e I'm good oh good evening everyone I would like to welcome you to the Tuesday May 14th 2023 Board of Education meeting we are calling the meeting to order and it is 7:05 p.m. and if everyone could please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance a reading of meeting notice 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 meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is 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 posting 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 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 sure Mr W yes Mrs fella yes Mrs Farrar here Mrs prisco here Mr Boon here we have thank you moving on to our agenda I need a motion please to approve our meeting minutes um from April 30th meeting moved motion by Mr Waka second seconded by Mr Boon any discussion Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr Waka yes Mrs frella Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you moving on we are going on to our superintendent report by Mrs djan dppi good evening um I wanted to report out on uh we've been talking about the high impact tutoring Grant uh we did finally get a notification that we're received we're receiving 100 $3,032 and um we've been preparing for uh getting that started right away and so that will begin on Monday uh with our third and fourth graders we were limited to third and fourth grade with regard to that particular Grant um good news uh US News and World Report America's best high schools came out in the end of April and Verona High School ranked uh 1494 in the nation placing Us number 7 one in New Jersey high schools uh which makes us number 44 among traditional non-magnet high schools so what I mean by non-magnet high school is um biotechnology high or uh Bergen Academy Etc so any of those schools that you have to apply for and qualified for are considered magnet schools so we're number 44 among traditional non-magnet high schools and we're number 183 among New York New Jersey metro area high schools so congratulations to the Barona high school students and teachers uh school performance reports came out and they are located on our district website um just to give the the board some highlights from that um for our Ela proficiency and math proficiency we met our Target in um all areas with the exception of uh one of our subgroups um for students that are Hispanic um but we exceeded um the standards in that subgroup for growth so um that's good news uh we also met our goal for five-year graduation rate um we met our goal in all other subgroups or or met or exceeded standards um with the exception of um one group of students with disabilities uh proficiency again we did not meet but we met um the growth standard so very good news is we exceeded standards in ela and math group grow sorry in ela and math group growth among our English language Learners yeah so it's good news uh overall our Summit of rating saw a slight decrease uh the average Summit of rating across the district but it's important to note that significant progress has been made by two of our schools uh uh hbw has surged ahead increasing by approximately 30 percentile points over last year um and Lanning has also shown convenable Improvement by approximately 10 percentage points percentile points um one of the reasons we are struggling is that we still face the challenge of chronic absenteeism so chronic absenteeism is hurting our uh percentile rating in the state um Brookdale having the most significant chronic absente deism with 17.7% of our students being chronically absent uh the elementary chronic absenteeism rate across all four elementary schools is 133% um that's really high by the way um Regular attendance we know is vital for academic success and future opportunities chronic absenteeism is a leading indicator of academic struggle and can hinder our students achievements of their full potential and for those of you that don't know how the state calculates chronic as absenteeism it's um anything more than uh 10% of the school year so students that are missing 10% of the school year are considered chronically absent and um so we are looking at our attendance policy as you know and we will be um updating that for September to try to reduce that chronic absenteeism um we had the VII inspiring Excell Excellence uh event we used to be called the teacher toast but we uh V has expanded that to include non-certificated staff and this year's honores were uh Mrs Baron VHS special education teacher at hbw uh Mrs Thomas Kathy Thomas who is our speech and language therapist at both hbw and the high school actually at Lanning uh Miss Alisa Freda our media specialist and she's at landing and Forest uh from forest Mr cero uh who is also at Landing as well our Music Teacher FN Brown Heather Anderson our reading interventionist at Brookdale Tamara jario which was our elementary math coach and districtwide was Mr uh Jay iello who is uh our maintenance and congratulations to all of those staff members the end of the Year festivities are being planned or have begun and that includes things like Field Days fun nights clap outs with clap outs will be um in June National Honor Society inductions um end of the year field trips and also toward the end of the school year some move up days for our students that are transitioning from one school to the next to give uh Board of Staffing update um this time last year my Staffing update included 17 positions where much better off this year um we have three at the elementary uh level we have Elementary special education teacher this is a tenure track um and this is a new new uh position to continue um to offer inclusion um and that we are currently interviewing we have a gifted and talented uh K5 leave replacement and we are actively interviewing and we have an opening for a registered behavioral technician at Lanning and we are also inter interviewing current ly for that at the middle school we have a special education teacher which is a leave replacement we are accepting applications instrumental music because Mr Halper is on the agenda tonight he'll be moving into Mr morn's spot at the elementary uh level in in instrumental music so we are accepting applications for instrument and also interviewing for instrumental music at the middle school at the high school we will need a special education English teacher um that is a tenure track position we are currently interviewing special education science or math depending on um the pool we can go either way because of our current staff uh we are interviewing currently we need a biology and AP environmental science teacher we're currently interviewing Spanish uh leave replacement we're accepting applications for uh a new position that's part-time student assistance coordinator which used to be called substance abuse or sack um and that's a part-time tene track and we are also accepting applications for that we had an we have an anticipated physical education teacher um and that's anticipated because I haven't got an official letter I did get a verbal uh from a teacher today that they are retiring so um that is uh an anticipated leave and that's my report for this evening thank you does anyone have any questions or comments for superintendent report I think that think mic is on CH is it on good so the first thing is about the the point about absenteeism um I would just encourage the district to the same we're being told to tell people hey if you're sick stay home if you're not feeling well stay home and if parents are doing that and then you know now the state's kind of looking to punish schools with the qack and the Imp scores you know it's up to us to to determine how much of an impact we we want to make or what kind of actions we want to take based on that but I do think there's some Solace to the idea of if if your kid's sick stay home home and let's not as a district overreact then as far as the US news world report like that's a privately owned Corporation that's looking to sell ad Revenue so yeah I I appreciate that they they want to rate US something but at the same time like their their rating means very very little to me so that's where we're at I have to tell you ratings in general because their moving targets are hard to follow the worst one was um New Jersey monthly and I'm glad they're no longer doing it um just one question to follow up on Mr W on the uh absenteeism U the 133% in Verona um two questions on that the where does that stand nationally as I do understand that this is a national problem this isn't just a Verona problem this isn't a New Jersey problem so question one is where do we stand relative to I don't know the national numbers but the New Jersey um uh average is around 17.6% so we are at it uh at some our elementary schools above it in Brookdale and Below Forest is the lowest in terms of Elementary and the second