##VIDEO ID:IjpYivXMSCE## okay it's 6:45 p.m. I called I call this Riv Board of Education meeting to order um tonight miss Nepal Tano is away at a conference so she will not be in attendance tonight I do have a motion here um that is appointing Dr Bernice as the board secretary proem um so I will read it if I can get um I'll put it to motion and then if I can get a second um I would appreciate it so it says resolve that Dr Nicholas Bernice shall be appointed as the board secretary protm for the meeting of the rivered Board of Education held on September 18th 2024 so I move that second in second by Mr Langley um all in favor I I I any nce no okay so Dr Bernice will be the board secretary tonight um so Dr Bernice if you can do the roll call uh Mrs Brown is absent with prior not notice M creso was absent with prior notice Mrs delandra here Mr Cohen here Mr Langley here Mr Sim here uh Miss K here we have a yes at this time um I would like a motion to move into close session to discuss a contractual matter so moved second all in favor okay we will return to the public at about 7:30 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e back okay it's 7:31 p.m. we're back in public session um Dr Bernice will be um filling in for Miss napan Miss napalitano tonight so he has dual hats on he's our board secretary so roll call please uh Mrs Brown is ABS prior notice Mrs C so press is abent noce Andra here Mr C here Mr langle here Mr Sam here Miss K here let's all rise for the flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Mr Langley could you read the Miss mission statement for us today the Riveredge school district is a partnership of students parents staff and community members we are dedicated to providing a supportive environment in which all students can reach their AC maximum academic potential while developing as responsible citizens who respect individuality our goals will be achieved because curriculum and instruction are aligned with the New Jersey student learning standards all decisions reflect the academic social emotional and physical needs of prek to sixth grade students cooperation and ongoing communication exists between the school the district and the community and school administrators in the Board of Ed uh work together to assess and adjust procedures in response to new mandates and the changing needs of the community thank you Mr Langley uh Dr Bernice can you read the open public meetings notice yes the pursuing to the open public meeting act notice of this meeting it's time date Place have been delivered to the post office the municipal building town news the record and posted on the district website at least 48 hours prior to the time of this meeting thank you um at this time we will open it up to the public for public comments on agenda items only as a reminder uh please remember that we aim to maintain a level dequorum in our board meetings and we expect everyone to be kind and model the type of behavior that we are teaching our students each speaker should be courteous and direct comments to the board president and not individual board members and as per policy 11:20 a participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement of his or her name residents and group affiliation if equable and to maintain fairness each speaker will have 3 minutes to speak so at this time I open it up for public comments on agenda items only okay seeing that there are none we will move on to um Item B introduction of new staff members to reverge school district Dr Bernice uh good evening everybody uh we uh the board invited the new staff members uh to the meeting tonight I will um have them introduced to themselves they can uh come forward come to the mic uh tell us what they do here um tell them some tell us and perh something interesting about themselves that they'd like to share with the board um so Brooke Geller who we've already met you want to do it again Brooke sure Brook Eller is our our new supervisor of innovation assessment and special projects Brooke say thank you yes um it's my second week at this position um thank you I'm the new yes supervisor of innovation assessment and special projects thank you thank you maybe I won't tell you the position I'll let them tell you okay there something else Nadia hello my name is Nadia Abasi um I've been a teacher for over 15 years I actually reside in epan and um I find this District is absolutely amazing the people are fantastic the parents back to school night was wonderful and um it's a pleasure to be here and to meet you all and thank you very much and I hope you have a wonderful evening as well thank Youk you welcome thank you kri hi I'm Kelly Griffin um I'm teaching at Roosevelt School for the first half of the year in a resource room position and then I'm moving over to Cherry Hill for the second half of the Year where I'm going to be doing a third grade maternity leave position as well so thank you for having me thank you thanks colie Matt Matt spends a lot of time in this room good evening everyone my name is Matthew Serano and I am the leave replacement instrumental music teacher here at River Edge Public School District I come from the farway land of Oldbridge New Jersey and this is my first full-time teaching job outside of college congratulations welcome thank wonderful uh Patrick gger Patrick good evening uh my name is Patrick Jagger I am a first grade leave replacement here at Cherry Hill School um kind of just getting settled in this is my my first job as a teacher in the classroom I've just finished my student teaching last year um I've worked as a parah for a long time so I'm not totally in the dark but everyone who's in Cherry Hill has been very helpful helping me get it settled in and learn the ropes about how to deal with first grade that's new territory for me nice to meet you you welcome Emily good evening thanks for having me me tonight it's a pleasure to meet you all my name is Emily Polio I am a special education teacher at the new um hstone Academy for Region 5 and the riv Edge Public Schools I previously taught in Park Ridge I was a special education teacher there for nine years um and I've come to hopstone Academy to work with Mrs Bernardo because I truly believe in the vision that she's creating there and I'm very excited to be a part of the staff thank you you're welcome thank you Mr Marella no stranger to the room hi I'm Jim Marcella uh I've