[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Al is the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and for and ask everyone to remain standing for one moment I would like to offer a moment of Silent reflection we've uh lost two members of our educational community in the last uh time since we met last month one is Mr Kevin Sabella longtime board trustee and Coach here at riverdell and Mr William Craig Burton one of our Middle School teachers passed away since we've last met so I'll ask for a moment of Silent reflection in honor of their service to our students thank [Music] you Stephanie here Annette Barbara here John here Tracy Ellen here Claudia here Doug here Allan here Jonah here Melissa here New Jers open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the riverdell regional board of education has caused notice of this regular meeting to be sub publicized by having the date time and place sent to the record in the Star Ledger newspapers the burough CL clerks and burough libraries as as well as posting in the school district principal offices faculty rooms and board office according to New Jersey Public Law 2001 chapter 226 the smoking or use of any tobacco product is strictly prohibited anywhere in the public school buildings or anywhere on school grounds including but not limited to the parking lots grassy areas and athletic fields violators will be subject to a fine not to exceed $100 the mission of the r Regional School District is to provide a safe student Orient student oriented environment in which each student is valued and respected to challenge each students reach uh to challenge each student to reach their potential to nurture every student in every student's intellectual social physical emotional growth to promote a healthy work ethic a passion for Learning and respect for oneself and other to develop responsible citizens for our divers community in an everchanging world to continue to involve our community in an active partnership and to provide all students the opportunity to achieve and exceed the New Jersey student learning standards thank you okay um so we had two applicants that um were interviewed by the board on February 12th the D the new board member is Robert Gran Graham and Robert please join me for the oath [Music] raise your right hand and repeat after me I state your name do solemnly swear or affirm I Robert griam do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and on this state under the authority of the people so help me God and this State under the authority of the people so help me God I state your name do solemnly swear or affirm I Robert Graham do solemnly swear that I possess the qualification prescribed by law for the office of the member of the Board of Education that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of Board of Education and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs1 1941 and I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs1 1941 nor disqualify ify due to the conviction of a crime or an offense listed in New Jersey s8a nor disqualify due to a conviction or crime or offense listed in New Jersey s8a 12-1 and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me God and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me God congratulations [Music] and when a child gets four minutes for Bible so since you're on the board I got you Robert's Rules of Order sounds great that you can read in your spare time okay okay I'd like to open it up now for public comments on agenda items only hearing none okay student member report okay so within the past month rdhs has continued to be busy in and outside of the classroom on February 16th rhhs host hosted their second Hawk day just before winter break recess we welcomed and invited over 35 local professionals from the community to share their experiences in their profession this was a great opportunity for students to explore and learn about new career interests and paths the interact Club hosted a food drive for the ell rotary to benefit the local food pantries in St Joseph care corner non-p perishables and personal care items were collected on the weeks of February 26th through March 8th congratulations to Dr chinchu for earning the college board's AP Computer Science female diversity award for expanding young women's access to AP comai on February 27th the girls basketball team wrapped up their season in the state tournament quarterfinals against Demis thank you to all the girls for their hard work all season rival's first Swap Shop collection and exchange occurred on February 26th through March 1st this sustainability initiative is meant to help students shop more eco-friendly and learn about the importance of recycling used clothes congratulations to freshman wrestler Joselyn dami on her performance at the state tournament in Atlantic City on March 2nd and 3rd thank you for representing riverdell so well on March 5th Deca members competed in the state competition in Atlantic City as well congratulations to all the members who qualified for the national competition in April congratulations to Jeremy Salto for earning Riverdale High School's Bergen County unsung hero award this is so welld deserved March 4th was the senior social at the Liberty house in Jersey City the class of 2024 had a blast celebrating their senior year congratulations to the marching band on their performance in the Bergenfield St Patrick's Day Parade keep up the great work March 13th rdhs met with the class of 2028 down at the middle school to hear about hear from Administration