you okay good evening everyone I would like to welcome you to our December 12th 2023 Board of Education meeting we are calling the meeting to order and it is 78m and if everyone could please rise for the pledge pledge of allegiance indice for all a reading of me 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 the public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of the act the Verona board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the Star Ledger posted with the township of Verona and the Verona Education Association posting of this meeting has set 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 Mr Walker the record Mr WS Mr Walker's absent uh Mrs Rella Mrs uh Ferrar here Mrs prisco here Mrs freshy here we have Quorum thank you thank you moving on to our agenda our first presentation tonight is um rice Arelli from to present our 2022 2023 audit report no Mr vaa close enough thank you R auditor you thanks okay so you obviously have some very important things to do tonight so I'm going to try and be as brief as possible uh it's kind of tough to be brief when the report is 160 pages but I've tried to boil it down to about 15 pages for you and I'm going to try and get through it in five minutes or so so uh tonight I'm I'm Ray selli from The Firm niss of AIA for for those I haven't spoken to before um tonight we're going to go through the financial results as of June 30th 2023 and also our audit results uh from from those financial statements um so as I said the report is pretty cumbersome and it's really gotten very complicated over the last 10 years or so um very highly technical accounting uh Concepts there's three different uh financial statements presented on three different bases uh of accounting so what I try and do is uh give you the handout that's in front of you which is uh the budgetary basis of accounting so it's the results of what your decisions have put forward so you put together a budget uh at the beginning of the year that budget is acted upon during the year and this is the results of that which is not only affects that year but affects future budgets as well so in front of you is uh schedule C1 which I said is is an income statement of on a budgetary basis and so what you'll see is the original budget and the actual um what actually happened during the year and then a variance from what actually happened compared to the budget and so on the very first page uh that comparison is done on your revenues so you have local revenues like taxes and miscellaneous revenues and then you have state aid and those are the two types of revenues that you have um anytime you see a positive in the right-and column that's a good thing that means you collected more Revenue than what was budgeted for so in this case there was some uh good results in uh unrestricted revenues primarily due to interest rates as the interest rates climbed during the year you obviously weren't prepared for that when you budgeted for it and more money was collected than what was budgeted for additionally um extraordinary extraordinary Aid did well this year um so you know you're getting the funding you should be from the state um for for the needs that you have um so those were the two areas where there was really some some some good revenues as compared to the budget um I always like to say this is the most accurate um financial statement that we have in the audit but there are some things in here that are highly technical like those tpaf uh reimbursement amounts that are on there towards the bottom of the page and what that is is it's a revenue but but it's also an expense and that actually didn't happen here in Verona that happened at the state level it's just reflected on this schedule so well it looks like uh you know a lot of Revenue came in uh it would also when we get to the expense side it'll look like a lot of expenses went out and those are your pension contributions not actually happening here not a part of your budget but in this income statement um so overall revenues were pretty strong any any questions on revenues before I get to the expenses so the expense side is is much longer than the revenue side um and that's because there's many different facets of a school district where the expenses occur different programs different areas special education regular education all those different areas so I don't want to go through all of them but um when I look at your the expense side of your budget you know your your budget isn't being spent down to zero which means there's a long-term plan so uh and there's a plan for emergent needs so when you compare what actually was spent compared to what was budgeted did you're not budgeting down to zero and spending everything that you have which if something unforeseen happened would be good you can do a transfer and cover the cost of that and not have to delay uh an expense that's very urgent uh what that also means is it it uh if those funds aren't spent they go into your fund balance at the end of the year um and so when we get to the fund balance I'm going to discuss how those unspent funds are actually reput back into the budget in future years so they don't go unspent they just go unspent in the current year which really is a is is a good long-term plan so um you can flip through the next 12 Pages or so but I want I want to focus on page 12 of 12 which is your fund balance and and maybe the page before it as well and so um on page 11 of 12 you'll see that um at the very bottom of the page your fund balance and I'm in the second column from the right your fund balance started the year at 5,300 89,000 and grew by about 816 th000 to 6,205 n00 so about an $800,000 increase during the year primarily due to those good revenues uh like the interest on the next page you'll see what it's called the recap of of the fund balance and these are statutory categories where the state allows you to carry your fund balance uh in these different categories that can be uh used for different purposes so you have a a capital reserve a maintenance reserve and an unemployment compensation reserve and those reserves are held for those specific purposes so in future budgets or even during future years you can appropriate funds from there by resolution so the capital reserve can be used for Capital expenses maintenance Reserve can be used for maintenance maintenance expenses and the unemployment compensation is really there for future employees who need uh unemployment compensation should it arise and so your capital capital reserve is $2,358 your maintenance Reserve is $650,000 and your unemployment compensation Reserve is $24,200 and I I just want to focus in on that capital reserve at 2.3 million that's that's a good reserve for the needs of a district this size um you know we just went through a referendum here um so you know having those funds set aside will having will prevent future referendums from needing because you can obtain uh uh update and maintain your uh Capital uh needs so then the next thing I want to talk about is the unassigned fund balance at the bottom there um you have 1,312 482 of unassigned fund balance and this is 2% of your operational expenditures and that's um the maximum the maximum amount you're allowed to keep um by State Statute it's it's much higher in other states it's pretty low and really what that's there for is cash flow purposes uh and emergent needs so um you know you're in a position where you're 2% fund balance is maxed out so that's a good thing that you have the the funds on hand that you need uh the next area is what I was talking about before where unexpended funds are put back into the budget and that's through excess Surplus and then assigned fund balance designated for subsequent years and think of fund balance like a savings account and what you're doing is is using that savings account in future buets in this case in the current year and then the next subsequent year so in 2324 there was excess surplus of 7 76658 and 13673 of unassigned fund balance designated for subsequent year and basically what that is is fund balance that was set aside to be used in the year that we're in right now so uh fund balance that was generated last year in excess surplus of 766 th000 is being used in this year to to help balance this budget and utilize those funds for this budget the the excess Surplus created in this year is 1,0,0 and that'll be used in the next subsequent year which is the 2425 school year so it's a little bit confusing because it's a two-year rolling cycle and that's because your budget is completed before the June 30th year end so you're always using the excess Surplus designated in the prior year in the next subsequent year so it's a two-year cycle it's a little bit confusing uh what the most important thing is is that you see some consistency in those numbers so you'll see this year it's about a million dollar last year it was $766,000 and that's kind of where it's settling between 750,000 and a million dollars over the last several years and that's important that consistency allows you to have a long-term budget plan um so you're not struggling in future years and that there's a nice balance to the budget it's a good very good long-term financial plan um so that's uh your fund balance picture are there any questions on what I just went over good so on the on the next page is just uh a recap of your uh referendum and the expenses that have gone into it um you'll see on the second column in from the right there's at June 30th there was 10,946 so that referendum is coming to an end and will most likely end in the year that we're in now um so no big plan a big project finally coming to its conclusion I I think it's nice to see that whole thing come together and see that the uh that project is going to be completed so those are the Main Financial results that through uh from June 30th 2023 the last page I'm going to talk about are the audit results that's where we we really spend a lot of times looking at the books and records and making sure statutes are being followed and things like that and what would happen is we would have recommendations if we found something that not necessarily is wrong but could be improved upon