##VIDEO ID:qwAwBM1W-Wg## e okay thank you good evening uh this is the Tuesday December I'm sorry November 26 2024 public meeting of the Verona Board of Education if we can all um and it is 705 and I'm calling the meeting to order if we can all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance United States of America thank you the new the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of 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 and posted with the township of Verona and the Verona Education Association hostings of this meeting set forth the time location and agenda were posted at the Verona P the Verona Board of Education Office and on the Verona Public Schools district website copies of tonight's agenda and resolutions had been made available to the public via the Board of Education website uh may we have the roll call attendance Mr WKA here Mrs bellaa here Mrs Ferrara for the record Mrs Ferrara is absent uh Mrs prisco also absent for the record and Mr Boom here uh we have Corum thank you thanks thank you um I think we're g to skip down right to the okay so for routine matters um we're approving the minutes of the last regular session on November 12th and the special meeting on November 24th can we have the roll call or do we need a motion to approve moved I'll you do that I'll second just amend this sorry did I before uh we do that just amend B was not a closed session it was a work shop okay so to amend that uh the special meeting on November 21st was a workshop not a closed session so if we can have a motion to approve the amended version yes so moved I'll second okay thank you can we have roll call Mr Walker yes Mrs brazel yes Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you thank you okay and so now we will jump down to number eight on our agenda the Verona High School Marching Band evening everybody thank you for having us welcome welcome just checking okay great uh good evening and thank you for having uh us here I'm Mr Lynch and this is the wonderful uh senior group of the Verona marching maroon and white I've just prepared some comments before a short performance and uh individual recognition of people who are here tonight and actually some people who couldn't make it tonight but we wanted to recognize them as well so thanks again for having us the 20242 Verona High School band seniors are a passionate devoted and enthusiastic group of students their ability to balance rigor discipline and hard work with Humanity sensitivity kindness and empathy is without peer as they entered their freshman year we are in time of transition back from covid together we started the New Jersey marching ban Association in the fall of 2021 with our show Atlas winning the mayor's cup at West Orange High School and finishing third at state championships when we reflect that year on the other top two bands with Corona uh I wanted to note that those schools had 5,000 and 3,000 students respectively sophomore Mir brought our show sophomore year brought our show masquerade as we move forward in our Rich history by embracing pop and vernacular music along with the more traditional repertoire of the Western European Canon the VHS marching maroon and right returned to West Orange with another's mayor's Cup victory march 2023 marked a huge moment for our Music family as we returned to Disney claiming victory over covid and celebrating our music family down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom with Mickey and Friends guys like Mickey you have to right as junior year came along we embraced our epic boach and Roll Show and rolled a rock stage onto the field for the first time we decided to go to an event hosted by bands of America the National Football League so to speak of the band world we were the only single a school to end that enter that event meaning that the population of our 10th 11th and 12th graders were under 600 people naturally we won the competition as the only school but after further research we realized as a community that we were the second highest scoring band in the country from events that range from a two-day event in St Louis Missouri to Riverdale California back to Ruckers University later in that school year March of this year to be exact we hosted the region concert band Festival taking a gold rating and the award for best percussion senior year brought our wonderful one in the universe show depicting Earth sea mun Moon and Mercury we took second place at both the West Orange and randoff festival and returned to bands of America where this year we had the third highest score of a bands in the country we are thrilled with the full support of the administration and Board of Education to travel internationally this year to Toronto some more highlights of the Verona band since 2000 we've had 14 gold ratings at the region concert band Festival seven invitations to the New Jersey state Gala concert a state championship an all state championship and two Cadets Awards of Excellence for the marching maroon and white we were awarded a perfect score at the Virginia Beach Music in the Parks and we're awarded the illustrious sweep Stakes award at music in the Parks without further Ado I want to start by recognizing the students who are not here tonight Franchesca Bop Isabella Bop Ava Panella uh nah uh Z Ariel bolerio Ella barie and kayn Walsh who's not feeling tonight well tonight but we're so proud of her I'd like to introduce our drum major Dylan fry our percussion section leader Wes Brown senior trumpet William McGrath senior trumpet Mark Evans Kix senior flute player and section leader Camille pones senior assistant drum major and soloist on Side of the Moon Pedro chinadra senior band Lieutenant William strong senior trombonist Daniel Franco and finally senior assistant drum major and the other soloist on Dark Side of