my e and at the Vera Board of Education Office and on the Verona Public Schools district website copies of tonight's agenda and resolutions have been made available to the public via the Board of Education website Mr Cruz if you could please call attendance Mr wer yes Mrs Vella here Mrs Ferrar here Mrs prisco here Mr Boone here we have Corum thank so moved second Mr Waka yes Mrs Ral yes Mrs Ferrara yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion pass thank you thank you moving on to our agenda um tonight we have Childs they going to present um i' would like to call up Miss fire and here the podium thank you for being here ch good evening uh my name is Kristen Don Hugh and I'm the co-president of child which stands for children having individual learning differences um and this is Siobhan Meyer my co-president and Verona child is a nonprofit organization that was formed in 2006 one of our goals is to provide a forum for parents teachers and administrators to learn together and work hand inhand to bridge the gap between special and general education we've also presented workshops dealing with special education topics and have donated teaching tools and equipment to the elementary middle and high schools to help enhance special education classrooms teaching staff from all schools were invited to apply for grants that would enhance the learn learning environment for special education students the grant could provide excuse me a secondary benefit to general education students within the classroom this year child is awarding three $500 grants to Verona staff the first winner is Linda Baron from Verona High School Miss Baron is a special education teacher at Verona High School she teaches English History Science and life skills she requested a subscription to newella which would enable her to adjust the reading levels of the same article as there can be a variety of reading levels in one of her classes some benefits of the subscription are high interest informational texts which are attractive to reluctant readers and the collaboration on assignments and projects which which would lead to Greater engagement and rise in confidence levels for all students Mrs Baron I don't think was able to join us this evening so she will uh she'll receive her Grant after after tonight our second winner is Tatiana fella for Avenue Elementary School Miss fella is the resource room teacher at Forest Avenue Elementary School she requested items that will provide a multi-sensory experience for students in the Forest Avenue resource room scientific research has proven that in multi-sensory classrooms students are better able to interpret comprehend and synthesize information as they can use more than one sensory input to make connections a multi-sensory approach increases engagement concentration Focus attention improves alertness awakens memories improves mobilization improves creativity and increases learning so congratulations uh our third winner our third winner is Felicia kamacho from Landing Avenue Elementary School uh Felicia Miss Felicia is an RBT registered behavioral technician at Landing AV Avenue element school she requested reinforcers that promote positive behavior for the LSS classrooms which is the self-contained program at Lanning many students need a variety of reinforcers for motivational purposes items can become costly especially with students who have different interests and preferences the reinforcers can be helpful particularly when students become overstimulated some examples are po poppets fidgets sensory buckets and a small trampoline thank you m come out show and if the board doesn't uh mind we're going to take a quick picture in front of our our logo up here thank you so much to the board for the time tonight we really appreciate it you for all you do for our students and our staff thank you so much and Mrs prisco if I may I I get a lot of feedback from various folks in the community about all the good work that child does uh not just with Verona schools but also the sensory story time at the library uh really means a lot uh to just this entire community so thank you thank you sure let me uh allow me to share my screen all right good evening everyone uh so this is finally our final budget um so a lot of work has been put in uh on the administration superintendent uh along with the finance committee of the board uh so uh I'm happy to report that uh we did receive our uh approval from the county on April 11th uh So based on this budget timeline that we've all seen in the past uh April 11th um was the following date and then uh finally we're here April 30th for the adoption of our budget so I'm going to fast forward uh into the numbers um and uh one of the things um with our budgetary goals uh um as you all know in Verona we uh we pride ourselves in maintaining our class sizes and I know I know that sometimes there are challenges uh especially with uh competing needs but that's something that uh it's actually at the core of uh what we intend in in every single year when we uh put together our budget uh there are going to be some challenges in this new budget in 2425 specifically around uh Federal funding so as you all know uh covid uh the underlying uh blessings of covid was all of the uh federal aid that schools districts were receiving so right now we're uh basically scraping the bottom of the barrel uh when it comes to Asser funds uh so that is all uh gone for 2425 uh we do have two uh actually three out of classroom teachers that are funded with these federal dollars that we will have to absorb uh so a lot of of dollars that we normally relied on these uh Federal AIDS are now has to be actually absorbed uh by the school district so just so we uh understand that um the future years are going to be a little more challenging just because we don't have those Federal AIDs that uh we were receiving um previously so for new for 2425 we do have an additional buildin uh one FTE for a special ed teacher uh a one FTE for a kindergarten teacher 0.5 for ESL uh 0 five for sack at Verona High School and the continuation of uh expanding our professional development throughout the district and speaking on the numbers uh uh 42425 the tax levy increas is 2.52 that includes uh so tax levy is capped at 2% uh this does include a uh health benefit waiver because our our actual Health cost has uh risen uh it's about 7% 42425 uh it does cover a portion of that so that extra uh 52% is to help the the school District covered those uh competing on costs uh and even though we capped at 2% uh just note that there are competing uh increases in a lot of cost with uh as you all know uh Consumer Price Index uh with inflation right now is a little around hovering around three and a half% uh we also have uh other costs like Insurance Etc that is uh over it's double digits it's about 12% so a lot of these things are are actually catching up after Co uh so we're hoping that we see those uh numbers kind of like come down and and and uh end up plateauing at some point hopefully for the 25 26 school year so for our uh state aid um the increase in state aid uh for 2425 is 29695 uh the to Total 1.6 million and there is an excess Surplus that's coming and additional fund balance that's coming from the uh fy2 uh3 f fund balance that that we generated which is 1.4 million and that's actually an increase of 3.1 million so this try actually just has our uh so for some folks that is are not able uh to see the screen this is going to be posted online has a a year-to-year comparison for the last three years and also the last column shows are our change and percent change on this slide you will see a breakdown a pie chart with uh as you all see the uh benefits takes a big chunk almost uh a a fourth of that Pi uh gen ad education is the largest piece followed by a special ad special ad is broken down by categories as far as instruction uh outo District tuition um which is at 8% uh also other related services in special education such as speech otpt uh and related Services the child study team guidance uh the CIA Department uh School administration the maintenance of schools and custodial services and then this is a similar pie chart that just breaks it down by cost so it's um the same exact uh as the previous but it actually has the dollar figures uh as I mentioned previously this will be shared uh via our website tomorrow morning and lastly uh just to go into the comparison of uh before I turn it over to superintendent dppi uh this is a comparison of our expenditure so here we have our our salaries our benefit uh cost uh comparison year to year for the last three years uh and basically showing the total uh increase of 5.39% uh from last year or from this current school year and I'll turn it over to thank you I do want to um just make a couple of comments about the the difficulty of uh the budget here in Verona um we have a very very um tight budget it makes it very difficult when we talk about class size class sizes are large um across the district in most places um and we are bursting at the seams a little but I did a a brief comparison um Madison uh public schools has 2450 students their budget is $57 million we have 2150 students our budget is $40 million so and I can go on Mountain Lakes Berkeley Heights um Caldwell West Caldwell a little over 2500 students 57 million um as well so U we are starting off in a spot that makes it difficult to budget 2% doesn't make it any easier and um it it does uh it's a testament to the work that Mr Cruz does that we were able to get make that budget work within the confines of a 2% increase and only one position was reduced and that person is still working in the district it just went from a coaching position to a teaching position um it makes um it's it would be very difficult to have a reduction in force because we're lean to begin with you can think about um where to go to even find that money which is why we're looking to change the house structure at hbw um we're making small changes uh to the schedule for next year to increase um some instructional time the following year you'll see a change from the house structure the house structure does a lot of good things but it also is uh very very costly so um going back into um the slideshow I just want to see it here because I can't see it over there so some of our instructional curriculum and instruction uh initiatives um we are focused on literacy and improving our New Jersey student learning assessment scores in um in ela and math um but we are also looking at a change in the standards um that are uh were approved this year the literacy standards are ve very different from what we currently have so that is uh an initiative to um change uh program that we're using and and potentially we have to write curriculum uh good news uh from the state they are considering um putting off the requirement that you have your new curriculum in math and language arts um instead of being K12 written K12 in one year they are giving us an extra year um it's not it's still in the works but it looks like it's going to pass which will help districts like uh like Verona