e e e e good evening and welcome to the pasac Valley Regional High School District Board of Education meeting this February 24th 2025 during this regular meeting two opportunities are provided for citizens
to make comments in order for a citizen to make a comment they must be physically present at the meeting during the first opportunity early on the agenda comment comments regarding agenda items are invited the second opportunity will occur just prior to adjournment
when residents May address General comments to the board roll call please Mr usami Mrs bargis here miss Calderon here miss Guzman here Mrs Wong here miss
Keller here Mrs Martin here Mr Stanis here miss stepin here Mr Weaver here let's rise and join in the Pledge of Allegiance pledge aliance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible withy and justice for all adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by mailing copies of said notice to the record filing copies of
said notice with the municipal Clerks of Hillsdale Montville riverville and Woodcliff Lake and Publishing said notice in the record on August 26th 2024 first we have routine matters and the first thing that we will talk about
is the budget report by Mr usami thank you so over the last couple of years I've been saying that the budgets have become more and more difficult to uh to put together um and I'm here just to to go over things and
reason why uh there are a lot of reasons um but we mainly we have Rising costs that are above 2% just about everything you look around um especially the biggest one is probably health insurance so Health Care is a big one and we're
going to get a health care adjustment of almost $800,000 um however that will increase our tax levy uh it'll probably increase to about 3.4% uh I haven't finalized everything yet because we haven't received state
aid uh but that's probably where we're headed so $800,000 is is a lot uh we're looking at about a 20% increase in health insurance that's what they're estimating they're estimating between 15 and 20% so
far for the school employees health benefits plan which is what we're in uh I think I'd rather ER on the higher side uh last year they they had recommended somewhere around um 10 to 14% And it
came in at 14% so um I want go at the 20% um one of the things that we're also seeing and we talked about state aid is declining enrollment the enrollment has been declining uh one of the words that we got from the state we received the
memo saying that we can anticipate um a maximum of a 3% cut in state aid uh who does that affect in all likelihood our district since we're have a declining enrollment there going to be other districts that are rising in enrollment
so they will get more state aid as well as probably get an enrollment adjustment so in some of our sending districts they're going to be experiencing that uh however we won't see that for a little while uh it's going to take a little time before those students come into the
ninth grade so at this moment uh you can anticipate declining enrollment for the foreseeable future um and that has been going on for the past uh since I was here the first time uh probably since about 2012
2013 um the state has we heard that the state has no plans to increase the 2% tax levy cap uh at least not this year um in all likelihood not the following year either however if the state sees how some of the school districts are
doing and they're going to be struggling this year they may change their mind and there could be a lot of loud voices telling the telling the state that hey we need help here um what they will what they may try to do is allow more adjustments uh possibly Transportation
adjustments possibly a little more special education adjustments so that's a possibility um everything's on the table uh for the state to look at uh but obviously there's only so much money to go around so we'll have to figure things out so that is the main reason why I'm
telling you that the budgets are getting harder and harder each year um on top of the healthcare adjustments um some of the things that uh we're going to be doing in the budget is we'll be using some additional excess Surplus and I want to let you know that
um during the audit time when we the audit was presented I also pointed out that uh the EXs Surplus from one year to the next uh declined by $1.4 million so you can see that we're not generating that much excess Surplus it's all going
into expenses so what that means is we're going to have less money money to put into our Reserve accounts like capital reserve and maintenance Reserve so those are things that we're looking at and we're trying to figure out how best to situate ourselves
um the other thing that we're doing is we're going to be budgeting more extraordinary Aid in the past we never budgeted extraordinary Aid um last year was the first year and this this upcoming budget we will also uh incorporate extraordinary Aid into our
budget not the entire amount out however we will use some of it uh we'll also be using maintenance Reserve so we've been using that for the past few years and maintenance reserves help helps us not only balance the budget but we have a lot of Maintenance projects and maintenance repairs that we have to do
during the course of the year so that helps us out that'll lower that's looked at more as a revenue so it'll it'll balance things out um but I just wanted to get that across that it is getting harder and it's not just our district
it's many districts throughout the state a lot of districts in Bergen County as well some of my colleagues they're telling me that they're going to be increasing their tax levy anywhere from four to 5% maybe even higher and they are receiving that Health Care adjustment and they most of them when
they're going that high they are getting that enrollment adjustment so there is looks like in certain districts that the enrollment is increasing uh like I said for us it's going to take a little time but we should be seeing an enr en adjustment uh enrollment increase um
probably in the next few years or several years thank you Mr usami does anyone have questions for Mr usami I do I have a quick one so with the enrollment I mean obviously you know monal's got a huge um building bananza going on over
there um I know CF lake is going to have some stuff going on as well so that should hope I would hope help with the enrollment in the next couple of years if not sooner yes right it's it's going to take a little time um but yes some of those sending districts that we're talking about yes are seeing um an
enrollment increase yes I have a question um what is that you mentioned extraordinary Aid what does that mean so that's for uh special education so there's certain costs uh I don't know I can't remember what the threshold is but anything above
that you going to apply for it you don't get dollar for dollar so in other words if you put in for I'll just make it up $1.5 million doesn't mean that's what you're going to receive in extraordinary Aid there's a percentage and it's usually very low and there was a trend where it got lower that percentage was
lower and lower and lower every year there was one year a couple years ago where actually increased but then it came back down again this past year I don't know what it's going to be this upcoming year for our extraordinary age but um typically we get somewhere in the
neighborhood of around 6 to 700,000 in extraordinary Aid whether we see that again I don't know um did you say we're applying for that extraordinary Aid or we're just getting it that last thing that you said we we
apply for it we apply for it every year you have to put application in extraordinary Aid through the state and you have to have reasons for that yes yes we we so special services director does calculations figures out for each
of the students who are eligible for it and records that and puts that into the application so so just to kind of clarify that it it is kind of what it says so costs that are extraordinary so basically they're looking at the
