e not being recorded e e e e e you public meeting laog was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have an advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of the public body at which any business affecting their interest is best or acted upon in accordance with provision of the act the Verona board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in Star Ledger posted with the township of Verona and the Verona Education Association hosting of this meeting setting forth the time location and posted at the Verona board education office and on the Verona Public School District website copies of tonight's agenda and resolution have been made available to the public via Board of Education website yes Mr Walker present Mrs Fel here Mrs Ferrar here Mrs prisco here Mr Boom here we have Quorum thank you thank you moving on to our routine matters I need a motion please to approve um our minutes resolution one motion by Mrs Vella seconded by a seconda any discussions mruz you call Mr Walker yes Mrs prella yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion passed thank you report I speak good evening I'm gonna share my screen because I want to uh do a little uh strategic plan goal update no I'm not going to share my screen I don't I can't I'm sorry um this my computer was just reformatted and it's not set up to be able to show the screen so I will speak to what I was going to and I will post send it to you and post to the district website you know I just this morning um thought about reinstalling zoom on this computer for tonight and I'm I apologize um okay hang on one second let me see if I can just maybe I can oh maybe I can hang on no I have to quit and be open I don't want to do that okay so um and just quickly going over where we are with regard to strategic plan we have uh an overview we have four goal areas the first one is impr improving student outcomes or achievement and um we had a lot of items in that particular action plan for that um for the first schoal area we are either in progress or have completed um um many of those items uh in year one so a lot of it was providing uh professional development to our teachers um regarding uh reading instructions so we provided uh foundations training to K1 2 and three um that's where we do foundations instruction which is a phonic program and uh we provided uh professional development from the foundation organization to those teachers in September and October um we have also uh adopted um for next year a districtwide instructional model based on the essentials of rigor uh uh from instructional empowerment or the Marzano Center and the Marzano focused teacher evaluation uh model which is a much more um comprehensive but easy to use model for teachers and um we are training our administrators this year teachers are going to be trained in September and um that is uh what we're using now is very Antiquated so it will be very helpful to provide uh better feedback to our staff we also adopted the principal um focused principal uh evaluation model uh that we started with this year um we are um conducting an intensive standards review um for which our teachers are really I'm eternally grateful for the level of participation we're getting from our staff it's really wonderful um our you know Mr um Stevenson did a a pretty hefty professional development um uh on February 8th and um this Julie tjo who's here with us temporarily while Julia Peter is on leave has has done a tremendous amount of professional development in the short time that she's here so it's it's been really great and our teachers are um sending us emails Thanking us it's really phenomenal um we are um going on to the second goal area um which is college in career Readiness and 21st century uh Learners and uh our first goal was to develop an Implement a gifted and talented program at the elementary level that has been completed it will be ongoing uh moving forward um we are looking to continue you um with the um New Jersey State Bar Foundation peer mediation program uh and continue to train our teachers down at the State Bar um we are looking to um uh increase our dual enrollment so Mr cogdal is looking to form new um dual enrollment uh contracts with the various programs in the area such as we're looking at William Patterson uh Satan Hall um additional programs that moner State we're looking to improve the Capstone program uh going forward and and trying to streamline that um we have our lldd life skills program where our kitchen is complete and um and our students started making and baking and uh selling their wees and that will continue as well and um we added a career counseling um room that is not in use yet I'm going to look into when that's going to start being in use but it's beautiful and aqu for goal area three social and emotional learning and uh deib a diversity Equity inclusion and belonging um we have uh we have completed the transition to Care Plus um We are continuing with our Ruckers climate initiative with uh it's best to do that um climate survey every other year so we will be conducting it early next year for this uh because we conducted it last year um we are deep into uh piloting of the positivity project at hbw and it's getting great feedback um Mrs aaman met with the teachers that are um rolling it out and they're all giving it thumbs up so that's we just have to figure out how to do it schoolwide next year so that's our next stage is to figure out what it looks like when every staff member and great six seven and eight are involved in in that program the students actually are giving it the thumbs up to those that are involved so that's always a positive um we continued what the good work that Ken Shelton started with the Patell group this year in um working with our staff for diversity Equity inclusion we heard from Reese last at the last meeting about what the students experienced and they're going to be training the trainers so we are going to be able to provide more ongoing support throughout the school year with our own staff um early next year and um for the