##VIDEO ID:NmlswPKxuYU## all right uh time is 6:45 I'm going to call this uh meeting of the Riveredge Board of Education uh to order uh can I have roll call please Miss Brown M Crespo M delandro here Mr fries here Mr Cohen here Mr Langley here and Mr Sim here uh can I go a motion to move in close session so move second a roll call on that yes roll call please M alesandro yes Mr prus yes Mr Cohen yes Mr Langley yes and Mr sim yes all right thanks we'll be back at 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 e e e session uh can I have roll call please Mr alisandra here Mr Fus here Mr Cohen here Mr Langley here and Mr Sim here I Rise for the flag salute please 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 uh ask Mr con would you read the mission statement please sure where is it located right here good evening everyone the River Edge school district is a part Partnership of students parents staff and community members we are dedicated to providing a supportive environment in which all students can reach their 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 cooperative and ongoing communication exist between the school district and the community school administrators and the Board of Education work together to assess and adjust procedures in response to new mandates and the changing needs of the community thank you open public meetings notice pursuant to the open public meetings act notice of this meeting its date time and place have been delivered to the post office the municipal building the record and posted on the district website at least 48 hours prior to the time of this meeting thank you uh we will open it up for public comment on agenda items only if there are any a reminder that comments are limited to a duration of 3 minutes per speaker and each speaker must begin by stepping up to the podium stating for the record their name and address after which the time will begin we have any public comments all right seeing that there are none we'll move on to reports superintendent report uh good evening thank you Mr President um we have a couple of uh celebrations tonight one of the one of the dist uh District goals is to um recognize the work of our students and faculty so I I want to take um a little bit of time tonight to go ahead and and and do some of that work um I would like to start with the student awards and we have um there's two uh two main categories of or I guess activities that yielded some student awards and uh we invited those students here tonight the first are U barar winners barar is the Premier after school enrichment platform for K to2 provides innov Innovative online math and reading exercises they help thousands of students achieve excellent grades so they say um using its curriculum based programs for a few uh 20 minutes a week students can effectively Master core knowledge skills taught in school parents can monitor their performance online and they exactly what their students need barar gives motivational recognitions every week um that bring fun to learning and we're here to recognize um some of those folks I'd like to um Nancy haers uh supervises these uh activities both um go ahead Mr a is going to recognize the students yeah hi thank you for having us yes e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right uh thank you those are the student awards we we have some um employee recognition tonight as well I think um what I'd like to do is start with the uh the ultimate recognition of a of 25 years and and a retire so um and we'll read this in the we'll pass it back and forth here go ahead where as Maria Garcia has announced her retirement after 25 years in the field of education and 10 and a half years of dedicated service to the Riveredge public school and where she has demonstrated outstanding instructional practices that have included teaching Spanish to all kindergarten through sixth grade students and whereas she has shown exceptional teaching strategies that celebrate special days such as s Mayo Hispanic it AG month and International Day and whereas students have been immersed in learning the Spanish language cultures and countries and whereas she has worked with her colleagues as member of River Public School District as a mentor teacher and in writing curriculums and whereas she has worked with administrators and all staff to facilitate take Communications with parents who are multilingual and your microphone was off whereas after her years of faithful service to the riv school she wishes to retire and now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education of the burough of River Edge on this 22nd day of January 2025 spread upon its minutes this resolution of appreciation for her valued service and be it further resolved that the Riveredge School Community offers its best wishes to Maria Garcia for a long happy healthy and productive retirement and its gratitude for her years of service to the school and it's signed by the school business administrative board secretary Lou na pal [Applause] you would like to say something you can I second oh you said as I want to my gratitude for the support and OPP through Myer in school district I am deeply thankful for the TRU you have placed to me and fulfill my go the collaborations and Sh in our organ May each challeng work well and every success even more mindful it has a Dre privilege to contribute to the grow of our students and Investments of our schools and development in our community thank you again for the leadership and the support thank you all right wait wait there for one second we have Mr Sim second yes okay and we do have to yeah all approved we can do a vocally all approved I I yes any oppose no okay you you can you can retire now there's no no [Applause] [Applause] uh there are more employee recognitions this evening once a year the governor's teachers of the Year program uh has a there's a there's a very uh strict process that um this is now governed by um and we have our uh teachers and education uh educator uh education services provider of the year um that we have one for each school and then the district has an education services provider of the year just so you know we had uh anyone could n we we opened the nominations to anyone anyone could nominate any uh certificated employee for one of these uh two Awards um it was on the uh website