e good evening um calling to order the March 12 2024 Board of Education meeting I guess we should all rise and say the Pledge flag United States the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meanings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of the act the Verona board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the Star Ledger posted with the township of Verona and the Verona Education Association postings of this meeting setting forth the time location and agenda were posted at the Verona Board of Education Office and on the Verona Public Schools district website copies of today's agenda and resolutions have been made available to the public via the Board of Education website roll call yeah so Mr Waka Mrs brazel yes Mrs farar yes Mrs prisco with the record Mrs prisco is absent today and Miss Boon yes we have Quorum thank you and we'll move on to routine matters um I need a motion to approve the minutes from the last uh board meeting on February 27th so moved uh moov by Miss fer second seconding by Mr wer we have roll call Mr wer yes Mrs fella yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mr Boon yes motion passed thank you and now I guess we go to superintendent report for tonight's report um uh Mr Cruz and I are going to uh do our joint presentation on the budget so we can bring up that um thank you and just to start out this was um a very difficult budget uh Mr Cruz is a miracle worker and uh it was very difficult when when all of the budgets came in we were 1.2 million above cap yeah and we are at cap so um just to uh cover the last um presentation we we actually had our uh preliminary budget or uh and one of the things that we wanted to cover is the budget calendar and the important dates uh today's is the uh the tenative uh budget adoption and from here it goes to the county office um before March 20th and then the board will have it back if the county does approve it the board will have it um back for final adoption in April uh so the April 30th um board meeting will be the final uh board meeting of April where we will have the opportunity to uh pass this uh budget uh in the public public and we all know our uh mission statement which is to empower our students to cultivate uh the intellectual curiosity and and uh social responsibility so re real quick I I'll cover the budgetary goals and uh superintendent dppi will will go into a little more details in the instructional section of the presentation uh what one of the big things that we always want to do with our budget is maintain class sizes um along with our policy uh provide additional programming um also expand the programming one one additional need that we do have is uh the need of a kindergarten teacher especially for uh Elementary School where we're we're already at capacity um the the other two uh additional uh programming um expansions we have is es a part-time ESL and the part-time Sac uh in addition as I mentioned before uh uh superintendent dppi will uh speak a little more about the ongoing efforts to continue uh investing in our T in our talent uh with professional development and continue the expansion of special education programming um uh throughout our for elementary schools and just to um inform the board uh why we're adding a part-time um English as a second language teacher excuse me um currently we have one special we have one um teacher for our multilingual Learners across the district um that provides um some problematic areas because only about half of our students that qualify for services accept services at the elementary level primarily because uh they cannot stay in their uh neighborhood school to receive um English language services so um currently they students have to go to uh FN Brown to get services and about half of our elementary families opt out of that service um we have one teacher that's teaching kindergarten through 12th grade which is developmentally um problematic as well and uh we are currently servicing our high school students during their lunch period which is uh not compliant with the code with the administrative code so by adding this part-time person at the middle school and high school they can focus more on a secondary um developmental child and it will allow uh Mrs buen our current uh ESL teacher at the elementary world to service kids in their own home District hopefully encouraging more participation in that program and we currently don't have a sack at our high school we have not had a sack at the high school for several years now and um that's not aligned with our own policy if we have a a student that is that um either is found to have substance on their person in schools or test positive for um a controlled substance um we have no one that interfaces with the drug and alcohol um program that we require students we should be requiring students to enter in order to um mitigate um that substance abuse issue so part-time sack we don't have all that many students that um that do test positive you see the report that I gave last week we really don't have a lot but we do have some and uh they're not just substance abuse counselors anymore these are um Student Assistance counselors so they can alleviate some of the load that are current counseling school counselors have because they would just do counseling they wouldn't do College counseling as well or or or counseling for scheduling or anything like that so it it provides another layer of support for our students here and um fills a a a hole that we have not had in many years which is someone to deal with those students that are using substances and where we putting the uh the kindergarten teacher do we know that yet Brookdale yeah Brookdale sorry quick question yeah for the for the sac um counselor are they able to also um do kind of whole group or group wide and Implement things like that yeah okay that's great and then also um aside from substance abuse you know if we're bringing someone in I think that that's great and you know can we also consider or is it something that they can do when we're thinking about like um gambling there's been trem a tremendous increase in gambling addiction particularly with online gaming um and other types of addiction that we're seeing in in younger students that we typically have't yes they would be they would be qu for them that's great so I'm going to go real quickly through this slide this is uh very similar to uh the last