okay thank you good evening everyone i would like to welcome you to the March 25th uh special board of education meeting uh with the township i'm calling this meeting to order at 7:04 p.m
good evening um on behalf of Township Council I call to order this special meeting of the Brona Township Council for the 25th of March 2025 shall we stand for the pledge of allegiance rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of
the United States of America and to the stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all madam Board President do you want to have Mr cruz read the public meeting
statement or I usually just read it okay thank you notice of open public meeting the notice requirement of the open public meetings acts have been satisfied with respect to the special joint meeting of the township council and the Verona Board of Education being held in the auditorium of the Verona High School
notice of this special meeting was published in the March 21st 2025 edition of the Star Ledger the agenda along with written notice was given giving the time and date and live stream link was posted in the municipal building and sent to
the official newspapers of the township the Verona Cedar Grove Times and the Star Ledger at least 48 hours preceding the start time of this meeting the agenda can be viewed online at the verona new jersey.org/cancil org/cancil meetings a public comment per
period will be held in the order it is listed in the meeting agenda the public comment period is available only for those attending in person and let's um do roll call mr cruz yes
mrs ferrar yes mrs frisco here mrs fzella here mr boon here we have quum thank you madame clerk here here thank you madam clerk
so just before we go um on to new business I hope everyone doesn't want to take a little bit out of order i just want to welcome the mayor deputy mayor and town council um uh Vice President Prrisco did some research and the last time there was a joint meeting of the board of education
and the town council was on October 24th 2016 given how closely the township and the school district must work to the benefit of the residents of Verona I would say this meeting is overdue although that meeting had a somewhat different setup there was several topics including shared services and pilot
funds that are still on our agenda speaking for the board we are looking forward to a robust robust discussion between our two governing bodies so welcome thank you thank you Madam President i think the council reflect those statements i know I do
um it is great that everybody can be in one room to go over these issues and really work in furtherance of the needs of the township uh and our residents and our students if we want to move on to our new
business um a review of current shared services between the township and board of education um I think just to give a little background to the public the the board of education and the township entered into a shared services agreement
whereby it the board of education receives some services from the town specifically around um maintenance of some facilities snow removal general um services um and then
in from the town from the board of education the township is permitted to use our facilities for recreck department activities um and other townwide activities um as needed so you know this this shared services agreement has been
in place for I want to say about a year now okay so a little over a year so I just thought it'd be a good time to just reflect and see if there's any um growing pains or issues that need to be resolved between the the two groups
to see make sure we keep going forward together thank you um know Mr o' Sullivan has an attach administration i have to look this way to to see him um to get his eye but uh administration worked on this with the um Mrs teppy and
Mr crews in order to actually document things that have been done for a long time unofficially um and over times the the township has been happy to fill some of the the needs um that are arising out of the having fewer staff on the school
end or um equipment needs so we're really not duplicating services so it's a it's a wise approach um Mr sullivan is there anything that you would like to specifically note related to the shared services agreement that needs to be updated um changed or highlighted
i think um in reviewing what was stop ago since that time i think the shared services uh could be updated there there's no ongoing discussions with the board of education u the the township
also has extended the use of system and some um just recently in the past week we've provided access to our grant writing portal to open up discussions about potential future shared service agreements if there's any potential
grants out there that would uh benefit uh both parties equally so as we continue to have these discussions I think it would make sense not continue to review and update the ad and supplement through the current um agreement based on the growing
relationship for you thank you i don't know if there's anything from Mr cruz or Mr djeppy that um needs to be addressed so um we we definitely appreciate the partnership with uh the Verona Township especially
the uh DPW uh I think that's one of the uh components that has uh helped our buildings and ground department and the upkeep of the grounds there are some costs that that the board does incur when when it comes to groundkeeping such
as like um weeding and and um and also like there's like hedges and things like that so we do have there are um not sure if there's a bandwidth that where the DPW is able to pick that up but I know that in the past we've um that's one area that we weren't able to um we would
have to actually contract out uh since we don't have a grounds crew in in the board the only thing um that I would um bring up and it was something Mr o'sullivan and I spoke about already so we already have a solution is better communication
between the rec department and um our our athletic department um things get lost in the shuffle sometimes so um we um actually Mr foliotary our uh facilities director has a Google calendar set up um that has all of the
events that are scheduled for the district on that if we can get uh Mrs paul uh Paul Marie to put all of the athletic or actually her assistant to put all of the athletic um events in it and then share it with the rec
department and they could put their athletic events in it or recreation events whether they're athletics or camps or whatever um that would go a long way in fixing any um current um communication issues I think so that was a great suggestion thank you
great does anyone have any other comments on that before we move on to the next item okay uh going to new business 2 cooperation between school district and township and distributing important information through both entities mass
communication systems um the background of this is just I think sometimes the people especially people with kids that may not that may not be school age yet might subscribe to the recck department or the township email
blast and they might miss some stuff from the school district that is pertinent to them you know regarding preschool registration or kindergarten registration stuff like that that um you know I think just making sure that we cooperate together to use both of our communication facilities as as
effectively as possible um and then just to piggyback that because I was thinking about this as I was going home today it would be very nice if to kind of expand the Google calendar idea for recreck department to have a townwide calendar
of events um school events town events if there's even county events that are happening in the park um I I think it was about a little over a year ago a little less than a year ago there was a day where there was an event in the Verona Park there was a vet in the
horseshoe and there was a vet behind HBW um and that just was I think too many events in too little space um so I think if we had a a a calendar or something where we can share and say "Oh wait the
township's having their event this year this you know Tuesday maybe we'll have ours on the following Tuesday." Um just to communicate and coordinate a little better um give people in the community one spot to go to look um for various
things i think if you uh I tend to agree it's a good idea i know the the school is a Google based um enterprise and so is the the township so even if when the school and the township both have Google calendars you can actually set up another calendar that incorporates both those calendars in and it actually
requires no additional labor on anybody's part to do that except set it up the one time um but all the events I know the school districts your schools have their own calendars and there's a district calendar so we have to keep adding those layers yeah I was just going to say the difficulty with the schools is we don't have one person
entering onto a calendar um each school has their own calendar the district has a calendar so we could certainly look into streamlining that i mean even you you can amalgamate all of those into one we could populate a central Google calendar blank so what's that i said a
couple of them are blank oh well that that is well it just leaves us to guess um that's good and I know with some of the county events if there's stuff happening in Verona our PIO uh Lisa might be able to update our calendar with that or our municipal clerk and uh
Miss Kieran to add those things in as a separate like a county calendar and when you can I have like 90 Google calendars and they all appear on one item and if we do that that might be an easy way without adding labor for anybody that we can just get our tech folks talking and
and get that all set up that should be a relatively labor unintensive uh project mr ros right certainly out of discussions uh I know that the township launch a new website with a number of different calendars
based on a website uh you different calendars on and off so you can look at a way to carry in and pull in different calendars and power also public has an opportunity to view multiple calendars at one spot the district is also moving to a new
website host uh provider so um if we could just make wait till we get that set up so we don't have to set it up twice thanks i'd like to add a layer to this um communication piece as well from the emergency management perspective for
the township um we don't have we have alert verona which is the rave system where we put out emergency alerts not everybody is on there um and that does create some issues when we have things like a water main break a
boil water advisory a large incident happening in town um and I know that the school district has through parents square has access to a lot of things but I'm wondering if between the emergency management office and the township and the school district we might be able to
develop a way where um the either the township could have you know emergent access to that portal to send out an emergent update if we need to get something out like you know shelter in place to everybody in town or
uh so direct access for a somebody who's you know has that access to our alert Verona that if they see something that is of an urgent nature to be able to piggyback that out onto the the um schooly system and get that information
out right away and we'd be potentially reaching more people in an emergency um the schools actually might have more users on your system than we do potentially yeah but likely uh so we're actually moving away from parent square as well because our new
web host provider will provide something that's almost identical to parent square but I believe we could provide a user um a user account uh or the uh someone at the um township yeah and that way if it's Lisa or Joel or whoever and that
way we can you know we just put a disclaimer on the bottom this communication is being sent by Township of Verona and then people know it's not Diane telling people to shelter in place yeah it's Yeah I mean I don't know how it's with the new system with the old with the system that we have now just the drop down who's sending oh that's
easy enough just something to add to keep everybody um everybody safe in that time now the other thing is is that the uh the township has our newsletter that does have a lot of subscribers and um the board of ed should consider things for
that you're trying to publicize especially kindergarten registration things like that to get that information out to Alisa to put out to the general public as well even if we had a she'll send stuff out on demand if we have to but there's also a regular schedule for
