Good evening everyone. I would like to welcome you to the October 14th, 2025 board of education meeting. We are c calling the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. And if everyone could please rise for the pledge of allegiance. A reading of meeting notice. The New
Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provision of the act, the Verona Board of Education has
caused notice of this meeting to be published in the Star Ledger posted with the Township of Verona and the Verona Education Association. Posting of this meeting setting forth the time, location, and agenda were posted at the Verona Board of Education Office and on the Verona Public Schools District
website. Copies of tonight's agenda and resolutions have been made available to the public via the Board of Education website. Mr. Robinson, if you could please call attendance. Mr. Walker, I'm here. Mrs. Ferraris, here. Mrs. Krisco,
here. Mr. Boone, here. Thank you. Moving on to our routine matters. I need a motion, please, to approve our minutes from our meeting of September 30th, 2025. Motion by
Mr. Boone, seconded by I'll second. Mrs. Fer, are there any discussions? Mr. Robinson, if you could please call roll. Mr. Waka. Yes. Mrs. Ferrer. Yes. Mrs. Frisco. Yes. Mr. Boom. Yes.
Thank you. Moving on to our superintendent report by Miss Diane DJeppy. Good evening. Uh first start uh with a staffing update. Uh we have a finalist for the sixth grade science position at uh HBW. I will be meeting with that uh
finalist later in the week to finalize and uh hopefully um make a deal. Um, business administrator search still uh still searching um but we will find the right person. The Mallerie's Army Assemblies and
evening community event um uh has been um finalized with a new date for October 23rd for the community event. I sent out uh information via apt this evening um and it's also posted to our website.
Uh, good news. So, every um, so let me start out by saying the US Presidential Scholar Program was established in 1964 when President uh, Johnson, Lyndon B. Johnson, issued an executive order to recognize and honor some of the nation's most distinguished graduating high
school students. Students have had the opportunity to become presidential scholars based on three paths of accomplishments. So that's the general path and then uh which was established in 1964. In 1979 the program was extended to identify students who demonstrate
exceptional uh talent in the visual, creative and performing arts. And then in 2015, President Obama extended uh that to recognize students who demonstrate ability and accomplishment in career and technical uh education fields. Each year, up to 161 students
are named as presidential scholars, one of the nation's highest honors for high school students. Application is by invitation only. Therefore, students cannot apply individually to the program, nor can their schools nominate them. for the general component or the
original component of the program. Um, all graduating high school seniors who are citizens of the United States um, and have scored exceptionally well on the SAT and ACT college admission tests during the window of August 2021
through October 2024 are automatically considered for participation. The Department of Education then looks at these test scores um, for each state and jurisdiction um, for each examinee. the evidence-based reading and writing uh
and math SAT score is compared to the ACT the ACT English reading and math scores. Each student's highest test score in a single test administration is identified. Duplicates and or lower scores are dropped. The scores of the top 20 male and top 20
female examinees are used to identify candidates in each state. In addition, each chief state school officer may nominate 10 male and 10 female candidates. based on their outstanding scholarship. Um to be considered further
candidates must submit their candidacy materials which include essays, self- assessments, secondary school reports and transcripts. Candidates are evaluated on their academic achievement, personal characteristics, leaderships and service activities and analysis of their essay. In late March,
approximately 500 semi- finalists are chosen from 4,000. I'm getting there. um um they're chosen by independent national committee of educators convened by the commission of presidential scholars. Six to 20 semi-finalists are
identified for each state or jurisdiction by the review committee. In April, the Commission on Presidential Scholars makes its final selection of 121 students. One young man and one young woman are chosen from each state. The District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the family and from families of US citizens living abroad. New Jersey had two students who have been named US presidential scholars, Isabella Lambert, Rona High School, class of 2025, and a student from
Pingri. In addition, New Jersey also had a student named as a US presidential scholar in the arts. this is an amazing accomplishment and I'm sorry if you had that on your report ride. So really just congratulations
um to is to Belle um uh it's an amazing accomplishment and she will um be invited believe to the White House to get her medal this June coming up. Yeah. So along uh those areas of good news, uh