meeting where the only difference is that our state aid numbers are here so we have close to $300,000 an increase in state aid um that's reflected in there we I'm going to speak a little bit more in the next slide regarding that two uh the 2.52% uh tax levy that's with the the health uh waiver uh so in total the estimated uh Revenue increase and this is with the 1, 10978 uh excess budget surplus from fiscal year 23 it brings us in additional funding um for fiscal year 25 of uh 2.6 million so uh giving a little breakdown uh the column that we see which is the budgeted 2425 school year that's actually the line that we're referring to and and for historical purposes we have the adopted budget from 2223 and 2324 just as a point of reference uh we see on the first the first line is uh the tax levy and the tax levy capped at 2% um it's a a year change of 75299 uh the uh Health waiver uh basically the way that um uh we would qualify for this is when our health benefit cost is actually more than uh what the state um actually has in in the state plan so for this year we did qualify for the health waiver based on on the cost that we're incurring on health benefits uh two years ago we had Bank cap which that number that 29455 is not a health waiver is bank capap and the and last year that uh which is the current school year 271 to uh 13 that is also a a health waiver um uh above the cap with the state aid um we see that state aid is has been increasing over the last uh three years one of the the the pieces that um what we wanted to recognize uh is the excess um extraordinary Aid so the extraordinary Aid uh we've always been very conservative with the budgetary numbers because extraordinary Aid even though we uh budget for it um for the entire school year we don't get reimbursed by the state until the end of the school year and sometimes um that that number it it's very sometimes it's hard to to pinpoint where it's going to land uh but for the last three years it one of the uh the surpluses has been extraordinary aid for uh specialized services and uh it's been pretty consistent at a million uh so we feel confident uh for this uh budget to uh anticipate that million dollar extraordinary Aid uh Revenue uh from the state which we receive in July of 25 uh another new um reimbursement um for us is semi uh because we have um above 40 students that uh qualify we we are now um are going to recognize that additional Revenue uh reimbursement um from the semi program which is a a med a Medicaid reimbursement and that's 18,652 in uh tuition uh Revenue this is uh for preschool um and also for our our uh non-resident um students um that's 140,000 is the anticipated Revenue uh tuition and then we have miscellaneous and interest Revenue so uh uh as you all know interest rates have gone up uh right now we at um 3.58% in in our um interest Revenue in our accounts there there is an option also for for us to lock in on a 5% on our reserves so we we are going to take advantage of that and and and and acknowledge the the additional Revenue gains from from those opportunities and then our fund balance um as I mentioned in the previous slide is um that million doll uh fund balance that we are uh uh recording and bringing over from the uh reserves uh from our fiscal year 23 in total uh the the total an anticipated uh Revenue which is also the total expenditure is going to be 43 million 973 650 and that is a 4.28 percent increase uh compared to this current school year in this slide I'm not sure if you guys are able to see it but uh we're going to make uh this presentation available to the public on our site uh you could actually see the breakdown on percentage uh the largest piece is our uh gened instruction followed by benefits um special ed and then there's um the other department departments or uh uh sections like custodial maintenance um School administration uh guidance and then and then also the the other uh special headed uh areas and this this pie chart actually uh shows the actual dollar amounts in those areas uh so and the prior one it was the percentage and this is the actual dollar amounts so when it comes to our expenditures uh the largest as we all know the largest expenditure that we have as a school board is um salaries um followed by um special education and uh benefits the the special ed um line is a combination of salaries and programming costs so right now it's uh it's it's hovering still around uh 10.5 million and then we also have our uh General services which is regular uh School programming um so anything that you could think of uh that's in the classroom as far as technology uh also co-curricular Athletics um stiens that goes along with those programs um so one of the changes that we did here is um anything that was related to the co-curricular or Athletics is now included in in uh in this column and lastly the the other section is uh General services uh so when it comes to uh when it comes to budgeting uh uh the the school's budget the the one thing that we never want to impact is basically uh in the classroom programming so whenever there is actually a need to reduce you'll see that for in the support uh um areas such as custodial maintenance supplies Etc or even uh equipment needs uh so if there's a a need for us to reduce that this is actually where is and um as you can see here there's a reduction here of 19% just to ensure that we balance and and continue to growth and the supporting uh uh uh instruction in the classroom so with regard to our curricular um and and professional development instruction initiatives uh we will continue to uh focus on K4 literacy and uh mathematics uh in an effort to um move the needle on um our students uh achieve we will also be reviewing Elementary literacy programs uh as the shift in the New Jersey student learning standards for um English language arts have um significantly changed over the Year we're actually waiting over the uh the past year when they were adopted we're waiting a little bit because there's some pending legislation um that may push our hand in One Direction or the other with regard to which program we we select for elementary literacy um it's the science of reading Wars so we'll see how how that plays out um we uh will continue uh working with our Singapore math programs and that's the dimensions program K5 and amplify in grades 6 through 11 um we are in year three of supporting the new social study Series in