these things um to be able to get that information out and then we can add and and reach that that's not a as heavy a lift either to do thank you anyone else have any comments communication
okay moving on to item number three um Verona Flax uh so it's open and people are moving in which is great um I believe we have about 20 new students in the
district um which we welcome and we're very excited to have them join us um however we there's been a lack of communication between Conifer um and the board regarding move in dates
number of students um providing um I actually found an email that Diane sent to um the previous town manager and uh the conifer rep whose name I is eluding
asking for um the registration materials to be sent out with leases so that we can get students enrolled as quickly as possible and and into our schools and that just did not happen as far as I I understand um so it it just seems that
we need some sort of better mechanism to communicate um because right now I think we you we found out what was it there was three two three two bedrooms three two three bedrooms still and and third
in about 32 bedrooms still um unoccupied and so that would those are all potentially students um at least one student um potentially when is the next phase in when is the next move in phase mr rosa
uh I did request an update from Conifer regarding their their move in dates they have fully leased out the entirety of the units uh they they have not moved in yet they're expecting them to be moved in for the next several weeks uh they
were able to provide me some additional information regarding school age children great thank you and children under the age of five which that would be helpful yes i just received that uh just earlier today so I'll that would be very helpful so we can
plan you know when we have schools that are at or close to max um well we have um FN Brown is just about at max um class sizes there are very large um it
just happens to be our school um that we do elementary um multi- language learners so we need to keep some space there in case we have um a percentage of the students that moved into Vonafa Flats are um have been screened and are multil- language learners so we did
place some at Brown we're trying to strategic strategically place students um in areas that have the smallest class sizes but Landing is at capacity brown is reaching capacity forest um has room in individual classrooms but doesn't
have any more open classrooms so it the space issue is concerning especially looking at the fact that we could potentially have another 30 students coming in from those unoccupied um uh apartments um and you know we welcome
them to Verona and we want to educate them we just want to be able to do that in a way that is not overcrowding uh our our schools uh Diane do you have a number on how many of the moveins so far um were
already students in a Verona i know there's one just one so and even if all the new students that move in to flats are Verona residents say all 30 of them are Verona residents already what that does is it kind of
shifts so that will be 30 empty apartments or homes in Verona that then potentially could have more students moving in so it's not like a zero sum game it's it does also open up to you know 30
can become much more than 30 um so I guess um what's difficult for me um to share concerns specifically is with only 20 students you don't want to um I don't want to give information that may um
identify a student however um I I do feel the need to say that that we are expecting to get and were expecting to get and has have gotten students that are um more costly than um a regular
$17,000 per student cost so uh leading into the next topic and I'm not pushing us there i just wanted to express the concern about potential um students like for instance one student that moves in and we don't have this situation but
it's potentially there that moves in that needs an out of district placement could cost the district $300,000 for one student it's a tremendous amount of money and um we have um we've been working really hard since I uh got here
uh two and a half years ago almost three years ago now gone so quickly um to try to improve outcomes for kids and um to divert money away from that um is really it disheartening to say the least
because you you're not we we can't change outcomes for students on a negative budget you can't add programs we our budget this year was very difficult and I I thank u Mr cruz every day for being able to um get us to um
CAP um we had to cut $1.5 million out of our budget to get to CAP um it would be helpful if the township um could figure out a way to help offset the costs of some of our students as I mentioned uh we have several multil- language
learners that will require us to to hire another teacher uh for that so it's it it's uh it's going to be tight with this project and also whatever's coming down the road with the Spectrum 360 and we know that you got another mandate for
more housing um uh from the governor's office recently uh so if we can just work together to try to make sure that we are supporting our schools to the point where we can keep moving in the right direction and not slide back
so just I guess any before we move on to to the next topic anyone else have any comments they wish to share i I just want to point out I think all those comments are heard and uh for the public edification there was a small group session before this um with the mayor
deputy mayor president vice president the um uh once the council approved the agenda we had a uh Mr sullivan Miss Kieran and board organized a time for everybody to get together um I'm sorry the deputy mayor was not on that call just putting it out there um but uh Mr
the lawyer was there as well and and there were some extensive more extensive discussions on some specific needs that may not be appropriate to put in the general forum um but I think all of those concerns are heard and it is
important for the the council to understand those concerns and this is really the first time we're hearing of some of them as far as some of the you know additional special ed expenses and some of those large ticket items um so it is helpful to have um and the all of
those things are are heard and I think uh just for the the public edification both the board of ed and the township are significantly restrained by a 2% tax gap that is put forth by the state legislature um the board and the
township have the same tax gap uh we cannot raise our our tax levy beyond that amount um except in certain circumstances right so the board and the township can increase that for debt service so you might actually see a budget higher than 2% but that's because
we're paying back bonds with that or referenda um based on that as well there are certain ways that you can u get a waiver on that for extraordinary healthcare increases um there are certain things on the schoolboard side for extraordinary population changes but
I don't think the uh the uh even 60 students would activate that Diane correct for the for the the cap that's correct yeah so um but we're really constrained right now a 2% tax cap when we're facing we've faced like over 20%
inflation in the last four years is not a sustainable model for local government whether that be on the municipal side or the board of ed side um the township has been forced to make significant decisions about our own programs um that we're able to hire purchases that we're
able to make um and you know we're in the situation where we have similar similar decisions um the as we as population grow increases as well we take on additional liabilities related to public safety social services
recreation all of those things expand as the population expands um and those are items that we have to think about as well so I I think the I'm not going to speak for every member of the council but on my end I think that certainly the township understands that i know our
administration does that we're all um facing that the one significant difference in the financial operations between the board of ed and the township is that if the board of ed wants to borrow money they have to go to the voters to borrow money through a
referendum the township does not have to um go to the voters on those items but we also have to borrow within our bond rating and uh we have to pay that back and that all comes from tax levy as far
as things go so uh those are important things to note and I think that one of the items that we should be doing is working together to lobby our legislature and the governor to rethink the the tax gap i certainly the most recent state budget did not fall within
a 2% tax increase um so they're holding the state right now is holding us to a very different standard than the state is holding itself proving that 2% is an untenable um level and I you know I don't want to sound like the person out there saying that we should be raising
taxes more and more but when you have those expenses and you get to the point where we're constrained by that amount and we're talking about cutting programs and making difficult decisions that is that is very hard right and the township over many years lost a lot of staff to
attrition at for instance we have to hire additional staff because of changes to the local public records act where we basically almost have a full-time employee in the police department because so many people request um body cam footage and that has to be edited so you're talking about paying a salary to
confidentially edit those videos and things like that which we had nothing to do with so a lot of the issues that we're facing and that you're facing we didn't create and that's where the opportunity for us to work together um and you know I suggest that maybe we tried to have an opportunity to sit down
with um with our legislative delegation but also our local representative from the governor's office and start to have these conversations about how the policy needs to change on the state level um whether it be keeping the tax cap you
know changing it to another amount or changing the exemption um requirements so that you can actually go beyond the cap so and I just want to add to Thank you mayor i just want to add to that by saying um I don't I'm not sure on the municipal side but if the
district goes out with a a question or a referendum um for instance if we felt that we needed to add 10 teachers we go out to the public and ask for the monies to do that and it fails we cannot use district money to add those 10 teachers so we would never go out with a
referendum like that that's so risky um and uh we are also operating outside of our control in in addition to the cap uh tax levy cap on municipalities and school districts there's also a school district funding formula that has never been
adequately calculated or implemented uh we are currently um out of under adequacy by $800,000 based on the school funding formula so it's kind of like if you if you put $5 into your bank account
and you need 15 you only have five to take out and that's what's been happening so the funding formula is there they never put enough money in the line item in the line to fund schools adequately and that's where Verona is right now we are underfunded by about
$800,000 and again outside of our control but something that we have to live with and work with we we face the same issues with not getting all the funding that we're promised by the state especially local energy um receipts and things like that and various other
pieces where the state is really not meeting its obligation to us financially that has promised and that money is being diverted to other places as well so there is a there's a greater um greater complication that that exists
and that is really harming every everybody uh in our township as a result of those policies that are being made outside of our control but I do think the one thing that is in at least the township's control
is the pilot funds that are currently being given to the township for lack of paid to the township I guess is a better way to say from our developers um I believe it's attuned to about $1.7 million um based on the current budget
that you guys have posted um which the school district received zero dollars from so for everyone who is listening um any student that comes and and I don't want to point out these students I I I
don't um but when you build models we'll use Annen as an example um in that facility in 2017 that facility before it became the apartments paid the township
