Everyone, I would like to welcome you to the Monday, June 22nd, 2026 board of education meeting. We are calling the meeting to order and it is 7:03 p.m. If everyone could please rise for the pledge of allegiance. A reading of meeting notice. The New
Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of the 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
closed notice of this meeting to be published in the Star Le Star Ledger online and can be viewed by the public on the board of education official website. Legal notices for New Jerseys public entities will be also accessible at the New Jersey Department of State's
legal notices website. Copies of tonight's agenda and resolutions have been made available to the public via the Board of Education website. Dr. Riley, if you could please attendance. >> Mr. Rocket, >> Mr. >> Mr.
Mr. Chris >> here, >> Mr. >> Here. >> Thank you. Moving on to our routine matters. I need a motion, please, to approve our minutes from our June 9th, 2026 meeting. >> I'll second. >> Motion by Mrs. Kotic, seconded by Mr.
Boon. Are there any discussions? Seeing none, Dr. Riley, if you could please call roll. >> Mr. Walker. Modic. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Frisco. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bloom. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Moving on. Tonight we have a lovely presentation from our Capstone girls.
Um, Give Kids the Worlds. Girls, if you'd like to come up. Thank you for being here. >> Yeah. Tonight we have Payton Kohler, Grace Patus, and Sinclair Zorski to tell us about a really special capstone that
they were involved in. Hi. So, I'm Payton Kohler. So, we were three of the seven girls who went on the Give Kids the World capstone trip this year. So, Give Kids the World is like a resort village in Cin, Florida, right outside of uh Disney, SeaWorld, and Universal. And they partner with Make a
Wish to host uh up to I believe it's 250 families um and give them like tickets to go to Universal, Disney, and SeaWorld and all experiences. They get transportation from the airport and it's fully uh volunteer. So, um they do it at West Essics. So, that's where Michano
got the idea to start the trip. So, we worked pretty closely with her like planning and deciding um what we were going to do. So, um Grace is going to talk about what we did while we were there. >> Okay. So, I'm Grace. We basically went through a bunch of different types of um
activities. We served breakfast. We delivered food. We worked with um the like little the kids there. We also worked with delivering food. And one thing that I did, which is my favorite, was working in the castle there, which
was each Make a Wish kid has a star there that they get to decorate and put on the ceiling and their families are able to come and visit. And when I worked there, they would come in to decorate their star. And I got to play with them before. And I thought that was like my favorite because I got to work most closely with the children there.
And there was a lot of stuff that we didn't get to do because we were there for such like a pretty short amount of time like lifeguarding. There's also like pick up and drop off to the airport and stuff like that. But I really enjoyed like all of the different things that we got to experience.
I'm Claire and not to speak on behalf of all seven of us, but I think a lot of us going into the trip thought that it was going to be a lot more saddening and disheartening. We all going into it were asked what do you think we're going to get out of it? And we all said like We're going to learn a lot of lessons, but we're also going to learn about a
lot of harsh realities. But I think all of us going coming out of the trip also learned that there was so much positivity there from the volunteers, the kids themselves, their families. Everyone was so excited to be there and everyone was so happy. And I think it was a little bit of a weight off our
shoulders that we realized that we could um be a little less serious. And that's what the whole point of the trip is. And all these families, they didn't come here to be like reminded of all the stuff that was there, but they came there to be reminded that they could still have fun. And that's what it was. It was truly a fun time for everybody. Even the volunteers, everyone we talked
to, a lot of people had been volunteering there for 5, 10, 15 years. And they had nothing but nice things to say about everybody. And every kid and every family we met was just the absolute best. And I think all of us would 100% do it again. And we all
recommend if anybody's near Kiss Me, Florida, which a lot of people probably are going to Disney, you should definitely pick up a shift. It's like four or five hours of your day and it really does make a difference. >> Thank you. That's wonderful. So, the Give Kids Give Give Kids the
World Village is 89 acres not nonforprofit storybook resort in Central Florida um where children with critical illnesses and their families are treated to a week-long cost-free vacation and these girls made it better for them. >> Thank you so much.