the Moon Owen shanana can you join me in giving a huge Applause to the seniors of the marching Mar in wh now we had a little debate everybody we said we couldn't play all of slay ride for you because you wouldn't come to the concert is that true no well we only rehearsed a portion but this will be fun this is our little chamber version of slay ride are we good guys [Music] [Music] [Music] Take a Bow everybody one two thank you so much it truly takes a village from our wonderful Administration our wonderful Board of Education the absolutely unparalleled Verona music parents Association the entire community and thank you again to the wonderful seniors happy holidays Happy Thanksgiving and we'll see you at the holiday concert right we start out thank you guys thank you very fantastic I'll be sure to go to the concert it's amazing yeah no it is it is a very good time if anyone hasn't seen it it's a it's a great concert I've never seen very good um yeah so I have a couple of short announcements that I'll do later that are really um tonight is dedicated to the band and to Dr Miller and the curriculum department and Mr Cogdill and Mr merkler are here to do the advanced placement uh as well as what many of you are here for uh to celebrate um the hardworking students in our advanced placement program Dr Miller take it away good evening everyone uh that was a great performance it's a good segue for us I'd like to thank everyone here in the audience and those that are at home uh we're going to present little drum roll our AP highlights and Scholars presentation uh we're going to talk about uh some wonderful happenings that are occurring here in Verona High School uh we uh we focus on AP around this time every year uh we have a lot of teachers that work really hard and the predecessor to them that prepare our students for our AP classes so we'll begin with our mission statements to empower students to cultivate their intellectual curiosity uh and social responsibility we'd like to acknowledge uh and thank all of our students who were enrolled in last year's AP as well as this year but we're talking about last year uh we serly appreciate your hard work perseverance and the hours you spent studying and learning uh college level content uh thank all of our teachers for working tremendously hard preparing our students it's a lot of hours grading papers preparing lesson plans Etc thank all of our parents some that I'm looking at in our audience I I have children of my own who are in AP classes and I study with them so it's it's good to have all of us as a sounding board while they're learning college level work in high school and again Lu to thank our entire administrative team starting in our elementary school and working all the way up to our superintendent of schools as well as the Board of Education thank you for all of your support as we continue to do this is there a way that we can move that internal camera that's that's there or minimize it slot maybe top if you could go yeah if you go top left it would be helpful because I have a lot of things that are going to appear on the okay all right so we'll begin with our first slide it's AP participation since 2009 we begin in 2009 because that's when we began to allow more students to take advanced placement courses prior to that there were entrance exams to get in uh if you are here you know that is not the case if you would like to take an honors and eventual na course we encourage you our admin High School administration does our supervisory team does I do Mr gppi we encourage you uh to take these courses so uh last spring 294 unique students so uh total students nearly 300 sat for 4 uh 549 AP exams and uh participation so can you move that up a little bit more please slide up a little bit thank you so this this slide here shows our percent of unique uh VHS student AP participation since 2009 if you look in 2009 we had around 14% of our students what that were attending Veron high school at the time we're actually taking AP courses last year if you take a look uh we are around 46 and a half 47% so nearly one out of two students in our high school was taking at least one AP course so that's an amazing I think statistic that we all should be proud of we are encouraging col level college level work while they're here at high school if you have anyone who's in college there's a we were just talking I was talking the Reese there's a lot of freedom but there's also like if you can learn some of those really good skills while you're here uh It prepares you really well and sometimes some students start as a sophomore with the number of AP classes that they take so we encourage that uh these next four slides we're going to go over our VHS AP participation over the last uh five years so the blue is from the year 2020 and then red is 2021 2022 is yellow green and an orange and you look at we so we stacked it on purpose English Lit is our most popular in the English and World Language sector uh followed by English language arts uh and then we have Chinese French and Spanish if you take a look at our participation in history the most subscribed is our psychology over the last two years it's been nearly 180 students uh but you'll see there's also our European history we offer every other year US History has good numbers as well as others uh if you look at mathematics uh statistics is the one that stands out but if you were to stack our Calculus AB and BC you would be a neck and neck if it's a race and I'd like to point out our computer science a and computer science principles are really well attended for such a small uh size um our total population this year is around 600 guys around there so to have that many students last year uh 70 students is is pretty remarkable in a school this size uh we're fortunate to have three teachers who have