part of that question back to my point about this being a national problem are we looking across the country seeing what Creative Solutions as we were formulating our plans and and what might that look like one of the things that we that we don't do here there's a couple things that I think um have led to a higher level of absenteeism in Verona um and I can answer your question a little bit let me just get into that our policy um allows for an excused absence the state doesn't recognize excuse absences they're absences they're all absences um and what what should happen is they should all be recorded as an unexcused absence and if a student has a certain number it should go before an attendance Review Committee which is made up of teachers and and administration and the parent would Supply doctor's notes Etc and you'd say okay well these five are excused and and that's the way it works um our policy allows parents to have an excused absence if they just let the school know the child's going to be out and so I think we've been sending the message that it's okay if you're taking your child on vacation as long as you let us know that they're going to be out and um uh the other um piece that we have not been following up on is our policy also uh asks us to um send a letter after the fourth absence after the ninth absence to a the parent that that that your child is you know may experience uh significant learning loss by these absences and um so we're working on getting all of those letters in place for next year at the middle school and high school they go out automatically through Genesis so if a student triggers a nine days of absence of attendance that letter is sent to a parent automatically um we don't use Genesis in the same way at the elementary schools so that we're going to try that try try to let alert people to it um but there's a big movement nationally to work with parents with action plans with attendance plans so you set up an individualized attendance plan with students that are chronically absent but if I could jump in to I think Co was the impetus where the teachers did such a good job creating these really robust Google classrooms where where before if you missed a couple days you were behind and now if you miss a couple days you're really not because teachers did such a good job with that and and I I think that kind of lends itself towards the idea of if you're not feeling good stay home because you're still going to be able to get your education if you file these great Google classrooms so I just don't want to see our district go too overboard when when when there might not really be a problem and I I won't but 17% is high for chronic absenteeism so that is too high there's got to be a happy medium in there somewhere I think also um when we're thinking about rolling out a new policy for the 2425 and kind of in this new practice um I think it it would be important that each building principal communicate this to parents because because it's such a common practice I don't want parents to get a letter that their child has been absent and then it it can turn into a panic especially if people aren't aware of it so just kind of starting the year off communicating that going to be the new practice well and I'm going to send the policy and some letters out over the summer prior to the school year and then have the principal follow up at each building thank you moving on to our student representative Report with Miss ree shahat um yeah so I just had one followup on the absenteeism for the so I know at the high school level at least there are like State excused absences like uh doctor's appointments College visits and those are reported differently than a regular is that a similar system that will be rolled out to the elementary school with the understanding of like a good question Ree and that is that should be districtwide it is the practice at the high school they are following the state guidelines um it should be across the board um the difference at the high school and they're more meticulous about recording that is because there's a seat time requirement yeah there's a loss of credit at the high school level if you have a certain number of absences so they're much more on top of it and that's true of most high schools but our high school has a really low chronic absenteeism we're below six okay yeah thank you and the state average is around 11 oh wow uh yeah so for this student report um to start off congratulations to Ellie Battersby and Patrick Lan for receiving the Essex County scholar athlete award that recognizes their contributions to the soccer and track teams as well as their athletic their uh academic accomplishments uh Patrick Wan was also the Salud atorian this year uh while AP testing still continues in at the high school level which is why we're here due to the setup in the library uh we will all we will be finishing that this week and starting State testing for 9th and 11th grade students uh beginning on Monday um the Verona High School arts department will hold its annual annual Creative Arts Festival which will include displays of artwork and musical performances on May 30th in both the Old and New gyms at the high school and uh that's it for me thank you does anyone have any questions for ree as always thank you re moving on to our agenda um on to committee reports there are no committee reports this evening we have uh public comments on agenda action items only if there's anything that is on the agenda that we are voting on and you would like to speak with it about it please come to the podium and state your name and you'll have three minutes seeing none we are going to move on to discussion items um I have a a few things that I would like to report out on that have happened in the past since our last meeting so last Monday May 6th I attended the town council meeting and the Verona environmental commission honored winners of this year's um environmental poster contest uh we had winners from each elementary school and they came with their artwork and displayed their artwork so Hunter hukas of for bike in the future Jamie hang of Landing Avenue one for plastic Eliminator Leo L Roa of Forest Avenue one for stop air pollution and Erin fricky W for FN Brown for keep the Galaxy clean there was so many because of so many students that submitted a poster from FN Brown um the environmental commission gave an honorable mention to two students Katherine Evans for pick up what people put down and Michael pizaro for recycle so congratulations to those students also while I was at that meeting um there was the developer from Conifer for the Verona Flats project which is the project I'm sure everyone has seen it going over to the community center um it's directly across the street the affordable housing project and according to Shan Carpenter who is the senior vice president of the develop development team he metioned that people people who have requested um on the interest list to receive an application when it comes available possibly in the beginning of June so if you know anyone that has put out an interest please let them know to look for the application applications will be looked at on a first come first serve basis however he said that an incomplete application put you back the bottom of the list Mr Carpenter made mention that he did not feel that many students would be coming out of that complex unfortunately after his presentation he left and he wasn't there to answer questions but I did get up and speak during public comment for the board of education on behalf of the Board of Education I expressed my concerns and said that I disagreed with his statement the fact that there are 26 three-bedroom units 52 two-bedroom units could be worrisome for our school district I asked again to this Council for a joint meeting with us board to work with us should the amount of students come from that development push our numbers between the general and special education we can have spacing issues and funding issues so if you're interested I did put it out there to the council to try and you know meet with us and help us out down the down the road um Mrs uh ree mentions our student a uh student athletes so I will not repeat that uh I believe though last meeting Miss G zeppi you did mention but I'm going to mention it again and her parents are in the audience but it's such a wonderful honor to mention it again um to congratulate to our senior uh Faith Broly she was nominated for the paper mill Playhouse Rising Star Award the ceremony for that will take place at the paper mill playhouse on June 11th and faith will be attending Montclair State University and majoring in film and tele television so congratulations again zahar very deserving um on May 3rd we attended the VII event again congratulations to all the the staff and for VII for your the work that you do