right that's why it's a recommendation it's what we say we recommend that you implement this in the future and so the recommendation is that um we recommend that the proprietary funds and local grants in the special Revenue fund be properly recorded through the district's accounting system and so last year last year from June 30th which would be two two years ago from the account year that we're in now the district implemented a new accounting software and so uh when the receipts and dispersements are being entered into that software they're being netted together um but they need to be presented separate you need to see separate revenues and separate expenses so it's not that there's uh something wrong in the accounting software it's just the presentation of it and so when we see something like that makes our life a lot more difficult to try and split everything out and get it presented properly in the audit plus if somebody were to look at the records it wouldn't you wouldn't accurate see the revenue and expenses so something that on a day-to-day basis you want to be reflected properly so the that's the reason for the uh recommendation I think all things considered going into a new accounting software there's always going to be some hiccups um you know but thankfully this system is fairly intuitive it should be a pretty easy fix probably just uh the business administrator working with with with the um the software provider to make sure that what what is being entered is is presented properly so overall not not a huge deal on on the recommendations and I think overall when I look at you know what recommendations are happening the financial planning that's going on a lot of good things happening in the business office um it's not happening at every District I go to so I I think it's a kudos to you and what and what you're all doing here um and from what I see a good long-term budget plan financially stable plan and just the one recommendation so that's my overall assessment it's my presentation if you have any questions obviously be happy to answer or let you move on to the AP students no thank you for coming out and uh thank you Jorge for doing a great job for us thank you thank you R bye R all right have a great holiday thank you sepy I promise this is a quick one but like page one tuition from individuals the increase in actual is that like demographic survey related or so um like line three on the first page the increase from final to actual for tuition from individuals is that like demographic survey related or no you know that's a good question that is uh the end of the summer well middle of the summer we we received several more applications for tuition in students at the high school so yeah you're welcome thank you moving on to our agenda um we have our AP highlights and Scholar Awards Dr Charlie Miller director of curriculum Mr Glenn Stevenson supervisor of stem and Miss Laura kler our supervisor of special services are here for our presentation thank you for joining us great thank you so much for having us we're very excited to be here this evening and to have so many of our students and families present and to celebrate the really hard work of our Verona students so this evening we will um share some highlights from of our AP results and also present um and recognize our students so to start off we just want to go back to our mission statement to empower our students to cultivate their intellectual curiosity and social responsibility and you will see this evidenced in a lot of the work that our students have done that we will share their work also really aligns with our strategic plan and goal area one which heavily focuses on student achievements before we can of dive into the results and recognize our students and Scholars we want to thank those who are present in the room so we want to thank our students for your hard work and for your dedication in your AP courses we want to thank your teachers for their excellent instruction and we want to thank your family members for supporting you in your coursework we also want to thank our Administration in particular Miss arriman who really skillfully organized um the schedule for our AP exams as well as our board and our superintend attendant we're very proud at the amount of participation in our AP courses here at Verona High School so if you'll see this is very small but in 2009 we had 82 students taking AP courses this past um school year we had 278 students taking AP courses so that is a huge increase we also had a total of 145 tests taken in 2009 AP exams taken and in 20 23 we had 553 AP exams taken which is huge in terms of the percent of students at Verona High School who are taking AP courses in 2009 we had approximately 15% of students enrolled in an AP course and in 2023 we had nearly 44 students enrolled in an AP course so nearly half of Verona High School students are taking an AP exam and that's something we're really proud of now um Mr Miller is going to speak a little more specifically to the different exams and their results good evening and again thanks for being here so for participation raise this up a little bit um pardon me if I'm blocking some of you back up that helps a little bit I think uh oh like this okay so uh when we look at this it's in four different categories so this is our AP participation with our language arts and our world language over the past five years at the left it's English language and composition that's generally a junior course uh English lit and compt is a senior course traditionally now with Chinese French and Spanish so blue is 2019 and 2020 is red all the way to Orange which was last year matches my lanyard here over the Flyers and then for our participation uh from Spring 2019 to 23 and we have um Euro history has making a comeback a little one with Mr more and then Human Geography we have good participation psychology and then if you look 97 students last year took psychology that's about one six of the student population uh psycholog is a really good course I think kids love taking it it's a good good entry course for kids you have US History which occurs over two years US government and politics with Dr tamboro and our world history or what our freshmen take for AP and then we get to mathematics uh we have our two on the left are calculus AB which is one semester equivalent for Math and at college and then Calculus BC is this equivalent of two semester so Cal one and Cal two and then we're proud of this we're one of for our population we have uh generally the most students in the state take computer science so if you look at computer science a and computer science principles they you know I think even this year Mr cogal we have what two sections each so like we continue to get kids interested in computer science and what interesting my apologies is uh students who take computer science in high school or 10 times more likely to take it in college and get a career uh AP just did a study recently and and uh so if you're not taking it if you're listening at home take computer science it's the future uh it is really the language of the 21st century uh and then statistics which we always have great participation if we look at our Sciences last we have biology and this goes alphabetical and then chemistry and then environmental science which is our most attended science AP Physics one and then physics C which is mechanics as generally our seniors and I think if I say physics most people start shaking in their chairs but it it is a fun course uh Mr cie does a great job with it and then this is the last five years of our percent total of AP students uh scores with a three a four or a five so we should explain this a one there's a two there's a three a four and a five so five is the highest score you can achieve you get a five most colleges will take it a four most colleges will accept a three sometimes times and then a two and a one so even if you take a course and get a one and you try your best we're proud of you because that's what we want we want kids to try AP courses you try AP courses we've read this recently too if you take one a student takes one course at high school they have a 39 what the their chances of increasing of uh graduation in college are 39% they increase by 39% because they take a college level course in high school if you go to 2% I'm sorry if they get a two or take two courses it goes up to 46% so it's it's pretty interesting and it's about getting the introduction to the college level rigor here when you have the support because sometimes you go to college you have one class that's on a Friday and they go okay see you later you have to do all this work so at least they they see the teachers here four or five times a week uh overall AP average scores and I keep going back to 2019 not only because it's five years but that's preco and if you look in 2020 we actually had a higher average but they was a lot of the tests were only multiple choice they removed some of it thought AP was very very understanding there uh and then 2021 there was a dip 2022 we started increasing if you if you see in 23 we are back to an average of over three for 553 assessments given so that's really good considering we let students take almost any course they want here so that's really cool it's really nice to see those results um Dr M before you go on I just want to make sure everyone understands what that is we have access and very Equitable with our AP offerings yeah most schools are Gatekeepers when it comes to allowing students into AP we allow our kids into AP there's no gatekeeping you want to take the course as long as you meet the prequisites but just different than gatekeeping it really is a testament to what what our students and our teachers do here um given that we are not restricting anyone to take an AP course whoos to the teachers and to the kids yes and what we actually found and while we started in the first few slides of 2009 that was the first year where this school decided to make a push for advanced placement and uh we said you know what we removed all the barriers like what just said from Mr jeppi and it's like we found that if the more kids that were taking classes their averages