##VIDEO ID:dslnHmE2KJ0## e good evening everyone I would like to welcome you to the October 15th 2024 Board of Education meeting we are calling the meeting to order and it is 7:04 p.m. and if everyone could please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance stce all a reading of meeting notice the not 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 provis 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 it's uh Miss Waka or the record Miss waka's absent um Mrs Pella present Mrs Farrar present Mrs prisco here Mr Boone here we have Quorum thank you thank you moving on to our agenda I need a motion please to move uh to vote on our approve our meeting I can't see my sorry approve our minutes from our September 24th 2024 meeting so Move Motion by Mr Boon seconded by second Mrs Ferrara are there any discussions Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mrs verzal yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr bu yes motion carries thank you thank you we going to skip around a little bit on our agenda and we're going to start off with our student Report with Ryan go thank you thank you hey uh good afternoon so as the school year continues VHS continues to be extraordinarily active so since our last meeting there's no doubt that a lot has happened so um on Monday September 26 VHS held our back to school night where the parents of our students got better acquainted with their children's high school environment classes and staff uh VHS will be administering the PSAT tomorrow for grades 9 to 11 the PSA not PSAT not only serves as great practice for the SAT but also as the qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship in fact two of our very own VHS students both seniors Owen chanana and Isabella Lambert have been commended with letters of commendation by the National Merit Scholarship program a recognition earned with the outstanding achievement of scoring in the top 3% of the 1.5 million students who took the PSAT I'd like to congratulate both Owen and Isabella for such a major academic achievement but also for exemplifying the talent that we continue we should continue to Foster here uh the National Honor Society has begun accepting requests for tutoring in any subject or grade level from K to 12 such requests for tutoring will be forwarded to many of our incredibly qualified student tutors who are eager to help improve the education of others I strongly encourage any student in need of assistance to get a tutor who can provide not only academic help but could introduce a role model to connect with so to parents we encourage you to support your child in seeking out such resources as our tutors as they aren't just knowledgeable but also committed to fostering a positive learning environment last week was our spirit week where students stressed up to the various themes to show school spirit and grade level hallway decorating where each state each grade decorated their respective hallways following there was specific grade level theme and color this all culminated in our first pep rally of the year on Thursday where we had fun celebrating our fall Sports and activities and especially their respective seniors with maximum for lack of a better word pep I sorry I believe the junior class did uh Athletics wise VHS fall Sports continue to go strong with victories alongside senior nights being celebrated in girls volleyball field hockey and soccer among others uh the indomitable Spirit of Verona continues to rage as exemplified by last Thursday's football game which showcased the victory for RONA on a senior night that only not only celebrated our football seniors but as well as our cheerleader and band seniors as well in the world of Performing Arts the VHS marching band the marching maroon and white continues to succeed in competition taking second at both the Randol and West Orange competitions this Saturday we look forward to our Verona Festival of bands featuring six competing marching bands from other high schools and an exhib exhibition performance by our very own funnily enough I will be excusing myself after this to attend rehearsal in preparation for such a grandio event for our music department and lastly the student council is holding our very own fall themed VHS Homecoming on the 30th of October from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M tickets can be purchased in the lobby of the high school for students after school tomorrow and Thursday that is all thank you repeat that um the homecoming what is that what is that event again when is that taking place October 30th 30th of October from 6:00 to 8: PM okay yeah thank you thank you thank you for your report as always does anyone have any comments or questions thank you so much M um is the homecoming for just for students or is it for the whole Community the homecoming is for VHS students so like okay anyone outside of the school and like any high schoolers outside this like not enrolled in VHS cannot yeah okay I was sure Community okay and then also um for the tors that you mentioned is that available for um any grade level or is it just for high school at any grade level K to 12 and then how did um how would parents get in touch with they uh reach out to Dr Timo oh okay yeah and there's a Google form that I think he sends out yeah which tells every information out all right great thank you so much thank thank