fourth goal area Community school relations um we I believe and I think the board mentioned our website is much better uh I've been a little bit laxed on Facebook because it's been kind of busy but we have Facebook now and uh as well as our district website and our website's about to improve again this summer we U Mr balage and I are um going to unroll the new website we we have a new it's really sh really sharp too um and we are not carrying anything over from the old website we're just going to build from scratch it is lovely it is very lovely so um that's why it's taking a little longer because we're building from scratch rather than just pulling everything over um so we uh we one of our goals was to encourage students to volunteer for Township committees so we have students that have um are volunteering to be on uh the Multicultural inclusion uh committee um and the environmental um commission we had two students Cecilia Manis and Nila um I'm going to mispronounce this marari yeah um that uh were selected to to join that commission and do that work and um while it wasn't necessarily a part of this strategic plan re uh Sado and uh Caitlyn Ang are also volunteers uh to serve on the veral public library board and we're looking for two new uh because both Caitlyn and Reese are graduating so verer Public Library will be looking for two new student reps to join them uh with regard to parenty uh we have done several this year we had um smaller academies for Hib and code of conduct and that really dealt with uh for the parents that serve on our safety teams uh we had a diversity Equity inclusion evening I'm sorry it wasn't as well attended as we had hoped uh but it also was on the night the State of the Union but I think the people who did attend I Know M prisco and I were both there was very well run and very well people I think appreciated it yeah it was very well run and that that Patell group is they're excellent um and then we had uh social media safety uh at uh at the high school in January AR and we had a math academy and a lit A literacy Academy so that goal uh for this year anyway has been completed and will continue using acmy to encourage parents into uh a partnership with the schools and um the CPAC and child meetings have gone off without a hitch but that those organizations are amazing so so that's that uh just District gold update we um had goals for Brookdale Avenue School so let me just quickly go through this I'll post this to the website too we did get our map growth testing done for spring so map growth predicts that at Brookdale in English language arts we are on uh on track to meet or actually exceed our goal um in uh fourth grade and we are approaching our goal still have an opportunity to meet that goal um in third grade for math we uh at Brookdale we are going it's predicting that we're going to exceed our goals in both third and fourth grade at uh Forest Avenue uh we are On Target to exceed our goals in in grades three and four in reading or in ela and um approach uh in third grade math and we're a little off uh for fourth grade math but we'll take a look and see what's happening there for FN Brown we are on target to meet or approach every goal set in both language arts and math in grades three and four same with Lanning um we are a little sketchy in grade three math but uh we believe we can get there in hbw we are on target to exceed our goals in all four grades for reading uh Lang I'm keep saying reading English language arts uh because map assesses Reading not reading and writing so and then for math not as uh not as rosy a picture there H for grades uh five and six we are approaching and grade seven very close grade eight we we are on target to to um exceed unfortunately map did not give me a report for high school it comes out blank so I have to call them and find out why um but the I do see the growth of the students in Algebra 1 from uh fall to Spring has you can see growth and achievement increase so uh all good that is my report for this evening and I will put an end of report end of year report together for the board superintendent I I ask you some questions on that so the first is um I know last year we I thought we made a really smart idea where we said if if you register your child for kindergarten before a deadline we expect that you'll be able to get your child in your local elementary school um are we how is that true like are we able to make sure that the kids that registered on time were all able to get into the reg they wanted Yes actually we didn't have anyone that registered out after February first that has asked um that we had to say no to either that's that's another thing is lovely that's great news um the the second thing my comment is that um you talked about the ruter climate survey in context to Dei I've seen that survey and it's it's a lot like they they go a whole lot deeper than I I think is would be reasonably expected are we in any way obligated to use them as our climate culture survey or can we no find them more reasonable if we want to we can find it more reasonable what's What's um attractive about them is that they're free yeah and that might be the only attractive thing about them because I've seen their climate culture and it just it's it's it's just not reasonable at least in my opinion for it's it's it's cray cray um so you know if you deviated from that I don't think it'd be the worst thing in the world um as far as the um the website comment I I think that like sometimes over over a lot lot of time like the website just gets plaque on it right and you need to reset and I'm actually looking to do the same thing myself and I think it's a really cool thing to your point about Rees being on the liary committee of course it's the best idea ever um and I think no matter what committee Reeses on it's gonna get improved because Reese is on it um Reese you're gonna miss him oh no I'm gonna miss Rees well we know that please um The Parent Academy is a great thing uh just I know you know this but in case you don't um I I pay for that out of my title one