K4 history alive um we will continue to support the inquiry based science uh as well across um it's actually K8 my apologies it says K4 um we are in year three of language Essentials for teachers of reading and spelling and that's the letters training that we do in house uh we'll continue to administer map growth assessments uh and I will say this year uh our map growth assessment ments uh got a kick kicked up a notch um uh Dr Miller worked with the principles to really review all the reporting capabilities that is available to them and in turn they um worked with their staff so that teachers have access to looking for instance you look across a class of students of 23 24 students and map growth will actually group kids that need similar things for you so it makes the teachers ability to differentiate that instruction uh a lot easier so um using map growth Assessments in a much more um in-depth way to give our teachers a deep dive into the data as well as having the principles and curriculum Department have access to it uh and we're going to be updating our curricul this Summer according to our fiveyear cycle in addition to that um we started this year with a halfe um pilot of the positiv project which is a character education program at hbw um it's very new but we've had some good feedback from students and we've had some good feedback from Mrs R Miss Ramirez who's who's teaching it in the cycle classes and we're going to be meeting with the teachers that are piloting to get some feedback uh from them as well next year will be one full year of of that program at all four grades at hbw and we have some districtwide professional development goals we're continuing year two looking at a taxonomy of the New Jersey student learning standards we will be um conducting some professional growth in how to use effectively uh professional learning communities that's something new to Verona um focused uh uh we are changing our teacher uh evaluation model so we are adopting the focused teacher instructional and evaluation model and teachers will receive um some instruction in that right away in September um and then across the year we are looking at differentiating instruction as part of our tier one supports in our work toward the multi- uh tiered system of supports or response intervention that will replace our Interventional Referral Services um uh plans and continuing to work with um the the group that Mr Dr Miller found and I went right out of my head um on diversity equity the inclusion of belonging I was disappointed maybe we shouldn't have chose the State of the Union uh evening to run the Diversity Program here but it was very good um I I wish we had more people I know the teachers that experienced the Batello group just came back into my head uh enjoyed and we're asking this was like an introduction they're coming back next year right yes they're coming back next year and uh they did a nice job on the 8th of March with our teachers so with regard to special services um we want to continue those programs so the LSS program and the lldd program which are um LSS is prek 8 currently uh lld goes all the way to grade 12 um we will continue to have resource pullout replacement supplemental instruction in prek4 um in class in uh um in class instruction or in class support in class resource there's many different names for this program this is inclusionary where you have a a special education teacher and a general education teacher collaborating in the classroom to make sure that all of our students uh get what they need and really our gened students and our special students with special um needs benefit from this interaction um I'm very happy to edit this slide from last year where it said 5 to 12 now to 3 to 12 and we will be adding grade four um as um we started in grade three this year we'll be adding grade four and supplemental aids and services across all grade levels and esy extended school year um we also have related Services in-house speech language counseling otpt uh District behaviorist uh one and a half district behaviorist um we have an uh academic success and engagement program uh PD that supports our initiatives and programs within the special services department as well as uh across the whole District we'll continue to provide our sensory rooms which were a gift from Child many years ago and we successfully had a a move from uh effective School solutions to Care Plus it was a seamless uh transition and uh Care Plus is providing enough services to um our students with fewer clinicians than ESS provided to us that we were able to go down clinician next year which is how we're getting uh some of our other our sack and um some of our other services and um initiatives We are continuing to improve upon the lldd life skills program at the high school they put out their first Hilby Snack Shack um today with a tomato frittata and they're selling those anyone first come first serve to get them um and we will need an additional staff member most likely based on uh the ICI program in uh the elementary world but I think we can move people around and keep that in housee as well so in this slide is our our famous comp uh comparison and I think a lot of times uh Everyone likes to see how do we Fair compared to uh other districts uh similar size and type uh three years ago I remember with Verona uh our budgetary the budgetary per pup cost was in 14 was 14,000 which was really low uh we're we're creeping up to where the average should be and I think it should be around that 18,000 close to 19,000 um uh the there's some outliers in there that are really up there in the in the 20 22 24 uh but I we're we're actually getting uh to where we should be in and in the comps In the comparison with uh the per pupil cost uh the other piece to to look at is the classroom supplies um right now Verona um so three years ago it was like $144 uh per student in supplies and and now it's at uh uh 284 uh one one of the new ads that we did um build it into this budget is creating a Furniture line so our schools didn't have uh a separate Furniture allocation in the past it was um if a school wanted to replace a piece of furniture they would have to use their own supply line and in order to uh make that decision and uh one of the things is especially going through uh different buildings we do see that there's a need uh to replace Furniture especially furniture that has been just you know paced