actually increased it's was counterintuitive initially but now we found that we like to have more kids take and honestly the real goal is to take it when you're in high school when the supports are there and you can get support almost every day especially with an hour lunch um the AP score distribution so the way this is set up is if you look at the code at the bottom the uh table it's a one is them blue a two is red a three is considered passing four is green and five is orange if you look from 2019 all the way over 2023 you want to see more orange and more green and more yellow so from 2019 2020 it was very strong we had less of blue and red so that means there's more of yellow green and orange but you can see in 21 and in 22 we dip some but in 23 we're coming back up we're getting more kids and it's sometimes is thankful to you parents when you're up at one in the morning with them and you're reading to them and they're doing their homework uh it looks like we're trending back and again the numbers are solid around 553 exams given that's awesome uh this is another neat stat and it looks like I don't want to see this is like a nightmare for some of us but I'll explain it uh Verona is the maroon bars and then New Jersey or is the blue squiggly line looks like a mountain peak and then the global or like everyone who participates in advanced placement and most of our courses we meet the new Jersey average AP score which is kind of neat because a lot of schools again restrict kids taking it so they inflate their averages we're like no we're not doing that so if you want to take it you want to work hard you have a place here at the table and then the Orange is the global so overall most of us most of our courses we are meting or exceeding and if I go to the average scores and if you look across for average so first one is biology and then going over from left to right you'll notice that Verona tends to Peak over the mountain tops for many of these and again the goal is and the philosophy is we want your your children to try these why they're still here because the supports are here and if you do the best you can and you get it to that's okay again the the data is there that you will be more successful on College and sometimes it's good and we may have students who are in college here now you can repeat a course sometimes it's okay because you have the familiarity with it uh so we'll get into Quick highlights uh the average biology scores again if you look at 2019 it was a 3.21 that means out of 48 students that was the average and if you take a look at 2020 and then 21 22 it dipped but with Mr Harris and and his students efforts they not back up to the highest average in a very long time so again a lot of hard work these are sophomores and some juniors that are in this course chemistry if my daughter took chemistry here so chemistry is a very challenging AP here if you've taken it raise your hand okay then you know Dr webbe right all right I know I have all the stuffed animals at home uh but 2019 was for the average was four and again for Dr webbe there was a little bit of a dip but you know we've come back up and we what we've seen with our AP data is that what she teaches exceeds the AP curriculum it exceeds it and if you ask your children they will be like oh yeah especially if you remember spring break and all those studies uh computer science principles this is now Miss Russell we've had a series of teachers teach us including Mr WS Mr Cali too and now Miss Russell um fantastic and uh there was one stat that we got an email and Mr C I know you got was one of the students uh actually one of the students in computer science principles scaled perfect on on the test so miss Russell's very has a high humility she's like has nothing to do with her well we think it does have a little bit to do with her but also the students drive and probably Mom and Dad's or the parent Guardian support so that want to give that shout out but again impressive uh computer science principles so that's the average of the last five years uh Dr Meyer with AP English and Lang if you've had her you know she's awesome I I have something a little bit later for her but again trending always strong average score o over a three in this case the 358 of the last five years remember that number uh Mr White has really been crushing it with uh AP Lit and AP Lit is hard because there are so many books poems you name it that are available but he has just really tamed this course and his averages are extremely strong and this is the average score so if you have an average of a four or near a four a lot of your students are getting fives and five is like wow that's really hard to do and yet Mr White's class it happens regularly uh Human Geography this is Mr W Mrs wallerstein this is a cool course it didn't exist when like I was in school graduated 91 uh had geography in eighth grade but uh this course is really cool has anyone taken Gio in here hug that's a what do you think think it's fun okay I appreciate that again uh she has high standards but the class is fun I've been in there and it's actually very interesting topics that you talk about around the globe so it it's interesting and I think almost any student would like this course uh that's the average over the past five years uh economics because we're a small school we alternate with micro and macro I took micro in college that was a good one uh I took it in the summer how was the summer to forget but uh because it was tough the math was tough too but so if you look last year we took we administered the microeconomics and then year before was macro and then in 21 it was the micro so I'd like to give a shout out to Dr tamboro from 21 to 2023 we increased the average by over one point so you had Dr tamboro you know you're working hard but hard work pays off physics SE Mr C uh up starting to rise up 2019 and 20 and then came back down some but last year was able to get back up over a three mechanics is really neat uh it can be challenging but at the same time it's like it's a really cool course and you use some calculus in this and I just just a point the 20221 test had two questions on it yeah remember that yeah we were like oh okay thanks for that feedback so you know great job in from even 20202 an increase of three quarters of a point uh US history is always done well here it's an accumulation of two years in New Jersey so for some of our students it's like that's a long time with us history but that's how we learn it so it's us one honors and then its us2 is are considered our AAP and again we continue to have really strong numbers and the kids that take this course there's a lot of dedication with this course there's a lot that's asked so we're proud of the students that persevere in this course and learn and then we have world with that we've introduced this to our freshman students or students who just entered the high school and as you can see we just keep increasing our student averages over time it is a really good course to start with and Miss sepsi does a great job with this and then I wanted to give this one last view uh I emailed Dr Meyer over the weekend and um she started this course in 1999 uh when she came here and she taught it one year prior to another school district and uh since I have records going back to 2006 remember I told you to remember that number from a few slides ago her average over the past 18 years has been a 358 so if you've had her I I think she's a tremendous teacher she offers a lot and I think you know if you have to take language I mean think of AP English language that is that's a challenge but through the course of her career uh we just like to thank her because this is her last year as well so it's we're really losing a really awesome person so if you had Dr Meer just give a little little round of applause there for her here at home good news is is that she has a little grandchild and so she's ready for the next phase so we're happy for her too but also said I teared up a little here but she's just an amazing person um this is a kind of a cool slide so if you go two years ago so the spring of 22 and then the spring of 23 uh you will see that 16 of our courses we improved on and the bar that goes to the right is the positive Improvement and if there's any that are on the left we we decreased in three but two of those courses the average was over a four so both in our apet and Lang um and then music theory Mr Lich only gets a handful of students so if there's sometimes students he really pushes up and if there's again the students try music theory is a very interesting course uh my third daughter would love to take that course because she loves music but uh he gets them as you'll see to overachieve so in this case I think we had five students and there was a slight decrease so it looks like a lot because negative point4 but if it's one student that could be a 20 % swing so that's kind of how it works with numbers but overall this is what's called success coming back from postco and seeing this this is something to celebrate we should put this on a banner in front of the school I I really think so this is a testament to how hard our students and our teachers and all the central office and our administrators here at the high school as well as the parents this is this is awesome and uh this is kind of neat so Mr cogo brought this when he came in it's our uh AP potential and it's looking at our PSAT scores and it predicts so your children take it you know it's always around mid October you're like why do they have a half day again or delayed opening what's with Verona High School well sometimes we give on that date we give in the middle of October the PSAT and what that does is from your verbal and from your math or your combined score it it predicts how well students will do in courses so if you take a look at this and I'll try to translate this the good news is there's a lot more maroon than the blue I still feel bad for blocking people I'm backing up slowly uh so for biology for example predicted score of an of a three or better and an actual score so for biology it was around 19 that were predicted but yet Mr Harris had 27 students earn a three or higher