for the foundation Al um Ian zooki came in first in the outdoor Ridge Twilight meet for the 1600 and Ian beat the previous School record for the distance set back in 2010 so congratulations to Ian he will be going to Lehi University and continuing cross country in track and field so that's a big accomplishment also on Thursday May 9th our board attended the Essex County New Jersey school board's end of the year meeting and I would like to congratulate our board for being recognized as a certified board this is the first time that the Verona board of education has received this award therefore this is definitely something that we should be proud of I would also like the past board member and president Lisa freshy for setting this goal and that I made sure that we followed through with this training and professional development from all our board members past and present congratulations and thanks again and Reese thank you thank you so much for attending with us the annual rivalry baseball game between Verona and Cedar Grove High School was held this past Saturday at Yogi bar Yogi Bar Stadium the manets Angels Foundation threw out the ceremonial first pitch at and the uh tenu Barnstormers players were recognized for being the future hillbilly Baseball Stars Verona was down but came back to beat Cedar Grove 7 to4 so congratulations to the team and the coaches spring Sports have a have or will be having their senior days if my schedule allows I do try to attend as many of them as possible yesterday VHS girls softball had a great win five over five to four over Nutley for their senior day congratulations to all our seniors and their families it's a very Bittersweet time and lastly I was invited to attend the troop 2 Eagle court of honor Ceremony this past Saturday which was such a wonderful event I would like to congratulate Christopher Caldera and Luca tadesco our two VHS seniors that completed their journey to become an eagle scout this achievement is not easy and to receive this I would like and I would like to ask our board if we can invite them to a future meeting so we can honor them before they head off to college again congratulations to them and that is all I have to report on if anyone has any questions or comments um I have actually two questions um Mrs prisco and and first of all before I do that I do want to also as a uh member of The Scouting Community here in Verona I I appreciate you uh congratulating those two young men uh I saw firsthand how hard they work and I am extremely proud of them I was at a graduation and sorry I could not see it myself um two questions from your attendance at the uh Town council meeting uh and this is and maybe I am out of order here and and asking how we present this but um the concerns over the numbers of the student population can we maybe ask um Mr Cruz uh to state how we are factoring our expectations for those numbers I understand last year of course we had a presentation from the state just so that we can um get on record here what numbers we're looking at and what what we see is our expectations and as as she's doing that the second question um I did watch from afar the on a zoom on the Town Council and there was a discussion about the solar uh presentation and did we see or do we see opportunities uh for the Verona Board of Education to work and a partnership with the town on um any future development uh with respect to renewable energy projects I think with the solar we'll have to look into that because we did definitely do a report on that couple years back onto what our buildings could support as the solar right yes Mr Cruz so uh we did have a report uh a few years back regarding uh solar especially after the referendum um all the uh Roofing up upgrades that were done uh recently we did a uh energy audit um and in that report as well um through the um New Jersey um uh what is it called the basically the uh clean energy um group so they they basically provided this free uh audit that I think they had a a cost of uh over $50,000 and we qualified for it they came in they provide a thorough assessment uh in that report there is a significant uh savings with um renewable energy with solar uh specifically here at the high school uh since the high school has a lot more uh basically square footage on on the roof and then also the the exposure to the sun uh some of our other schools they they don't there there's some shade and and other factors that might uh play a factor in in that renewable energy in those locations but um that the next step is really uh being able to work with the township and seeing if the town is actually going that route and maybe do like a joint RF uh to be able to go out and get uh request for proposal but that that'll be the next uh phase is is going out on an RP and and maybe maximizing that with the township on the share service agreement thank you yeah so um we last year we had a demographic study done specifically to address the new housing and um Dr grip who who is a uh has his Doctorate in in uh demographics and and has been doing this for 20 years predicted that we could have U about 102 or more students uh from that particular housing project uh come into the schools um I think the concern is the timing of the opening uh first move in is slated to be in August so it's obviously after the district has already budgeted for next year um second move in the second opening I think or the second phase is December so that's once the school year has already started um and I we have talked about this before we are really at capacity at three of our four elementaries we're at capacity at hbw and we're near capacity at this school and not to interrupt but I think they your I not on I'm on yeah okay um I listened to the meeia I couldn't attend but he said that the first move in date it was now September which brings it a whole new factor of issues um because we won't even be able to really do a whole lot um I did I I couldn't find back in I don't know August September after Dr grip came with his demographic report I did look at the records and and the um the documents uh surrounding the the development and I I think at the time I I said I thought his numbers were low based on what the requirements were in the documents I still think his numbers are low um not his his numbers and I believe that the gentleman um from I can't remember his name that that spoke um he said he was saying like one maybe two kids out of a three-bedroom um I think just looking at the documents alone there has to be a person in each bedroom um and if you're going to go into a three bedroom it's not going to be three adults it's going to be a family it potentially you could have an adult an older relative an adult disabled child there are other ways you can get adults but I don't think that we're going to be seeing a significant number of you know three bedrooms with three adults with it um I I think there will be children whether they are School AG children um you know they could be two three years old which is school age um for a lot of kids um or not I think it is something that we are facing that the the council has not been willing to even have a sit down meeting with us to talk about I mean we're not going there right now asking for millions of dollars I know um some towns around us have received money from their pilots um we have received none um so I think just having a meeting to talk about how we can work together to not only find appropriate classrooms for students that could potentially come but to welcome these new members of our community um these are going to be our friends and neighbors and people that we play soccer our kids play soccer with um that we are see at the pool so you know I would like to try to make their welcome to Verona um as nice as it was when I moved in 16 years ago 17 years ago um so but thank you Miss prisco for attending I do appreciate that and Jorge we got to be able to you know hit the ground running when these kids come because if they come in September or early October that that October 15th deadline for the for the state a that could be hundreds of thousands of dollars so I trust that you're going to do this but just if you could really make sure that you're ready once these kids come they register them and get them on rolls and and get us to submit them by October 15th that's huge thank you one of one of our one of our obstacles we've spoken about this is not really knowing the age of students who are coming in so we can assume that students are coming but we don't know whether they're going to be mostly elementary middle or high school um I'm wondering also in you know the idea of collaborating in some way with the town if through the the application process or once that that we will get that at least okay and to um to the town's point toest I don't know that we'll get it right um Mr Kevin