um because it's costly to write and it's hard to find writers for every grade level so we're we'll be looking at reviewing our elementary literacy programs to support those new standards um we are doing professional learning uh with Ka Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 to support our Singapore math programs which are dimensions in K5 and amplify in 612 um we have a new social study series it's this is I think it's third year yeah third year of implementation uh so supporting that and continuing to support an inquiry based science um instruction uh through Smithsonian um we will be writing a new science curriculum um that better matches with the New Jersey student learning standards for uh science which really are the Next Generation science standards um We are continuing with letters which is language Essentials for teachers of reading and spelling and we continue to administer math growth assessments um all the way up into the high school now um and I spoke about curriculum you can advance the slide uh so we started um in January with uh was it January I no I'm sorry it was um the beginning of the yeah was the third marking period with the positivity project character education program at hpw um other than um you know peer mediation and conflict resolution in the elementary schools there was no formal program uh in any of our districts so we're starting with the positivity project at hbw and we just had another debrief meeting with the teachers that are implementing and uh it's going very well so we are looking at districtwide professional development so looking at taxonomy of the standards uh and that is when teachers will unpack a standard into its component parts looking at um where it is in the level of rigor and really trying to match their lessons with the with the rigor level of the standards uh we are working on creating professional learning communities uh we are going with a new teacher evaluation model which is much more about growth model than it is about a compliance model and uh helping teachers really begin to differentiate instruction and um that is a a a focus for next year for all teachers and um in doing that we provide a much better tiered system of supports or response to intervention uh program which uh used to be called Intervention referral services in New Jersey it's now uh called multi-tier system of supports but that differentiation of instruction is a tier one strategy so it's it's something that we really need to take a a good look at and continuing uh to focus on diversity Equity inclusion and belonging um with regard to special services uh I can personally say that our inclusion at the elementary school pilot this year uh worked well I I'm sure we all knew it would and we will be expanding that in to um uh fourth grade for next year um and that's what the teacher that you see on our in our budget is to help expand that program um we are going to be in year two actually I'm going to say year one and a half because it took a little time to get the life skills classroom up and running um at the high school um as I said increase increase in ICI which is what we call inclusion here in in uh Verona um and continuing to train our pars at rbts you can thank you so in this slide we actually have our uh comp districts as you see Verona is highlighted at the end uh which shows the per pupil cost uh comparing to our comp uh districts and uh class supplies extracurricular and um also the average property tax in each Township when it comes to uh tax levy increase uh the impact on uh Verona residents um is that uh um that total 42 um million uh 419 uh and you see the year-to-year comparison and uh the increases in Debt Service uh so de service is only increasing by 5,000 this year and uh the largest increase is in the operating budget so what does that mean uh to the average taxpayer uh so the uh Township valuation you see that uh uh 2.4 uh billion is the township valuation on residents uh the tax levy is that 42 million doll number the rate is uh 0.17 um so that rate on an average home that's $434,000 that is average assessed home uh is averaging uh $ 7,678 and10 uh so that is an increase of $161.2 so the facts of this budget is that uh the total increase is that 2.52 number uh which is that um average increase of $161 per per household uh the average home assess in Verona is 43457 and the average uh currently um being uh taxed right now is uh 7,517 uh so those are your comparison and U the the bottom um takeaways from this budget so I'm not sure if anyone has any questions um so that's actually my presentation for today thank you yeah J if I could comment so you know I probably wouldn't comment on this if if we had an empty house but we have a a packed house tonight and we all know I that we have a packed house tonight we we get nj.com and nor jersey.com as well um but let's use this as an opportunity to talk about this slide where there was the comparables about with other towns uh and that's that's called a district factoring Group which means that this is towns that have a similar amount of property value um and a similar amount of of the income that the the the people that live in those houses have and if if if you're someone that is happy that Verona has to do so much with such a limited resource uh that's one thing I understand that opinion and if you're someone that is you know regretful that Verona had to do so much with such limited resources um that's also another opinion that I can respect um but you know when 2014 before 2 before Governor Christie came in districts had a a whole lot of autonomy as to how much they could raise the local property tax school tax levy right and then uh Governor Christie came in and you know I voted for him once and another time I didn't vote for him um and I don't think he did a terrible job uh but one of the things he did was he said there's only going to be a maximum increase of 2% that school boards can afford to a local property tax levy um so because we were in a position where our number was so low when that law was enacted by Governor Christie now the most we could do is 2% which means we're always going to be catching up uh and if you were a town that had had you know a pretty high property tax value or High School tax levy um then then that 2% is is is less meaningful to you but um I understand the exact constraints that that Jorge is under and that Diane's under in that you know of course we want to do so many things for all the kids and build a million different programs right um but the way that the position we were in when that law was enacted is is kind of forced to be in a position where a board or or a superintendent might only be able to do one or two things in in in their tenure or in their in their term and and so they have to be really careful about what they want to accomplish and and given all these constraints that we have and given the fact that we were last on that list like we were the last one on that list the fact that I see the things that my son is is had the opportunities he's been given the chance to be part of and and all his classmates have been given a chance to be part of I'm just really proud of what you've done and what you've done and I I know some people think it's you know us patting each other to the back but it it's not that like I get how valuable each single dollar is and the fact that we're still able to produce so many opportunities for all our kids I just want to say whoos thank you thank you and if I could just go and we don't have to go all the way back but the the pie charts uh slides what really stood out to me is if you look at all the programs that on a daily basis directly impact a student that's about 75 to 80% of what is spent um that's not like it's all like the gened the special all the way over to guidance like if you want to like cut out School administration which I think we do need to include school administra but like that is a significant amount of our budget and I think that um again not to Pat ourselves on the back I think that goes towards our strategic plan and our strategic goals to make sure that our students um are always at the Forefront of any decision we make and when we which I hope we don't have to do have to make tough decisions um that we try to look elsewhere um when possible and hor before this uh this current board came to power how much more did we spend towards administrative stiens that we've gotten rid of since um in last a couple years budget as to now no so so the stiens has been significantly reduced uh so I think uh when I first three years ago there was a lot of uh I I just it was mindboggling how many stens uh and I just thought that it was normal uh and then when I started comparing I was like yeah would it be fair to say this board is reduced the administrative stri by up by over $30,000 37 yeah next year will be over 40 yeah thank you and and go ahead go ahead oh no no so I just wanted to add that uh the the other part is like uh I think one thing that uh Veron is unique in um compared to other uh surrounding districts uh that I've talken to colleagues where they're actually cutting and they're eliminating positions and things like that so I think we we've been fortunate to be able to maintain uh the Staffing and being uh very strategic in and how we are backfilling positions and being able to retain and not be in a position where okay now we have to eliminate and and and Rift positions because we we won't be able to afford them so I think that's something that we we we we value and we want to make sure that we continue uh having a balanced budget that's going to support all students so we we didn't cut any positions but I know we talked in the past it was 2019 2020 before I think any of us were here to be be honest um there was that one year we had to cut a whole lot of Secretarial staff and other support staff is that accurate uh you know what that's a good question I wasn't here I don't know I'm not sure I think that was 2017 2018 okay so was before so a budget where we're not cutting but but expanding with the 2% being that we were at the lowest level I think that's a good thing thank you I just have a quick question um so I think you know we've spoken about this at length um but for next year we're anticipating a significant increase of students across the district we don't know yet where they'll be um and then taking into account that we know 2425 is going to be a challenging year without that um and then I know that across the state this year we saw um a significant amount of funds cut typically I think through the equalization Aid we as as as a smaller town we don't typically get as much Aid as some of the bigger towns but do and I know that this is a very hypothetical question but I'm curious for next year do we think that we may be hit with that same Equalization a issue because of the income that we're seeing come into town um so I think that this is something that we may want to consider because if we are already getting a small amount of state aid and then we do get hit I know that I I I believe that this