threshold is between 55,000 and 75,000 depending on the type of placement students in but if a our per pupil is closer to like the high 20, thousands if a student is in a placement that is costing the district basically more than
say $55,000 there's a possibility we may be able to apply for some of that uh money back it's not quite that simple you have to hit a couple of different metrics you have to have certain types of services or be in certain types of programs but basically the state is saying we
recognize that um sometimes districts are spending more than their average per pupil if students have extraordinary needs and if those students do have extraordinary needs you can apply for a reimbursement of a portion of those costs and I think that and I could this I'm not as certain about I think it was
at like 30% between 20 and 30% reimbursement but it was it was capped it's it's always capped and it's it's a percentage it's basically they look at the pot of money and then decide what they can allocate who's going to get what yeah so it it ranges it's um what
I've been used to is maybe around 35 40% um but again it's been going down yeah and then our total amount that we get back though tends to be somewhat stable like we've been looking at about you know generally it's about yeah five to $600,000 and typically what we do is so
we're budgeting some of that and then whatever you'll see this on the agenda tonight's agenda that we are transferring some of those funds that we do have an extraordinary Aid into various budget lines um so that helps us yes can we um have a copy of the um
trending the decline in the enrollment for the past several several years just to see where what what's going on sure thank you yeah we have asssa numbers that we can show you anyone else okay next we have the governance
committee uh report which I will be giving so we had our governance meeting on uh February 18th uh via Zoom at 6:30 um first we discussed the 2025 to
2026 calendar uh school calendar and we discussed having a day off for Eid and uh so we are we want to get a preliminary estimate of how many students are at Hills and Valley who
would be affected by this and who by the holiday and who now take the day off themselves for this um so we discussed that and what we decided is we needed a little more data and uh so we're going
to look a little bit deeper into again how many students you know does this um does this affect uh the next thing we discussed is social emotional learning and we had talked about
having uh that's one of the administr the district goals uh we had talked about uh having someone come in and talk about social emotional learning at the board meeting but uh his presentation is about
an hour long and uh we did not think that was a uh good thing to make people sit here in the evening so we are going to partner up with Parent Academy and we are going to uh do it for parents too
because I think parents also need to know what social emotional learning is uh exactly and um via Zoom so we could reach more people or perhaps like a hybrid uh in person and zoom we also discuss policy
01545 about the uh attendance and um removal of a board member so we widened it to be a little bit more no not widened it we made it more specific so instead of leaving a gray Zone there
there's a little more um you know these are the stipulations and this is what and we think that's just we thought that was a better way to just go about the whole thing to have more detail versus guessing on things um the next thing we talked about
was Google Chat and um to the suine of many students I'm sure uh so we were talking about because there's a lot of use of uh Google Chat and uh it's it's a lot and it's hard to
Monitor and so we talked about it the issue with pasak Valley is that we don't have self service here right so Hills we can always do it if sorry Andrew um um I I know kids love it I I
do understand it but it it is unfortunately a distraction because I'm sure I've seen it in my own children you know you get a text back LOL you know and it's like that distracts you you're looking at you're like oh haha so it's
it it is less distracting to not have it but pasc Valley it's there's no self Ser the self- service isn't if issue and we know parents use it to contact uh their students their their kids and so we didn't feel that right this second is
the way to do it at least for pasak Valley um so we did talk more about the cell service at that time also and I think that we have moved forward or the town has moved forward do you want to talk about that a little bit um I don't
have anything to show publicly got it so um we know that there are several cell towers that are either being um uh refurbished or put up and we're hopeful that when that process is completed we'll have better cell service at
Valley uh and then we talked about protocols around prom um so we obviously have Junior Prom we have senior prom and uh we talked about leaving early for junior uh girls
for junior prom um because you know we had we had mixed a mixed discussion on whether the pros and cons of it and so uh you know again that's a work in progress that we will revisit too um it
was an interesting conversation that one uh but that was it so any questions huh who did we did we what did we deed right yes yeah thank you um so we're
going to look so obviously for this year it's not going to change but we're going to look at this uh policy to decide do junior girls or Juniors get to leave earlier to get dressed uh and you know
do their hair and do all this other sort of fun stuff I I had when my daughter was a junior I know Kristen and I talked about it like it was just craziness so uh I get it go ahead M so I know the
expectation was that originally in the communications they had to be in in school all day in order to participate right so is that still the expectation so this year it's not going to be changed because now we're talking about a few
weeks out from Junior Prom so I just want to go back to our policy because policy on attendance says in order for a student to participate in extracurriculars they need to be in school for a 4-Hour day so if I was to attend school correct me if I'm wrong
but if I were to attend school in the morning and then have to leave in the afternoon for an appointment so long as I was in school for my four hours I now have a full regular day and I would be able to play in my
extracurricular game at at night so I guess I'm unclear on since this is an extracurricular activity why is the rules different for this when our policy clearly says that if you're in school for four hours you're good to go I think it has to do with excused or
unexcused absence probably you know the idea is if they're leaving early Junior Prom that's excused well what's the policy say I guess that's what I want to go back to because we're in charge of policy right
so no but I want to clarify the seniors get out at 1 p.m. and then the Juniors get out at 2 p.m. so we're just arguing get out at three oh they don't normal dismissal unless they have pass G period last
period for one o'clock for earlier just to be so they're not getting out earlier than the four hours right so to Mike's point of the policy in the district is that in order for them to be eligible for extracurricular activi if they put
in the four hours how is this particular activity different and I know we as parents had to sign that we acknowledge it's different um and the the biggest issue I had per se um was that if you went to the junior prom you were allowed
to come in late the next day however if you did not have the money to go or the the desire to go you had to be in school at the beginning and I know that that created a lot of that's changed yeah that was that was a big problem our kids junior year and it really had a lot of