so if there's ever uh that's an allowable use as well so that's something that if we're ever good know looking for somewhere to spend money on that that that's exception and then as far as all the goals you know it it feels really good that you that you've been accomplishing so many goals and the district's been accomp that that's our expect expectation of you um but it also feels good that you ex you met our expectation so I I want to thank thank you for that thank you I I just wanted to jump in off of Mr W's comment on the goals um are you at liberty or able to describe a little more about what the improvements we're doing on the Capstone program I I'm a big fan of the Capstone and and I I know it was not a smooth process but I know it's getting better I'm just curious to see what directions we're heading well I think Mr cogdal um coming into this year made the process um more accountable there's more accountability in it so um there's there's more um logging that the students have to do they're they're doing a much more in-depth look at what the students are um applying to do so I'll give you an example from last year uh students that and I'm going to make it up but it it's in the ballpark of what actually happened let's say a student works at Lakeside deli they're getting paid to work at Lakeside deli they do their Capone at Lakeside deli they don't want to work for Deli for the rest of the life the whole point of this is either to do community service or to immerse yourself into something that you're interested in so they were allowing that so that's changing and there's a lot of our students that really are not looking to go into education that pair up with our teachers um almost half of them and so they're going to cap it at 10% um and really the student needs to demonstrate that they're investigating education because they want to go into the field of Education we want to encourage that there's a shortage of teach teachers but we don't want it to happen because it's easy and because it's a a they don't have to do a lot of research to find something that they actually do want to do so those are two areas that I can speak to directly I can get more information from Mr cogal yeah one thing I'm curious about is are we doing a a lot of or additional Outreach to local businesses whether it's in Verona or you know the surrounding towns to to make those opportunities broader for whatever career tracks some students are interested in from what I understand and this is only my second Capstone um the students are part of the experiences that they find the placements I do know that our counselors do reach out and help students that are struggling to find placement but I'm going to say I don't know the answer to that question offhand uh I do know from what the way it's been explained to me is we try to get our kids to do the leg work to find their placement yeah I mean my only concern on that is sometimes and this is just speaking otally that a lot of local businesses or a few local businesses I should say are kind of caught by surprise and not really prepared to take on even though it would be a worthwhile experience and so that's kind of the area that I was coming from with that question well that's that's different though so that's something we can do getting explaining our process to area businesses is different than getting students placed right so that that's a a great point and we I'll talk to Mr cogdal and Mr merkler about that yeah that's that's more my focus thank you thank just to piggyback on Mr Boon um if there's a way to think about conceptually how it could work in a hybrid type of office environment because I had a lovely young woman approach me about who wanted to do special ed law with you know but I work in Mountainside and it's not conducive for her to go there on the day you know I'm only there half the time and I don't think many professionals would be comfortable having a student in their home like if there's a way that we can talk about you know or just conceptualize with Mr cogdal and Miss acrian how something could work like my my husband's an engineer he would love to have a high school kid who's interested in building bridges because that's what he does um but he works in Queens on da he's not at home so like if there's a way that we can there's a lot of businesses that are still hybrid right that because it it it makes it it's an extra layer that is just difficult to kind of overcome um and so maybe there's there's something we can do with even having a kind of an office space set up in the in the high school where kids can kind of go there to work have a maker space you know can kind of go there to work right on tasks on tasks that are assigned by their like if I I would be happy to come to the high school and meet with somebody but I wouldn't like I said do it in a a home it's just notate I will uh I'll I'll transfer that uh suggestion to Mr cogal as well uh yeah so just two points for me uh well three I guess first of all like the work that's been done in the district in the past few years is incredible and I'm very glad to see it happening um on the point of um uh the batella group I think you mentioned the phrase that there will be greater roll out to staff as in training the trainers like um what exactly would that look like we're asking um so our last meeting with um Mrs Mrs Batello was um what are your needs for next year and the administrators began to talk and I said you know what it's not our needs it's the teachers needs so why don't we convene a committee of teachers that want to do more of this work and from that committee uh we're going to see which of them want to work with the Patell group to get trained to TurnKey to the their staff because right now the Patell group is in Atlanta and to bring them up here to reach to reach as many staff as we can is exceedingly expensive and travel costly so if they can train people in our staff to roll out the programs that they have already developed um unlike Ken Shelton who was a great speaker and very interesting and very charismatic