had 35 years in education I did 13 years as a classroom teacher right in New Milford and then 22 years at administrator any I began as an athletic director uh Middle School principal and high school principal and it's great to be here and and uh it's really a uh this the staff has been very welcoming and and the kids are great so nice place to be thank you welcome sir Mr Grimshaw hi good evening everyone uh Nick Grimshaw I'm the new principal at Roosevelt school and I could not be happier to be joining River Edge in the Roosevelt Community uh just between the staff the families and the kids um it's really been like the warmest welcome if like it feels like family already um so it's been a great opportunity to to work with our staff and and obviously Mr Marcel so I just want to thank you all for the opportunity it's a pleasure to be here thank you thank you sir I only hire administrators that are named Nick so this way we can really confuse everybody uh Warren hello good evening it's nice to see you all um this will be my seventh year as a special education teacher and I will be teaching resource room at both Cherry Hill and Roosevelt and I am very excited um to from a new beginning in River Edge thank you for having me thank you welcome see any there okay uh Jan hi good evening my name is Janine Ziggler I will be the part-time nurse in Rosevelt and right now I'm helping out in Char Hill thank you so much welcome you thank you so much J I had a nice conversation today and I thank you for coming and backing us up did I miss anyone I think I have everyone checked on terrific how about that thank you madam president well I just want to say thank you for all of you coming and saying hi it's really nice for the board to be able to meet you and put a name to the face as we approve these new buers but also um for families who are live streaming I I think Dr Bice you had mentioned a video had been shared or shown at the first day okay so I think for a lot of families it's also nice for them to be able to see your faces and names as you are being live streamed on YouTube um so thank you so much for taking the time to be here tonight we do have some refreshments for us to enjoy and just to meet you uh personally so at this time if I can have a motion for recess for minutes all in favor uh we'll be back in session at 7:50 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e he's trying to recall okay all right um we are back in session uh at 7:5 for uh we'll move on to the superintendent Report with Dr Bernice good evening thank you mam president uh student uh enrollment is 1,170 as of this morning uh down only three from last uh month um do you want me to start with the well it doesn't matter right here tonight it's up to you here tonight is the Region 5 director uh we see just going to go ready all right okay here is the region five director WEA Bernardo uh she's here to talk to us about developments at reason five and the hopestone academy Lisa did you want me to do a dance first is that no it's fine unless you you would like to prerogative thank you for being here tonight thank you for having me um I know you like to have an update annually so um I thought this would be a good opportunity um as you know providing member districts with Direct Services such as OT PT speech nursing and power professionals evaluation and transportation has always been the focus of Region 5 I am pleased to share with you that in July Region 5 added Saddle River Public Schools as our 11th member district prior to covid region 5's primary focus was on obtaining services for districts based on the volume of services we needed um as for Region 5 our goal was always to create economies of scale for those districts in recent years relationships with providers who see the value in recruiting for Region 5 for future openings is now the focus at a time when there's a shortage of special Educators and related service providers the goal is to have the students in our districts have little to no wait time to obain obtain services and evaluations that are more difficult to secure with the shortages we are facing two examples that I'm very proud to share with you this evening presently the wait time for an evaluation with a developmental pediatrician can be one year or more for districts and parents looking for an Autism diagnosis region Region 5 spent last year in discussion with Dr Lisa nin developmental pediatrician at Valley Hospital the end result um of those discussions is that Region 5 is piloting the use of cogoa which is an artificial intelligence diagnostic tool by an advanced practice nurse um with Dr nin's over oversight with children between the ages of 24 and 72 months at this time any child referred by a region five district for an evaluation can be evaluated within one month's time cutting that down from it's actually between one and two years to one month's time as long as all the paperwork is in correctly um and that was just launched this month it's being piloted only by our districts first um and then it will be opened up to other districts um within the county and the state um but because of a question I had asked her last year about are you seeing a shortage are you seeing these delays what can we do about it we explored this together um she got Cog NOA to agree to allow us to Pilot it she worked with Valley Hospital the attorneys um the administration to put this together um and our region is fortunate enough to participate in this we just had a another meeting with her yesterday we have also built relationships with area psychiatrists in order to be able to schedule expedited evaluations for students in the area of mental Wellness in addition to these opportunities for expedited evaluations the Region 5 superintendent advisory Council was presented with an opportunity to rent space in an old parochial school last spring the superintendent advisory Council engaged in many discussions and numerous votes in a very short time that led Region 5 to moving our office from its previous location in idal to to its new location as part of our new school program in Hope at Hope Zone Academy for students with emotional regulation impairments which officially opened its doors for students on September 4th we moved in on July 31st and spent the next month getting the building ready and obtaining all of the necessary approvals so we can open our doors on September 4th