good evening everyone I would like to welcome you to the March 11th 2025 Board of Education meeting we are call calling the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. if everyone could please rise for the pledge of allegiance of the United States of
America theice thank you a reading of the meeting notice the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is
discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of the act the Verona board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the Star Ledger posted with the township of Verona and the Verona Education Association postings of this meeting setting forth the time location and
agenda were posted at the Verona Board of Education Office and on the Verona Public Schools District website copies of tonight's agenda and resolutions have been made available to the public via the Board of Education website Mr Cruz could you please call
attendance sure Mr Walker um Mrs Farrar Mrs prisco here Mrs Bella here Mr Boon here we have Corum thank you um can I I get a motion to approve the meeting the minutes of the last board ofed
meeting I'll motion that I'll second can I have roll call please uh for the record room Miss walk is uh not present at this time uh Mr farar yes Mrs prisco
yes Mrs rzza yes Mr B yes motion carries thank you um now we are moving on to routine matters um the superintend report do you want to defer to the yeah
let let me de defer to Ryan to do his first and then Mr Cruz and I will um uh I have one thing to talk about and then we're going to talk about the budget okay great so we will move on to the student report from
Ryan okay okay so U good evening thing so of course a happy March and as you guys can see the weather is actually very spectacular lately right 70 degree day yeah exactly but I mean might I add it's
perfect weather for um well the spring Sports season to begin and so this year we'll have our our standard VHS Sports programs which is going to be um baseball softball lacrosse tennis track and golf so that's exciting to see how
those would turn out for the rest of the year and we also have um the featuring one of our a very um special opportunity and program that's offered here at VHS which is the Verona Sports media account which I'm not sure if you guys have seen it on Instagram whatsoever but it
basically highlights these Runa sports teams and now they've been doing a a new initiative which is they're promoting and recognizing all these classic Verona businesses such as like Verona in and pizza terminal and new local businesses like
uh like umay down the street it's like really great the videos are very fun really high production and the people who do it um they run it very well so um majority of it majority of it is actually run by students so it's actually very impressive to see and
hopefully they will also have Bright Futures in social media if they do want to go into that but Instagram you said yeah Instagram it should be just uh Verona Sports media I believe yeah but um so one of the fashion classes we
actually offer here at VHS is running a month law clothing monthlong clothing Drive during uh the month of March and they're actually planning to host um right here a thrift shop in thrift shop in early April where the
goal is to promote a sustainable fashion provide free clothing to students and support the homeless is really a fantastic thing that happens like I think once or twice every school year and it's a lot of fun for the students to show up and do I mean I guess shock
around but there's not really an exchange of money going on but it's pretty close it's PR close but um the newspaper Club had debuted uh their addition for the month of February and it's um features interviews from not
only our class of vitorian this year but also VHS president Mr cogil and of course our superintendent to my right and oh yes it was I did see that yeah did they run a recipe they did not oh R
CR that they had a beautiful picture of it though it was great yeah but so um actually last week the VHS Deca team which is actually if uh to those who don't know it's basically a club competing team that's for students that's very uh that are interested in
business they actually competed last week in Atlantic City at the New Jersey Deca State Career Development conference which is New Jersey's biggest state Deca event and the team took home uh the Enterprise and Community Service Awards
with three of our um senior participants having placed top 12 in their respective like categories and there was uh one VHS Jor who was elected as uh the New Jersey Deca vice president of public relations which is props to the entire Deca team
because I know it's very busy for them especially coming back home and having all these teachers make up work for them and it's it's very I'm very interested to see what these like Academic Teams like accomplish on a great scale like the DECA team is certainly very impressive
and very props to Mr or people who run it and of course the students themselves and um March 21st is World Down syndrome day and it's incourage students to wear mismatched and creative socks um and donate a dollar to uh Ruby's rainbow
which is an organization dedicated to providing scholarships to those with Down syndrome and the day is generally just to raise support and of bringing attention to Down syndrome and this for this year 2025 St the Verona music
program is high school music program is taking a trip um down to Toronto I mean I shouldn't say down up to Toronto this year uh from the 20th of March to the 23rd so that'll be fun and that is all I have tonight thank you I just have one quick question Ryan for
you and thank you for mentioning the thrift shop because I knew I heard it and I didn't know where and I knew something had to be brought in and I have ton of clothes so can you tell me the dates again for that yeah uh I there collecting them at the there's there should be a donation box at the front of
the lobby of the school and it's all through March so whenever you want to drop out like I think they specified quote unquote like gently clothing yes business attire and stuff thank you I'm not sure if anyone is listening um but for March 21st there's an absolutely
beautiful book called be good to Eddie Lee and the main character has Down syndrome and it tells his story um and it's it's a picture book it's great for children um and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to celebrate on that day or any day with itk you um there was a very informative