he didn't do instructional programs with with the teach teachers he really talked to them and listened to them and and gave them strategies but they're more of an they're all teachers so they have more um instructional model of of of working with our staff so they can train our our staff to work with our staff so they want to train uh teachers from each building to actually provide professional development in the area of diversity Equity inclusion and belonging B on that Reese real quick so I I was one of the people that voted yes for Dei and and I was happy to do so despite you know what some people in town thought was a good thing it was was a bad thing whatever it was um but with any PD eventually want to get to the point where we learn it and then we train ourselves right and we don't have to keep relying on the Outside Agency how how close are we to and and again like I'm I'm really proud that I I voted the way I did for the Dei thing but I I don't want to be like an every year kind of thing like eventually we should get to the point where we've learned it and now we're training ourselves how close are we to that next year they'll train well they'll train teachers early in the year and feel comfortable with them and then we train ourselves yeah very good yeah and if they need a refresher we can send them we can send a teacher to Atlanta and to work with them I think also to piggyback on what you said I I absolutely agree I think you know budgetarily we don't have the money to continue to continue with Consultants but I think also when we're looking to change culture and we're looking to do any of that work it's ground up where it work that's where it actually happens anyway so I think aside from just the fiscal end of it I think as far as making progress it happens when it's in the classroom and it's with teachers and it's building relationships so and we have teachers at every building that are passionate about this that want to be involved in this work and the reality of it is is most school districts do this they they bring some I'm going to use differentiated instruction as an example 10 years ago people brought di differentiated instruction into the classroom they all of their staff two years later a third of the staff is you know a quarter of the staff retired left one I'm attorne leave you have all new staff they didn't get the differentiate instruction you have it in the books we did it we did it in 2011 but unless you train your trainers to keep training other people you're always going to have new teachers that miss the training that are going to need it so that's a model that should be mo in most schools I think also I like to hear the fact that there's an instructional component to it because I think at the heart of everything we do should be instruction and good instruction so I think to anything that we're regardless of what the the focus is I think anything that we're looking to do should kind of run through that vein of instruction so that it becomes that day in day out so I'm I'm happy so happy to hear that yeah and if you if you combine the work that the positivity project has the potential to do and the work that the Dei uh uh training has the potential to do with sta students you're going to need less of it moving forward right I mean we're seeing a lot of racial and um you know racial slurs and and aggressions microaggressions macroaggressions we've seen a lot of aggressive uh language toward the lgbtq community across our middle and high school in the past couple of years if we really embed what the positivity project is giving us and train our teachers how to respond to microaggressions in more productive way they're automatically going to drop in terms of frequency and I'm glad you brought up that example because dealing with like microaggressions or macroaggressions in the classroom is something that I've heard from teachers and students that is that it's needed training and um on the note of that training I was wondering how like the selection process for the trainers might happen if you have any idea of that and how it might intersect with the current like EI Committee of teachers that exists I don't know how it's going to happen so I can't answer you now but we we're working on that Dr Miller is actually putting that committee together and and we'll get together soon and find out but as soon as we know we we'll talk about it all right I don't know how we're goingon to select yet we have so many people that are interested in doing it it's hard put recent charge yeah we always put recent charge but you know I think that you know in terms of supporting the students and supporting teachers we need to make sure that the building administrators are all also deeply involved in the support I mean if if they don't have the support from the building their building administrator when they report something or want to talk about something um that happened in a class it's not going to go anywhere and I think it'll rebound and people will just stop you know which is well we the administrators will definitely continue to receive training in that area as well re you other thing you were going to say or did I Mis did I misunderstand you um I believe that uh that is the main points that I have noted down thank you oh wait yes actually see I knew it Reese I you're my spirit animal but U just in terms of the Rucker's climate report I'm not sure what it looks like at the receiving end or in the lower grade levels but for the high school level um I didn't hear any like negative feedback from students in terms of length or complexity or like arduousness so if it's at like the middle grade level or on the administrative level it's just more than more detailer than is needed I understand okay yeah that makes that makes perfect sense in Verona because there are questions that ask the teachers about their building administrators versus the district administrators and sometimes it's a district administrator that's stationed in your building so we just need to be so there were some clarity questions at the