counselors teachers and high school students about elective offerings what a great introduction for upcoming high schoolers and congratulations to the Riverdale robotics team on winning the entire state of New Jersey competition with their Alliance partner and they qualified for the World tournament in Houston Texas they also broke the record in Jersey for the highest score won third place for their promo award and their driver controlled period is ranked 8 80th na internationally for upcoming events um from March 28th to the 31th 31st the drama club will present their spring performance of Mean Girls best of luck to the cast crew and all rivale students and staff on a successful show and lastly um the start of spring Sports recently started on March 14th good luck to all spring student athletes on their upcoming Seasons so now for the middle school report the February 16th Hulk day the Middle School is was a success each student had an opportunity to visit two classes led by faculty and staff members to share their passions hobbies and interests events such as martial arts puppy yoga crochet volleyball and so many other options were on full display for the students who really seem to enjoy the opportunity to connect with faculty and staff congratulations to rdms February haulk Spotlight recipience they are as follows Leah Choy Simon Chu Hudson esler Anna farus Caitlyn Fontana Olive Kim Eli Park and chis Shaha these students were recommended by staff members for modeling examples of the positive behavior we often talk about rdms way to go Hawks shout out to Natalie vkin who represented the middle school at the recent North Jersey spelling be after winning the rdms spelling be earlier this year she earned the opportunity to compete for North Jersey and advanced five rounds we are so proud of her effort and performance the Middle School environmental Club Rec recently held the annual three on3 Hoops tournament fundraiser and raised $500 to be donated to the Community Food Bank in Hillsdale congratulations to the winners of the tournament Kai gria Lily Ryback Sophia Marcella Molly Irving Toby Sakai Mike McDona and Alex Silverstein the Middle School recently held its sixth grade parents orientation and soon after made visits to each each of our sending elementary schools families had the chance to learn about all the great things rdms has to offer for incoming students from the class of 2030 had and the class 2030 had the opportunity to hear from counselors Administration and current eighth grade students thank you to the Riverdale ptso for allowing our students to take part in second annual round of drum circles each Middle School student had the opportunity to participate in this amazing team BR Team Building brain break activity a special shout out to miss KAS for organizing an additional thanks to the PTS for the support they provide our district thank um Robert I'd like to congratulate you on joining the rivid Del Board of Ed and at the same time I'd like to thank our former board member Al graph for his past uh years as of service and his past year as president which was 2023 was a really tough year for us we got a lot accomplished and under his leadership we did very well um as far as my report goes I had the privilege and honor of being asked to be a judge at Deca two weeks ago at the state finals in Atlantic City it was the most amazing event that I've ever uh attended we started at 8:00 in the morning and went almost straight through till 8:00 at night judging um it it for anybody that doesn't know what they do they get 10 minutes to solve a complete business problem um and make a presentation to one of the judges who acts as a president or vice president of the company they have to come up with PowerPoints uh business cards uh a game plan and they only have 10 minutes to create this they only get 10 minutes with the judge who act the vice president or president of the company to present their solution to the problem um I just found it amazing that I don't think I could I've been in business for years I don't think I could have done it in 10 minutes and some of the solutions were just incredible uh you know deca's motto is we prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for college and careers and it it was incredible and I'd like to congratulate the two members of the DECA team from Riverdale Nana Fukushima and Irene Cho um they're going on to the uh finals in California so I wish them the best of luck and the last thing I have on my report is that the friends of rivel have named this distinguished graduates for 2024 and they are Gregory sugalski from 1997 Janice Hillman from 1974 Daniel Lipton 1993 Matthew Schwarz 1972 Adele dor and Gregory mcgoverin H George mcguin I'm sorry um the all be honored at the hackin Country Club on October 17 2024 so put the date down if you can make it it would be great and at that point turn it up okay good evening thank you Mr President good evening everyone uh just a couple of items I'd like to report on first is uh last week our high school participated in the New Jersey gradu graduate Pro proficiency assessment uh Monday through Thursday that's the grade 11 students this is a requirement federal government requirement to test our students in grade 11 New Jersey goes one step further and counts as an actual graduation requirement um so we had a couple hundred students uh taking that exam last week in language arts and in mathematics um I'm pleased to say that uh all but a handful students need to take makeups this week excuse me only a handful of students