you and enjoy your practice and we'll see you on Saturday good luck thank thank you Ryan I think you're gonna give Reese a run for her money moving on to our agenda we will go to our superintendent Report with Miss diany so uh we had a de professional development day yesterday with our teachers for the half day and um uh we had we had to do little diversion we have a little GL we were supposed to be training uh in Atlas uh Rubicon um little glitch but we're going to get back on track with that um so we they the teachers worked on continuing the work that we started last year with the unpacking standards and working on um uh professional development uh U different opportunities it was a choice day and I think uh I hope the teachers enjoyed uh having the ability to choose what they wanted to take part in um so good news re uh VHS was named uh once again to the AP School honor role from college board and this um honor is recognized as schools that have done outstanding work to welcome more students into the AP into AP courses and supporting them on a path to college success and I know I've said uh several times in my uh two two years and two months here two years and four months here that uh research does show that students who take uh AP courses and exams are more likely to attend college and to graduate college on time versus uh extending college or transferring and and changing Majors which extends unfortunately the cost of college for their parents for themselves if they're paying it out of pocket um students who enter fouryear colleges with credits from advanced placement accelerate their path to graduation and build confidence for college success and even those students who don't earn college credit AP course workk provides early exposure to college level work and contributes to college going uh to a colleg going School culture and it's it's always kind of a um a balancing act when we know AP is a money-making organization right to promote that but it does have those benefits of of preparing students for college level work and we know that uh students that take AP um AP uh level courses do actually do better in high school as well it's just it's a much more rigorous environment uh along those notes uh we have there are three awards given um or three scholarship levels for students that take AP uh there's the AP scholar which is granted to students who receive scores of three or higher on three or more AP exams remember the AP test scores are from one to five a five is the highest score student can get a one is the lowest score so if students receive three or higher on three or more AP exams they are considered an AP scholar we had 49 students uh uh at Verona High School that took AP in May last year that made the AP scholar uh AP Scholars with honors these are granted to students who receive an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken and scores of three or higher on four or more of these exams you keeping track of all those numbers and we had 17 students uh that uh qualified to be an AP scholar with honors and then AP scholar with distinction are granted to students who receive an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and scores of three or higher on five or more of these exams and we had 37 students that qualifi for uh scholar with distinction so we're very proud of our students that are stretching themselves to engage in uh in this college level learning uh in high school and doing really well uh as Ryan indicated it was Spirit Week across the district but it was also the week of respect um which is dedicated by the state of New Jersey since 2003 um to focus on um anti-bullying uh activities so I do want to highlight Brookdale because they closed out the week of respect last week with their second annual color fundraiser as a school Community students work together to reach their goals and earn some class reward rewards along the way the Color Run students uh at the Color Run students practiced uh perseverance and got plenty of exercise while enjoying their time together as a whole school donations will still be collected through the end of the week but as of this morning the students raised $ 33,6 63 yes it's incredible uh with brookdale's profit being 31,900 so that the company does take a small bit to organize the sca will use these funds uh for some big ticket items such as new light speed amplification systems for all the classrooms and to continue to better uh their Outdoor Classroom so they have a lovely Outdoor Classroom at bdale and the sca is buying a um like a canopy so that they can get more use out of it um when it's hot it'll be Shady or Pro protect them from any drizzle or whatever so um it will also be able to provide students with other invaluable experiences at huge thank you to the Brookdale parents who volunteered and uh volunteered their time and donated um there's like something flying around yeah um so across the elementary world uh we had assemblies and um read alouds that had to do with anti-bullying it uh FN Brown really focuses their complect resolution on respect um as does uh forest and and Lanning the Middle School um had had specific color days to promote unity and camaraderie and the high school had their spirit week as well as doing respect for yourself respect for others respect for diversity respect online and respect for your future so um next week is um