with our community we moved away from the remind platform um I signed up for mind last year when I was appointed superintendent for six months I had remind and I very quickly had a mute remind it was like a fire hose of text and emails um we moved to parent Square which has been um very very very very well received either uh teach uh parents pick if they want to get it right away if they want to get a digest we've made great use of it our teachers use it our principles use it um really a very very strong and successful uh parent and family engagement model I was actually going to uh have an automatic alert like arrive during my presentation to show how we could pre-schedule those alerts very happy with parent Square I like to point out that when I send a parent Square update it goes to 4,000 people 4,000 people it goes to 3,200 members of the community parents it goes to anybody in the community who wants it you could sign up if you're in the community but don't have kids in the school and it goes to our 800 high school students so 4,000 people get that inside the classroom where teachers are still using Google Classroom um a very commonly used um student system there for connecting with our students so we see families in the first bullet we see Google Classroom Instagram Leonia PSD is where we put out the good news we intentionally don't send anything out of urgent impressing matters no snow days no scheduling issues just really really nice good news that we have in the district a lot of our official District accounts have jumped onto Instagram too and we um I I can't use the terms because I I'm too old to know what they are we don't retweet we don't repost whatever we do we like stories there's reals all I know is that like our younger staff members who know than me really like Instagram we use it a lot um Genesis remains our primar student information system we send out our student schedu schedules it's a parent portal it's re seeing grades we still use email and obviously our district websites and web pages are updated one thing we want to do for next year is that we're still chasing our tail a bit when it comes to calendars and events there's a lot of calendars in the district a lot going on um and we need to work on that a bit more but I will tell you overwhelmingly the feedback I get from our parent Community is that they like this they like the way that we do this they don't feel overwhelmed um and especially with the success we see parents Square so that's goal number two goal number three Mr Thomas Sage is going to talk about expenditures um and that was a primary goal last year for the district so Eric the floor is again yours following Mr Thomas ever we're going to go to miss Melman who will offer the Board of Education component of the presentation thank you Dr gainin so the the goal three is really looking at expenditures versus Revenue sources and um my main role in The District as a business administrator and uh the duty to the community is obviously to kind of you know provide the lowest costs manage the the expenditures as well as try to generate Revenue uh in different areas where we could uh so the revenue part as far as maximization uh the first part is tuition Revenue relating to uh this is basically students coming in whether it's parent paid or whether it's uh from an other Lea so we you know especially with our special education area this is where the tuition coming in is really heavily related to those um uh those special ed services so our our our director of special services Miss Russo she does a very good job um especially with her um you know constantly in communication with other leas if there's a program that we have and she uh through communication she you know she kind of um informs these other leas we can accept that student there is a spot we are able to provide the services needed based on their IEP we will try to bring in that student and she has done a very nice job so as far as data just to point out so roughly for our specialed area we have we receive about 81 students um a lot of it comes from our Edgewater send receive relationship which is 76 but we are we were able to add about five other leas so that's basically districts that rather than go to a private school they're able to send their student to Leonia uh for a reduced cost and we're able to generate that revenue on on the flip side as well as add that student to the program while still being able to provide for our current uh special ed students in that program as well as this this additional student um as far as gen ed services relating to tuition we basically it's it's a lot of different buckets um we basically have a prek program which we kind of uh are expanding and we you know we don't really limit it to a certain cap so we are always looking to you know if we could add 50 students 60 students it is really uncapped and we'll add you know a teacher for that that class so currently uh this year we had about 32 parent paid prek students uh for the Gen Ed side so that that was prek from K to 12 gen Ed we were able to bring in about 14 students uh from other another Lea but the but because it's not special ed it's not an IEP it's on the parent to you know want to send their students here and they have to pay so the district that they reside in aren't responsible because they're a gened you know classified as gen education student so those parents because of the quality of our education they're looking to send their student to Leonia and actually pay tuition based on our certified R uh the last piece is transportation in the revenue as you know where we try to maximize it so Mr Woods our transportation coordinator has done a nice job where we were able to bring uh since ion in here we were able to maintain it all our uh transportation is pretty much done inhouse with some limited exceptions if there's an added District uh placement that it just we can't you know either find a driver or it doesn't make sense cost side so we we do all our transportation