at the staff level and I didn't we had a fair amount of parents that responded it wasn't tremendously responded so I I I've seen the parent survey I just don't recall it being it's just modeled very generically yes it's very generic there's no room for comments yeah we're we're still a Group Two school you know in the suburbs and it's we it's the same survey that you'd give to 50 other high schools or 50 other school districts and I'm not sure it it's the right model to to gauge Us in particular for us to get some value out of it's not a bad model and it's free which is good but I whether we create our own or create a committee to create our own I I think we might get more value out of that yeah and um I I have experience using Panorama do you know Panorama Panorama is excellent but it's uh about 17 $1,000 a year you know it that should be free cop no it's the analysis that's that's tough yeah I want to just say that I'm happy to hear that um because I had raised this last year because we had just taken a survey the previous year so I'm happy to hear that we're doing it every other year because I think it's like that saying you that you don't uh you can't you can't weigh a pig by this messed up wait you can't keep going with this I want to hear this analogy to fullest hold on I use it for assessments I've said it probably six times this week and I'm drawing blank um no I'll come back to that but my point is right it's the it's the idea of over assessment it's the idea of over assessment and I think that um to hear that we're doing this every other year makes a lot more sense because then we're able to actually see where we are especially I think when we're thinking about our younger students in elementary and middle school who may not really understand what the survey is and they're not fully even understanding the questions but they're taking and answering those questions on their own so I think the idea of having it every other year but still it's the processing of what does it mean what does the questiona did you mean weighing a the pig doesn't make it any fatter I did not just give me a minute just give me a minute first came I will I got it you can't fatten a pig by weighing it that's what it is that's that's what it is I I use it all the time with assessments and it's the same thing right [Laughter] okay thank you moving on we are going to go to our business administrator Report with Mr Cruz uh good evening everyone uh in finances month we have the February secretaries uh treasures and transfer report they're all in agreement uh recently we submitted our tenative 2024 2025 budget to the county office uh in tonight's uh resolution under uh resolution E2 uh there was an update to the budget um which required us to utilize uh an additional 469,000 109 from our fund balance and this is part of the state's calculation of our access general fund balance uh so when we submit to the state um part of the uh state budget tool if we have additional funds in our fund balance and and the way that the state calculates it they will require uh school districts to utilize the additional fund balance so this is actually good news because um in addition to this additional fund balance that we've uh are feeding into the budget there was also 4,6 88 in debt service um fund balance to be utilized uh so at the end it does not affect the tax levy to be raised in in the our previous um presentation um but it what it does it does lower our Debt Service uh tax levy by $4,688 uh the additional fund balance that um that was bought into this budget uh allow us to uh expand additional programs and Technology stem RTI professional development an additional 1.5 uh teacher ft um which will uh uh will have a final presentation uh at the end of April uh with those details and once the uh County approves the budget will be advertised on our uh onor about April 19th and presented uh at the uh April 30th board meeting uh spring is an very exciting and busy time of year um as we prepare to close out the school year and prepare for the new school year um and now that I see that the finance committee is on the report tonight I'm not going to uh steal that Thunder on on the finance committee report I'll leave some room for those highlights uh from them and this concludes my report for tonight thank you hey the um the 1.5 plus FTE that's a kindergarten teacher and half a g&t teach teacher so the 1.5 actually the kindergarten teacher we already had um previously the 1.5 is special ed so 1.5 new special ed teachers special does that mean there's two new employees or one so for that one one and a half one and a half but I'm saying like is one person already doing a half and then they're they're fulltime no we have 1.5 very yeah and the kindergarten teacher um comes to us and this is not a happy thing but um Tamara jario who was doing our m math coaching um we can't sustain that position it's been paid with Esser funds um for the past two years and they are gone and her salary to sustain her as a coach and then hire another kindergarten teacher was not doable in this budget so she's going back into the classroom and the person uh it's actually going back into Brookdale I think that's where she's going that's where she said see yes we thank her for her service and be different if we can find the money we would most certainly rein that position um but it's just not something that we have the money for interested and we didn't have the money for two years ago when we stated the program yeah the dangers of using S yes so um I mentioned this before the meeting a little bit but uh this afternoon during lunch I held a brief meeting with some students who are interested in running for the position next year so we had about four underclassmen showed up um they're great kids so any of them would be fantastic in this role and I just went over the structure of the Board of Education the student Le aon's role and answered any questions they might have so the meeting was in no way mandatory in order to run for the position next year just like a brief information session