for this program we have entered into a shared service agreement agement with crcll public schools for Technology support and the oversight of their school nurse we we purchase specific services from Riveredge Public Schools we could not have pulled this off in such a short time without the support of Riveredge Public Schools crcll public schools the rest of our member districts this is a true team effort which is the essence of region of what region 5 is all about coming together to provide educational opportunities for all of our students we opened one class on September 4th with one teacher Mrs polio who you met this evening we have three students we have a registered nurse related service providers and we're spending our time now doing intakes determining the next students that would be most appropriate for our program so we can continue to grow it throughout this school year um I could not thank Dr Bernice um Dr Murphy while he was here um and Mrs Nepal aano and this board enough for your support in getting this off the ground um thank you very much um you also all have I put out there a brochure for you um a copy of a sticker with our logo and a pen with our logo on the Region 5 website which is part of the Riveredge Public Schools website we do have a web page um up we look to continue to add to that um in the days weeks um and months ahead you're welcome thank you it's really exciting to hear and thank you for um just sharing this with us and in the future I invite you to have a meeting or schedule a tour or whatever you'd like I would love for you to see it that would be great thank you uh thank you Lisa uh other items I have um the individual score reports from the njsla will go out this week along with a letter from uh Brook Geller the district level data will be reported by uh Brook Geller and Christine Moran at the next board meeting that's within our 60-day requirement to report that out so there is no need to call a special meeting we have a meeting between now and the 60 with um if we don't have that meeting for whatever reason we need to have one quickly afterwards but what's uh it is scheduled um the Roosevelt gym is humming along and we expect an ontime completion by October 1st um ontime completion and School District uh construction are phrases that rarely enter the same uh context but it they seem to be humming along and um I'm happy that uh we'll have the gym back in no time is right right sir they've uh they've been keeping that project on time over there so it looks pretty good I sent you pictures uh earlier in the in the week um fire and ecy drills have been completed at both schools it is required that we have a fire drill in the first 5 days of school and a lockdown drill in the first 10 so we've we've done those at both schools um comments on agenda items uh there isn't in administrative items there's no changes to the code of conduct this year um and curriculum and uh education items there's regular travel uh no buildings and ground items uh finance and gifts there are regular Finance items and a special thank you to um doyong Kim and hayo so Kang for their generosity and the $2,000 donation for the uh playground uh in Personnel um there's an item appointing me as the protem board secretary in cases where secretary napolitana was unavailable so that's we won't have to pass a separate Motion in the future it's just uh accept and we'll add that to the um annual uh I don't know framework of resolutions that we just pass every year so it's done um there's appointments resignations uh some interns and some clinical students um I'm trying to uh build uh build some bridges with local universities our substitute teacher uh uh our bench strength is pretty weak right now um we had apparently a number of people who were Subs here last year moved on or found jobs or whatever else it was but they they've taken themselves off the subr um I'm doing substitute teacher orientations from time to time and there were six people in the last one so I'm encouraged uh by that um hopefully those folks will have opportunities that they uh want and and take jobs uh frequently um we're looking at other options but as we build those relationships and get these to get clinical students in um there's opportunities there to hold on to those folks as subs and we'll certify the quinal I know the Ral college students specifically arrive as substitute teachers so we can use them in both roles um that that's changed in the past you were never allowed to do a uh well we call them clinical interns now and as as the title changed so did some of the roles and if a clinical intern is certified as a sub they can step in um which is nice to have um but they have to have the CT so we'll work on we'll make sure that those folks do uh special items there are none um region five there's a number of standard resolutions to support their operations thank you uh in policy I there's no items but I'm just going to we talked about it last time we're pursuing stra that's has a new policy shop and our initial onboarding meeting is scheduled for this Monday the 23rd of September which with the central office staff to try to figure out next steps and um and at some point um it's going to take a while but uh we talked about this uh the board will break off in the Committees and and go ahead and take giant chunks of policy and as we move through the most of them are completed but there are River Edge specific things that we want to make sure we include in our own policies um and closing items amplify math night for uh GR grades four and five families is tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. uh the uh we're changing agenda prep services for October uh the framework is the same it's going to be governed in the same sections that it is now but uh it'll just look slightly different um board members will receive logins next week uh if we have to do little trainings um I'm happy to do that uh throughout the course of next month so that uh when we get to the 30th no one feels like they don't know how to get to the agenda or something like that um we can I'll ask your feedback on that and if you have a question you're welcome to contact me and we'll set up whatever you'd like in the meantime we'll operate with uh I'll set up tiny virtual sessions we just can't have a quarum that's all um the next regular uh meeting of the board of education is set for