the ability to teach that that course and those courses uh and we look at science environment environmental Sciences are most subscribed but biology had a really strong showing last year chemistry our numbers are a little smaller this year I would like to report in chemistry we have 23 students still so that that's really uh something to shout out about as well as our physics and physics C which a little lower enrollment but our students work hard uh and those courses they're challenging uh then this slide talks about total per uh the percentage of total AP students with scores of three are better so if you look in 2020 2020 uh Mr Lynch mentioned it we were experiencing covid like everything shut down in March I think it was March 13th uh we still went through with ap so we had really around 80% of our students and then that following year we were uh learning some remote instruction Etc the numbers Dro some but as you can see from 2022 23 and 24 we're moved right back up we're nearly we're 76.5% of our students uh scored a three or better and in college you can score between a for the exams it's between a one and a five if you get a three four or five you have a possibility of gaining college credit which is what we want and but we also want that experience of wrestling with these Concepts why we're in high school where you can see your teacher at lunch coming early uh after school Etc and nearly every day overall AP average scores so in 2020 that was our highest average ever at with a 3.34 again with 629 uh exams administered if you take a look there was a dip with covid but as you see we're coming back up and we rounded out last year with a a 3.31 average which again is really amazing for the amount of uh test that we administered which was 547 with nearly 300 students our AP score distribution if you look again blue is a one a two is a red a three is considered passing is like a yellow color green and then red take a look from 2021 and if you move over our blue has sh has shrunk our red has gone smaller but the yellow the green and the Orange is what you want to see they've all gotten bigger so we're getting more fives we're getting more fours life is more normal with ap uh the students to like it's it's a little it's a tough experience in this slide this is the number of exams that were administered by course so if you see the ones that are blue they're considered our stem classes it's our science technology and math and our green our humanities which would be English and social studies and then what's in purple are are music and uh World Language the ones that stand out in Humanities is psychology it was 78 test administered last year the year before that was 97 I would like to say that we now have successive courses we have two electives that they can take past psychology which is neat you can graduate from Ral high school with three psychology courses which is kind of neat biology was the second with 62 so uh and then you'll see everyone in between uh here's another look for the average AP test score by course from the spring of 2024 uh again uh the same colors that's the stem or the blue Humanities are green and our overall average is in uh maroon on the right and that percent of to AP exams with a score of three plus by course so some of our courses are fortunate enough where every student who takes it even if they're larger numbers every student earns a three four or five which is pretty incredible as you can see some of them are standing really tall at the Top This is a neat one NE slide I think this is for me as a mathematicians like artwork for others they're like I might need some help but I I do like this slide what is the bar graph is are are the courses alphabetically that are AP for us with the average scores and then what's in blue is the New Jersey average and then what is in um orangish color is the global average and I'm going to post this on our web page later if you'd like to take a look I'd like to print that out and put on my wall I think that I think that's pretty cool looking uh the next one is AP scores that are three or higher as you can see again they're alphabetical and so you see a lot of 100% and high in the 90s and then what you see again is what New Jersey does with with blue and then what the overall everyone who takes it the AP population again I want to emphasize that this school district allows students to take AP there are still school districts that have been near us where you have to have entrance exams and you're allow not allowed to get in so we are proud that we let a lot of students take these college level courses and they're learning them here it's it's really a cool thing here um and we're going to go to some highlights I'd like to bring up Mr Stevenson good evening everybody um just a quick highlight on our APM scores APM tends to be I guess a little bit of a boot camp kind of course kids go through it and I see a smirk um it becomes this memorable thing but they all go off on the college and they report back like hey no problem we got this we teach everybody else um the scores are honestly pretty remarkable an average of 3.77 over the last five years uh Dr webbe Prides herself on this if you know her um she's a tough love lady and I don't think she gets enough credit for the love part of the tough love uh this is kind of an overview of AP uh computer science a over time um way back in the early days we kind of shuffled uh the sequence quence a lot of schools will have feeder classes you have to take this and that and then AP comai a we took that away um and there was even one year it might have been 2018 if we just counted female participation we would have still been first in the state in participation for just females total of 480 students over the last 16 years uh AP Computer Science principles is our other