ulvan had reached out to me and did suggest that you know he want if we wanted him to speak with you Diane or Jorge he would be willing to but hopefully we could just like you said get we can get a meeting together or just sit down and come up with ideas I'm sorry M wasn't there a certain percent 20% 25% that he said they thought were coming from Verona he mentioned there was a good percentage that could be coming from Verona which would be great because the kids are already accounted for you know it would be nice if we were able to but they haven't even put out the applications yet so we can't the wait list assumption so thank you anyone else have anything for discussion items moving on we have any correspond have one more thing um Pam Miss Pisco congratulated all of us for um our board Awards Miss prisco got her award for M Master Certified leader leader and master board member U so she got a double award at that County and Mr Walker and thank you got their new board member Awards don't pat myself on the back thank you um moving on to our resolutions I would like to start off with our Personnel resolutions I need a motion to approve resolutions a where were you hold on there's a lot of them 81 A1 to A9 please motion by Mr WKA before we proceed can I just ask one question that I second sorry second by Mrs bra any questions apologies no problem sorry Mrs Kris um on A14 um Can somebody take me through the um why we are abolishing that position I can do that um it's not something we wanted to abolish uh obviously um having a math coach or a math interventionist um supports our students uh unfortunately this this position was um paid for with Esser funds and that happened uh prior to uh my starting here um it's those funds went away they had an end point and uh it's between that position and some of our increased enrollments uh increased kindergarten numbers um we just couldn't sustain it so it's our one reduction in force for this year and um that the person that was in this position will go back into a teaching position so we're not losing a staff member but we are losing a position but if we can put a position like that back we we are looking at doing that um but everyone we've talked about our budget Wes for a long time it's very difficult but that's not a position we relished um reducing we just don't really have a lot of opportunities thank you for the clarification you're wel thank you Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr Walker yes Mrs frella yes Mrs Ferrar GNA recuse myself sure from A5 and then I vote yes to all everything else okay Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you moving on to our education resolutions I need a motion please to approve resolutions B1 through B8 motion by so moved Mrs brazel seconded by Mr Waka are there any discussions Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr Walker yes Mrs brazel yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you moving on there are no Athletics or co-curricular no facilities so we're moving on to finance I need a motion to approve our finance resolutions E1 to E7 so Move Motion by Mr Boon I'll second second by Mrs barara any discussion Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr wer yes Mrs frella yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you and then moving on to governance and policy I need a resolution I'm a motion I'm sorry to approve resolutions F1 through F2 motion by Mr Waka seconded by I'll second M Pereira are there any discussions Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr Waka yeah Mrs frella Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you moving on to our agenda we are going into public comments on anything um anyone from the public wishing to speak on any matter please approach the podium once recognized clearly State your first and last name for the record you'll have three minutes to address the board there will be no cross dialogue during this public portion if there is a question that can be answered only the superintendent Board of attorney or board president will respond and it will be at the end of all comments you will be will be granted one time to speak and there is a total of one hour public for public participation again please note there will be no back and forth and we we request that you remain respectful thank you good evening my name is Lisa petuzi I live at 165 Forest Avenue both of my girls have been through or going through um Rona Public Schools right now I'm proud to say my daughter Abby is a is at the College of Charleston right now and she received the president's um she was on the President's List so I'm very proud of what um The Experience she got in um in Verona for under your Administration um over the past year our little town has had some bad press and tragedy strike it some warranted some not I'm here tonight because a few weeks ago I watched the Board of Ed meeting at home and I was shocked at the turn of events that took place about the Civil case involving the FN Brown teacher administrator and students I've been an elementary teacher in Glenn Ridge for over 20 years I would say that I am very knowledgeable of children at this age level as well as elementary teachers and how an elementary school runs when I read the first article because there are two now I questioned many things about it I'd like to touch upon a few of those things from a teacher's perspective first anyone who has worked in an elementary school or even volunteered in one knows that children at this age at are experts at two things reporting and tattletail I learned that eff inbounds bathrooms are set up very much like hours Boys on one side of the hallway and girls on the other from last month's Board of Ed meeting I also learned that FN uses a similar stop-go system that we use for our bathroom monitoring I know this is an Antiquated system was put forth under scrutiny by some but this is where having an understanding of the working of an element Elementary School might have given people a better understanding of why we use this visual aid young children are ve very visual Learners and they need these visual tools to help them keep track of things in this case for the number of people allowed in a bathroom at one time that being said we all know that kids don't always follow the rules so it is likely that another child would walk into the bathroom even if the sign was turned to red and it is also even more likely that another child that would be in the bathroom would come screaming out and tell the first teacher that they saw that a boy was in the girl's bathroom next to read that the teacher and principal turned a blind eye to the child when she seemed in distress again clearly just couldn't have happened in my perspective as a teacher for over 20 years teachers don't go into this job for the money we go into this job because we love children when they hurt we hurt these little human beings become part of our family for the 180 days and to think that any teacher would neglect a cry for help like this is just very insulting to anyone in the educational profession there is one thing that I know for sure this whole case is upsetting on both parts I I completely understand that and everybody here I just ask that our community listen and support each other I will end with what I tell my students when they have a disagreement there's his side there's her side and somewhere in the middle lies the truth it is not our job to find out the truth it is our job to listen to both parties let's all hope and pray that truth will prevail and these children and teacher who has been affected and administrator will get the help that they will need to get them through this healing process thank you for your time thank you thank you for your comment hi my name is Joy Edgar uh I live on derell Street uh so since you guys aren't going to be answering questions until I finish my comments I hope you guys are able to write my questions down quickly and then provide answers okay great so the following are statements and concerns from at least 50 Verona parents regarding the lack of safety in Verona Public Schools negligence of the Verona Public School staff and the Board of Education question one well issue one since it is required by law that staff immediately report any incident such as described in the pending litigation have all School staff one received recent training on child abuse and sexual assault and two receive notice of the legal requirement that they shall immediately report an allegation when received that's question one okay then I want to know who does the staff training for this who are they told to report this kind of allegation to who is the school staff told to report this allegation to who is told for the school staff to report this to are they told to report it to the principal or they told to report it to their