throughout the year, the NJSIA honors student athletes, schools, coaches, and officials for their achievement, sportsmanship, and dedication to athletics. A sportsmanship award is given to those schools that have exhibited the best sportsmanship throughout the past school year within
their league or conference. I am very proud to announce that Verona High School has earned the NJSIAA sportsmanship award for the third time since 2021. This honor so was 2021 2023 2000 I'm sorry this is the fourth time
2024. No, no, this is the third time because that was for 2024. This honor reflects the outstanding character, integrity, and respect demonstrated by our student athletes, our coaches, and our athletic director, Laura Pomizi, both on and off the field. Their continued commitment to teamwork, fair
play, and representing Verona with pride is a true reflection of our community's values. Congratulations to all of them for this remarkable achievement. And along those lines, tonight um is uh cheer for cure where VHS cheerleaders
and Eagles cheerleaders um are cheering uh to raise money to to benefit Manette's Angels. Manette's Angels founded in memory of Manette Roso McKenna in 2004, the year after she passed away from breast cancer. for a minute to angels assists those in breast
cancer treatment supports and promotes breast and supports and promotes breast cancer health awareness. We are proud of our cheer squad who do this each year to support this very worthy cause and um my last item tonight is just an
update on the district and school goals. uh since the New Jersey Department of Education has not guaranteed that the 2025 NJSLA results can be validly compared with forthcoming 2026 NJSLA adaptive assessment results. It is not possible to establish relative
year-to-year state um assessment growth data. At this time, the change in test vendor and the adaptive format introduces significant changes in test design, scaling, and item difficulty which may limit longitudinal comparability and trend analysis across
the year. Although they have not said that um they have been silent in my continued badgering of them to give me an answer. Um to ensure continuity in monitoring student progress though and measuring instructional impact, the
district will will use the um map growth assessments administered in the fall, winter, and spring of the 202526 school year. MAP growth provides consistent norm reference data that allows for valid measurements of each individual and cohort growth over time regardless
of changes in state testing formats. Using math map growth data will enable our schools to establish baseline performance levels for each student and grade level. Monitor student growth and instructional instructional effectiveness across the academic year using comparable metrics. Inform
instructional planning, intervention, and enrichment based on real-time actionable results. Maintain a continuous and valid measure of student progress while the state transitions to this new adaptive testing program. This approach ensures that the district will continue to make datadriven decisions
grounded in reliable evidence of student learning and growth. So given that uh Dr. Miller, Mrs. Peter, and Mrs. Kohler and I met with the high school uh uh FN Brown and Landing administration today to finalize their student achievement goals for the year. We're meeting
tomorrow with the HBW administrators and then um Brookdale and Forest on Thursday. Uh we will have district goals to approve on the next board agenda. Thank you. Thank you. Does anyone have any
questions or comments? Thank you. Moving on to our student report by Mr. Ryan Goo. I just want to say can I just say one quick thing? I just I'm so impressed by that report um with both our athletes and of course um Belle and I just think that you know when we look at our
community and we think about our teachers and our kids and you know there are so many people when a when a student starts here in kindergarten or whenever they come in right in any grade there are so many people in the community that that that touch our lives right and I just think that it's so nice when we get
to celebrate successes like this from from our students in Vona because it's not just them. It's I think it's a community as a whole and it just makes me so happy. So, I just wanted to make a point about that. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Uh to start, um last Friday was uh VHS's first pep rally
of the year. Um students uh took time to have some fun and uh recognize the achievements of our uh fall extracurricular activities. volleyball, soccer, field hockey, tennis, cross country, football, cheer, marching band, and the fall drama. Uh continuing their
winning streak, the boys soccer team uh scored an upset win in a contentious match against Cedar Grove yesterday. Uh a few weeks prior, the boys soccer team was named the division champions of the SEC Colonial Division, an incredibly impressive achievement that had not
occurred in almost 15 years. Additionally, the girls soccer team had recently has had recently a string of victories, winning six out of seven of the games played. Following the theme of record-breaking performances, the field hockey team made history yesterday in