report I always look forward to those um if we want to move on now to Mr Cruz and Mr dppi for our budget and superintendent report uh quickly before we start the budget I just want to um congratulate um
the students that performed in the School Musical and uh Mr Munos and his whole um behind the scenes uh set design sound all of them uh just an incredible as usual an incredible job and I also
want to highlight um the fact that we're at that time of year again when our students um are receive the award from New Jersey um referred to as the Seal of biliteracy um in New Jersey the Seal of biliteracy is an award given by the
Department of Education recognition of students who have studied and attained Proficiency in at least one language in addition to English by high school graduation this year we have five students that achieved that um prestigious honor uh uh Camila Cortez
Danielle Fernandez Isabella Lambert Briel mares Pedro Trinidad Ruiz congratulations it's very difficult you have to demonstrate via a standardized assessment that your Proficiency in that second language is um a pretty high
level so congratulations to them and I just before we get started I just want to acknowledge um that I've had a lot of this is my 14th year as superintendent in New Jersey and while budgets are never easy this budget was
clearly the hardest budget I've ever had to deal with and I just want to give some props to Mr Cruz who did an amazing job um starting with a as we mentioned at last last meeting a $1.5 million gap
between where we have to be under the law and where we were starting at this budget period so um and you'll see tonight that that's with um no cut in program and very little impact uh in
terms of U classroom uh instruction and staff so before we even get started I want to start this presentation by saying this was difficult and uh we owe our thanks to creative thinking by Mr
Cruz so uh thank you uh superintendent thepp yet so just to recap the last uh board meeting did have we did finish uh sharing that we had a a gap of 1.5 million uh one of the things that we
receive were were our state a uh numbers and um just to report the positive news for that uh Verona fared very well we we actually gained 6% in our state aid uh which I'll uh talk about in uh a future
slide um the timeline um that's coming up uh next week uh this budget is actually due to the county office on March 19th um the next time that we will be presenting and and having a conversation publicly about the budget will be for the final presentation which
is on April 29th uh the county has until Mar uh April 22nd to return an approved budget to the board um and then at that point uh by April 24th we will advertise the proposed final budget um and then we
will also uh make it public and open uh for anyone in the public to to uh request and and and make it available for View and and lastly just to point out um November of of this year we have two board seats um uh for
election so our uh mission statement to empower students to uh to uh to cultivate their intellectual curiosity and social responsibility uh pigging back on the the the one things I'm not sure
if Diane if you wanted to uh talk about these um budgetary goals and and just to ensure that um you know everyone has a full understanding of what the outcome of this budget um and the focus was yeah so we are really our goal is we have
large class sizes so our goal is to maintain um not to really increase class sizes um uh to any great extent and keep them within our class-size policy guidelines um we uh had we are in stage two of the
schedule redesign at hbw um to provide better interventions for struggling students um that we don't currently have in the district it also uh should allow us to do um multi-tiered system of
supports with more uh Fidelity um we will be in stage one at the schedule redesign at the elementary schools um this is really a quick fix uh to get us to um a better consistent Elementary schedule across all four schools which
would be the following year um this actually is just to equalize preparation period times across the grade levels which was um in the memorandum of agreement with the Verona Education Association um to try to equalize
that um it does have um an increase in teaching staff um at um in World languages at the elementary level in order to equalize that prep those preparation periods um uh we are we would like to increase um our
multilingual learner services that we can provide uh the hitch there is going to be there aren't a lot of teachers that are certified to do multilingual uh formally ESL and uh we did advertise multiple times last year for a second uh
MLL teacher uh and had no applicants so uh that's a goal whether or not we'll be able to realize that goal that's the question um we are also uh looking uh this board was disappointed in um the
settlement agreement with uh the vaa in the area where power professionals uh are concerned and so the board has um decided to um increase the par professional guide
um with uh board general fund money so that is in this budget and that's about 80 $80,000 uh in this budget um but we want to reiterate the importance that our par the role that our par
professionals play and um knowing that in the the former uh I apologize I little bit of a brain tonight um their guide you could work at
McDonald's and make as much money as you can being a par professional here so making sure that we are um creating um a guide that provides equality with with the surrounding districts or at least attempts at qual equality between the
surrounding distance districts will do um several things it shows our Paras that we respect their the work that they do um it will hopefully allow us to hire um for the 10 power positions that are
unfilled currently that we're filling with agency Powers which ultimately cost costs the district more money than having our own Paris so while this is an increase in $80,000 we think in the long over the
long haul that will actually uh equalize and it also increases pay for bus drivers now bus drivers are not in the vaa association they're not in in that that um recognition but um we had a huge
disparity between what our bus drivers were making per hour compared to the surrounding areas and we also struggle to hire bus drivers go figure so that's in this budget as well back to you yes and so the proposed