$129,000 in taxes when that became a pilot project that was removed as a ratable so the township doesn't receive tax levy from it they receive pilot funds from it the board of education no longer
receives tax levies from it so you've removed a property from our ratables but did not provide us the funding that we would have provided would have been provided had it been taxed so that's a loss to us of
about $84,000 and in 2017 funds um in 2025 Atten paid [Music] $272,932 in pilot funds we got zero but we do have
students that come from Atten that we pay for um in addition funding schools is not just for the people who have children in schools i paid taxes before my children entered school i will my children are graduating
in a few years i will pay taxes probably for another 20 years after they graduate um there are people in this town who have never sent school children but our residents benefit from a strong school system by the property
values in their town um in the last master plan survey in the past 20 years they asked people who moved to Veron in the past 20 years why did you move here 53% said due to the quality of the educational
system and then it went back into the appendix appendix A page six um importance of issues the quality of public education was rated very important by 81% of the respondents and
important by 13% only 1% said it was not important so the township has spoken the residents have spoken the schools are important and when funding is not provided through the schools and is
actually removed from the tax base it harms the school system and harms the residents um you know just again from the the township's budget if the Annen building was
taxed based on its value it would bring in $877,000 of that at 65% which is about what the the school board percentage of the taxes is the school board re would receive approximately $570,000 i asked Miss DJeppy earlier
what would you do with $1.1 million which is the 65% of the $1.7 million i would add teachers to reduce class size i would add interventionists uh we have two interventionists in the entire district and both do reading we have no math intervention and our math
scores show that um I would add uh a something we're going to talk about later a substance abuse or student assistance counselor which we also do not have um um we could use more counseling at the elementary level where they share a
counselor between each each elementary shares a counselor uh we see the growing need for um for more counseling at one school or the other um but for the most part we have kindergarten classes this
year that are at 24 and 25 students uh we have first grades that are at 25 and 26 students um we have some some pockets where we have smaller class size where we've had a bubble and had to add a third section but for the most part um it's not sustainable but what's not
being added just I just want to highlight it was all student focused teachers counselors interventionists we're not adding another assistant principal we're not adding you know a another administrator and I'm sure Mr cruz could use an
assistant BA but we're not doing that it would be teachers well Mr cruz and I share an administrative assistant teachers counselors interventionists with the facilities department that is that is what we are looking for
you know um so our ask and I'll say it in public and I'll say it right now our ask is 65% of pilot funds now and in the future as well as a seat at the table for a board representative or Miss
DJeppy or her representative whenever a pilot project is negotiated we don't have a seat decisions are made that impact us that we have no say in so that's the ask that was asked once
what the ask was that's the ask thank you thank you um for the the public edification in our small group meeting uh one of the items that came up we had a long conversation philosophically about pilots and things like that and I
did request an ask from the board because we needed to go somewhere with this and I thank you for providing that um I do want to provide some background on pilots and how they come forward and they use because they're often misunderstood by the public and and
individuals um a pilot project comes with a redevelopment plan so if you have a piece of property that meets certain criteria um it can be approved as a um area need of redevelopment by the planning board
and the township council that both bodies have to agree to that designation uh you can look online in the in the uh state law we're very encumbered by that um as far as how that can be done from there
um there is a negotiation um when if that redevelopment plan is approved there doesn't necessarily have to be a pilot okay we can still charge standard property taxes on an area needed redevelopment a pilot or payment in L of taxes is an
incentive that is provided to a developer to engage in reasonable development okay so uh development that is good for the community and um does not create additional issues so um for
example in a redevelopment agreement the town can negotiate the number of units in a apartment building it can negotiate the how many of these units are multiple bedrooms um it can um negotiate you know
various other things as far as appearance and um and setbacks and things like that um that can be done in order to make a building fit into the municipality a little bit better what that does that helps the the school
district and I'm not saying the pilot is helps the school district as much as we would like obviously um is it actually limits the number of students who enter the school district by having those agreements um because it can reduce the total
number of people who um total number of units or the number of bedrooms things like that we tend to push when we have development except for affordable housing requirements which are once again not under our control we tend to push to have more one-bedroom units and things like that on the planning board and the
council level um because that does not bring students in um a lot of places we unfortunately have not had this um interest but a lot of towns will do age restricted housing which meets the same
objective um so this is one of the things to consider right now um if there's a pilot agreement 95% of the uh that pilot payment that's negotiated between the township and developer goes
to the township as and spent as designated and 5% goes to Essex County there isn't a formula for the school board to receive any specific money under the state law however the pilot does not negate the tax levy on the land
assessment for a property the pilot is for your improvement assessment so for instance uh Ann and Flag that was brought up um is still being taxed on $85,636.50 of the land assessment um and that is being that normally allocated as
it would be with the school district receiving 55 56% of that the township receiving about 25% and the Essex County receiving about 20% so land assessment doesn't change um correct in that Mr lawyer just want to make sure okay um so there is still not there's still
money coming in just from the land assessment on all of these pilot agreements and typically the number of students in one of these pilots is low um and if we're talking about breaking down um the students being in the buildings there is some funding coming
in um so that's just one piece of that the way pilots have worked in Verona for years and I just want to noted that I have not been on the council when we have engaged in a pilot agreement uh there has not been one in the last four years um there
are requests for development before the council before the planning board um there's been no specific conversation or consideration of a pilot um since in the last four years as far as engaging one
of those agreements the last pilot agreement that the council um engaged in was for the one Sunset Avenue property um and right now that property is um currently used as a school it's a
nonprofit uh which is taxexempt on their property taxes so there's no revenue coming into that either to the township or to the um to the school system there is a a pilot there um because once
again it allowed some uh negotiation to have a better development in that process um part of the there is uh which does bring in revenue right uh previously that had been Hoff and Lar Ro Jack right yes okay
where the township was getting some um funding on both the the land and the improvement assessment uh but then we got nothing nobody got anything that pilot was put into place about the same time as the last round of
affordable housing was uh imposed on Verona if we do not meet our affordable housing obligations these builders can engage in what's called a builder's remedy lawsuit which would allow them to build in in
areas um that would satisfy affordable housing and build a lot more units than any of us would want whether it be the council or the uh the board of ed um in order to avoid that the township did a couple things and I was not on the
council during this time so correct me if I'm wrong if my council members the first was uh spending about $10 million to purchase land at the corners of Pine Street uh Bloomfield Avenue and Lind Drive um in order to provide that land
to a developer uh the the prior iteration of conifer it was um Pearl right and we had to buy that 6 million I'm sorry um there were actually two properties though yes two properties
totaling 6 million did I read it was around six it was six okay because I just read the two bonds sorry 8 million okay I just read the bond bonds and I think I might have double added them so let's say it's $8 million um by the township spending $8
million to build 95 units of affordable housing that potentially decreased significantly by like 80% potentially the number of affordable housing units that could have been built in Verona through builder's
remedy lawsuits all right so that that $8 million investment the township put in has protected the school district from getting a massive amount of student inflow in addition the township also
bought um two properties one on Mount Prospect U and uh another property on between Commerce Court and uh Brookside Terrace um what's the number on that
Kevin we we just talked about so another 12 million total 12 million so another another $12 million spent on that by the township buying those properties it insulated the municipality and the school board from additional
housing units being built for individuals who are not aware of the plans for the property on Commerce Court it was going to be hundreds and hundreds of affordable housing units um all that were slated to be multiple bedroom units I believe or most of them at that point
there's 360 units um so that insulated as well that per and the township has taken the entire burden on that so some of that money has been reimbursed through the open space tax which the taxpayers have agreed to
pay which is three three cents per $100 of test value on their homes and the other part of that um is being paid back with the pilot funds that are uh have been agreed to from the One Sunset Avenue property
um it should be noted that the township has not received any of the pilot payments from the One Sense Avenue property because they were set to go into effect either in 2026 or when the improvements were were started and the improvements haven't been started yet we
will start to see income from there at that time so it's important to note that the township has spent about $20 million to of not only pilot funds but also raising tax revenue in order to and
borrowing that money which means that the in the end the actual liability to the township and the taxpayer is going to be significantly higher because of the amortization of those bonds and those loans in order to insulate from what would have been a very difficult situation if we had hundreds and
hundreds of more units built so I I want to put that out there for the public edification because it's important to contextualize what we're talking about with the pilot funds when we talk about a pool of money
right um it can only be spent on one thing and if it's spent on one thing it can't be spent on another so by the township engaging in um those purchases it stopped the township from being able to meet other um necessary requirements
for instance the township has uh demonstrated need in a public safety facility for for decades that money could not be used to provide that um but at that point the council and I agree with their decision-m as the Monday
morning quarterback here um I think engaged in actually a very brilliant approach and I give all of the council members who are on the council at that time credit in order to minimize what the impact of development would be on the township um so I think that's very very