together and trying to extend the life of of a piece of furniture so um we're we're definitely looking forward to this I know that the building Administration uh the building administrators are also looking forward to it so we we did build in $50,000 to share amongst the schools and then continue building in from there um even though it was difficult I I wish I could actually allocate more but um unfortunate um you know we just needed to prioritize them but this is actually a great start uh the average uh property tax um which is in in Verona is 14, 589 and that brings us to uh the tax levy increase so the number to look at is uh so the the the total uh tax levy for Verona is going to be 42 m424 531 which is an uh $960,000 increase uh compared to this current school year the valuations um for the township is 2.4 billion and T and the way that we actually get the rate is dividing that from the 42 uh million tax levy uh uh that's being proposed and taking the basically the average home is uh 43457 um if we look at that rate um the taxes would be 7,678 this is only the school tax pays um the increase um the proposed in estimated increase for the average home is $161.9 so some budgetary facts is that uh we do have that the proposed 2.52% uh the as I mentioned previously is $161 .97 per household the average um as we um shared the average uh home assessed at that amount last year what the taxpayers the average taxpayers um School tax was 7,517 so uh and then the tax rate for $100 of valuation is .77 per $100 for the school tax uh that brings us to the next steps um uh The Next Step as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation is uh getting this budget to the county um for County uh superintendent approval and uh normally we will get it within two weeks after the submission and we will have an opportunity if there was actually recommendations or changes uh made by the county office uh to actually make those changes before we present again and adopt the budget on April 30th that concludes the presentation thank you J awesome work as always G I mean that two questions um on this budget are we going to be seeing um the the administrative stiens that we'd seen um that we talked about a couple weeks ago a month or so ago or are those finally gone I don't think we discussed it as a board that we we had planned to discuss it you can bring it up we can bring it up in new in Old business okay um and the next question is uh there there's an agenda item on B one that's looking for us to spend um money before the we've approved it or the county has approved it uh for one of the items on B1 what's why are we doing that it's a conference uh so this is the conference for October yeah we can take that off we put it back on we could bring it back on um after yes because it's like October uh 17 18 thank you um I if if we could I have a question and a comment um Jorge could we go back to slide nine please um again to Echo Mr W I think this is Herculean task so awesome work everybody involved um the question I have is is on the general Services support I understand the the reduction in spend there and all that makes perfect sense my question is is how do we um you know avoid getting used to that I mean that's a it's nearly a 20% reduction that's not a reduction that we can rely on year to year to year of course so H how do we how do we look forward the next couple of years with the idea that we're not going to be able to cut further from from such a category so I think um one of the things that uh just being cognizant is now we do have a very heavy uh top guide uh so the reality of of the the cost of uh the the the cost of benefits is not going to change I think sure because of inflation and the way things are it's it's just um an issue that that uh not just Verona has but uh many school boards throughout New Jersey I think uh one one of the challenges is chapter 44 which now um employees are contributing a smaller portion compared to chapter 78 so the board is actually picking up a bigger a bigger piece of the pie and and uh that's not going to change until uh I believe it's 2026 MH that's right yeah so 2026 is when we'll be able to uh see what legislation actually changes in order to mitigate uh the impact the the um other um piece is I think it's really looking at um how to balance out and and honestly there's not a lot of fat um to to cut that the only thing that I I was uh talking to our uh director of building and grounds and we were just talking about energy use and you know looking at solar but even the impact of the cost saving there is not it's not a huge saving where it's going to give us half a million dollars in in in a year so it's um it's looking at small opportunities but then uh because of the uh the inflation cost the increase is outweighing that two uh% cap and that's what we're going to continue competing with we're competing with a 2% um budgetary cap with uh costs going up more than 2% all around uh so basically salaries are going up more than 2% and and that's kind of kind of like it's there's going to be a breaking a breaking point where we're going to say yeah we can't do anymore and then um we wouldn't want to be in a situation where we have to cut staff um and that's something since I've been here we haven't had a reduction in staff we haven't had the need to uh to limit that and and I think um we're just trying to make right with balance it out we did reduce um One music teacher last year okay at the high school okay thank you Jorge and um if we could could we jump I just want to make a quick comment on on slide 11 the the very last bullet point I know this is not necessarily particularly um exclusively a budget issue but I just want to applaud everybody involved on keeping that focus on the de Andi um and it's it's top of mind for me because I think here in Verona we're we're doing a really great job of setting the tone I want to make sure that that continues and and the reason it's top of mine I just saw a story on the national press in the Washington Post today uh I'm reading off the headline is that in States and fortunately this is not New Jersey but in states with laws that Target lgbtq plus issues School hate crimes um have more than quadrupled and I think by us setting the tone even though we're we're in a a positive State here uh I I just think that that is just really important that that even the mention of it in part of our budget