##VIDEO ID:A-3w-A0X_rQ## good evening everyone I would like to welcome you to the Tuesday November 12th 2024 Board of Education meeting we calling the meeting to order and it is 7:05 p.m. and if everyone could please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance a reading from the meeting notice the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of the act the Verona Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the Star Ledger posted with the township of Verona and the Verona Education Association postings of this meeting setting forth the time location and agenda were posted at the Verona Board of Education Office and on the Verona Public Schools district website copies of tonight's agenda and resolutions have been made available to the public via the Board of Education website Mr Cruz if you could please call attendance sure miss towaka yes Mrs FAL here Mrs Farrar here Mrs prisco here Mrs boom here we have Quorum thank you thank you moving on to our agenda so I guess I just have to report out on The Unofficial Verona Board of Education election results so I'm going to report that I myself had 5,188 votes and Mr Christopher Waka had 4, 159 votes that's a lot of votes so we are back on for that's a big win Pam next year thank you for all the support um moving on to thank you moving on to routine matters um I need a motion to approve our minutes from our October 29 2024 meeting motion by motion by Mrs Rella seconded by by Mr Boone are there any discussions Mr Cruz if you could please call R Mr Walker yes Mrs fella yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries great I'm moving on to our superintendent Report with M Miss Dian dppi good evening um uh as the agenda um indicates we have a presentation tonight um uh by uh Rey selli from Nissa on our audit so I'm not gonna take up too much time I'll transition over in just a moment um I do want to say we did finally get our NJ doe official office of field services verified qac score placement and um we uh scored 85% on instruction and program 96% on fiscal management 100% on governance 90% on operations and 98% in Personnel the district has satisfied at least 80% of the weighted indicators in each of the five areas of the NJ qac review process and has been designated as high performing the commissioner has recommended to the State Board of Education that the district be certified as providing a thorough and efficient education system for the next three years or until the next qac review congratulations the uh 2024 2025 School Safety and Security plans um are um uh being reviewed and uh I sending some back for some minor changes um we will definitely have them um completely reviewed and the statement of assurance filed before the November 30th due date non- 10year Teacher uh student growth objectives uh the board recalls the tene staff do not have to file student growth objectives this year uh and administrator goals have been submitted and are being reviewed as are the staff professional development plans uh as they were due on October 31st um they were due to us on October 31st um we are already doing preliminary planning for the administration of the njsla to maximize instructional time prior to that assessment uh this year is uh again for the second year in a row the Civil Rights data collection um that is a massive report that takes hundreds of man hours to compile uh it's generally every other year but due to um the one of pandemic years it was skipped so they're catching up by asking us to uh do a second collection uh for this past year uh then we won't have another one it'll skip a year before we have to do the monster again because it is a monster especially if you're if you're a high school district it's it's a huge K8 um doesn't have quite as much um information to collect um but we do because we're for K12 um the district is a member of the Garden State Coalition of schools and their November meeting is tomorrow which I will attend uh it's going to feature a panel discussion on teacher Recruitment and Retention uh the panel includes um Garden State I'm sorry yeah Garden State Coalition of schools Executive Board member David aderhold um he is a superintendent in West wior Plainsboro Karen Binger executive director of the New Jersey principles and supervisors Association and Janet Flik who's a superintendent of the marsh un Marsh Union jointure commission these were all members of the Governor's task force on public school staff shortages and they will speak on the group's recommendation the progress in remediating the Staffing crisis and the steps that we can be taking to um uh meet the needs of our students with hiring uh qualified teaching staff members not just teaching staff members teaching staff members substitutes par professionals everybody um bus drivers I'm also a member of the New Jersey superintendent study Council which meets uh this Thursday for its monthly meeting this month's presentation is on strategies for data assessment and mtss or multiple tiered system of supports and qac compliance so it should be an interesting Wednesday and Thursday Workshop I will uh report out if anything is um really needs to be reported on I will uh uh turn this over to Ryan and I I deliberately Ryan did not talk about the things I know you're going to talk about okay so uh good after good after uh good evening as uh November enters full swing the first marketing period at Verona High School has officially passed overall it has definitely been a tremendous quarter characterized by liveliness and great activities for all corners of the high school there has been no shortage of exciting things and Lasting achievements and since our last meeting this trend has no doubt uh carried on despite uh the fall Sports season seemingly closing VHS continues to push on athletically continuing to strive across the board and showing that the momentum fed by our student athletes never stops the girls soccer team is off to the njsiaa finals after a twoz victory in a semi-final match against Rutherford last night the boys soccer team had just taken on New Providence in the semi-final round coming out Victorious and moving on to finals the girls volleyball team right yeah the girls volleyball team had Advanced the finals defeating referer on Friday and they were're just facing zakus in the finals tonight which I believe has unfortunately come out in favor of sakas and uh the girls field hockey team has been recognized as the champions in the SEC Liberty Division and our VHS cheerleader team has been named the team of the week by the New Jersey cheer and dance coaches association for raising an sounding $5,100 for minuts Angels an organization that spreads awareness and AIDS in breast cancer research and our last football game was last Friday against Cedar Grove and despite a loss ultimately there's no doubt that our football team has seen major progress and advancements this year so I'd like to just congratulate not just the teams who continue to represent Verona but uh all our false Sports who have undeniably demonstrated the immense grit and character of VHS this entire season so our fall athletes definitely deserve a round of applause the student council is hosting our annual volleyball tournament fundraiser on November 21st students can sign up and compete in teams of six to eight people against other teams in a standard bracket style competition the newspaper Club has debuted the October edition of vhs's own newspaper the fair viewer this edition of the fair viewer covers past and upcoming events for VHS with articles covering the lives of students and teachers student written short stories and even an advice column for students among other things and I definitely believe it's worth the read the avangard club is hosting an open mic night on November 19th where students are given the opportunity to express their creativity through performances that can be vocal instrumental or physical and the marching band season has concluded with our VHS marching band maroon and white competing on November 3rd in the New Jersey marching band Directors Association state championships at the College of New Jersey the VHS marching ban uh had placed fifth overall in our competition group yesterday the chamber choir took part in the Township's Veterans Day ceremony and honored our brave veterans and i' just like to recognize our