and then if you go across I mean I'll pick up uh English literature Mr White had around 17 but he had 27 students so that's what we call it teacher effect so you can predict things quantitatively but when you take a teacher who's passionate and all these teachers are passionate about their they get kids to buy in and they tend to achieve and that's why we will always need teachers we learned from the experiment from four years ago that learning online didn't go so well so teachers are here to stay and it's very important this is what teachers do same thing with psychology we had 57 and we probably had about 50 so we're outperforming and almost all of our uh and so here we go there were 257 that were predicted to be three or better and we had 333 so again that that is awesome teacher power and students persevering uh for potential for four or better if you take a look again at biology Mr Harris had nine that were predicted coming in his class but there were 15 who got a four or a five if you go across it's a lot of the same stories Human Geography talk about that effect Miss wallerstein I think had 11 and she had 21 so a plus 10 overall 143 had a score were predicted to be four plus but we had 25 so yes if your child your child is interested they should sign up for an AP course because they can do it and we have the support systems built in to make make them successful um the last thing I like to recognize and we got this uh this fall we are recognized again for uh uh being an AP uh School with honorable recognition and the criteria I tried the bold face although it's not so big here but it's College culture 40% or more of graduating cohort took at least one AP exam during high school college credit 25% or more of the graduating cohort scored a threee higher at least one AP exam during high school and college optimization 2% or more of the graduating cohort took five or more AP exams during high school at least one of these exams were taken in ninth or 10th grade so that the students are spreading their AP experience across grades rather than feeling disproportionate pressure in any single year and again that depends on the student sometimes we have students taking six in one year but this is what we got when we were told we were congratulations on getting this for College culture we're rated a gold and instead of being 40% we have 74% uh for college credit 25% or more of the graduating Court we're at 47% so nearly half if you look at College optimization said 2% or more we're at 27% so if you build it and you have the people to teach it it happens and the supports are here uh this is a breakdown there are 476 eligible schools in New Jersey 37% place on this uh 2023 AP School honor rooll and you can see bronze is 9% silver is 13 gold is 8% and platinum is six and it says in addition New Jersey schools of the honor roll earn the AP access award 39% of all qualifying schools in honor roll earn this additional award so we were you know awarded with a gold which is a very less than 10% so if you do the real quick math 10% of 476 is 47.6 so it's probably about 40 so only 40 schools in the state have gold that's one of one of those is us uh we also get the AP access award and it says here AP access honor rooll also recognizes Ral high school as providing all the students chance to participate in AP including students of underrepresented populations so again another great accomplishment for the school and for the uh Mr Stevenson I think this is you I think you're up for the AP Scholars pardon me thank you again for all being here um a Scholars is a way of recognizing students who have scored um at high levels there in the past there were four different levels the green was the national AP scholar they do not award that anymore the last year was 2020 um and you can kind of see the breakdown and it Trends with basically all of our other trends of increasing access and increasing success it was 12 AP scholars in 200 n and now we have 85 and so Dr Miller this morning sent 85 invitation emails that's why we have a crowd tonight thank you I am now going to announce the AP Scholars I've been practicing names for most of the day um there is part of me that wants to go a little key and peel right now I'm going to resist yeah Mr Steve St yes before you start announcing the students can you just explain what an AP scholar is what does that mean the criteria for that yeah I'm gonna okay I didn't make the S right sorry so AP Scholars granted the students who receive scores of three or higher on three or more AP exams you guys set okay Sydney iello Leonel Andrade yeah yeah if you are here please come up and get your certificate should I go back no Christopher Baker Emily bombard Sarah Bosco Evan Carlson Ray chzn Crystal Costa yeah seniors or former seniors Courtney Cullen Margot dasta yeah should we do Applause at the end let's do Applause at the end or if somebody's here let's Applause that okay here you earn it yeah I did Margo dasta yeah okay Samantha Davis Max delera Caitlin dun Lucas Ferrara Joyce Gabriel Shay Hagerty Josh Hayes all right oh I clicked Matthew [Music] Haman Marley Kramer Isabella Lambert All Right Christian Lor it's the middle of the alphabet that shows up Jack Laton Bridget loninger got Miss all right uh we'll reprint Caleb RZ Victoria niic Jackson Pope Patricia rova Sarah remler Mora Shay James shorton Abigail Shust Josephine [Laughter] sh I wonder if they know each other Abigail Smith Juliana Sante Dylan Telo Allison Vasquez Jacob Fogle Fernando Webster Jeremy Williams Sarah win and dionisia yotes all right right the next uh level of award is AP scholar with honors this is granted to students who receive an average of at least a 3.25 on all AP exams that they've taken and scores of three or higher on four or more exams we have Kate adado Sophie babou Nick Boke Rachel boio Nicholas Canal Isabelle Chung Juliet ferna Cola Caitlyn hrly noani [Music] Lloyd Julia Nogales Samantha pakura and Brooke reineker let's give a round of applause the third level is AP scholar with distinction this will be 32 students this is granted the students who receive an average score of at least 3.5 on all exams taken and scores of three or higher on five or more of these exams Jean Bartell Steven Bartell Elanor Battersby Marcus Benninghoff Noah boon Leila broy Cassandra kuchi Kira Dolan George Donnelly you take that one too there you go uh Nicole hagaman Tyler Holland Patrick hman Daniel kachuk Gabe LaVine Zoe LaVine Logan macowski Grace McMahan Ryan Meyer Amelia niik Sophia Nunes bestan Patron mishad Lauren P Katherine rapi Griffin reel Rees Trevor samero Nadine sharabi Christopher slook georgianne Valera Riley Ying Ian Zusi and last but not least Stephanie zamani and a round of applause for all of our AP Scholars just a quick breakdown of those numbers um 41 AP Scholars with an average score of 2.89 12 Scholars With Honor with an average of 3.45 and 32 Scholars with distinction with an average of 4.16 the overall average was 3.14 over the 85 students who are honored and congratulations to everyone um I'd also like to take a minute to Echo some of the things that Dr Miller said we've honored our threes and fours and our Scholars with distinction tonight uh but let's take a round of applause for all of the kids who made this attempt and let's not discount scores of one or two when you're challenging yourself you've made yourself more ready for college and university are there any questions feel like I've been sitting for a long time I'm just GNA say thank you and I I re I say this every year when you do this presentation I've been around long enough that my kids were here when there were challenges and obstacles and to see the number of students sitting in this room and families and teachers putting this work in and coming up with these scores it's amazing kudos to all of you yes thank you very much um it's always wonderful to see our students here so congratulations to the families to all the students for your hard work and uh I wish everyone a very happy holiday so thank you for coming out congrats so one one last thing be uh while the parents and children get up uh like to take a big picture right down by the main entrance we get a group photo every year parents you can be in it if you want but we take one big photo of everyone who was here so thank you again thank you for coming thank you thank you got it has ke we're gonna I didn't know what this was my mom oh okay moving on to our agenda we are going to go into our superintendent Report with Miss Diane Diane dppi good evening uh you'll notice on the agenda tonight we're approving the New Jersey single accountability Contin or New Jersey qac uh the district performance review for uh 2022 23 uh really what that it's deceiving when when we give the the year because it's actually for some of stuff some of the items that we did last year and some of the items that we uh we did this year so as I said several weeks ago there are five areas instruction and program fiscal management governance operations and personnel and uh the for instruction and program I actually went back in and put in red for anyone that opens it up and sees a 40% um we didn't get a 40% that's what we got on the items that we self score uh we will get our scores for um The District's Ela achievement score and the mathematics and science achievement scores as well as um academic progress or growth um on uh our students uh student growth um sgps and uh percentiles student growth percentiles as well as our um student growth percentiles in math and language arts and graduation rate and chronic absenteeism so we don't have any of those numbers so we cannot self assess in that area we did um assign ourselves um full points for having curriculum in all areas and having all of the many many many requirements that the state uh demands of us with regard to uh components of the curriculum um we also um had to show that we are that we are actively looking at intervention and referral services um and that we have policies in place to support struggling Learners um for fiscal these are what you would traditionally uh see approved on our board agendas so our uh secretary's reports standard operating procedures the caffer