their game against Cranford High School, scoring a total of nine goals, the most ever in a game for VHS field hockey. Uh, volleyball continues its phenomenal phenomenal season with a win against Bagota yesterday and one over West Essex
on senior night. So, congratulations to our eight volleyball seniors. And the team, the volleyball team today is facing MKA in an away game. Uh, today the cross country team is competing at the SEC Championship at Cedar Grove
Park. There's a football game this Friday night against Gwen Ridge at Sedto Field. And Friday is not only the senior night for our football team, uh, but also the cheerleaders and the marching band. And last Saturday, the VHS marching band took to competition at Mwal High School, once more, taking a
staggering first place. Um, and the marching verun and whites will continue to compete this Saturday at New Brunswick High School. And uh I'd just like to extend my congratulations of course to um former VHS pres VHS student um the Lambert who graduated last school
year for being recognized by the department of education as a US presidential scholar which is definitely an astonishing feat. Yeah. And expanding on last meetings report, um I personally been planning and working towards uh
encouraging greater student interests uh in VHS especially in like student government and potentially potentially uh leading committees of the student council to foster a greater discussion about uh policy and representative participation in decision-m and that is
all. Thank you. Thank you Ryan. Anyone have any questions or comments? Moving on to our committee. God bless you. Good meet uh our committee reports. Um start off with athletics. I'll take
that one. Thank you. It was a was a short meeting and a lot of things were already touched upon. Uh family night was I believe a success. Um didn't hear any issues with that. Uh let's see. Cheer for a cure at Foley Field. Our
cheerleaders uh went to Bloomfield last week on October 7th and I believe they took first place in one of the categories. So congratulations to them and I wish them all the best tonight at outside for our cheer for a cure. Uh we
had national walk to school day. I believe the schools change reach our seniors came out to walk at their home elementary schools. Uh we talked about the sportsmanship award. Uh we have upcoming field trips
in November, academic competition through Matt Rosa at Columbia University. And then our some of our cheerleaders will be heading to Disney World um in November. All American cheerleaders. I believe a few girls were selected to march in the Disney parade
for that. And I think they need a volunteer coach. So there you go. We could go Diane. And then um back in January, they will be going back into uh Walt Disney World for their cheer competition January se 29th
to February 2nd. We are in search of a JV softball coach and a girls wrestling coach. And I believe the spectator code of conduct 9163. We're adding that to our sports policy. And I believe that is my report. Does
anyone have any questions? Oh, sure. Thank you. Moving on to facilities. Mr. Boon, would you like to uh the headline on facilities is going to be boilers and HVAC. Um fun.
We've discovered that there's a couple of uh uh boilers that need their control uh panels need to be replaced. Um I know that the facilities team has received a couple of quotes for um one of the
boilers at Lanning Avenue. Also uh in the HVAC realm um they are looking to replace the old rooftop content condenser um for one of the gym units in the main part of the gym. Uh there was just a
previous um unit that has burnt out also. Uh I believe um since the posting of this uh they do have a new HVAC person on staff or at least on on agenda A9. Um so that is the big highlights and
then the last thing is the playground litigation. Uh the other party is uh continuing testing. Uh those results have currently favored the district. uh the opposing party uh is um trying to get a second opinion and that's where we
are on that process. That's it for facilities. Perfect. Thank you. I don't think you missed anything either. Thank you. Moving on to um our agenda. I would ask if any of one from the public would like
to come up to the podium on speak on any agenda action items. Please feel free to come to the podium and state your name and you will have three minutes. This is on any items that we are voting on this evening. Seeing none, moving on to discussion,
new business or old business. Does anyone have I do um I want to I did wait for Mr. Walka on that. Yeah, if he comes back and I'll I'll go with what I wanted to say. So, um, I just wanted to touch upon something.
After being living in this district for over 45 years, last week I witnessed something that was so unbelievably sad, but also so unbelievably beautiful for one of our
students that recently lost her battle with cancer, Daria Gbia. I want to thank Mrs. DJ Zeppy, Mr. Cogdale, Mr. Merkeler, all the staff, um, our choir.
I came here to see the procession come through the high school, but then I saw the video that was posted and, um, they drove by her middle school and there was people lined up on Bloomfield Avenue, FM Brown, her elementary school.