acquired director Mr flood which I think has per who I think personally has done a great job at pushing the train require into the public eye throughout Verona and having the group take part of such meaningful events there's definitely also a lot of great opportunities in the future as well as I'm not sure if you know this or not but we will be opening for the rockets at Radio City down the road which is definitely something I will touch base on more in future meetings and Friday November 1 was the showing of The Fall Cabaret Broadway Through the Ages and the show was majorly successful this Thursday Friday and Saturday the VHS Spotlight players is presenting the 2024 fall drama Mary Z Mary Mary Zimmerman's The Odyssey a modern rendition of the ages old Greek epic by Homer showings are 7 p.m. on November 14th 15th and 16th with an additional Mata performance at 2m on Saturday that is all thank you you Ryan thank you Ryan I do want to um also discuss um Mr flood because I got a couple of messages I couldn't be at the veteran ceremony yesterday unfortunately had a funeral but um I heard such great things about our choir that they were just really spectacular so congratulations to them and Mr flood for doing such an outstanding job so thank you for reporting that Ryan no problem and on everything else and um Mr Lynch and I um were confused on the dates I thought they were coming to this meeting the mering band they're actually coming to our first December meeting yeah yeah yeah just the first meeting in December yeah thank you moving on to um our presentation or right yes thank you right all right so good evening everybody R selli from nissia the audit firm uh for the board uh so tonight I have uh to present to you the the audit um for Verona Board of Education uh as I do every year um I try and boil it down to what the most important information for you is it's a it's a very large book um there's a lot of different presentations of the audit schedules so what I try and do is uh show you the the schedule C1 which is is essentially your uh board secretaries report it's your basically your operating budget um you know it's the budget that you vote on in the year that that that uh you operate through uh through the year um so it's the most most accurate representation of how things happened um throughout the year and so basically what it is is an income statement right so an income statement shows your revenues your expenses and at the end of the day your fund balance and fund balance is very similar to retained earnings kind of showing you know what you have left at the end of the day uh and you know a big Financial indicator of what uh where you where you are financially so always like to start by by looking at the revenues on the income statement uh broken down into three categories you have uh revenues from local sources State sources and federal sources um so if you look at the top there uh your local sources uh your biggest revenue is from uh the tax Levy um and that's how it is for every District uh but you also have some tuition and then you have some miscellaneous revenue and basically what this is showing is basically what your budget is and then how things actually happened and that's that's on the kind of the right hand side and then in that final column there you'll see variance to actual so anything in the positive is a good thing it's going to help your fund balance it's going to help you grow financially because you haven't budgeted for it it's revenues that you've gotten uh over what you've budgeted um so if you see there unrestricted uh miscellaneous revenue is is a pretty big one where um you exceeded what you budgeted uh big reason for that is interest rates interest rates climbed pretty aggressively over the past uh year or so um so you know a good good Revenue Source there they're kind of hurting on the expense SI but on the uh on on the revenue side it's it's helping us so that's a good thing there um and then the next uh category there is your state sources so your Aid and you'll see that uh extraordinary Aid is is much higher than anticipated as well and then as we get towards the bottom of that state a you'll see those tpif reimbursements those are not actual Financial transactions that happened um here in the district it's the contribution that the state makes on your behalf uh but because they make it on your behalf it's basically like your contribution so what they what they do is they show it as a revenue and expense so it looks like oh man we got $6.9 million that didn't really happen that was just a contribution uh made to the the retirement fund on your behalf and so what you'll see is on this side it shows up as oh great we got a huge revenue on the expense side it's like Whoa We we didn't budget for this huge $7 million Revenue but again none of that actually happened here um really we want to focus on that top part where um you know the the regular state aid is um where you got some nice extraordinary Aid then the last piece um uh is is uh uh federal aid which normally you don't get you got a reimbursement here from FEMA um for for some issues that happened during the pandemic so a nice little windfall there from for some expenses that happened in some prior years so that's that's a nice help as well so the thing that I would point out here is that you know your uh your budget is very cautious on the revenue side uh and there's a reason for that because when we look uh at the expenses your expenses are very close to what is budgeted so there's not a lot left at the end of the day on the expenses and you can get away with that because of how cautious you are on the revenue side so if I went through your your uh this schedule and you had all these expenses but you didn't have the good Revenue gains that you had it would make me nervous but what's happening is you have a nice very balanced budget where you're not over anticipating any revenues and you're being very Hardline on your expenses so it's a very very good long-term plan for the district um so you you'll take a look I don't like to spend a lot of time going through the next like 10 pages or so just it's very very detailed on all the different areas um but if you look through on that right hand side you'll just see that there there's not a lot of money left at the end of the day and that's really how things have kind of operated here for a long time um but I think the fact that that the the revenue side is so cautious it enables you to have a nice balanced budget um and has really over the years over the last three years helped the fund balance grow so if we go all the way down to page 11 of 12 on that schedule um at the very bottom on the right hand side um you know you'll see the fund balance July 1st and the fund balance uh June 30th so basically you started the year with uh 6,259 $ and there was $674,000 of growth during the year to leave leave you with 6,880 864 so that's that's a pretty good year of fund balance growth um while still operating a nice very balanced budget um so you know we um we had a rating call recently we're doing uh refunding issuance for the district and I have to say the rating agency was uh I don't want to say impressed cuz they're never like you could have like the best fund balance in the world I'm not going to tell you they're impressed but I I think they they had a very positive outlook on the financial picture that you've had for the last three or four years and then the projection going forward so um you know you get an independent Source like me who comes in and audits your books and tells you you have a good Financial picture things look good but even beyond that this year we had uh the rating agencies look at every everything and even they I think have a positive outlook on you know where your budget is the financial planning that's happening um and where things are going so I I think that's all very positive um so I do on the next page any questions on revenues expenses the fund balance um before we talk about the really complicated part of all the different categories of fund balance no questions good so on the on the next page page 12 of 12 the uh statuto you're allowed to keep that fund balance so that 6 million uh $880,000 in in different categories of of fund balance and so um the easiest ones to understand are the capital reserve and the maintenance reserve