good luck I hit fourth place at a 4.0 this weekend that's great well this is not a t this is a place where they build 55 Public courts and you only stipulation if you want to go on certain courts you have to pay to get evaluated and if you get the if they deem that you're good enough to play on those courts and you get to play there and you to so I had to out I to pay $7 in advance and they're gonna away see if I get to play the four Oak cours because if you're gonna gowhere to play all the way down there you don't want to play against people aren GNA make it so I um yeah oh it's the best I never did never heard of it we did B in my house B was fun we looking to I may have an issue here so good evening Happy New Year to all uh the time is now 7:06 and we are calling the meeting to order uh we're going to start with the pledge allegiance for me you all rise pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America to the Republic for stands Nation the guis of liberty and justice for all reading of the meeting notice uh the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have an advanced notice and to attend the uh meetings for public bodies at which any business affected uh affecting these interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision and of the act of the Verona board of education has caus notice of this meetings to be published in the Star Ledger posted in the township of Verona and in the Verona um and the Verona uh Education Association posted uh postings of this meeting set forth the time location agenda were posted at the Verona Board of Education Office and the Verona uh Public Schools district website copy of tonight's agenda resolutions has been made available to the public via the board of aded website uh at this time I would like to read the results of the annual School elections for November 7th 2023 this is for the oneye uh one three-year term the candidates uh the first candidate Mike Boon uh for the 2026 term uh total votes of 21440 uh second candidate Dominic Ferry uh with 1,48 officially uh we congratulate Mr Mike Boon uh joining us tonight um and at this time I would like to invite Mr Boon to the podium for his official uh oath of office I I say your name Michael Boone uh do swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and I will bear true faith and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and the states and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God I st I Michael Boone do Sol me swear do solemly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law that I possess the qualifications as prescribed by law for the office of member of board of education for the office of the board of educ education and that I am not disqualified as a voer and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS pursuant to RS 194 D1 194 D1 nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime nor disqualified due to a conviction of a crime or offense listed in or an offense listed in njs njs s 18a 18a 12-1 12-1 and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially and and impartially and justly perform all duties and justly perform all duties of that office according to the best of my ability so have be God to that office according to the best of my ability so help me God congratulations thank you right congrat congrats again Mr Boon uh at this time now that we have all five uh board members present we will do roll call Mr Waka here Mrs veral here Mrs Farrar here Mrs prisco here Mr brone here we have Quorum thank you uh at this time we're going to move on the nominations on election of the board president uh I need a motion to nominate nomination and then a motion I nominate commissioner Brisco are are there any other nominations okay seeing that there none uh we're going to move forward with a motion and a second second D okay uh and we'll do the uh roll call for the vote uh Mr Walker yes Mrs Bella yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs Boon yes motion carries congratulations M prisco thank you turn it over to our board president thank you moving on I would like to um have a motion please to nominate a vice president for the Verona Board of Education so um I've enjoyed serving as a vice president under pams leadership um and while I can only speak for myself I feel as though we have a wonderful collaborative working relationship as a board and so I'd like to nominate Miss Fel as VP so that she too can have an opportunity to serve in her leadership role so I nominate Miss fella I need a second I'll second that uh Mr Mr Cruz if you could please call a rooll for oh are there any other nominations for vice president I'm sorry seeing none Mr Cruz if you could please call R yes uh Mrs uh pisella yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you great thank you congratulations Denise and thank you Diana for service all right yeah so I just we're going to need a motion to approve all our appointments for committees um our negotiations committee our board delegate um let's see reor all our reorganizations so I need a motion to approve I guess four five six we go hold on sorry about that believe the last number there is 29 than thank you ree 4 through 29 I need a motion to approve now second okay motion by Mrs Ferrara seconded by Mrs Bella are there any discussions seeing none Mr Cruz I mean yeah Mr Cruz if you could please call roll sure Mr wer yes Mrs brazel yes Mrs prisco yes oh and Mr Boone yes thank you and Mrs and Mrs Ferrar yes yeah okay sorry carries thank you okay moving on to our regular agenda for the evening we would like to call up our our