uh tenative budget tonight is uh a budget with a 3.53 tax Levy increase um the total revenue increase is uh 1,3 62305 uh other increase in in revenues
is uh $283,000 um uh some of that revenue is uh the um Revenue that comes from interests on our uh funds also on on our reserves uh other areas is um around
miscellaneous um for example uh uh the use of facilities and and those areas so that's a total of uh 283,000 that will be generated from from that section and then on the state aid uh uh we did
that's the uh the 173 is the 6% increase in our uh state aid Revenue so the to the total uh increase in revenues is 1.8 uh 19 we also have an excess surplus
of uh 913 that came from fiscal year uh 24 which is the the 23 24 year um that was uh last audited and that Surplus will be embedded in this budget so in total uh we're working with a 2.7
million of Revenue increase uh to offset the 2.7 uh increase in in expenditures in this slide you'll see a comparison the this comparison shows uh where the budgeted that was adopted in
2324 uh versus uh what we're currently working with in this school year and where we're budgeting uh for uh the next school year for 25 26 uh the one-ear change you see in in tax levy is 969 uh
236 uh the next uh row is the uh bless you is the health W waiver um also I just I forgot to mention this will be linked um in the minutes and and the presentation will be available publicly
if anyone wants to look at the details I know that um some of these slides might be uh difficult to see from uh from here but uh the next section after that will be your state aid so right now we
receive through million uh 72 to 62 extraordinary Aid where budgeting at uh uh 1.2 million and semi is uh 3,215 uh revenues um we're going to keep
the projections on Revenue um flat um we're expecting 140,000 uh the miscellaneous and interest Revenue uh we expect it to be close to $100,000 more uh in in the upcoming year and the budget uh fund
balance is the 9913 that we're on pulling in um from our um Surplus um excuse me was that the last year that we had a 4% fund balance yes because of Co the pandemic uh so this is um the in
combination comination okay thank you so this is um so basically the the Surplus um it could be um generated on both sides of the budget so that um whether we um spend less um and the previous fiscal year we
did not we actually spend exactly almost exactly uh the the same amount that we budgeted but we did get a surplus on the revenue side uh one area that we always are uh fairing well is an extraordinary Aid I I believe in the prior year you
see that it's actually a million was projected we ended up with uh 1.4 uh so that 04 um U million that 400,000 uh helped uh bring us to that $900,000
um Surplus also the interest rates um when we switched banks and also when we made the changes in our reserves that that also helped us uh generate so the goal um I believe I mentioned this in the last uh presentation uh we we do need to ensure that we're generating
close to a million dollars in Surplus in order to be able to sustain uh every year the growth and then the uh a well balanced budget but um uh without without the surpluses it'll just become uh very difficult so it depends on how
we finish this year uh if if we do if we fall short so for example if we only generate $400,000 in a surplus uh that means we need to come up with $600,000 which means positions and and
and we'll we'll we'll talk about that in in the future slides so here we have uh the total expenditure which is 45 million 69677 is broken down in percentage uh the largest percent
being uh let me just move this out of uh the largest percent being uh jet instruction which is 31% 31.7 followed by benefits so benefits uh is Healthcare uh basically p iions the
board share of of Social Security FICA uh also uh anything around workman's comp um and and any any cost shares with the state in the pension system so all of that uh comes out of uh this uh
benefit um section of the p and then you have other areas like special ed special ed is um broken down into a few sections um so we have uh special ed instruction at 10% uh special ed is is out of District placement it's almost at 8% and
then uh special ed um speech OT um also the uh the yes related services and and and then also the um the team the actual um the child that child study team and then we have uh other sections
um Ed uh education media which is a library Services um School administration which is the administrators at at each School building uh and uh maintenance and custodial services but also in school administration so it doesn't look
disproportionate that's also all of our legal fees and there's other stuff in that other than just salaries of school administrators just to be clear because that looks like it's a big number if you don't include that yes so in the next pie chart it it does have a little bit more details and
also the actual numbers of those percentages so for example gener instructions uh 14.5 million specialized instructions 4.5 million uh tuition uh 3.5 benefits 7 7.6 million uh and then
we we have uh smaller pieces in the P that um uh School administrations uh 1.9 um Etc so there are um these other sections like guidance Health Services
which is to nurses um and uh extracurricular and um uh sponsor uh co-curricular um activities uh bilingual Services uh and then also the the child stud actually the child study team is in a separate line on its own it's 1.2
million and then uh related Services is 1.4 uh also Special Ed I think on this slide specializ transportation is here as well it's it's actually has gone up it's 9 94 $1,000 and in this slide for those who
like to you know they they love numbers and they can't sleep at night this is a great slide just to uh look at the uh the comparison from three years ago uh till now uh so you you'll see um every
category uh going down to uh three years ago where were we had a $42 million budget last year last school year was a uh or actually I'm sorry this current school year is a 44.4 million and the proposed budget is 45.6 with the expenditures uh comparison
here is just another look at uh a comparison in uh the last uh three years um and also the changes um uh so so the salaries and the reason why we don't see a bump is because in order to balance uh