is going to to legislation right but um I don't anticipate that we would have an answer by the next budget year so is that that an area where where we may see those same Cuts as larger districts did I don't I don't I don't foresee that um I would hope not obviously uh the one good thing right now at the Department of Education is that Kevin dmer the acting commissioner is a is a finance person and understands um he was the he was the Jorge of the state right he was the ba um and uh they are looking at a new funding formula so either way if it if it gets passed and gets signed by the governor um we'll see a change in the way schools are funded hopefully um it will see it we'll see an increase not a decrease you don't see any uh Equalization a going away for us too no no so we've uh on the state side um in the last three years our state has been going up so uh as you mentioned uh we we don't have a a b a huge Reliance on on it but it does uh supplement our budget uh tremendously so even uh an increase of $200,000 it does uh support uh the district and goes a long way and um you know I'm guilty of it like I asked my wife over here she's the one that fills in all the the forms at the beginning of the school year but a lot of people don't realize that the most important form you're going to fill in we've a full house so hopefully people can kind of spread this word the most important form you're going to fill in is your school lunch aid app you know application because that's what 99% of districts in New Jersey use to show the state that they deserve to have more money and um you know I I think that there's a certain stigma out there and certain communities about you know reporting income or or or showing what you actually have but it's only going to help the district fiscally if if we get people as many people as possible hey filling out the form it's not required right but that data and that form is is what Jorge is going to use to show the state here's how much money we deserve um so you know the the what I'm going to do is a board members just keep pressing Jorge promote promote promote that form because that form is our our gold in a lot of ways for this District lead money on the table right and the reality of it is um it when uh the new complex does open in August we're going to get an influx of people that are qualifying for lower income homes um that may push us into the realm of the national school lunch program anyway which then we we won't be relying on people completing form those forms are that's automatic yeah and just just no one panics like just because we qualify for national school lunch doesn't mean we have to accept it like that that'll be discussion for another day right uh but it but it's that data from that form that's Jorge is going to use to show how much you know we should get from the state and that's quite so important thank you thank you so um given the presentation and uh Mr Cruz and uh my budget uh that will be my report but I do have one just little shout out um for those of you that are know anything about theater uh know that and I hope I'm not taking your thunder am I re okay um paper mill Playhouse does rising star nominations uh every year and I'm very very very proud to say that Faith Broly um received a nomination for outstanding performer in a female identified supporting role for her role as Janice in mean girl agenda is our student yeah so um I'm going to keep it short as well tonight so um just real quick the National Honor Society will hold its annual induction ceremony to recognize new members on May 2nd and uh AP testing will begin at the high school starting May six and continuing until May 17th this year 565 individual exams will be administrated and uh just in addition to Faith's nomination back in the fall we ALS I'd also like to highlight like crew nominations from uh the rising stars program including for hair and makeup as well as costume designs came out a few weeks ago they came out scattered but were okay I just saw the the acting nominations thank you for for bringing that up moving on to our committee yes we met you can take okay I will try to keep this quick as well um so policy met for our first readings um we spoke mostly mostly to um policies in equity and education which were uh for the most part just State mandates so they were just kind of cleaned up and updated and looked through um we are also up the sportsmanship policy with that however um we can expect to see a new updated student and athlete handbook coming out this year which was something that um we felt was um much needed uh so we're looking forward to uh that handbook and and being able to really um use it as a way to um hold true to the expectations of of behaviors for for all students um and then the others were really around security policies uh we spoke to these last uh meeting during our security committee update where we went through and started looking through uh those policies and determining which ones a need to be updated and B how we can ensure that the policies are being implemented being read being implemented um consistency across across the district or consistently I should say across the district um and that was really it do I miss anything Diana I just have one question you mentioned the student athlete handbook how how does that compare with um State guidance in terms of our I mean we you the there's the the NJ Sports Association regulations where where does this go beyond that well we haven't seen a a draft it yet I think um Miss Palmer is working on it over the summer um but once we get a draft of it we'll be able typically though I believe that the mandates come from the state right the statutes come from the state then the regulations come from the board then the then the policy the hand come so it's not we're not making up on our own it's it's all kind of stems from the statute and follows down and then yeah and a athletic handbook is kind of like a code of conduct for our athletes um you know it's an extracurricular it's it's it's not included in a freee and appropriate education it's an extracurricular right um and it's a privilege and and we want to make sure that we have a good um responsibly how to be I mean and our kids are great right we want sportsmanship award almost every year for the past five or six years or more uh as Mrs palmeri pointed out um at our last meeting but it's always good to have guidelines I think it's also just a matter of ensuring that our our procedures are being followed right that each year that when students are um asked to check a box or or sign something before they begin that there's that there's a handbook that they are being encouraged to read and that it's updated um because I think just simply updating documents it's like anything right if I if I read something that was written 10 years ago it holds a lot less weight for me than if it was updated six months ago so I think that just really um making it a priority as a board to review these policies to ensure that the procedures are there is is important for that reason alone yeah I can Y no I got um most of the finance was the presentation but just to kind of go through a couple things that were um publish the uh the fiscal budget uh the Pompton I know because there's a lot of people here so I'll talk about that Pompton lunch menu um the new uh prices have come back we've pushed back a bit on some of the increases and so we're waiting to hear back from P tonian um about uh if we're going to have any adjustments and what they're going to be we you know we we're trying to minimize what we can um particularly the more popular items um I would like to see those get a little bit of a smaller increase uh where Poss I think we I shouldn't say I it's not just me but we as a community would like to see that um Brown and Brown those are our health um insur Brokers they came back with the health insurance plans um and so we're we're looking for some looking through them and and those are in align with the budget um there is a re revised building usage form um every time any organization whether it's part of the school system the rec department an outside organization there supposed to fill out a a form that tells us everything and some some um entities will are charged different rates based on who they're associated with so we just updated that form and that's um available and then we are looking at a proposal to change I think actually it might be on the agenda uh to change who yeah the attendance to change who tracks our attendance um right now the cost of Frontline is almost double what this new company is and they have the same functionality um it just makes sense to to switch it over and uh see how we can uh have some savings and I think that's it anything I missed Mr Boon I have a question if I could jump in so I know that every few years we're required to put out the public bid the uh the school lunch service and I'm not saying I have opinions either way about our current service but I I I do appreciate the capitalistic idea of you know let's see if someone can come in offer a better service for a cheaper price when's the next time that our um our food service vendor is is for public bid uh we talked about that in the finance committee um and I think we've talked about a couple times here I think the current plan is to see how many additional free and reduced lunch program um applications we get so that way we're going out if we if we decide as a board to go out as uh under the federal food lunch program we're going out for that program versus we're going out now for a different program and I totally agree with that but but I also think there's a requirement that and Kyle you are legal like every so often we have to put this particular agenda item out to bid no matter what correct five years so what year are we in now so this is year four so they're we're entering uh their last year so uh 2425 we'll have to give put that out for bid no matter what and give everyone a chance to tour the facilities to see if they want to put in a price for us absolutely so we will have to complete that RFP by the spring very good but but I do think that it's important to see because right now from my understanding um students who do qualify for free and reduced lunch that lunch is paid out of our budget because we are not part of the national school lunch program so if we have 150 students come in 100% potentially who qualify we're looking at a significant amount of money out of our budget to pay for those lunches so we that's why it's so important and that could be something we negotiate to the RFP is that correct torge yes where we ask for a certain amount of Kickback or something like that uh however we design the RP exactly so so I think in the RP we could um we could actually uh talk about the cost structures and the management fees and and and those um pieces but uh they do have uh certain things like rebates that the board actually get gets from yeah I think the only requirement is that 50% be the cost correct but we could choose what the other 51% be the cost we could choose