of the uh audit that we just reviewed um whether or not we had had any uh corrective action plans um that we have no deficiencies uh that we manage entitlement and discretionary grants um that we're U managing federal grants that we provide proper oversight and accounting of capital projects that we um do our annual health and safety reviews of the buildings and uh we assigned ourselves uh 100% on that we believe we are squarely um covering all of those areas for governance again this is basically how the superintendent and the board work together um starts out with whether or not uh you have a a contract appropriate contract that it gets approved by the county office before uh it goes on a board agenda and that would be for Mr Cruz and um my contract um that you complete my evaluation by July one in accordance with uh law when we did that um and that we have uh that you are all approving the appointments appropriately so in New Jersey the superintendent makes recommendations for employment the board can either approve or say yes or say no um but the board cannot make um a recommendation for employment and we have uh evidence to show that this is the way it happens here that the budgeting process is is um done properly that we have uh our fiscal goals and budget objectives are aligned with curriculum and instruction um just going to go quickly through it that we have all of our minutes available that our agendas go up in a timely manner and um that strangely enough you would think this is Operation but that the district makes sure that our students have access to library media Services seems like a strange place to put that um and that way are all the administrators and boards are are filing their um uh relative and personal dis uh dis Financial disclosures on time for operations operations is basically what it sounds like that we are doing that we are operating the school district appropriately and this there's a lot of different indicators here um how we manage data that we're using multiple measures to measure student achievement that uh our uh County School District information system is up to to date that our New Jersey smart uploads are are um error free um that we are testing um you know doing bus evacuation drills and making sure that our transportation um uh Records are accurate and uh that we are adopt policies and procedures appropriately and we've certainly done that this year and Personnel is so we took 100 points on that Personnel is the only area that we did not take a 100 Point assign ourselves 100 points and we will be correcting that so um we there's one area and that's tracking actually I'm G to go back and fix something because there was one area one area where we lost two points uh with the way we track uh substitute teachers so um we just have to do a better job with that we do have a report that we can run it's just a matter of uh ironing out who's running it and um so we will have it fixed for this year but we're not going to say we're doing it now because they're not so we got a 98% in that in that category just to clarify about tracking substitute teachers all we we know all the substitutes have been background they have all their so it's just how many days they're in a class and yes so a substitute teacher can't be in the same class for more than 20 days unless you apply to the county office to extend that another 20 days so maximum 40 with an extension from the state and um while we we know now that we haven't had that happen but we weren't actively tracking so uh but we know how to we're going to be tracking from now on so that is um qac when we get our numbers for the instruction program I will report that to the board we also uh received notice that uh the Civil Rights data collection um opened today and it's a very large very complicated report um that closes February 24th so not a lot of time to get it done but um we'll get that done um with Mr blage and Mrs acrian um and Mr Dr biller will we'll get that done and then it opens again relatively after that for 2324 tomorrow night is the digital safety and mindfulness presentation uh we now have 108 individuals who have RSVP which is a great number um this is all part of our strategic plan where we are trying to provide more programs for parents so last night we had the um academic achievement parent night and that's our gifted and talented program that we started this year and we had about 90 parents plus we had 90 parents registered we did have more parents come in they were signing in that wer on our RVP list so I'm going to estimate somewhere potentially about 100 so that marks um we had a bath parent math night parent L literacy night academic achievement last night and the digital safety and mindfulness so we are on target Target with our strategic plan there and since um we've had a lot of presentations tonight and there's some people that apparently are here to make a statement um I'm going to end my report with that and just wish everybody a um a very happy holiday season thank you thank you does anyone have any questions moving on to our agend I just want to make one quick comment I'm sorry um I was the board rep on the qack and the amount of data and collection and work that goes into to the background of this is enormous I mean every administrator every principal admin assistants teacher like everyone really pulls together to get this data and to get it make sure it's accurate so I mean everyone who's involved in this report should really get um you know an applaud I I I know it's like kind of background cheesy stuff that we have to do but it's really it really is a lot of work especially for M jeppy and Mr Cruz to get together everything it's great yeah we're we're still like organizing it because we do have to organize it in a way that the county can access it quickly and it's everything from agendas to minutes to signin sheets to sample action plans of course IRS our curriculum guides it's it's a lot but um and it's the first time Verona has had to do it in 12 years so it's we're Rusty yeah yeah everybody had to do it this time because it's a new process so hopefully they'll go back to high achieving school districts not having to do it every year we'll see thank you thank you Miss fala on to our student representative reports I re had so real quick I just wanted to check in what's the state of a like gifted talented program are they still in the selection phase or have they they have uh Mrs Z brano has started instruction so all of we have 96 students I believe across grades one through five and that's for a pull out and then we have uh push in to kindergarten excellent so yeah right great yeah all right so for me um try to keep it short seeing as we've been here for a minute so the student council had the Hawkins toy drive which will conclude on December 18th so that's still ongoing uh student council Representatives will distribute gifts at Hawkins Street Elementary School in the 19th as they do every year next week they're also holding uh the winter Spirit Week leading up to a PPP rally on December 22nd celebrating winter athletes I I just wanted to say thank you to the National Art Honor Society for their like work around the school they've like done a great job with holiday window painting in the classrooms along the main driveway and that's a new program that was put in like a year or two years a last year I Believe by uh Miss Carvajal uh the music department will be holding its holiday concert on Wednesday December 20th featuring both vocal and instrument instrumental performances and I just wanted to add that um the guidance department has organized a FAFSA um a form like a FAA form instruction seminar on uh January 4th I believe so that's a free free like um a meeting for seniors who want some assistance filling out financial aid forms so while you're sitting there you work through the form as a group with an outside professional helping you from an admissions department and it's it's important that students take part in that because there's legislation pending that's going to make it mandatory for students to fill out fasta forms whether you're looking for financial a or not yeah so that uh I just want to say thank you for guidance for like really looking ahead on that and uh that is it for me you re does anyone have a question any questions for Reese no since Mr Walk is not here I'll say you're his favorite thank you thank you moving on to our committee reports um starting off with Athletics I will take that since Mr W is not here our fall season uh wrapup Mrs palmeri will be attending our one of our January meetings to um honor our full our full sport members and our winter sports season has begun and let's see I think swim opened up on December 7th our hockey team opened up on December 8th girls basketball and boys basketball are opening on the 14th um I think the girls team is at home and the boys are away let's see our winter Leadership Summit was held on December 6 there was 16 students that attended that and the speaker of the Leadership Summit was Dr Peter Duca an orthopedic doctor and he's also a doctor with the Philadelphia Eagles so um the students that attended really um were engaged with his um conversations Press Box I believe this was probably something that'll be in facilities um that the Press Box needs to be replaced um so we have an architect and a proposal to get a new Press Box it has been it was fixed oh we did okay we're looking at them okay sorry but we did talk about the Press Box because it needs to be eventually replace so and then uh the winter pep rally is on December 22nd let's see I think field trips we have a field trip on February for the model un Club to Washington DC with Mr Mah and then the boys lacrosse team will be traveling to um in March as well to Maryland and I think that's and we on the agenda tonight we are approving a new football coach and that's all I have does anyone have any questions thank you moving on to education take that one thank short um just child um and partner with the CPAC and um special services is hosting inclusive school week which is scheduled for January 22nd to the 26 of 2024 um building principles will be providing more information