important to note at the same time um any future developments that would ask for a pilot would be requested i can't speak for the entire council obviously but but would be requested to minimize those
two-bedroom units and those things um in order to reduce the impact on the township but that being said right now there's really nothing we can do about the pilot money that has been allocated
to cover these millions and tens of millions of dollars worth of projects that were necessary in order to insulate the township and the school district from overgrowth but I hear the board's
position on this and wanting a a seat at the table um I think that's something that the council needs to discuss as potential council and in in a council meeting this may not be the you know the right venue for that right but we need to hear from options we need to hear
from um from our our experts what I would say is I think it is reasonable as a personal opinion rather than the council's opinion or as an opinion of the mayor that if there were to be a negotiation regarding a pilot
project to invite the board so we would notify the board that this is being discussed it's public knowledge regardless okay and if it were in close session we would have to work with our legal experts to determine at what point the board might be able to opine
um and to notify the board that a pilot is being considered which I think is at minimum basic courtesy um and then ask the board based on the site plan the potential site plan to calculate an
impact an actual impact on number of students who may enter okay and if that's a revision of a current property where they're residential units consider okay how many students might be leaving the schoolboard has a demographer um we also have consulting firms on these
items as well that can chime in um and allow the board to give the board an opportunity to share their concerns about that but also a reasonable opportunity to suggest if we have this coming in would there be additional funds to
help make up for these other needs that the board has that Mrs dappy has uh articulated in detail which is very helpful to hear um that would be a reasonable path moving forward to have those conversations
there are models it really runs the gamut on what municipalities do with pilot funds um some have no negotiation with the school board at all some give a certain percentage um some will give a lump sum so for instance Cedar Grove
with that giant Hilltop development um gave some lumpsum payments to the board for a certain number of years um but there those are all options we have to balance the impact of the development versus the impact of prior development
also um and I think developing a procedure where that comes up and we can look at real numbers it may be a different percentage i appreciate the boards I ask at 65% it may be which is to note higher than the than the current portion of the
boards however if they pilot it's going to be slightly less than the actual value understand why the board would want 65% um but it may be something where a formula is considered that is
fact specific based on the uh on the the actual development impact um but I think it's positive that we're having the conversation moving forward and really understanding how things go
it's Mr could you just opine quickly on how a pilot affects the the ability of either the township or the school district to um raise funds on a on its budget on the
2% maybe I'm not asking the question well so if we if we if a property is no longer on the the improvement tax register it's still on the um it's still on the land tax register right the state ability uh the state
requirements that allow us to raise our budget um our tax levy are based on the prior year's tax levy they're not necessarily based on the that's correct so it's not based upon the assessed value of all the properties within the township as I think we were going yes
student so what happens is um the school board budget um is passed amongst all the properties that are not part of the pilots the same thing with the county if you don't participate in pilots and all the other towns participated in pilots technically
all those towns that participate in pilots all those properties together the county still gets its taxes it's spread across those properties that aren't pilots so it's the same way it doesn't actually impact your budget as much as it impacts how your budget or what
properties your budget spread across in order to make up your budget and that goes for the township and the school board just that's correct want to clarify that and the county taxes and the and the county and I think that's one of those things but um that is my suggestion is that the
council's heard from the school board extensively the school board has heard from me extensively um and at this point I think the the council would want to have a conversation the next time a pilot comes up that would establish some
guidelines to uh involve the school board um I think we can get those communication guidelines done very quickly right and make a policy that could be something manager does specifically um and then as these things happen um start to develop those
conversations and those structures to have those conversations um and I hope that that uh communicates to the school board that the township and the council are are serious about um the concerns that
you've raised and on a go forward basis trying to help to alleviate some of those concerns thank you Mr mayor i just wanted to open up if anyone had comments on either the township council or the board of ed side yeah um I I have a a question or a
comment and a question i mean my colleagues here on the board are probably sick of me saying this um I'm obviously never a fan of the pilot program i think from its inception it was never intended for communities such as ours and communities in um in uh West
Essex County however here we are um I I Uh for the mayor I I just have a clarifying question you you you you mentioned how um you you and other communities have used pilot pilot programs in an effort to avoid um
potential uh builder lawsuits that could force larger developments two questions on that um one do you have any examples or situations where that has actually taken place um and what does that look
like and and second how certain are we that in that scenario that I I think you said that the um the Camco project would have been 80% more um how did we come up with uh to that number
i'm going to take Camo uh I'll leave deputy mayor uh I could speak to the Kamico project uh as we talked earlier it was two separate properties it was Kamico and it was Pokeell uh we went out and spent uh the number we spent was two
million $6 million for the properties they were three million each and then as the manager said we spent $2 million to clean the properties up uh prior to that uh when we when we acquired Kamico or when it came to the council we had four
five interveners uh well four interveners on on five pieces of property uh Kamo came to us and and offered the property the first plan for Kamico was 85 units
uh Pokeel the corner property was the first intervenor that we settled with and we were going to put I believe there were 60 or 65 units were going to go on that 3 acre piece of property along with I believe it was somewhere in the neighborhood don't quote me the 10,000
square foot of of retail space uh Pokeell decided they didn't want to do the project came to Verona and offered us uh the property for $3 million uh of that 60 or 65 units we we had 10 uh
affordable units that were going there so we acquired the other three acres totaling six acres for 6 million we took those 10 units and added them to the 85 we were putting on Kamico we lowered the height of the building uh because we had a obviously a higher building going on
the property because we had 85 on only three acres so we basically spread it out and and when people come to us and say "Oh that the development the buildings don't look very well." I always say to them "It could have been a lot worse." And that's the perfect example of how we negotiated and we
spent a little bit more money and obviously got a better project on that and we reduced the amount of units by you know obviously it's like 50 something units less 55 units less on that six acres of land and that also
gave us the opportunity to uh I'm not going to say get rid of other interveners but we there were other pieces of property that once we hit our number by putting those 85 units there it stopped other projects and as the mayor said we spent another $12 million
purchasing property on the other two and there would have been just on those two pieces of property 27 acres we have three the both plans were already set 360 units on those properties so that's 50 and then we had another 40 in another location so we were upwards of 360
excuse me 460 or 470 units that could have been in the township on top of what we had uh that spending the money obviously stopped that amount of development and if you're looking at that that's very very close to the same
amount of units that are on the property next to Verona Pool there's 496 units there and we stopped close to the same amount from coming into Verona deputy Mayor anyone else
Mr cruz so yes I I just want to um address two things u just for the public to have an understanding thank you uh mayor for uh thoroughly explaining uh pilot and uh one of the things is that um especially going through the current
budgeting process for fiscal year 26 which is the 202526 school year uh by not having uh pilot funds uh there's two groups that are uh being shortanded here
is the school board and the rest of Verona basically um As you could hear I'm not sure if everyone has a full understanding is that the rest of the taxpayers of Verona is actually footing the school tax bill so the pilot
projects are not are paying zero um as a result we have uh a budget that's over cap so the current budget for 2526 is actually 1.53% over the 2% cap um that's
$590,000 that's not in the current 2% cap so if we were to have and in in addition to that $1.53% over cap we are riffing about $400,000 of personnel that are non uh
not impacting um instruction so these are non-instruction positions um one of them impacts instruction okay so so correction one of them does impact instruction uh but but the point is that's actually a little over a million
dollars and and of an impact so if we were to have received uh a portion of these pilot funds we wouldn't have to go over a 2% cap um at this present time and in addition to that we wouldn't have to change and reposition this is
actually just the start right now so this uh fiscal year 26 is the start of what Verona is going to start feeling is going to start feeling the squeeze verona as um uh superintendent de Jeppi stated we're fun um basically we're under adequacy when it comes to this uh
state funding uh what that means is that we're still compared to our peers like a Glenidge or um another school district our size and type we we actually don't have the same budget and we're still performing the same results or if not
better or or at the same as our peers and that's where we're competing with um and that's the reflection of where we at so I just want the public to have that understanding and to really be aware that the importance and I and I get what
the the um the town council actually I I know that the decisions they made is actually for the future of Verona but I I the those decisions actually left a big a big hole that's actually going to impact uh the school district for the
next 10 years plus thank you and Uh Mr cruz question for you on that all the financial projections right now are assuming that we receive the federal aid that we have been receiving correct correct so right now we we projected
about 70% of the current federal aid if um to just to be conservative so uh at a meeting um earlier in the week with uh Senator Ruiz and the Department of Education uh we were uh
guaranteed that IDA funds which are federal funds that we receive for special education would be intact but it was interesting that they said for the fiscal year 27 um going past that there was no guarantee that IDEIDA would be
intact and we were told to budget for significantly less in title funds now for Verona public schools we only get about $100,000 in title funds but $100,000 is you know it's still $100,000 that we'd have to make up if uh some or
all of that eventually gets um diminished um I do also want to just point out that um while we're talking a lot about shortfalls um we have done u Mr cruz and and the board and I have have dug deep into the spending habits