resentment okay yeah so to to Mike's point I understand what you're saying um I suppose that's something that has to be well and I think that's why we brought it to the governance committee for some guidance because right now um the messaging that goes out in the
permission forms for prom um give the parameters which are right now for junior prom that you're to be in school for the full day senior prom um that there's a 1:00 uh dismissal and you have to be there for the whole time through 1:00 senior prom is a little bit
different in that they do senior seminar that day so they have a series of workshops and events that take up that whole time span um Junior Prom has had a lot of um inconsistency with when it was being held um and that's something that I think that we're trying to look at I
know that this year at Hills in particular it was moved to a weekday we're looking to try to move that back to a Friday again um for future years but this is part of the conversation for future years would be what is that policy around uh early dismissal so we
started with the governance committee um and then we'll revisit it uh there because right now uh it didn't it wasn't moved out of that committee at this point yet so my question is because I've read the permission slip the permission slip does not is not in line with what
our district policies are that's my interpretation of what has been distributed to students is that correct or incorrect so you're that's not incorrect I hear what you're saying um again I wasn't here when all when
they first started doing this whole permission slip thing but perhaps that's why they're having this permission slip signed that it is different than the regular policy we have that's the only thing I could think of that it was done but I agree with you that it should be
Revisited because if that is our policy then um you know but we're talking about from 8 to to 12 that students would have to be in school I mean with all due respect to the building Administration and the teachers who run
it they don't write policy right so they cannot create a permission form that is not in line with the district policy and this permission form in my interpretation of it is not in line with District policy if my daughter does a
4-Hour day she's elig what if there's a game that night I don't think there is but I don't understand why we're creating different rules for different activities every year there's been a baseball game at PV
during every single year it seems like these poor boys have game on the same night as prom um and I know that when there was a situation like that if they went to the game that was excused and they were allowed to come late to the prom if the game went later so I know that they've and I and I believe that if
you had get doctor's appointment came back with the doctor note those kind of things but they just don't want all of the kids leaving early is my understanding on those days just to get their hair done but I understand uh Mr Weaver's point that hey if this is the
policy then why isn't it across the board the policy so I I do understand that I think perhaps that's something that we need to look at sooner rather than later committee yeah well and that but to your point um so the building
Administration has the authority to set certain protocols and practices within the building for the smooth operation of the school which is what they've been doing for the past I don't know I think indefinitely um surrounding prom and this came up uh as a discrepancy which
is why we brought it to the board committee to discuss so governance committee will at some point move this forward um in one way or another um for the board um but that's kind of where we are and how we landed there and so I'm correct to my interpretation of the
policy yes or no I'm not sure of your interpretation of the policy you're saying 4 hours and then right they leave they can leave and then attend an activity because you have a for that's what our policy on attendance says I'm just asking Dr bot like is my
interpretation of the policy that we're responsible for correct well I think we're talking about two different things so I'm talking about a protocol that the principls have set in place that has been in place for a very long time no I'm asking about policy if you have a
4-Hour day is that considered a full day and are you then eligible to participate in extracurricular activities it's kind of a yes or no yes that is the policy is that the policy Dr bot uh I would have to look at the policy I think that is
what the policy says but I don't know if there's understand why we're having this conversation like it's isn't it because well because we've been doing very longed absence I'm sorry that's what I was getting yeah I think that's what Jim's saying is that the point is whether you do a full four hours or not
you still might be skipping two classes if you're not excused you're not participating in anything that evening right it's four hours I mean I'm just going I read the policy yeah yeah but you have to be in attendance for every
class four hours no I don't believe that's the way the policy is intended in reads that's the way it reads yeah I'm I'm pretty sure it's that you have to be there four hours because it's the same at my school because kids leave and then come back and play in the sports I don't
know the exact number of hours but I know they have to make it past lunchtime like to lunchtime is generally the so we they're allowed to skip whatever classes they have after the four hours is that what we're saying or you could come in t later but then you get you you get marked as not being in class correct but
that doesn't make you ineligible to do the baseball game right well that's that's the distinction that's the that's not what's happening for promp that so that's why this there is this other that's the whole purpose behind I think the slip actually so I think you're right but I think it's not like
the same and I think that's kind of what Miss bat Dr bot the policy says yeah but the policy doesn't speak to whether or not you're going to get a cut slip for not attending whether or not that teacher is going to say you did yeah you were here for four hours but you still skip my class yeah but are they eligible
for the prom that's the question so if I come in if I leave ear early I leave at noon can I go to the prom since I've made my four hours to Mike's point I so I get cut slips or whatever I get it's an it's unexcused absence but can I
still go to the prom is is kind of where and that's where is DIY and this has been a conversation that's come up a couple times can we bring this up at the policy committee and well I think the thing that concerns me is i' I've heard this has been a conversation circulating and
I I'm I find it hard to believe that we're like de dating it this hard when if kids want to put in their four hours and get out so that they can prepare themselves for what's a pretty big event whether you're a boy or a girl like do
it like I live it in my school end of the year the kids have their moving up their parties I've got a conga line of kids walking out the door and I expect it and they're doing their thing and we embrace it I'm I guess what I'm not clear on is forget how we feel about
whether the kids should or shouldn't like take that piece and just put it over here our policy says four hours you can participate in extracurricular activities it doesn't distinguish between what extracurricular activity
you can participate in so I think that's where I take the exception because now we're saying well you can do you can play in the baseball game you can play in the softball game but you can't go to the prom like they're all under the extracurricular
umbrella I understand what you're saying I understand we get a roster if if people are preparing for a game and have to leave early those the roster comes out it's notified that