what the other 49% as far as our our metrics is that accurate uh so that's probably with like a program like National School launch uh so right now we fully fund the entire operation so we talking about kitchen staff U so our our lunch program here in Verona is 100% um self-funded interesting very good and when the um New housing opens the way from my understanding it's going to open the first group is going to be in August those I believe are most of the two and three bedroom homes um so we should have a good kind of idea early in the school year as to a percentage of people that may qualify for free and reduced lunch um so that way we can use those numbers to um educate ourselves as a board as to what we want to do going forward and and even if we do um decide to explore the free and reduced lunch we still are able to use private companies like antonian or masiat it all has the option it's just really what is instead of fried food it's baked food it's it's kind of like those those those mandates right see the Grove uses pomptonian and they are free they have national school lunch program so they all kind of have like yeah they all have it yeah they all have it should I have about that August you know we all drive by it and we see like it looks like they're making a whole lot of progress on that the development that maybe you can answer this but how why do we think August is that's what they told us who's day the company the to mention August but I believe when they mentioned August they mentioned that it was going to be about 12 units so that's not really a lot out of six August and then December is the next phase correct yeah it was August December March yeah when I this be a slow gradual kind of thing it looks like yeah it will and um it's good and bad points so our numbers for state aid won't change until the following the 26 yes because it's an October 1 St snapshot so we won't there it won't be enough of an impact with the August move in to really move the needle on any increase in state a it's unfortunate okay oh I just wanted to because I did look it up um because my daughter sent it to me the uh for the um sorry I lost my train of thought the play in the fall the nominations Julia nagales got outstanding got nominated for outstanding achievement in student makeup design and outstanding achievement in student her and wig Kaa I am so sorry I am gonna mess up your name gusak Kakak outstanding achievement in student stage management and then the whole um mcast got out nominated for outstanding achievement by an acting ensemble in drama so murder cast was amazing amazing all in accents they did guess my new and old businesses um I know we have votes coming up in the public comment but reys I saw that you got accepted at the college and as far as you know a student reping the board you're as good as they got and I'm so proud of you and I'm just I was just so proud and happy that you know to see a great person accomplish something amazing so congrat re thank thank you very much yeah it's been incredible being on the board for the past two years and um yeah I I'll I'll be looking forward to tuning in to live streams to approve personel resolution A1 A4 so moved I'll second motion by Mr W seconded by Mr Bo any discussion no Mr BR can you please call Mr Walker yes Mrs Bella yes Mrs Ferrara yes Mrs prisco Mr Boon yes motion carries so moved Mr wer yes Mrs frella yes Mrs Ferrara yes Mrs prisco Mr Boon yes motion carries moving Finance I need a motion to approve resolution B1 so moved quick question what's what's Red Rover Technologies that's the attendance that's the thing very I'm sorry Mrs prisco I did have a question and it it's not a challenge of by any means on E9 um what does this um nice $500 Grant allow us to do at FN um FN Brown for the pure mediation I I mean from Context it's pretty clear but I'm just curious to see how that looks in real life I actually have to look up Dr lano's um I have to check my backup hang on one second I'm not sure that's okay just off the top of my head don't know what they're going to use it for I did just while while we're reading I did want to thank um in this point in this part I want to thank child who we celebrated today the Verona community garden VII who is incredibly um strong and generous in the community and the New Jersey Bar Association because we spoke much to it today but um these grants though they be they may be small um really do impact and make a difference so thank you to the organizations I'm gonna have to get back to you on that because I can't find his email at the moment second by are there any other questions M Waka yes Mrs Bella yes Mrs Ferrara yes Mrs prisco Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you some second Mr Walker yes Mrs Vella yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon motion carries I have the answer to Mr Boon's question too I found the backup it was hard copy not electronic um it is the five $500 will be applied as follows building based program 375 that is goes back into the peer mediation program Transportation costs so back and forth to um the Law Center down by Ruckers thank you hey everyone um this is just on behalf of the board uh we want to address your concerns regarding recent articles in the Bergen Record and New Jersey at nj.com which discuss litigation against the Board of Education and some specific staff members we cannot comment on specifics of the matter at this time as it involves confidential student information under the law and active litigation however uh the board as a whole want to assure you that at all relevant times the district has had policies and proced procedures in place to address all allegations of criminal activity including child abuse and criminal sexual cond contact it's important to note that District staff including board members and superintendents principes and anyone who associated with with the Board of Education are required to report any potential child abuse in accordance with New Jersey Law District staff are also required to report any allegations of criminal sexual cont act in accordance with the same New Jersey laws and the state department of education's uniform State memorandum of agreement between education and law enforcement officials failure to do so would subject the individual staff member to disciplinary action within the district and the potential action against their teaching license by the state of New Jersey consistent with these Provisions the district and staff immediately notify law enforcement officials and other state investig investigatory authorities when there is reason to believe that potential child abuse or criminal sexual contact has occurred these Protocols are consistently followed to ensure that the safety and well-being to ensure the safety and well-being of our students the district fully cooperates in the investigation conducted by these authorities related to those accusations and any recommendations or directions from the law enforcement agencies regarding actions appropriate or necessary to ensure that all students are safe the district will respond to the allegations in the complaint at the appropriate time through the legal process as we are required to do however due to the ongoing nature of civil litigation and due to the confidential nature of student information we cannot further comment at this time we thank you all for your understanding and support as we navigate this process we will listen respectfully and carefully to everyone's comments today we will take notes um and we will respond two questions as much as we can at our next meeting I hope you understand that most of us up here are parents either with students that are active in the school system or have recently graduated from the school system we understand your concern we understand your I don't even know concern just upset upsetness I don't that's not even a word but I understand it I I have two children of my own um and and we are members of your community so you know we're not trying to put a wall up we are obligated to protect people to protect minors in this type of situation so thank you thank you Mr I could jump into um just because we can't comment what you're going to say doesn't mean it it's not we're not going to listen it doesn't mean it's not going to affect us and impact us and and and kind of be the kind of thing that stews within us so you know everything you say we're just going to listen to and we we we be here for as many people as need to speak right so let's do it so um we're gonna open the form to public comment you can please state your name um we ask that you speak for three minutes we have the timer we do have a policy in place um that's been set for I don't know how long but um for one hour of time so um hopefully we can get to everyone who wants to speak so if you would like to go up to the podium just you all you need to do is just state your name and you have three minutes thank you and again thank you for being patient with us and being here this evening my name is Jennifer I have a student f are the bathrooms hallways videotaped at F Brown can you answer anybody answer I'm putting my mic on sorry okay sorry it's okay um we have cameras throughout the hallways is not legal to put a camera in a bathroom the hallways the hallways yes even since the lawsuit you have footage how long does the footage stay I believe uh the records retention is 31 days is what we follow okay and if we request Dr Lanzo to step down and Dr Graziano to step down excuse me if we request Dr Lanzo to step down now and Dr Graziano you're requesting them Mrs Graziano I'm nervous yes I understand it's hard to speak in front of a crowd so you're requesting that they step down yes thank you Mrs Rogers love door her but there's doubt and as a principal that is your house I know these are allegations but it presents doubt thank you excuse me Jennifer I'm sorry I'm sorry can you just I think you just said Jennifer can you just give us your last name do I have to no starts with a p i mean it's recorded is it recorded no no okay okay I've been there I've been there for many years can I ask one more question I still have a couple minutes you have time how long until we find out how long do you find out what about the case that's ongoing that's up to the civil court system so that's like a year it's I I it really depends on the case there's no timetable I can give you that and then if anything is against the teacher or the principal or anybody is that when something would happen to them we can't speak the Personnel matters okay thank you hi uh Peggy sorry it is song I won't be long I won't be three minutes uh Peggy Kenrick and um you just brought up a good point I've been here to speak to you all before and I asked a question about videotape and and it was I was told it was 31 days of retained film and I asked at that time which was last fall we're probably coming up on maybe nine months since I was here and asked for that to be changed and I think we all understand now even more so why that needs to be changed 31 days is ridiculous I'm sorry and I explained