of the school district and spent a lot of time cutting um where there was waste or where uh monies have not been spent appropriately um and that's one of the reasons we were able to cut a million dollars out of our budget but that fat
is gone um it is uh we as I mentioned before uh we don't have the programs um to cut uh that other school districts do so um I can speak directly to my former district which is a little smaller but not by much about 200
students smaller when I left it's a little smaller now than um than it was um but had we needed to go into a a reduction in force we had positions that we could lose and and still um not
impact student learning um that's not true here as I said we have two interventionists districtwide uh we did not have inclusion uh for those that don't know what inclusion is it is the least restrictive environment for students with special needs students with IEPs um uh we did not have um the
least restrictive environment available to our students in kindergarten through fourth grade until last year this is our second year functioning under the law uh and um and and really morally what's right for students um when when you have students that are only provided
supplemental instruction or resource center instruction in grades K4 this is what leads to this the test scores that we have currently because you have a good number of students that are not even being taught at grade level and it it's compounding on uh their
understanding which is why if you look at our special education test score specifically students are more uh likely to score a um a not meeting grade level standards which is a one versus a three four or five which is three is
approaching grade level standards four is meeting grade level standards and five is exceeding grade level standards we had zero special ed students in a in a category of five and most were not in four actually most were in one and two so um we are seeing tremendous leaps o
in in a very short period of time uh we have seen our our percentile rankings in the state jump 10 20 30 uh 25% um at some of our schools uh forest went up by 40% um and again I'm just reiterating
that that comes at the same time that we are becoming more efficient yet focusing our efforts in instruction it is frightening to me to think that that is going to not be possible moving forward
without doing something like redistricting cutting athletic programs cutting um unfortunately uh expensive I everyone in this board knows and everyone in this town knows I'm a music supporter but that's a very expensive
program um you know we're a school district first and those things are things that support our students but if we have to start cutting a million dollars out of our budget every year to make cap something's got to go
i was wanted to to share something similar to that and just to piggyback off of what you were saying you know I'm I I commend you Misty Jeppe and I'm proud as a board of the the gains that we've made over the past few years the services that we're able to offer to students that were not offered um you
know I thank the council for being here and uh Mayor Tambora thank you for explaining the process um of pilot you know through that I heard that you know I I understood at least that we could have had a lot more students right that we were able to to lessen the amount
which is wonderful however the reality is that we're gaining students and we've we've made these strides to provide these additional services however when teachers are spread too thin they're spread too thin right so my concern is
that as we start to see class sizes grow the students who are currently being serviced because we have finally been able to provide the services for them are no longer going to be receiving these services because we're going to have so many new students coming in who may need the services more right so who
may need um you know whether it's ML learners or special you know additional special education or you know who where where we may be currently servicing students who are falling one grade below grade level if we have students come in that are falling three grades below grade level that's those are the
students that we're servicing so I I really do worry that you know without the funding we're not going to be able to continue to service that the services that we're providing we're not going to be able to continue on this path that we finally um have had in Verona with with
you know as far as intervention services and and special education i mean we just started our life skills program right if we don't have the funding for that what does that look like in the next 5 years so this isn't just about today and we know you know with the pilot projects with any construction project it's years
later right i'm not worried necessarily about 5 years later i'm worried about now and what's going to happen from today within the next 5 years these are our kids right now that we have to serve so you know I think that while I I'm open to and I appreciate and I'm looking
forward to continuing these conversations I I think that for lack of a better term we have to stop the bleed right now too and and and try to make a decision and to make um you know find a way to to work together now not just for future
projects thank you Miss Fer and just um for everyone's knowledge IDEIDA is the federal special education law it comes with funding i think we get about
570,000 600,000 um if IDEIDA goes away and the funding goes away with it under New Jersey education regulations we still have to provide the same services we are providing now to our students without the funding so we would be
legally as well as morally obligated to educate the students to the same extent that we do now um not to get into federal politics we've all seen what's going on i don't know what's going to happen next
year or the year after i know it's a conversation that me and my colleagues in the education world have every day um so you know just be aware so um is any any further comments i
think uh I'll just make one final comment then transition to our next topic um just to quick to Mr cruz's point about the township each household and township having to pay a little bit more because of the pilot funds i just
want to note that the money that the u the township is using from pilot to pay for these other projects like the um the the land purchase for the development stuff like that that didn't come with pilot fund then the town should be raising that through through
tax revenue anyway right so the we have one set of taxpayers and the burden is going to come in in one way or another so on that end I don't want the the taxpayer to think that they're necessarily getting the short end of the stick because of this um because whether
it's the the school board that has the money or whether the township is spending it on stuff if we can't if the township still had to make those purchases to stop another 400 plus units of housing to go in and weren't able to pay that back with um the the funding
that we had through that negotiated agreement um that that would have to be paid off through debt service from your regular tax levy so sorry that there um I did ask for just for the public edification the school board had proposed items one through five of the
agenda and the township obviously agreed to discuss these items um and they were valuable discussions and I thank the school board for their cander and uh and the school administration as well i I did ask to add um the fifth item with no objection from the the council um to
discuss the efforts that the township school district could engage in to combat underage alcohol and drug use um this is unfortunately one of those topics that is um something that we don't talk about as much as we should I
think in Verona um for I I've lived in town well I've worked in town for 17 years and lived in town for about 15 of those years and it's something that seems to be an open secret that this is an issue in municipality
um so I I put forth this concept uh this idea to see how we could work together and I'll throw a little bit of background um we have VMAC the Von Municipal Alliance Committee that is that gets some funding from the state to uh provide programs
um and um uh clubs and organizations that help build positive behaviors and things like that you have u programs that help parents to recognize the signs and symptoms of drug abuse you have family nights you have a lot of very these very positive things obviously
their funding is is limited um we uh our police department does have a memorandum of understanding with the the school district to help deal with some of these issues but state law recently has made it even more difficult for the police to report out some of
these things even to parents that could get changed um but there aren't as many consequences for these uh for those types of behaviors and things like that when I started as a teacher in Verona in 2008 uh we had a full-time um substance abuse counselor which is now called a
student assistance coordinator um and that position several years ago was discontinued and um and became a a the full-time position was discontinued and that uh person that position became a counselor at the elementary grades uh
while there still is a certified person in the district because we have to have one um that is not around as much anymore and we spoke in in our small group about that and my hope is is that and I think why we have um we've added
our grant writing um thing to our sheriff services agreement is that the the board has articulated and that there's a lot of difficulty getting grant funds um as a school district towns have been able to have some luck in this and my hope is is
that we can use the um the our grant uh consulting firm to potentially help get some grants for the township to take on some of that burden i believe and please I this is I have to
confirm this but at one point our sack was partially compensated by the township um or was so we have some of that I think that was grant funded uh many years ago well prior to my being here all right um but that was a grant
funed position as well um so it would be nice to be able to bring some of those items back i I think that we should also institute programs um and Diane you'll have to jump in the name of the program that uh Kennalan uh successfully
incorporated um every every 10 minutes oh every 15 minutes every 15 minutes i I always get the number wrong so I I put it out there programs that are very powerful like every 15 minutes um which is is an undertaking and require staff time and funding to do are very powerful
in helping some of these issues uh assemblies around prom time um all of those items that we can get but the reality is is that just occasional programs aren't really enough to help combat this that we need to have a more sustained approach and that's something
that hopefully the township can support by we don't necessarily have a budget line for this but township could support by potentially getting some grant funding as well um and you know having a thoughtful view between the and
involving the school board um more deliberately and the school administration in how the um the VMAC um grant funds are allocated and what programs are done and potentially every so often and it's a good idea to evaluate those i sat as a member of
FEMAC for as an exopicio member as a club adviser for many years um and they do a great job at FAC um Councilwoman Holland is is on the FEMAC committee as our leazison um but it's always a good time maybe to strategically view what
objectives are and how we can work all work together to make those things work um I don't know if the board has any thank you mayor uh VMAC is very generous uh to the board um of their very small budget that they get annually um they
give this year the next fiscal year budget looks like it should be around close to $16,000 uh and that funds a variety of programs um the board is actually meeting uh the BMAC committee is act multiple alliance uh is m is meeting on
March 31st to um discuss that um allocation um they uh they fund programs that we do in our elementary schools like lead and babes um and they also um provide a stipen for our heroes and cool
kids um program the um we are they are also paying this year for an assembly and it's it is a one-time assembly but I do happen to know this is a very impactful assembly uh Mrs frisco saw this at another school district mrs peter my uh