they're excused I think they're just doing the same thing with the prom in that they're getting the permission slips so that they can get the roster so that if I have afternoon courses I know who's excused and who is
not well I understand that but but to Mike's thing about leaving earlier and missing coursework you you would have to get some sort of excuse for that I don't think the policy
designates the idea of the excused or not it's I'm signing my child out so I'm signing my child out and they have their four hours okay well yeah I mean if you're signing a child out
you're signing a child out that's that's going to you but you know I mean going to a game and other things like that you still get a roster you still know who's there and who's not and I think the other thing when you look into Friday it says I think they need to be there by
nine o'clock but again if we're going by the policy if there was activities on Friday night they would have to be in by whatever the end of the day is minus four hours in order to get the full day in so again I'm just coming back to
we're creating forms and structures that aren't in line with the policy as it's written I put it to you this way somebody has to be legally responsible for somebody under 18 whether they're going to the parent
or there with the teacher the way it's written or what what it was when Kaye went was if I went in and signed Kaye out at one o'clock she would no longer be allowed to go to the prom even though I went into school I said she's going with me she's going to get her hair and nails done they'd be
like okay she's not going to prom tonight with that hair and nail nail job you know so so and that's going directly against I guess the policy and I I never thought about it I just you know kind of was what it was you it's kind of a privilege your senior year just like you can't dress up in a Halloween costume your junior year for some unknown reason
so there's just kind of things that we just kind of understood to be the case um but I do think that with that being if that's our policy same thing like with the next day if it's a 4H hour requirement we have to kind of look and clean that up if that's what we want it
to look like and what is an excuse absence like if somebody leaves to see a doctor they're never going to question if you come back with the doctors know there was you know something like that but I think what they don't want the the whole junior class doing is leaving early because their parents are signing them out I think they should just make it a
half a day for the juniors then then you just go we avoid that problem they got their four hours in go get ready for your party and have a great time has the issue of a weekend prom ever been what do you guys think about that weekend favor yeah so they usually
do the weekdays they they switched to weekdays I think years ago because of the expense especially in June with weddings and stuff like that so it's usually cheaper to do a Thursday and then they do to get the kids enticed to come the next day for the seniors it's usually a senior trip the next day at
least at pasak Valley so the kids come back the next day and then they go on their trip I think Hills traditionally has done it on the Fridays and I think this year there was a mixup because of the SATs where the next day so they had to move the schedule they moved it into the
middle of the week on a different different um week um and this is what's kind of stirred um the class into saying what's going on I mean if we're talking about student health and wellness seriously we put
such a huge emphasis on this they get a junior prom a senior prom yeah I hear what you're saying like it's not like it's every week that or every two weeks or once a month that we're saying they you know the students
should be able to leave early I I I hear that and I and I agree that we should be consistent across the board so I think that is something that does need to be um Revisited and I guess uh sooner rather than later in in that sense so um
perhaps we'll have a another governance meeting uh to talk about this uh very soon so I think that um Mr Weaver thank you for bringing that to the attention of the board I
appreciate it because I do think you know we have to stick by our policies and what the handbook says thank you for allowing me to provide that feedback I appreciate it of course and Mr reer it would be helpful if you want to forward the policies that you think the governance committee should review um
that would be helpful I think as well so that we are kind of all on the same page and then what we did with uh policy 01 four or five because it was reviewed by two different committees governance committee reviewed it policy committee then moved it out of committee onto the agenda so we could do something similar
for this thank you do you have so I'm reading sorry we just clarify what needs to come out of the committee because the policy is written it's not like we're changing the policy it's how Administration is interpreting the policy the policy
exists so I guess I don't understand why it needs to go into committee Dr bot we have the policy we're not changing it it's the interpretation of it and like read the policy and make sure that we're writing something that's specific to the policy
right so I I see where you're referencing this in the handbook I'm actually not seeing specifically what policy you think that they're uh violating that's why I was just been trying to get clarification on it so it's it actually doesn't clarify
it yeah so it's policy 5 20 uh for attendance I think it gives a little bit of I think there's like some leeway and that's why the handbook is so clear so I
think we might be and I'm I'm not I'm not trying to be um a nudge about words but I I think we we might be disagreeing with the language in the handbook which allows for the 10:02 a.m. arrival this is why I think that the committee should
be looking at what our procedures are because we have this longstanding procedure around prom of notifying parents and then um kind of changing what a normal practice would be specific to prom let's look at it because you
know looking at the policy 5200 uh regarding attendance it's it doesn't it's a little hard to weed out the whole thing there's a lot of uh but it doesn't I don't really say in that see in that policy
just looking at it quickly that it says Mr Weaver did you read that in the handbook or a policy yeah please if you would send it to us so that we can make sure that we are consistent in our messaging is
it yeah there's there's different places that it's in right so it's in the handbook it's in the policy so I think it needs to be put put together uh a little bit more consistently are we able to um reconsider this for this
year yeah I mean I think I think we we I think that has to be with a caveat right uh obviously the safety of students is going to be the primary concern so whether we're talking about Pro Junior
Prom senior prom does not matter safety of the students is the number one concern so if we're talking about because I I believe that husak Valley's prom is March 5th or fifth right uh so you know we're talking about two
weeks away yeah about two weeks away so if that's the case we just have to make sure that the administration for each School uh has in place procedures to
safely uh allow Juniors to leave seniors we obviously have more time because we're talking about at the end of the school year but if we're talking about Juniors and when is the do you know Andrew when the Hills junior
promise the sixth oh ah okay so there's not a lot of time to plan so I think the question for this year is going to to be can Administration make sure that this is
done in an orderly safe manner for students so I think that's the first question that we need to answer for this year so Dr galot I think that's something that we have to look at and we have to talk to Mr Wheeland and Mr poio