inhouse which we we which we continue with the relationship with Edgewater we have a transportation agreement which we do all the transportation for uh Edgewater students coming in from 7 to 12 so we'll transport those students um and generate Revenue to offset the expenditure side as well as we transport all our votte students so we don't contract it out so we're able to do it in-house we transport all our votch students uh Leon residents as well as we transport Edgewater residents going to votch as well to kind of minimize expenses on our behalf as well as on the edgew side and and Leon is able to generate you know Transportation revenue for that in addition we're you know he's in constant communication like Miss Russo with other neighboring towns uh and we're always looking to you know add a student to a route that we have a current either uh Leon or edgear student on so it's not like we're adding a completely new route it's a route that we would be going to and transporting let's say two students We'll add another you know student let's say from you know Richfield Park Pal Park uh tck onto that route and it's you know minimal cost for us so this year uh we were able to you know with the transportation is a little bit tough but this year we were still able in addition to Edgewater we were still able to bring on certain routes relating to uh Richfield Park bardette um so there's a we have multiple agreements with Richfield Park for various routes that we were able to generate Revenue to offset some of our expenditure side the other piece as far as the expenditure side so revenues is kind of limited uh really other than tuition bringing in some certain students um as well as Transportation we're kind of limited as far as what we could generate revenue for we do also which is not on here on the revenue we do also offer our facilities and we kind of open it up to anyone in the community or to the outside the community that wants to you utilize one of our three buildings which you'll see you know on all all agendas there's a facility request that I kind of present to the board for approval um So currently we kind of opened it up to um a church that utilizes our our Sunday um for Sundays and we're able to generate there and we could roll it into you know instruction and and to cerning programs and add it to to other expenditure costs uh the expenditure side so one of the key things is you know we we present the budget that that kind of forecast projections and and and rates and where where things are going to increase on so one of the goals is to kind of limit that that cost and one of the ways we do it is we kind of uh try to utilize and this is part of our internal controls purchasing manual and we we communicate that to all staff we try to utilize vendors that are on local cooperatives as well as state contracts uh what that does is we basically uh try to get the best pricing so these basically these local cooperatives do the bidding they go out to bid for all these certain products they award these contracts to the vendors and we're allowed uh as a public school to participate in these co-ops to get reduced pricing to you know save the taxpayer money on the on the expense side so just a a quick what we did for 2324 and and we do it consistently uh we're always looking to add local cooperatives in addition to the state contract so for 23 24 the District approv Seven local Cooperative agreements uh that we're participating in that we could utilize uh the awarded vendors for various Services uh you know for that pricing and we get that pricing the next piece is is shared Insurance funds so the district uh part of purchasing we could basically utilize any insurance carrier um you know through through uh securing certain processes like an RFP one of the other areas where we look to save money and all districts do it we um all districts participate in a joint Insurance Fund which the district currently is consistently um in so one of our insurance funds that we're in for General liabilities uh student accidents uh um General uh automobile is we're part of a a gif which is um under safe so by doing that is our premiums are able to get reduced uh for all districts there's a lot of districts part of that fund and when the premiums come out let's say it's 6% it kind of uh decreases the impact so you know we got hit with hurricane Ida we have substantial claims from speaking to the broker that isn't going to really increase us dramatically and which we haven't seen the increases due to the claims that we had been submitting uh for the hurricane Ida so that's basing limiting our our exposure if we weren't part of a GF if we were part of like kind of like a almost like a private carrier slash self-insured uh the next area is we do participate in the St State Health Benefit program uh by doing this this is kind of pulling all districts uh all public schools into this program to try to give you the best rate uh to limit you know premium increases from one year to the next uh in addition to that which we kind of you know discussed during our finance and planning meeting we always look to ways and monitor those rate increases because uh the past couple of years they have been have they've been substantial so uh currently the the district's uh insurance broker is basically monitoring it and um the plan is depending on where the rates come out in August usually they come out in August September we might be looking to you know possibly go to a private carrier for the same type of health benefit coverage uh same type of plans uh to get a reduced rate so we're constantly monitoring that and you know we had Aid presentation mid year with the finance and planning uh by our insurance broker on that uh in addition as far as other expenditures relating to ases and eate Aces is basically our utilities um it's a it's a program that uh districts part participate in to also it's it's kind of a almost like a Cooperative program where uh they go out uh this acis program goes out and