need to take makeups this week it's the opposite of that um so I'm very proud of our students that they were able to get themselves on time and took the the assessment seriously um I'm very uh much indebted to Mrs Ali who organizes it it really went as seamless as possible as you know probably this is a computer generated computer delivered test um so the technology has to be up and running um laptop need to be updated and um everything went from my perspective at least as seamless as possible um so my thanks to all those who put that together and certainly to our students secondly I just wanted to inform you um I'm going to steal a little bit of Trudy's Thunder um I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about it as well but uh we did have the bond sale for the referendum bonds uh about two weeks ago was it JY two weeks ago um and I'm very pleased to say we had estimated due to uh from our experts um who had advised us when we went out for the bond for the referendum uh we were estimating around 4% for the interest rate on the bonds and it came in actually at 3.5% um so the the savings to The Debt Service which we had put out as part of the referendum information is actually going to be a greater Debt Service reduction than we had actually anticipated due to the the 0.5% so I'm very happy to report that do you have anything else you want to add to that TR we were fortunate we had six biders that were bidding on the bonds and the the numbers were very close so 3.5 was the best B more in our favor for once right in our favor uh next I like to report on is the uh seal of biliteracy we we have been over the last several weeks um uh having our students sit for sealed by literacy test these are are tests or assessments I should say that students can take uh in World languages and speaking Reading Writing and listening and and demonstrating uh literacy in all these areas in different world languages uh in grades 11 and 12 uh if they are successful in achieving the Seal of by literacy that goes on their their High School transcript to can uh possibly give them the opportunity to earn Credit in college uh because they have the Seal of by literacy um possible scholarship opportunities to students who are going on to college or um to trade school if they have the Seal of by literacy and also further down the road maybe some job placement or internship possibilities as well so it's something really good for our students to have especially if if they uh can achieve on that assessment we had a total of 47 students in grades 11 and 12 who achieved uh multilingual status or bilingual at least four of those students that achieved it were trilingual and one student was quadrilingual which is a word I looked it up I didn't know it was a word um but one of our students uh is fluent according to the Seal of by literacy in four different languages um so great achievements to be sure uh and a total of 11 different languages so it just talks about the diversity that we're seeing in our district as well and my thanks to Mrs ker for putting all that together she starts very early in the year she's talking about it and and bringing students in to assess their abilities starting in September all the way through now so well done Mrs kah finally just an invitation to the board from the interact club uh they're sponsoring the senior prom that's not the 12th grade senior prom it's the senior citizen prom on March 27th in our high school cafeteria at 5:00 p.m. um Miss saglek has asked me just to reach out to all the board members and not just invite you but welcome you to attend she would love to see you there so please mark your calendars if you can be there I will be there but um it's quite the event from what I understand and I'm looking for to it that concludes my report thank you you're welcome okay committee reports John budget and finance hello everyone um we we met a couple of times our primary topic was the budget and I have to uh say that unfortunately between the first meeting and the second meeting we got some very unfortunate news which some people probably heard about so we had a decent amount of state aid that was removed from the budget which I think creat created a lot of angst and drama for Trudy and the team the administrative team but um they did an incredible job I think what we got presented and what you'll approv today is very well put together they did I think their best to make sure that we didn't impact the educational programs which I think was a priority for us and with with all of that which was a substantial amount of uh state aid loss they were able to keep the budget substantially intact uh unfortunately it's going to be a tight year next year what was removed um will impact some things but I think they did their best to make sure Staffing wasn't touched and the educational programs wasn't touched so Trudy maybe I don't know if you want to add anything to that but definitely thanks to you the administrative team the staff whoever cooperated with you to get you to where we got to where I think we would have had a much better budget next year unfortunately you know this is what was dealt and I I think we did uh in some ways better than other school districts I think other school districts unfortunately could not save staff which would have been a problem for us so I don't know Trudy if you want to add anything to that the budget will go up 2.59% and as John had said um no staff is not affecting the educational process so we should be okay okay thanks facilities and security uh we had a meeting