>> I I don't identify as a Disney adult, but I know there's people in the room that do. So, I'm I'm wondering if this is going to be a new uh pit stop on your future decision. >> Uh it certainly uh looks like it might be. >> And how how did our students become
aware of this? Exactly. >> Uh Mrs. Shakatano. >> Miss Shakatano has a daughter who also just graduated from West Essex and she went with West Essex on the trip and she so she's heard about this program for a while and she was like she brought up the idea of bringing it to VHS and she
brought up to me and I I was like I would 100% go and do that because who wouldn't take up a volunteering opportunity? >> How many families were there when you were there? >> I believe 112. Yeah, it roughly wasn't
Yeah, like it was it'll get into full swing. >> Yes, there's 112 and then they host alumni families too. So once you go you can come back um and visit and so there were like 15 alumni families as well too. >> So it says on their website that since 1986 when they opened they have welcomed
more than 205,000 families. >> Yeah. It's uh Miss Shakano is really good at talking to everybody. So she found out it costed 180 million dollars to run a year or something, but Disney, SeaWorld, and Universal keep them fully funded. So,
while we were there, they hosted a Halloween night and Disney had an event that got cancelled. So, they all all the kids got those lightsabers that you see like the $450 lightsabers or something and they all got them all as like favors at like the Halloween party and they were all running around on the carousel with them and running around with them. So, it's so cool to see.
>> That is great. This is why I'm a Disney adult. >> I wasn't judging. I just And you said this was part of capstone. So was this like the capstone that you like you know picked different things like an option that you could have picked amongst the various
>> Yeah. So this year you had the option of doing like traditional capstone with Mr. or Mr. Hman or uh this option uh with Shaq. You do have to pay to go on the trip but >> pay to go for the week. >> Now is this something that we're going to see continue? >> We are going to see it continue. Yeah.
Um it was definitely worthwhile. We're hoping um like me personally I know I've spoken to a lot of like juniors and underassmen that already are so excited. They're like that's what I'm going to do for my capstone next year. I'm so excited to go on it. So I think the program is definitely going to grow at
um West Essex. I know there's like 30 kids that go every year. Big difference from seven. So I'm really hoping that the program will grow and a lot more kids. >> Do do you see um as this catches on an opportunity in the Verona community of having a fundraiser program? so that
future iterations uh don't have to pay out of pocket for this. So >> that would be great. We could certainly look into that. I know um just the idea of u shifting some of our focus on capstone from internships to service learning um has been a focus of Mr.
Cogills for quite a while and this was you guys are the first that really um came to fruition with that. Um but yeah, we can definitely look at fundraising to support the trip. >> We had started to fund raise but we out a lot later than they plan on doing it this year. Like we didn't start
fundraising for this until we found out about Capstone in January, but I believe Shaq already sent out a form of an interest form so they can start fundraising like as soon as school starts. We just didn't have nearly as much time. And also, I encourage you all to go watch our like 12 minutee long
video in case we missed anything. It's long, but I think we're pretty proud of it. So, >> yeah, I'll put it on the website. >> Yeah, I was going to ask where the website where it was. It's on the It'll be on the website. >> It'll be on the website. How long were you there for? A week. >> It was uh like five days because by the
time like you're supposed to book it like pretty early in advance and again we found out pretty late. So I believe it was like five days and it's like eight hours of volunteering a day split into like two separate shifts. So we we did a pretty decent amount of volunteer work while we were there. >> Great.
>> That's wonderful. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Enjoy your summer and good luck in the >> Yeah. Good luck in the >> fall of service. When our cat ran away, uh we had a uh a certain board member's son volunteering for the Florida Fire
Department who searched the woods trying to find the cat. So, we appreciated that as well. >> It was a community effort. Did you find the cat? >> Yeah, he came back. >> He just he just meandered, right? Like you found him in the in the >> girls. Thank you.