and solicits uh rates for utilities for the um uh electric and gas uh rates to bring in into the district so this Asis program basically they go out they do the bidding and they determine if the rates that they go out to bid for is less than psng our supplier and if it is then we award the contract usually it's one to two years uh with these with these vendors and they're constantly monitoring it and these these bids are constantly changing and we get notified uh through this is provided through our ref and they'll indicate that uh ar your psng bill the the uh provider of where PSG is buying let's say electric has changed based on the the new bid and then we'll see that you know uh being invoiced to The District in addition we participate in our eay program which we which we consistently uh do from year in year out uh which uh Mr Samuel our tech tech uh coordinator has you know is really in charge of this program and what this program does is it it's ways where we could uh save money on our uh communication bill or internet bill so it's kind of like uh rebates refunds that come directly off our bill which we uh book The the net amount in our expense side in addition there's always additional funding which the district uh received for uh it related really to co it was our emergency uh connectivity fund that through the program because of Co it allowed districts to submit expenditures to get reimbursed to provide devices to students and connect students uh really for remote learning relating to the co um co uh times uh which we basically received a he a large amount of money that would we were able to bring in as Revenue uh and I just like to point out as far as overall and this is actually part uh one of the items part of the 2425 budget the district uh the state requires us to submit any type of shared services any uh cooperatives that we participate in to to present it to the public so it's it's part of our userfriendly budget so relating to categories because it breaks it down to the categories transportation we have roughly about four uh shared service slash uh cooperatives and that really is relating to uh uh if we do need to you know let's say we can't do Transportation in-house we also are we participate with Region 5 which is a a cooperative for for transportation as well as South BG and jointure so that's also we participate in for an as needed uh basis uh relating to purchasing we're part of 10 shared services cooperatives um and we do and we do uh participate with a lot of these uh purchasing SLU works with the burrow so some of them are uh relating to the burrow we do have a shared service agreement with our athlet athletic field and that was part of the reason was to kind of reduce the cost of the the district as well as give the burrow the ability to have access to an athletic field so we were you know able to save money with that uh in addition to that uh we do have a shared service agreement with the burrow uh relating to our fuel cost for our vehicles so the uh the burrow basically uh purchases fuel costs through through the uh a cooperative and they buy it in a larger scale uh relating to their vehicle Fleet in addition we're able to fuel at their at their um DPW site and what they do is we basically pay their average the average rate we get invo rather than just Leon your you know trying to uh go out and and get uh either a vendor that we could utilize to purchase fuel so we kind of you know join forces to purchase you know larger amounts to save money uh in addition we have a shared service agreement relating to our mechanic so we kind of uh utilize our our main mechanic he basically provides services he's a district employee that also you know provides services for the burrow uh relating to the DPW Fleet as well as their their police Le um and the last piece as far as Revenue we also have a an agreement with Bergen County Special Services which we renew um part of a you know an amendment every year where they basically utilize classroom space for their special ed program their Evergreen program so we're able to generate revenue on that side by utilizing those classrooms which currently the district is not does not need based on enrollment so we're able to generate revenue on that side for renting it in addition part of the program is if there's any students that we could mainstream and actually teach in Leonia part of our uh jeted uh SL special ed programs uh we're able to bring those students out of the Evergreen into those mainstream Leonia uh classes and we also you know are able to bring in revenue from Bergen County Special Services uh the last piece is we're constantly updating our internal controls so there's constant memos going out to to the community to administrators uh relating to whether it's uh purchasing as far as uh the process as far as local cooperatives what local properties were are part of um in addition to if there's you know um certain vendors that we could utilize uh recently we have increased our thresholds as far as bidding and quotes to kind of limit uh I guess the soft cost if we didn't need to go out to bid that we're able to you know do it internally without you know needing an attack to do the RP and and providing all those additional soft course so we have some flexibility there and that's it I'll turn it over to VI vice president Melman for the Board of Education goals so we had five goals for this school year um the first was to initiate the strategic planning process um and I'll go through all five in more detail um our second was to keep our committee meetings focused and concise um so we that we had more efficient meetings um our third was to continue to use Google Drive to build on our shared history of work um and also ease of document sharing between our board members our fourth goal was to engage the public more at our monthly and bimonthly board meetings and our fifth was to strictly adhere to the annual calendar of activities for the board so our first goal was all about the strategic planning