is is just a really good thing and I want to applaud everybody for doing that thank you for that time thank you I just have um a couple quick things um the extraordinary Aid I know that's not something that we really can count on any particular number for it's kind of this magic hat thing that happens down in Trenton um with the potential for us receiving a large quantity of new students um into our schools is that something that we can go and say we need more at the end of the year or is that just like oh you get your million that you've gotten the last five years and we don't care that you have an extra 95 students extraordinary age is calculated basically and this is very big overview you for every student that's classified in your District depending on whether you are keeping them in house to educate them here the restriction on the program that they have or if they're going out of D so we get more money from extraordinary Aid if we keep more kids here so the way we can manipulate what we're receiving is by keeping kids in District which was the push several years ago to have L LSS and lldd in-house instead of tuition uh the students out uh which is why it makes sense to have the MD program or the um life skills program at the high school um the interesting piece about this the new housing is that all of these calculations are done with an October 15th snapshot so in the first year we will not have an October 15th snapshot because December is that second phase of move in so uh it won't be until the following year so there will probably be a lag depending on the number of students with disability that move in with that um the new housing and then in terms of the semi funds um now those are 40 students who receive Medicaid right is that as opposed to Med well special it's special ed Medicaid initiative okay yeah so it's it's not based on um income of a family it's just based on the severity of the disability okay um when we think about you know L me verse inflation and how we really don't have any fat to trim right so kind of projecting into not only the 2425 school year but also this 2526 and anticipating an increase not only necessarily from you know the housing but just in general the increase of student population I think that we can probably expect to see that how do we think that the the restructuring of the Middle School whether we're you know completely moving forward or partially moving forward for 2425 and then completely for 2526 how can we anticipate that that will impact budgetary needs well the board has has an opportunity I mean I went out early on and with um with the idea that I don't want to cut staff right but going forward um we want to reallocate staff where we can because we have need for special education staff at the elementary school an I'm at the high school and we have a need for classroom teachers and basic skills instruction at the elementary school so um while it won't probably impact our budget because it'll be a net neutral it will give us more of what we need so we can kind of assume that while it won't cost us more we'll be able to reutilize and won't have to hire more staff to to fulfill that need right across District right and then do we think that we're going to see any of that for 24 25 of any potential reoc uh not for not for 2425 okay definitely for 25 26 sometimes I feel like we're waiting through molasses and uh just real quick going off about like expected student increases in the budget how does that factor in for 2425 in terms of like let's say like support services or classroom like Material supplies and funding in that regard well interesting you can't budget for kids don't have yet in the school district so um it will be uh probably if we get a large bump in August it's probably going to be smoking mirrors and to try to you know take from Peter and pay paal um until the state catches up with um the kids that are that will be moving in yeah the projected enrollment for this budget is 2175 but we also that re to that's part of you know we have reserves so it's very likely that that would what you kind of Reserve from but that's that's the question that's a great question it is a great question and and also I think it where students are and what age students are um will be a big factor because if we're adding you know two kids to a a Kindergarten class that has no real significant but if we have to open up you know another class or another section or you know have to absorb kids more in even the high school and middle School level where we have yeah it definitely costs more to educate a high school student than it does to educate an elementary student where you have room in classrooms right right teach Jey will be walking around the schools Counting kids and desks and yes anyone else have any questions or comments and thank you again you I don't know where you how you figure all this out but thank goodness you do and just one more thing before we move off of the superintendent and uh business administrator report um it's preliminary and uh I know you as being a member of our qac team got this information uh we preliminarily uh received our scores for instruction program within 85% governance and operations both uh earned 100 % fiscal management 94% and Personnel 98% so um it was a a good showing um it was as Mr Zar said the friends and family qac monitoring uh they were very kind to us and allowed us to show them what we do and um we're very uh pleased with the results so and we are very what was their imp the year before we didn't get them we don't get them every year in Essex County interesting okay yeah they didn't give us our imp until the morning of qac are on-site monitoring this year interesting okay yeah can I ask an ignorant guy question on that why why is that the case in Essex County as opposed to others you know what I that's a good question and um I will have to look into it I know that in Morris County I received my imp scores every year regardless of whether we were being I'm going to use qac as a verb cacked or not um uh here it it just never I think probably this year um more so than any other years they don't have an Ed Ed specialist at the County office but um Dr Miller told me they never received their instruction and program numbers here we just went through the process of making sure our curriculum documents had everything that the state wants for compliance um but those test scores it's