Wednesday October 30th so that's very exciting that that is my report thank you Dr reice any questions from board members okay thank you uh moving on to principal's report Miss Hyman thank you for being here tonight sure good evening everyone and I wanted to welcome the new staff but I think they all left for one so welcome back um we eased back into school the first week with two half days it was um very good the children got an opportunity to really kind of um feel their way back in school in September um as we move forward with proceed procedures and guidelines we have tweaked some for our recess outside and in our multi-purpose room where the students eat um and that will always continue till we have it as close to perfect as possible um back to school night was very successful uh we used the verata security system for all of our visitors we had a very high attendance uh many visited our special guests and related arts in the gymnasium that was a really nice thing to see um Cherry Hill student safety patrol started today Bandon chorus is well on its way and pro and will start next week our Student Government advisors are preparing for speeches elections and class representatives coming up in early October so that's happening um teachers are working with the early school year assessments as they start the year we did um Dr Bernice mentioned um amplify we had amplify Math training today for fourth grade teachers uh and tomorrow I believe it's for fifth grade teachers um we have the parent Workshop tomorrow evening actually right here in the project room from 7: to 8: uh October 1st I believe is our ESL family information night which is really important and usually well um attended so the at Cherry Hill we opened school with our new playground uh it was very very exciting for our students we did have a rep come and check out the playground all is is code and matches compliance so we're very happy about that we are uh waiting for the sign that um says who donated the the playground and so we want to thank the PTO for for funding that playground it's a lot of fun we are waiting for one more piece that I think is coming like November December and um and I know Roosevelt is working on a one too so that's great uh also I want to thank the PTO for stocking the Teachers Lounge with like goodies and snacks um the teachers love it and I'm going to conclude with uh we have a lot of activities for October it is a funfilled month and we'll be very busy and we'll report that when it's in during October do anybody have any questions all right thank you you thank you okay um there's no board secretary report tonight's um just for my report um just a reminder to board members that um the Bergen County meeting is September 30th if you plan to join in person it starts at 6: otherwise you can join at 6:45 virtually um and then I believe um Miss Riley had reached out to all of us to confirm whether we are attending the workshop in um Atlantic City so if you haven't responded to her just to make sure we respond and um let her know um as soon as possible um that's it and then there's no committee so we don't have anything to report yet we'll have it at the next meeting and we do have those committee scheduled for between now and then um yes I think the only one is um personal and management um there were two options 5:15 I think Mr Sim you're attending the Bergen County meeting would you be able to attend Personnel at 5:15 or if not we can schedule for a different date okay so we'll take that offline and find another time for us to meet for personnel and management otherwise finance and facilities and curriculum will meet on the 30th okay and we can move those times around once because personnel's in the middle so we can if you want we can do whatever whatever you need um okay sounds good all right motions to be acted upon um starting with A1 um just for clarification Mr lingley you were you were not I back my memory I was not there in June 26 yeah yeah I wasn't there okay yeah okay so motion for A1 so moved second Mrs delandro yes uh Mr Cohen yes Mr M A recommended exstension abstain uh Mr sim yes and M K yes motion carries sorry I have to figure out it I'll be quicker then next one uh motion for A2 through 7 move to approve items 2 through 7 as stated second any questions or comments no roll call please M dandro yes Mr Cohen yes Mr Langley yes Mr sim yes M K yes motion carries a motion for B1 please I move to approve B1 and stated second any questions or comments roll call please Mr delandra yes Mr Cohen yes Mr wangley yes Mr Sam yes it's okay yes Mo carries a motion for D1 through 4 move to approve motions D1 through D4 as stated second any questions or comments I just want to Echo um Dr bice's sentiment just say thank you to uh Mr Kim and Mrs k for the $2,000 donation to the Future playground at Roosevelt so much appreciated roll call please miss M alandro thank you yes Mr C yes Mr rley yes Mr s yes M K yes motion carries uh can I get a motion for E1 through nine so Mo second any questions or comments roll call please M delandra yes um Mr Cen yes Mr Langley yes Mr sim yes Miss Kang yes motion Carri a motion for G1 through 13 move to approve items G1 through 13 as stated second any questions or comments roll call please Sandra yes Mr cing yes Mr Langley yes Mr sim yes M K yes motion carries okay is there any old or new business that the board wishes to bring up okay um at this time we'll move on to our second public comment time um as a reminder please remember that we aim to maintain a level of decorum in our board meetings and we expect everyone to be kind and model the type of behavior that we are teaching our students each speaker should be courteous and direct comments to the board president and not individual board members and as per policy 1120 a participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by announcement of his or her name residence and group affiliation if appable to maintain fairness each speaker will have 3 minutes to speak and we also request that comments related to individual student matters be directed to the child's teacher principal or superintendent um so at this time I open it up to the public okay seeing that there are none um motion to adjourn this meeting move to adjourn second roll call please mandra yes Mr caring yes Mr Langley yes Mr sim yes M K yes thank you all for being here tonight we'll be back October 30th