process um we wanted to initiate it um we have been doing that we the superintendent um Dr gon initiated the process of researching various firms that can assist the board with implementing the strategic planning process which will be a huge Focus for us um in the 2425 school year the goal is ongoing because um We've Just Begun um the process um and like I said it's going to occupy most of um the 2425 school year culminating with a Boe approved strategic plan beginning in um July 1st of 2025 our second goal was related to our Board of Ed committees um we had the goal to keep committee meetings focused and prise we have shared agenda documents from our meetings in our shared folder our committee agendas are utilized to streamline discussion and to stay on task um we really focus on um refocusing the discussion when we get off topic um and we implemented a two-hour suggested time limit for our committee meetings um just to honor everyone's time and and to stay focused um the goal has been considered to be achieved um our practices have all been implemented um and we would like to keep them going forward because it's working well for us our third goal is about building historical knowledge um we want to continue to use Google Drive to build the history of work of the Committees and for ease of document sharing um between board members this has been really effective um for us I think especially when we um on board new board members every January um our committees continue to actively save and share files with Google Drive um then we have our Legacy Google Docs and those are transferred to Archive folders um so that we can look back if needed one example is our negotiations committee was able to um use that those group editing capabilities on Google Docs um so you can collaboratively um work um and share revisions um and again this goal is considered to have been achieved um the practices have been implemented um and the goal should definitely remain um the standard moving forward because it's been very successful for us uh goal four was about engaging the public um we wanted to engage the public more at our monthly and bimonthly board meetings um we have multiple feedback opportunities at our meetings once um in the beginning of the meeting and one towards the end of the meeting um we've really been focusing on student staff recognition um you might have noticed that we have um a lot more of these events um at our Boe meetings where we invite students we invite staff and families um we did it tonight we um take photos together we recognize our student um and staff achievements regularly um um and through our csa's efforts um there's been a lot more increase in presentations by and for the public um like I said we've really been trying to um recognize our teachers and our students at our Boe meetings um and then Dr Gaton mentioned this in his part of the presentation the Implement implementation of parents Square um as a single source of information for the entire community um has been really successful and we've received mostly positive really positive feedback about parent Square um and our last goal is about the calendar of activities um we want it to strictly adhere to the annual calendar of activities um there are so many responsibilities um every month and we thought it was important that the entire board be aware of those responsibilities and um we created a Comm committee um called the Boe practices and principles committee we created it in January um of this year IT addresses that annual calendar um so at our meetings we have feedback from the administrators to adhere to the calendar and then the committee really focuses on um adhering to that board calendar um and we try to stay focused and on track for all the various tasks that we do need to complete each month um we have regular meetings between myself the vice president and um Dan Lee the president to discuss our monthly responsibilities in addition to the work of this new committee um and then we've we said that the goal has been achieved but it's also going to be ongoing um because it's a fairly new committee we want to continue to be on track um and share um this with the full board through email and the um Google drive folder for the committee thank you vice president Melman any questions from the public or for the board on any component of the presentation yes sir sure sure so so yes to that the the the issue we run into with that is is that finding districts that that are similar enough to us to have authentic comparison is difficult the state of New Jersey publishes District Factory groupings uh every District in the state is rank from a letter a district of the most social economically uh challenged to J the wealthiest um and what happens is the state did those comparisons over 30 years ago and so to find districts that are like you inside that component is hard now there are districts that we like to compare ourselves against dists that we think are like us but a pure comparison becomes hard so most districts and it's not just a Leonia thing most districts avoid those apples to apples comparisons to a neighboring District because very often it's not a valid assessment predicated upon the the cohort of students that are there things like that it it would be great to do it but there's such a variety in terms that the district kind of avoid that because it's not a fair comparison yeah what we tend to look at because it's a fair point to make right I mean it's very it's good for a car company right like Honda looks at Toyota Toyota looks at you know insert you know the name of the company there what we rely upon are we look at the metrics that the state supplies to us compared to our own data over time and then also we take a look at like and where are students the choices that they make at the end of their 12th grade year and where they end up going to school and how do they do with that like we look at those metrics that we have here um but most districts tradition they really resist