not something you can calculate on your own it's very and two years ago they were you know so last year and the year before they were based on 2019 change so you were you were taking 2021 do we have test scores in 2021 no 2022 was being compared back to 2019 which was a big problem for districts because there was a lot of learning loss yeah because because of that little thing called covid right so um I can go back uh Mr Waka and and look and see when was the last time they received their instruction program numbers here for test scores but um it just it just I'm not saying there's anything's untrue but I think there's a healthy skepticism because it just seems like if you got them every year in Morris I got him every year it just seems a little hard to believe um that that's all and we're I wasn't here so I can't speak directly to it I can just tell you what I smells weird and we're only five points above that that high water mark yes we are that's that's pretty darn close you know so that's and that's test scores because we got 100% on everything else that you didn't we didn't get dinged with attendance at all well graduation and chronic attendance all in in those like what's calculated for us so anything we have direct control over we got 100 on and instruction program I guess my question though is if if we if the because one of my biggest pet peeves now is that you're putting the one six of the students imp scores is going into that qac imp total and you know there's kindergarteners and preschoolers and first graders and second graders where if they're chronically absent that's going to detract from the kids that are actually taking the test and they have nothing to do with the attendance of the the kids in the the grades that are actually are tested right um and and I'm hearing left and right that because of that scores have been plummeting and at least 70 or 80 new districts that weren't were above the high M Mark are now below it um and the fact that we're so close and our our our SATs or SAT scores and AP scores are so high um I wouldn't be surprised if if if if that's affecting us highly negatively as well so I think it's definitely a cause for concern well we are we are working on our student attendance uh policy uh I talked about it a couple times at board meetings there's there's seven reasons that you can be excused in an absence under the state guidelines and there's religious holidays um take your children to workday jury duty I mean not jury duty um college tours if you're a junior senior and they're limited yeah there's there's but one thing that happened here in Verona several years ago I think it was in 2017 the attendance policy was Rewritten to say any absence is excused as long as a parent calls it in and we don't really there's really there's two things there's unexcused absence and state excused absence and everything else is an unexcused absence and and if you accumulate more than our policy says which for elementary students is chronically absent is if you're absent twice a month you are chronically absent by the state of New Jersey's calculation because that's 20 absences a year and we have 180 days in the school schol year so you're over that um percentage but it's become very uh we have a lot of chronic absenteeism here I think by changing our policy and by educating our parents that all absences regardless whether they're elementary middle or High School are unexcused until you reach a point where the attendance Review Committee which is made up of Administrators teachers school counselors the school nurse um and the school doctor of need sit down and take a look at the number of absences the are their doctor's notes was this a vacation to Bermuda you know all of the things that go into our attendance um that is will get better it's just a matter of educating because right now parents just call in my child's out and they're excused according to our Genesis system when I do the uh attendance report at the end of the year they are not excused under the state so they go in is chronic absenteeism so you're right Mr Waka it is hurting us um in that number and uh we're not far above the so just kind of piggybacking on that do we have any um protocols in place where there are notices that go out to families who only at the middle school and high school goes all automatically through Genesis the elementary um principles have not ever followed policy of sending a letter so we're supposed to send according to our policy and regulation we are supposed to send a letter after the first four absences after the eight absences etc etc and with the ultimate caveat is you need to be in school to learn and we're not giving that message and you know it's not um not an indictment of our elementary principles it's just the way things worked here for many years and so that was never a practice um we've already drafted an elementary uh form letter that we'll we'll begin to use in September we don't want to start using anything midy year but we'll begin to use it and and I think our parents have to know that if you are chronically absent you can be retained in the in the same grade level and you can also go to uh try Court yes at a few of those yes uh up till 16 they don't try Court won't take you after 16 but right yeah until 16 um okay so oh I did have one more do we receive any breakdown from the county as to what was in the QC scores each individual we haven't gotten it yet but we will we will okay so we'll be able to see yes we'll be able to see was okay what was graduation rate what was uh graduation rate that if you have a if you have a student who has to stay behind because they're sick or they or they are in an 18 to 21 program if they have significant disabilities that dings us correct yes and that's interesting because under the law we have to educate certain students with disabilities through their 21st year but if we do that it affects our attendance our graduation not attendance our graduation rate but that's true of every state every school in the state so if you have a high school um we you will be getting uh next meeting most likely we have a student I'm glad you mentioned um because of Health we have a student that's had very significant health issues um that will not be on track to meet the 130 credits for graduation so we're asking the board to reduce that to the state requirement of 120 for that student so that they can they've already