this budget uh there are uh three positions that are are being um removed um out of uh this budget and we'll present more details about that once um at the at the next uh presentation uh
just to uh show and um what that looks like and the the impact is actually out of classroom positions uh that um as superintendent dppi uh shared it has no impact on on uh the program uh that's being offered uh uh benefits we see that it
has gone up by 99.3% uh special education has increased by 4 uh 28% uh General uh Services um instructional Services has increased by 6.26% and then General support uh
there's a decrease of 3% okay turn Okay um So within this budget uh our curriculum and instruction initiatives um we the New Jersey student learning standards for um English language arts and Mathematics changed um
were revised and implemented this year um our current um program does does not was not aligned with the new New Jersey standards while our curriculum was
aligned this year our programmatic um uh components for our English language arts especially at the elementary level um needed to change so that instruction uh will focus on finding a um a new program
um we have a committee of teachers and administrators uh that I also sit on um that has been looking at several different uh options for us uh we are coming down to the wire we have a meeting this week to um pick a a pilot
and we have 12 teachers that are going to Pilot this for the remainder of the school year um uh in preparation for adoption next year so that's going to that's about it's in the budget at about
$100,000 uh for K5 for the new program materials and um training for teachers um we will continue professional development in uh our K8 and Algebra 1 geometry Algebra 2 with our Dimensions
uh and amplifi programs and that's based on Singapore Math um the math standards while they were newly adopted were very slightly changed um from the past five years so there's no need to really review those programs uh just making
sure that our teachers are delivering those with Fidelity um we are going to continue support uh it's not really new anymore this is three year three of implementation of our uh history alive in K4 um we are looking to continue to
support the inquiry based science this is the science program that we do acknowledge is not aligned to the the New Jersey science standards uh but at this point there's only so much we can ask our elementary teachers to learn new at the same time so uh we are focused on
Ela and uh once we get that under our belt we will be looking to support a different science uh uh program as well um we are in uh this is actually I think a typo I think we're in year four of um oh no actually it is year three
because we didn't have training this year so this is year three even though it's in year four it's the third year of uh language Essentials for teachers of reading and spelling or the letters training uh which is supportive of supported supportive of the new
standards um and so that will continue um we will continue to administer map growth assessments um in uh math and reading to students in grades 1 through eight and uh algebra at uh at Vern high school and um we are updating curriculum
as we do each year uh according to the fiveyear cycle um most of that will be uh for next year will be uh English language arts curriculum at each grade level um We are continuing with we had a full
year pilot of the positivity project character education at hbw and at the elementary schools Mrs aaman was able to get that pilot going um at all four of our elementary schools that will be fully adopted next year and that's by
the way a very low cost uh item um for such a phenomenal uh uh program and districtwide professional development will continue to be on the taxonomy of the standards in uh year three um working in professional learning
communities uh focusing on instruction uh strengthening tier one instruction um and using the uh will be in year two of the new evaluation model focusing on on going back to basics and differentiating instruction uh implementing multi-tier
system of supports and response to intervention and continuing our work in diversity Equity inclusion and belonging uh okay that's uh where we're focused um and it's a lot so acknowledging there's
a lot there yes oh wait I'm sorry F me special services yeah I didn't realize sorry about that um we are obviously special services um is is uh we are continuing
with so it stays the same program continuity stays the same we're going to still have our language century and social program uh LSS at Lanning uh and our lld program and that's prek to 12 so at various schools we have resource room
replacement opportunities for students we have supplemental instruction in grades K4 and uh we are in um inclass instruction or um inclass support in-class resource there's lots of different acronyms for that um that will
continue to um be developed in our elementary this we're going into year three with um inclusionary instruction in the elementary schools so that is a commitment we've made to the students in uh Verona that we will continue with the
least restrictive environment in special education at the elementary as well as middle and high school so in in this slide we have our um famous comp comparison so this is updated as of uh 2024 is taken from the
New Jersey taxpayer guids to education spending um that it's available to the public there's a different categories different indicators whoever is interested in in comparing Verona to any uh School District in the state um and that's available on the state's website
uh so in the First Column you do see the uh per pupil cost uh Verona has uh the lowest in this comp um comparison and and that's just goes to show that uh we are we're doing a lot
with with very with little compared to our peer districts um and in order to get um results and and being able to provide uh similar types of programs um Etc so the need to continue um growing
and and being at a place where we're at like 19,000 per pupil cost is is kind of like where we should be at um on supplies uh this is actually the per pupil um cost for classroom supplies to
uh $275 per student uh extracurricular we where our cost is actually $632 per student which is um pretty pretty good and then our average property tax in Verona is uh
13,47 uh and in comparison to our peer districts which is uh pretty um pretty average I I feel it's pretty average compared to to those I'm not sure if anyone had any questions but we'll we'll we we could come back to any