and the unemployment compensation reserve and so a capital reserve is this is money set aside for future Capital needs um so you know we went through a referendum um over the last four year starting in 2020 it's kind of winding down here um so all your facilities are really up toate and so you have $2.3 million left for if there's new capital needs that come up um so there's two ways you can withdraw that through the budget or you can withdraw that by resolution and so uh if there's a future need for a capital type item you have money set aside for that and you're not like oh my gosh we need a new boiler or you know some big major Capital item um you'd have money set aside for that f for the future uh very similar to that is the maintenance reserved uh that can't be used for big Capital purchases but things that come up um just in the regular maintenance of the of the district and so that's uh what that Reserve is used for and it's used in the same way you can withdraw through the budget or we could do a resolution and use that to uh for any unexpected uh type maintenance type of issues that we have and then the last uh Reserve is the unemployment compensation Reserve this is money that either has been withheld from the employees or contribution made by the board for future uh unemployment issues should they arise um and then the the the other thing that I'd like to talk about next is the unassigned fund balance and basically that's statutorily set it's 2% of your uh operating expenditures with a few minor adjustments so you're at your full 2% that's the highest that unassigned fund balance can go um you're only allowed to to to hold 2% it's really there as uh to protect you for cash flow needs um throughout the year you know um you know taxes are your main source of Revenue but there's fluctuations of when those are paid over quarter whatever it is so uh you have some money held in reserve um for cash flow purposes through the unassigned fund balance then the last three uh I'll call them buckets of of fund balance that you have is the utilization of your fund balance essentially as a revenue to help you balance your budget in future years so the two that are being utilized in this current year is the designated for subsequent years expenditures and the excess Surplus restricted 2425 um so that money was basically um some of it was generated at the end of this year some of it was generated at the end of last year but essentially what that's doing is you're using your own money basically like a savings account drawing down on that and using it to help pay for the the uh 2425 school year um so so those two numbers you have a million dollars in excess Surplus restricted for 2425 and uh 469 of that assigned fund balance uh using that as as a fund balance draw down for the school year that we're in and then at the end of the 2324 school year we generated the EXs Surplus for 25 26 so it's kind of a two-year rolling cycle with with the EXs Surplus and there's 9 13,988 in there so that is probably the most complicated part of of Schoolboard auditing so what I always like to tell people is those top two numbers you don't want to see a lot of fluctuation there um because you're relying on those as Revenue sources so uh you know the way the schedule is presented in the audit is not exactly how it's presented here I kind of gave you a little comparison of what last year's looked like compared to this year and you'll see there's some pretty relative stability a little bit of a jump to that $1 million number and I think um so by Design this year um you know I think the goal uh for the business office was to have that number come down a little bit so it was a million dollars last year it's 913 uh th000 this year um good stability there and I think um you know you're in an area around that $900,000 where I I would I would suggest you try and aim for that and I think that is the goal of the business office to have excess Surplus stay between $ 800 and a million dollars and that brings a lot of stability to the budget so those are that those are the different buckets of fund balance you know my overall impression is you have a nice balanced budget you have a nice balance in your excess Surplus um you know the rating agency would agree you're in a very good Financial place right now and a good projection for the future so that's you know kind of my opinion on your financials any questions on any of the financial stuff that we just went over um so that's the financials um you know in the audit part of the audit which is where you know we're looking over everybody's shoulder making all the the eyes are dotted and the te's are crossed we did have a few findings this year you know I when we have findings you know they are for for the Improvement of the business office Improvement for the operation but I think you know they're they're fine-tuning type issues here because you know your your budget is operating the way it should and these are just a few things that that we would like to see uh be done a little bit better but really not affecting how the operation of the business office works so the the first recommendation that we have is that um the proprietary funds and the local grants and the special Revenue fund be properly recorded through the district's accounting system and so the the business office is is utilizing a new accounting software where they're netting some of of the the local grants that you get and so when we come in um we are able to reconcile back to them it makes our life a little bit more difficult so we would like to see you know the receipt and the expenses listed separately and that's not happening right now they're just being netted together so um it's not to say that the presentation of the audit is incorrect or we didn't get the information we needed it's just um it would make our life a little bit easier if it was presented a little bit different and I think uh you know through through the software that you have which is pretty intuitive we can get that done uh and just a little bit of a different way so that's the recommendation there is that through Genesis so is that a recommendation that you've given to a lot of districts that use Genesis um so uh not all districts are using Genesis first of all but the ones that do don't all have local grants the way you do I would say your community really comes out for you and has a lot of local grants um so the local grants is really where that that that issue is so they're not all getting it even if they're on Genesis cuz they might not have local grants or maybe they have one or two and we can just does Genesis have a user setting for or some kind of setting for local grants I don't know so one of the things um uh we had a conversation with v because the the way that V was providing the grants it was almost like a reimbursement uh so that was something that we uh changed um uh last school year but it was in the middle of the year so there is still some transactions that were done um the way it is so I hopefully for the next audit that that will be corrected good um so the order of the the recommendations goes 132 and I'm not really sure how that happened but anyway so we'll go to recommendation finding uh 20243 um so during our review of The District's extraordinary aid application we noted there were several instances where some Services costs were not included in the application resulting in net understatement of costs in the application so we talked a lot about uh how your extraordinary Aid is doing very very well um there was a little bit left on the table in that some of the services that were being provided weren't included in the application so really in the future hopefully there's even uh more Aid to come to the district um so our recommendation was that a review process be put in place make sure that um if a student is receiving a service that they're um that that's getting into the application and that um you know you're getting the the proper amount of extraordinary Aid um I don't want want you to think you left millions of dollars on the table I mean what we found was pretty small but um that came up as a result of our single audit where we normally wouldn't look at something like that but because you received a certain amount of aid and there's a whole type of criteria we have to go through we actually audited specifically