athletic director Mrs Laura pomi she's going to do a fall Sports recap and we also are here with our volleyball team so thank you Laura good evening everyone happy New Year I'm excited for another amazing year in Verona Athletics I'm just going to do a fall um recap and then call up our amazing volleyball team that's here with us tonight um first we're going to start off with girl soccer girl soccer competed in the highly competitive American Division they finished with a record of 610 and2 and made it to the semi-final round of the state tournament the girls soccer American Division first team was Victoria NC and Sam Rizzy second team was Alexa palano and Emerson Garrett honorable mention was Noella Newman and Hayden Garrett football was two and three in the American gold division and 2-8 overall the team had a nice win early in the season over Madison the team qualified for the state tournament Kieran Patel was the recipient of the sfc young man of the year award first team offense went to Shane Costigan and Zack Garmont first team defense went to Bod mazano first team special teams Kieran Patel second team offense aen cifaretto and Conor damasi and honorable mention Ethan F Zack G Garmont also received nj.com First Team all group one offense and Kieran Patel third Team all group one defense boys soccer finished the season 68 and2 three and four in the Liberty Division and advanced to the quarterfinal round of the state tournament first team went to Brian Cleaver and Joey farmer second team Riley ying and honorable mention Patrick man and Leo andr the VHS cheerleading program had a very successful season with a team of 45 cheerleaders during the season the girls woed the crowd weekly with their sideline cheers Advanced stunts and showstopping halftime routine a highlight of the season was at the Foley field breast cancer showcase the girls walked away winning for the second year in a row for best stunt the VHS cheerleaders were also proud of the longstanding breast cancer showcase here at Verona High School that featured all Verona cheerleaders raid raising $5,000 for manette's Angels field hockey finished the season 108 And1 41-1 in the S6 Union blue Division and they made it to the first round of the state tournament All Conference went to first team Jane serer Caitlyn scelo and Taylor McLean second Team Bella mag fiori Danny imbriano and Ellie gingo honorable mention was Gwen Neely and Sophia Simone girls cross country came in third place out of 12 teams in the Liberty division championships first team was Shay Hagerty second team Lauren chupek and Nadia Prieto honorable mention ell elen atal and Kylie Hagerty girls tennis had an overall record of 10 and 10 they were the number four ranked team in group one in New Jersey Evelyn kogan was first team Margot dasta second team Shaya Hogan second team and Alex staran and Briel maresi were honorable mention and second Team all group one boys cross country was took fourth place at the Essex County championships they were third place at njsia sectionals North 2 group one and advanced to the group one championships see ior Chris sluck improved his PR by 78 seconds this season running a personal best 1742 Ian zooki who is one of Verona High School's alltime great distance Runners improved his prior season PR by 3 seconds to 1608 while advancing all the way to the njsiaa cross country meet of Champions where he competed with the most elite of New Jersey Racers at Homedale Ian was SEC American Division and S6 County cross country champion and now I'd like to call up the girls volleyball team while I read all their amazing accolades this season the girls volleyball team who many of them are here with us tonight to be recognized had a fantastic season never being outside of the state's top 20 rankings all season long the team finished the season ranked number 16 in the entire state with the record of 25 and four the girls were Essex County runner-ups Conference champions State sectional champions for the fourth consecutive season and group one champions for the second time in program history also the team had five girls named into the all group one team including four girls on the first team Katie Mian Kendra Santos Marley Kramer and Emily theobold sophomore Jessica theold received third Team all group one also Marley Kramer was named third Team all state which is one of the top 25 24 players in the entire state of New Jersey I know many of us miss watching this team play and the excitement they brought to Verona Athletics this year I'm so proud of all of you and let's not forget coach Ryan Brown who was named ess6 County Coach of the Year we'd like to give out our certificates for our sectional and state champions Cara Demars Marley Kramer Katie Mian pendra Santos Emily theold Olivia borice Abby Donnelly Abby romanishan congratulations again to our volleyball team and Coach Ryan Brown on a phenomenal season thank you everyone fantastic thank you and thank you Mrs Pommery and Coach Ryan congratulations and to you girls I went to several of your games and went down to Franklin and that was so everything every time watching you play you girls were just amazing and your composure and just amazing to see you out there so congratulations to all of you and Coach I congratulations on the birth of your new baby and cheers to 2024 thank you moving on we are going to in go into our superintendent report by Miss DJ zeppi good evening uh I want to start by once again um highlighting the talent of our students um the holiday concerts that I was able to get to because some of them are at the same time unfortunately