comparisons and and those pieces the this slide actually breaks down the increase of our tax levy so um also in comparison to uh previous years um as you could see in in this slide Debt Service um we did do the refunding of
our bond from uh 2014 uh 2015 and uh we we do see a a savings in our debt service so that's going to start going down um and it's pretty much going to be moving away from the numbers that that we were actually spending the
the trajectory of actually The Debt Service on on that end uh and the other piece is um the total uh tax levy to be raised um uh from the Verona Township it it will be uh 43,7
76,2 64 and the way that um we calculate the tax levy increase on on uh the average uh home uh the township uses uh the total Town valuation
and that valuation is uh 2.4 billion um and and basically that's the value of all property in Verona uh the tax levy which is uh the proposed tax levy um total for for this
uh coming uh school year is uh 42,000 I'm sorry 42 m424 531 uh which gives us a rate um on the average home and then the the uh
School tax so the school tax will be uh$ 7,933 92 that is an increase of $255 181 and right at the bottom of the slide I did uh give a a total of what a 2% uh
tax levy impact would be um the 2% tax impact would be $148 181 the proposed 3.5 um percent is uh 25581 which is a $107 uh difference between uh a 2% tax levy
and the proposed 3.53% it's important to note though if if we were to go with a 2% uh we would lose at least three four teachers at least four teachers at least four teachers we'd have to cut which would
increase at least which would increase um class size and the summary on this slide is uh just to summarize um the the facts of this uh budget proposal which is the 3.5 um 3%
on tax levy also which is also the uh the $255 181 per household per average household on and average assessment of uh 435,000 remember from last year um what what taxpayers actually paid last year
on the average home the school tax was 7,678 uh this proposal will be a 1.80 a183 uh I'm sorry $182 per $100 of assessment so that's what we're looking at um this proposal and and the 1.53
increase that goes over the 2% um the reason we are allowed to do that is because we had such an increase in our health benefit cost so the state doesn't let us just make that random decision to go to the 1.53 extra they say if your if your health
benefits increase by x amount we're going to allow you to offset that correct yes so that that total uh Health Care increase as superintendent Dy actually shared is um is $590,000 uh that we've incurred um and and
because we have a 590,000 increase in benefits we um we allowed to go uh above in order to to um uh offset the the increase this is kind of a good time to talk about the impact of chapter
44 yes so um in 2020 uh the legislature passed um a a new law that said all new staff School staff members um have to uh contribute well they've been contributing to health benefits under
after 77 for many years now um so that was a percentage of the actual cost of their health benefit package so um that was a a much higher cost on individual staff members uh in order of
for districts to reduce the burden on their staff members chapter 44 was devised and implemented and what that does is that puts the burden more on the district once again to pay the health benefit uh because teachers now teachers
and other school staff myself included because I was hired after 2020 don't pay a percentage of what my actual health benefits cost I pay a percentage of my salary so because salaries uh of uh of
Educators don't increase by 9 10 12 16% the way health benefits do um we are collecting less money from the staff members and the district uh is bearing a much larger cost for health benefits so
that will continue to be problematic for school districts not just Verona all school districts and so this will continue to make budgets hard to meet as we move forward and that increas is anticipated
for at least the next uh three years uh because chapter 44 doesn't Sunset until the end of uh December 31 of 202 .7 uh so so that increase is uh is a burden that every school district um
throughout the state is is feeling uh I think uh even in Essex County we we um uh recently other uh business administrators had a conversation about the impact of healthcare increases and
the impact in general and everyone is uh for the most part using the waiver to offset because it's becoming something that's not to be really sustainable in in the longall I think the the only benefit that we have is we have we're in the Amer health program and not the
state health benefits plan that went up what 17% the last uh slide is the next step so uh right after uh this board meeting um the next step is uh to uh submit a the tenative budget to the county office
for County approval uh that's due on March 19th and as I mentioned uh previously the the county has until April 22nd to um review and approve and return it back to the board uh when at that moment the board um can make some
revisions and resubmit or um but but our goal is to have it uh presented and approved by the 29th and that's going to be uh publicly presented at the April 29th board meeting questions thank you thank you um just
one or it's probably more of a comment um could we go back to slide 16 was yeah um I I just want to commend um both our superintendent and yorge for your transparency on on this process and
I I just want to underscore that the um the additional um Levy impact while it is regrettable I think it is clearly as demonstrated here in in the best support of of our schools and I I really
appreciate the clarity for the impact if we were not to do this um so this this leads me to I think something that you were just closing with Jorge is um is it reasonable to expect that
we're going to need to do this in subsequent years through 20 28 if I am understanding you properly yes so so that's actually a good uh Point Mr bo uh so in the last I'm just going to go to a few slides back
um believe in the last two years we've been using uh the health waiver uh but it hasn't been as drastic as as this year so in 2324 This was um I'm sorry skip this one
uh my first year in Verona which was the 2122 school year um for the 2223 school year there was actually Bank cap which bank cap happens when the board has tax levies that don't get