humanities supervisor went uh and saw this um an evening program um in Caldwell where she lives um we are hosting on April 3rd uh for both our students and um uh in the evening on uh
and April 2nd um um Chris Herren and Chris Herren for those that don't know who he is um he was a basketball player he played uh he was from Massachusetts he played um finally made it into the NBA played for the Nuggets and then was
um transferred to the Celtics and as a kid from Fall River Mass uh the Celtics was a dream um that dream uh was shattered um due to uh the disease of addiction and um he's very powerful speaker he'll be talking to our students
um I I think it's really um it's difficult you would think one person uh as a sack is is just one person but a good sack can make the difference in a high school um Mayor uh Tambero mentioned every 15
minutes the every 15 minutes program um is tremendous but it's also thousands of hours of planning time um for those that don't know what it is and I don't want to speak too in depth about it because it takes away if we were to move in that
direction um we actually had uh in Kennelan a helicopter come to on site emergency helicopter and airvac our kids out it's a simulation of a car crash after distracted and/or drug or drinking
driving and um our students take part there parents are volunteers there are um um deaths occur parents read um obits that they wrote for their children it's very impactful and we did it every two
years um but literally it without a sack coordinating calling the um uh trauma center to arrange for a freebie ride in the helicopter for our kids um the car that is smashed up the emergency uh
response that comes like it's it's not it's not something that we would even begin to be able to undertake without someone in that position uh another thing a sack would do for our students is um if you have a student that tests positive for uh drugs or alcohol in the
school day um we would ask them to attend an outpatient uh alcohol rehab program um it's education program and that sack would coordinate that uh we don't have that here and and we don't ask our students to do that um and I
don't want this to become just more of me whining about what we don't have but we don't have it and and having to cut 1.5 million out of the budget we're not getting it anytime soon um but but programs like LEAD programs like Babes programs that um uh that VMAC is
bringing to the district certainly will shed light on um the idea of addiction as severe as what Chris Herren suffered but we know alcohol is a gateway we know marijuana is a gateway i'll go one up in saying that the and again this is not my
political opinion just a gamecher for kids the legalization of medical marijuana and the legalization of marijuana in New Jersey was a gamecher for our students one program that we had and I want to go on record by saying I'm not looking to bring it here was a
random drug testing program in the high school that I came from and um there's uh there was just a lot of of um stuff that we didn't know was happening that you don't see that um comes out when you
have a program like that so our a good sack makes the difference across the board in a high school and high school kids it's not a Verona problem isolated to verona that kids drink and um but we would we do need to take a look at
educating our parents about hosting um educating our kids about the dangers of of that of alcohol and and marijuana being gateway drugs anyway um thank you mayor for bringing this to everyone's attention it is a problem i I I just sorry to sidetrack i just wanted to add
on to what you were saying um along with all those addiction problems the uh with the uh legalization of sports betting we are seeing significant significant uh gambling problems um even though you're not supposed to be gambling under the age of 18 there's a lot of problem
gamblers uh with access to their parents' phones um counseling services haven't even begun to scratch the surface of this issue as well yes thank you for that well I thank the superintendent and the
board for for hearing on that um we haven't heard any members of the council have any closing remarks or anything that they want to add you're certainly not obligated sure um wow it's right in here it's It also echoes
in this room i just want to thank you for getting us all together um obviously I have two daughters in the Verona public schools and you know I feel very strongly um about being a resident of this town and the importance of the school district so
I I thank you for getting us together to have this important dialogue i also you know building on that last discussion want to thank you superintendent DJ Jeppi for your engagement in the VMAC committee because I know you are very engaged and we do have that meeting coming up on Monday so thank you so much
for hosting us this evening um and for having this really important dialogue thank you um and I want to add um too that I really enjoyed this conversation and thank you and I look forward for more detailed information in the future i
think more of a exchange is needed about our budget realities um I would love to give the school district um everything that it needs um but the township also has its own challenges um some of which are documented in our uh budget binders
and part of our budget workshop um I too am a proud parent of two children in the school district and um my oldest son is about to graduate and he received a wonderful education um in the district and my younger son is entering high
school um and is really excited about the STEM classes here and the quality of the staff is just fantastic and they both are members of the band program that you referenced and sports programs so uh there is so much that this township has to offer and it is uh one
big Verona family and I also want to praise uh superintendent um Diane Gi Zuzepi i'm on several uh committees with her including neighborhood traffic and safety and the multicultural inclusion accessibility advisory committee um just
to name a few and I want to particularly praise you and the entire board for creating such an incredible culture of belonging and in particular for our LGBTQ students which right now we are in
a very challenging time for them and you are really standing with them and for them and I from a personal experience from being a parent talking to parents whose children you know are really as diverse
as you know as as America is i really appreciate your advocacy and I I just want to end on that note and I look forward to continued collaboration amongst our governing bodies thank you thank you i too uh I'll just echo my uh
fellow council people uh thank you for having us today these are wonderful conversations that I think we should have uh more often uh I look forward to actually talking one-on-one with everybody i think I uh you know this way
you can get a little more in-depth into these conversations uh I do totally agree with the communication system because there's so many calendars you got to look at you just miss events and you hear about them a week later and you're like "Oh I would have went to that." Uh uh some people get them all
but I just there's too much not enough time to to sit there and look at social media and and get all of them but I appreciate the time here and I uh if M Jeppy would like to jump on the historic preservation or or green team you're
more than welcome to come to those too diane would be a great fit for sustainable Verona i just put that out there but thank you all tree plant last year with Carol Thomas um at this Yep go ahead okay at this
time we're going to open up for public comment can you guys do four minutes right four minutes okay just can we just get consent from the board to allow four minutes for public comment for each person is all any objections
well it can't be more than six it can't be more than 16 minutes of comment so three and a half there you go okay i just I just wanted to be official you know so public um anyone from the public wishing to speak on any matter please approach the podium once recognized
please clearly state your first and last name for the record you do not have to state your address uh you will have four minutes to address the board and township council there'll be no cross dialogue during the public portion if there is a question that could be answered only the superintendent board
attorney board president mayor and mayor's attorney and town of attorney will respond um and we'll do so at the end of comments you will be granted one time to speak and there's a total of 1 hour for public participation again please note there'll be no back and
forth and we we request you remain respectful thank you come on Mr patant it wouldn't be a meeting if I didn't speak all right paul Petrangeli Verona um all right where do I start now uh
basically I think the meeting is great for you guys it's long needed the communication needs to happen as you spoke of today uh you know with the event coordination I think that is great i had that on my list so I could take that off the uh field study for the
recreational department took years so I think that's great that now we're moving with that with the athletic director um basically the class sizes growing uh that was a question also we had at the rec meeting the other day um the one school we didn't talk about was
Brookdale we talked about all the other ones are basically at capacity and then Brookdale uh I just had a question on that one and then uh basically everything else I don't have any other questions but I just want to state some things um the mayor talked about the pilot programs and the first thing is
the area of redevelopment now 383 Bloomfield Avenue was on the meeting before I think it was Hillrest Farms and that's next an area of redevelopment that was voted on and passed by the zoning board uh and then um basically the pilot program stuff just isn't
working our we have no money we all understand that um you guys are both doing what you can for the town i think the town needs to look at what they're spending their money on with the playgrounds the parks and things like that and just the school needs some like they stated in the first opening statement people move here because of
these schools it's the main reason people are in Verona i think they need the share of the money from a lot of these developments coming into town because they get the burden like they get 85% of the burden if a child moves into town yes we get the benefits by
them shopping at our stores and using our recreational facilities but they get the burden um since we're so good at getting grants for the town uh I think a few months ago to a year ago we had big discussions with the school board about SRO officers three maybe two or three
other districts in Essex County do not have an SRO officer our school board cannot afford it it should be supplied by the town like most other school districts are we can at least start with the high school and then move down below or hiring more police anyway it was the last meeting we're trying to get two
more police officers let's get our schools safe before things happen we all know people come when things happen obviously nothing happens so nobody's here except four or five people i hope there's 100 people on Zoom right now because when you complain you should show up
um let's go with uh yeah we just need to stop the pilot program with 24 and 25 students per class it's just we're getting like what are we going to do in 10 years are we going to build a new building are we going to add additions we're going to need something we need to plan for the
future so then the future board doesn't say "Well the board before me didn't plan for that." So we need to get ahead and we need to start today we need to stop saying "Okay I don't have money for this i don't have money for that." We need to work together now to get our money where our mouth is we need to We need to support the schools we need to I split
Everett in half get it done for half and give the rest to the school board thank you i don't need a response thank you very much uh anyone else wish to approach the podium and speak seeing no one um I know Mr petrangley
didn't want a response but I I hate to you know not acknowledge Paul's participation um just to clarify for the public you brought up a development on 383 Bloomfield Avenue to the Hillrest House there's been no request before the township council for a pilot for that
property so just want to put that out there that um the zoning I'm sorry the planning board and the council have approved that but there's not been any discussion or request on that side um as far as the SRO's I this is not a conversation I think that has actually