we're just amazing from the FM Brown concert where Mr morn has those kids in their first and second year with an instrument playing solos it really is just unbelievably heartwarming um and I I do need to say that Santa Claus did show up um to direct the high school band and uh he lost his belt he was very enthusiastic it was great I'm so glad I have that all on film it was really great they did slay slave ride though I mean I've never heard a high school band play slave ride the way these kids played it it's amazing and um Mr flood's first showing as a high school choir teacher here in Verona they were phenomenal as well I unfortunately did not get to see our middle school they're on my list for the spring concert I can't wait to see them as well uh just one uh two other short legislative things that I just wanted the board to be aware of so last year um in January we spoke about a uh Senate Bill 1221 um that was uh being bantered around in uh both the Senate and the house actually and it established a program by which we are um to provide Prem menstrual uh products in at least 50% of our uh our girls and gender neutral bathrooms in public schools and it does require the state to pay costs so this is starting in 2425 September um we have the materials and we have the baskets we're going to start this year because it's really is something that's long overdue um so that was signed into law uh and goes into to effect in September 2024 uh the next uh bill is um kind of strange in that they're pushing it through through Lane duck it is a bill that is supported uh by uh the njaa it's the only Education Association that supports it it is um not being supported by school boards ASA PSA Garden State Coalition of the schools I and I think everybody that's talking about it realizes it's about teacher evaluation that it's been 12 years since the um teach New Jersey legislation was enacted as the achieve NJ uh uh law and it's time that we start talking about change however the changes that are being suggested do little to alleviate some of the burdens of the paperwork that are mentioned in the bill so what it seeks to do is um have teachers only be teachers that are effective or highly effective are only um evaluated summatively every 3 years so yeah I'm not sure why anybody would do that in any industry but that's basically what's being proposed and uh the problems that we see as organizations is that the bill addresses a relatively small portion of that larger legislation and it's muddy it doesn't it seeks to make changes but doesn't Define it properly and it if it goes through as is will create more problems for the Department of Ed to provide Guidance just school districts and become more confusing then it will be clarifying um you know I've been doing this for this is my 11th year as a superintendent another 13 as a district administrator read a lot of summit of evaluations I've written a lot of summit of evaluations and depending on where you are they're either meaningless or not meaningless so to legislate that we don't need them really should be I think it should be local decision I understand that there's they're trying to make it consistent but um right now in many districts some of of evaluations really are only about this is your score because the meat of where teachers improve is in specific targeted feedback in observations so I understand they want to get rid of this like extra paperwork which is seen as really just something for districts to check off for qac and it's not really meaningful and I would say it's meaningful if you make it meaningful and that's that's the difference um they are talking about getting rid of student growth objectives and student growth percentiles I don't know how they're uh going to do that um I do know that sgos 12 years ago led to really much more deeply aligned conversations about what student data was I'm not sure anywhere in the state that they're being used as the Grassroots efforts to move student achievement so is it time that we look at something else it quite possibly could be but pushing something through an lame duck session is not the way to do it so if um if you would like to you know take a stand with your legislators it or teachers deserve better than pushing something to a lame duck just to get it through it's just my two cents on that one if I if I may ask um once we come out of the lame duck session what what are the chances that there could be some amendments over the coming term and what would that look like last year I would have said there's no chance they're going to push it through but there's been uh more than a little push back and some very um strong testimony uh to the State Board of Education and to I'm sorry not just the State Board of Ed in these uh legislative committees the education Senate education committee as well um I think if they allow the people that are involved in doing this the input into those amendments it can be very valuable legislation coming on the other end of it it's just a matter of who's in charge and right now it looks like it's njaa pushing really hard to get this through there's another bill that they're trying to get passed to and it limits the ability of school districts to offer uh virtual education which I I don't know the specifics of that bill I don't haven't read the whole thing yet um but there's there are concerns that in some cases we've not had this where you have a teacher shortage and you can provide online learning to kids it's better than a day sub that's not teaching anything but um I I'm not going to comment more than that's a bill