good evening everyone i would like to welcome you to the April 8th 2025 board of education meeting we are calling the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m if everyone could please rise for the pledge of allegiance of
America standy and for all okay 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 mr walker here uh Mrs par for the record uh Mrs bar is absent mrs brisco here mrs fzella here mr boon here we are quum thank you thank
you um I we'll go to routine matters first if I can have a motion to approve the minutes of the confidential and regular session meeting of March 25th 2025 so moved
second i'm not done oh and the special joint session session with the township of Verona also on March 25th 2025 i will do that again thank you Mr i will second Chris um can we have roll call
please yes yes yes yes motion carries thank you thank you um I think we should maybe start with
the presentation sure that way we can you don't have to stick around so if it if everyone will let me take it out of order um we can have the our presentation of our annual code of ethics training um by the New Jersey School Board Association miss um Jean
Clearary thank you hi it's nice to be with you so I think we just need one moment thank you now you can see it um okay so thank you for having me out to be with you again it's good to see everybody um
on this cold and very windy day we are going to look at the for 20ation off is that all right um I have to start the presentation off just to inform you as well as the public that this is meant for training and
information purposes and not as legal advice to your legal counsel um should be consulted for anything that you have uh questions on in regard to ethics um to protect yourself and the board
so the school ethics act was um created in recognition of the need to have um essentially that to hold the respect and confidence of the people so that boards of education and local
administrators um always act in a way that maintains the public trust so that you can be focused on the important work that you do on behalf of students and student achievement so because of that um board members and local administrators must
refrain from any actions that would um call into question uh your ability to serve and or leave the uh any member of the community with the reasonable impression that their trust is being broken so the legislative intent is
really to ensure and preserve public confidence in school officials which you are school officials as board members and local administrators um to guide your conduct they recognize that you should have the benefit of some
standards and also the disciplinary mechanism in place um to ensure that those standards are upheld and met so uh these are considered to be a minimal set of ethical standards and we always of course hold ourselves high to higher
standards um and accountability but we are going to look at um the code of ethics this evening so towards accountability for the public's information um board members and local administrators must be in compliance
with these um items all four of these pertain to board members and local administrators um have to uh be compliant with prohibited acts and filing of disclosure statements
um the school ethics commission is the entity that is recognized as enforcing the act it's made up of nine members appointed by the governor no more than five can be from one political party and
it's constituted with um five non-school officials two school board members and two um adi school administrators however currently both positions for school board members and one for the
administrators has been um open for a bit of time so right now the school ethics commission is operating with six members so we'll look at each of those um components that you must be in compliance with so both board members
and uh lead administrators must file financial and personal relative disclosure statements um if you're a new board member or a new administrator you have to complete those within 30 days of hire or when you come on to the board um
and each of you is required to file them annually by April 30th so even if your board secretary BA um sends out a reminder which some some do that's lovely but you have to recognize that you all have to hold yourselves
accountable for that it's your individual responsibility to make sure you're in compliance and failure to be in compliance can lead to penalty through the school ethics commission so um board members
are pardon me um board members are required to um have mandatory training for every year of service and New Jersey School Boards Association is recognized as the provider of that mandatory training so in the first 90 days um and
I recently heard that there are some districts that are saying they're not aware that for new board members it's 90 days i know you all know that here but um in the first 90 days governance one must be completed um this is important for also your public to be aware of the
training that you do receive to set you on a path so that you can um serve well the students of of the district um governance one covers basic knowledge and skills goes into discussion of NJQAC especially um the governmental side that
uh you have respon direct responsibility for HIV um it provides the superintendent evaluation training which is required for all board members to have because that's a a large responsibility for board members um
discussion of open public meetings and of course the code of ethics which we're here to talk about tonight um governance 2 by the end of the second year goes into finance and policy governance three by the end of uh the third year is student achievement and labor and by the
end of every year following either reelection or reappoint you must take governance for to get the most recent legal updates that will inform your um practice and decision-making new Jersey school boards recognizes that everyone has very busy schedules and so we
provide it in um different formats we provide it in person live virtual and self-paced board members should look at the New Jersey school board's website to see which training um best suits your needs and then coordinate through the
business administrator to register you because it's required that um that person does that so um the school ethics commission offers advisory opinions that can be provided to you if you should have a question about a future action and if
that future action may be a violation or cause a violation um on the bottom uh of this um oh I think it's the next slide i'm sorry um any school official or the attorney on your behalf can pose that
question and um if six members which there are only six at this moment of the commission feel that the question and the question that you pose and the answer that's been provided has value to other board members throughout the state they can be made public um and that
provides us with a library that we can um look at for our own guidance and uh if that should happen any identifying information about you or your district is removed the purpose of it is just to provide education