about and then obviously if it's something that can be safely done then you know I I don't know that there really is that argument for saying no but again we we I want to look at the Mr Weaver
just send me those the policies that you looked at and everything like that okay anything else anything further okay next we have the policy committee report by Mr Ste oh yeah you've heard half of it
now all right so we have the policy committee meeting on February 11th and uh we discussed uh some revisions of policies and some new
policies so they came through on policy alert 234 which is the alert that we get from Strauss esman uh it outlines all the policies but uh one of the uh bigger revisions was to revise the uniform
State memorandum of agreement between education and local law enforcement so there were several uh parts of policies which needed to be revised and it's mainly just a rewarding
of the policy and then we also had a revision uh these were mandatory by the way the uniform State memorandum of agreement the other one that was mandatory was the ibility of Resident
non-resident students and that was revised um another one was uh High School graduation uh we have uh fosa requirements and so that had to be revised use of electronic communication
devices um that was uh suggested to revise however in our decision our discussion uh moving forward we were waiting for uh Governor's
um I guess clarification in regards to uh well the the whole thing is the issue of cell phone use personal electronic devices and what the state wants to do on those
things is it going to be you know classroom is it going to be entire school so we're waiting on that um let's see uh there was a revision about academic Integrity plagiarism was
rewarded to include all different other types of uh I guess you know borrowing using AI kind of things um we also had a revision student Grievances and food
services and I attached all those policies in the report you want to look at that new policies um the use of electronic communication devices again that we're waiting
on um the other one was the uh code of conduct for inter Scholastic events that was mandatory um and the other one was about acceptable use of generative artificial
intelligence AI uh that was new uh but in regards to that policy we had one in place already so we were ahead of the curve on that um and uh again we're waiting for the
clarification from the state as far as the electronic devices anybody else that was on the committee have anything to add I believe we had a discussion about what the um yeah the board member
removal just talking about like good cause reason and clarifying we talked a little bit about that like what the good cause would be like obviously you're sick a family member is um there's an issue with your family something to that
effect so we just talked through that a little bit and clarified some of the wording right and that was one of the ones that went to governance and to policy got back and forth so very good
I have a question two questions one question the student smoking is that was that uh updated to include Vapes uh yes okay and then um the acceptable use of the generative AI uh
is that now includ do we have this before is it now including that it it would be considered with like harassment bullying that sort of thing was that in there before do you know I don't know if that was in the so
that yeah that's been covered by our acceptable use okay yeah that was under okay any other questions for Mr stankus no next we have the PFA liaison report by Stephanie
Wang we had our AI um Literacy for parents and board members um on January 28th it was 90 minutes and aanga Bickerstaff she's the CEO of AI for education and
she shared the following points with us and I'm I'm highlighting the things that I found was that was interesting one of the first statistics that Mrs bicker staff shared already showed something interesting 55% of colleges and learning programs
discourage AI use gen AI use but 62% of employers surveyed believed employees should have basic AI literacy skills right so the colleges are 55% discouraging it but the employers are
looking for 62% hello problem um and 70% of recent graduates believe basic AI training should be part of Education so we are in a learning curve trying to figure out when AI should or
should not be used one of the dangers of AI was recently in the news 2024 I mean this is kind of bad um a 14-year-old I have to share it she shared it it's okay um 14-year-old who
used um character Ai and that's when you can make a avatar they customized a girlfriend chatbot and now the company's being sued because the chatbot made them like hurt
kill themselves um so now the teenagers parents are blaming this chatbot this girlfriend chatbot that encouraged this bad thing to happen so now there's software that exists for 13 to 17 year
old for that kind of protection um how to regulate safety looking at AI ethically and how do we incorporate AI effectively we're looking at they're all looking at that Mrs bicker staff took the audience um took a took us through like what are the myths
and what are facts and this was interesting I did this at home with my kids with my family okay AI is not thinking but it's Computing which means it is calculating probabilities it's not imagining
narratives like I always thought it was thinking um so aun example that you can do this is what I've done is you can act ask your AI how many RS are in the word strawberry have fun you can do it do it
when you go home it's a great example because you you think you would ask them and there would be obviously three strawberry I three Rs in Strawberry but the AI doesn't count the RS it just looks at the chunks of the words so it got it wrong
um the rapid advancement of AI from 2004 has overcome these following hurdles it has overcome handwriting recognition like meaning it can do this now handwriting recognition speech recognition image recognition reading
comprehension language understanding Common Sense completion high school and college subjects and co-generation that's pretty amazing AI literacy matters because we must prepare our students for success in the modern
world AI literacy Fosters critical thinking as AI becomes more prevalent in media AI literacy promotes responsible dig digital citizenship and digital literacy there has been a 35% increase in the use of AI from just 2023 to
2024 that's it thank you Mrs Swang anyone have questions comments okay next we have the facility committee report by Mr Michael Weaver oh thank you so we just met this evening uh the topic of conversation was Region 2
Park Academy Park Academy unfortunately will be relocating from Rivervale Roar School this year because they are tight on Space um but it looks like there may be a bigger better greater option out
there um it is in negotiations so we are not able to talk talk about where uh yet uh but we hope to have that announcement soon and uh thanks to the administration for their due diligence in EX in
reaching out to every uh what seems like uh District in Bergen County to inquire about space and also in their efforts to reach out to parochial schools and other rental spaces throughout the county and it seems like we have a great option uh
that hopefully our students will be moving into uh for the start of next school year and uh once that contract is finalized we'll be looking forward to make that announcement anyone have questions comments okay great next we have our
student reports and first we have Andrew Varan from pasak Hills High School hello everyone uh first I want to get started with classroom items so first in Miss Gamer's entrepreneurship and marketing classes students are conducting a taste
test of three identical food and drink items comparing them to comp competing Brands to analyze how the class Trends analyzed to the national average some examples of these taste tests students are doing are popcorn orange juice Ramen and donuts and this project coincides