that's pending at the same time so hopefully there'll be a lot of ability for actual Educators to put their two cents into an education bill that doesn't seem to happen at the state department and not the department of B actually at at um in the assembly and and Senate State Senate um and that's you know this is a rework meeting we generally don't even have a session afterwards so I'm gonna turn it over to Reese no just to that was loud just to clarify for the um menstral products bill when you say that's going in this year do you mean like during 23 24 school year 24 25 it's it's mandated to start in 2425 we're going to start it as soon as um they get out into the bathro BS we have we ordered the baskets already for the uh for the products right now you we still provide yeah free products to students they just have to go to the nurse's office to get it which is inconvenient and unnecessary yeah so they'll just be in small baskets a choice of um various products in the girls bathrooms and the gender neutral bathroom okay excellent thank you yes same deal here just a couple of quick points so first of all thank you to the students staff and teams that made the winter pep rally a success said during last day of um uh the first session uh the student council is looking forward to hosting the last pep RI this spring so like thank you to the band the cheerleading sta cheer leading team and uh all of the sports teams this year uh it was a really ma it's it's always a good group effort and also staff that participates um also like to say good luck to the DECA team at their Regional compet comptition at Kean University on January 4th this will be the one of the earlier competitions in their session leading up to States and then Nationals later in the year and uh January 11th 9th and 10th graders who are enrolled in either Algebra 1 or geometry will participate in map testing so that is on the horizon as well and that's it for me thank you does anyone have any questions or comments moving on oh one more thing that I I should mention because we don't have a a meeting until the 23rd right inclusive schools week January 22nd starts um with our uh uh the the five different days that we're going to be addressing different inclusive topics and I just want to publicly thank the the uh Folks at child who are making this um you know doable because it's a lot for our teachers to prepare so they do a tremendous amount of work in the background for for our teachers so that they can um just roll it out thank you moving on um we're going to open up the podium to public comments on agenda action items only so this is anything that we're voting on for Resolutions if anyone has anything to say please come up to the podium and you have three minutes and just state your name being none we are going to move on to our resolutions I need a motion please to approve resolution a for routine matters motion by Mrs Bala seconded by second Mrs Ferrera are there any discussions Mr Cruz can you please call roll oh I'm sorry um on A1 can I even vote on that 15 yeah thank you minutes we could still vote on it he's voting that they they they occurred that's all and that the minutes were accurate and you were at the meeting so you able to yeah if you feel like it right Mr Walker so I wasn't at that meeting but I will vote Yes Mrs fella yes Mrs bar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boone yes okay motion carries thank you thank you moving on to our resolutions for personnel I need a motion please to approve resolutions B1 through B3 motion by Mrs Ferrara seconded by Mrs rala are there any discussions seeing none Mr Cruz if you could please call roll wer yes Mrs fella yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Brom yes motion carries thank you moving on to our education resolutions I need a motion to approve resolutions C1 through C6 motion by I'll move Mrs bellaa seconded by I'll second that okay any discussions I think it's real exciting about the robotics CL I know we talked about that a couple weeks back um and I just think this is a a great signal to the community thank you Mr Cruz if you could please call roll sure Mr AA yes uh Mrs prella yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs Pisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you moving on to our Athletics and curricular resolutions I need a motion to approve resolution D1 motion by Mr Waka seconded by a second Mrs farara are there any discussions see none oh sorry yeah I'm just curious so when it um for All Sports in addition to a recruiting tool for athletes so is that just all like filmed at VHS like all home games or like logistically how would that work out I think it's for well it's for the all every sport I saw the contract I think it's for all of their G yeah all their excellent thank you you're welcome uh Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr wer yes Mrs Vella yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon like tostain I don't feel like I know enough about this one okay thank you motion carries thank you there are no resolutions for facilities moving on to resolutions for finance I need a motion please to approve resolutions F1 through F2 motion by I'll move it Mrs brazel seconded I will second that are there any discussions none Mr Cruz if you could please call roll yes Mrs relle yes Mrs far yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you thank you I'm just moving on to our governance and policy we have one resolution to approve resolution G1 I need a motion to approve resolution G1 motion by Mrs Ferrara seconded by I will second that