so if you do pose an advisory you know request an advisory opinion it's similar to a police officer um who pro who is uh empowered to provide that guidance that you are then required to be compliant
with um failure to do so can lead to um penalty and uh it would constitute a violation of the school ethics act and on the bottom of this slide I think you this was shared with you all so you have it electronically I hope um these are
hyperlinks that'll bring you to the advisory opinion so if you do have a question you can look at that first before you pose a new one so if we look here at the advisory opinions um I'm sure you all know this at this point but the hyperlink on the side
A1424 just means advisory opinion the number of the advisory opinion and the year um these are really just summaries so if you click on that it'll bring you to the case which um has a lot more detail to it i'm not going to read through all of these they're available
to you these were the ones that were um most recently from provided from 2024 so the second one down A1324 asks the question can a board member participate in negotiations if they have an aunt employed in the
district who is not a member of the local union and the SEC's response was um even though the aunt is not a member of the union uh very often administrator contracts are based on the agreements
with the union so because of that um a board member could not participate in any negotiations with a family member um who is uh working for the district on the bottom A0724 um poses the question can a board member
who co-owns a business an ice cream shop in this case participate in fundraising requests to support the PTO and clubs through hosting events and advertising and the intent here might be um as a board member and a community person
wanting to support the clubs um could all be good intention but the school ethics commission says that services provided to the PTO or PTA district families district organizations um those would violate the act and uh
advertising solicitations open to the public um at large and all businesses wouldn't pose a problem but as a board member the school ethics act exists to ensure that there's no confusion in the public so that you always retain the
public's confidence and um you are seen as being objective and not having any other business before uh the board so on the uh next slide we uh can look the second one down is can a board
member who received and used an endorsement from the local union campaign material participate in policy matters relevant to union members so um these areics of the case considering the type
and level of union support provided and absent any financial um contribution it's not necessarily a conflict in this case the board member did recognize that they should avoid participating in negotiations however in that first year
because that would lead a reasonable member of the public to question objectivity so looking at the ethics complaint any person may file an ethics complaint um and to do so they must make sure that it
happens within a 180day window of the alleged violation they have to identify the section of the act that they believe was violated and they have to provide the factual evidence to support that claim the SEC considers whether the facts
cited um would lead a reasonable person to believe the act has been violated that's the standard that they use so if there had been um a violation deter happened there are four levels of penalty or sanction that could be
imposed um the school ethics commission recommends those penalties based on uh the specifics of that case and then the commissioner is the one that has to act upon it following that recommendation the first one is a reprimand which would
be a rebuke um recognizing that there was conduct that violated the standard but it doesn't result in any formal resolution the next um more serious finding would be for censure which is a formal
disapproval by the commissioner and it would be publicized through the adoption of a resolution so that becomes a much more public thing where that is named a suspension um can bore either a board member or a staff member um from
engaging in activities and matters for a designated period of time uh 30 60 90 days and finally um a removal for egregious acts um would lead to immediate termination from the board or
uh you know your employment being pulled if you're an administrator so on the next slides A throughJ we're going to just take a look at the different parts of the code of ethics and I just want to point out I know that most of you have gone through these um
time and time again um but yet we do find ourselves with boards with experienced board members finding themselves in violations so it's important especially with um perhaps the environment that we find ourselves in um and the discussion and the level of
discussion that happens in communities at times to just remind ourselves and have a refresher so that we can always work together to stay focused on what we're all really here to do which is focus on students and student achievement so um I just point out on
the first one each one of these slides will have on the bottom standards and those standards outline the factual evidence that would have to be provided if you're making a claim that there's been a violation of this part of the act so the first one is that you as board
members will um uphold and enforce all laws rules and regulations of the state board of education and court orders pertaining to schools desired changes shall only be brought about through legal and ethical procedures so clearly you are a
policymaking body you have policies that guide and bylaws that guide your behavior and how you present things when you are going to make um additions or amendments to your policies you put them in a public setting at your board meeting so that uh the public can be aware of them those that will be
affected by any rule changes um can speak out at public comments i will make for B i will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet individual needs of all children
regardless of their ability race creed sex or social standing um this seems pretty straightforward but we have so many things that distract us from uh focusing on children at times and what is best for students so that really is
the first thing that we have to always be asking ourselves is this conversation is this um work that we're doing serving our students right even tonight um the next one C is I will confine my board
action to policym planning and appraisal and I will help to frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them so we spoke about this a moment ago um it's also important to recognize as I know
all of you do that board members act as a board and not as individual board members so the authority rests with the full board um and not with individual board members d is I will carry out my