the extraordinary aid grant so the application who's in there a bunch of different things it's pretty cumbersome process actually um so it's it's actually called a single audit where we specifically look at just extraordinary Aid and so the last uh recommendation that we have is uh related to to your food service um and kind of it's almost kind of similar to uh the recommendation of the uh that we had on the local grants but the uh way that the food service provider is providing some of your information let me read the the recommendation and I'll go into it so during our review of food service records we were not able to fully reconcile the revenue and expenditures reported on the Food Service management contractors June 2024 operating statement with the district records and so essentially what we're saying is is the way it's presented in your financial statements we also get uh a statement an operating statement from the Food Service management company what we try and do is reconcile those two items together um and we were eventually able um to get pretty close but there that reconciliation should be done on a monthly basis to make sure that um you know the Food Service management company is saying you know we sold x amount of meals x amount of dollars this is the amount we collected your record should show the same thing and so um so we have that recommendation in there to make sure that um you know what the Food Service management company's reporting is also what's get ending up getting uh reported in your financial statements as well something because our food service we don't have mashes we have um pomptonian is that something you you've noticed with other districts that use pomptonian I think um this is uh so no and I think this is something that um in more recently is uh something that the business office is really um in the past we've had the same issue but we've been able to tie everything out and I think um now there's going to be a fully set in process so it is something specific to hear that we've noticed that is not is not happening and um I I think there's been some rearranging of some roles on people and who's going to actually take this over and make sure this is getting done thank you if we decide to move to the federal school lunch program would this be something that we would have to do like on a monthly basis for them in order to get reimbursed anyway or is so the the reconciliation won't change it will still be something that our office will have to do on a monthly basis whether or not we're in the national school lunch program or not so it's it's something that we've implemented um since the the um recommendation and and we'll continue if we transition to National School Lunch um a food service program thank so that's all I have again you know there's some fine-tuning there on some of the reporting but I think overall you know the way the business office is functioning and I think some of the changes um that we've discussed over the past four or five months or so I think you know are really trending in a in in a good direction as well to to try and take care of these these uh smaller issues but you know big picture budget-wise financial planning projecting I I I think you're in a very good place just one quick question uh number nine sorry is can you explain what exactly because that's from last year right sorry where are you looking page 15 number nine okay so so the recommendation so so Jorge kind of touched on it a little bit so on the very very very very last page of the packet I gave you um so there so we had the same issue in the 23 audit and so um I think there was some improvement on that as Jorge said but there are still some transactions that the way they're being presented because they're being reimbursed are still not not quite um not quite where we would want to see them so it's just essentially what that is saying is that there was an issue last year wasn't 100% fixed yet and and um and follow up with what she was saying I think um we might be getting a little spoiled with with the of work we're getting with um Forge here but um looking ahead into the next uh fiscal year and next calendar year I should say what things should we as a board keep our eyes open to make sure that we have this continued success yeah so so one of the things that's that's hurting a lot of districts is um uh is inflation um but that's leveled off though it is starting to level off which is nice so you've probably made it through the hardest part of it um but if it does continue it it it you know you're on on a 2% cap on your um on your tax levy but if you have expenses coming in eight or 10% higher it's going to hurt you you know your state aid has grown a little bit in in that time frame which has helped through that so um you know that would be the biggest thing and I would say continuing that that good budget practice of if if you're going to stay on a side where you're not going to lapse as many expenditures make sure that Revenue you're cautious on that Revenue side because you want to keep that B that budget nice and balanced and not over overly rely on some of your revenues like I don't want you to look at at this and say oh well you know we're getting over a million dollars of extraordinary Aid maybe we should budget a little bit more and and spend a little bit more that's not the structure of your budget right now it's it's to stay cautious on those on those on that Revenue side which leads to my next question I mean here in Verona and maybe many parts in or some parts in West Essex County uh in terms of state aid we've been in an enviable position to say the least correct yeah I mean so I do I do a lot of work in um in more Sussex and Warren counties and and they have been hurt pretty badly um by well some of the shore counts yeah right right um you know primarily because their you know their population did decrease quite a bit in the period before uh I think it's the S2 um funding formula their populations were down so that under that formula their state aid was was lost pretty pretty dramatically I had one District lose $6 million of state aid they're not happy they're not happy campers over there yeah thank you yeah for me if I sound a little naive here but I am in this in this area um so I'm happy here that we have this healthy Revenue I think it makes us I would speak for the board right feel pretty confident there um you referenced a little bit about how we're coming to the end of our bond right for the right so we're kind of finish oh yes right so you know just again thinking ahead we've been you know speaking a lot about the increase of you know the potential increase of students you know the need for facilities we've been speaking a little bit about security where does what does like does this give us any information as to you know what our options are to go out for another Bond at some point I'm not saying today but just as we're discussing budget and we're looking at where we are now what does what does this look like for us in a you know one year two year threee plan so so the bond that we um previously discussed is um it's the 2015 uh bond that um has another six years another five let's say another five years before it falls off uh so it's almost $10 million uh at that point the board could potentially propose um going out uh and actually doing referendum type projects uh Capital Improvement projects uh up to that $10 million at no C at no additional tax costs for the the Verona taxpayers meaning that uh keeping the tax payments of what they currently have neutral but being able to uh go back out and and utilize the the the $10 million that's available uh that's going to come off and rebond it at that point so planning for that would be three and a half four years out correct you don't so thinking of and it's it it'll happen really fast it's like I know like talking about five years from now it's is far away but thinking about planning wise it will say it we say like three three and a half years from now but then so then is it fair to to kind of assume that when we are thinking about any uh potential changes or impact in The District in the next year two three years we're really looking at what we have in this current budget without any options of going out for a referendum or so if the need for um additional Capital funds was needed um uh outside of