one are there any discussions Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mrs wer yes Mrs Vella yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank thank you thank you now we're at the portion of the meeting for public comments on any items you have 3 minutes please state your name and please come to the podium if you have anything to say how are you Steve Cruz I have a question um obviously I came to the last meeting you guys were all professional but I have a little bit of a concern in reference to the incidents that were occurring at the middle school with gentleman with a 30 plus year old gentleman um and the fact that there was what I feel is lack of notification to the parents and to the public I mean what occurred it's not a little incident he was arrested which is an indictable offense it goes to the county Court it doesn't go to her local uh judge would be Joseph Angelo and I think that parents and town should be aware of that it's not a simple little incident of a small summon or something that just being held at a local Lev it's a misdemeanor crial trespass in this case uh under the law under what whatever statute they there's four different levels of trespass right in this case it was criminal misdemeanor okay but it went down to the county uh it did not get picked up by the county okay they chose not to prosecute all right my question is why wouldn't we have shared more information about it um so it was shared as soon as Mr gal felt that it was time to share right first offense first time the person came to the building right I mean I've put stuff out about this so quite um they came to visit a staff member there's nothing alarming about that second time they were told we don't we don't accept visitors into our buildings anymore it's a different time third time person came back we put something out to parents so I'm not quite sure how much faster I mean it was over a three-day period it wasn't really well my question is because it's contradicting to what I've read and the emails I I've read um for I believe yourself to other parents that that the email read that the second time VPD went to his house and notified him which is appropriate under the law right two or more makes it a criminal trespassing and that the third time he was arrested the third time the the in the person was arrested because they came back after they were told they could not be on property right right right but my question is the email went out telling all the parents that as of Monday you will have police presence right so as the retired police officer of 28 years and Manning the Belleville school system and this was my thing every day like make sure there's an officer every school rotate it cars under the climate we live in now I I just thought it would be a little more appropriate to show a little more information than having to wait two weeks to find out more stuff and then you get parents obviously the gossip of one parent says one thing the other says thing I can't control people I can't control the gossip no absolutely and you're 100% right about that and and I agree with you but my question was I just thought that a little more information should have been shared because it would alleviate a lot of questions or a lot of misguiding or some kids feeling feeling awkward well thank you for your advice okay good evening uh my name is Kristen kissner and I've been a Verona resident for the past 15 years I have three children Ethan in grade s Mason in grade five both at hbw and also Sophia who is in kindergarten at FM Brown um here tonight to share also share my concerns uh regarding the recent safety issues at PW on Friday December 8th parents did receive an important update informing us of an individual making several attempts to access the building um this message consisted of a total of four sentences and would be considered vague at best as a result I sent an email on Saturday December 9th asking for clarification regarding these concerning events only after mult multiple emails phone calls taking place over nearly 10 days um and this is with our principal superintendent chief of police and our Board of AD president Pam um where parents finally provided the details of these events so the email that went out I thank you but that was the email that should have gone out in the first place um this individual not only attempted access but gained access on three separate days to our children's school building as a public school educator for the past 20 years I was absolutely outraged and shocked to see the lack of communication both within the school as well as with the parents regarding these serious incidents furthermore it was even more concerning to learn about the lack of safety training and support provided for our students and staff we must do better as a district to ensure the safety of our students and our staff we need to be more proactive and less reactive while resources may be limited in our small District we do have many community members ready and willing to help but we need our leaders to take the initiative to facilitate this change thank you thank you thank you Mrs kissner is there anyone else that has any comments okay seeing let just to my notes end of the okay I need a motion please to adjourn our meeting our next meeting will be on uh Tuesday January 23rd 2024 uh 6 PM will be confidential with 7 PM public session and I need a motion to adjourn motion by Mrs Ferrera seconded by second I mean motion by Mrs Ferrara second by Mrs Vella any discussion all in favor hi hi it is 7:45 and we will adjourn the meeting thank you happy