responsibility not to administer the schools but together with fellow board members see that they are well-run um again pointing out right that we don't act as individuals when we're on a board we act um with fellow board members to
make plans appraise set policy do that work together to serve students e I will recognize that the authority rests with the board of education and make no personal promises or take any private action that may compromise the board in future slides
we're going to look at um some things um and this can even come into play and we'll see it when it when we're looking at volunteering right um so it doesn't have to be something that is um obviously a conflict it might be a
behavior that might have unintended consequences that could complicate how a reasonable member of the public sees you and whether or not you're acting within your authority f I will refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interest
or partisan political groups or to use the schools for personal gain or for the gain of friends um you do have to file those disclosure forms that list your family immediate family members and and family members your financial um statements to ensure that you're always
focused on students and nothing else would uh compromise your objectivity i will hold confidential all matters pertaining to the schools which if disclosed would needlessly injure individuals or the schools in all other matters I will provide accurate
information and in concert with my fellow board members interpret to the staff the aspirations of the community for its schools there's really so much contained in this one um confidentiality uh we recognize that that board members
are committed to keeping their public informed as they should and being transparent um you hold your meetings of course in public to uh conduct business meetings in public but not with the public um but with that being said there
are times when it really is in the public interest to retain certain things as confidential um and that could even be uh work that's being done in committee that isn't ready to be presented to the public which could lead to confusion and
misunderstanding so you know there's a process of how that happens and how that can be shared so that the public maintains um an understanding and a trust for the work that you're doing and also that you're um when you are
prepared to share that information and it no longer needs to be confidential that you're sharing it appropriately with the community and doing so with your fellow board members and of course um you as a board identify for the staff through the way you communicate um
through your policies um and other um ways where you work with them to uh develop goals and identify those aspirations that you hold for your students h I will vote to appoint the
best qualified personnel available after consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrative officer so it's the um role and responsibility of the superintendent to make the recommendation for who she feels is the
best qualified person um for the role that makes the best match that will best serve students and puts that person in front of the board for approval the board according to what um bylaws or policies you have in place may have the
right to see certain information about um a new hire for instance but should never find themselves in a position where uh the board or any board member is trying to suggest someone for hire right that's an administrative role um and has to be done by the
superintendent I I will support and protect school personnel in the proper performance of their duties um we we come on boards and we don't lose our um our own individuality and personal feelings about certain things
um but we've had sim you know some cases where there might be um for the community or even a board member who might have an objection to something that's being taught in a classroom but we have to remember that uh the curriculum has to be meeting standards
the New Jersey student learning standards and while there may be room um for discussion for understanding of how things are delivered that when staff is uh appropriately performing their duties they must be supported in
that and Jay I will refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer and will act on those complaints at public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution this one rings true from the day that you get on the board as a board member people from the
community will approach you as individuals to um seek your guidance and support in getting issues resolved for them they see that you um have a role of authority and we recognize that as board members you know we serve right and we
want to um be thoughtful to the people in our community but the appropriate thing to do as we know is to direct people to the chain of command um so that an administrative solution closest to the issue can be found that um
ensures equity so that uh similar situations can be solved perhaps using the same solution um it provides for administrative um learning efficiency and growth and support but also we recognize that at times you
may have to state to a member of the public who approaches you looking for support that you are actually prevented from helping them with their concern outside of putting them back to the chain of command and then always letting
your superintendent know that you've done that so that she can be prepared as the person in charge of the district and work with her staff as she sees fit um it's also important to recognize that if you do use uh statements such as "I'll look into it for you let me see
what I can do." Um you're right away acting outside of your role um and also if there's a failure of an acceptable administrative solution to that problem and that issue does come before the full board for resolution you may have to
recuse yourself because now it could be claimed that you are not objective you already participate in some discussions so just for your information so when we look at cases related to the code of ethics these cases um were determined in
2024 unlike advisory opinions if you look at the uh codes on them you'll see the year 23 22 they go back a little bit because cases sometimes have a long tail until they're fully resolved um on this
slide the one on the bottom C2422 um was a case where a member was involved in ongoing efforts to reverse an HIV and code of conduct violation for her child um she made contact with the
superintendent with the board spoke about it at with the board as a whole um approached individual board members and then spoke to board counsel um to look for support of overturning the findings right um it was determined
to be a violation and as we see on the bottom right next to where it says reprimand it actually gives you C D and E the parts of the um code of ethics that were violated so that's a good way to understand it you can hit the hyperlink to read more details about it