with the class's current focus on consumer decision making and market research creating a fun atmosphere while observing how to conduct proper surveys and focus groups within the market marketing and business world next in Mrs Horn's sophomore history
classes students are beginning to conduct their first research project and students are allowed to choose any Topic in history they want to research before the year of 19 uh 1865 uh once students uh have their project to research they will write a
five to 10 page research paper further exploring and questioning their topic uh and this project Miss Horn says uh will help develop students critical thinking and analytical skills allowing students to evaluate sources and construct well supported
arguments uh next on co uh co-curricular items uh on February 12th pasak Hills hosted its annual trim music Honor Society induction and this club aims to recognize the students for their academic and musical achievements rewarding them for their accomplishments
and inspiring others to excel in the m music and Leadership this night included performances from over 20 uh 20 students in grades TW uh 10 to 12 honoring their musical achievements throughout High School uh next on February 19th pasak
Hills history Club partnered with pasak Valley's history Club to honor and recognize the 82nd anniversary of executive order uh 9066 which author authorized the forced removal of anyone deemed a threat to National Security
from the west coast to relocation centers uh this event included guest speaker Jeff Urban from from the FDR library to further explain uh the history and the impact behind this executive order along with a Q&A from both pasak Hills and pasak Valley
Valley's history Club at the end uh next on February 3rd the black student union welcomed guest speaker Dr Janine Downey a board certified and award-winning dermatologist uh the during the event Dr Downey shared stories about her journey
in medicine as a black woman telling students to never give up on their dreams she also provided uh healthy ways for students to take care of their skin throughout High School uh as well as discuss the importance of Black History Month uh at the end of the event
students uh attending were allowed to ask personal questions and sit down with Dr Downey as well uh lastly on co-curricular items uh to commemorate the annual Lunar New Year the Asian Culture Club uh had a c hosted a celebration during lunch for all
students and staff to attend and during the celebration students from the club brought many traditional Aiden food items like low M sesame chicken rice balls and gy sorry if I pronounced that wrong uh the celebration also included a speech and a visit from the
administration uh such as principal weand and uh the vice principes as well uh next for athletic items pasak Hills uh pasak Valley combined hockey program ended their regular season with a 15 and5 record tying first place place
in the freedom Division and winning a share of the league title uh most recently they placed second overall in the Gold Cup High School tournament outlasting many of the best teams in the county Additionally the team is entering the njsi AA tournament as the number one
seed and uh they play their next game tomorrow Tuesday hoping to continue their season and win uh next the pasak valley dance team traveled to Orlando Florida on February 15th to compete in the annual UDA National Championship competition where
they capped off an impressive 2024 2025 season uh with finishing in third place out of 55 teams in small Varsity pal event and they secured Fifth Fifth Place in the small varsity team Performance Event uh their dedication and hard work
and passion was on full display during this event as they competed in some of the best teams uh in the nation and lastly for athletic items the pasak hills wrestling team finished their regular season with a 17- 10 record and a share of the league title
for the second consecutive year uh the team now heads into Regional championships with both Shan Herman and Matt valz placing third place in the individual divisional round of the tournament to qualify for States and uh both boys need to place in the top uh
four of their weight class in order to move on to the competition in States uh for my fun fact tickets are now on sale for pasak theater's production of Le Legally Blonde which will feature over eight different show dates expanding from March 14th to March
22nd and the musical will feature over 60 students from both Valley and Hills as well uh I believe students are right over here a real life dog is that true two real life dogs so that's pretty cool that's never been done before so um and
for my joke of the day uh what did one light bulb say to the other on Valentine's Day uh You Light Up My Life uh thank you and this concludes my board report thank you Andrew next we have Ella goley from pasak Valley High School
hi hi so I'm going to start off with Val's classroom items um so first of all a big congratulations to freshman oboist Lena Yang on successfully auditioning for the all North Jersey intermediate region symphonic winds she'll perform
with the Ensemble on Sunday March 99th at Randolph High School and in addition to that the PV jazz band is preparing an exciting program for their upcoming performance at the NJ State Jazz preliminary competition on March 3rd at Liberty Middle School in West
Orange for our second classroom item the World Language department will celebrate National foreign language week throughout the week of March 2nd in both high schools among our Chinese French Italian and Spanish classes um so students can participate in a poster contest celebrating this year's theme
which is languages take you places um and in addition to that Nomi Rodriguez will be representing our district by presenting at the NEC tvl tfl sorry Regional Conference on February 28th uh
with her 2025 best of NJ Workshop AI in the Lang in the language classroom and lastly in mid-march both Naomi Rodriguez and Teresa Del J Will present separate workshops at the state World Language conference or Fellowship of language
educators in New Jersey for our third item um our photography Department classes have been busy with many projects um one of the most creative I thought um being students using AI in Photoshop and canva
to kind of create their own headlines and news articles and one that I thought was kind of funny is um students made an article about like aliens who invaded our school and bursted our pipes um uh and on top of this as we approach
President Day students learned about how AI has actually influenced political campaigns in our country for longer than many of them had thought and they learned about photography's influence on Abraham Lincoln and they also recreated the legendary head swap by placing
Lincoln's head onto John Calhoun's body um student interest in manip in manipulating photos led to learning some very basic history of the surrealism movement in art and they use photography as well as their own images to create
their own surrealistic P pieces um so some of the class's current favorite surrealist is Joel Robinson so they recreated his piece seek and you shall find and lastly photography W students who were interested captured head shot for 50 plus lesbians for our Legally
Blonde show at both schools um and on Valentine's Day students volunteered to capture Studio style Valentine's photos and they got teachers in some of them and lastly several students are on track for the advanced photography class and will most likely be eligible for Adobe
certified professional certification in the upcoming year for Valley's last classroom item um the district robotics team has collaborated again with their partner School in France um on a website called Ready Set speak which is designed to