Union member who and is there a public record where these reports are kept and if so are those accessible by the parents last one are you guys familiar with school resource officers I hope so why is Verona one of three school districts in Essex County that does not have one ready for ready for your answers you say ready for the answers they will be answered at the end of everyone's public comments at the end do you guys want a copy of this you guys wrote everything down and you know what exactly I asked okay great I'll be expecting answers for everyone thanks you're welcome hi everyone Mary Lum Menville DOD Terrace I got to reset the timer so I'm going to be following up on what Joy had to say here um we're also representing about 50 Verona parents that are concerned about repat your name again please Mary Lum Menville nine DOD terce again we're going to be representing those 50 parents that we spoke about earlier so this is a continuation okay looking to see what is the board or administration's rationale for not having a staff hallway monitor I understand that they currently have them at VHS and at hbw but not at the elementary schools also do you guys know what district policy 5751 is and if so can you explain it to us because we understand that this recognizes Title 9 and that there should be a coordinator enlisted has there ever been a title 9 coordinator enlisted for any event at FMB or at any Elementary School in the district if not how can the school engage and utilize this resource better since we just recently learned about them this one for the superintendent you mentioned a school safety team what is the purpose of the team who is on it how are they selected can a parent request to join and how often do they meet are there me meeting minutes that we can look at what do they discuss and if we have concerns can we bring those concerns to this quote unquote safety team and then what is the policy and procedure on a safe return to school for a bullying case or sexual harassment case member that all those that it that's it okay thank you hello my name is Haley Mander I'm also continuing on representing 50 parents who with their concerns and questions um do believe that Verona Public Schools and the Board of Ed can do better these are um some requests for demanding better policies at school as parents we need to be confident that any and all such incidents as that at issue shall be handled in a uniform and professional manner consistent with legal requirements and not left up to the discretion of any one individual teacher who may be confronted with it one we demand Hall monitors and and or bathroom monitors two we demand cameras in staircases three we demand clear camera footage on the playground Jessica sales I'm on 36 jent Avenue I'm continuing where she left off number four we demand more parent Representatives join the safety team Safety Committee to better understand what coverage is actually provided by the cameras and what are the blind spots number five we demand a dedicated inhouse school counselor every day and or therapist for safe space for students to go to counselors can take social worker interns number six we demand proactive districtwide communication not reactive there has been a lack of timely communication when events happen for example it was not communicated that a man trespassed multiple times at hbw Middle School the second and third time could have been prevented if there was communication from the school about not holding doors open for people and regarding the effn Brown case only the second grade class parents were initially notified ified parents of all grades should have been notified and updated regarding the status of the case thank you thank you okay thank you Ariza kelman Hemlock Drive I'm here making a statement on behalf of myself but I know that there's many parents to agree with what I'm about to say so please I hope you listen closely please don't stand behind your lawyers and Duck and say this will pass please do better please don't say we'll figure it out later please I'm begging you do better please don't say this will all go away just give it time these people will disappear please do better please be honest with us please be more transparent with us right now we feel that we cannot trust you and with all my heart I want to trust every single person sitting over there but I can't as a parents I do not trust the sport I'm just telling you how I feel I would like to work with you so that we gain that trust back for the sake of all of our kids please do better because right now there's not much trust and that lack of trust is caused by the vague statements you send to parents in your Communications the lack of information you share with parents the way your sentences are phrased reread them please you are it shows that information is being kept from parents please I'm begging you don't use legal ease to make everybody think everything is okay it is not I want to trust every single one of you but right now I can't please show us with your actions not just words that we should trust you please do that for the sake of all of our children none of our Lives will ever ever be the same again not yours not one person in this room their life will never be the same because of the situation Verona has encountered please help us to do better and one thing I am begging you you all state that you cannot talk about the litigation I completely understand that but can you also please then tell the defendant in the litigation not to speak either please even if it's out of the m just the mere respect of the victim's family please tell the defendants not to go around talking to teachers in all different schools that oh this will pass this will be good thank you thank you please do better thank you Paul patang oh you want to start the timer go ahead and go okay Paul patang 9 Martin Road Verona um I'd like to reiterate basically everything the very first lady spoke of uh she was very knowledgeable and she spoke sense um 50 people here are upset now there's 14,000 people in Verona so that's 0.003% um just so we know that facts um I believe you guys have been doing great a great job there are some things yes everybody gets upset at and this one thing all the gripes that have happened over the years are all going to come out but you know what you were voted in by these towns people and these towns people support you more than .3% support you that's why you were voted in um there's so much to say and basically let the whole issues play out and uh the victim's family let's also remember that the defendants also is a victim in this case right now because there's no no answer or anything has played out yet so basically you just got to calm down you got to calm down and let the things go and hide behind your legal issues you need to hide behind your legal ease because you know what you're going to have a lawsuit every single day if you don't hide behind your legal Le that's just common sense so I think you guys have been doing a great job Miss gppi I'll extend your contract anytime vote for a raise for you people you've been doing awesome and let's remember this is a six and seven year old boy we're talking about and girl but let's remember that thank you Paul good evening my name is Eddie kfest I'm the proud parent of a current third grader and incoming kindergar at FN Brown Elementary School I've been a public school teacher for the last 17 years and have been coaching Youth Sports for the last 25 I would first like to thank the Verona superintendent Board of Education principles teachers and support staff at all of the public schools here in Verona the school system was the very reason my wife and I decided to move to Verona my family appreciates all the hard work time Dedication that goes into what you do every day I am sorry that your years of Educational Service and knowledge are being called into question if you are not happy with the public school system you have the option of going to private education this is your choice however it seems that there are a bunch of people 50 even though there's not 50 in this room in that group uh that would rather disgrace the great great name of our uh Verona schools and support unfounded allegations with no evidence than make a move elsewhere we are also hearing horrendous statements about a young boy what if that were your son this has to stop immediately this is damaging to all of us our schools are safe our staff is dedicated let's stop calling a child Ames and if you don't feel safe close your mouth and go somewhere else thank you very much thank you very much for your comment Eddie Eddie before you go did you go to second grade with me heck yeah that's right oh my god well hello Board of Education members uh my name is Brandon Hines I want to start by saying to you guys and to the community that I have no