we pushed it out I think on Instagram and whatever else and um those nominations were uh that the I'll say the that those nominations were then collected and a committee met and went through each nomination and uh they scored those nominations um and then those scores were tabulated and the um highest uh I'll say Point earners um are here here tonight uh I'll do it one at a time uh will delus did I say right yes I've been butchering your name how Del Judas Del Judas Le Del Judas is Cherry Hills school's 2025 teacher of the year Mrs Del Judas excels um as the adviser for the artistically Talent uh artistically talented program demonstrating creativity and dedication her group is responsible for these beautiful decorations at the winter and spring concerts enhancing these events with their artistic contributions together with a colleague Mrs Judas organized a professional development day for staff uh painting which was highly successful and well received she has skillfully integrated media art with technology engaging students in Innovative activities they enjoy this Del judis plays a pivotal role in the annual river River Edge Cultural Center art show in February hosting and warmly welcoming parents to the event in addition she organizes an impressive art show at Cherry Hill school every April ensuring that every student's artwork is proudly displayed her deep understanding of the social emotional needs of students is evident in her teaching she thoughtfully incorporates these considerations into her lesson creating a supportive and nurturing environment Leah is kind gentle even tempered and reliable all these are and other characteristics allow her students to trust her and to feel safe to explore the artist inside each of them Mrs elus holds a bachel of Arts Fine Arts with Latin honors from Sunni purchase and a master of arts and teaching from manhattanville college a true artist in her own right she is a valuable asset to Cherry Hood school and we are incredibly fortunate to have her on our team 2025 Terry Hill school teacher of the year [Music] [Applause] [Music] when the uh March SC is the Roosevelt schools 2025 teacher of the year Mrs Marini is a dedicated and inspiring educator who has made a significant impact in her short time at the Roosevelt School known for her commitment to professional growth she arrives early each day to prepare thoughtfully for her students she participates in night activities such as family math night and international night her creativity and Leadership shine through the engaging activities she develops for students and how she Fosters Comm camaraderie among the staff often bringing people together with her bit goods and positivity I have yet to see these Bak Goods oh yeah all right that's with authority this Marini is is deeply involved um in the school and broader Community regular regularly regularly that's a hard word for me attending her students activities outside of school and creating meaningful connections with families she is a proactive she is proactive in her communication providing daily updates to parents and always making herself available to address questions or concerns her warmth and enthusiasm make her a beloved beloved by students and parents alike as she helps her students academically and emotionally Thrive with her in inovative teaching style and ability to make learning fun Mrs Marini creates a classroom environment where students feel supported and excited to learn her respect for colleagues dedication to her craft and genuine care for her students sets her apart as an exceptional educator Mrs Marini holds a Bachelor of Science and early childhood education from Sunni is it Fredonia Fredonia Fredonia I we to talk about where that is um Roosevelt School is fortunate to have her she truly deserves this recognition as roosev school's 2025 teacher of the year you so it's close to Buffalo go Buffalo Bills thank you so [Applause] much Lauren Port valite did I say right Lauren yeah good all right Lauren ply is the river and you could probably help me with my um L's yeah Lauren p is the riverge school district's educational services provider of the Year Mrs Portville is a Val invaluable member of the special education department serving students across the district with dedication and expertise she provides individualize and group speech therapy sessions consults with teachers and contributes thoughtful therapeutic recommendations during meetings her meticulous approach to case management and an ability to collaborate seamlessly with colleagues parents and power power professionals have established her as a respected and trusted leader Mrs port's rapport with her students is exceptional for during a supportive environment where they can Thrive an avid learner Lauren constantly seeks opportunities to enhance her skills and the services she provides she is pursuing an oron Gillingham teacher graduate certificate at Fairley Dickinson University and actively participates in professional development through the American speech and hearing Association Toby divox and Region 5 yeah okay um her dedication to growth extends Beyond her teach her learning she shares resources mentors colleagues and provides training on augmentive communication devices ensuring the success of her students and team laen is also deeply involved in the r Riveredge Community contributing to the Terry Hills School Sunshine committee the River Edge Education Association philanthropic committee and tutoring local students through Orton Gillingham program Mrs Port Val holds a Bachelor of Arts with Latin honors in Psychology from the College of New Jersey and a master of science in communication disorders from William Patterson University her tireless work ethic professionalism and unwavering commitment to her students and the broader School Community make a remarkable educator and a deserving cidate for this recognition [Applause] [Music] want to do the whole board on this picture TR [Applause] oh oh sorry [Music] you a Mr President I have that concludes the awards I do have one other item but I would like to recess my time if you don't mind yes let's take a 10-minute recess we'll enjoy some cookies and some water and then we'll come back at uh 8:05 8:05 parents if you don't know the 10-minute recess is yes for cookies and water but also an opportunity for