the 2.3 million that we have in cap reserves then I will say that if so let's say we needed a um we had an influx of I don't know 500 students and we needed to build another building at that point it will be we will have to go out and do another referendum just would have a tax impact yes that that would have a tax impact absolutely and then if we were going to go um five years from now if we're going to go above the 10 million then it will have a slight tax imp impact depending on what the difference is thank you meaning1 million isn't GNA go as far so so correct and then we also need to think about the things that uh structurally the things that are already towards the end of the life so that our turf fields um probably 5 years from now they they need they're going to need replacement on Lower upper and lower field um so that's one the other piece is um talking about the lower field and we we've discussed in facilities um uh committee the uh the benches the concrete um uh it ideally the the correct the best replacement will be to do aluminum aluminum kind of a a seating and and getting rid of like just because concrete and and masonary it over time it's it's going to happen what what we have there which is actually years and years of um you know water uh um egressing and and damaging um um that masonary structure so it's not uh it's not something that's viable uh as a long-term solution or even replacing it again with concrete um so I think um and it it might be a lot more cost effective to do like an aluminum structure for that and then also we have the Press Box um which I think we'll probably have to uh address sooner rather than later and yeah so that's that's a few things that we money goes first okay thank you for being here R thank you and thank you Jorge for L keeping everything thank you Ry so moving on um under committee reports I know Athletics m did anyone else meet all right so I'll take on Athletics um Ryan did last meeting what didn't we meet before the last meeting or no is that in between the meeting yeah we met on the four I'm sorry thought that was before the fourth okay I know right right yeah that was last week we met yeah um so Ryan did mostly um all the sports announcements so that's thank you Ryan for making my report much shorter um congratulations to those teams and let's see we had we did talk about the turf on November 5th they came out to do an assessment on the turf fields um which are eight years old right now and the report hasn't come in yet but once that report gets back to us we'll report out on that on what they feel the field the life of this Turf is do have we done a full analysis on the cost effectiveness of perf versus going back to Grass I don't think [Laughter] so I don't think so no yeah is just expensive it's expensive coming from a district that got a CH field the year I left for the first time I know grass is preferable for a lot of sports to play on keeping a grass field usable um with the amount of playtime AR Fields get would be really costly soing seating sprinkler system sprinkler system and didn't we do a referendum telling people that their taxes going to go up because they're going to get these turf fields like yeah it was a referendum yeah yeah uh winter sports will begin on November 25th uh say Personnel we hired a assistant Spring Track and Fields coach and an assistant boys lacrosse coach uh we are in looking for a head softball coach I think they're in interviewing for that and hopefully very soon The Spectator code of conduct 9163 didn't come out yet right they keep pushing and saying no and we're waiting on that one we're waiting on um the cell phone uh policy um uh template from Strauss and they keep saying it's coming it's coming it's coming and it's can come so um not yet okay so just kind of speaking about spectator code of conduct going into maybe I'm going off topic but I think I'm going to with sports mainly I mean and we know this happens with teachers as well with complaints and not being happy on what coaches do and who plays and how much playtime and the there's just I think um people really need to just kind of take a step back and emailing the coaches having having their cell phone numbers emailing coaches emailing our athletic director emailing our superintendent meeting with our superintendent meeting with the ad meeting with board me trying to meet with board members calling board members I think really needs to just come to a Hal because it's it's just not how we should operate in this in anywhere um I know myself I know Mr Waka we've received some um text messages about certain issues with a sports team that's not our role here um we support our superintendent we support our ad and we support our coaches and unfortunately if one or two parents or three parents aren't happy with what's going on out on the fields and what the coach is doing um they're there for to coach our kids and if our kids are doing well and the team is doing well that's what we care about so I am just uh making that statement and I do hope that policy comes out soon because there was an incident at our football game on Friday night where I actually had to tell a parent to relax numerous times um as well as Mr merkler so I just wish that people would really take a deep look into let the kids enjoy themselves let them play sports let them be kids and let them enjoy the event and that's all I have to say Mrs prisco I just have a question maybe comment on on some of that leaving you know the the football issue that that you cited you know some of that can be attributed to societal issues but but more specific um you I being a a former parent or well I'm still a parent being a former High School parent um I I've seen examples of some successful coaches who handle um their communities um very astutely and I hear for some other parents that are totally in love with how their coaches handle their communities and I I'm wondering out loud if um our athletic department can point to those areas of success that where some coaches have implemented um policies with their families um and and share those and show some you know the complete coaching Community how what what success looks like and share that with the entire coaching community so that they're all aligned in how they deal with their parent communities uh the the areas of success that I have heard from um could be a shining light for everybody else and help alleviate some of those concerns I agree um I do think it's almost with every sport since I've been a board member here and now this is my sixth year I think I think with every sport almost since I've been a board member there has been you know cheering last year football last year like every single sport it's like we are putting our trust in our superintendent who is who we are in charge of right and our athletic director and our coaches and our principles and if they're going to get a complaint about something and if it's severe I think then they're going to address it and then it would come to where we would have to do something but um I do think all coaches have different coaching Styles some coaches maybe communicate better than others but I do feel that we have great coaches here um we have a great Athletic program almost in every every program that we have I think our kids are very successful whether it's bands theater Athletics so I think we're doing something right here and the little bit of noise that we hear I don't want it to affect any of us on how we think and how we react because it's unfortunately it's taking away time from our ad our coaches and our superintendent it's a loud narrow narrow small group that does that but I think again celebrating the success to your point there's so much success yeah and celebrating what celebrating the good as opposed to you know as opposed to sounding so I see what you're saying Meg I I really appreciate that we get those three times a year board meetings Laura comes up and kind of gives us the Highlight Reel and they they really are impressive highlight reels every year um and you know perhaps there is other ways to communicate or or to to increase the exposure for for those good messages um to your first point Pam I I think that the entire the entire goal of athletic program is not all about winning but but winning is definitely a keystone part of what we what we want right um and