gotten into college I mean yeah I mean not allowing them to graduate because of an illness yeah so I I'll be asking the board to approve that at the next meeting moving on uh rece if you want to give the student report yeah so I'm just going to start off with like a the student perspective for the Patell Consulting there were two days uh this week last week that's right uh Thursday and Thursday and Friday where the representatives from batell Consulting met with students for about an hour and a half two hours as a part of their speak up in schools program students were offered the opportunity to participate in the program through Club advisors uh during which they discussed school school climate before going into like some leadership training type activities um I got heard very positive feedback from students about this it's it was very action focused on like how you should be addressing concerns within your school what's the pro what's the best way to gather information before presenting concern that sort of thing in terms of even if it's in a smaller manner such as like implementing a new like event for your club or something like that so it was very action focused and focused on like student agency and that sort of thing so that there was a lot of positive feedback there and uh then just like a congratulations to the DECA team we in half of the attending members Advanced to the National Convention and competition level in Anaheim California and Alexa palano uh she's a junior within the club was elected to a state level officer position as the New Jersey vice president of media yeah and uh besides spring sports starting up on March 13th that's all for me say I was uh in the beginning I was in in the room when the students were at the high school were working with the Patell group and you have a fantastic group of students there to begin with so honest so upfront really clear in their thought process it was very impressive was a really I was only part I only participated in like sat in on one session but it was a very like active engaged group of kids who were like working with in who were already like working to make like their ideas happen within the school so it was great to see those kids like I'd love to see more programs that extend to like a wider range of students as well but like the leadership training that like it'll be put to good use as well right okay I don't I so actually right now uh we have the committee report from Athletics so hopefully this stays green the whole time it doesn't go back to Red um we talked about how winter sports had concluded uh we even had um one of our students set the school record in the mile indoors which is pretty awesome uh we talked about the start of the uh spring season I think that's Thursday or something like that where the the kids start playing their spring Sports so we wish the kids luck uh we talked about um something regarding one particular spring Sports programs the administration feels that they made uh a correct decision that's what they feel um and then we talked about uh potential upgrades for two other athletic programs um and I'm hopeing that the information that um you know we we talked about still going to be accurate because sometimes that seems to change in these athletic committee meetings that's all okay thank you and then I will open it up to public comments on agenda items but seeing no one in the audience I will close that and we can move on to discussion items of new and old business and I'm going to preempt Miss ferera and talk about Mean Girls um a little bit of a proud mom moment my daughter was in mean girl she was Dawn so if anyone saw her um that was I saw three times um over the course of the weekend I I had a tap out of the fourth one um but it was fabulous everyone that I saw that everyone I heard that saw it thought it was great um and if you still are into student musical theater this weekend hbw is doing Newsies so um that is going on starting on Thursday so that would be a great thing to do over the weekend anyone else have anything I learned that the Mean Girls hit a new record for ticket sales over two we had a over 180 definitely over 200 for at least half of the shows over 180 alone in pre-sales for every single show yeah I think that that's a testament of of how well that the you know how great the the shows are they get better and better every year and congratulations everyone yes so um in Old business where we left off with the administration stiens um well there are only two left there's only two there's only two left so like I think we all agreed that you know the teachers typing they're negotiated into the CPA and we're we're we're very content and proud of them um I I would suggest that you know the administration typist would just get rid of all of them well I mean Dr Miller uh was is this year received 3,000 for affirmative action officer and 2,000 for Title 9 um um coordinator um we really don't have many investigations there was one affirmative action investigation last year and one Title Nine and we used an outside investigator for both due to the sensitivity of of them um yeah I mean we've already reduced administrative stiens by $37,000 since I started in July 2022 um it's it's it's another Verona thing that's been happening here for a long time uh it's not common across other districts so um I can certainly talk to Dr Miller and let him know I I think that if if someone is going above you know their their job description I I think that people should be paid for it but you know I think that we should consider per Dam you know things in that when there is something that has to be done that goes beyond then I would be happy to agree right to pay for it but I think you said we had one affirmative uh one affirmative action uh yes um last year at hbw and one Title Nine also at hbw and so and you probably wouldn't know like how frequently are we is this like something that comes up like once every five years um this is the title n law has been effect in K12 school since 2018 this is the first Title Nine investigation that I've even experienced since 2018 okay and affirmative action comes up more often um generally but they're not as big investigation like the Title Nine investigation because I conducted it last year it it's a lot but they're so and they could I'm not you know I can't speak for them but if it's that important they could look to negotiate that