happened between the council and the school board uh as a request for SRO's however going you know Paul had made the comment that we're hiring two more police officers um in our budget workshop the police department requested more officers because of a significant
increase in call volume um and as the township grows that is one of the consequences that that we have to face that we don't have much control over um and the you know goes in that you know showing kind of that burden on there um but if we were
to have six SRO's we would need six more police officers um the two that are being hired are for additional call volume not to to be in one specific place at a time so uh I just want to clarify to the public that we can't easily reallocate the police officer
position from a patrol officer to a school resource officer without the significant interruption operations of the police department um and anybody who has questions on that should view our wonderful budget workshops where the police chief uh went through all of that
information and in the ne in the coming uh months we'll be having a the police department will give their annual report uh where they detail the the growth in the department and the calls and the issues that they're facing and regulatory concerns and and things like
that um I also while I understand the the desire township to look at where we're spending money and I think this council has absolutely done that um and for as you know the next you know there's a major three major facility
projects before the council is for providing facilities for emergency services and those are a big ticket item um so I just and they're necessary items so I just wanted on record that at this point there are other very significant projects and burdens that the township
is facing that we haven't even encumbered any funds for at this point um so just I I think it's important for the public to be aware that um all of those things are coming down the line as well due to once again many things
outside our control like regulatory matters and and uh even though we've been able to minimize growth of the township we still have to deal with the growth that has been created and u various other issues related to laws near laws and things like that
as always sir I appreciate your comment at all of the venues that you comment at um at this time I will hear a motion to adjourn the special meeting of the council and we can leave the board to their meeting so move motion's made by
the deputy mayor is there a second second second's made by Councilwoman Holland all those in favor i'm sorry Councilwoman McGrath uh I haven't I haven't been home yet today i apologize all those in favor i anybody opposed thank you thank you to the
school board for your attention and your partnership thank you very much for participating and for anyone then we'll come back and go into our regular board meeting thank you thank you we're going to continue on with the board of education meeting uh
we're going to start with routine matters can I get a motion to approve the minutes u from the last board meeting on March 11th so moved moved by Miss Prrisco second by Mr boon uh can we have roll call please mr
walker yes mrs spar yes mrs priscoll yes mrs brazella yes mr boon yes motion carries thank you i'm going to ask for a motion to move the student report next on the agenda so moved moved by Miss
Krisco can I get a second a second second by Miss Ferrer can I get a roll call when you're ready Mr cruz mr waka yes yes mrs fara yes mrs prisco yes mrs rosala yes mr boon yes motion carries
okay thank you uh Ryan if you want to give the student report thank you yep so good evening good evening good evening so um today's March 25th and well even though it's March prom is still coming ever closer so uh this year's prom will
be at the Legacy Castle in Pen Plains and tickets will actually start selling in two weeks time from uh April 8th to the 10th and they will be $140 per person uh this Sunday the uh National Honor Society is hosting a car wash down
at the Vernon Civic Center this up from uh 10:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m and all donations and proceeds will go to um towards Tony's Kitchen uh GOI Girls Learn International and the Key Club are collecting donations for um a menstrual
product drive till this Friday the 28th and donations are actually being accepted in the front lobby of the high school right over there there's a box in the corner somewhere um and this AP uh April 8th at 6:30 p.m in the auditorium
here uh is a VHS Royale which seniors that were voted on by the student body are participating in a circuit of events with from like fashion show Q&A talent show and impression contest that'll be really pretty interesting and last
weekend the VHS music program travel to Toronto for 4 days main takeaway Canada is [Laughter] cold and um tomorrow at 7:00 p.m in the auditorium once again is actually the
VHS music in our schools concert which uh features the varying ensembles including the uh concert and chamber choirs and of course the concert band and another music thing Jazz Night April 10th 7:00 p.m in the Gorning Commons and
it's going going to feature various ensembles and performances of jazz among other genres and uh VHS actually debuted a new club recently the architecture and design club which is seeking to promote student
interests in funnily enough uh architecture and design and are trying to help students who are actively trying to pursue such a career in building a portfolio for um college applications and just to reiterate what um was
brought up a few minutes ago about um what's happening on the 3rd of April with the Chris Heron presentation uh which will be taking place around half the school day i think it's very interesting i think it's like at VHS especially like I at the middle school there's a lot of presentations
assemblies but I feel like at BHS there isn't that that's not happening as often and I think this will be very interesting and I think especially with how it's been stated um an hour like 30 minutes ago about like the the epidemic that is like substance abuse especially
in America's teenagers i think it's a very interesting and um impactful thing to have uh such a influential and uh motivational speaker with such a empowering message that uh is influencing our youth especially in
these key key years which uh I believe are to be throughout high school from like age 14 to age 18 so I think that's very it's very good and that's all thanks for Thank you very much thank you Ryan um
can I get a motion to move um Laura Paresi's presentation next on the agenda so moved moved by Miss Prrisco i'll second second by Miss Ferrer mr cruz when we get a chance Mr walker yes mrs ferrara
mrs prrisco yes mrs brazella yes mr boon yes motion carries thank you Mr pomearesi if you want to come up to the podium thank you good evening everyone exactly three weeks ago today was our last
winter sport competition our girls basketball team made it to the state semifinals um and then less than a week later we started our spring sports 240 student athletes participated in winter sports um this past winter our boys
basketball team finished 15-10 11-1 at home our JV team was 16-4 and our freshman team was 13 and six we made the state playoffs as the nine seed we finished second in the holiday tournament and made it to the semifinals
of the inaugural Essex County Invitational Tournament where we lost to the champion Livingston we allowed only 46 points per game which was in the top three of the SEC the team collected used sneakers to donate to Angels on the
Ground they also raised over $5,000 in the shootathon with a portion being donated to St jude's Hospital all conference freedom division for boys basketball first team Will Herman second team John Luca Chicetto and Jack Harmon
and honorable mention Sebastian Rodriguez our boys track and field team had a great winter season with the exception of the weather the boys finished second at SEC championships and had five athletes finish in the top six at sectionals to advance to groups the
4x4 team of Madden Williams Luca Defbrigio Michael Sclary and Victor U finished fifth in the sections and placed third at the SEC's to also break the school record the record was originally
33946 and they ran a 33694 now this is hot off the press this past Sunday at the Adidas Nationals in Virginia Beach Williams Defabbrigio Slair and U broke their own school record again running 335
evan Sang also competed in high jump at nationals in Virginia and cleared six feet multiple times this season to take a sectional championship advancing him to groups evan was first at SEC's and second at Essex County relays with Jack
Demar michael was the SEC pole vault champion all conference teams first team Evan Sang and Michael Sccclary second team Aiden Epilo an honorable mention Logan Horton and Jackson Pope ice hockey the VGR hockey team had
a tremendous season with a record of 129 and one losing a lot of scoring to graduation the team played much more disciplined style and were extremely hard to play against every night with the younger roster the team made a tremendous run at the Kelly Cup
Championships but fell a little short losing in the semi-finals the young VGR team only three seniors battled through a tough schedule and secured the sixth seed at the state tournament yanni Yanni Otis received the Kelly Division allconerence honorable
mention wrestling this year our wrestling team finished the season with 19 total wrestlers including two female wrestlers Issha Zhao and Juliana Kleio the girls competed in two jamborees and
picked indiv individual bouts during dual meets isha also competed in the county tournament this is the first year since female wrestling was individually recognized by the NJSIA that Verona had a female wrestler two of them both girls
competed the entire season and planned on competing again next year the boys team competed in the Liberty Division of the SEC they went two and three in the division overall the season uh overall the team finished with a record of six
and 19 the team forfeited between four to seven weight classes per dual meet making team victories very difficult often the final team score was within the margin of points given away due to forfeits individually though three wrestlers qualified for the region three
wrestling tournament by placing in the top three in the district 11 tournament joel Gonzalez John Stockleberg and Jesse Wagner they also finished in the top five in Essex County senior wrestlers Joel Gonzalez and John Stockleberg
achieved their hundth career victories this season two of fewer than 15 Verona wrestlers to achieve this milestone all conference team first team Joel Gonzalez second team John Stockleberg and Jesse Wagner honorable
mention John Lowden and Dante Palmer cheer what an incredible winter season for the Verona High School cheerleading team from the sidelines to the competition Matt the girls gave it their all the team was incredible cheering for both the boys and girls basketball teams
bringing the energy and showcasing their halftime routine at every game the girls also had the exciting opportunity to perform at the New Jersey Devils game before puck drop which was an unforgettable experience for them the team performed their Christmas palm routine at the annual fair and square
and hosted a successful piece pizza with Santa fundraiser the highlight of their season came in February when our competition team attended nationals in Orlando Florida this was the first time ever that the cheer our cheer team has
competed in this the girls placed second in their division in game day routine and took home first place with their traditional routine such an incredible achievement for them swim the VHS boys swim team was 1-6 in conference 1-8
overall daniel Franklin qualified for the SEC and Essex County Championship meet and was also recognized as honorable mention all conference the VHS girls swim team had a record-breaking season in more ways than one five school
records were broken and nine swimmers qualified for the SEC and Essex County Championship meet the girls were undefeated in the Liberty Conference winning the conference and not only qualified for the state tournament but made it to the sectional championship
finals it was an exciting and extremely successful season the girls finished 7-0 in the conference and nine and three overall first team all SEC Liberty Division Vicky Sluck Charlotte Roland Edith Wong Kate Carlson and Juliana