Um, it was just a beautiful tribute to a beautiful young lady who will dearly be missed by all. And this is what she wanted. She wanted to show the community how much she loved her, loved this community. But everybody loved her just as much. And if we can take one thing
from her is just to be kind and be positive because that's what she would want and to live our days through her. So, I really am I'm really touched by what our community did for her because it was just just beautiful. The
pictures, the butterflies, the paintings, the students. But seeing our students so emotional is something that I hope we never have to see again because it truly was heartbreaking to witness. But I hope she rest in peace and I wish her family all
the best as they go on these difficult days. So that's all I need to say. All said, Mr. Thank you. Anyone else have any discussion items? Going there and looking at all the photos, you see saw a little girl grow
up, right? And you saw all the other kids, you saw the pictures, you saw them there, you know, kind of picking each other up. Um, and you know, my son included, but like there's a lot of kids who were very emotional, but there was also a lot of kids that would
support each other. And um, it was for an event that was it's a tragedy, right? There's there's no two ways around it. Um, but I was happy to see the community rally around um, you know, everything involved in this. And you're
right that you said it, Mike said, you said it best. It's true. Moving on. Do we have any correspondence? Yes. Thank you. Moving on to our rest of our agenda for action items. Um I need a motion please
to for personnel. A motion to approve resolutions A1 through A9. Motion by Mr. Waka, seconded by Mr. Boon. Are there any discussions? Mr. Robinson, if you could please call
roll. Mr. Walker, yes. Mrs. Per, yes. Mrs. Prrisco, yes. Mr. Zoom, yes. Thank you. Moving on to our education. I need a resolution to approve resolutions B1 through B5.
Motion by Mrs. Herrera, seconded by Mr. Boon. Are there any discussions? Seeing none, Mr. Robinson, if you could please call the role. Mr. Lock. Yes. Mrs. Yes. Mrs. Chris. Yes. Mr. Yes.
Thank you. Moving on to athletics and co-curricular. I need a motion, please, to approve resolution C1 through C2. Motion by Mr. Boon, seconded by Mr. Waka. Any discussions?
Seeing none, Mr. Robinson, if you could call roll. Mr. Walker. Mr. Ferrar. Yes. Mr. Prrisca. Yes. Mr. Boom. Yes. Thank you. There are none for facilities. Moving on to finance. Motion
to approve resolutions E1 through E2. Motion by Mr. Boon, seconded by Second. Mrs. Ferrara. Are there any discussions on finance? U. I just have a question on E2. Um what
I don't know if this even matters, but what's the time span for for this assessment and when do we expect feedback? So um Mrs. Thomas uh uh the Veron Shade Tree Commission is working with me on this um trees for school grant. So what
this these foresters uh are going to do is they're going to scout our six um campuses and then um update our planting plan that was included in our grant. um you do a preliminary planting plan, but then you really engage um because I'm
not an expert in tree planting and neither I know I actually actually an environmental scientist but it's been a long time um and Mrs. Um Thomas also a science science teacher former science teacher and Jade Tree
Commission um would and the grant itself really recommends that we get either um landscape architect or forester someone who really knows trees because you want the long-term survival of these trees. And so we will update um our planting
plan. So as soon as this gets approved, they'll probably be here this week or next week. Um and we will get the So the updated grant is due November 14th. So soon. That's tight term. Yeah, it's tight.
Um the one I remember Mr. Walka a couple sessions ago asked about on the planning. Is there going to be top of mind uh planning in such an area where we don't have the root problems popping up on the sidewalks? Yeah, that the forester will take care of that. Okay. Yeah.
Thank you, Mr. Mr. Robinson, if you could please call role. Mr. Walker, yes. Mr. Fara, yes. Miss Frisco, yes. Mr. B, yes. Thank you very much. Moving on to governance and policy. I need a motion to approve um F1 through F2.
Motion by Mr. Waka, seconded by I'll second. Seconded by Mr. Ferrara. Any discussions? Seeing none, Mr. Robinson, if you could please call roll. Mr. Walker. Merr. Yes, Mrs. Prrisca. Yes, Mr.
Yes. Thank you so much. Uh, moving on to public comments. Actually, before I go back, I just wanted to say I left out the Verona Police Department um for all they did. Yeah, that was beautiful that what they did. I mean, all the
police departments, but coming from Belleville, but I had Verona Police written down, so I'm very sorry, but what the chief and his his um officers did was incredible. So, on to public comments. If there's anyone from the public public that would like
to speak, please just state your name and you have three minutes. Thank you. None. Okay. Um, we do not need confidential session. I need a motion to what?
Oh, sure. Take it away. No, you do it, please. Diana and I are going to give a presentation the ABCs of literacy. You have a good slot. What time is this? Tuesday 1 pm.
Okay, I will be there. Yeah, you get us tickets. Yeah, for you can get put a VIP. Thank you. Okay, so our next public uh meeting is scheduled for October 28th,
2025 here in the um confidential at 6 p.m. public session at 7:00 p.m. in the Rona High School Learning Commons. I need a motion to adjourn our meeting. Motion by Mr. Waka, seconded by Mrs.
Ferrer. All in favor? I. It is now 7:27 and we are joining our