those those apples to apples comparisons because it's very often it's a Fool's errand we'd love to do it but we don't know if we get what we want out of it okay thank you I question sure um about gift and talented opportunity Mission um is that something similar to the portfolio uh program we have in the middle school or does it apply to all three schools and like what what is the intent or the philosophy behind it because often that could be double edesur in some cases so the so so the so the portfolio program in the middle school I would I would say it would qualify as a gift and a talented it's a component right students who are showing academic skill in a certain area are put in the classes that leans upon that academic scale right so that would be a good example of that um what we're finding is that what we're lacking is that we're lacking a through line through the entire District of what exactly comprises gifted and talented what do those programs look like dedicated staff Universal screeners to get the gifts and inal programs things like that and so and I and I think too and vice president Melman referenced this when she spoke about the Strategic plan for next year I'm going to recommend that that be part of the Strategic plan that we have to go find you know if it has a name has been done someplace else right and of the of the you know 71 school districts in Bergen County the 600 in the state I guarante you that we can go and find a g&t threaded program from a K12 model that would be sufficient for what we want to do we have to go find it put the work in and go visit those schools talk to those staff members look at the budgeting but that's what we have to do because where we're seeing right now um we have like a a scattershot approach across schools and there's no alignment and that gives me the hives right I I like when there's alignment I like when things like add up across the schools as articulation and that doesn't exist so that's one thing we definitely want to address and this is one thing that we hear repeatedly from the public that that and the feedback that I get from the community is that the the lack of articulation around that topic causes people concern thank you's a bu and that's probably why it hasn't added you know I don't know I'm you that might and love it I think Tove to I hope I see it the next few years and not a 10 or 20 yeah I I think and and this will this will make Mr thomasevich Happy is that we fully recognize in my office that anything that we do dial that we return there's a cost component to it right if you want to bring in staff to so so yes so and we have to balance and we all know and we we saw it in the budget presentation tonight we hear it we hear the work that we do is that school districts don't struggle for infinite need with finite resources but to your point I think that when we look at the the cost benefit analysis the ROI of investing in an articulated gifted and talented program I think that I I feel that that will become a budget priority that's one thing I think that we have done because we need to have something better than we currently have okay very nice well thank you mman for your work there very much thank you Eric for your work here and uh we are going to go back to our regular programming any Board of education member or student representative comments I seeing none um we'll move on to the approval of the consent agenda items motion um second Maria roll call please Miss Troy yes Dr Meer yes Miss Molina yes from HD which I believe was 107 202 for the offes and Mr Park yes Mr zepa yes Mr Sega Miss Thompson Miss wilds and vice president Melman motion carries on consent agenda items thank you moving on to administrative reports um Dr gon I have a variety of things to speak about this evening I would like to begin with um I am required twice per year in October and again in April to report on the ssds it's the state data reporting system for School Safety and Security um and what I do there is that I I list the the number of of incidents and events that we have at our various schools um we share that with the public for the purpose of transparency about school uh discipline and behavior so for reporting period two which we're still inside of it really it closes if you will at the end of the year reporting period too um a grand total of 11 incidents would qualify uh across our three schools um that's on top of following that our 15 incidents leading to removal those would be student suspensions so a grand total of 26 incidents among our schools from January until right now um that tracks with previous data that we've seen that's not a an aberant number uh for a district of our size that's a relatively low number so I just want to make that report here uh moving on to to other items that I would like to report on is that I have here uh and I have so many things and I'm going to be short I I I we have a presentation tonight and I don't I can go on and on and on so I'm going to kind of go through this relatively quickly it's my favorite part of my board meeting in my week um so just a few things to point out here I want to point out seventh grader Mia Guzman Sanchez at LMS um she has been selected I'm going to read what the blurb says um established in 1998 in Tech Trek stem Camp selects one seventh grade girl per School nominated by New Jersey Educators to attend a weeklong summer technology camp at Stockton University uh it's held in 22 different places around the country including Alabama California Ohio Oklahoma and Mia Gman Sanchez has been selected as Le only's representative from the girls who code Club so congratulations to Mia we are delighted for you that was also a part of Mr sao's Community update that he sent out this evening on that same note I want to congratulate the newest members of the national s science Honor Society that happened this evening I want to congratulate all of our senior athletes that we here tonight as well as all the senior events we have going on um the first