but it's a a really great uh opportunity for kids to show their support the high school LL classroom kitchen is still in progress It's getting closer hopefully that will be done soon um the new we have some new home instruction procedures that are working well and everyone's been following them which is great because it it helps us keep track of where everything should be um let's see we've hired a new social worker um that I think that she's on our agenda for now and then the academic enrichment classes like like was mentioned have started um so kayada oh sorry K kindergarten is pushing and then one through five is pull out and then teacher first round teacher observations should be completed by the end of the month and so we're well um into that and on progress to meet our goals there and that's about it thank you does anyone have any questions and then moving on to facilities report I am going to bounce that to Mr Cruz and Mrs DJI um I was not able to make the meeting and Mr Walk is absent sure so I'm going to keep it short and sweet uh so for facilities uh we do have two uh hires um tonight on the agenda one is uh a backfill for the Barona High School evening custodian position and another one is converting uh the part-time uh custodian at Forest to fulltime uh where she will also be used throughout the district um uh especially after receiving the um the time study that we conducted at the end of last school year and showing the deficiencies and and the need of of custodial coverage um and especially to keep our buildings looking uh amazing uh the uh reporting on the Verona High School Upper field Press Box um we do have a proposal uh we are looking at um ways to uh uh the best use of actually replacing it um right now it's not the the uh current box is actually not something that we could actually sustain in especially because of the poor maintenance over the years espec uh since it was actually wood decking and it was never treated so over the years it deteriorated um um to the point that it's not um sustainable uh the option um right now that we're looking at is replacing it with a steel structure something that's going to be low maintenance um and that's going to really last and have a sustainable long long life uh so that's where we are hopefully uh for the next board meeting um we'll have that proposal for board approval to get that process moving um at this time we are working with Township officials to make the necessary repairs to the current structure to extend another school year out of the the current structure while the uh project is underway uh so that's uh the update for that and um I'll turn it over back to you P thank you you anyone have any questions thank you moving on I will open up the um Podium public comments on anything on action items anything that's on the agenda that we will be voting on you can come up to the podium you will have three minutes to speak and please state your name um my name is Marco Goro I'm here to talk about the head coaching spot um I'm currently a junior and I'm here to speak about the head coaching position on behalf of the football team a side note I want to mention is coach wo has no idea we were doing this for him but we aren't ready to give up on him being our coaches yet what Verona needs as a leader someone who is there for his players on and off the field someone who is there not only to coach the game of football but to coach us through school and any future endeavors in life what this football program needs is someone who will dedicate themselves to Verona creating a thriving and winning football program we need someone that knows Verona is the place for them and would not want to coach anywhere else coach wiel is that someone coach wo refers to Verona as his home nearly every day he knows this is where he wants to be and I know he will dedicate all his all into turning Verona football into a program that everyone wants to be a part of a big thing you could bring to the table is that he is also a teacher in the school but not just any teacher but a very highly respected teacher not only to me and my peers but to all of his colleagues having a coach who is also a teacher in the building is exactly what we need we need someone who can meet with we can meet with at any point in the day to discuss a confusion in the Playbook a Playbook or if we just simply need some advice we personally at any time I needed to rant about a grade or had a question about anything during the day in and outside of school he was there for me what is funny is I actually have never had him as a teacher in the building but I became so close to him because of the impact he made on me during my freshman year playing football seeing him in school every day we were able to connect more and have created a lifelong Bond but don't just take it from me I know for a fact he has had the same impact he has had on me with many of his players and student students and that is something I want the future of Verona High and its football program to have I want the upcoming kids kids to have the same to have someone like him to help them get through high school and setting them up for Success having someone like him as a coach who is also a teacher in the building is the best possible situation for the Verona football program having a coach as a teacher allows the coach to bring all his players together which is exactly what he does during lunch he would have his door open for anyone who wanted to come and eat with him a bunch of us would always be in in his room during lunch discussing football and joking around enjoying our time together this allowed us players to get closer to our coach and create a stronger bonds a team with stronger bonds is going to have better chemistry on the field and overall play better together well what we need to take in consider when deciding who is the new head coach is going to be is what's in the players's best interest and that's having coach L's head coach he knows Verona inside and out and already has bonds with all of his players and has everyone's respect he knows all our strengths and weaknesses having him back will be like he never left going into my senior year I want to win and I want I want someone who already knows his players in the program so my senior year is not just us as a buffer year getting to know everyone and everything I know if coach Twan is hired he will give his everything to the program and he will be home as he always says what's it oh thank you thank you thank you thank you is there anyone else that would like to come up to the Pod agenda yeah thank you Mr py anyone else for agenda items well you're on the agenda if that's what he's talking about Mr F it's on the agenda if you want to speak back yeah it is yeah oh I'm assuming that's what he wants to speak about Dave fresy Verona New Jersey so three items uh first I wanted to thank the board for your dedication to the town it's a really important job no it's not really glamorous but really important and very much appreciate it second wanted to congratulate Mr Boon on his recent victory of of the seat I think that he'll be an excellent replacement for Lisa fresk and lastly I wanted to um acknowledge and um and give thanks to Lisa fresy who's served on the board for nine years and wanted to provide a little little sort of peek behind the curtain of how Lisa has um sort of evolved to this point it actually the story starts long before she was elected to the board when she attended sea meetings she was a power professional she attended numerous um board meetings all with looking to how can she contribute how can she you know improve the district and she did that in a lot ways and what she also did during that time is build a lot of bonds that she relied upon over the years and really helped to inform her about the district and what was important when she did get elected to the um to the her to the role of bard of Ed she took the role very seriously so those packets that come home as thick as they are she went through it line by line with a highlighter with with with um flags on it if she didn't understand it she would ask questions if she didn't understand the answer she would ask again she would do her own research she would call people so that when she got to the meeting she was well prepared to make whatever decisions or develop whatever policies was necessary so she conducted herself in this way for that entire time always with the true north of what is good for the students what is best for the district how you allocate limited resources towards towards the students for the best outcome and um I watched her over the years as certainly made a lot of big changes and had a lot of big accomplishments but many many smaller accomplishments that are under the radar that really no one either knew or was in a sort of in the normal course of business so just wanted to um acknowledge that and you know maybe I think the board is fortunate to have someone like Lisa on the board to provide that kind of example of of how to do things I I hope that's uh that's carried forward and um I think I think the town will be in in good shape going forward and it's certainly in better shape than it was when when Lisa joined because I I of all her efforts thank you thank you and I did not tell him very much Mr that was so sweet thank you I like can't wait to do this Jim Day windir Road glad to be here and back um and I was gonna wait till the end but I figured I'd jump in because Mr freshy jumped ahead um excited to be here to talk about Lisa um I had the privilege of being on the board with Lisa for eight years eight funfilled years fun years during covid lot of athletic things going on a lot of activities um and I have to say as Mr freshy said and now you have her at home every Tuesday night so I don't know what you're gonna do but uh um Lisa was dedicated above and beyond um like like uh you think about it she was certified everything anytime there's a chance to volunteer Lisa would raise her hand say I volunteer for this um when it comes to going down to Trenton um just I just you know we had some great conversations in our short little carpool ride from our our farest Avenue side of town to uh the