AP Computer Science course it's relatively new and we've had fantastic scores over the past five years I'll credit to Miss Russell as she's taught this AP Statistics uh this is Mr or and we have an increasing uh sort of score rate in this department I think he's been doing a great job total increase from 2023 um and 2022 of 1.25 points overall AP Physics C is creeping up this is a smaller population but even with our small population if you compare that to the state like if the the state of New Jersey was a high school the size of Verona only five kids would take this course we have 10 and now I'm going to turn it over to Mrs Peter I am going to zip through some Humanities highlights so we can get to the good stuff while you're all with us this evening um I did want to shout out Miss wallerstein who is our AP Human Geography teacher who has seen tremendous success and consistent success over the last several years that's a student average score of 3.63 our micro and macroeconomics teacher Dr tamboro has seen tremendous growth just in the last couple of years that's 1.57 points from 2022 that's tremendous um we've also seen a huge growth in population we currently have 59 students enrolled in microeconomics this year our AP Psychology scores have also grown over the last several years we almost a point higher than we were in 2022 congratulations to Mr hman our AP government and politics scores also with Dr tamboro sits at 4.71 this year which is truly remarkable and uh I'd say unheard of our apus history scores are consistently strong thanks to Mr bresnen they sit at 3.62 over the last five years and our AP World History scores with Just note um is our freshman AP course um this course is not always uh traditionally uh a freshman course in many high schools so a special shout out to miss sepsy uh she's had a student average of nearly four um point0 since 2020 our AP Lit and comp scores have been consistently strong and we just like to of course thank Mr White who retired this year we we dearly miss him um and and his wonderful success with over 240 students in the last eight years and of course English Lang which is Dr Meyer's course she has instructed nearly 500 students over the last 19 years in AP Lang a tremendous uh Testament to her success as a teacher both in and out of the AP classroom then I'm going to turn it back over to Dr Miller um Mr Cogdill and Mr merkler who will wrap us up and we'll get to our uh AP callar presentations okay uh this is just a real quick snapshot of uh where we were in 2023 versus 2024 and uh if it's to the right of the bar it means we've experienced some growth with our classes and if we're to the left a little bit of a decrease I will note the ones the we had increase in 13 courses seven of them that were slightly decreased they were really high last year so you know what they say when you're at the top you know no way but you have to have to come down uh two courses had the same student average and two courses were not scheduled the year prior uh this is the big thing that uh when I was in uh going to get my doctorate Mr cogdal was really working on this idea of AP potential and uh we get lot of this information from Mr cogo as well as Mr ws and this is what when we take uh we think it's in the middle of October when we we administer the uh PSAT and uh what we do is from the scores we can actually predict how students will do based upon the numbers and if you look at the blue it's it's what's predicted and if you look at the maroon it's how the students actually perform so the maroon should be bigger and for most of our courses the maroon is higher so we call this we had 186 scores that were predicted to be at two 224 actually above a two and this right here this graph shows it here and you can see with psychology and stats they really outperformed so it's the teacher it's the students it's your support it's a lot of hard work uh a lot of late nights sometimes uh of making this accomplishment so 38 students outperformed their AP potential when we go to predicted for grade for a score of three or better you'll notice again some of the maroon that sticks out so out of 266 that were predicted 359 were actually outperformed a three or better and you'll see here biology 14 students so shout to Mr Harris compai Miss Russell environmental science if you look all the way to the right we have psychology we have stat we even have economics with Mr with Dr tamboro so remarkable um 93 students out perform their AP potential uh same thing with four when you take a look and if you look at the really tall one that's that's psychology again Mr h been doing a great job with students working really hard uh again psychology we've all had to take this course so it's really kind of fun uh 79 scores were predicted and again 133 so it we what we've shown you over time and it's been since 2009 is that if you let kids take it if more kids that take it they actually do better and I challenge the other schools in our area to do what we do you know um so this is the performance again if you take a look at the psychology that that's that's really a lot higher um as well as the stats apologies that it's so small um 54 students so I'd like to talk about this and then we're going to present our certificates okay so right here we we get recognition often in Mr cogo's office he has a bunch of these plaques that are that outline it but that two years ago they they started it's it's the honoral recognition and uh I'd like to say that uh we were we are receivers of this award again so the criteria is three things College culture 40% or more of the graduating cohort took at least one AP exam during High School you saw we're over 50 college credit 25% or more of the graduating cohorts scored a three or higher in at least one exam check we do that college optimization 