but of course it served in influence trying to influence board members to overturn the superintendent's authority and decision in the case um and it was for personal reasons right it was because of um her child that wasn't board business um so it presented a a
problem by using the board attorney for advice because that was um a benefit that members of the public wouldn't have legal advice right for something that was not board business so C7823 I I like to choose this one as an
example because it starts off with a 15 plus year board member right just proving the point that anyone is capable of bad actions um even that board member sat through probably 15 ethics trainings
um but this board member took inappropriate action that was considered beyond the role of a board member um they usurped the authority of the superintendent who had um suggested a disciplinary recommendation for a staff
member this board member went to that staff member's home picked up a letter um pleaded the case for that person to individual board members um went to the BA gave them a letter instructed them
not to share it with the superintendent um clearly uh went on to discuss the case failed to recuse themsel when when board discussion was being held right so I think we're almost at hitting every
single part of the code of ethics as a violation on this one um and it led to a recommend a recommended suspension and it says recommended suspension for 60 days um recommended will be taken away when the commissioner does um finally act but there's a little bit of a lag
time there so um one of the things that board members have to be aware of right is the reason as we were saying um behind the school ethics act is to maintain the trust of the public in school officials that are
serving for the interests of students so recusal is a way to formally recognize that you may have a conflict that that would prevent you from being able to participate in both discussions of an issue and the vote so sometimes people
think they only have to abstain uh recuse himself for the vote and can participate in discussions but that's in fact not true um so we're going to look at conflict in a moment but if you have a conflict you need to memorialize that
in the minutes of the meeting by stating that you have to recuse yourself that's a way to protect yourself and the board and hold the public trust in the fact that you've taken appropriate action to not participate because you're fully aware that there is a conflict and those can happen
abstension um is not the correct way to do that because it's not as formal so um reasons for abstension may be that you and I know this never happens to you but um maybe didn't get a chance to fully read through your packet and so there's
word vote and you just don't feel that it's proper for you to participate in it because you're not prepared or you can't participate in the discussion because you're not sure of the facts um so you may abstain but for a recognized conflict you really have to recuse yourself and the board attorney can
guide you on any impact that it might have on the quorum or the the um the vote so prohibited acts for um both board members and administrators are uh this is clearly just an excerpt the
hyperlink is there that'll take you to it um when we talk about recusing yourself if you have a conflict um these are the things that may cause that conflict where you have a benefit to you as a school official or your immediate
family and it outlines here due to a business interest or a professional activity that could be seen in conflict um use of a position to secure unwarranted privileges advantages or employment so the case where I just spoke about where the board member used
the board attorney inappropriately for uh legal advice for a personal matter that would be an unwarranted privilege financial involvement that may impair objectivity service or employment that may prejudice
independent judgment gifts favors offered um with intent to influence so very simply it's a matter of degree as well so if everybody gets a cup of coffee and not just you that's probably okay but if you alone are getting taken
out to lunch to discuss business um then that goes into a different place right so we have to be aware of that um and of course financial gain so remembering always that it's not whether you believe that you can be objective um it's what a
reasonable member of the public would believe about your ability to be objective so if you have any questions that really should be directed to the board attorney to guide you so we've been talking about if you're um receiving any benefit um and
benefit is actually defined for us here so the ethics regulation defines um benefit as a direct or indirect advantage profit privilege or gain with a personal financial or otherwise and as soon as you see that last part about or
otherwise we recognize that that's going to capture um a broader uh range of things so we have to be careful um always remembering that it's the perception of the public that's important and not whether we had an
intent or we thought that we could remain objective there's a case here on the bottom where an acting superintendent had put forth the names um there were 60 individual names on a list uh for
substitutes and she recommended that the board approved these well her son's name was on the list and when that was noted it was of course seen as a benefit to a family member um it led to a reprimand
and sometimes we can look at these slides and question maybe it should have been more than that but there were mitigating factors that were taken into consideration but it was a reprimand that should not have happened right so when we look at conflict and um benefit
cases uh the first one that we have here is um um no I'm sorry I'm going to go on to yeah the the first one we have is a member um a board member is the president of the PSA uh parent staff
association and owns a spiritware company and they wanted to donate merchandise to sell as a fundraiser for the through the company's website um using the principle to promote it to families to drive business to the website um for this fundraiser and it is
found to be a conflict right for many reasons because it could impact act um for that that staff member that principal could feel um that you know they have to participate or get families to participate and then their contract
is coming up for renewal in front of that board and that board member has that company um the board member would be receiving um perhaps financial gain but also goodwill that wouldn't be afforded to other businesses in the community so it's clearly a conflict and
um under the heading of having no other business before the board except that which affects the students of the district so on this slide we have relationship definitions immediate family member um goes a little bit deeper into who can be considered a
relative um and there are things about other you know someone that may not appear here in certain circumstances may be even considered um a relative so the term relative doesn't really appear in prohibited acts or code of ethics but it