Board of Ed meetings um but it was a special time and you know Lisa and I always didn't agree on things but we always talked it out and we respected each other's opinions and we wanted to work together as a board and I think that was one of our goals together was to always have all the board members work together and have a goal in mind to take care of the students the districts and the taxpayers and make sure that the parents and were aware of what was going on with the district so um but again it was it was a privilege to work with Lisa um she will be missed but I know Mr Boom will F in admirably and uh I miss some of the fun in camarad we we've always had and I always looked at as a team and I you know and there's certain people that put together like glue to put the whole team together and Lisa was that person uh for the years that I was on the board and again I was on the board with many other folks and uh but I was on her with the longest amount of time I and we negotiated contracts and we just it was it was good memories it was fun memories it was challenging memories it was you know mixed bag review but end of the day um we came out with a great District great people we have great board in in place today and we have a super superintendent were able to hire and uh and of course Mr Cruz he he's the glue that ALS so that keeps things running so I want to just say thank you for everybody all the dedication you guys have and again thanks Lis everything you've done for the district you Jim Mr D lelli at 35 BR M dve Verona um Lisa uh only you could get me back into this learning Commons I am impressed glenk and uh and I'm going to tell you I have a little PTSD hearing the audit report for the or 14th time uh scary thing is I really understood it and I'm like wow we're in really pretty good shape so so thank you so thank you for that um Jim thought he was going to be the the old HS Club but I I think I have him beat by by a few by a decade or so but um over over my time that I I served on the board and for those of you who don't know I served on the board for for quite a while um I I've seen a lot of board members come and go I've seen a lot of superintendant come and go but I'm I'm going to say Lisa you're you're amongst the best uh truly in in any way possible uh if there was ever uh something to be learned Leisa wanted to learn if there was a training to go to Lisa was going to go to that training um and she set the groundwork and the foundation to then step into a leadership role that uh has been truly exemplary especially during the difficult times we had we've had over the last four years so just I'll keep a sure as a community member as a board member who served with you I I thank you for your service and certainly wish you the best in your retirement and uh I wish I could give you a four times vest but you only serve three three terms wishing you all the best Lisa and thank you so much that means a lot thank you Mr Elliott anyone else like to come up right now Gia cores from Verona um so I was there before I was there before you were with her I was there when our kids our older Sons were in kindergarten and this crazy lady was going to all the board of vet meetings all the time she was always the on from the sca to the Board of Ed and everybody com and say Lisa you have three kids what the hell are you doing and she was very motivated from the very beginning to learn everything she could about the whole system about what was going on beond beyond Behind everywhere she studied she worked very hard I'm so proud of you and thank you P you anyone else well well we're on the topic of me I I do want to thank everybody got everybody who got got up there and and spoke and said such kind things um this experience has been so humbling because I have learned so much not only about the magic that happens behind the administrators the teachers write down to our custodians our nurses this District is solid we have so much going for us um and to learn about yourself it was so humbling to see all the different opinions and you think you have common sense but your point of view is not that of the community and when you start to hear the feedback and get everything you learn and grow so much so thank you thank Verona my past board members the present ones and to miss Boon the future ones like we're in great hands and it's been an awesome experience so thank you thank you so much Lisa I guess I will comment to you now since you just spoke but um I guess since I'm the longest one sitting here that has been on the board with you and came underneath you um I want to thank you because you taught me so much and there was there's still a lot to learn but you um always listened and gave your opinion and we sometimes like wouldn't agree but we saw each other's differences opinions and talked it out and uh we got to know each other much much better over the years on a very even personal driving to events and driving down to the Army and all that fun stuff so um you really have um done so much for the community and for the district and I hope I think you'll still be answering calls if I have any questions um but I really appreciate your dedication you know even prior to being a board member being involved with our schools and involved in the scas and it's very important to to do that so thank you and um yeah we missed welcome and um I I want to say also as a as a new board member I have really enjoyed working with you this year thank you for being so welcoming because it's hard when you have a lot of switches um and changes but thank you and good luck and thank you sir you're welcome and and this was a whole new board for me I didn't know any of you you know including Pam I I met you through the board and everybody so the board keeps changing and it's always a new board so thank you it's been great working with you as well and you know just to throw in my two cents you know you've always been available to me even when I was running when I was a new member when know this week I think I called you um so you know you've always been available and I think one of the things that I like about our board um especially when you start looking at boards across the state is that we we listen to each other we we hear each other we try to get along to the best we can we don't always agree and sometimes those Agreements are disagree ments are are heated but it's never personal and it's never vindictive um and I think having a board member who's been here for that long helps us as a a new board understand that you know these people that are going to be next to you could be there for decades or more um so you you better find a way to get along and I think and I think that we really we really have and I think with Mr Boon coming on it's gonna we're set up for success and a lot of that has to do with you and your leadership um for the years prior so thank you thank you I appreciate it and I too want to say Lisa was the face of the board as board president during my uh interview period and um it was that kindness and uh dedication to making Verona the best possible School District that it can be which really attracted me to want to come here and work with Lisa and work with the board and um it's been uh 16 months I can't believe it already crazy U but truly a a a whirlwind but a great experience and thank you for all your guidance in my first year thank you very welcome thank you thank you an I I'll let I'll let reys go okay I'm I'm gonna keep it short because I'm going to send like a repeating record here but the first few meetings that I attended at the board were content a little contentious I'd say and so just your presence on the board was really grounding and you really exemplified what a community leader should be and the role that the board should serve and the way that you instructed me in that personally by taking time out of your schedule to meet with me oneon-one at s of meetings last year it means a lot and I am incredibly grateful to you and all the work you've done for the board thank you so much I love working with you and getting to know you than keeping my eye on you you're going to be a success so I just want to add um uh Mrs freshie thank you um I I remember three years ago in the summer um at the time at the uh superintendent um when we received news I actually was in Verona for only a month you gave me a call and you said hey I just want to make sure that you're not thinking about quitting on us um we're we're pretty we're pretty you know good great people here and I don't want you to get the wrong impression and I think um anyone else probably would have like hit the you know hit the door running and saying hey this is a sinking ship uh but honestly I my response to you and and I think um that was that was something that solidified um uh I I'm someone that's always looking for a challenge and my response was I'm looking forward towards um this challenge with you and the board and really navigating finding an intrum and then doing the search for superintendent so I said you know that that's something that um that definitely um resonated from day one and and I appreciate um your your collaborative uh work with the board and with all of us so thank you so much all appreciate it thank you anyone else for now okay we're g to move on to discussion items are there any items that anybody on the board would like to discuss we're going to move on for roll call of our resolutions so I need a motion please to approve resolutions um on routine matters resolutions a through one so moved motion by Mrs freshy seconded by second by Mrs Ferrera are there any questions or discussions Mr Cruz if you could please call more for the record Mr Walker is absent for all resolutions moving forward Mrs priscella yes Mrs Ferrara yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs freshy yes motion carries thank you thank you moving on to uh Personnel resolutions I need a resolution to approve resolutions B1 to B7 so moved second motion by Mrs brazelle seconded by Mrs freshy are there any discussions I just I do wanted to say something quickly yeah I'm just thinking about this um in response to the football players coming to discuss this I know that