that's what the varsity program is that every program leads to the varsity program and that's like the what we we want our our you know our our best to to be doing well on that level um and as far as to your other point um I I think one of my biggest fears about the future of Verona is that we're gonna we're going to kill the Golden Goose um through parent actions that are Unbecoming at at sporting events um and and I know it's it's it's probably even foolish for us for me to for any of us to talk publicly about the the less than 1% of 1% of parents right um but it's a stain that I've seen and you've seen and we I'm sure all of have been the games have seen um and and I think it as long as we just keep up the push toward making the culture such that this is not who Verona is you know and and we we get behind and we also push our superintendent to to to to work with you know if you're not going to behave in an event then we don't want you there because the one person I know is not gonna want you there is your kid that's seeing you act like a a dumb dumb right right um overall I think you know this is something that happens in every town um but it the certain towns kind of cast the Blind eyee and say just how it is uh but I'd rather us be more proactive than than the minimum I do want to agree with that I I I think I go to a lot of events here and one thing we have in Verona that um I don't always see is we have a lot of attendance at our athletic competitions which is phenomenal and while we have in my two and a half years here suspended and you know banned parents from attending events which is sad for their children as well as that um so many more the vast majority of people attend with enthusiasm decorum and support um it is a very tiny uh percentage of people that behave badly but as I don't remember who said it I think that's a function of what's Happening across adult communities in our country right now people saying ni not nice things about other people and uh it's just becom Norm whether it's you know our uh Sports our our professionals athletes or uh musicians or actors or politicians or whoever uh we need uh to take a step back and and be more uh kind oh it's cool to be kind there's there's I'm looking at a wall of of positivity I do agree though most of our parents are extremely supportive of our Athletics and and while we do get those um parents that you know have a difference of opinion with a coach and would like their opinion to be the opinion the coach has that's not always going to happen you're not always going to like the decisions a teacher makes a principal makes superintendent makes the ad makes um but what we have to do is say okay I'm going to defer to their decision as long as it's not putting our students in in any danger thank you thank you that's all I have for athletics um does anyone have any questions there was no other committees that met no okay moving on to public comments on agenda action items if there's anything on the agenda that we will be voting on please come to the podium and state your name and you will have three minutes seeing none thank you any discussion item new business or old business um I wanted to just follow up last week we had a parent come and speak about um the alotment at Lanning and we were um I think going to discuss a possible effects to begin any pring or anything on that yes so um that's actually one of the uh items on the facilities uh agenda for next week um we did get two quotes um and we are going to move forward on uh cutting a this week uh to hopefully get it completed before the end of this month okay so uh next week we'll have to vote on that is it over the it was it was like four grand yeah so it's not it's a small um one one of the the proposals came in at 4450 uh the the other company it's uh for that so it's not over uh any any threshold and and even with something small like that we we still like to compare uh just to see you know um even if there's a 400 $ difference and we're getting Apples to Apples comparison uh so yeah so we're we're going to move forward and hopefully next week we'll have an update on when it's going to be completed by great thank you so much and then the second thing um last week we also spoke briefly about um any possible budget for security implementation in any way so do we have any idea or can we maybe at the next meeting just an idea of if there's a budget what that budget is that way we can kind of look at it and then plan from there yes so so we do have um what we call the budget Bild for FY 26 which is 2526 school year uh so that's one thing I did meet with uh Mr blage um and also the high school administrators um we were talking about security uh we're talking about security and specifically in this building and also uh some of the feedback that they had regarding our current surveillance system and uh so one of the things that Mr belage and I we we're actually going to go to a demo in um believe it's in the uh Somerset um one of Somerset County school districts um where they have so what what he was saying is is a is a system that's um that's more reust but it's very expensive uh somewhere around 100 Grand a year uh to have some um an annual cost of 100 Grand so that and then that's something that so we're we are going to look and see um what's out there and then and really bring back and say okay you know what these this is this going to make a a bigger difference a bigger impact on on our current security than what we have and is it going to um bring what is it is it really worth the um the additional cost to to bring addition you know these additional components that we currently don't have um so so one some of the things that we talked about was um uh even um like ID um facial recognition um even if that you know someone is actually on a list the system will alert and and actually uh pick up facial recognitions from uh you know local uh list and things like that and and notify um local PD and and things like that so it's it's really uh a little on on the upside of of the of what we we have and and not a lot of school districts have it but they are some school districts out there that do but do you think that so we will have then sorry for the so before the 20 25 26 when we're thinking of that budget we would have been able to kind of take a look at some options and have discussions around our yes okay great I think that a lot of the districts the last three years that have made major security upgrades are districts that did really well in the state funding formula or needed to find a way to spend Esser and it was you could be kind of uh creative with with a lot of the Esser spendings um I I feel like we're of course I want to support school security upgrades why wouldn't I want to do that um but I think for us it's got to be a kind of a multi-year strategic buildup approach where it's it's bit by bit to get to the big picture over a long-term Vision agree I think I think for me just personally I want to just have these numbers so that we can start to have that conversation of what is a realistic amount that we can spend for and what do we need what do we need what do we need I mean where do we want to go what is our plan so I just think that if we can have these conversations it'll allow us to make good decisions and I again personally speaking I do not want to see us in a position where we just slap something on it's a Band-Aid if I want a plan that's going to be sustainable right and and there's also um a cultural change over you know opening doors propping doors opening Windows and like those are all things that when my kids were little the doors were propped because there was no air conditioning so you know that's what they did um that's not no longer an acceptable thing to do from a safety perspective but there are still teachers and parents who come in when you know you feel everyone feels bad closing the door to the person behind them but got to close it we got to close the door um and you know so those things those little changes actually do add up to an increased security for our district and and remember we have in the past the year before I started and these three years we've increased the number of cameras we've increased our cyber security tremendously we have crg mapping um uh uh software now that uh would help in in a response God forbid anything would did