2% or more of the graduating cohort took five or more AP exams during high school at least one of those exams was taken in nth or 10th grade so that the students are spreading their AP experiences across the grades rather than feeling dis proportionate pressure in any single year that still happens but if the more we can spread it out working with our counselors we try to make the ride a little more enjoyable for our students and we have evidence when students go to college and when they come back they're like yeah I I got a lot of information in high school um so on this slide here uh we earn gold status and if you look to the right schools can earn the additional AP access award If the percentage of AP exam takers are underrepresented minority Andor lowincome uh miror the school's overall students demographics there's two schools in New Jersey there's a lot of school districts there's over 600 last time I checked there's two school districts in New Jersey that received this gold with access it's Verona High School and it's Leonia so it's quite an accomplishment with with with our board support and superintendent and support all the way down to our teachers and our students who are working really hard sometimes those sleepless nights really pay off uh again it's an honor us and Leonia so we should give a round of applause for that I think it's pretty pretty amazing effort and the the to get this it's all through hard work and this is is again representation of if you if you allow kids to take these courses they can do them and I we we've seen it when they learn in Co you know when they learn in high school when they go to college there's a little less fear there's more of like I can do this I've done this I'm ready and we get a lot of reports back would you like to make a couple comments about what you've heard yeah I I I just want to thank Dr Miller and the the CIA department and uh Mr dppi for uh letting this happen this evening more importantly I mean data side a lot of data by the way you know you're a math guy I'm not um what I'm about is about the human connections you guys have some really great teachers I think and I hope that you saw that but we also some really great students and um for me what I see when I walk into classrooms is just so much engagement and what Dr Miller was talking about I agree like we don't need to be your roadblock and I'm proud to say that Verona is not a roadblock where we open the doors and you guys Rose to the occasion I just want that I'm proud of you I know you're going to keep doing great things and I can't wait to see what you do after you graduate from Verona High School so um this is all great data and thanks for sharing it you guys are awesome thank you Mr Cog though and then so just real quickly uh our number of Scholars since 2009 so this is kind of neat like this is why you're here hearing this and at home if you can hear me if you're in college hi uh but in 2009 we had 12 AP Scholars and that that's an amazing accomplishment but as you can see the stacks have gotten bigger over time and uh with the AP scholar which we're going to announce shortly along with ap scholar with distinction and With Honor they do not have the national one anymore they they finished that in 2020 uh we have 103 so the population last year was 600 little over 600 16.7% probably let's Round Up to 17% of our students are AP Scholars it's amazing and I think if you talk to your children they're going to be like yeah I feel prepared it's hard but I'm getting ready uh even from a coaching perspective like I used to coach too it's like yeah I'm put me in the game I'm ready to go uh so we are going to do AP scholar uh there are 49 students if they're not all here what we'll do is we'll announce a name at a time and we will uh if the person is not here we can clap so your hands will get sore but it's a good sore it's worth it and uh if if you are here if the if uh the student is here they can come up and if a parent's here you can come up we will go through AP scholar scholar with honor and distinction and when we're done we'll just ask for a brief pause and we're going to go out and get a get a photo opportunity so while you're here we want to celebrate you you're amazing people um so let's begin RP scholar is granted to students who receive scores are three or higher on three or more AP exams gonna do my very best I had a little bit of name boot camp earlier this evening to make sure I got these right um and I'll begin just one time I want to start at the back of the alpha bet but my list isn't prepared that way next time guys I promise um tanzila Ahmed Samantha Anderson Leonel Andrade Katherine Bernard Sarah Bosco Christopher Caldera Evan Carlson Sophia chanana Angelina Chung Fiona Church Brian cleav Margot deosta Cara Demars Alexandra Darian Caitlyn in Lily Farrell Charles fedal Dylan fry Olivia fentz Joyce Gabriel Jacqueline Garder Rooney gy franccesca gin Kaaya gayak went a little too fast there I'm sorry Arlon Halliday Jack Harmon Theo heitsman Matthew humman Danielle imbriano Riley Kendrick Shana kogan Rees lift class Dylan Neil wendeln Neil Charlotte North Nia pelari Ariana RI Samantha Rizzy Ella romanin Kieran Smith Evan Spong Julia stesco William strong Matthew vakaro georan Valera margarit Valera Allison Vasquez uh Yanni yoas and n zandi z right to the end thank you please I just want to reiterate something I'm very proud of all of you that just got the certificate and those that are home I just want to reiterate one other thing even if you didn't score three four five I'm still proud of you because here's the thing the College Board and the Research indicates even having taking the course and scoring a one or two which is obviously not what we're aiming for but even if you do your odds of doing better in college are higher than