to you at the time it's it's a server issue we don't have the storage okay but then let's put I I I and I'm sorry respectfully it's frustrating to me because we'll put up a go fundme now and put it together I mean this is absolutely insane that we don't have this 31 days so it's not on you people individually I'm sorry I'm I'm this is clearly I um we all have a big concern about this but I think it's it's time to take action so thank you thank you jump in real quick if and this is an it question um if the district can reach out to the IT person and sometimes if you make the cameras only activate when there's motion sensor then they'll only already there thank you thank you for that I I just have a quick question is is that and this may seem ignorant so I apologize but is that something that we're able to do are we able to do G fundme for budget line I just want to know if that's a if that's a viable I I really don't know okay so I just want to um add into uh the servers SL so one of the things that uh the chief technology officer and I have been discussing is um uh our Ser servers are already dated I think they're about eight years old so it's already uh getting to a point where it's time so one of the the budget line items um in this proposed budget or this adopted budget that we just actually adopted today uh is basically replacing uh the service which uh if uh the board agrees to it it will be done over the summer yes so I I'd be very I'm sure the board would very likely agree if if we could have our vendor come and talk to us um maybe maybe not even just a committee but in in in general public session be like here's the deal with how long a camera can last in a school system here's the price if you want to end it and if we can get those facts and make it public I think that'd be a good thing okay and then also one more thing I'm sorry but um I I don't I don't remember exactly when but I believe it was in the past maybe six months to a year was that where we added a security line into the budget and then had additional cameras put into every school yes we started that yes for this so This is actually year two of the addition of that okay thank you Laura siligato um I wrote something but before I read what I wrote um I just want to start by saying you know I appreciate the attempt at making a statement however I don't believe what you're saying today I don't believe you followed policy I don't believe you followed protocol and I I don't think you can say that to us today until it's proven in court I have two daughters at effn Brown and a son that will be there in a few years I'm a very active member of the community and of our school I'm here tonight out of concern sadness and fear for my children's safety and safety concerns for our entire District we need to know that our children are safe when they go to school and this past year alone the district has proven to have a pattern of negligence disregard for our children's safety and an ongoing lack of communication transparency and accountability there are now known incidents of abuse in all levels of Education in this District just in this last year alone two of them being sexual abuse what are you doing to show us that our children are safe so far your actions have only proven that you care about your jobs and your reputation this repeated lack of action speaks volumes at this point I have zero trust that our children are your priority and that their well-being is not at the Forefront of every decision that's being made the district is responsible for their academic success but also their emotional psychological and social well-being how can you sit here tonight and tell us that our children even make your list of priorities knowing what hap what has been made public in this recent lawsuit for you to sit here and say that you are have any care concern is just a lie it's just a lie you continue to rely on the fact that you can't speak because it's an open case that you're cooperating and following protocol but we're not just talking about one incident we are talking about repeated patterns of abuse so your protocols and your cooperation after the fact means nothing your lack of action to protect our children in the wake of this abuse tells us all we need to know about who and what you prioritize what actionable steps have you taken and will you continue to take to begin to prove to us that our children are safe I don't actually want to hear your answer to that I want action because your words are meaningless I think a suspension of the name staff in this lawsuit would be a good start and since Miss dppi is identified in this lawsuit I think you need to recuse yourself from these decisions therefore I Look to You board members to step up as our elected representatives and start taking action to protect our children thank you Mr elato hi um did the school call child I I don't want to announce my name that's fine did the school CH call do I have to all right Stacy Wrangle there y'all go did the school call Child Protective uh services in connection with this matter can youall answer that as reflected in the statement the board cannot respond and District canot respond regarding specific student matters or active litigation yeah is that is that in y'all's policy matter of state law that we can't speak as to student matters yeah I'm sorry state and federal law it's state and federal law it's fura and New Jersey uh Student Records uh we are not and and I do most some of you might know I I actually practice in this area of law um and I'm not giving legal advice but I am just saying that that is what the law is that we can't comment in public about specific student matters so y'all can't say if the boy was interviewed by Child Protective Services or if any professional outside of the school system at all okay heard the statement as to what would happen in a procedure uh the policy and and the law in terms of what happened but in terms of this specific matter no the board is not able to to respond with specific information as to these students is this alleged Predator still in our school yes please uh why is the teacher and principal still active in this school y'all answer that a back and forth you have our response in terms of of I'm asking a separate this is a different question well same thing with respect to Personnel there's also state law regarding Personnel matters so again you can ask as many questions you want but the same answer is coming back to each of them so if like the alleged what teacher in high school he was alleged did it and he got kicked out what about the alleged student does that make sense see the difference here I don't think you have factual information with regard to any allegations that's correct um there's a person in jail is what you're referring to but that's an entirely separate matter but again we have no comment Beyond this so again I'm not going to respond further right how you doing I'm Luke stefanac I get it there's no more uh commenting further so I have a question as a parent whose uh son will be entering Ean Brown in the Fall For the First Time what's your sop for going to the bathroom is there going to be any change in like your protocols for how you'll handle that in light of this situation um you know anything you can comment on that to assuage most mostly my wife's fears at home jump on your point Luke so I know a lot of lower elementary schools have the bathrooms like in the classroom right um I think most kindergartens will have that and sometimes first grades too what's what's the story like most what's the story with that FN my son with that friend too and right we we don't have a bathroom in every classroom in some certain classrooms there is a bathroom in internally um so we began using Turn Style um last year like a check in check out uh yeah it's actually a Chromebook set up in the classroom so when a student is going to go to the bathroom to the nurse to um main office um they actually bring up their name and hit a button so we know where they went what time they went and when they returned and they do the same thing in return uh we've been using it in the upper grades for a long time um I believe during the pandemic they tried to use signin sign out sheets which were um paper and pencil and our little kids struggled with you know switching the big hand and little hand and you know just recording it accurately so um this is kind of new to you all but we've known about this for quite a while uh as you can see from what you read in the paper it happened a long time ago we have put a lot of new safety in place to keep a better eye on what's happening in our bathrooms um and that's going to be different from school to school because brookdale's got 117 kids that don't need the same kind of protocols as a school the size of Landing or or um FNB um but two kids allowed in the bathroom at any given time um they manage that using um stop and go signs on the bathroom door if there are two green that means there's no one in there it can have two kids if the students going in they take the green off Stick it to the wall put the red stop sign on now we know there's only one stall open in there and that's the way it's been since actually the pandemic at FM Brown and um so that's being still in use um one uh female and one male child can leave the uh can go to the bathroom at any given time from any classroom all right good jump to just listen like for professionally I'm a school superintendent Denise is a a SCH school education attorney ban is a school teacher uh an educational leader if a situation like this were to happen and dcpp wasn't called we would be flipping mad we would again the board can't comment specific if you want if you want to come up to the podium sir you can come up to the podium okay okay yes if Child Protective Services was not called Lanzo Graziano unfortunately superintendent I'm sure you have a role in this should be removed from the position is there any disagreement on that I don't see any disagreement on that common sense you can't answer the question because you're worried about getting sued you're not worried about what's in the best interest of the children and the parents here that are concerned about the safety of the children that's not right Verona is a good school system you can absolutely do better we can all do better than this this is wrong the way this is being treated it's Michael dishley yes so are you going to confirm that CPS was called or not are you gonna say that he wasn't called or they weren't called was a child interview by CPS how about the investigation did the school investigate the truth of the allegations and the school policies are they being followed can you answer that please you're stating to the public that supports everybody here in the school system you can't answer that I'm telling you it's a matter of federal and state law that we cannot disclose information about specific students you make assumptions I can't say that your assumptions are correct nothing more can we give you okay that's really helpful for everybody here worried about their kids