right before um the board meeting uh we discussed um obviously the referendum um we talked about some potential uh construction start dates uh spanning from Spring of 2004 through fall of 20 uh 26 um we're going to go and kind of look and see um if we we might rejigger the schedule a little bit but just spelling out the work we're going to be doing um part of that was identifying the work at the middle school gym floor um there was some investigation and some um concern that the just due to the age and when it was installed that the mastic that was holding the floor down might contain some as Festus it's been tested and identified uh that it does and so Trudy and uh is going out to bid on uh mitigation for that before we would start the um uh floor replacement and removal as part of the referendum so once we have the bids back for that and on the agenda is also um I think it's on the agenda somewhere I don't see it in front of me but for going out to bid on the um on the replacement of the floor for the summer um and then in addition um we we discussed and it's on from the finance committee uh work this summer which uh will will include um some repair to the asphalt in the parking lot uh repair to the fence on the baseball field around the uh dugouts and then um adding a wall in the in the media center um to create some classrooms uh that'll happen over the summer at a cost of uh about $107,000 which is coming out of capital reserve and it's not part of the referendum thanks relations we have not met but we do have a meeting scheduled for the near future okay thank you curriculum since anette's not here say that's not me right but we have't met okay and policy and governance um we have on our agenda tonight to um a policy for concussion management and field trips and at our last meeting we had a lengthy discussion about how we're getting ready to start really working with the staff and everybody um in reference to AI that's it thank you okay let's get on with the agenda uh do I have a motion for the consent agenda Stephanie any questions I have a question and item that Doug was just talking about the gym floors yeah so Trudy can you explain uh for for the uh Board of Ed members the process here we're asking them to approve this here but as Doug just mentioned we potentially are going to have additional cost on top of the $230,000 for the Middle School gym floor so if we approve this can you explain what this is exactly approved so what you're approving this evening is with matthus for them to be replacing the gym floor after the abatement on the gym floor at the middle school and then you're also approving the um resurfacing and sanding at the high school once we were we just went out to bid for the abatement we have those bids opened on April 9th and then hope hopefully at the end of the month meeting we'll be able to approve that as well the abatement I think the clarification on that is that we're going to we have to do the abatement no matter what if we're replacing the gym floor which needs to happen not an option well one it was part of the referendum and two it's falling apart of of all the things that we're doing that that needs to be done that gym floor is not going to with it cannot withstand another patch and and it's part of the referendum this G FL may end but we don't I mean once once the bids come back for the abatement we'll we'll know and it's only the it's only the it's only the Delta it's not the full demo it's only the additional cost for the the disposal and the containment but we're going to have to spend it no matter what at some point anybody else Stephanie um so one um I wanted to um thank the policy committee on the international trip addition it was like so on point um and I I think it just complemented everything that was in the original one and achieved the goals of of putting it in there so um thank you all for crafting that um and two um under the I asked for clarification I don't know if anybody else you know but like under the the um summer athletic camps the the football camp you know it says MAA and I said I was like why are we approving them using our Fields when it says MAA um and so um Dr abro was so nice to let me they'll be using our Fields as well um not not so much for the camp but our riverdell students will be using it as part of the camp process um so it doesn't expressly state in there and um and you know um so just for people for a point of clarification that's correct anybody else by the way Robert if you don't feel comfortable voting on this you can abstain from the entire agenda since you're just see it for the first time okay don't feel bad about that okay TR Stephanie um yes John yes to everything but and I'm going to vote no on and on the JY floor which one is that floor for no Robert you watched SM Street Trac Ellen yes Doug yes Barber Yesa yes oh I don't think so 13A is recommended by the superintendent that the board approves the first reading of the following policies do I have a motion a second okay any questions okay Stephanie yes Robert yes John yes Tracy Ellen yes Doug yes Barbara yes Claudia yes Allan yes 14h the superintendent at the request of the board secretary recommends that the board accept line on transfers and adjustments as listed in the financial report for the month ending February 2024 thank you John a second thank St any questions Stephanie yes Robert John yes Tracy Ellen yes Doug yes barbar yes Claudia yes Allan yes okay 14 P um be it resolved to approve a school district preliminary budget for the 2024 2025 school year for