having never taken the course so listen some days it's your day on a test just like if you play sports some days you win the game sometimes you don't win the game but I respect the runner and I'm just proud of even if you got a one or two and you didn't get a certificate tonight still proud of you okay thank you for that thank you okay next slide is AP scholar With Honor we have 17 students and it's described as granted to students who receive an average of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken and scores of three or higher on four or more there's a lot of numbers there okay our first recipient is Marissa Barnett Juliet for Nia Lo Geeson Sean hegerty I'm proud you're still clapping keep it up Hannah coffler Violet leoas Zia mmud congrats William McGrath Sadie McMahon Angelina Odell Lauren pause Caitlyn puchia Alexa palano Abigail schust Pedro Trinidad Ruiz ulations Megan wi and finally Elliot zebert all right and our last group of Scholars are AP Scholars with distinction the AP scholar with distinction award is 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 exams I'll start with Kate arado Kelly Barrow Eleanor Battersby Sophie Boba Marcus Benninghoff Nicholas Boke Rachel btio Faith Broly Owen ch Luca D forio Max delera Kira Dolan Daniel Frankle joshh Hayes Molly hater Andrew Healey Tyler Holland Patrick humman Daniel kachuk Isabella Lambert Christian Lori Jack Latson Gabe LaVine Zoe Lavine Briel maresi Megan McGrath Grace McMahon Victoria Nel Julia Nogales estabon Patron molad Jackson Pope ree Sado Christopher sluck kin Walsh Jeremy Williams Riley Ying and finally Ian zooki and finally it's like to thank everyone for being here to all IP Scholars and like Mr kogle said for all of our students who participated last year you're all winners and you've all learned a lot and i' like to have one final round of applause Mr Miller if I could jump in real quick yeah sure um what I really like about the entirety of what we just saw is that I I think the equity of of Verona's approach is really strong um it seemed like there was a point in time where kids were denied the access to take this test if they didn't meet certain criteria uh I I assume that was for fear would bring the scores down um and it seems like the evidence is showing that that that hasn't been the case but but even if it had been the case um I would still want the district to move forward with this approach because I think the practice is just as important as as the results I think that um you know in high school the act or the SAT or the the avap that's a big gatekeeper um and the kids that go on to further education I think they're going to find the practice or the lset or the MCAT is going to be a gatekeeper um so I'm happy that the district understands that the the scores on these standardized tests are important because these standardized tests are impactful to the kids um and and I like that we don't give we don't deny anyone the access to that opportunity so thank you thank you and and just follow on Mr Walk uh um as a parent of two children who went through a lot of these programs um either post college or current College their success has been really the foundation of what we're seeing here and um I as a parent I'm indebted to what Verona provided for that so um again congratulations to every in here and all I can say is just keep it up thank you and I just wanted to relay a message from miss prisco and miss Ferrera they unfortunately this is like the one day they both are out and they were both they actually very upset that they weren't here to see the band and the AP Scholars um but they wanted to extend their heartfelt congratulations to the students and the parents particularly my own daughter did an AP test last year and I remember the Str of that um so you know the parents are a very important piece of this puzzle um so we want to give a shout out to them um and I also had a parent who couldn't be here reach out to me to uh specifically ask me to give her thanks for having this presentation so Miss North Wendy north um she told me I could use her name reached out to say that she really appreciates the the Board of Ed the um Administration and the staff for holding this this event thank you thank you very much excuse me congratulations to everyone thank you for doing a great presentation and why don't we give um if you'd like to stay for the rest of the meeting you're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting uh but we'll give you a few minutes to uh get up and go if you need to and uh we'll hold the meeting thank you oh take pictures they're gonna be taking pictures out in the hall right by the Verona Yeah Yeah by the by the by the by the front office yes thank you everyone e e [Laughter] Ryan's doing a great job he is doing a fabulous job we are very fortunate to have two very strong student reps start off our our journey down this road okay so I guess we will go back to the superintendent's report the superintendent is tired after that just a couple things actually there was a question I don't remember who asked it um at the last meeting regarding the Walt Disney um trip and the cost of travel yeah we rein oh it was you okay Chris and the cost of travel for Mrs kuso and it does not need to be board approved because her trip is included um with it's free for the for the coach thank you for that information my main point and I'm sure you understood it was just to make sure that she was getting but I'm happy to see that of course districted it du JS thank you and uh just an update we are starting to see um as um our residents are moving into Verona Flats we are starting to see um some registrations in our schools uh we have uh at least three that I know of in uh at hbw and a couple at the high school um I haven't seen any Elementary registrations yet I I