utilized so if we were to utilize a tax levy under 2% uh the state allows it to be banked so meaning if we said tax levies was going to be uh in at 1.8 then 02 uh %c gets spanked uh so then uh there was
actually a year that the board uh and I believe it was probably like maybe before covid or um that actually did not increase tax levy at 2% and usually Bank cap expires in three years so at that time the board actually took advantage
of the bank capap in order to balance the budget we didn't qualify for any health um care increases because at that time uh health health um uh benefits only increased by 4% but two years after
covid um Health um benefits and and the cost has gone up I I think I believe the last few years it's been nine um about eight between eight and 12% um out of the state plan U as superintendent D sepe mentioned the state plan saw double
digits increases so for from what I'm seeing I'm hoping that uh uh being out of the state plan we probably see those numbers actually drop and then it's just a single digigit increase but anytime there's an um
anything that's that's actually more than what's really uh anticipated or above um what's reasonable we're we're going to see this uh Health waiver and we're going to basically see these numbers um uh so two years ago we we
actually had 271,000 from a health waiver and then last this current school year uh when we presented this budget it was 197,000 uh and then now it's almost tripled that it's 590,000 so um I'm
hoping that next year we're not in a situation where we we have a double digit um health or benefit increase but um that that is something that we might anticipate on on seeing at least for the for the next two budgets well I I think
just funding in general is in the realm of the complete and utter Unknown about what's going to happen you know um there's talk about changing Federal Department of Education I don't know what's going to happen there um the federal we talked last last month
Federal Department of Education funds this District at about $680,000 um uh we would hope that even if the department of Ed is dissolved that that funding will continue to either come to
this to come to our district and many other districts that get significantly more Federal funding than we do um but making that money up will be difficult um there's going to be challenges transportation's not getting cheaper um
it's there will continue to be economic challenges that we will face here uh we do have and have been looking into some creative ways to mitigate that uh we've talked several times um
of the redistricting of some of our schools and changing the configurations and um that will yield a considerable cost savings and is actually better instructionally um I know it's not what the community wants and we're not definitely saying we're going to that
but it could yield $300,000 in savings um to the district which when we're looking at cutting $1.5 million doar out of the budgets and trying not to increase class size not not to cut program listen we don't have a lot of programs here we have programs
for special education that's required under the law and under our DEA we don't have the opportunities for many of our students that that our peers have um especially in science and stem uh it's you know the fact that we are trying to
get robotics classes into our high school in 2025 says where we are regarding stem instruction um so cutting program on my watch is not something I would ever want to do um but
we are going to be faced with that unless we make some real hard changes and those changes may not be well um embraced by the community but those are will be if we are forced to go in that route they will be to benefit our students and to keep what we do here we
are schools we are here to instruct to keep that at the highest level we possibly can um I know that we receive grants for multiple different reasons we see them throughout the year what is our process for applying for Grants um and ensuring
that we're tapping into potential revenue of belong to um a list serve that's education grants and all education grants that are available I get an email and it tells me what's available um there are very little Grant
out there like what where we can apply for them we apply for them um for the most part many competitive grants um are really based on Title One funding which we do receive but we don't receive enough to um put us into the realm of
applying for some of those bigger grants it's probably fair to say that those are going to be fewer opportunities going forward as well with GRS even if there are few now yeah I mean I would I you know as you know Kyle our board Kyle Trent our board attorney said you know if you get questions about
funding it's it's up in the air it's all up in the air right now nobody can predict what's going to happen regarding um funding to schools and even if the Ida funds do disappear our obligations under New Jersey Law do not well that's
correct and under federal law even though even the federal grants and the and and goes away to do away with next week New New Jersey Law requires pretty much mimics idea might be even a little bit more
robust um and we have an obligation not just a legal obligation we have a moral obligation to support all our students um and we would still be figuring it out um right
unfortunately um I I did want to say I do thank you and before we just move on you know I a few years ago the township did do a master plan and they had a whole survey as to why we all moved to Verona um and the highest in in the plan
they they asked you know why why did you move to Verona and 81% of the people surveyed um who had moved to Veron in the last 10 in the last 20 years moved because of the school system um I'm sorry I'm sorry 53% because of the school system and 81%
said the school system was very important so our town wants our schools to be places where our students can come and learn and go out and do great things
um and I I commend Jorge and and Mr jeppy to for figuring this out because I there's no way I it will be yes you could I couldn't have figured it out and it will be incredibly difficult to continue to
educate our students with a per pupil cost of $177,000 so thank you for that and um yeah I guess we will just move on now to um our public comments on agenda