to get some information because typically kids have an idea of what a vice president does does the president does or the secretary but this is kind of a little more Niche and it just might not be as intuitive so I offered that up this afternoon and um last thing from student council there will be a schoolwide pep rally on Thursday March 28th the day before break for spring Sports we did meet um if Mr Boon wants to to highlight anything that he he recalls that be happy to talk about it but for me just agenda items only yeah I have nothing to add beyond that Chris sure I'll take that and mron if you want to chime in um sure so we talked a bit like Mr Cruz mentioned the budget is on target for approval um at our April 30th meeting right yeah um so that's good um so you'll see uh on the board agenda something for NJ arm that is not an adjustable rate mortgage I asked that question that is um it's a like a higher interest rate um account that we can utilize to generate some extra interest into our funds that Mr Cruz has found um it seems to be fairly painless to use and so we are recommending that we go into that um there is one thing the community garden approached us about um building a fence around they needed about $3,000 to build a fence around the community guard um when they initially came to us two years ago they simply wanted the land and we've allowed them to expand further into the land um so at this time we um recommended not um is it because the deer they I don't even know why I think they just wanted to fence off the area um as far as we knew they hadn't approached other do you have yeah I think um the fence that's there is really like badly uh dilapidated and they want to replace it right that's what you said right so from what we are understood um they hadn't approached any other entity uh for funding or for assistance um Mr Boon actually made a nice suggestion that perhaps a scout Eagle project could be um used to uh assist them so you know as of now I think we're we were pretty much a Sol come back to us after you've exhausted all other options and we'll we'll we'll look it into it again um the big thing that we did talk we talked about the non-resident tuition which is also on the agenda and um I believe you had a question about that yes I guess I'll bring it up now so during the rare times that I pay attention at legal trainings um it's um there's a new bill and I asked my favorite lawyer Miss marzel to confirm that I was reading it correctly um but it looks like starting July 1 of of 20124 districts are going to be forced to have one uniform rate for out of district for kids that don't live in the town that they go to school in so the district could say hey if you're a staff memb kid at zero but then it's gonna have to be zero for anyone else or you could say hey if staff members kids could could go there for for 50% but then it we have would likely have to be the same thing but is that tell me how you read it no the way I read it was that um there has to be a uniform tuition amount with exceptions for uh votek schools teachers children of teaching staff members members of the National Guard or reserve unit and armed forces and then other um exceptions pursuant to Federal La um homelessness and and and stuff like that um but it appears that we have to have a a a the same tuition k not it doesn't say K12 but it just says all non-resident students must have a uniform tuition amount and I'm not quite sure I was trying to look at the language of the bill while we were kind of discussing it and it doesn't differentiate K12 but it also doesn't seem to allow us to have um bring forward students that may already be here for students that are existing so but when would this this bill hasn't passed yet no it's been signed by the governor it was signed by the governor yeah my to have our our our attorney look at this and give us his advice because I I think it's I just found that about it a week ago and and it seemed like when I talked to him the other day about it he was kind of new to it so maybe if there's you know I appreciate commissioner versel for understanding it better than I did um but I think we might want to ask him to kind of really do a think on this and let us know because I I don't think I I think we might be better off skipping E7 and E12 tonight so that we're UND so that we can make a better vote in a couple weeks right so maybe when we get to those we motion to table and then yeah you can table East oh there's two East SS anyway there should be there shouldn't be two East SS but um we can we can table we we have to well I'll find out quickly because we have people that are applying right to our district we get have Kyle to the next meeting that might be better idea or even just give us a an idea you know so will we wait to have will we wait to have any discussion around that once we get that because it could significantly change what our proposal is okay if we have to have then we'd have to resend and and reap and I'd rather just I think everyone would rather pay money yeah have a straight ation about that okay um so somebody can make a motion when we get there yeah um and then the other issue which we can talk about now or later um as people would like is the hockey agreement um I have if we want to talk about it now um Mr Boon and I are uneasy I think it's a good way to put to put a to have a two-year agreement if it was a one year agreement I think we both would say yeah for one year we can we can figure it out and let Glen Ridge know that we're kind of un easy um given the current finances that we've been talking about the last few weeks it it's an expensive program to run that this year only five students participated in um and I do not like saying taking anything away from any student anywhere but I'm also thinking 20 I think it was 23 or $24,000 um is a lot of money that can serve more than five students well now it's not a big chunk of our budget it's not a you know and these some of these students have been playing Verona hockey since they were freshmen and are going to be