I suspect that um they're waiting till after the holiday and and having a clean start um after Thanksgiving uh I could be wrong on that uh we do see a lot of U-Hauls a lot of uh moving trucks in that compound um in the complex I should say uh so welcome to all of our new students and uh we do our best to make you feel welcome and um supported in your move midyear move and just have Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here and the community and uh take the time to enjoy um hopefully delicious food and time with family thank you very much um and now we will do the student report Ryan gal okay um good evening so as we shift into the winter like things have been relatively quaint considering uh VHS is more exuberant weeks so this report will be a little shorter than you usual and I'm pretty sure that's for the better considering the length of the AP presentation but uh last last Satur last Thursday the student council hosted our annual volleyball tournament fundraiser with students competing against each other in teams uh also alongside participation from our staff as well the uh Avant guard Club hosted their open mic night last Tuesday with upwards of 20 students performing and expressing themselves in a multitude of ways whether it was an act or musical performance among others I was unfortunately unable to attend this event but I heard it was more than a massive success and there was even I believe a renowned guest poet in attendance so I kudos to the organizers participants and attendees of course uh last Thursday night our VHS cheerleaders had the opport opportunity to perform for the second year in the row in a row to perform before the New Jersey Devils game along with this uh momentous experience some of our VHS cheerleaders also had the opport opportunity to go down and perform at Disney World on Main Street at the varsity Spirit spectacular I don't know why I'm tripping up my yeah and I just also like to congratulate some of our very own VHS football players on being named to the super football conferences National red all divisions team this year and otherwise in athletics uh yesterday in November 25th marked when practices started for winter sports and lastly the VHS chamber choir is off to make their New York City debut next Tuesday December 3rd will the choir will be opening for the Radio City rockets at the Christmas Spectacular and the Chamber choir is extremely excited and grateful for this amazing opportunity and since we're Nearing thanksgiv I just like to wish everyone here a Happy Thanksgiving that is all thank you thank you very much and so we will move on to committee reports I think all we have this week is finance so I can do that if you want Mr Boom yes please okay uh we'll keep it short um and then the salary guides have been approved I think we reported on that we did our uh a rebond referendum um a referendum rebonding went through um it's going to save the Verona taxpayers $576,500 in interest payments over the remaining seven years of the bond so it comes out to just about $80,000 a year um for the taxpayers the um budget uh calendar the re the it's going to be going to the administrative and department heads to start their build um in the next few days um we did discuss that we are going to have to put together an RFP for food service this year um and we the board will have to decide um at some point if we're going to join National gonna try to join national school lunch or if we're going to stay out of the school lunch um playground is still question on that real quick but why we're gonna have to put the the RFP out to see who services our food service program but whoever we get will have to provide that option to us anyway correct right yes okay yes and and just to clarify on that um so let's say we don't enter the national school launch program for 25 26 uh we will have to then later do a separate RP for the national school lunch program so so the the current RP as as um it's usually a fiveyear uh contract so the RFP is going to be for the next fiveyear contract but part of the rubric would be that you'd have to at least offer this option should the district wish to do it yes okay thank you I thank you and and I think that is really the highlights anything I miss you want to okay and and just for the record U we did have a facilities discussion scheduled but um absent of a complete board there's a couple of uh items that Mr Cruz and I talked about um that that does require uh board commitment on steps forward I would just like to have that discussion uh the next time we meet so that we can fully discuss it want to make that can we make that a note in our next open public uh open open business thank you and I just have one more thing I apologize is sitting right in front of me in front of you you have uh China unveiled so um we've had a request from um Mrs chin our Mandarin teacher at the middle school to host this trip over spring break and um this is uh I just wanted the board to have more information so this is an overview of what they would be doing on that trip the cost per student is on the second to last page uh looking at $3,699 per person for an eight-day trip all three meals um per day um to China and it's a looks like an amazing opportunity I know we are um there's concerns about international travel right now but just take a look at it since we don't have a full board we'll have that discussion well here's the question I would have yeah if if we know the law now says that if a child can't afford a field trip the district's going to have to incur the cost um that might be something that would we'd have to factor into this trip yes right absolutely does make it different than the summer trips that are that are not school spons that are not school sponsored I'm going to make that very that's a not not school