we have our interview process that we follow and I'm I'm wondering if maybe we should consider in particularly when we have coaches inviting students on that into Review Committee and maybe the athletes whether it be seniors who have played on that team or Juniors who are coming up to be a part of it um to have a little bit of a voice because it's it's hard you know as board members we're not a part of that right we're taking the recommendation um but I think that the kids are the ones who are really in it and and deserve to possibly have that I will take that under advisement I'm gonna to follow up with that can you just kind of go through how the process of vetting the candidates and how we went through that so that we so we kind of have a more Global understanding thanks sure um so the job gets posted um in this case I believe we posted it not just to our website but it went out in to The Star Ledger uh Sunday Star Ledger post we received uh initially four applicants uh we got two later applicants that U Mrs palmeri and Mr Merk and Mr Cogdill go through and Screen the paper they decide who they're going to call in and there were four applicants initially that were interviewed by Mr merkler and Mrs Paul marzy um they did screening and they from those four uh interviews two people were put forward to a committee committee consisted of Mrs Paul marzy Mr merkler Mr Cogdill Mr C the athletic trainer um coach uh Mack and um Mr Ma I'm sorry like everyone Mr mroy um and and Mrs acrian and um they went through they were in there for several hours interviewing the two candidates between the two of them and uh ultimately uh came up with a unanimous decision after um speaking with the candidates and ask asking we do ask the same questions of both candidates there may be different follow-ups depending on the answer but we start always our committee start with the same questions so that it's in a Level Playing Field and um so I can't really uh I can't really speak about anything specific but I can say that um Mr Singh who is on the agenda tonight has significant experience um at um d bosow and I think I have it do I have it here St Joe's um and then Glenn Ridge um as a head coach as well as doing um a he also runs a flag football uh uh program as well so um you know it's it's difficult when you have personal relationships and you know we we do love mril as well I just I want to just make a comment as well um I mean I guess you know yes I we heard the you know the the football player that spoke um and I I just kind of go back to the situation that we had when we were hiring the cheer coach and we had the same you know we had students come out and speak you know of disappointment of who we were going to be hiring and um I have to say some people that I spoke to I said just give that person that we're hiring a chance and I've heard from many people about that and they were they're very happy with the situ the new cheer coaches and I just want you know these players to give the person that was recommended to the board a chance see what he's all about um and just be open and I think that's we've we're just creating this environment that we don't give other people a chance so even though I I think very highly of Mr wsel um everyone should give this new gentleman a chance as our football coach and I'm looking forward to seeing what he's going to bring to Verona and I also just want to point out that our board policy 3125 employment of Staff members um indicates that the superintendent shall recommend to the board the employment of a qualified coach for the district's inter Scholastic and entrepreneural Athletic program the board will employ as athletic coaches only those persons who have experience in and knowledge of the specifics specific sport are properly certified and possess the personal characteristics that qualify them to serve as role models to students so that's my charge to bring this to you and and that's the charge I give the athletic director or the principls or whoever's in inv involved in hiring staff that they put the best what they see as the best candidate forward and I think I think too just again going back to the student speakers I it takes a lot of courage to get up and speak and I think that they I believe that they would give any coach a chance right I think you know them coming up is you know it's it's emotional when you're when you have change for any for any of us especially for children right and teenagers you know it's it's change is hard um so I I do I think it takes a lot of of Courage but I think going back to that suggestion you know if like anything else when you're a part of the process you're a part of the process so then you're able to have that little inkling of I don't want to say buy but voice voice voice absolutely Bo yeah and a last note I'm not like going either way on this but um just to note that in the teacher recommendation process there are model lessons and student input as a part of the evaluation process in that sense as well um but yeah just putting that out there but obviously the coach hiring Pro I'm not sure what the specific differences between the two are yeah like uh how the model the model example lesson sort of setup that's given within the hiring process oh yes okay yes thank you yes and now I know what you're talking about there is student input given um and I don't think we've done it in every case but definitely um recently Mr cogdal involves students in filling out a survey after watching model lessons from one of our new hires yeah okay we need to uh have a roll call for a vote I forgot where we left off on that so Mr Cruz can you call roll on Personnel um resolutions uh Mrs verzella yes Mrs uh Ferrara yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs fresy yes motion carries thank you moving on to our education resolutions I need a motion please to approve resolutions C1 down to C c9.1 or C9 motion by second Mrs um ferara seconded by Mrs fry any discussions on education I just wanted to point out because I forgot it during our my report in the district calendar for next year um we made one kind of I think good change we we gave the students off election day coming up which um considering that it's a big election coming up it's a presidential and we still use the schools as election polling sites um we thought it was a good move um both to let kids actually some of the kids be involved in the election because they can be poll Watchers and poll sitters and to Al um as a safety measure um because we will be having potentially thousands of our fellow citizens come into the building and we want to make sure everyone stays safe so no that's a great change thank you I need a motion to approve oh we did that we did that sorry need a roll call Mr Mr Cruz yes M Vella Mrs Ferrara Mrs prisco yes yes Mrs freshy yes motion carries thank you moving on to Athletics and co-curricular I need a motion please to approve resolutions d d one so mov second motion by Mrs fresy seconded by Mrs Vella any discussions Mr Cruz if you could call Mrs bzar yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs freshy yes motion carries thank you we do not have any resolut for facil moving on to our finance resolutions I need a motion please to approve resolutions F1 to F5 so Move Motion by Mrs Bella seconded by second Mrs fresy are there any discuss discussions see none Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mrs brazel yes Mrs farar yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs fres yes motion carries thank you moving on to governance and policy need a resolution please to approve resolutions G1 through G2 so moved motion by Mrs rashy seconded by second Mrs Ferrara are there any discussions seeing none Mr Cruz if you could call roll Mrs Fel yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs freshy yes motion carries thank you um before we open it up to the floor right I'm going to go back to resolution number B no wait uh B b14 I feel like we're playing bingo we moved this around was at the end of the agenda yeah okay under okay um whereas Lisa fresy did faithfully and conscientiously serve the Verona Public School District as a member of the Verona Board of Education representing Verona and whereas Lisa fresy has served as a member of the board of education from January 6 2015 to January 2nd 2023 and whereas Lisa fresy has performed her duties as a member of the Board of Education in the best interest of the students and citizens of the Verona School District and whereas as a result of her dedication as a member of the Board of Education Lisa fresy has earned the highest respect and the deepest appreciation of the Verona School District its students staff community and administration now therefore be it resolved as follows the Verona School schol District publicly acknowledges that Lisa fresy did faithfully and conscientiously perform her duties as a member of the Board of Education the Board of Education wishes to commend and thank Lisa for her years of dedicated service to the school district its students and staff extend their sincere best wishes for her future endeavors that the resolution shall become a permanent part of the minutes of the Verona School District Board of Education of Essex County and that the secretary be directed to cause a copy of this resolution to be appropriately represent reproduced and delivered to Lisa fr and I'll take care of that for you thank you so much thank you thank you oh get out of here you guys didn't get flowers I'm just saying seats in November you could come back okay we are now going to open up to public comment on any items you have three minutes and please state your name is there anyone from the public seeing none okay I need a um a motion to adjourn our meeting so moved motion by Mrs freshy seconded by Mrs mzala um all in favor I I it is 8:54 our next Board of Education meeting will be held on January 2nd 2024 with confidential at 6 pm and public session at 7 pm here at the Rona high school learning commment I would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday and happy New Year and thank you all for coming out and Lisa thank you thank you thank you thank you all have a happy holid happy holiday