why is the student still in the school tell me there's a sexual predator accused in the school we have to stop you from speaking about another child okay like that please please refrain from okay safy everybody here worried about that we understand I don't think everybody here seems to understand what's happening was CPS called you wouldn't admit it CPS wasn't called we know that to be true we believe that to be true you won't confirm it I don't understand the WR logic here Lanzo the teacher and the superintendent fortunately I think need to go that's all I'm going to say about this I think it's pretty clear based on your responses here where the board stands with this I think you guys can all do better than this and I hope you do thank you Mr anybody sorry yes is there anyone else that wants to speak before G libum live in Verona this is what abject failure looks like the good news is you guys can be voted out you two can be fired quite easily you failed 20 times in a bathroom it's kind of disgusting do better or quit or be fired make a decision thank you ales I have a child at FM Brown I understand specifics cannot be talked about but I just want to know what has been done what has been done to change the policies to make our children safe like that can be told to us what has been done and and knowing that the boy is still in the school what is being done to keep our children safe even though it's an accusation even if there's a chance that it's true it's a danger and we need to know what's what's being done to protect our kids I think at minimum that can be told us so in September um Dr Lanzo put out um a memo to to parents about security measures that have been put into place and he's going to reissue that memo um to parents currently as a result of the concern that we're hearing so I mentioned some of it uh earlier uh putting in place Turn Style to keep track of movement of students um increase and and I want to note that the increase in camera was planned prior to any accusations we have increased camera uh coverage uh in each of our um main office it used to be that when um we needed to see footage you had to go to a computer log into a system go to the day that you're looking for the time that you're looking for and look at the footage it wasn't a live watch now in each U main office if you've been in the main office you may have seen it or noticed it there is a large um screen that has multiple cameras so you can watch people can keep an eye on movement in and around the building and throughout the building um live without having to go and and look for a specific day typ date Etc um the security committee has met and we're reviewing our all of our safety protocols um and keeping up on making sure that all of our policies are are um up to date with regard to Safety and Security and that that's it I'm I can't speak to anything about a student so I would invite the public to to read policies so they understand what procedures will be followed in the event accusations are made and um again while we can't speak to specifics and believe me no one is more frustrated than I am not being able to respond uh to well I shouldn't say that because I think everyone up here is as frustrated as I am but believe me we are very frustrated not being able to respond um with it because you know assumptions are clearly being made and uh through the legal process we will we will be able to respond and we look forward to that opportunity the other thing I you know you know there has been opportunity for the district for Dr Lanzo to address this with the school Community before this article came out and I think that's huge misstep on all of your parts and for him specifically I mean I think the statement that was put out it it felt extremely disrespectful it's just like this blanket you know just generic statement which I get you have to put out for legal purpos but if this is supposed to be a family like I for Dr Lanzo specifically to be silent it feels extremely disrespectful so we put something out last year when this happened and um to be honest with you we had very little advanced notice that there was an article coming out um when I was questioned about making a statement we gave our statement to um was in advance I guess it was Bergen Record was the first one to reach out and um I asked the I asked when the article would be released and she told me probably midweek and it came out Monday morning so there wasn't a lot of advanced opportunity to do that in order for us to put together a response that is within the law it's got to be reviewed by our attorney and by the attorney for the insurance company who is going to be litigating this case on our behalf have so it wasn't as easy as just putting something out immediately it has to go through legal channels to make sure that we are not disclosing something that we are not legally able to do then I would just say in as I had not yes I had not been served yet we had not even been served with this lawsuit yet so um the the uh media Outlets had knowledge that I didn't even have so I would just reiterate what has already been said since this is not a new thing this has been ongoing for years then why is Dr Lanzo still at the school why is the teacher still at the school while this has been going on like that doesn't make any sense to me jump into uh I think this is important I you know everyone has the constitutional right to file a lawsuit like everyone has that that that right um and then the purpose of that that lawsuit is to you know let's have our day in court you present your facts we the other side presents their facts and we we see where the truth lies I I just want to caution this crowd or plead with this crowd that these are allegations and and the the idea that we're going to label a a really young child as like a a sexual predator or something like that like that's those are strong words for someone that's accused in a lawsuit so you know if that was my son and I I I'd be really really Chris again gonna ask you to stop discussing that's ESS say nobody is here after the boy we're talking about the adults that were invol no no one is labeling anyone a liar no I file lawsuits on almost a monthly probably a weekly basis now and my facts and the facts people who oppose me sometimes are different on paper so we have to let the process play out that is why we have a process please so yeah my name is alra over on will Terrace um I'm sorry yeah yeah uh failure failure is it that's that's absolutely what it is there's no other way to describe it I mean when the 31 days I mean it's a tech issue I wish I wish you were as passionate about these servers as you were about the dam lunch I mean half hour half hour late to what we've all been waiting for here you're going to address it and mock us and use it for something else I wish and please I I I I know you're trying to comment and I know you want to say something but like I like if you can't comment don't comment I mean at least go with his strategy right like you're going a little too far according to him like don't give us more than we want you're feeding the crowd we don't want it I mean like this is It's failure there's no other way to describe it he should not be here they should not be here we are worried about it and if you don't think that it's if you're talking about man we are going a little bit too far about accusing well then maybe it's for the shock value because we feel like you guys are that's the way I feel like everybody feels here I might not be the only one and if I am I'm sorry for speaking for anybody else but this is nonsense this is nonsense the bathroom process this red and green thing like my my daughter barely understands what's going on with it like I can't even have her explain it to me like this like it needs to be better have somebody out there like have somebody figure out what's going on out there if it's not working and you've seen it's not working then fix that but you could have sent us an email about the lunch like the nonsense that you sent us in that email the canned message like that was slap in the face and then you make us wait here and mock us to tell us that oh we're all here for something else so let's talk about the budget let's Pat ourselves on the back don't pat yourselves on the back when you know we're here for this if you're part of the community and be pissed with us I just wanna I just want to say I'm here because I was there over and over and over again so while I can't speak which we know to anything I just do want to I can't speak for the board although I feel as though you know I'm we're together when we work I was there I know how you feel and I what I don't want to happen is anyone to to walk out of here and I know you're angry and I know it's it's there's a lot of different feelings i' I've had them right for a lot of different things but I just want everyone to know that I hear you that we hear you and even if you are angry and upset that we can't answer we hear you and I and I want you to at least when you leave here today know that that we're here because we were there I know I was at least I hear you I get it I hear you I'm I'm telling you I'm here because I was there I hear youber is there anyone else that would to the podium hi there uh my name is Jennifer Vince aguera I have a daughter uh in kindergarten at Fan Brown um since we can't get into specifics I would gladly go read policies and procedures after this um but if somebody could tell me if my daughter told her teacher tomorrow that she was being abused what is the mandated response from her teacher if if a teacher has reason to believe that a child being abused the law requires her to report Death at a DC dcpn P okay so okay so can you clarify if the teach so if my daughter says it the teacher has to believe it if she has reason to believe that there was child abuse there's an obligation frankly it's not solely teachers any person in the state of New Jersey that has reason to believe that child abuse is occurring has a a legal obligation to report that failure to do so would result in criminal charges against that person if they did not so there's some level of opinion on the teacher's part as to whether they believe it I don't know that I'd say that no okay so if if a child says it the teacher is mandated to have a response so if the teacher doesn't follow that protocol then the what is the corrective action there sure there certainly would be disciplinary action within the district if they're a tenure teacher that'd be subjected to tenure charges if they're non-tenure teacher potential contract termination uh and then again there' be a referral to law enforcement related to that as well well okay equally if my child is accused of some form of abuse of another student uh what are the protocols of what then my child is mandated or not mandated to go through so again that the district if your child's accused of a crime against anyone else whether it be a teacher a child a stranger um that'd be referred to law enforcement and the district would would work with law enforcement to address that