Moving on to our superintendence report with Miss Diane D. Jeppi. >> Okay. Um the HBW transition and the VHS graduation ceremonies were both beautiful celebrations that highlighted the accomplishments, growth, and bright
futures of our students. Um the HBA transition ceremony provided a meaningful opportunity for to recognize students as they move forward in the next chapter of their journey with us. Um the high school graduation celebrated the achievements of the class of 2026.
Um really um memorable and inspiring. Um I I love um the uh awkward speech with um with Bod and and the u bad types. It was amazing. I've seen I saw the the um TED talk so I knew what was coming and
it was excellent uh both times. Um and the weather could not have been more with the exception of a little bit of windiness um was exceptional. Uh arguably the best conditions in my 15 years of sitting at high school
graduations. Um it was great. To give a staffing update, um we are getting inundated with applicants. Uh and that has to do with the fact that we are um not the only school district that had reductions in force. So there's a lot of
teachers out there looking for jobs and we right now at the elementary level have definitely one kindergarten position. You'll notice on the agenda tonight, Mrs. Nakamson is retiring. Uh so that is her position. Um but it looks like we are going to have a second
kindergarten position which uh is it's going to work out well for us because right now when I uh put this report together this afternoon, we had 58 applicants. We now have 65 applicants. Um they're coming in fast and furious. We are in the interviewing phase for the
kindergarten position. Uh I just need to figure out where we're going to put the next the sec the extra kindergarten applic um uh as the board knows I've put out a survey uh to our incoming K parents to see if anyone would be willing to shift around um you know
voluntarily take a seat in um in a smaller class size to kind of balance out these very large kindergartens that are across our district. I got two takers out of 61 respondents. So, um yeah, I I understand people love their neighborhood schools. Um we have an
elementary music opening which you also see on the agenda tonight. Mrs. She is also retiring and um that application went that that um sorry that posting went up on Friday and we have currently 14 applicants for that and we
have 23 applicants for special education position at landing which uh coincidentally is Abigail Makinson who's uh resigned to move uh to Pennsylvania. Um at the high school we have school counselor leave placement. Um, we have a
a good number of applicants for that, too. For LEA replacement, it's unbelievable. We have 17. Um, middle school special education math is uh the exception to that rule. For whatever reason, we have one applicant for that. So, we're going to repost that job and kind of kick it up to the top of the
list on some of the job boards that we subscribe to. In addition to those positions, we also have um some district needs. We always always always have a need for power professionals, lunch aids, day substitutes, bus drivers, and
uh we are looking to fill a part-time one more part-time custodian and a part-time maintenance position. This is uh the time of year when we kind of um talk a little bit about the importance of reading over the summer.
Um uh we know that research tells us that students can lose up to two months of progress over the summer. um and which can be a significant setback. So our our uh media specialists and our teachers have put together um some
summer reading um initiatives and that uh is due to the fact that we know that studies consistently show that students who engage in regular reading during the summer break maintain or even enhance their reading skills. So um their summer reading hub on all of the school
websites except for the high school they have their own um summer assignments that in an email from uh uh Verona Counseling to the parents of our high school kids uh yesterday or Friday. Um
for grade five, students are choosing one fiction novel to read independently. This is incoming grade five. They can choose any genre that they like, including graphic novels. Um they'll be working uh next September on a project
that they will be doing in class when they return. For the incoming sixth graders, they should choose two of the texts listed for them. There's 17 choices. There's plenty to choose from. Um they will be responsible for this
reading assignment and um they are looking uh at main at main characters in in the the books that they choose. Grade seven is a little bit more um challenging. They're comparing both a
fiction and a non-fiction text. they are looking at um real people and characters that face significant uh a variety of situations. So the main focus of their um their writing when they get back is nothing is
impossible. Obstacles can be overcome with hope and determination. Friendships can help us through difficult times. Adversity builds character. People are more alike than they are different. A positive attitude can make almost anything better. All human beings have
worth and animals are a blessing to those who love them. So those are the themes that they'll be writing on. I know in 8th grade is a similar project. Um they are investigating what it takes to be a hero, how to create a more peaceful and tolerant society, and how
to how do courteous individuals from the present and past inspire us to live better lives. So those essential questions will be explored as part of um the eighth grade curriculum next year. And this summer reading features both real and fictional characters. So students are to choose uh one
non-fiction piece and one memoir. And um they will be asked to write an essay or complete an outline um proving how the author of the non-fiction text and the main character of the novel relate to the following theme. with courage, hope and determination,
ordinary people can overcome extraordinary uh difficulties. So, um that's our summer reading program for next year. Very interesting. I was a little inspired by the level of work that the students are going to be doing and u really proud of our teachers to
really think about how can we have our students reflect while they're enhancing their reading skills. Um, and as I said before, grades 9 through 12 have individual summer individual summer assignments across the board in math language arts AP.