can cause a conflict so these cases are decided on the specifics and the impact that they have individually so things to know as a board member to avoid any um violation is that you may not hire the relative um
of a board member or of the superintendent but if a relative already works in the district um that administrator may not exercise direct or indirect authority over um the relative a board member may not take part in
employment matters concerning the superintendent or any supervisors in the chain of command between the relative and the superintendent these can have really farreaching impacts to the functioning of a board so this is why we have to really take a moment to consider
this a board member also may not take part in the search selection or vote to hire a new superintendent or any post-hire evaluations or contract discussions so as you know one of the major roles of a board of education is to do the annual evaluation of the
superintendent so of course that board member would not be able to participate if they have a family member working in the district um on this grid we just have for collective bargaining or reference um and it just tells you whether or not you may participate
um in negotiations or in the vote to ratify depending on um involvement in union activity or a close relatives in uh involvement so here just going back to campaigns and collective bargaining um
board members who receive union endorsements may be seen as conflicted from collective bargaining in that first year so um if you receive an endorsement you should avoid negotiations in that first year however endorsements from the
local state or national um you know units doesn't necessarily create a conflict um unless there is a financial contribution given with the intent to influence so for um board members we
just have uh some cases here just to be aware of so talking about your relative working in the district the first one is a board president um we recognize that the board president is empowered with appointing people on the board to
committees and um attending committee meetings usually when it doesn't involve a quorum um and also putting the committee uh chairperson in place right but this board member um had a child who was an instructional assistant and the
the um advice that was given through the advisory opinion was that the president could not direct anyone to committee could not select the chair of that committee could not attend any committees that would discuss anything remotely related to their um child's
employment including but not limited to personnel negotiations instructional and finance committees so there are very few probably left um another one very similar uh a spouse works in the district and being thoughtful about the
same thing that that uh board member could not participate in those committees that could possibly touch upon any issue of related to the employment of their spouse so um when penalties have been
found um board members may seek use the advice of counsel i went to my my board attorney and my board attorney said this was fine and now I'm being told that I have sanction against me um advice of
counsel does not remove a penalty but it can mitigate that if the following four things are all present you had to ask for the advice of counsel and get approval and advice prior to your taking any action you had to um the person who
offered that advice to you was the person that held the authority to do so so that would be your board attorney but not your friend or neighbor who's an attorney um all pertinent facts and circumstances were re revealed to the attorney so that their guidance was on
all of the information they needed to have um to give you the correct guidance and that you complied with all parts of the advice given so if you were told to do or not do two or three things you can't select which ones you want to follow you have to be in full compliance
with all the recommendations of council if those four factors are present um you may be able to mitigate a penalty from one level to another but it is very case and fact specific um really with the
focus on maintaining the public trust and how it will be interpreted um what impact it has so um volunteering at school so volunteering we recognize that board members are the ultimate volunteers what
you're doing is a huge um labor of love uh through your volunteering so you're often also um with a history of other things that you may have been volunteering in so the school ethics commission isn't saying that you can't be a volunteer what they really look at
is your level of involvement and your level of authority so these are things to be really clear on to prevent any um confusion so your involvement with staff and students the frequency and level of interaction that you have with them and
they look at the authority to give and receive directions or to um uh direct resources or funds so there's a difference between um doing the work of a committee but not being the treasurer of that organization right so the first
one is you have you know if you're having an active presence in the schools um with heightened involvement in school sponsored events with regular contact with students or staff perhaps directing um someone maybe asking the custodian to
do the setup and breakdown for the event right you're you're appearing to be in charge of other um of staff that really would um be looked at as a possible violation under C where you're really supposed to be confining your um focus
to board action which is policym planning and appraisal if you are um giving and receiving directions or or orders from staff and becoming directly involved in those functions that are seen as the responsibility normally of school
personnel um you may be in violation of D which is being seen as administering the schools right so if you're spending an awful lot of time in in school buildings or offices that's a concern because other people in the public could
think first of all that you're getting more access than another member of the public would have and that uh you could be seen as being um a little too close to administration right we need that separation and that balance and finally
um nor take any private action that may compromise the board so if you are regularly working with staff and becoming we want to have good relationships with everyone right but if you're regularly working at close contact with students and staff and and
perhaps developing like collegial relationships with staff you have to consider that part of your responsibility may be to make decisions that affect their livelihood right and would a member of the public believe that you can now maintain
objectivity that's necessary as a board member in making those decisions so um the SEC through prior advisory opinions has given us some guidance on volunteering so if you're assisting your spouse who