antiviolence School violence uh we'll see more happenings along those lines and um that's my report for this evening thank you thank you does anyone have any questions or comments for um I I just have one question and and before that I do have a comment that's that's awesome on the fundraiser and I really love the community's involvement in that so kudos to everybody involved there um on the AP um data that you were providing um talked about how it's well known that students perform better uh or graduate College on time with performance in the AP I'm I'm curious to know do we have any additional data on the Supa performance um is that good question um for those who those of you that don't have kids at the high school and have not delved into what Supa is um Supa is uh Syracuse University uh project advance and we do offer college courses uh here in District through Supa um we have at least the gender equ the gender lit gender and literature is offered that's correct there's something else as well it used to be psychology but now that's it's not we offer AP pych okay so um I don't I I don't think there's another one I know they were talking about potentially bringing um two more in I will check on that I mean I would imagine it's a it's a college course it's probably lending itself to the same kinds of of successes but AP does their own study and publishes their own research of course yeah I I just anecdotally the uh feedback that I hear on the on the Supa has just been nothing short of outstanding um and and it is a great opportunity and I would just I would love to see data and I know you don't have it of course that that further bolsters that relative to you know Syracuse is a big university and that's a program that um is very widespread across the Northeast so I could imagine um they probably have their own data and I I can find out for you oh great thank you I think it was either last meeting or the one before maybe we we approved the dual enrollment what schools are we collaborating with for that Monclair is it just monair Monclair yeah and and Syracuse oh yeah okay yeah thank you moving on to our agenda we have committee reports we just have Athletics um that met I will take that um since Ryan spoke about most uh cheer for a cure was at Foley field our cheerleaders had a competition they came in first for best stunting that was on October 8th uh National walk to school day was um October 29 October 9th I'm sorry our 25 student athletes went to their Hometown Elementary School to walk with the students from elementary school on October 23rd is cheer for cure uh cheering comp not a competition but it's cheering event with the Verona cheerleaders and our Eagle program and that will be right out here at the Verona High School unfortunately we'll all be a way for the um school board so we won't be able to attend that uh I would like to give a shout out to the new um program that started uh the Verona Sports media run by Shaq um the kids are doing a great job uh video and taking pictures of the uh sports teams and I think they're also doing the band so kudos to those students um their Instagram reels and what they've been doing is really great so congrats to them uh let's see we are in discussion again with possible flag football as a possible Club as a long-term goal we're just in the discussions about that our band team like Ryan mentioned one came in second at both their past competitions I went to the West Orange competition last week week and kudos to those music band parents they put a lot of work into to everything and this our students really work so hard so great performance and I'm looking forward to this weekend um here at ver High School for the band Festival um all our sports teams and bands also had their senior nights let's say field trips on December 7th there's the model un trip uh at the master school and dos Bar New York and that's about it I think we are looking forward to getting the new board policy on spectator code of conduct 9163 and and I also wrote a policy that I'll be sharing with the policy committee on the procedure to uh request a new athletic team to be added to the to our slate of of athletic teams so that we have a formal process very good and for personnel we're looking at guess for an assistant track and field coach an assistant boy lacrosse coach I can't did I miss anything from our meeting okay that's all I have any questions the flag football is that boys girls it's a girls sport was and it's a Spring sport right I remember the I I remember the I think the new football coach has contacts in Monclair that he yeah yes yeah yeah I think that some of the concerns are um field space the spring is hard to find field space and um the number of students that we have can we spread uh our girls thin where is that going to pull from so it's going to pull track and field lacrosse softball yeah I think there yeah Lai said that something like 52% of the of our girls participate in Spring Sports already yeah or something like right going to end up with less lacrosse players or whatnot right well I know there was a push um to start this this spring that's not possible simply because it wasn't budgeted for we our budget process as the board knows starts uh in the end of November and is completed um at least collection Wise information to Mr Cruz um around by January by the by the beginning of January and