happen uh really our weak weaknesses were human weaknesses yeah I do and I and I I credit you for a lot of the security work that has been done already because I I know we we've seen it um as a board as a as a committee um and we could always just always okay so now we're here we've made these improvements now and we've a lot of the improvements were made fortunately without having to spend MCH right so now we just kind of continue in that direction and I think we just really can need to continually train our students and staff I mean when you have a a a campus that's got you know 100 different doors in it that's monitored by 375 staff members and has 2200 students like that's a that's uh a difficult thing to manage because um um students from ages you know prek through grade 12 are to respond differently to someone knocking on a door so we just need to continually train our students the way we train our staff about not opening the door for someone not propping a door I realize you need to run out to your car to get your cell phone because you didn't have it don't prop the door open come through the front all of that um I think our softest uh area is of after school activities in this building I was at a volleyball game last week and the doors are wide open because Spectators come in and out and I understand we have a we have an Athletics program where we have events that are occurring inside our school and we want parents and community members to be able to enter to watch our students and and give that support that we just talked about um but that's a it's a fine line between having doors wide open and who could enter the who could enter the building so that's kind of uh that's not that's not limited to Verona though that's limited to any high school that H or middle school for that matter that has an Athletics program I just had something uh to comment I agree with um Miss D DJ's point on focusing on like students and how they interpret things I'm more so like fixating on like possibly like a student like reaction to possible security implementations that like Mr Cruz has outlined like possibility because I'm just like thinking about like the IDS last year and how that like reaction like kind of how the student body reacted to the IDS and like just like the general like discourse in general this year R yeah what was your yeah what how did they react I just like they didn't want it it's lot Defiance you know it's like I I will tell you they do not wear them I ask my children every day do you have your ID yeah I feel like that's certain point like just like it just like fizzled out without but that comes down to policy enforcement right well when you it's very difficult yes absolutely does um and it's also cultural I mean idas have been in place where student I went through this in 2004 in living at Livingston high school when we went to student IDs there and they had fakes and they would like pass them off to each other in the hallway um and you have I mean the kids are smarter than us right they figure out ways around it so uh but eventually with continual reinforcement and continual what you walk into Livingston high school now kids wear their IDs but it's but it's 20 years of of so so where are we on on that culture policy enforcement then I mean if if we were to self evaluate ourselves where does that um we're not great with uh with lanyards um we are better with cell phone policy and um I think Mr cogil chose to go the cell phone policy route um because that's got an instructional impact I understand here's the other piece is that um we have 597 students in our high school and 560 of them leave here pretty much for lunch every day go in and out um landyards are not our number one safety uh concern with the high school that like uh I think the reaction to like the whole like Turn Style system is I think it's um I think it's good actually people were very like semi opposed to at the beginning like just like how much it was getting nailed down on like the student body but I think that it's definitely eased into like this just the day-to-day life of students more than the ID system was and people are surprisingly just like not as annoyed as I probably thought but let me explain what the Turn Style system is so through Genesis we have a system called Turn Style and it's the system by which we're able to scan kids in and out of the building it's so we keep can keep better track of where they are during the building last year uh there you'll notice when you come in and go there is a Chromebook in the hallway over here that is for that bathroom signin so uh we're using turn sty across the district now uh where students um can uh if they're leaving class to go to the nurse's office the guidance office um to another to a bathroom to wherever they actually just sign into that area and then when they leave it they sign back into their class so we have a record of the moving around of where students go in and out all day long so it's um that's another security Improvement I guess yeah where they go to lunch to in the high school yes that was the biggest complaint that I got was that have to sign in for lunch and then sometimes it crashes and signing in how how long does that take for uh there's machines all over the place I don't is it does it take a long time I've L sign but basically the thing is you just go to one of the stations like I think about literally every classroom in the building does have one every classroom has one yes and you just type in your student ID and then you get the checkin I just I know there's a little confusion with like how the system worked at first especially like the wording of like because it just use like check in check out it's kind of difficult difficult for students to like get used to but I feel like that's definitely not an issue anymore but that's like some like side concern especially like some teachers are concerned with like it disrupting uh CL time because as uh I think there's some students who uh actively like know their they sign each other in and out yeah and it causes disruption because the office has to call teachers and they're like interrupts class time so I think that's just another side note they'll take attendance we do we have to and we do this yes per we have to do period by period attendance just uh at the high school level but when they walk the door don't they have to sign in to the classroom no they the teacher takes attendance for the um the teacher does attendance but when they walk into a classroom for the first time that day they don't have to sign in or or check it okay very good thank you Ryan thank you um I just had a couple quick things did anyone else have anything on new items or discussions I just wanted to um Ryan when is the open mic night I know you mentioned that if you could just pull that up again uh it would be November 19th November thank you no problem and then also just for us the board and all of us up here we have our school board training on November 21st Thursday next week or six five seven is six okay is six fine for you and Jorge is that okay okay yeah I think we were going to try to push it back we could do to 5:30 or 6 okay okay I'll reach out to Jean but no earlier than 5:30 and I'll let everybody know thank you okay thank you do the 21st do we have to vote to approve having that or no we just have to advertise it right yeah it has to be advertised as a meeting yeah yeah but no action be any correspondence thank you okay sorry oops moving on to our agenda action items I need a motion please to approve Personnel um items A1 through A6 so motion by Mr Boon seconded by y seconded by Mrs Bella are there any discussions wish um I do I wish um Mrs B all the best she had a great impact on both my kids and wish her all the best luck going forward yes I um I wish everyone that is retiring or resigning um I wish all of them the best um I am Mrs banta's resignation is just not sitting well with me so I just hope she does have an exit interview because she's been here a long time and um I'm just concerned about her leaving as well as Mrs Solomon on last week I know she's reti reing but just retiring at the end of the year at the end of this year 2024 is just not yeah so anyway I will have an exit interview okay thank you any other discussions Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr Walker yes Mrs Vel