the submission to the executive County superintendent's office as follows tax levy of 35 million well I'll reach just the total 40 million 7476 do I have a motion I'll make a motion thank you John do I have a second second thank you Stephan any questions on the budget just a clarification Trudy on the Deb that debt service number is our our new Bond Ser our new Bond Debt Service just to clarify of of the 804 right would you like to add anything I think John had really me covered everything great okay thank you go ahead okay Stephanie um since it's preliminary and I still had some questions I'm just going to abstain and I will vote Yes when it when we see it again Robert yes John yes Ellen yes Doug yes Barbara yes Claudia yes Allan yes okay I'd like to move forward from the executive agenda e appointments make a motion thank you I have a second oh go girl seconded Barbara you're up next only took me five years I actually have fun in this spot it's not Taco any [Laughter] questions Tracy Ellen yes Doug yes Barbara yes Claudia yes Allan yes okay old business new business oh have something go for it so you know how like Instagram like follows like whatever it is that you're talking about did you ever notice that so my husband and I were talking about like we have a leak in our roof so we were talking about Roofing I'm waiting to see where this is going oh don't worry about it it's G somewhere G somewhere so I was flipping through Instagram because I you know I get bored of like talking to my husband about like household stuff so I was flipping through Instagram and there was a company that was on who came and spoke at Riverdale High School um and they were doing it right outside and they were here for like basically Career Information for the non-bound students and I was like kudos to us for having other people come in and such like a brilliant idea that was probably part of the HW day it it was it was part of HW day yeah so I I thought it was great and the the company came out and they did like you know they had like a great spot standing outside riverdell in the background talked about how they came in they spoke to our students not every kid's going to go to college or maybe they do go to college and yet they don't like what they're doing sitting behind a desk or wherever it is that they work and they want to be outside it was a great great plug but they and I was just so proud of us for having them come and talk we had them we had a number of other professionals come in to talk about landscaping design uh and that that field we had our own professionals come in and speak about building and grounds and and and uh you know custodial operations how we how we keep our district way we keep our district so we had a lot of offering support but thank you for bringing that up that was I was wondering where that was going I like where it went do you like it two things so one um you know we voted on the budget tonight and as um John spoke about um you know we did not get not only the funding that we thought we were going to fully fund but we got less than that um and at the same time I think it was less than a month ago you know headlines $91 million um increase in education funding and so I don't even I I don't quite understand um how we couldn't have been where we were last year um and yes as a board you know and through New Jersey school boards and through our um superintendent associations we of course Advocate um for funding but I certainly encourage anyone who's in the community that might be watching and um these are your tax dollars and these are your education and your property values and if this is something that um you're upset about um really you know use use your um your right to speak to your Governor because it is it is it we we waited so long to get even close to the the full funding that we should get which still in part is is a very small fraction of the budget that um that we have um and to lose it and and read things about where where AID is being increased I I don't understand that um and so I really encourage people to um to ask those kind of questions maybe on Instagram um uh but to ask those kind of questions and while while this is sounding a little strange um but it I you know um I'm not on any social media but sometimes people will send me a little a little a little teaser of something um and and just we always talk about the um area outside of what is Trudy's office right that that green space right and all the things that could have possibly be done about it and uh both ell and River Edge um now no longer allow for people to um to have domestic chickens for um for their own use um and he's like he like wait I thought I was going sideways over there but but we have some very interesting you know um students there's a lot to be learned about community garden and things like that and so you know I'm just putting it out there in the universe that there might be a space to to um give to the community things that are not ordinances um to have in your private yard not I'm not advocating for chickens I'm just saying maybe Community Gardens and other things might be a nice thought for the environmental club and some of our other clubs um and ways to get um the community involved just grown it out there I was ready to Echo all her statements till she went the chicken path so I I I Echo Stephanie's first set of sentiments I think as as a community we usually are silent and accept some of these losses I think what happened uh during this budget cycle was absolutely just didn't make any sense it just