then we approve it in um April right so everything that was budgeted for this year is already done done thank you any other questions okay moving on to our agenda um if there's anyone that would like to come to the podium to speak on anything that we are voting on on the agenda please come up to the podium state your name and you'll have three minutes seeing none moving on to discussion items new and old business does any anyone have anything they would like to I I have one thing that I um our vmac Municipal Alliance is setting up for April 3rd uh a speaker to come to our school district uh Chris Chris Haren I don't know if anyone has heard about him but he was just at Ramsey High School last week so I went to his pres his evening presentation so he's going to be doing the same here he's going to come talk to our seniors on the during the day not our seniors our all our students at the high school during the day and then in the evening on April 3rd it will be a community event here as well for parents to attend I was blown away by his per I mean he was his story um he was a professional basketball player he went to Boston College then went to Fresno State he got um hooked on drugs and his life story and how he lost everything and it's really just incredible so apparently at Ramsey High School when he spoke to the students um I was speaking to a mom from the from the high school she said the students just you could hear a pin drop and that's how it was when he did the presentation for the community as well so hopefully back on on April 3rd we could get a good turnout um it was really inspiring and his story was just really he has YouTubes he has a documentary um he played for the Celtics I believe as well and and but his yeah yeah he's he has a foundation in Boston as well so his story his name is Chris Heron but um and I I know my son read about him one of the summer readings when my son was in high school or middle school he read the book um basketball Junkie I think it was called so it was a really good presentation so I'm thank you to the vmac for funding that because I you know it's just something that's really good to have M Mrs I know he's I I know he's as you mentioned a pretty U heavy in the influencer um area with a lot of YouTube videos is there anything we can do um to amplify the coming of his presentation by posting some of those links maybe definitely the woman that is works for him um Jenny she will be getting everything to vmac for us to filter out so starting hopefully in January though they have information so we could really get that out he did say um at the you know the community event he goes to all over and he sees the auditorium and there's so many empty seats and it's it's always like that um so hopefully we could get a better turnout there were a lot of people that were there that just kind of follow him there were families there and parents there from the community but a good percentage of the people that were in that Auditorium that evening were people who just follow him so hopefully we could really spread the word through vmac and through here and get it out so we could have a good turnout that night it's an important message it is an important message and I also um I didn't mention it because we don't have a date yet but Diane Grossman of mallerie's army um for those that don't remember mallerie Grossman uh died by suicide after being bullied um in 2017 um and as a result of Verona um I said Verona Verona strong Verona strong um uh the cornhole competition the annual cornhole competition uh donated to mallerie's Army and as a result um Diane grossberg uh Gman is coming here to speak to our students at middle school and high school and will'll also be doing an evening for parents as soon as we get the we wanted her to be here doing hi anti-bullying week but she's booked um so as soon as we get the dates we'll get those out to the community wonderful thank you any anyone else yeah anything on correspondence no correspondence okay moving on to our resolutions I need a motion please to approve resolutions uh for personnel resolutions A1 through a11 moved motion by Mrs bellaa seconded by second seconded by Mrs Fara any discussion have a question about A4 that's just something I haven't seen before oh yeah let me explain what that is so um we pay a an hourly rate to uh one of two different agencies for par professionals um it's significantly more expensive to pay the agency than it is to pay our par our own Paris and um we there's an agreement that they can't come and work for us even if they're placed here unless we pay a fee so ultimately $2500 is a lot less expensive over the cost of the year than paying the agency they're hourly and uh this par has been with us for a while wants to work as a on team Verona so uh we're bringing her over uh with that one time fee to swing right this is the first time that I at least in my my time here Mr Cruz if you could please call roll yes uh Mrs brazelle yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Bo yes motion carries thank you thank you moving on to our resolutions tonight for education I need a motion to approve resolutions B1 through B7 motion by some by Mrs fera seconded by a second Mrs bellaa are there any discussions um just can can I get a little more I I know we have a link on it but um to hear in our own words on B2 oh what would you like to