knowledge of the issue that you guys are talking about I'm not from this community I live in South Jersey myself so Crystal Clear whatever I'm about to say has absolutely no bearing on the issues that you guys dealing with in this community so I'm sorry for whatever it is that you guys are dealing with clearly it's a highly stressful uh situation so I wish you guys the best otherwise to that end I would like to thank uh the Verona School District because long long story short uh I was a national spokesperson for the American Heart Association for maybe 15 years I came to your school district in 2017 to 2018 to speak here uh to your students and it was the best experience that I've had in my life speaking to students spoken in 200 public schools in New Jersey in my life and speaking here was the best I worked with a woman named Andrea Jordan over at HB whorn a stud I mean absolutely Stellar employee and Stellar administrator Stellar educator I'm coming back now because uh in 2018 when I graduated high school I actually moved to Manhattan and I continued public speaking there only because of an opportunity that you guys gave to me then one of the students parents in the crowd at that time when I spoke here happened to own the second largest speaking company in the world and he hooked me up I lived in New York I did my thing I've been doing a lot of speaking Public Schools since then but I came home during covid to launch a nonprofit um so now I do speaking in public schools on a nonprofit basis I wanted to reach out to you guys and let you know that we are small we're still on infancy but I would be more than happy to do speak engagement for you guys return the favor um the first time I spoke here was for the American Heart Association but you guys actually invited me back uh at the end of the year to do another speaking engagement and that was the first paid speak engagement in my life I would be more than happy to come back and do it obviously prono guys like you know just looking to give something back I like my favorite thing in the world to do is to speak and I keep you guys in mind all the time I will never forget that first time I spoke here and long again long story short somebody in the crowd one of your Educators actually had a heat stroke during that engagement somebody passed out the back of the room paramedics came it was an entire chaotic situation but we got the situation under control and it ended up being a great experience all the students were incredibly uh the word I'm looking for is um Cooperative I should say they were all very friendly very sweet people and I my my essential question to you guys is if there is any opportunity if you guys are looking having an event at the end of the year please allow us to come back and return that favor to you I I really would appreciate it just do me a favor shoot me an email yes ma'am I'm sorry you're DPP I appreciate you find me on the superintendent page yes ma'am I appreciate you guys have a great evening thank you so much for coming out comment I will say again I have no credibility to speak on this issue but whatever it is that you guys are dealing with I I I really do I'm young but I will say that listening to both sides is going to be the only way to get out of this in a sense it's constructive I mean it's simply that simple that is the wisdom that's gonna get you guys where you need to go right I know we all know that but trying to keep the cool head so I appreciate you guys thank you thank you thank you very much for coming here hi there um I'm Stacy carreer we live on Cumberland we have a son at FN Brown in third grade um first I would like to thank our superintendent Board of Ed our principales our teachers and our staff for working tirelessly on behalf of our students education can be a challenging line of work but you do it because you care about children I think we can all agree that the safety and well-being of our kids is our top priority I am also a nurse and have been a nurse for almost 25 years so I understand some of what you guys are going through with that being said we support the staff at FN Brown and believe that they have always had our children's best interest at heart and acted in accord with the policies and procedures put in place in regards to reporting of abuse or assault we also support value and believe in the ongoing process of revamping security measures in the district the reality is our world is not as safe as it used to be and I think we can all agree that our main priority is to keep our children safe as we all care about their well-being thank you very much for your comment hi my name is Justine srino I live in Laurel Court I have a son in the third grade at FM Brown and I have a daughter entering kindergarten at FM Brown in the fall pick up where Stacy left off I share her sentiments there were a lot of statements made at the last Board of Education meeting that we all find very concerning the overwhelming reaction to the article and complaints against the school has resulted in misinformation which lacks logic and only aims to breed fear based on this we have a few concerns as well one we are concerned that this allegation is being presented as fact investigations were conducted and were unfounded an email sent to second grade parents on April 17th which I received stated quote currently neither law enforcement or child protective authorities have made any findings related to the allegations end quote if parents are not satisfied with these investigation results parties should take that up with the investigative authorities and should not be lashing out at the district two and probably most importantly along with our first concern we are concerned that these allegations have now victimized another child because the accused child was named via initials in the lawsuit the child is now being publicly stigmatized and we would like to know what is being done to protect the physical and mental well-being of this child as an educator for the last years I find that to be the most significant thing is making sure that both of the children that are unfortunately Tethered to this tragic event are being protected both of these children thank you for your comment hi my name is Christine KingsFest I'm on Brookside ter I also have a third gr son at FM Brown and my daughter will be in kindergarten in September um in addition I've been a school psychologist in the public schools for the last 15 years piggybacking off of Stacy and Justine we also have some demands number one we demand that the language being used publicly to describe a seven-year-old boy stop it is harmful and it is inaccurate painting a picture of a molester roaming around the school to create a culture of fear is not only misplaced but it is absolutely appalling it is not even proper terminology to label a child a molester or a predator and these words have been used it is harmful to everyone we should stop using them in this public Forum out of respect for all the families involved um last board meeting there was talk of resignations of staff at FM Brown our second demand is that there are no resignations of FM Brown staff at this time the legal proceedings need to take place before any staff change would be implemented as Educators we understand the importance of having staff that is familiar with our school buildings and our students this is always the safer option I'm not sure why we would want a revolving door of of substitutes to the board to the staff we we applaud your strength in continuing to run our schools with pride and we recognize that this unfortunate situation is not easy to navigate moving forward we appreciate transparency and willingness to ascertain the truth thank you thank you hi uh my name is Ben jaffy uh I live on Valley View Road I have two kids at Ean Brown a son in third grade and a daughter in kindergarten so one of the things I've been thinking about is incentives what incentive does this board have to cover up any type of impropriety at our school the answer is none these people are not paid for this job they don't have Financial incentives to do this job they are here to protect and serve this community and that's what they're doing last board meeting when they said we support the superintendent we still support the superintendent that should tell everyone in this room a lot it should say that they who are in the know and have more information than the rest of us know that maybe things are not as they were in that allegation and speaking of allegations that's exactly what it is the bar for a civil lawsuit for filing a civil lawsuit is obscenely low anybody can put anything in there there doesn't have to be you know this is not going through a prosecutor this is not going through anyone anyone could write anything on a piece of paper and file a lawsuit so in that vein there is one thing