help students with autism and speech appra um so two years ago the PV French Honor Society students succeeded in translating the whole website into French and the students at the high school the partner High School in France provided authentic recordings
in French and plan to share this website with their school and their Community um the pasak hill students in French 5 went to lakeer Bakery in Hillsdale to learn about entrepreneurship with the owner rafhael who came from the south of France
immigrated here to open and run his business um and again at Hills the in February the French Classes traveled to Quebec um with teachers Miss Schmidt Miss s and Mr Sant to attend the annual Winter Carnival which is a celebration of French Canadian
culture and lastly the French classes at valy and Hills pretend uh plan to attend the annual French day at Monclair State on March 22nd um and on this day high schools from all over the uh State attend workshops on the French language
history and culture um and in P years both Valley and hills have really enjoyed this field trip for Valley's co-curricular items are model un Club attended an excellent conference at burken countyy representing various countries and
collaborating to resolve World issues um so big congrats to Justin Yu for his verbal Commendation and to Riley cim and philipo for their honorable mention representing the Republic of South Korea for the social cultural and humanitarian committee
um in addition to that the PV beekeeping Club enjoyed making hand dipped and poured beeswax candles um the candles actually burn clean unlike some of like the more common candle waxes and they actually help clean the air by releasing negatively charged ions so the club is
really excited and considering making candles for sale in the future for our athletic items uh Drew mentioned this but our dance team competed in Orlando at the DTE um national dance championships and they placed fifth with their team performance and third with the Palm
routine um and their coaches are very proud of them um the Pas gak swim team held its first ever swimathon to raise money for the American Red Cross so the swimmers completed their fundraiser during their morning practice their regular morning
practice uh and each swimmer collected donations and swam laps in support of this cause uh in to to they raised $1,960 for the Red Cross and they thank all who participated in and supported the swimathon and they look forward to
continuing this tradition next year the pasak swim team also has several swimmers who qualified for the state me of Champions on March 1st Amanda Bramley will swim in the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke and the team also has their girls 400 freestyle
relay competing in the event so good luck to all swimmer Swimmers at the state meet um for uh Val's fun fact Junior Prom is coming up on March 5th uh next week and also um Valley's executive Council along
with all class councils um is planning the class cause week that we have every year which will start on March 10th and basically the week consists of events and fundraisers to raise awareness awareness and money for each class cause um so they're encouraging everybody to
get involved and help support uh for my joke what do you do at the end of the last day of February you march on this concludes my report thank you
Ella okay next we have uh to resolve the minutes for the last January 27th 2025 regular meeting and the executive um meeting can I get a motion please so
move second second second any discussion roll call please Mr Yami Miss Calderone yes Miss Guzman yes Mrs Swang yes Miss Keller yes Mrs Martin
yes Mr Stanis yes Miss stefin yes Mr Weaver yes Mrs varges yes next we have comments from the public citizens are invited to make comments regarding agenda items and are limited to 3 minutes according to the pasac Valley
Regional High School District Board of Education policy number 0167 persons wishing to speak must upon being recognized rise sign in and state their name town of residence and which agenda item they are
referencing for P the button okay sorry hello um my name is zah Islam I'm a sophomore at Hills I'm from mville and I along with my other classmates we trying to request to get um both eats off from the school
calendar um we planed this request before and I know you guys have like already addressed it but we think it's like especially important because although I understand that your hesitancy is regarding like trying to prioritize like as much instructional
time as possible when students like us have to take the day off for Eid it really does set us back like educationally like trying to like keep up like trying to get back on track track so I think having um the holiday off it would be very beneficial and it
would um be very it would Foster in more inclusive environment for Hills and Valley um I also hi I'm AIA I'm from monville or bliff lake sorry and I'm a sophomore I also just wanted to say that I think it's really important because I
don't think that a lot of the Muslims in our school know that they can take it off because in our club there's not that many Muslims but we know that there are a lot who celebrate that aren't very vocal about it and we see them like in
school and we know that they're in school during even when they they can be taking off and celebrating with their family and like just a second what she said it is very hard to like catch up after cuz it's not an excused absence I don't think I don't I didn't get it
excused so it was really hard and I don't think my teachers understood either hi my name is Maya um I'm also from Mel um I'm someone who's struggled with attendance a lot so typically I'll have
upwards of more than 10 absences per year um but oftentimes those come from Ramadan it's a very stressful month we have to fast for 30 days you can't eat you can't drink water
um and along with that time of year it can be very stressful especially I'm a junior and it's been a very stressful year for me um not getting those days off really it can be so much of a hassle at the end of the year having to appeal
so I believe giving these students who are just trying to practice the religion a chance that's all we ask for really thank you thank you thank you anyone else students are you yeah are you both
here from for the theater for the play yeah why don't you go ahead and speak even though it's not on the agenda we know you really want to stay with us for the whole entire meeting but you can go home after hi my name is Jesse um this is sad we're
company managers for pasak theater the combined theater program of pasak hills and pasak Valley uh and we're here to once again formally invite you guys to um attend our upcoming s musical as they mentioned Legally Blonde uh for free um you can acquire your tickets at
pasak valley.org and we will be sending you an email shortly about um free ticket info and we're just going to uh hand out the posters now so you have the info and the dates thank you thank you thank you
we're so excited I know next we have policy for which we have one consent agenda item can I get a motion please Mo second second any discussion roll call please Mr
usami Miss Calderone yes you miss Guzman yes Mrs Swang yes Miss Keller yes Mrs Martin yes Mr Stanis
yes Miss stepin yes Mr Weaver yes Mrs Vargis yes next we have education for which we have three consent agenda items can I get a motion
please second roll call uh sorry discussion roll call please Mr usami Miss Calderone yes Miss Guzman yes Mrs Wang yes Miss Keller
yes Mrs Martin yes Mr Stanis yes Miss stefin yes Mr Weaver yes Mrs vgis yes next we have human resources for which we have eight consent agenda
items can I get a motion please second any discussion roll call please Mr usami Miss Calderon yes Miss Guzman yes Mrs
Wang yes M Keller yes Mrs Martin yes Mr Stanis yes Miss stefins yes Mr Weaver yes Mrs varges yes next we have Finance for w we have 18 consent
agenda items can I get a motion please so move second any discussion uh yes Mr usami um I just need to uh change