know sorry um just uh what do we what are we looking to achieve on the back to school evaluation program and what do we do with that information I'm gonna jump to my backup apologies for putting you on the spot it's okay I may not be able to answer you now there's yeah can we come back to that sure that if we have a student who has um they believe is a danger to themselves or other and needs to clear yeah they provide clearances but I just wanted to make sure because we also got a grant from uh from Ruckers I want to just make sure I'm talking about the same thing because we have two things on the agenda tonight so um the district um when we need behavioral health for the F for the most part Care Plus can also do clearances for our students in they're in-house but there are times when we have to send a student out uh for a risk assessment and clearance and um that's just a agreement we have with St Claire's got it thank you Mr Mr Cruz if you could please call roll yes uh Mrs Pella yes Mrs Ferrar Mrs prisco yes Mrs Boon yes motion carries thank you moving on to Athletics and co-curricular I need a motion to approve resolutions C1 through C4 so Move Motion by Mrs verzella seconded by I'll second seconded by Mr Boon any discussions I love that we have a book club and the fishing club and the fishing book I love that we have a fishing club too my neighbor down the Street's been fishing since he's like two and he has his own Instagram really he in the Middle School So Def yeah I love watching his real so this is great these are great yes there are um did we V yeah motion yeah motion okay sorry Mr clear if you could please call roll Mrs bra yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boone yes motion carries thank you there is nothing for facilities moving on to finance I need a motion to approve resolutions E1 through E2 motion by Mr Boon seconded by seconded by Mrs gzella are there any discussions Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Rosella yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mr P yes motion carries great thank you moving on to our governance and policy I need a motion please to approve resolutions F1 through F3 motion by Mrs brazel seconded by I'll second Mrs fera are there any discussions Mr Cruz if you could please call roll Mrs prella Mrs Ferrara yes Mrs prisco yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you thank you oh the bug I was writing that policy and scratching uh moving on to our agenda we're open up the podium to public comments if you have anything you would like to discuss please come up to the podium we have 3 minutes and please just state your name hi arizu calman Hemlock Drive um I just have two questions if you can um just refresh my memory on a couple of things they two separate topics um one is regarding the Safety Committee that was formed on the board I believe that um when the individual tried to enter hbw there was a lot of concern about the safety measures being taken place and I believe there was a committee put in place from the board if I'm mistaken please let me know but I wanted to know just if you could just refresh who was on it what was the goal and you know what's been done to date with that committee what have they done and what will they continue to do that was on question the other question is regarding um the housing the houses structure at hpw I'm going to be having my first child enter hbw next year and I just wanted to know um basically even at a high level why we have the houses at hbw and my understanding is that house structure may be removed or I think previously at another meeting I think it was just mentioned very casually that maybe like fifth and sixth graders might be combined or there might be a different structure of the housing so I'd like to know for next year do you know how that structure will be and if not when will a decision on that be made thank you so the Safety Committee um is made up of Mrs Ferrara and Mrs brazel um their goal was to um review our safety plans and um all of our safety policies and and ensure that we're providing professional development to our staff in in all things Safety and Security and to date we have reviewed our um Safety and Security plans and all of the safety policies and I am uh in the process of securing the State Department of Homeland Security NJ uh Department of Education and that's really the office of school preparedness to come up when they have they only have four people in the state so when they have a uh to come up and do an audit um and actually put us into drills and see how we do that's the next step the goal is to ensure that we have safe and secure schools just piggyback because you did meet with the company that did I did that um produces the lard the other um items that panic button right that the school in Georgia Georgia used in Georgia to um lock down their facility when they had um a intruder yes and um Mr balage also met with another company that offers that same um similar product we're looking to see if there's anybody else because that product was missing a GPS component which would be very helpful which is why I think the other was so cost prohibitive and the house structure at hbw um uh I I can't answer answer why we have it it's been here longer than I've been here uh it was a structure that Dr dioso was familiar with because he came to us from Ridgewood where