thing that I really am going to ask and that is do not settle this case Okay this community needs to heal all the facts need to come out and I hope that everyone on all sides of this can agree don't settle this case I don't I'm really hoping that there's not going to be a letter that says nobody admits fault to anything the facts need to come out for this community to heal and if they don't it's going to be very very hard for it to heal thank you very much thank you very much U Jillian armeny um I have four kids in the FM Brown district of Verona ages 3 to 10 um superintendent D JPI you said that this happened um a long long time ago in your last meeting when you were referring to the time since uh it happened and time to communicate to our uh community and I find that a long enough time has passed to provide a communication to this community and resources to this community on education of potential sexual abuse while this is an allegation there is a duty of this school district under eron's law to provide students and staff and parents education regarding the potential uh of sexual abuse and give preventive measures to prevent it so while this is an allegation Anything could happen any day to any one of our children child onch child sexual abuse is real I will not call them an abuser they do not uh like the other the other um commenter said they are child but simply child on child sexual abuse to another child can occur and we have a duty since it's has been brought to light whether it's true or not to make sure no CH potential child in the future is a victim in that way additionally as mentioned before and I should have said this at the start both the boy and the girl in the situation are victims and we should we should continue to refer to them as victims however I know you said no one is paid um in this matter but our board lawyer is paid and he is here as a paid person to protect everyone here so board lawyer when you say no one is more frustrated than I bogus we are more frustrated than you and I understand you needed to protect the identity of children but I have children too that need to be protected so giving a letter to the second grade parents alone is unacceptable my children walk through that door every day every day the fact that I didn't know for eight months that this was going on or potentially going on is so unsettling it's so unsettling coincidentally in March of 2023 my sister-in-law and brother um and sorry husband sent emails to um superintendent DJI requesting greater security in schools because of the Nashville shooting we got no reply that is unacceptable even a vague blanketed reply would have been better than silence silence is unacceptable I know a teacher said kids tattle but kids also might be silent we don't know and I think that's what's created so much une ease in this community and I know there's been a lot of claps for some sides of the story and I'm not taking sides I hate to use the word sides but this is so incredibly unsettling and your silence has broken my heart yes I am unhappy that there was no recommendations by the investigating bodies because by your own admiss admission um superintendent the records were not accurate I have audio clip of you saying that the written records were difficult for the little kids to do so the fact that there was no recommendation from both Verona detectives and also the investory child protective services whatever they're called now is unacceptable to me and you should have also thought that's unacceptable that there's no no recommendation thank you it time's up thank you Laura siligato um I am a clinical social worker and I've worked my entire career as a psychotherapist um I've spent my career working with victims of sexual violence I've had extensive training and contined to train on a yearly B basis in trauma um I say this all because in my training in my work as well as my experience unfortunately sexual sexual abuse statistically is happening everywhere in every town in every school the fact that there are people who just outright deny that this could even happen in our community is part of the problem regardless of what anyone believes about who the perpetrator may be I agree they are both victims but that is a separate issue and we all need to start by believing a little girl who was so severely hurt in our town with that being said I do think that our teachers are amazing and for the most part love and care for our children however these allegations have brought to light a lot of areas that are lacking in terms of safety overall in our district if anything's going to come from this it should at the very least be that you actually hear our concerns and make improvements what do you have to lose by increasing safety and security measures as our elected officials and civil servants it's your duty to hear our concerns and help us understand the district policies and practices I've read and reread many of the district policies and I have a very hard time making sense of them um and I cannot find specific answers to my questions in the policies so some of my questions for you tonight and to save time I will email the rest of my questions I would like to know how much of the current and the next year's budget is being allocated to increase safety measures how do you plan to be mo more proactive and honest in your communication with the community there is a clear necessity for Hall monitors and or bathroom monitors in all schools for all types of safety issues is this being considered and if not why um I am aware that there's um been safety committees formed in the schools that are supposed to to be I believe comprised of school staff and parent Representatives how many parent representatives are on each school committee and how are they chosen how many teachers are on each committee I urge you to include several parents representing various grades and genders as well as teachers that represent various grades as our teachers have a lot of fantastic information and will be aware of logistical issues that may be relevant to specific grade levels or classroom relocation concerns my final question for you right now is in regards to the communication protocol the Board of Ed website has a the communication protocol which indicates the last line of communication for all matters is the Board of Education my concern is that the community's questions and concerns seem to just hit a dead end what's the next step thank you thank you good evening everyone Steve Cruz Cypress um first I like say thank you to miss prisco for going to the town council meeting I think that the town overall has um not paid attention what has happened with the affordable hous there's 89 or 88 units I believe um I followed this through T through the entire time so we do have a lot of issues in town but this is one of our bigger issues when the Builder presented this to the township and our Township Council sat there and understood and agreed that the guy said oh we have 89 units we're allocating one and a half parking spaces per unit because it's affordable housing most of them use public transportation that alone is an issue because our call volume is going to Skyrocket right is everybody really really 28 year retired police officer I want more officers but is the township willing to going to pay for that I think that it's going to have to unfortunately fall in the hands of the border of Ed to change something with the Dynamics of security as I've spoken about before because we're not going to be able to handle the co valy Mr jeppi has mentioned that you know support North Coldwell Mutual Aid in reality I don't think we're able going to be able to handle that K vot when those units go up just the parking situation alone is going to take away from the officer two officers or a boss responding to a school for a God forbid emergency so like I said thank you for attending that I think it's important I think they're just looking to the side of it and not understanding what the Board of Ed or yourself brought to the table that night thank Youk you Mr Cruz is there anyone else from the public that would like to get up and speak I seeing none we are going to close public comment and get some answers organize um so there were a couple questions about the school safety team um the the actual statute says a school safety team shall consist of the principal or his or her design who if possible shall be a senior administrator in the school and following the appointe of the principal a teacher uh in the school the school anti-bullying specialist a parent of a student in the school and other members to be determined by the principal each of our schools have differ sized um school safety teams and different numbers of teachers and parents on it for the elementary school um Mrs R Ms Ramirez is the anti-bullying specialist and she sits on all of