something in number 12 which is the capital reserve withdrawal to purchase the U 63 Patterson Street the Milestones house um so originally we did not know the exact
amount so our board attorney drafted this to say not to exceed $550,000 um we do have the exact amount so i' like to change that to the exact amount of
$499,500 27 you're tough negotiator it had nothing to do with that it was just we had to figure out the the deposit and I'm bringing you with me next time I buy a car but that's uh that's the exact
amount okay so I did have a question on number seven which you had talked about earlier the extraordinary Aid so so that's okay that we can just transfer it wherever we want to transfer there's no cap on like we can't has to stay where it is or no it's correct you can you can
um transfer it to any budget line account you wish okay good question uh any further discussion yeah I just want to say I'm really excited to see all the professional development that's on number
two yes um question on the Patterson Street and if we can't answer here that's okay what are we purchasing there this is probably one before I was on the board yeah we call it the that's a great question we call it the Milestones house
so it's the property that we've been using for uh when did we start using it uh around don't quote me but around 2016 2017 I believe yeah and we've been leasing it and the owner very generously offered to actually sell us the entire
unit so we've been loosing the bottom floor for that long um we've outgrown that program and we need to also use the top floor and when we sort of started negotiating about a rental for the top floor he indicated that he'd be willing to sell us the property in whole so this is a
great deal for the district um we'll be able to um do the renovations that we need to make it uh ADA Compliant and accessible and we'll be able to have it to use for our ever growing uh Milestones program in perpetuity so we're very excited to uh finally have um
the approvals that we needed from the state to make this happen it's a good question thank you you and I don't I don't know if it was relate but that's for our 18 to 21 year old program the transition program that we have life
skills any further discussion roll call please Mr usami Miss Calderon yes Miss Guzman yes Mrs Swang yes Miss Keller yes Mrs Martin
yes Mr stankus yes Miss stepin yes Mr Weaver yes Mrs varis yes next we have old business uh any discussion just was going to bring something up that we were talking about
earlier the policy that we were referring to on attendance is actually under the regulation section not in the policy section um and it's under the students um 5,000 or 5230 in uh
particular with early dismissals and it really doesn't give free reign for parents to pull for an excused early dismissal so the ways that they would be eligible to compete it seems like would be if there was a religious observation um if they had a disability
or illness that they had to attend to a family emergency and that would be at the discretion of the admin rtion Medical Dental appointments motor vehicle exams students attendance in court and interview with an employer so it seems like it's specific as to what
would be acceptable excuses and like the prom is not at this time written in there so I wonder I don't know I don't see anything about four hours but it does say what would Institute that half day and what would be excused if they did leave early so I'm not sure if
there's something else somewhere else but this is if you go under policy there's nothing but if you go through under there there's regulations so code njac 6A 32
d8.3 a school day consists of not less than four hours so and that's so that if you take code correct me if I'm wrong and then when you go to the policy on because I was looking it up while we were talking yeah I was trying to find something policy doesn't it see doesn't
seem anything in a policy cut off the number but the I screenshotted the one part it says um no student who has been absent for a school day May participate in a co-curricular activity scheduled for the afternoon or evening of that school day so if you're in school for
four hours you H in my interpretation if you're in school for four hours you have your day and then the policy says if you're absent you can't participate so if you're here for 4 hours my
interpretation of it is you can participate in extracurricular activities and in all the years that I've been in coaching and education it's that's always been the the guide that I've gone by is if you're in school for four hours you can participate in whatever you need
to do at night yeah I thought that's what it was too but I'm looking here and it's it has very specific reasons for the early dismissal and I wonder if that's what's required in order for them to be eligible to to then come back and participate I don't know if they can
just leave go out to lunch with Mom and then come back and go to a baseball game well and I think this is where to Mr Weaver's point so our handbook interprets that like kind of more specifically um and then our buildings
have for I I mean this predates either of our current um building principles have further interpreted that specific to prom but I think um Mr Reaver if you look at the uh uh athletic participation my quick perview my quick
uh perusal I'll say here I think there's an option we could have selected on that particular policy that would allow the board to set the minimum for extracurriculars and for athletics and it looks like we've not selected that option I can't log into stra esme's um
back end right now um but that's something that we can look at tomorrow to see what those options are because I think that we've not selected those specific options to give more clarity beyond what you're reading and what you're reading um I think the clarity lies with the handbook so I I I mean I
think this is appropriate for um board committee conversation yeah I think we need to do a little bit of a deeper dive yeah put it all together I mean personally I think the kids should be able to leave so I mean if you're asking my personal opinion for Junior and senior prom there
I mean but if it's a what I think we need to what's that I hear you I remember that's it I I just think it's it's not it's not something that occurs often and I think that I do think they'd have to be parent permission just like there was for senior prom um but I do think we have to
kind of clean this up in order to to give the the administration the protection if we allow that yeah I agree any further discussion on anything old business okay uh next any new
business I don't have new business but I did want to find out when we're going to schedule the postsecondary um Education meeting with a group I think Jill sent out a poll about that earlier today oh you did oh no I'm sorry you're right um we
do yeah um soon though let's uh let's touch based on what the agenda would look like I'm sorry yeah that was a ad hoc in finance I believe yeah no Finance yeah Finance uh and then the link that Sarah sent for our meeting
that's for your group and I've got to give Jill credit she she great for everyone thank you for the CT any further discussion uh for new business next we have comments from the
public citizens are invited to make comments and are limited to 3 minutes according to the pasak Valley Regional High School District Board of Education policy number 0167 persons wishing to speak must upon being recognized rise sign in and state their name and town of
residence anyone okay can I get a motion to enter into executive session please so motion and then I'll just clarify that uh we actually do not have an Hib to discuss
it will just be for contracts I think it'll be I'm sorry yeah I think it'll be um what do you think 15 to 20 minutes is and no action will be taken you think more yeah about 20 minutes I would
say thank you okay thank you have a good night everyone for