absolutely made no sense and I think the public um should definitely contact the governor's office and share their um dissatisfaction because you know this impacted all the districts here both you know River Edge orell and riverdell uh in some ways so thank you for that comment be so bold as to say essentially in my I'm the president of the Bergen County Association of school administrators this is obviously a topic of discussion among my colleagues and um if I can say it this way essentially what what the governor or what Trenton is telling us us is telling the taxpayers of specifically River Edge but orell as well is that they're not paying enough in their local fair share towards the school taxes which I think is completely incorrect I think they are paying more than their fair share more than they should be paying and I'm sure we'd all agree but that's essentially if you boil it all down that's what they're saying that the adequacy the adequacy budget is underfunded by the local taxpayer yet at the same time they do not give us the ability to raise taxes Beyond 2% so they're essentially saying that you should be paying more but we're not going to let you pay more so the only thing that we can do as administrators is recommend to the board cuts and if that continues over a several year period because I don't know what next year is going to bring um that will certainly impact our students so the people's voices need to be heard on on on circumstances such as this um the funding formula is to my guesstimation over 20 years old at this point the numbers that they're putting in as adequacy numbers are probably I'm sure too low and it should be adjusted so um that's your representation and my representation in Trenton that needs to make that change so can I add one more point there so uh you know in various contract negotiations the staff is expecting substantially higher than 2% I think the point that Dr Albero made is is very material when the budget can only increase by 2% and then there's these cuts and it's not like you know there are school districts that can afford this for probably one budget Year let alone too so I know in previous years and I'm not sure we've done it recently we've had uh resolutions from various boards in order to send a message not that they're binding in any way but I don't know if your Association can can get behind or the school boards can get behind something where school and the public absolutely needs to speak out about what happened here we can do that as a board we would like to do it as a board we can send a resolution to maybe you know in a Consortium with the rest of the schools that maybe got hit negatively it should be a message that sent okay anybody else business business I have just one thing a reminder that the golf outing for the friends of Riverdale uh and for those that don't know what the friends of riverdel does um the Alumni Association and we raised funds our first project was the Fieldhouse that got voted down during the first referendum that we did in 2009 and uh recently we put up half the money to refurbish the piano in the auditorium um so we try to accomplish a lot of good things so the golf outing this year here to raise money is Monday June 24th um even if you don't play golf uh I hand it out the forms you can come just for the dinner and uh that's it any other uh I don't think we need any board discussion on the bond sale right pretty much covered everything fantastic to say Judy other than way to go like way to go I'm thrilled I mean way to go yeah congrat amazing JY has her bank account set up [Music] already me that's you know when we were going out to sell the referendum a lot of people said 4% you'll never get 4% mhm you're right we got 3 said it they were right you're correct they were right right we beat him to the punch that's like you know that is pretty amazing because if had it gone the other way the referendum would have had impact on it and so that's amazing that it can be you know completed and it's right Al if I can add just a comment to that I I think the public also deserves special thanks for supporting the referendum I and I think the board worked very hard I I know the Trudy and the administration worked tremendously hard um we and I think it was really great that we try to get all the information out to the public still um and and it worked you know and I think the public supported it I think they see what the district the school districts do for our community here and it's really great to see the community supported uh the way that they did and you know getting lucky with the rate little bit you know is is really great and I think the the rewards for the community and the board is going to be seeing our students really um you know benefit from the referendum unfortunately we're got to wait a bit uh Doug kind of threw it out there this is a kind of a three-year road map we're probably not going to see much this year we'll see a little but next year will be our big year and the reason for that is it it is a very long process to create the package is go out to bid get it all ready and do it without disrupting the the school district so that's going to take a little bit of doing this year and so it's going to look like not much is happening but it is I know Trudy is probably swamp trying to figure all that stuff out this year to get some things ready for the summer thanks okay like to open it up couple of comments they got nothing hearing none do I have a motion I'll second who was the first Stephanie yeah yeah yep thank you