is running a theater program and you're at the rehearsals and you're having regular contact contact sorry with um students and staff it it's easy to argue and see that that is going to be an inherent violation
um leader of a student club you might have participated in something or volunteered as assistant football coach regular contact with students and staff um those are going to have inherent violations um things that may not and this is one that we get kind of
regularly is about um PTA PTO leadership sometimes people have been doing that before they come onto the board it's not necessarily an inherent violation but you really should get some guidance from the board attorney um because it's a bit
of a gray area if you're doing um work that just is at an executive level not really being in the schools not having that contact just putting the plans together it may be appropriate um but it's again a matter of degree and as
board members um oneoff type things you perhaps participate in read across America and then maybe later in the year chaperon a trip that would be okay but the um if you're doing it every week or you're in the classrooms regularly then that's um a different level and of
course we know best practice we can't say this enough is always to keep your superintendent informed when you're going to be in school buildings that helps her be aware and there are no surprises and helps answer if any um staff members or members of the public
have questions about why you were there could be totally appropriate you might be there as a parent for your child but it's helpful if she knows that in advance social media when a board member makes a statement the SEC considers the content
substance and context of the statement to determine if a reasonable person would believe the statement was made in your official capacity so members of the public don't always have same level of understanding that
you have because of amount of training that you undertake on a regular basis understanding your roles and responsibilities so it's how it appears to a reasonable member of the public so um there was a situation where a member discussed without a disclaimer
um about a policy and went into talking about how it was reviewed by board council and opposed by four board members and that was out on social media that's board business and it's being discussed out there and it would be reasonable for a member of the public to believe that that person was speaking in
an official capacity and sharing information about board business in an official capacity and that was um a problem in another situation a board member just posted there was an upcoming election posted three pictures of the three candidates didn't even support one
or the other um and that would be hard to argue that that was outside of you know that was pretty much a personal page and really seemed to have a nexus with their board responsibility so the social media
disclaimer is suggested by the SEC and they do actually recommend it in bolden italics and containing all parts of it so the first part of it goes on to say that you a statement that you are speaking as an individual not as a
member of the board but the second part of it is also incredibly important to ensure that you're not leaving a member of the public with thinking that other members of the board are holding the same view as you right so it's important
to go on that these statements are also not representative of the board or its individual members and solely represent my personal opinion now of course disclaimers can help to I you know clarify for the public um what's
happening but um you really have to understand that it's it's um case specific and the content and the context is going to really matter so you're not automatically in violation if you don't
use a disclaimer um but you could be in violation by using it if the content and and context um would confuse members of the public um you don't have to use the exact
wording that was provided here but again they did recommend it they are the ones that will decide whether there's a violation and they did put it in bold and italics so I would suggest that if you are finding the need to make any statements on social media that you use
it as offered so general guidance for social media is that if um someone is newly elected that was using media uh in their candidacy they stop immediately using
those um those things because before they were a board member they weren't held to the code of ethics and were free to say anything they wanted but now as a board member they wouldn't be right now they have to um be in compliance with
the code of ethics any social media account that you may have even if you look at it as personal if it identifies you as a board member um can create concerns because you're stating that you are a board member even if it's your
what you consider social media account just liking or sharing something not really connected to board business is probably low risk of being a violation um but one of the things that they're really cautioning uh board
members about is refraining from participating as an administrator on any social media pages because anything you allow to be posted to that site or don't allow to be posted to that site could be
seen as a statement of your support for that or lack of support for that topic so that can um confuse members of the public and can lead to unintended um problems so we
made it so I really do want to say thank you so much i know that you are an experienced board and you've heard this before um but it's always great to revisit it because the work you're doing is so important we need no distractions we want to stay focused for the students
of Verona which you are serving very well it's always a pleasure to be with you and of course I always say if any of you have any questions regarding this or anything else or you need any um support or resources please just contact me and I'll be happy to um get you what you
need thank you very much it was very informative um so moving anyone have any questions before it's clear okay thank you
okay moving on um if we could have our superintendent report please teacher Zeppi sure and I'll keep it uh fairly short just a kind of an update so um the 2324 school performance reports were just released on March 31st they've been
embargoed and uh we've been taking a look at them um I'm going to do a full um review at our next meeting because it's a lot um the C categories in that report are demographics academic achievement in ELA math and science uh and this is information from the
NJSLA and the dynamic learning maps as well as access for L's and the New Jersey um graduation proficiency assessment that's high school only it also looks at growth um based on ELA and math and JSLA scores in grades four
through eight in ELA and four through seven in math and that looks at student growth o over subsequent years it looks at college and career readiness and there's a wide variety of what they consider college and career ready uh compared from the elementary to