action items um just is for agenda action items only please no public participation um sorry wrong one yeah anyone from the public wishing to speak on an agenda item only please approach the podium once recognized clearly State
your first and last name for the record you will have three minutes to address the board there'll be no cross dialogue during this p uh this public portion um if a question can be answered it will be answered by the superintendent or board president at the end there's a uh you'll be granted one time to speak and there's
a total time limit of 1 hour um so if anyone wishes to speak on any of the items that we are voting on tonight or discussing please come forward seeing no one we will move on to our action item oh wait sorry discussion
old and new business does anyone have any discussion items and it's it's part of the agenda but I'll ask it now so walk me through the the process I see we hire we're looking to hire a maintenance person till the end of the year but then I see that there's an electrician maybe it's a
certification or a specialty or something like that and I I see the cost of like 71,000 or something um but if there's an electric problem wouldn't we call an electrician anyway so walk me through what we're why we're paying that person of that typ that step uh so this is um back filling a a
vacancy that um we had in the maintenance department or our maintenance department is a um a crew of of three and a half um uh men and uh the idea is to when we have an opportunity to uh backfill to have
backfill of uh individuals with actual trade license uh to ensure that we're able to uh have things done in housee so for example uh the last previously that last hire we had in maintenance is um a license plumber so so we now have a
licensed plumber and uh with the individual on this uh agenda tonight we'll have a a licensed electrician um in the district because that seems like a great you know to have it available um do you think it would be more expensive less expenive or I guess a a net neutral
if if we just had regular or or non specialized maintenance or custodians and then just called like a contracted plumber or a contracted electrician if there's a problem with those things uh so so because to your point yes so we could have actually done like let's say
like a handyman and and then uh lore in the guide uh but the amounts looking at what we spend on plumbers and electricians uh I I was looking at the electrical um POS that we've done with contractors and and in a given year it
could be anywhere between 30 and and $50,000 on on on costs uh so not to say that there might not be a job let's say let's say a plumbing job um that might be too big for that one plumber uh let's
say jetting you know a sewer and and the Machinery that we have is not and then those those will be exceptions to the rule because then at that point we we will have to work with a contractor to come out with specialized equipment Etc but for the most part um a lot of the
jobs will be able to not rely on on a contractor um and then kind of like reduce those costs so yeah I see I could see also how that would help with the speed of fixing whatever the the problem is um and I think it's interesting you know because with that salary and I'm
assuming they're getting benefits yes so they're part of the family plan that's $110,000 you know to the district or something like that so you know I trust you obviously so if you're saying it's the speed of fixing things plus the expertise on site is is
worth maybe a little extra that we're paying for that or or maybe maybe more than a little extra and it is a it is a savings compared to like the backf I think it was like a it's not a huge savings but it's a uh maybe like $7,000 um in comparison of breakage
uh the the the part that um and this person is not just going to sit around and just wait for electrical jobs this this this one this person is is also going to be you know working on um basically HVAC of being able to uh
switch filters and the maintenance and preventive maintenance throughout the district um so that's the other thing I just want to kind of like clarify that we don't just use them for that trade they're they're basically part of the maintenance team and they're giving work orders to operate in the district as
needed so and they fill in for custodial staff when we're short and fill in for Cotto staff so that's a perfect example so so we do have part of their job description short they have to go and they have sensor but correct so they they fill in as a custo as a head custodian uh especially in elementary
schools we only have one one custodian in the day so whenever that there's a shortage or an outage of uh for coverage the the maintenance um rotators have a rotating schedule to be assigned um and as I mentioned like work orders the the ones that are priority in their trade
will be given to them but they'll be giving any any uh order to be um fixed and repair so that's that's kind of like what thank you that answered my question thoroughly y you got it I I also just wanted to report out
that I had um sent out to mayor uh tamboro um and Deputy Mayor Roman uh propos agenda items for our joint meeting which is actually our next meeting um came up fast so it was basically what we had discussed earlier
um going over the memor of agreement now and see if there's anything that we need to adjust is there's anything that we could add to this memo of agreement with the township regarding shared services um communication issues with the Verona
Flats uh Management Group and then um in general pilot programming past future um and how we can work together with on that um so that meeting like I said is coming up March
25th I just have don't I just have one quick question are we um the clerk had asked are we advertising for that or is are the town we yeah okay we both they can advertise definely yeah okay that's what
I thought had have a okay standing yeah well we advertise the special meeting because under administrative we have to we are meeting as a board right so um if there's nothing else and no correspondence no correspondence we
will move on to our action items so uh under Personnel a one through a four can I get a motion so move mov by m second by Miss Frisco
any discussion see none can we get roll call please M yes Mrs F yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs pel yes Mr Boon yes motion carries okay moving on to uh section B education