they had it um it is um it does allow the current house structure the main benefit of it is that it allows for True teaming which um is unusual in New Jersey middle schools um to to really get to True teaming because of the cost of the of that particular um structure so as a result um we are spending a lot of money um on salaries that we may be able to provide better Services across the district if we were to go to a more traditional non-house structure or a modified house structure at hbw the other component that um caused me to take a look at this is that our students in fifth grade um most fifth grades are not in middle school they're in elementary school and they have an elementary school uh structure um and our students in Verona are in Middle School not because anyone thought that they should be in middle school but we didn't have room in our elementary school so we moved them into the middle school and for a short time uh I do know they were they were utilizing an elementary type um schedule uh in the middle school and I don't know when that changed but it did change and now our fifth graders are uh following the same type of schedule as um the 6th 7th and 8th to to some extent there's a couple small differences however um the state suggests 90 minutes of language arts instruction a day and our students get 45 um by by following a middle school structure rather than Elementary School structure so I I do know that we are in the uh in the end Pro uh progress process of um coming up with a replacement schedule for next year where the fifth and sixth grades will look more like an elementary uh they will change teachers um not as often as they do now but there will be some changing of classes but they will get more instruction in math and language arts and um in seventh and eth grade their schedule will look more um like a junior high school and preparing them for um coming over to the high school so uh I it's not going to be like an Alstead and Carnegie it will probably be grouped more of fifth and sixth grade teachers on a team and seventh and eighth grade teachers on a team does that help you're moving with everyone from one grade to another yes correct yes thank you also just um two things one to just kind of circle back to the Safety Committee when it was originally brought up I think it's also just so that we can continue continue to keep our finger on the pulse to make sure that we're kind of um having these meetings having these conversations um and really exploring all of our options as a district I know um next week we'll be at New Jersey Schoolboard Association and there are plethora of really great um courses or seminar I don't know what exactly they are sessions work sessions we have lectures there are all different things but around security um so I'm looking forward to kind of seeing um what is happening across the state what recommendations are being made because as we know the recommendations often change so I I do think that you know just by looking through the plan the work that we've done so far was great and it's just continuing to keep our finger on the pulse the other thing that I just wanted I want to ask um that the house structure reminded me when we're thinking about the fifth and sixth grade is it at all possible to consider um like different Bell schedules or one we're thinking about I don't know if this is even an OB there will be different Bell schedules great so I love that yes excellent yes you are the best thank you so much I think and I meant to bring that up and then now it just reminded me because this is what I in the middle of the night B schedules okay yes thank you so much it's the truth that's how it happens okay thank you and and just for what it's worth I think your description of the logic behind uh your predecessors implementing this about 10 years ago was pretty much spot on for what they were trying if if my if my ever failing memory serves I think that that aligns Implement next year the current plan that's the that's the current plan we actually were going to try to implement it this year um but moving from a 45 minute block to a 90-minute block we want to provide our teachers we wanted to provide our teachers with some PD this year so that they're able to effectively teach in a larger block hi um um sorry uh Jessica Chapman limb um that actually brought up I just had a comment regards that I also have something else I planned to ask um I have a fifth grader and I was very apprehensive but I actually think it's going very well so the switching of classes I just wanted to say um and the team aspect has worked well for us because we you know um but um question I had of something that came up last me and I just wanted to make sure I had this correct um the pomptonian contract ends this with this school year um and then what's the timeline for the looking at that and re-evaluating or considering national school lunch and all those other things yeah so so um that's actually a great question it opens up my report for for the next board meeting uh so the national school lunch um we're evaluating uh one of the things that we're looking at is evaluating uh increases in our eligible student population at this time as of today which is actually cut off for the state October 15th uh we only have we're still at 1% so for the last uh three years since I've been in Verona um uh I'm going