yes Mrs Farrar I'm going to abstain from A4 and vote Yes on everything else Mrs prisco yes Mr Boom yes motion carries thank you thank you moving on to our education resolutions I need a motion to approve um resolutions B1 through B5 motion by I'll move it Mrs Bala seconded by seconded by Mrs FR are there any discussions yeah quick question for B5 if we're sending this uh employee to Florida should there be resolution for the whever the travel costs are I don't know that we have that yet but we will put it on there okay very good thank you any other discussions Mr sorry goad oh I just wanted to I just I was looking at the the um High School stien positions and we didn't get there yet we're sorry Mr Cruz if you could please call Mr Walker yes Mrs Bella Mrs Ferrar Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you moving on to Athletics and co-curricular I need a motion to approve resolutions C1 through C2 motion by seconded by Mr Waka questions I just wanted to say thank you because I see that the s in positions here are all volunteer and I just think that volunteer for the first year or two but I still just think that great right there's a lot of work that teachers put in and to see those volunteer positions on there just wanted to say thank you Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr wer yes Mrs Vella Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boom yes motion carries thank you moving on there's nothing on for facilities I need a motion to approve fire Finance resolutions E1 through E4 motion by Mr Waka seconded by I'll second Mr Boon any discussion Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr wer yes Mrs Vel yes Mrs Farrar Mrs prisco yes Mr Boom yes motion carries thank you moving on to governance and policy I need a motion to approve resolution F1 motion by sure my motion Mr W seconded by second Mrs rala are there any discussions Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr Walker yes Mrs Rosella yes Mrs Ferrar yes yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boom yes motion carries thank you and moving on one more uh negotiations G I need a motion to approve resolutions G1 so Mo motion by Mr Boon seconded by I'll second second by Mrs relle oh no you can yes um any discussion real quick I just thought um you know all the board members Den you did a great job like you really did do a great job in negotiations as did our employees uh but as a board member you really stepped up so thank you yes I would like to thank both of you guys for uh well thank her the time and dedication we did and Mr Cruz and this tjy on all and thank the a lot the vaa for getting the ratification done they just let us know yesterday that it ratified perfect so yeah we're working on a retro and uh wonderful it's it's a fair it's a fair agreement good glad to hear thank you Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mr Walker yes Mrs brazel Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs boom yes motion carries thank you thank you moving on to public comments if there is anything anyone would like to discuss please come up and state your you have three minutes hi uh Jessica Chapman limb um a number of parents have asked me because they know I come here um about the email about the cell phone policy and interest and parents uh volunteering to be on is that sometime in the future you know what we we actually put the committee on hold because Strauss Esme who does our policy um work has come is keeps promising they're coming out with a sample policy which will cut down uh it's kind of going to be they showed it to us they just haven't released it yet where all of these things that schools have done with cell phones are in a template and the district just goes through and says yeah we like this one we want to modify this one we don't like this one and they make it their own which would be infinitely more uh um time yeah to facilitate it better uh we did think it was going to be out by the end of October so as soon as that comes out we will I'll ask for volunteers I just don't want to get a bunch of volunteers and let them sit there like we're doing now that's fine understood um can I ask one other question mostly because I just don't know and I'm not sure who to ask I've tried to get information myself um the academic enrichment program I know this is only the second year and it's a little like kind of um staffing issues um is there like a long-term plan for maintaining that program or grow of those kinds or is that more more Dr Miller no no no we have a uh we have a uh it's a it's a permanent first of all it's a law right you got to have one so um we H we we put it in we have every intention of it staying as is if not growing uh currently this year um because the teacher that um developed the program with Dr Miller uh is on a leave we have obviously leave replacement in there um but we also have a second teacher that's teaching at the middle school so that um because we we teach almost every day at the middle school right the the not concerned and I don't want to make it sound like I'm concerned we have too many kids but we have 15% of our students in this program that's traditionally not a gifted program gifted is anywhere between three and 5% so that program has already grown as you add to it um I am a I'm a believer of once in you're in you know you don't go gifted and then oh I'm not gifted anymore so ultimately that is going to have to grow as kids move up and we have more kids entering the program so um where we're going to find the money for that and the money for everything else that we need I'm not sure but um that's something I I I strongly believe in in providing that enrichment for students okay so it's not going to go anywhere yeah I was just curious because it you know I know because of Staffing things it was delayed start and then the fifth graders have the two cohort thing which we'll see and that's that's actually due to the numbers students and it's unusual in general for a gifted program to meet every day anyway that it's usually once a week one hour a week um so it's more appropriate that they're not meeting every day um they do get pulled now from their win program or their the other name of that the core support I guess it is thank you so um we would love to figure out a way that uh we can rotate kids through and they can all get an hour a week without without breaking the bank because it was a late ad uh mid two was it two years ago now this is the second year yeah yeah and thank you Mr Cruz for finding the money for that huge perhaps we can take a look at criteria again to see because all I like heartly ination and enrichment for students like we're really talking about gifted 35% children such a small amount and also children well right right right gifted is very different than bright and that's and I do think even even going back to what we saying about security that's culture that's teachers learning the criteria and kind of seeing and and starting to get a feel of what enrichment is versus gifted and you know I think once that we have that lens on it'll organically hopefully happen but yeah it's a high number because it's okay thank you I just on I know um Mr Boom brought up Mrs Solomon and so we had Mrs Solomon last year um and it's our first experience um in Verona schools with a teacher and um I have a child who was already a little head in math and she did um tried to like kind of accommodate that um without I never asked for anything um so just you know I also very sad missan um but yeah so I just wanted to bring that that like there are a lot of teachers that are doing that but that's hard to do in the classroom with you have kids at all different levels so but the academic en enragement program been very good in our experience but I understand um It's tricky to hold it off you Jessica okay moving on um I would do both I'll do both and then I'll put the others out in so our next schedule public meeting will be um we have two Thursday November 21st 2024 beginning at 6 5:30 or 6 pm and also our regular public meeting will be on Tuesday November 26 2024 beginning with confidential at 6 pm and public session at 7 p.m in the Verona High School Learning Commons I need a motion to adjourn our meeting motion by I'll do it Miss Vella seconded by I I'll second seconded by Mrs Ferrera all in favor I I it is 8:24 thank you all