Thank you. That's it. >> Thank you. Does anyone have any questions or comments? >> Just a comment um on Missson. Well, uh all four of my kids actually had her as their kindergarten teacher. So, we um we adore her and um my kids, you know,
benefited greatly having her as their teacher as I'm sure every student that's come across her path has had that that benefit. So we wish her well and she's going to be very sorely sorely missed. >> Those are big shoes. Those are big shoes. Definitely big shoes to fill. I
wish her all the best as well. >> Yeah, she's she's just wonderful. Can't say enough. >> We miss her. >> And I have to say Abigail walked right in her footsteps. >> Lovely family. Okay, moving on to
our business administrator report. Dr. James Riley, >> I just have a very brief update that uh in the business office, we are working on the year-end close uh as well as preparations for the annual school audit and our custodial maintenance team is
already busy um preparing for uh the maintenance projects, repairs and uh the deep cleaning of the buildings. So, uh, significant amount amount of work was already done today on day one. So, we look forward to moving that through the
rest of the summer. >> Thank you. There are no committee reports. Moving on to our public comments on any agenda action items. If anyone from the public has anything that we're voting on that you would like to speak upon, please come to the podium and state your name and you'll have
three minutes. See none. Oh. Are you Yeah, you could come up on our next public comment. This is on anything that we're voting on. So, we'll have another one. So, you're good. Thank you.
>> Moving on to >> I had one more thing. We did officially um uh unfortunately pull out of the trees for schools grant. Um but the good news is that the trees are still going to be planted. The township is planting
all 31 trees they purchased for the trees for schools grant um through um the um shade tree commission. So good news for trees and and Verona, not great news for the grant, but The
whole point was to get those trees in the ground and they're going to get in the ground. >> What's that? >> Oh, could you remind us why we pulled out? What was the the >> uh the trees have not come yet and it's way too late to plant. >> So, they're going to do I guess a full plant. Are they going to do a full plant? Mr. Dr.
>> To my knowledge, the the town through the shade tree commission will will use the trees and they'll look to start planting species specific the ones that we'll take and are are able to be planted in the fall. >> Thank you. Moving on. Do we have any discussion
items or new business or old business? >> I would just like to say also graduation was beautiful this year. So congratulations to everyone again. It was a very wonderful evening both both at the middle school and the high school. Always a very proud event. Um
moving on correspondence. Okay, moving on to agenda action items for resolutions. I need a motion to approve our personnel resolutions from A1 to A7.
Motion by Mr. Boon, seconded by >> Second M. Kotic. Any discussion? >> Uh just to echo uh Miss Kenig, I also wanted to thank Mrs. She for her time and efforts uh with the Verona music program. I know she made a great impact.
People that we've been seeing on stage uh over this past several years uh have definitely grown because of her input and um she will be missed as well. >> Agreed. Thank you, Mr. Bloom. Dr. Wley, if you could please call roll.
>> Mr. Walker, yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yes. Thank you. Moving on to our education resolutions. I need a resolution to approve resolutions B1 through B5.