on to the fourth uh it's we we've been hovering 1% so that's about 24 students 24 25 I think right after covid we probably had the highest it was about 30 students um out of 2400 students so we haven't seen a a real you know a trending up board yet um but we still haven't received um the um the amount of the the families that are coming in from the developments um being built in um Verona so there's still uh a Time piece to it for us to assess that uh the national school lunch program we could apply every year there's an opening every year and it has to be done before April or no later than mid April um so that's one and then the pump t and usually that that's a 5-year contract uh it could it be less I think the the shortest amount of time is uh 3 years uh but that RFP will be in the spring so our goal is to uh put an RFP out it's usually up for 30 days and we open it up to basically all uh food service providers they'll actually um provide a proposal the a board or subcommittee will will be able to participate and and actually evaluate and then assess um you which which food provider is going to be able to uh be the best fit for RO know based on that evaluation can I just make one comment too um when you're not in the national school lunch program uh families that would qualify for uh free and free and red actually there's no reduced lunch right it's all free now free lunch um have to actually apply for it where they would automatically be enrolled so if we shift to the school lunch program will automatically go up in percentage because there are people that are not applying um for whatever reason probably many different reasons um and just because you're automatically enrolled doesn't mean you have to take the benefit but I I do know that if we were in the National schol lunch program we would have a higher percentage of students which ultimately um does weirdly it's I'm going to say benefit asn't don't take it the wrong way but it allows us to qualify for other titles title funds um that can be used for instruction thank you that was my follow-up question because I was wondering about how enrollment for that works because that is kind of more automatic based on um qualifying things okay um than applying because I think sometimes people don't know as a child we qualified for reduced lunch but we didn't know till many years into that you know process so but thank you for that information thank you anyone else like to come up piggy back one second on to Mr Cruz today is the the cut off for the state but if there is something that happens in a family and they a month from now six months from now feel that they they would qualify please reach out um to Mr Cruz and he will set you up if he needs to um just because it's a deadline it's not a hard and fast deadline for us so theine for the national uh so now for us to report to the uh New Jersey Department of Agriculture for just like the numbers as far just for the recording so they they recorded so even if so um to Mrs vella's point if there's a hardship case even a week from now that wouldn't stop us from saying yes you know um the board is going to sponsor your lunch for uh this Academic Year uh so that's something that we we do um provide ongoing uh the other piece that I believe the town has a a child fund um the uh Verona uh Community Center also is a great resource for families um ongoing um and definitely in times of need um I believe um uh Mary um farell Mary Farrell uh she she's actually a a great contact person at the community center that um is a wealth of resources for any families here in Verona that that just wants to give her a call or stop by and and have a conversation with her so I have a quick question to um this October 15th deadline I know that miss bellaa and miss prisco sent a letter um to I think assembly just an assemblyman um because we did didn't have our numbers in yet for the Camco project which we obviously still don't so right now we are currently the district is paying out of our budget right and we were not able to we didn't have any of those numbers so let's say in January we have 100 students that come in who now qualify for free and reduced lunch we is that is it true that that at that point we can have to continue to pay out of our budget because we would have missed the deadline so this is why just I think it's really important especially for the public to know that this is the reason that we have been having these conversations because although it may seem like we're having a lot of conversations about school launch it's really budgetary conversations about the impact that it will have um on our budget and ultimately on the school um and it's not I just want to be clear it's not because new more children are coming in it's because we need the money to fund the needs um so I just wanted to clarify that you know mid year we would still be in that situation because now we're looking into 25 26 for any type of funding for any free and reduced lunch or grants or anything that we'd be able to get that I'm think thank you since we're going in back into confident we're going into confidential we didn't have it do I close out the meeting now or do I just okay I need a motion to go into confidential session motion by Mr second by Mr Boon uh I I all in favor I thank you all for coming out tonight thank you confidential session so you can feel good about