seniors next year which is also difficult um it is but I I will say that a hockey program is expensive even if it was 100% our kids we'd be bearing the full cost which is about $80,000 so if we had 25 students paying 85,000 divide that it's still similar per pupil cost for a program of ice hockey it's a it's an expensive program Jorge how many how much do we get per child for Verona regardless if they play hockey or not so the question per child for we get for State a or for what or two is what would those answers be oh so so right now they're per pupil is 17,000 17,000 per pup is there a chance that one of the five students that we have would say or his parents or her parents would say if I can't play hockey in Verona Glenn Ridge then I'm just going to go to Sean Hall Prep or go to Livingston um or go to any other local school that might have a hockey program because if that's the case if if if we have one of those students do that then we're we're right back to almost breaking even yeah Mr W one one thing about that is I'm I'm skeptical of that um you know first of all those other prog you know other programs in the area are extremely competitive and and you know internal to those schools they tend to have significant cut uh particularly something like Sean Hall Prep um I mean if you're good enough to be playing there um you're definitely going there on a scholarship to begin with um I think my my my concern or my comment is is that if if if Verona High hockey goes away um it's not that these players are lacking in other opportunities and an overwhelming majority uh between Verona and Glen Ridge it's probably numbers are going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 24 students across both schools excuse me almost every one of them are playing at the club level anyway and they are having significant opportunities to to enjoy hockey um so the you know the concern of of of losing something I think is minimalized it's not the equivalent of taking away say football or B baseball here yeah I I I definitely respect 100% respect what you're saying I for for something that's 0.00000000 6% of our budget I I don't want to take opportunities away from children um and and who's to say whether five years from now the numbers flip and a bunch of Glen Ridge kids deide they don't like hockey and a bunch of Veronicas to say they do like it which could I just don't want to be part of a board that limits unless there's a real fiscal emergency where we have to limit and that's my position yeah I just I also wanted to point out that I I did speak to um uh someone who is a hockey mom of a younger age child and there's a there's a bunch of kids coming up so we do know we have a pretty strong feeder in in the district and I just want to point out that I I feel as uh Mr wer feel with regard to taking something away unless we're in a financial emergency which this district has been in for years there no no different than other years but I also feel that at this point pulling this out from under Glen Ridge is the wrong thing to do um we have not had a discussion with them we have they have no idea this is coming so we we can only have a two-year contractor under njsiaa regulations we're required to do a two-year um if we we wanted to have this conversation going forward it would be fair to them to tell them that we are talking about this as a board and not just pull it because if we pull it they don't have a team so we're pulling it from veral kids and we're pulling it from Glen Glenn Ridge kids without having an opportunity to negotiate further for a different cost or whatever um so for those two reasons it would not be my suggestion to do that I'd like to with with respect for m m Mr Boone and Miss Barella I I think that before this board makes any decision we we would need the ad to get us I don't know how long this hockey program has been around but I I'd like to see a 10 year or 15 year whatever whatever it is uh some data that shows us how many Verona kids we've seen since the Inception Inception of this program how many Glen Ridge kids we've seen what the success of the program is what the fluctuation did the fluctuation um but I I just feel like if if we kill this we ain't going to get it back anytime soon um and it's I I don't even know how to ice skate and I don't know any of the rules of hockey uh but I like I I like the fact that our kids have the opportunity to play this um so I'm not I'm not saying I'm blindly against the idea to Mr Boon or Miss Vella but I'd really like us to get some data so that we can make a better decision I think I think I would feel more comfortable if we said we'll do it for the two years but we're going to we're going to look forward and see what's coming down the pipe because it looked like from the numbers that that Miss pomari gave us there's zero or maybe one kid coming in from eighth grade to ninth grade that's a hockey player so and we're losing I think four three or four so with yeah I think that that it's important also to get that data for the younger kids and I think to Mr Boon's point about Club while I I I agree that there are a lot of Club opportunities I think that club sports is a tremendous financial burden on on families and I think that hockey is one of those sports like like many right but it's a labor of love these kids are up five o'clock in the morning on the ice practicing and the parents are paying a significant amount of money and then to to then have that taken away when you know they're getting to high school after they've been training for x amount of years is not fair I don't think to our to our families um and I do like the idea of collecting that data and seeing where we stand two years from now you know and the interest level then and then cir going back to itle couple comments if I may on on all of that and I think all of those points are correct too Mr walk's initial question I I believe the Verona Glenn Ridge um alignment is is the oldest if not one of the oldest uh joint ventures in in the state of New Jersey um so there's that going for it I have