can I get a motion to approve B1 through b five so moved oh second by Mr Walker second by uh Mr Boon any discussions I actually just want to point out that uh Mrs Miss Craven uh who is going to the
njpd the uh PE Health teachers uh convention um is actually going as a presenter so kudos to her for being selected to present conratulations yeah anything else okay if we can have roll call
please Mr wer yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs rosala yes Mr Boom yes motion cards okay moving on to Athletics and co-curricular can I
have a motion to approve C1 and C2 so moved moved by Miss piscot second second by Miss Ferrera any discussions okay seeing none can I have phone call Please Mr Walker yes Mrs
farar yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs prella yes Mr Boon yes motion carries so nothing in facilities today moving on to finance can I get a motion for E1 through E3 I will move
it move by Mr WKA second by Mr Boon sure workk any discussions okay can I please have roll call Mr Walker yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs PCO yes Mrs FAL yes Mr Bo yes motion CS
thank you um moving on to governance and policy um can I get a motion for F1 uh you have to we have to table that I forgot to send you the report I apologize we had one investigation it was finished today and I did forget I apologize that so do we need a a
motion um F1 move by m right second by m I'm a little slow today okay can I I guess get roll call to table that Mr wer yes Mrs Farrar
yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs braz yes Mr Boon yes motion carries table F1 okay and then moving on can I get a motion uh to approve F2 and F3 okay was that moved by m prisco yeah okay do
I have a second I'm so moved second by mron yeah any discussion I just want to point out that um the policy was updated in between the first reading and the second reading um and I will um get some
instruction out to parents and administrators and teachers surrounding this policy um as quickly as possible have you heard any feedback from parents at this point no I mean it's the parents uh that were on the committee right well I'm not out
side of that no okay so can I get a roll call please Mr Walk yes Mrs Farrar yes Mrs PCO yes Mrs Bala yes Mr BR yes motion carries thank you and then moving on to um
public comments anyone from the public wishing to speak on any matter please approach the podium once recognize clearly State your first and last name for the record you will have 3 minutes to address the board there will be no cross dialogue during this public portion if there is a question that can be answered only the superintendent or
board president can respond and we'll do so at the end of comments uh there is a total time limit of 1 hour for public participation thank you good evening members of the Board of Education I have it written down so I'll keep within my three minutes my name is
Matthew Eisenberg and I live in Wayne New Jersey my daughter son-in-law and Grandson live in Verona as part of my mission in life which is to raise the morality and Consciousness level of society I have
written a book titled confidence skills for young adults exhibit a over here which was released on Amazon on September 30th I hold a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and
uh another master's degree in school Psychology from yiva University with a uh permanent certification in New York State this project is a labor of passion and love for you the reason for my speaking
tonight is to ask your assistance in vetting and then figuring out how to best share this material with the Verona High School students and any suggestions how to best approach this that would be most
appreciated what I have prepared for whatever vetting process you have is that I compos the compliance Matrix based on the New Jersey social and emotional learning s guidelines where I Associated each
competency and subcompetency in those guidelines with the specific chapter headings and subheadings in the book I have this spreadsheet and the methodology I use to compose it available for review by anyone who would
be assigned to that task and we'll also be using this as the basis to compose a curriculum course for high schools and universities in addition I am scheduled for a virtual book chat with the Wayne Public Library on March
21st in addition to also being scheduled for a no cost 4-week course starting April 22nd offered at the Wayne Township Community Center that's the old why that the Wayne Township took over the
documents that I can share with you are as follows a copy of my book and I'd be happy to donate one to the library over here uh a flyer for the virtual author chat uh
which is over here so I'm happy to share that with you a flyer for the Wayne Township community center four-week course which is over here a link to the Amazon page
for confidence skills for young adults containing Reader reviews I finally hit 15 reviews on February 14th it's an inflection point uh a link to the shared Drive containing the New Jersey social
and emotional learning guidelines compliance Matrix to the book chapters a link to the book website a link to free uh to free downloadable uh P to a free downloadable
PDF version of The Complete Book so anybody in town or any high school student or any of you here who wish to download a free PDF copy uh that link is available to you a link to a shared drive that I have on my personal Drive
containing all the documents that I just spoke about and showed you this evening uh again my goal is to inspire and motivate the young adults and Society to be excited about embarking on their journey in life with the courage
and confidence that they and the rest of us can have because it resides in all of us we just just need to have the tools to express it and that's what my book and I hope to achieve thank you all thank you very
much close enough thank you and I know the perfect person that can bet that for us you just made a [Laughter] sale thank you much there you
go okay are there any other public comments thank you very much um seeing none um can I get a motion to
adjourn so moved second to miss Frisco all those in favor I thank you our next meeting will be on March 25th with confidential starting at 6 and public meeting starting at 7 it will be in the
auditorium not in the learning Commons thank you thank you