>> Move it. >> Motion by Mr. Waka. Seconded by Miss Kotic. Are there any discussions? Dr. Riley, if you could please call RO. >> Mr. Walker. >> Yes. >> Mod. >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mr.
>> Yes. >> Thank you. Moving on to athletics and co-curricular. A motion to approve resolution C1 through C2. >> Motion by Mr. Boon. Seconded by second. >> Motic. Any discussions?
Dr. Riley. >> Mr. Walker. Yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Chris. >> Yes. >> Mr. B. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Moving on to our finance. A motion please to approve resolutions E1.
through E4. I just have a question, Dr. Riley. On E4, since I am a Township of Verona employee, can I do I should I refrain from voting on that on the busing the bus the well the transportation
mutual vehicle? Do I need to >> I don't think you need to. >> Okay, I'm fine with that. >> There's no there's no Uh it's a shared service >> shared service agreement. Yeah. Okay. >> And I have a question. It's not an agenda specific question, but uh what
time of the year do we expect to find out what potential healthc care benefit increases might come in the next budget cycle? >> Um we won't know. So, traditionally when
the um when the auditors for the state do their work um the actuaries for Eon will do their work traditionally that's not until the winter. Um we'll start hearing
traditionally again we would start hearing whisper numbers in December. I'll be very honest at the at the conference last month um people were already talking about >> not just double digit increases but
increases akin to what we saw this year. >> All right. Thank you. >> It's not it's not good news. >> And Dr. Riley to um add on to Mr. Walkas >> to add on to Mr. Walker's question on that specifically
um is there been any discussion on any legislative release relief that we might see? >> So currently there are in the neighborhood of 188 bills for consideration. Um there are no current
discussions on relief or addressing any of the healthcare options to my knowledge. I do know that lead which is a a group of educators. It consists of NJPSA, NJA, um the ASBO group and a whole um the um
um parent organization PTO group all of them are u petitioning governor to somehow legislate us in a better place. Garden State Coalition of Schools is is petitioning doing their work uh behind
the scenes with um as is ASA. The superintendent organization in their legislative their legislative departments are all trying to bang the drum as loud as they can because this is going to be the demise of public education if somebody doesn't do
something quickly. >> This too though, even if even if they give us an extra $500,000 state aid just, you know, a substantial amount like the the increase go up another 30% like then the 500,000 doesn't really do anything right
>> one pocket and then the other >> 500,000 is what um under 50% of what an increase like that would be >> yeah to as DJI said um the answer is legislation unfortunately the answer cannot be aid um you know when it comes
to aid my hope would be that this state considers uh fully funding the special education formula and supporting X a big they would do a big service to many many districts including ours um if they
if they more adequately funded the X aid but when it comes to healthcare the only the only way forward is going to be through legislating um >> and that's why it's so important for us i.e
us here and the community to really get involved at that level, at the legislative level, petitioning your representatives and letting it be known this, you know, that that there is support out there for for these sorts of legislative changes because otherwise nothing changes, right? If we're not
making noise and if we're not all part of that solution, um, and you know, obviously attending these meetings and speaking up and you know, petitioning our legislators, we need to be doing more of that. I don't know if there's like some means to kind
of help facilitate that for the public and like here are the folks that you should be reaching out to if you care to reach out some way to kind of get the word out in terms of >> the steps that people can take in our community around >> effect and I think they have to that 2%
school tax levy has got to go. It's it's a it's a net negative for everybody. It really does have to come but >> and writing letters, writing postcards. Postcards I read somewhere get read um uh they're the magnitude is higher than
a letter but just your your assemblymen your state senators um because it can't just be educators. The educators have been writing for years and and we have skin in the game. So it's much more impactful if it comes from families. And uh just couple I wanted to make a
point and a question back to a point we made earlier, but um Dr. Riley pointed out the um the special education costs above and beyond. I I point anybody that's watching this on replay or here in the room. Take a look at uh B7 and
see some of the costs that we have that are exactly to the point that he's putting on. um you know we we are obliged to that uh regardless of the support we get or not. So um you know consider Dr. Riley's point and then look
at agenda item B7. Uh the other point I wanted to come back to um Misty Jeppi mentioned um uh leaning on our uh governor in terms of um executive action. Is there anything
that uh the that the governor can do that goes beyond legislation such as um the healthc care um with GLP1 drugs? Is there anything that or does that also have to be legislated or can that type
of thing come through executive action? >> Again, I say this in spirit of educating our audience. Yeah, I don't know um what the governor can do through executive order versus um no legislative action. Clearly, we've
had lots of executive orders. If you remember the pandemic, I think one came out of dead. Um I'm not sure, but I can certainly uh look into it. >> Uh I think we need a motion.