County athletes I want to uh thank the Hasa from ACS for the gala on on Saturday night was a lot of fun it had a prom theme so it was nice to relive that childhood trauma I want to thank them for doing that um that was a lot of fun the uh flag football uh is is up and running our flag football program is very successful um the only complaint that we're hearing from our our coaches and our athletes is that our young students are playing too hard and people are getting injured that it's Flag Football it's not tackle football so take it easy ladies um it's okay to to beat up on another team just don't beat up on yourself but flag football there want to congratulate um both the Lim lighters and LHS and the LMS players for their wonderful school plays was fantastic great turnout for everybody do want to call out that uh this is on behalf of Dr caramanos that the high school had Greek day not too long ago Greek day at the high school that was delicious um want to congratulate for our students at the All County dinners for uh both for the our male and female athlet for the county um I do want to point out that we're in the midst of the hiring process for the ACs principal as I've shared with the community we had 60 plus applications for that position we're having 30 plus almost 40 plus screening interviews over the course of these next these last few days and tomorrow and M Geller intern was involved today in those interviews and Dr caram Manos m Russo those roughly 30 or so interviews will be wied down to 12 12 will go to six six will go to three and three will go to one um I do want to share that in the uh the selection process um upon reflection that we have added to uh veteran staff members from ACS to the hiring committee we wanted to have a a teacher voice there and so they've been added to the committee along with a variety of Administrators from across the district um a very very very strong and competitive pool Le only should be very proud of the of the quality of who we're seeing there um you'll notice under new business that are on the agenda a ton of proposals that are put there there um we are making good use of our Summertime by approving those contracts for all the work we're doing around the district there's there's so much stuff that we see there that's under new business we also added a piece of new business that is not on the paper copy but it's on the online copy that when we did all of our policies we missed the updated graduation requirement policy I have no fear you will all graduate ladies don't worry it does not apply to you um that is a first reading tonight so a modified graduation policy it has to do with the research paper component onent that is coming out of the graduation policy first reading tonight for that uh Second reading will take place in two weeks at that meeting and I want to be thoughtful about the time that we have here so I want to close with uh congratulating two of our three student Representatives um May 1st is the traditional uh deadline when you announce we're going to college because the Fafa is having a hard time May 15th this year but I'm happy to share that two of our three reps because one is a rise senior so this will be next year for her but Cornell University will be graced with Hannah Choy next year congratulations to Cornell um and USC will be Grace with Emily gilbart so congratulations ladies we're very proud of you good luck next year as I as I tell our uh as I tell our our community as I tell our parents is that we very often look at the college selection as if the child is the winner I won I get to go to USC at Cornell I always like to remind parents that the actual winner is the school that gets the child that's the winner right Cornell wins USC wins um and so we are just delighted for our two students here we're delighted for all of our seniors that are making their uh their their choices a a common tradition Leonia is that the sign outside the high school reveals where the kids are going to school they are working on that now um they shoot for May 1st because of the delayed deadline with of May 15th by Midway we'll begin to see the list of all the colleges that our students are attending we're very very proud of them and that is my report it's a th thank you Dr guinon I just real quick to um I have one item that I would like to just discuss with the community and the board uh relating to Summer EBT which is a new program which went out on parents Square today I just wanted to kind of encourage and inform everyone that it is a new family uh new federal program to help families buy food for their school age children during the summer uh families if you are eligible families will receive $120 for each El eligible child to buy groceries during the summer uh it will not affect any other summer meal programs that you may participate in as well as receiving benefits will not affect any children of families relating to immigration status uh just real quick to be eligible your child has to be obviously enrolled in Leonia public schools and you have to meet the National School uh the requirements for the Federal free and uh Federal reduced price School meals and in order to know if you are eligible and you meet those requirements we encourage you to fill out a application which you could access it either on our website um electronically which will send you the link through through Genesis or you could either download it and print out a hard copy if you have trouble with e either of those options you could contact the business office myself or my assistant Miss Amy cop or you can reach out to your building principal for more information so please do so the deadline to submit an application for this school year is May 14th um and then at that point uh these cards will be going out sooner than than previously so the anticipation will be we have to upload it by the end of May to the state and then uh that list the state will send out the card sometime they set in June for the summer to get it out to the