sponsored event so and I know Mrs chin uh took the kids to China in 2017 and 2019 but that was a different situation at that time um but I did want to I just she came to my office today she really wants to do this it is a great opportunity for kids but that is um a very important I think that you know I don't speak for the board but I certainly believe a lot of us would want the kids to have as many opportunities um but but I think that might be a Tipping Point or a deal breaker in any given year that they do this if the district has to pay for two or three kids uh that's a lot of money but if if not then I'd kind of like to see us offer this opportunity thank you so my my question is is why is this program like you mentioned previously it was in the a summer non Affiliated why why the move to doing this over a spring break lost it's $ thousand dollar more per person in the summer than it is in spring break just uh curious on like who like to what group is this like pered to like is it just middle school high school Etc so um Mrs chin um put out a survey to the Middle School parents and they she got uh interest from I think 14 or 15th eth graders I'm not sure whether um uh the can't think I can think of her first name I can't think of her last name I'm having a break our Mandarin teacher at the high school oh bet who yeah Mrs who um whether or not she's uh going to survey her Mandarin classes as well so it was open to the students taking Mandarin in the Middle School to begin with and uh I'm not sure if Mrs who is going to offer that to her her students as well all right thank you in the previous programs I believe it was both yes it was both okay thank you and moving on uh we're going to move on to public comments on agenda agenda action items only um at this time we invite members of the public to the podium to address the board of education on agenda action items only each participant must State their name and will be limited to three minutes to address the board there will be no back and forth dialogue seeing no one coming up to the board uh to the podium we will move on to discussion items does anyone have anything they wish to discuss old new business okay do we have any we'll move on to correspondents any correspondents do not okay so we will move on to our action items um I would like to have a motion for items A1 through A9 Mike I'll go first I'm moving I guess I'll second okay uh can we have roll call please yes uh Mr Walker yes Mrs Vella yes Mr Boom yes motion carries say discussion sorry okay so moving on to education can I have a motion for items B one through B6 oh this is my turn I'll so move I will also move it any any uh discussion okay can we have roll call please Mr Walker yes Mrs frella yes Mr Boon yes motion carries okay moving on to Athletics and co-curricula can we have a motion on C1 through C3 please I will move I'll second okay any discussion so I just wanted to explain um C3 I was just gonna ask about yeah I figured you would because it red uh redlining is not a process that happens um all over the place so in New Jersey uh you cannot reduce a 10-year certified staff member salary um the way the contract was previously written they included certain stiens as pensionable so they are paid in salary they're not pensionable pensions decides what's pensionable not contracts and I believe we addressed that in the most recent negotiations however um these send amounts for for the pbsis coordinator are um so what happens when you you have when someone's salary is being reduced you can't reduce it you have to wait until the salary Rises to the point that would have included the cost of the original stipend so or the cost of uh where this where the salary was so um this is the last year that we'll be redlining those stiens and because of the position on the guide of these two teachers being different that's why the amounts are different does that make sense thank you um can we have roll call yes oh need a motion Oh I thought I did motion okay so we will motion for C1 C sorry we did Walker motion uh and and then we had discussion and now we're at roll call yes Mr Walker yes Mrs Rosella yes and Mr Boon yes motion carries thank you okay there's nothing in facilities so we'll move to finance and I get a motion for E1 to E6 please so moved secondly any discussion okay can we have roll call please Mr Walker yes Vella yes Mr Boon yes motion carries and then start policy um we have to table F1 there is no Hib report there's no Hib investigation done I and I expected one to be coming in so I kept it on here it's not completed yet so can I have a motion for F2 and F3 okay can I have a motion to table F1 please so moved I'll second any discussion can we have roll call for tbling F1 please yes Mr wer yes Mrs Vella yes Mr Boon yes motion car and now can we have a motion for F2 and F3 please so moved seconded any discussion and can we have roll call please yes Mr Walker yes Mrs roella yes Mr Boone yes motion carries thank you okay and last um we will now open up the floor for public comments at this time we invite the members of the public to the podium to address the board of education on any wish item any issue they wish to each participant must State their name and will be limited to three minutes to address the board there will be no back and forth dialogue seeing no one coming to the podium um I will close public comment and before we go if there's anything else if not can I get a motion to adjourn moved I'll second all those in favor I I the time is now want me look 88:13 the uh meeting is adjourned the next public meeting will be held on Tuesday December 10th in the Verona Commons at the Vera high school with confidential session starting at 6m and public sessions starting at 7 pm thank you and I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving