Good evening everyone. I would like to welcome you to our October 28th, 2025 board of education meeting. We are calling the meeting to order at 7:06 p.m. And if everyone could please rise for the pledge of allegiance. America
to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. 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. Postings of this meeting setting forth the time, location, and agenda were posted at the Verona Board of Education office and on the Verona Public Schools District
website. Copies of tonight agenda and resolutions have been made available to the public via the Board of Education website. Mr. Robinson, if you could please call attendance. >> Mrs. Herrera, >> here. >> Mrs. Prrisco >> here. >> Mr. Boon
>> here. Thank you. Moving on to our agenda. I need a motion on routine matters to approve our minutes from our October 14th, 2025 summer meeting. Moved by Mrs.
Ferrara, seconded by Mr. Boon. >> It's a busy night. >> Are there any discussions? Roll call, please. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Frisco, >> yes. >> Mr. Boon, >> yes. Thank you. Moving on to our
superintendence report by Miss Diane Ducheppi. I have a quick report since we just like we just made um just want to uh give a shout out and a big thank you to Verona together who um arranged for and encouraged um uh
Diane Gman and Malerie's Army Foundation founder to come and um provide assemblies for our students in grades 7 through 12 and our parent community members and uh last last week in the evening um Mrs. Grossman doesn't do
schools anymore. So that was a special uh uh favor uh for Verona together. And um it was an amazing uh both the student assemblies and the parent assembly or parent um discussion were very different
but they were both uh really unbelievably touching and informative and I wanted to thank uh public and Mrs. Gman for coming out and talking to our parents and our students. Our students um were tremendously respectful and asked really
thoughtful questions and in such a way that I was profoundly um proud to be a a member of the staff here in in watching uh how they held themselves. And while I was with you at school boards for the middle school meeting, I was told that
other than them complaining about taking their cell phones away, they were good, too. So, uh really um uh happy that that is now done. It was a lot of setup to get that. We had to change the date. We couldn't find the date. It was a lot, but it it was uh
definitely worth having. Um good news for Forest Avenue School. I know uh we uh recently spoke about the best high school rankings for US News and World Report um where um Verna High School ranks 69th in New Jersey um which is the
80 83rd percentile um and 92nd in the 92nd percentile nationally. Um this will be the first time that anyone in our administration remembers one of our elementary schools being recognized. So, uh, we received an email this morning
from US News, um, u, and we were notified, uh, that Forest Avenue was at least in the top 40% of the 2339 elementary schools in New Jersey. Um, actually, the specific ranking is um, in
the top 15% and which places Forest Avenue School in the 80 86th percentile. So that's out of all of the schools in New Jersey, all of the elementary schools in New Jersey. Um only about 1300 of them are actually ranked. So um
he's in they are in the uh students and staff there are in the top 25th percentile of the ranked schools. And um uh this they are which means they outperform 75% of the schools in in in the rankings. So congratulations to um
uh Forest Avenue School students, staff and Mr. Monoselli um who was really uh taken back and very happy to hear that um the number one school if you're interested um was school 28 Patterson Academy for the gifted and talented. Um
and uh the the most of the the the schools at the top 10 off Mountain Lakes, Milbour, Livingston, you know, um go right down Madison. So, uh we're we're starting to
raise the bar. Yep. So, just a little methodology. Um the rankings use the same methodology for all included grade levels. So for each school, each state schools were assessed on their shares of students who were proficient or above proficient in math and reading language
arts on our state assessments. So half of the formula assessed scores themselves and the other half incorporated the test results in the context of socioeconomic demographics. So um the top most ranked schools are those
schools that are high achieving and have succeeded at educating all students. Um, so, um, I'm not going to go through all of this. They have four, uh, ranking factors. Reading proficiency, math proficiency, reading performance, and
math performance. And so, proficiency is what it is. It's it's the rank. It's where your your students rank um, in the percentile of among your state. The performance um, really are.
So, US News looks at the socioeconomic makeup of your school and they predict where you should be and then they measure where you actually are compared to where they predict you should be based on socioeconomic and
ethic uh ethnic ethnicity data. So um those are the four things that they use to rank and um that's where we are and yeah it's great great last uh staffing we are currently actively recruiting
business administrators but we are conducting second round interviews for the assistant principal for athletics and student activities and we are um you'll see on the agenda tonight the finalist that we spoke about for the science position is on the agenda. local hometown educated uh at
Verona High School. Oh well actually that came across our own schools and um just a little fun fact when I got here 50% of our par profofessionals were agency Paris um we are now almost completely uh fully staffed with par
profofessionals and um all but two are uh par professionals that we employ directly not through an agency and I just want to thank the board for what uh what you guys did for of the Paris by going um and funding that that salary
guide outside of collective bargaining. That was very important and it's really what turned the tide in being able to have a competitive wage for those those Paris have one of the hardest jobs in the district. So, um and it it's great
that we can um encourage more of our our Paris to be part of our employment community. And that's my report for tonight. Just one question on the um awesome Forest uh recognition. Are we doing
anything or will we be doing anything to promote it like putting a a banner on their uh school or on the web page? >> We're going to put it on the web page. Yeah, there's some stuff that that US News will send us that it'll show um they're like logos and stuff. We'll put it on um a banner. >> Cool.
>> Yeah, I was I was going to ask the same thing because I do think it's so important to celebrate the small wins. Um not that it's a small win but to celebrate all wins I should say. >> Um I also just wanted to share um just with respect to the Maller's Army um
assembly you know as parents we hear little tidbits of things from school here and there um and last week I was able to hear that like just over here in a conversation of one of my kids and some of their friends and the the impact
that that had on them. Um, so I think that that is the the the best piece of evidence that we can have that something hit right or made a positive impact the kids is when they're actually talking about it unprompted, unass just on their own. So I wanted to share that and thank
you for that. Um, and then I'm so also I just want to celebrate the um the Paris. It's so important like you said just to reinforce that and just in you know that that all of our staff including our paris and everyone know that they're part of this learning community that you know we're all kind of working the same
direction and to have them really be Verona um employees not agency I think is such a a great step in the right direction. So thank you. >> Thank you. Moving on to our student report. Mr. Ryan go
>> good evening everyone. Uh so even as the fall sports season draws to an end, uh many of Verona's teams are still continuing with great success. Um just yesterday, the volleyball team uh defeated West Essex, which is a victory that moved the team on to the Essex
County tournament finals. And for finals, the volleyball team will be playing an away match against Livingston Livingston High School tomorrow at 6 pm. At senior night last Friday, the boys soccer team scored a resounding 71 win against Newark Tech while celebrating
our 10 boys soccer seniors. And tomorrow, the boys soccer team will be playing Livingston at 600 pm on Soto Field. Despite Livingston coming out on top of our girls soccer team yesterday at semi-finals, Rona's record is still strong and the team's um remains the
number three seed in the ECT and looks forward to playing a playoff playing for a playoff title in the NJSIAA bracket. Uh the girls soccer team will be playing a game against Milbour on Saturday, November 1st. also look
forward to girls field hockey senior day and on the 1st of November as well and they will honor their seniors and play New York Academy at 9:30 a.m. on Centennial Field. A big trend of this report is there's a lot of things happening on November 1st. So just mark
that down in your calendar. Um, so last Friday, the Essex County Tournament Cross Country Championships uh honored CE sen uh BHS senior Sienna Griffin who placed six out of 108 runners in Essex County as she made the
first team all county team for Essex account Essex County and remarkably um Griffin's time was the fifth fastest in VHS history. So definitely congratulations and shout outs to Sienna Griffin. And furthermore, the boys and
girls cross country teams will be competing at the NJIAA finals on November 1st. Switching gears to music, the VHS marching band competed at East Brunswick High School two Saturdays ago. This following Sunday, the Marching Maroon and Whites will wrap
up its season by competing at state championships at the College of New Jersey. The VHS concert band will be hosting and performing a brief Halloween themed concert in the high school's band room tomorrow night at 7. Uh, this year Halloween at VHS is being
spruced up a little bit and following our traditional costume parade and contest will be a new trunk or treat event hosted by the student council and the senior class. Underassmen dressed in up in costume will be able to trickor treat out of specially decorated cars
around the VHS parking lot. And there will be also a card decoration contest for the seniors as well. So Halloween is uh sure to be fun and unforgettable. And that's really all for my report tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you very much, Ryan. On to committee report. Does anyone have any questions? >> On to committee reports. Education. Um so quick education uh meeting. It was a a good quick one. Um so we have for
our uh at our elementary level we have our academic enrichment students who have been identified um and began this week for their services. Um at high school level we had 121 students who will be receiving the AP scholar awards which is another wonderful celebration.
Um, as far as curriculum goes, we are in the process of um, developing the course proposal proposals and revisions for the 2627 school year. Um, as with all other districts in the state, we are in the
process of doing the NJSLA field test for the new adaptive um, state assessments that the students will be taking in June. This field test is um a practice room. Um as far as
instruction for non-tenure teachers, all SGOs's are due. This is kind of just uh procedures. Uh observations have begun. We do have two upcoming PD days. So professional development days. Um they will be focusing in the elementary school and the new HMH training which is
our new K5 literacy program. um as well as the learning targets which has been a uh district goal and then at the middle school and high school level we'll also be focusing on those uh you know building success criteria which is also aligned to our strategic goals um and
I'm happy to say that you know we're seeing a lot of this data we're seeing a lot of the success and the growth from our students and I do believe that a lot of that is tied to these um to this professional development and support that teachers have been getting. So, thank you, Miss DJ. Jeppi. Um, in
special education, our CPAC um meeting, the CPAC meeting was held on October 15th, um, which was reported as having a nice turnout and a successful meeting. Yeah.
Um, one thing that was that I think is important to note, um, where is it? Um, oh, we're continuing with the action plan for the Bog Center and the DREAMS grant, which were, uh, two grants that we received last year, um, that we'll be able to support right
now counselors and then hopefully be able to turn key to our teachers. We've said this before, but the importance of being able to turnkey these practices into the classroom is where we start to see so um, I think where we start to see movement. So, I I always love to hear
that. Um and then again we have professional development for our par professionals. So this goes back to what we were saying about having in district power professionals and now being able to offer um our paras elevate educators professional development is so
important. This drives success. This helps to support the teachers. It helps to support students and families. So it's all around um I think a celebration. Um and I think that that was it. Any
questions? >> Just one thing I wanted to uh commend uh Mrs. Ferrara uh and Mr. Waka who is not here for their wonderful curriculum presentation last week down in Atlantic City. Um and and the main reason I want
to shout this out is I to let the community know that uh people that are involved in understanding how our curriculum is put together uh the people behind that or the people over looking into this uh are
immensely talented and really know what uh goes on and they educate others on how to establish best practices. So, it really gave me a lot of pride to see Verona really setting the tone uh in front of a statewide audience. So, congratulations, Mrs. Bar.
>> So much. That means a lot. >> Thank you, Mr. Boon. I agree with your comments wholeheartedly. Moving on to uh public comments on any agenda action items. If there's anyone from the public that would like to speak on anything we are voting on, please
come to the podium and state your name. And you will have three minutes. Seeing none any discussion moving on to discussion items or new business or old business. >> Uh do we need to discuss um meeting schedule for November?
>> Sure. >> Sure. So we can discuss this in this I guess right now. So, we are looking at our calendar for November, keeping our November 12th, 2025 meeting as scheduled. And right now, um, cancelling
out the November 25th um, board of education meeting. And if we need to something comes up and we need to add it back in, we will in enough time. >> Recommend a formal formal resolution. So, I need a motion to adjust the board calendar.
>> Okay. >> 11:25. I would like to a motion to adjust the board of education calendar removing November 25th, 2025. >> Moved by second moved by M. Mrs. Ferrer,
seconded by Mr. Boon. Any discussions? All in favor? I guess >> Mrs. Ferrar. >> Yes. >> Frisco. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Boon. Any other
discussion items or new or old business? Anything for correspondence? Mrs. DJ Zeppy? No. Okay. Great. Moving on to our resolutions. Our first up is um I need a motion to approve our personnel
resolutions A1 through A10. Motion by Mr. Boon, seconded by Second Mrs. Fra. Are there any discussions? Mr. Robinson, if you could please call ro.
>> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Prisc. >> Yes. >> Mr. Boom. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Moving on to our education resolutions. I need a motion to approve resolutions B1 through B4.
Motion by Mrs. Ferrer, seconded by Mr. Boone. Any discussion? Mr. Robinson, if you could call roll. Mr. Yes, >> Chris. >> Yes, >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Great. Thank you. Moving on to athletics and co-curricular. Motion to approve
resolution C1. Motion by >> Mr. Boon. Seconded by a second. Seconded by Mrs. Ferrer. Any discussion? Mr. Robinson, if you could please follow. >> Yes, >> Mr. Prrisco. >> Yes,
>> Mr. Moon. >> Yes. >> Thank you. There's nothing for facilities. Moving on to our finance. Motion to approve resolutions E1 through E5. Motion by
Motion by Mr. Boon, seconded by a second. Thank you, Mrs. Ferraris. >> Any discussion? >> Just a thank you to VP. Yes. >> As always, for their grant, >> Mr. Robinson, a piece of coal.
>> Yes. Mr. >> Frisa. >> Yes. Yes. >> Thank you. Moving on to governance and policy. Need a motion to approve resolutions F1 through F4. Motion by. >> So moved.
>> Mrs. Ferrer. Seconded by >> Second. >> Mr. Boone. Are there any discussions? Mr. Robinson, if you could please call RO. >> Mr. Ferrer. >> Yes. >> Mr. Frisco. >> Yes. >> Mr. Boom. >> Yes. >> Perfect. Thank you.
Moving on to public comments on any items. You have three minutes. Please come to the podium and state your name. Seeing none, uh, I need a motion to um adjourn our
meeting. >> Motion by Mrs. Ferrer, seconded by Mr. Boone. Our next public meeting will be Wednesday, November 12th, 2025, beginning a confidential session at 6:00 p.m. and
public session at 7 p.m. in the Verona High School Learning Commons. And all in favor? >> I I meeting is adjourned and it is 7:28 p.m. Have a great evening and happy
Halloween.