the middle to the high school level uh everything from computer science um participation in computer science courses in visual and performing arts and uh we had um an issue uh that we have to fix we need to put our elementary school courses into Genesis
um we got zero on uh performing arts participation in the elementary schools because it wasn't put into Genesis and they don't generally pull from Genesis we can add it into a a spreadsheet which was um this year they pulled directly from Genesis so going
forward the the county office did ask me about it i did explain to them that it was a coding error that we do have visual performing guides for 100% of our kids in the elementary schools um at the middle school takes those two categories and adds in um participation in algebra
1 and geometry and participation in world languages at the high school level includes a significant u amount such as uh participation in uh um career and technical education courses advanced placement seal of biiteracy and um a
host of other course participations it looks at climate and environment which is broken into chronic absenteeism discipline data including HIV the school day and device data how many devices we um uh provide for students uh there's a
section on staff which is staff experience advanced degrees staff to student ratios uh one-year retentions and staff demographics our pupil expenditures and uh the source by which we receive those uh monies and accountability and this is
both um ed uh elementary and secondary education act accountability and percentile calculations which is a comparison out to the rest of the state based on grade band schools so I'll give a a breakdown at our next meeting of uh
how we've grown over the past two years and just really quickly as we I can't believe we're saying as we have a push to the end of the school year we're end we're in that end of school year uh movement uh we are entering the standardized test phase uh right now we
are just finishing up the access for L's 2.0 um and for that that is we're in makeups right now for our multilingual learners um this assessment is developed by worldclass instructional design and assessment or WEDA and it's a consortium of state and territories focused on
supporting the academic success of our multilingual learners through standards assessment and professional learning what it aims to do is provide parents of students that are multilingual learners with uh how much academic uh advancement they've made in English um as as
measured by the ability to listen speak read and write English uh each year um dynamic learning maps which is really for a very tiny percentage of our students it's really a system of alternative assessments in math language arts and science
um excuse me um of our most cognitively impaired students um most of the students that are involved in taking uh the DM are in our out of district placements but we do have um students in district that also sit for that test advance the advanced placement two-week
marathon is coming up uh May 5th through 9th and then again May 12th through 16th um and the makeups follow that last week of testing and then we enter into the NJSLA ELA uh in grades 3 to nine math grades three and nine and science grades
5 8 and 11 and those dates are um HBW will start in week of May 5th the elementary schools the week of May 12th and a high school the week of May 19th then we have the uh New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment summer
administration July 21st to 25th so um it is a race to the end of the year and how much testing we can get in and we also have MAP testing in there as well map testing was moved um they wanted to do it earlier this year the curriculum department and um some of our principles
asked if they could move that until after and and some of our teachers asked if we could move that till after NJ and JSLA to provide more prep time and Dr miller um didn't make that change so um given our long presentation with school boards um uh I'm going to end my report
with that thank you i I do have one quick question um and I'm sorry I hate to make you talking because it it hurts me to hear you talk it doesn't hurt me it's just sounds bad um I I I've been asked by a few uh HBW parents or this
was mentioned um when is the um meeting that they're having a presentation on the new schedules oh that's a good question you know what let me um have it should be coming up because the teachers were just informed as to
who's teaching what yesterday so I think they wanted to get that rounded up i'll get the date for you i don't have it off top of my head sure thank you would you like a Hall's cherry throw drop thank you have the load on that thank you anyway I've been sucking on uh um Ricola
all day it doesn't do anything thank you though thank you very much and moving on to our student report ryan favorite part okay oh good evening so today is uh April 8th and uh
like Miss D teacher said it is scarily close to the end of the year so uh we're actually uh actually entering uh the fourth quarter as of tomorrow and I think there's well as always lots of stuff going on and sum up in athletics
uh the baseball team improved their winning streak to 5-0 with a win over Behringer yesterday also softball defeating New York Academy yesterday as well and yesterday again girls lacrosse
uh now having a 4-0 record with um a victory against Mount St dominic and uh as today uh the boys tennis team uh swept east side and took home a win as well and I believe this might be still taking place in the auditorium but we
are doing the uh VHS royalty show which how we have these committing seniors for the quoteunquote title of VHS royalty but uh the biggest part of this I believe is just the fact that all these proceeds go towards um this program that I is um headed by I believe um the
French teacher and it's uh towards like building wells in Bkina Fos i think that's a very good initiative and so uh prom sales have begun today and will continue through this April April this this this April sorry this Thursday
April 10th and tickets can be brought after school starting at uh 2:50 p.m from Mr rosa and Miss Craraven which are the junior class adviserss and uh this Thursday April 10th is jazz night and is going to feature performances from the
VHS chance jazz ensembles as well as student created groups and it will take place here in the learning commons at 7 p.m and if you weren't if you didn't see it last year it was outrageous it was phenomenal yes so I I highly recommend everyone if you can make it it was very
much worth it yes and then uh last night last Friday we had um the Tri Music Honor Society karaoke night with a bunch of students participating in singing an array of songs whether it was from Spongebob or from any musical whatsoever
so and last Wednesday was also uh the drama and coral department trip to Broadway with we uh the students had participated in a coral workshop with the musicians and choreographers behind Broadway musicals it was a quite interesting experience and uh at the end