them with regard to um training uh teachers re receive annual training in reporting um sexual abuse any kind of abuse they report that to the building principal uh Dr Miller uh director of curriculum instruction and assessment is in charge of monitoring and um making sure that our teachers are annually trained in a variety of things not just that one item that we're talking about so um they receive annual training in Hib in uh every every five years in suicide prevention there's there's a a laundry list of things that we're required to train on each year and he makes makes maintains the record of who um receives that training and who doesn't and he is generally on getting those people um trained they start late in the year Etc um public records of of uh reporting is not available that's not something that's over aable it is uh a confidential document there were questions about school resource officers we did address this earlier in was it last year or was it earlier in this year both both um we have we talked about the cost and what we would have to do in order to um put school resource officers into our buildings uh we talked about it with Chief Kieran and uh the only option we have is to go out with a public question to ask the taxpayers to fund that the concern is if the taxpayers say no to that we cannot use District funding to ever fund school resource officers so it's a risky proposal to go out because we did actually hear more from people who are not in favor of having officers in our school than than those that were in favor of having officers in our schools um I don't have the cost off the top of my head but I believe it was somewhere around $600,000 or more was it yeah per year um and that is about entire 2% budget our 2% budget increase is um about 700,000 Mr Chris so that would eat up all but $1,000 of what we can put into our budget every year with regard to hallway monitors uh it is accurate that we do monitor the Halls at middle school and the high school with Duty periods that is easy to do when you have teachers that have off periods elementary schools generally don't have hallway monitors and bathroom monitors are not something we really can do have put adults in bathrooms with kids but um the difficulty in in Staffing that is we cannot staff the special ed IEP driven power professionals that we need we're going to an agency because we can't staff lunch AIDS we can't staff power professionals so if we could find staff to do that that's an option for us it's almost impossible to staff the state required positions that we have talked about school safety team policy 5751 that is our uh sexual harassment policy that is um also refers to Title 9 I direct you to our the Verona Public Schools website under our district there is a page called Title Nine and sex discrimination on that it talks about Dr Miller who is the Title Nine coordinator um it gives uh the Title Nine team which consists of Dr Miller the investigators uh in addition to Dr Miller Mrs acrian director of School counseling Mrs Paul Mari director of Athletics and special programs uh Mrs Julia Peter District Humanities supervisor I am listed and have been trained as the decision maker for Title 9 we employ the law firm of aperi mcdermit Master and Murphy and the bush Law Group to be appet officers or appeal officers in Title Nine and we have an informal resolution process facilit facilitator Mr Howard H who is the principal of Landing school so that information can be found as well as the level of training that this team receives and receives annually we were trained by Ellen bass who is uh a a former um retired judge in the state of New Jersey who does extensive title N9 training so to answer your question yes we know and understand the requirements of Title 9 it's also the repor and it's also the reporting form yes and the reporting form is also on the website you can see that as well so you can see the team the training information when they receed their training and any reporting forms and um I can't speak to specifically tit on line in this particular case because we are in Act of litigation and I know you don't like when we say that but that is facts and if I to just jump in uh superintendent right now the law is we can only raise your your school taxes 2% that's all we could do um it looks very likely that in the future we're we're going to be able to have the option to to look to raise a more and if that's the case I'm going to be the first person advocating that we do that I'm allowed to speak I'm elected I'm gonna speak um because I want us to have a lot of nice things and a lot of nice services for our kids um but there's a lot of wants and and there's only so much and the cost of everything goes up each year um and that's all I want to say about that with regard to um uh cameras uh we have we have added 40 additional cameras this year we have 20 more that are waiting to be installed and we have in the budget additional cameras for next year um we uh have been this is an initiative not linked to this litigation this is an initiative linked to just improving our video surveillance in our schools um and that will continue uh there's a definite budgeted money for uh and I can't speak to exactly how much and I don't know that Mr Cruz is prepared to speak to how much right now but so so there is uh also an an upgrade to servers uh for this new school year uh with that um I believe the last meeting we talked about uh increasing um the storage uh and that's actually going to allow us to uh with the installation of those servers uh to provide a storage space of 90 days so uh that's going to be a huge Improvement going forward thank you um there was also a question at last meeting as to whether or not there is a um seven-year requirement to store I'm sorry um surveillance video surveillance and I brought the uh records retention schedule with me tonight um for school surveillance tapes it is a 31-day requirement just to clarify that so I don't know about New York but uh New Jersey's got a 31-day requirement and what else do we have here safe return to school anytime a child returns to school after a home instruction or some kind of a a bullying event uh a suspension anything we have a re-entry conference and that generally has a counselor school social worker um uh the building principal and other relevant Personnel depending on whether they're returning from a medical or not so that really is specific to the to the actual uh case that at hand with regard to um parents being able to view the angle of cameras um that is an absolute uh non uh non-starter and as a trained school safety specialist we were trained no one should know the angle that our cameras are pointing right that's a huge security breach so even the parents giving that information out in the community uh could lead to a devastating event in our schools so that would be a no and um you're welcome to check with Dr director Jeff Gail at the office of student uh safety and planning and I'm sure he will back me up 100% on that one um I don't know was there something else oh yes therapist uh counselors so I spoke with Mrs arrian today um in advance of um someone had emailed me that question about whether or not we have counselors available for students we do they are shared like our other specialists they go between the schools if we have a need at say uh Brookdale and the counselor is at FN or if we have a need of forest and the counselor is at um Lanning um our schools are about six minutes apart and they get in their car and they come back or Mrs arrian goes down or we also I'm not sure if the parents in this room know we also have Care Plus New Jersey which is a therapeutic um uh group that works in our buildings and they are also available to all of the students in our school so they are School social workers we have interns that work with them uh we do take interns with our with our other school counselors the elementary school counselors in this District are not Traditional School counselors they are licensed social workers and they're available for our students but I I will say that um while they work with our students on a variety of issues uh none of our students have come forward with a need on this particular issue at this time the rest were statements I don't really see any questions and they were demands I miss did I get everything everything I can respond to I I've addressed thank you very much Mr jeppy thank you appreciate it our next scheduled public meeting will be held on Thursday May 30th beginning with confidential session at 6 p.m. and public session at 7 p.m. are we back in the learning comment okay we will be back in the Verona High School Learning Commons I need a motion to adjourn the meeting so Move Motion by Mr Boon seconded by Mrs frira all in favor I it is 8:32 thank you for attending and have a great night