you to leave prior to the rest of okay you're welcome all right we'll be back e e e e e e e e e e e all righty we are back in I don't need I guess I need the microphone we are back in session um I didn't I superintendent report yeah so uh one more item um good news uh the Strauss smme uh first draft of the policy manual has arrived now this is not all policy some of it's regulation so as you know the board is responsible for policy the superintendent's responsible for regulation but about two-thirds of it is policy so I do this as a visual um we have this digitally as well and uh Mr Langley and I had a conversation we will um uh in committees uh the board members will go through sections at a time this is obviously and I do this as the visual everyone at home can see uh but the um uh this takes about six months to to to do with any kind of fidelity so we're going to go ahead and take that time for and look for completion sometime probably in July um and then we'll send it back to them for uh it only takes them about 30 days to finish up the the final manuals and then we'll be good to go for an August approval so that we have an a new set of policies operating um in Academic Year 2526 so that's the goal if we fall short of that goal that's okay because it's this tall um and we'll just uh keep kind of pushing it because once we we do have to finish our edits and then get them back to them so as we finish a book if you will we'll send the book back and so that they can kind of do the edits as we move on oh so we can do it as we go we we do a section at a time yeah they don't want they don't want a policy at a time we'll do a section at a time we just got a policy alert from Strauss so the way this works is quarterly we get um policy alerts from the this is why they can demand their fee because they they keep us up to date and then at that point we uh the board can go through the policy alerts see if want to make the updated changes a lot of them are um governed by uh either settled court cases or new legislation so we kind of have to um and that legislation or Set uh settled court cases will always supersede our policies regardless of we're already subject to the law um but it's it is helpful if the board is regular updating policy so that we're always operating under the most current um legislative guidelines uh and that concludes my report thank thank you any questions or comments from board members uh just uh comment about the policies um uh years ago when uh we were doing the policy review by ourselves the uh the flaws we found was that the references the the state statute whatever that was it doesn't match to the you know so I I hope you know they professional to they sort out everything is kind of you know matched to the exactly what the is referring to the stat State statutes or as you mentioned about the court law I mean the Court decisions so I just want to I'm just asking just make sure there's no mistake or flows in that section otherwise language itself is not much different it's like Universal and standard in the the school boards that comes from the uh state level what not so understood the other item if you if you don't on this will be once this is finished it's fully searchable online and it's available to the public so right now if you go to the policy section on the website each polic uh board policy is present um it's in PDFs and it's not it's not at all searchable it's it's it's clumsy to if you want to try to find something so um this will have its own platform we won't have we won't manage it anymore stas May will it's part of our annual fee um in addition and all of that is and to Mr Sim's point the those references that come at the end of a policy are hyperlink on the website so if we want to know what law it is and it's and it's referenced appropriately we can click on it and it brings us out to the um uh I guess the statute that uh is relevant we no longer also have to buy the the law books every year um you go to some administrator's offices and they have the law books stacked and they're always very colorful was like a rain just beautiful rainbow of like what are those books and the answer is it's 18a and 6A that get updated every year and those books are wildly expensive they're usually I think it's I think the set is $700 a year um but that's included in our as my we don't get the books anymore but it's searchable online so um lots of opportunities uh lots of enhanced um uh technology accelerators by going with a uh online policy so our website will just have a link it'll say like policy manual policy manual bam to this that's my search page sounds like we joined the 20th century just like we're not using encyclopedia's paper enyclopedia yeah we don't have those either so but we have this for now because it's easier to do the edits by pen I think right okay uh board secretary report thank you tonight on the agenda is the approval of the joint Insurance Fund that we're a part of which is nbig and that's us affirming our membership with them um the other item that's on that applies is the budget calendar some of the dates um could be be off it's based on the governor's address and then when the state aid numbers come out so it's a very tight window but be assured that we are have been working on the budget all along so all right thank you uh presence report I just have a couple things if I can get back to my uh in terms of a retreat I know we had a retreat last year in the winter we do have these strategic planning uh meetings happening this winter so I wasn't planning on scheduling one I was looking to schedule one in the summer possibly um but I'm open to opinions questions comments the the strategic planning meetings are public right yes so it's not really the same kind of thing but just for scheduling purposes but we could look at February or March if we thought we wanted to have a board retreat we have to update board goals yes for the year I think it might be helpful after the strategic planning before the summer so it potentially provide us some input for vision of where we want to go the last meeting's April if needed right strategic so I guess if we we could get something together yeah Nothing Stops the board from calling them I mean you only need 48 Hours of notice so if you find that you in after we get the Strategic plan output if you