into their next CBA yeah I think I would be comfortable with like what Miss Ferrera suggested that we come up with some for DM some like if there is a title n the title n officer will receive x amount whatever you know and I leave it up to the people that um know more to decide with that numers I think that would be more comfortable and it might be a little bit more palatable than just saying to somebody we're just going to take it away completely you know and you I'm not against that at all but why not I'm not why not let them why not let them negotiate that and then you know we we we find the number that way like I don't think that's a bad idea the other piece that's different this year um actually started last year is that the law actually says you need a Title Nine coordinator but you need a title n team so if you look on our website it lists all the team members that are and there was really only one stipended in that and so it's not a job that someone does alone anymore so is this something I know I think it was last year or several months ago we approved some some new job descriptions for some of our admins so I wonder if this is something that when we are you know thinking of job descriptions we can think of some needs that we have that may not necessarily come up all the time um and then write those into you know board Pro job descriptions and then yeah I'm a title line officer like it's it's right it's and it's there and then it's not yeah it's really contct unless you have a you know a large District where you have a lot of title on violations it's really just compliance making sure your website's up to date making sure all of your forms are accurate it is changing a little bit although um I don't know when they're going to release that that from the but currently the only person on that title 9 team that receives a stien would be the coordinator yes we have to do we have to move something or make a motion NOP we just won't put it back up for uh for approval okay is there anything else anyone wishes to discuss okay correspondence we have we have none that makes that easy uh so resolutions I will need a motion to um vote on Personnel resolution A1 through a A7 moved moved by Mr Walker second In by Mr Boon any discussion congratulations I guess to our two retirees yes that was nice okay so we will move on to the vote Mr wer yes Mrs Rella yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mr Boon yes motion carries okay moving on to education um I need a motion for resolution B1 through B4 but we're removing the uh the the October 17th um convention approval until later I guess we'll table that then do I need do I need I need a motion to table motion to table what you just said okay motion to table the October conference by Mr Waka do I have a second second okay second by Mr fera do I get a vote on that yes Mr wer yeah Mrs Vella yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mr Boon yes Mo motion carries to table the October uh conference thank you so then I will ask for a motion to approve B1 through B4 so moved moved by Mr Waka I'll second second by Miss ferera and go to vote Mr wer yes Mrs Della yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you okay okay the so moving forward to Athletics and co-curricular I need a motion to table C2 which is the um Cooperative hockey agreement I think one of the uh trustees just wanted some more information about how many kids are on the Verona how many what's the ratio of Glen Ridge kids to Verona kids and what the cost is and uh I don't think there's a mad rush to get this approved tonight correct uh we could table it for the next meeting yeah uh I believe they they just wanted it done before the F director wanted it completed before April so we could definitely can do it could do it okay so do I have a can I have a motion to table C2 I'll motion okay Mr Boon for the motion do I have a second Mr Waka is second so we will be voting on just C1 there's no more C3 so um can I have a motion to vote on he has to do roll call on Sor sorry roll call on for tbling C2 uh Mr Walker yes Mrs uh Vel yes Mrs farar yes Mr Boon yes motion passed okay and now on to C1 um do I have a motion um to approve that fera and second by Mr Walker any discussion seeing none um can we have roll call yes Mr Walker yes Mrs brazel yes Mrs perar yes Mr Boon yes motion carries C1 okay and moving forward to finance uh can I have a motion for E1 through e three wait moved and the second second second by Miss Ferrera any discussion okay can I have roll call please Mr Waka yes Mrs uh verela yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you okay and moving forward to governance and policy uh can I have a motion for F1 so moved moved by Mr Walker I'll second oh sorry second by Mr I think Mr Boom got it I I'm quick with that mute button any discussion okay seeing none um can I get roll call please Mr Walker yes Mrs prella yes Mrs Farrar yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you and I will now open up the floor to public comment on any item and see big crowd tonight seeing no one in the public I will close we do not need to go into confidential this evening okay so I I I'm sorry and forgive me if I'm out of order I just have one question about the tabling on C2 with the um the additional information would would that be shared on the finance committee or on the Athletics committee it would be on the athletic itic committee but we can discuss it um at the next board meeting for all of the members okay the question was for the extra information on um the um Glen Ridge Verona hockey when when would that be discussed on finance or and we could discuss it in finance we could discuss it in athletics or we could discuss it at the at the public meeting so Mr bu I'll I'll add it to the uh finance committee agenda and uh definitely could uh bring on the the monetary um share between Glenn rich and Verona on that one okay thank you okay anyone have any more comments or questions okay um then I will ask for a motion to adjourn motion I miss motion by Miss fera can I get a second come on second by Mr Walker so uh I don't know can I even I don't think I can second my own motion so um so I don't think I need VOC call it's just all in favor all in favor I okay then we we are done at 82 PM have a good evening everybody hey thanks everybody for making this work I really appreciate it I'll see you all in person next time thank you