issue okay and is there any policies in place to protect potential victims throughout a litigation process potential victim Z of any sort of abuse from another student or teacher what what protocols are in place to to get them back into school to feeling safe and allowing other students to feel safe knowing there's a potential user I think that's too hypothetical for me to respond to I mean can you yeah we have um mental health professionals that work with our students um not only do we have school social workers at the elementary school counselors at the middle and high school we have school psychologists School social workers child study team and we also provide for therapeutic services through Care Plus NJ who provide us uh licensed clinical social workers to uh work with students that are struggling with fears anxieties Etc um you know separate from this we have cases of school avoidance um that our you know our our school mental health professionals work with to bring kids back into school for a variety of reasons of anxiety um that's keeping them from coming to school so those same Services would be provided for students that are struggling as a result of fears in this particular instance if I could just add that so I think what you're looking for is there there's also what I believe um the vice president had referred to which is the uniform memor of agreement between law enforcement and scho officials uh that is a document prated by the State Department of Education and the um uh Attorney General's office in New Jersey and basically it's a dense document uh but there is a you know Provisions in there about what what law enforcement's role is with respect to that and when there's a referral to law enforcement uh related particularly for example to the sexual alleged sexual contact um uh law enforcement's required to investigate that obviously and they're required to make recommendations to The District in terms of anything that needs to be done to keep someone safe so if you're telling me hypothetically this child is a victim law enforcement we need to investigate that and law enforcement would come back and tell us you know what we need to do to address any safety concern related to that that find that makes sense and and while that investigation is going on that kid is kind of no I mean we would certainly take take I me again it's too hypothetical to say but but you know no no one is not everyone in the district is interested in keeping Kids Safe you might not believe me but you know I say that with a degree of confidence so so one uh two other quick questions since this incident um the camera view does it now capture the entrance to the bathroom we have we have installed cameras there's uh there's a view I believe in each Direction in that hallway and in the upstairs hallways as well um we are increasing the number of cameras in all of our schools uh and that was planned prior to any allegations of anything okay and lastly with the system in place theoretically if someone want if a student wanted to do something nefarious they could follow a child into the bathroom and put up two red stop signs and prevent anyone else from coming in for a certain amount of time and allow them to do this nefarious act in theory so we agree that that maybe isn't the best system I um I I don't know that there is a perfect one I don't know yeah I don't know that there a better system I mean that was put in place for a very different reason okay um yeah thank you thank you you good evening good even my name is Meredith Kershaw I have two daughters at FM brown one in third grade and one in kindergarten excuse me one in first grade she's grown I appreciate that you can't talk about about this specific lawsuit and the allegations that it contains but I would like to make a general statement and you've promised to hear those and I certainly appreciate that so just to get this statement on the record I I would urge you to enforce your classroom protocols and procedures to the very best of your abilities I discovered that my daughter was seated next to the alleged perpetrator the child minor and when I asked that she be removed um from or she be moved so that she is not sitting directly next to him I did not receive an immediate yes which I found concerning as you've heard parents are very worried about the implications of the allegations and those need to be heard and taken seriously I also made some suggestions that I would reiterate here which is that anyone any child who is accused of serious criminal offending be carefully monitored and supervised you don't have to speak directly to that action but we as a a community of parents will know if that supervision and observation is taking place because our children are in the school and able to report that uh I would also like to correct the rep record on one point superintendent which is that you mentioned that um you haven't yet been served the lawsuit and whilst I believe that uh when we spoke on Friday Thursday April the 26th you mentioned that you had received the complaint that morning so to talk about service is to split hairs you certainly knew and know the content of the complaint and in fact have known about this situation that led to the complaint for much longer and so I endorse what people have said tonight which is that more information could and should have been provided if not on on specifics then at least generally on safety procedures and protocols and what action would be taken in the future I think we all deserve to know that and I would urge you to be more communicative and more responsive to the requests of parents going forward thank you thank thank you hi my name is Stephanie I have a young son in Lanning and one that will be entering Lanning next year I have a relatively quick question around our policies or the policies that you've spoken to earlier um and so my first one is we've spoken about the fact that there's 31 days of footage kept on the server um what is your policy around keeping that footage when a parent has flagged up to a principal or a superintendent or a teacher that incident has occurred we download that clip that time clip and and store it okay so 31 days you download right away no and and if if there's a question about it we we make a copy of that piece of footage and it it can stay for as long I mean we're talking about the amount of footage that's required um for a full day of school people walking through the Halls versus a clip for a specific sequence of of events or a time period okay but there would be like let's say somebody has an incident hopefully I mean they don't happen frequently but if I as a parent have a concern and I reach out to the principal or the superintendent and say hey this incident has occurred could you please download footage not necessarily like a specific day could we review what was going on would you be able to download a seg a segment of footage to like review would I be able to do that yes okay and so there is policy in place that if a parent Flags something up that's done immediately uh yeah I mean if if if there you're talking about a crime or a fight between students anything any incident okay so I just want to make sure that if a parent flags up an incident that footage is downloaded immediately and saved so that like the 31-day rule may not given given that we have an ability to to see something I mean there's times when the camera is not pointing in the right direction there's a post you know in the middle between what the camera can see and what's happening um it's not um these cameras are installed not to um follow students and teachers around but as a result of the fear of intruders in our buildings I mean that's the reason for security cameras in schools for the most part um we use them for other reasons and they're handy for other reasons but not every corner of the building can be viewed on a camera okay generally speaking too if you if you flag something early enough then you could save that onto a CD or CD ROM or something like that I just want to make sure that's happening that's awesome I'm glad that's supposed to be happen then my next question is you had mentioned that law enforcement was involved right away um is this Verona PD that's called an incidents or do we get a third party like an unbiased third party to review again I'm not I'm not referring to any specific don't have to I'm just asking so there's again it depends on the nature of the thing of the particular um issue the first step would generally be both a call to dcpm the vision of child protection and permanency and the Verona Police Department if it involved a um uh you know issue that fell into one or both of those categories Criminal on the Verona PD side and um uh bcpm on the child abuse or neglect side and then above the Verona PD is also the Essex County prosecutor's office okay which is the the next rung up that it would go from the Verona PD then to the Essex County prosecutor's office depending on the nature they have a a speal Special Victims Unit for certain types of crimes uh they have other you know it depends on the nature of what's happening but yes it's not just the right okay and our policy um well it's not really a board policy but it's a procedure anytime any we call DCP andp for anything we alert the BR police okay I just want to make sure it's not brona PD like as the only governing body that's like investigating and that it's other um third parties that are involved as well um by third party you mean like he just said Essex County involved yes yes yes absolutely thank you is there anyone else that would like to come up to the podium just please state your name because I know you guys just walked in so if you could just state your name thank you Paul petrangeli uh I have a child in Lanning and a child in hbw I was watching on zoom and some things just frustrated me so I figured I'd show up just to basically vent because I get my time to do it um basically I'd like to say uh uh the schools Landing everything to me has been great hbw has been great I believe so far you guys have been doing good and you were voted in by this town so uh yes I believe in this matter and certain matters the ball has been dropped and steps were missed um but let's remember this is a seven-year-old we are talking about and these are allegations until they are proven that they are truthful um if a seven-year-old is called a predator or something like that and I was his father uh a I would say something else is wrong at home and maybe the parent needs to be looked at and B I would take out my anger on anybody who called my child a predator um until it is proven so let's just be careful on that matter um I know there are steps being taken and the legal steps are being taken which are correct and I know things have been done which you guys are following the correct process which you're not allowed to speak on so until everybody gets the facts and I would say you're just going off the media and if you go off the media everybody knows about the media so let's get our stuff straight and remember we're talking about