will um if you find that it would be helpful at that point to then build board goals and you want to take time outside the a regular meeting we can advertise for a um a retreat at that point and we can do it in June or ju or and April or May we can all right nothing stops you from doing that okay um just a quick reminder about mandatory training um for everybody if this is your first term you have to do your mandatory training first year second year I have to do my third year so just a reminder um on that and then um in terms of committees uh the members are finalized now and I was just going to remind the committee chairs to send me the dates um we have finan and Facilities but I need the other two and that was it for the president's report the only committee that met was finance and Facilities um I do have somewhere the notes finally in the meantime I did leave one thing at if you don't mind oh yeah the um personal disclosure uh Financial disclosure statements are online and thank you to those of you that have to filled them out if you need assistance to find the link again please let me know but those have to be um filled out by all administrators and board members and it is a qac item what is the deadline on that I'll do um I think it's I think it's in March all right so it's not tomorrow yeah no no no uh in terms of finance and financing facilities uh we met on that was last night was that last night it was wow uh we talked about the boilers um we did Roosevelt last summer we're going to do Cherry Hill this summer Cherry Hill is a little slightly bigger job it again requires as pest as abatement um so I think we had talked about there are going to be some things that have to move over to Roosevelt for the summer including you guys right uh yes so pretty much any we don't want anybody in the building while they're doing the abatement um and we don't have a St date that for that yet but as soon as we do we will let everybody know um we talked about the Summer Academy um we can update everyone else and closed on that when we actually have the do we have the agreement or is that on the is that on tonight it's on the it'll be on the next meeting yes um that they did that last year they want to do it again the compete Academy the compete Academy uh scheduled for August 4 4th through the 8th so we can talk about that between now and and the next meeting um everything else was contractual contractual budget calendar we talked about do you want to talk a little bit about the moving of funds around sure um so there are two items that um we have that we get later in the year later last meaning last last year which is extraordinary Aid and also our non-public Transportation those two items can be allocated during this school year and spent this school year as you know last year we had a lot of cuts in our budget including some technology items so on the next agenda we had talked in finance in regards to taking those two uh line items which would be the um extraordinary Aid which was budgeted for $130,000 which we got um actually um $619,000 so that's $489,000 over what we had budgeted for which you do want to budget L low because you don't know what you're going to get each year and $864 in non-public Transportation so on the next agenda you'll see us allocating those monies and put them into um purchases of technology and PD um otherwise those monies would fall by resolution that happened in June into capital reserve we do have other monies that are going into capital reserve we do have capital reserve projects we need to do but we do need to um make sure that the uh monies also go to our students and our children so that will be on the next uh agenda okay and then we also talked about the policies which we covered and that was it for that uh all right moving on to items to be motions to be acted upon um can I get a motion for item D1 see like move to approve D1 yeah take turns like to move the minutes appr the minutes right yeah you can just say item D1 okay I'd like to move approval item1 second roll call please m Andro yes Mr Fus yes Mr Cohen yes Mr Langley yes and Mr sim yes uh can I get a motion to approve items E1 through five move to approve items E1 through five as stated second any questions or comments call please Mr alesandro yes Mr FES yes Mr Cohen yes Mr Langley yes and Mr Sim one second yes uh can I get a motion for item F1 so moved second any questions comments roll call please Mr alesandro yes Mr fries yes Mr Cohen yes Mr Langley yes and Mr sim yes uh can I get a motion for items H one through six move to approve items H1 through H6 as stated second any comments questions call please Mr alisandra yes Mr Fus yes Mr Cohen yes Mr Langley yes and Mr sim yes uh can I get a motion for items i1 through nine I'd like to a motion to approve it I one through n one through n second uh roll call please Mr alesandro yes Mr fries yes Mr Cohen yes Mr Langley yes and Mr sim yes um hand a motion to approve item J1 move to approve J1 as stated second roll call please Mr alesandro yes Mr fries yes Mr Cohen yes Mr Langley yes and Mr Sim yes uh can I get a motion to approve items K1 through 12 some moov second questions comments uh roll call please Mr alesandro yes Mr Frias yes Mr Cohen yes Mr Langley yes and Mr sim yes uh does anyone have any old or new business they wish to discuss not new business but the calendar school calendar next agenda okay yes is there a draft inquiring minds want to know uh there is there is a draft we're picking around I um there's a few questions we need to answer real quick but uh the trid district superintendent met on the calendar and we're doing our best to make them somewhat similar thank you all right we'll open it up for a public comment uh this public comment time is for non-agenda items only comments will be limited to a duration of 3 minutes per speaker each speaker must begin by stepping up to the podium and stating for the record their name and address after which time will begin seeing as there are none can I get a motion to adjoin the meeting soov second roll call please Mr alesandro yes Mr Prius yes Mr Cohen yes Mr Langley yes and Mr sim yes thanks everyone we'll be back on February what is it it tomorrow night for the Strategic tomorrow night for the Strategic uh meeting in this room in this room at 7 right 7 okay all right thanks everybody