Alvarez second team CC Mannis and finally our girls basketball team our varsity girls basketball team compiled a 19-7 record 10-0 in the SEC Colonial Division for their second straight conference title the team advanced to
the quarterfinal round of the Essex County Tournament and the semi-final round of the NJSIA North two group 1 state tournament the junior varsity team compiled a 15-0 record and captured the championship of the West Essex Holiday Tournament for the second year in a row
five players received all conference honors morgan Rossy and Cali Jakamaza first team Jada Bedar and Leah Hagerty second team and Ellie Mariteo honorable mention sophomore Sarah Morz was selected as the NJBCA scholar athlete
for Verona at the 2024 2025 NJBCA Tipoff Classic thank you thank you Miss Palesi and congratulations to all our student athletes um moving on we will
No moving on um we will have the superintendent report from Misty Jeppi thank you so I will be uh as quick as I can um normally um our mid-year progress report
on our district goals would normally come beginning of February the end of January but because of how we map test um that's why it's it's where it is in in our year um no I don't
know there's side no it's on there you go okay thank you so just to start out uh looking at the academic goals by school um and so for the ELA grades three and
four this is Brookdale um they are approaching the goal but I do want to point out to the board that MAP only tests reading um and NJSLA is a combination of reading writing and conventions of language so um there's a
caveat as to how close aligned this is with regard to prediction um for math we are on target to achieve our goals in um both grades three and four for Forest Avenue uh again
approaching those goals um for ELA and uh approaching for math 3 and on target to meet that goal math 4 um I'm just going to click through FN Brown approaching uh on target on target in
ELA uh at landing and approaching uh in math and when where it says approaching I'm arbitrarily um saying that there is less than a 5% difference in how our kids are scoring on MAP and how we we want them to score um on
NJSLA at uh Whitehorn um HB we're on target to achieve or actually exceeded uh the goals uh in all of those areas for ELA and we are not on target to achieve our goal in math i think that's been the story for a while across the
district with math um we're looking to um really target math next year as well as um elementary language for Verona High School we cannot um use map to predict so that's a blank on this other strategic plan
goals oh I can't do that can you do me a favor can you just click on the link there because I don't think I can do that with this thank you and you're going to have to stand there Joe because you have to scroll for
me thank you so I'm not going to read through each one this is our strategic action plan for this year anything um uh that's in yellow is approaching and that's uh more because it's a long-term goal that we're not going to we know we're not going to meet every year um anything in green we've already met and
uh anything in orange we are working toward um I think there's one or two that we have not met and that has to do with the fact that we overshot what our goals are you can just keep scrolling Joe i will I'll I'll post this to the board so if anyone's really
interested in reading what this is these are just our other strategic areas um you can see most are either working toward or have met um uh there's I think the those that we did not meet are down
in uh community um keep going Joe yeah i mean there was one that um when we get to it I'll read it and you can see it we're doing well in other words and I'm trying to make this as quick as possible because okay that one is um we
did not do the New Jersey school climate um survey this year with our students uh we had planned to do that it's just too late in the year to organize at this point and I think that's no one more uh parentmies we had five parentmies last
year we didn't have any parentmies this year we're going to make it a bannual that's it for um so I will post this so that you have it um to look at um the bottom line is we are um working toward uh making improved outcomes for kids and
we're we're we're getting there and even just note too a lot of these goals were very lofty when you look at a 10% increase in a goal um we set the bar high if we don't make that goal that's fine as long as we're making some gains each year which we have been um we did
get our school performance reports they are still embargoed i will have uh they're embargoed until March 31st so at our next meeting I will present on where we are with our school performance reports thank you very much thank you um and moving on to the
business administrator report Mr cruz thank you uh good evening everyone uh this month in our finance um updates we have the January uh reports the uh secretary treasures and transfer reports i'm pleased to report that they're all in agreement last Wednesday we
successfully submitted our tenative 202526 budget to the county office uh once the county reviews and approves it the budget will be officially advertised before April 26th um I'm sorry April 24th and it will be presented to the
public and the board at the April 29th board meeting uh regarding the resolutions on the agenda tonight resolution uh E5 uh proposes to maintain our non-residential tuition rates um the
same for 2526 school year also resolution 26 is our new website and communication platform that will be saving the district a little over $10,000 each year by combining uh those two uh platforms together with a new provider uh
resolutions E7 is actually a revision to our Rod grant uh resolution that was approved on January 21st uh the SD uh SDA uh required us to specifically uh specify the local share
for each project and also to uh state that we'll be using capital reserve funds and authorizing the 60% of the project cost uh so that's a repeat of what most folks actually saw uh in January and that concludes my report for
tonight thank you thank you very much uh moving on to committee reports um Miss Fer do you want to give us education thank you um we spoke about already kind of funds
we spoke about uh Chris Herren coming um you know the schedule in the middle school is is continuing the teachers are being um you know provided professional development I believe right Mr jeppe was it professional development already on it was that the right I'm sorry say that
again for the middle school schedule yes um so they'll they'll be getting professional development on extending the um minutes okay i wanted to make sure that I was I was saying that correct that I was sharing out that correctly um on the additional minutes because we're moving from the 45 to 55
minutes in the middle school um which will better serve um all students to get those extra that extra time in um one of the big highlights was that there was a field trip on Monday for K12 um students in the LLS and LLD program they went to
Lifetime in Livingston great um Um so a thank you a big thank you to to uh Miss Kohler for organizing that miss Simmons shared that um it was a wonderful experience for the students and at the end of the day they were really disappointed that it was over so um those are really wonderful opportunities
and I'm so happy that we um are able to to do that for the students um the ESY so the end of school year programming is underway um the final thing was the dreams grant so they finished that up um it's the the dreams grant is for the
nurtured heart approach um there'll be um a special program for uh with an author coming in with the imperfect Phil dog um so uh they'll be coming in and the final was really the final days
of the Bogue training that has also concluded the followup for that is going to be to continue build building out the 18 to 21 program um and that's it for education thank you very much um I believe the
facilities committee met do you want to Okay brief um I'll keep it quick too um there is a apprenticeship program that is going underway um allowing access for any district employee to train in a school skilled trades um it'll help with
the future growth of attracting talent in-house skilled trade craftsman's help lower the cost of using outside vendors for small projects uh also um they're currently talking to public uh PSENG contract to lower the cost of for
needed equipment replacement districtwide energy savings um types as well we are looking into quotes for a new shed at VHS and the painting of the pod
is going to be taking place over spring break so we can return that pod that was painted the painting of the pod and um and I think Mr mr um I would uh and I'm sorry if I I missed it um the hiring of
the new licensed electrician I think is a significant uh thing to call out in that it gives us an opportunity for efficiency and cost savings um again to kind of highlight the conversations we were having u with our colleagues
earlier i I think these efforts are are going to be crucial just about every spot we fill so when we can find somebody that can do double duty it's awesome great thank you very much u moving on to finance
um yeah I'll uh take I'll take finance uh again uh nothing um more to add much much more to add beyond what uh Mr cruz had to say um one uh one thing to flag
is that uh the we will begin um there will be an evaluation coming up on the uh the food services RFP uh so more to come on that um Mr cruz touched on just about everything else there so
nothing more great thank you moving on to public comments please there's no one here can I get a motion to skip public i'll motion from Mr walka can I get a
second second second from Mr prisco mr cruz probably just should have had it mr walker yes mrs ferrara yes mrs priscoll yes mrs fzowl yes mr boon yes
motion carries thank you i just feel silly reading it um do we have uh discussion items any old or new business the board wishes to discuss okay moving on oh wait someone do go ahead what I wanted to say what
was I just at oh okay uh any correspondence back no correspondence okay let's move on to action items can I get a motion to approve um to approve personnel items A1 through A
seven second and moved by Mr b and second by Miss Prrisco um any comments any question i have something quickly um so as a Brier Forest family I just want to say thank you to Miss Lawrence for
her service um this will be really quick but I'll never forget she she offered um during kindergarten orientation she said "When the kindergarters start to go up and it's the first time if you want to call me and make sure that your child got in safely you're more than welcome
to." And I did that and she um picked up the phone and she was so gracious and she went in and she checked on him to make I feel like I'm getting emotional she went in and she checked on him to make sure that he was safe and sound and um that those are really important people to have so so thank you so much
Miss Lawrence you will be missed and good luck and all the fun things to come thank you um anything else okay Mr cruz when you're ready can we have
Mr walka yes mrs ferrara yes mrs prrisco yes mrs rosella yes mr boom yes motion carries moving on to education can I get a motion to approve B1 through
B10 so moved i'll second okay moved by Miss Prrisco second by Mr boon any discussion hearing none can we get roll call please mr walker yes mr ferrar yes
Mrs pristo yes Mrs brazella yes Mr boon yes motion carries moving on to athletic and co-curricular can I get a motion to approve C1 so moved moved by Mr frisco i'll second second by Miss Ferrer any
discussion okay hearing none can I get a roll call please mr waka yes mrs per yes mrs prriscoll yes mrs fella yes mr boone yes motion carries there are no There's nothing in facilities moving on to
finance can I get a motion for E1 through E seven please so moved mrs prisc moved by Miss Kriskcom second second by Mr boon any comments or
discussion hearing none can I get um roll call Mr cruz mr walk yes Mrs ferrar mrs priscoll yes Mrs pawa yes Mr boom yes motion carries okay moving on to governance and policy can I get a motion
for F1 so moved i'll second moved by Miss Prrisco second by Miss Ferrer any com uh comments hearing none can we get roll call please mr wal yes mr spar yes mrs priscoll yes mrs brazelle yes mr boom
yes motion carries uh opening up to public comments um there's seeing no one in the audience i will close public comments um can I get a motion to adjurnn so moved by second
by Miss Pereira all those in favor i thank you 9:15 it is 9:15 the meeting is adjourned the next meeting will be in the learning comments