parents sooner rather than later and that is it thank you Eric uh moving on to committee reports uh first we'll do our student Representatives hello so for the Leonia high school we wanted to update you guys with the spring break trip of 2025 being a trip to Japan or Italy which are which is going to be available for all students taking certain AP classes as Mr parado explained earlier the girls and boys track dominated the county tournament on Monday evening so we wanted to congrats our fellow peers the Leonia high school will be having a Hawaiian themed pep rally this Friday May 3rd 2024 and the student council Spirit committee worked very hard to plan the event to commemorate our spring student athletes and they have planned a game of Rambo throughout the day and instructions will be posted on the Leonia sto 2025 Instagram account to support the leonus student council there's going to be a Chipotle fundraiser tomorrow May 1st from 4 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and in order to contribute you have to present the poster and 25% of the event sales will be donated to the student council um a quick reminder for the nominees running for student council this coming year recorded nomination speeches will be due at 11:59 p.m. and candidate posters will also be due the following Monday at 3 p.m. after school and nominees who do not submit their speeches will be removed from the ballot AP exams and njsla testing are just around the corner so we wanted to remind all of our viewers to start studying and get studying done before the test which will start on Monday next week Sip and jip forms are now available for the 2024 2025 school year on the Leonia High School website and are located under student life section almost I'm almost done um um a reminder to Jo vote Jay Capra for New Jersey baseball player of the week on North jersey.com and the link will be found on parent and student square and lastly the annual Wellness fair at leonal high school will be held on May 2nd during lunch periods thank you thank you uh the Boe practices and principles um committee that's myself um so this past month we ended end up kind of meeting through email um because of a number of scheduling conflicts but we are um on track for our CSA evaluation um we'll be discussing that with the full board at our Clos session on May 14th um and Dr gatans is going to send his portion To Us by May 7th um so that's really the biggest thing on the on that committee's radar um so Joe buildings and grounds yeah so we haven't met um I would like to thank you know the town for letting us put the pl back they pass the resolution um we're going to meet soon we're picking a date that works for us um I just had a question though um for building in the ground I noticed the fence um out here by ACS with the retaining wallers um is it's like leaning I don't know if anybody has any information on it yeah so that's going to go through and I could Circle back with uh Mr Woods up buildings and grounds uh supervisor uh that's going to be going through I believe Insurance uh it's a claim I believe that was uh damaged through uh the rainstorm in April I believe if if I if I'm correct the indic um the part you're indicating on the wall yeah yeah I believe that was due to the rainstorm uh I believe April 3rd so that's going through insurance for approval and then we're having a vendor come out but I could definitely confirm and a l you know later I'll also add that the uh the ACs the the screen that was also was during that same storm was torn and came down and our own ground that's being repaired will go back up also okay um next is education Maria we met um and a few of the things we've discussed have already already been mentioned like the Italy and Japan uh trips for next year as well as removing the research paper requirement for high school graduation we also spoke about potential modifications to the high school schedule for next year and then the final thing we've discussed uh was removing uh class rank uh our Administration uh benchmarked against pure schools and and they uh tend to not use class Rank and so in order to help both um the academic standing and competitiveness of our students and their mental health we've decided to remove the class rank from transcript uh next is um oh finance and planning does another member of the committee want to give an update oh you have met okay um and then policy no thank you so we haven't met formally as the committee since the last meeting however uh we do have a meeting scheduled for next Monday May 6 but in the meantime I did have the opportunity to meet with Dr G Dr caramanos to review a host whole host of the policies that are list under Section M today roughly almost 20 policies there the majority of them were actually focused on streamlining language and consolidating language consistent across the different policies in place and so that's what the majority of lot of the changes that have happened there um and you know we look forward continue reviewing any other state issues or issuances that take place and then updating the policies accordingly uh M policy um motion Sid and second Maria all in favor any exensions okay um motion passes uh next is new business um I have a motion on new business nen second Maria um roll call please Miss Troy yes Dr Miser yes Miss Molina yes Gooding on Mr Park yes Mr zepa yes Mr seel Miss Thompson Miss wilds and vice president Melman motion carries a new business uh I just wanted to clarify who did the motion maren and seconded Mar thank you okay we're at the second public comment portion of the meeting um just a reminder that public comment is limited to two minutes um and and please if you come to the podium just state your name and your address um any members of the public wishing to speak okay seeing none um we'll move on to board comment seeing none we'll move on to Clos session uh motion to go into close uh Isaac Second Joe the time is second Isaac all in favor yeah motion and second motion second spe