>> We need a motion. Motion by Mr. Waka and seconded by Mr. Boon. >> Any discussion? I think we had the discussion. So now we can go on to >> Dr. Riley. If you could please call roll. >> Mr. Rocket. >> Yes. M. >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes.
>> Yes. >> Thank you. There are no um resolutions for governance and policy. So we are done with our resolutions. Now we are moving >> there. There is there's the HIB report I sent out today. I'm sorry that didn't
make it on. We can read um the motion if someone would like to read the motion. It's just to accept the HIV report as presented. My apologies. I >> That's okay. >> Motion to accept our um HIV report from Jul uh June 22nd
accept or to read it in. I'm sorry. >> Read um did we need a motion to read it in? >> We just need a motion to accept it. >> Right. motion to >> and seconded by Mr. Kotic. Are >> there Mr. Walker?
>> Any discussion? >> And then roll call. >> Yeah, it was it was there's no HIV on this. There were actually no investigations, but we have to approve it because >> Yep. >> No worries. >> Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Menote. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Frisco. >> Yes. >> Mr.
>> Yes. >> Thank you. Moving on to now our public comments. Anyone from the public, please feel free to come up and state your name. Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you for being here. Very important for the um seas to be
involved. And years ago all the seas did have a liaison that showed up at or watch the meetings or not attended every meeting because it is but just to be involved so you could report back to your SCAS for things that need to get back too because
>> I was told already like they said just come back. >> Yep. Yeah. So thank you for being here and >> I love that. I hope every school I know the HB had that program. >> They all do. It just they it's just hard to get people to get out and volunteer.
>> Rush stand everybody see how fun this is. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Hobs. If you have any questions as my role as board secretary if you ever want to email me, you're always free to to contact the board directly, but you can email me or if you have any questions, I can I can
>> Thanks so much. >> Thank you. Hi, Maria Ki. Um, I am a music parent and hearing about the retirements. You know where my first thought went. Um, I'm wondering if that frees up any
additional funding for music or if um the possibility of hiring a part-time person to replace one of the departing music staff in addition to machus is a possibility. Thank you. >> You're welcome. I am going to answer
that. We have other areas that we would replace first before music. Not that we don't love music, but we have an art teacher going to four buildings next year. We have a counselor going to four buildings and we have um a Spanish teacher teaching in all four elementary.
So, I would if I had money for a part-timer, I would try to support one of them because we're pretty well staffed in the music. department. I know it doesn't seem like that. We were we had more staff than we do in other departments. Um so I don't want you to think that I I not hearing you. I am
hearing you, but it's going to Music's a little lower on the on the replacement at the moment. Okay. Thank you. There's anyone else from the public? Seeing none, we are going to we have to go into
confidential session. So I need a motion to adjourn to go into confidential. >> So move second. >> Moved by Mr. uh Mr. Waka, seconded by Mr. Boon. Any discussions? No.
>> Uh Dr. All in favor? I. All righty. Thank you all for being here tonight. Um, we will see you at our next board meeting on Tuesday, July 21st, 2026. Confidential session beginning at 6 p.m. and the public session at 7:00 p.m. in the
Verona High School Learning Commons. Enjoy the summer. It is 7:30.