a seven-year-old when we step on this Podium and put everything on the record I know I won't be liked I probably won't get an Applause but I don't give a crap so let's remember we're talking about a seven-year-old and if he is guilty then yes he needs to be removed or put in somewhere something something needs to happen but yes until he's proven or anything the facts come out just watch your language people I read the legal brief and I know a lot more than you do Paul Paul I do give a crap and I thank you for saying what you said Thank you thank you is there anyone else that would like to come up and say anything Paul Paul Paul please thank you yeah thank you Paul U Mary Lum Menville I have to say you know I'm really disappointed with how this whole situation went down um I've known about the situation for as long as they've had that you know BS letter uh that came out and met with you uh superintendent and Dr Lanzo and the attorney um and none of the items that we discussed really got implemented unless the parents pushed it quite frankly um we talked about cameras we talked about the Turn Style you know we made it uncomfortable for you and until that point and and honestly quite frankly until this point I still don't think that any of you believe that this actually happened and not really care about your personal beliefs quite frankly all of us have children in this school system and I will tell you if God forbid something happened to my child it would be horrendous I cannot even imagine what any of us would do if now our child was put in that position you guys have failed multiple children in this school district it is unconscionable that you are still sitting there that Dr Lanzo is still sitting there that Mrs Graziano is still teaching it is absolutely unconscionable quite frankly I just have no other words except that I believe it is New York state law that you have to keep those servers you have to keep Rec Rec of videos for 7 years not 31 days so please check your your laws because I believe that they need to have them for seven years so thank you is there anyone else that would like to come up well um is there anyone else that wanted to speak at all cuz I know Mrs Kendrick wanted to come up I just have a quick question if we can't do a GoFundMe um and I'm really bad with politics so sorry uh but I know like on like when we voted there's been like referendums for certain things and it's like a specific amount of money is for blah blah blah um is that one of these things or how how do we get the money because I also just listening to everybody's comments um I know all too well that not only I know you know you know that you mentioned um superintendent like if there's a column in the way but I also know from the last time I was here and I asked these specific questions that there aren't cameras everywhere and I know that's not why they were put in place they were put in place for more of like active Shooters which is a crying shame in and of itself that we have that but clearly we have issues now that we need cameras more it's just the world it's a really sad world that we live in so I'd like to know what we can do to raise the money to get more cameras to and to have them running all the time and to not you know how do we do that can someone please help us tell us how to do that so you're talking two different things the ref referendum process is a particular legal process that would go through uh the district has limitations and restrictions in terms of what it can go to referendum on but uh that is kind of like an itemized issue of the district is seeking additional funding for XYZ um what the other option what you're referring to is kind of gifts and and what the restriction on is gifts is that that they can't be contingent upon certain things you know you could give a gift with the ex expression of this is what you'd like the funds to be used but the district can't accept funds you know with with a legal restriction in terms of it being used for XYZ if that makes sense that's that's what what was being referred to earlier so in response to that if in fact there was a GoFundMe and we raised $2 million for I have no idea we let's find out how much it would cost and we said here's our money we would really prefer that you put this towards um cameras I understand that you're saying that you don't have to um does anyone really think that would be a reality I mean is that is that real that that you guys would actually do that to the town if we gave you $2 million for cameras and footage and you would use it for I mean I love book I think this board would be highly appreciative of a two million so I'll use this as I mean you saw on here that certain gifts were given with with certain intents you know to the board um so again it's just a matter of legality you know you can't give us a gift that you can only use for x amount that that's just a you know is it form over over substance perhaps but that that was what being referred to earlier okay thank you everyone at this table would love a $2 million donation for for okay I have no idea how much this stuff costs guess I guess my next question would be maybe it can be answered at the next board meeting or or publicly announced or something how how much money are we we had asked you know to see our the vendor that runs our security services and our camera services to come to a board meeting and you know I stated publicly we we'd like to have that be a public thing and then you know then the facts are transparent right um and you know if if certain Community groups were to take that fundraising initiative you know hit hit me up for donation number one but number two I think that'd be great I think this board I can't speak for the board obviously I don't have the power but I think we of course who would who would not want more security cameras or security initiatives right so that'll be lovely yeah and I just IM m in terms of a fundraiser I think people if we give them solid facts it's more helpful it's not just like can you give 50 bucks maybe I need a $100 from you maybe you can only get five whatever it is but if we know that it's a million dollars $50,000 250 you know that that's going to help so as fast as we can move forward with something like that I think that everyone would be appreciative and understand why we were doing that Mr Cruz do you have the cost of the camera that we recently bought and you don't if you don't have them that's fine so actually just one um that's actually just one component so an individual camera unit uh with like a 360 view uh cost anywhere between uh $3 and $600 we talking about the actual Hardware but the um let's say like cloud service it's it's pretty expensive so what what we would do is that an RFP go out and then have multiple prop uh be delivered to the board where then um we could actually uh make a determination on that we could ask if whether it's uh you know Eastern Datacom or whether it's one of their competitors um to just give us a you know an approximate proposal right so that's something we could probably do they could any group that would look to map their fundraising against that that would be appreciated by the board yeah yeah and I just I mean again I'll go back and reiterate what I said before um we we've seen this happening too much recently and many things that could have perhaps easily been answered by being able to go back to a videotape or whatever it's called in the cloud um and and it's it's it's un really unfortunate that and I will tell you that not all the schools are videoed everywhere there's a lot of blind spaces so beware be aware thank you thank you um Miss dppi uh rape seems to be a running theme in your leadership if these allegations are true will you resign oh this is about you specifically this isn't about the case I I directed Laura still aato again um I have a couple questions uh um as uh wherever she went um I my understanding is that there's quite a few blind spots in the school with the cameras that are set up right now um so I would like to know how that's being addressed I'd also like to know who's watching the cameras if they're being monitored um throughout the day if someone's specifically trained and what to look for um uh I want to know who is going to be paying for the lawyer fees for you in this case is that coming out of our taxes is that in the budget because it wasn't in the budget so how is where is that getting taken away from from our children the insurance the insurance company and so our our premiums and everything will go up which will still come back on us I don't really know how that works but I'm assuming it will still come back on on us in some way so so uh Verona Public Schools is actually part of a group of pulled school districts uh so we pull together and actually purchase uh uh all types of insurance uh as a uh uh I believe it's about 25 school districts um and more actually called the Mars S6 Insurance Group and uh the reality of the way that uh claims actually happens there might be a year that one school district has a claim one year that doesn't so it does it does actually um the increase are not um EXT like huge through the roof with uh certain cases so it's not something that we anticipate um seeing uh a large increase in our budgetary numbers when it comes to Insurance renewals oh even even with the multip cases that are going on in our district it won't be going up that much so even so I I won't be able to uh say for sure but um on on average it's it's about a 10 to 12% increase and it is our taxes that pay for that insurance it does okay thank you um I I just again want to Echo um the sentiments that uh I I wish you would all just do us a favor and step down you Dr lzo Miss Graziano save us the time we do not feel safe with you your time is up thank you thank you for your comments I don't think that's fair thank you for your comments we understand how you feel about you've said it numerous times thank you I appreciate you being here so and you have mentioned that cut into my time you're yes you spoke twice thank you we are going to close public comment at this time Miss D SEI I'm happy that I was part of the group that hired you and I trust you and I want you to continue being our superintendent because I trust you I am too Mrs DJ zey I appreciate your leadership here with us and I am um unfortunate you have come into a district with other issues and you have handled everything with dignity and you've been very respectful to everyone this I just want to Echo the last comments from Mr Waka and yourself um Miss D jei you have my support yes well and um let's continue forward yes thank you Mr Boone thank you so we are closing the meeting I need a a motion please to adjourn our meeting our next scheduled public meeting I'm sorry is on May 14 2024 beginning confidential session at 6 p.m. public session at 700 p.m. in the Verona learning Commons I need need a motion please to adjourn the mo meeting I'll motion motion by Mr mood I'll second second by Mrs Herrera all in favor I I it's 9:18 and we are closing out the meeting good night