witnessed over the last decade uh to Mr waka's Point um where the portions of Verona versus Glenn Ridge were almost reversed um to uh Miss Ferrara the the one the one issue is that if you are a student playing Club hockey you do not give up Club hockey by the time you get to the high school level you are in almost all cases doing both um so again just to reemphasize that you're not taking things away and I would be a little cautious about looking at the the number of youth playing in um club sports right now in Verona is probably pretty consistent to what it has been over the past past decade and then typically something happens around 8th grade where they choose for whatever reason not to pursue it but I this is a long way of me saying that I think the hard data would really be uh useful for for um the reasons Miss Ferrara and Mr waca site quick question because I very a little bit hockey but I am a devil's fan unlike my superintendent um even though she's from New Jersey like I am um but with um with with hockey I know there's in some states they have like Female Hockey or girls hockey but with our program if if a female's team is good enough to make a che they do last year the Glenn Ridge Verona Glenn Ridge had I believe four four uh Young women on um on the teames they in women's hockey there's no checking so they they're better off in msaki they should be checking in they should let everybody anyway another they the Devils don't check either so it's okay they don't play the Trap anymore I just want to um comment on some information as well I mean I the hockey program with Blen rage has been around for I think since 199 so 30 years so to pull something out from our children I would not be in favor of I think though um to Mrs Pommery I believe last year or two years ago M Mr Cruz um we changed the base bu of how many students we have to not pay as as a high cost so that was one one way of looking at it um and I think going forward we can look at maybe other options maybe sponsorships or something but I think to just um say we are not going to support the hockey program with blind rage is just something that I do not support um we do have seven according to Mrs py we will have seven players for next year this year we had five and we have one that will be a senior who's been playing for probably several years um and I'm sure as a child so um and I do know my neighbor across the street is um B to hockey their youth and um one of our staff members on so hopefully we will um have the numbers to continue going forward and growing but I do think like um M mentioned that we just think it's not something we should do with blund pull out of blend right now it's not fair to them as well yeah and I just want to add on a program success should never be B Contin should never be based on Student Success in like this area in part particular but the hockey team has been successful not just on a competitive level but also for their sportsmanship and recognize time and time again for that so it's a high performing character building program that's really valuable at the high school thank you thanks it wouldn't kill the superintendent to ro for the Devils since she lives in New Jersey I'm just saying that I'm not devil were in Colorado when I started rooting for the Rangers 20 minutes from the stadium my goodness I love you I got my nieser Jersey at home so moved I'll second discussion good luck and congratulations big shoes to tell Mr Walker yes Mrs vza yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon Mr Bo apologies uh may I ask some clarity for some reason I am having a hard time hearing Mrs prisco so I just want to confirm that we are on um resolutions A1 through A7 correct1 through2 for personnel thank you yes than thank you motion carries mov second any discussions mruz Mr wer yes Mrs frella yes Mrs Ferrara Mrs prisco yes M boom yes motion carries thank you moving on to resoltion of in curricular I need a motion to improve resolution C1 to C3 so moved motion by Mr Bella seconded by I'll second Mr any discussion Mr you Mr Waka yes Mrs rala yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs presco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries moving on to our facilities there are none moving on finance so hold on for finance I just want to um I want to move that we um we table e both e7s and E12 until Kyle can give us um his legal eagle update on the the law on that right yeah7 as well as2 yes I so move second right yeah second motion by I guess I motion right Mr wer yes Mrs verzella yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco Mr Boon yes so motion carries on tbling E7 E7 e and E12 E1 E6 right and then E8 E1 are there any discusss Mr Walker yes Mrs pisella yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries a motion so mov I will second then is it okay D yeah no I just need to recuse myself from this which one why oh oh I got you I got you I got you Mr Walker yes Mrs uh Ferrara yes Mrs prisco Mr Boon yes motion carries com [Music] April 6 our next Board of Education meeting will be held on April 16 2024 beginning at 6m a motion you need a motion I move it oh first I want to congratulate Miss prisco before I forgot all about it for achieving sorry Master board member for achieving Master board member congratulations no easy she will be presented with I guess her certificate award I don't know what you get the crown fancy at the yes May 9th at the Essex County um board meeting so yeah you're good board president don't know that is like the highest level that you can achieve um as a board member at individual njsba so Pam has worked very hard to achieve that and we are very proud of her we are I agree I also just want to point out this is the first time we have had a shared services agreement official with the township on tonight's meeting so thank you to Mr diarco and everyone that worked on making happen how long is is when's he done I like him he's he's done soon he's done soon February oh one more month another year so now I'm going to move to a journ second hi hi see you all thank you