of the day everyone went together and viewed uh the Broadway show Muan Rouge and this last Sunday the model UN club competed at New York Academy where three students took home awards and achievements and the Italian club had recently held its uh annual botchi
tournament so this upcoming Friday uh is of course the spring pepper rally and I'm just going to speak lightly on this because I feel like I already have a lot of stuff that's colliding with the well athletics report already but I just want to talk about um uh we had Chris Herren give the
student body a presentation regarding substance abuse and I do like I think that was actually I think saying that was like impactful and phenomenal was like a little bit of an understatement as like especially like he also also voiced this that like if if if for the eyes of a
student like you go into these things like you're looking at them it's like you're a little skeptical like what can they really bring to the table and I feel like he did a lot it was very captivating and I think it's was generally extremely beneficial also to hear like the response and I think a lot of
people were actually shocked at like the level of presentation that was given and I think that was like the message definitely stayed and I think that was just you you know cheers to success I guess all right that'll be all thank you that was a great report Ryan thanks Ryan
that was great um and I do have to say I I concur with the uh Chris Heron i went to the evening um talk and it was different than the afternoon talk he said but it was very impactful um and so
I I think that was thank you to BMAC and everyone who helped bring him here um so moving on to committee reports uh athletic committee sure we met um and thank you Ryan for captivating all the
sports we um sports is going well even though it feels like it's winter instead of spring weather um but all our teams are out there doing well we discussed again um we always have it on our agenda for the turf just to always keep that in
mind um coming down the road that that will have to be replaced uh spring leadership summit took place at West Essex High School where 17 students attended the um the speaker was Satan Hall University women's basketball
coaching staff and some of our players um it was well they were wellreceived we also discussed um girls wrestling and girls golf uh we have I
believe two girls right now on the wrestling team and 12 girls on our golf program so looking to maybe um eventually get a female um I don't know if we could afford a coach but something to assist the male
coaches with the wrestling and golf programs and signing day started on today April 8th with our new backdrop I saw which looks really nice um board policy I got cut off on the I dropped
somehow on our call for the spectator but that's on for tonight and also about the Chris Harren presentation again everyone that was involved in getting him here V-Mac Ann Jocelyn Laura Palzi Charlie Miller um Diane DJ Zeppy
everyone that was involved to bring him to Verona his message was incredible um the afternoon presentation you could hear a pin drop with the 700 students in the auditorium that's how captivating he
was and again in the evening he just was very moving to hear his story and how he could relate to so many people so even if there's just one person and that was in that audience that he was able to touch um it was well worth it so I'm
very happy that we had him here in Verona and I believe I think that's all I have thank you um moving on to public comments but since there is no one in the audience we will skip over that for
today um and then on to discussion items does anyone have any old or new business they wish to discuss i just I just wanted to also um congratulate HBW for students for the play yes for um the music band so cute
great so great they had to divide they had so many kids yeah they divide them now yeah they have two different Yeah so that was um really happy they do that that was great they were great so congratulations to all those students thank you and the staff it was a lot of
hard work but it was well worth it um yeah it's so cute yeah we have some talent too down there um so and then moving on to correspondents any correspondents no correspondence cool
and then on to agenda action items um can I please get um a motion for items A1 through A6 so moved moved by Mr boon i'll second that second by Miss Prrisco
any discussion just one real quick i want to congratulate uh Mrs elano on a very successful run um I know uh Mrs zelano and her husband Frank had a very deep impact on our family and um I just want to take a moment and wish them all
the best in the next steps of their lives agree agree congratulations to her yes thank you um Okay and if you have roll call Mr walker yes mrs prrisco yes mrs brazella yes mr
boon yes motion carries thank you and then moving on to uh education if I can get a motion for B1 through B8 i'll move it mr baka second by Miss Prrisco any discussions seeing none if we can have roll call
please mr walker yes mrs frisco yes mrs frisella yes mr binger yes motion carries uh there's nothing under athletics or facilities so moving on to
the finance can I get a motion for E1 some move i'll second hearing that mr walker yes mrs priscoll yes mrs spal yes mr boone yes motion carries thank you and then moving on to governance and
policy can I get a motion for F1 and F2 some move moved by Mr bone second second by Mr prrisco any discussion no okay hearing none can I please have roll call mr walker yes mrs prrisco yes
mrs brazella yes mr boon yes yes motion carries still no members of the audience so we will now uh move on to question how come I always vote first i was that of where you sit it's like
four years i'm happy to vote first but it's been like four years and no one's ever given switch it up no I'm not suggesting that we switch i'm just Is there a reason i'd like to figure it out just So you have the power to determine what the order is now I know that's all do you want to We
can move you around my resolution is we keep it as is i'm happy with War having the power i just didn't know we just like you sharing at the table you're new executive i'm giving you legal advice mr great job
so Mr galbiche to get back to me on Mr boon's question april 28th for grades uh students uh parents in with students in grades six through eight and April 30th uh for grade parents in grade five parents with students in grade
five students entering yes students entering Yes yes yeah so it's r so April 28th for parents of rising students in grades six through eight and um April 30th for rising fifth
grade parents moved moved by Miss Krisco second seconded by Mr walker all those in favor i I thank you the next um board meeting will be held on Tuesday April 29th
High School Learning Commons everyone have a lovely evening thank you goodbye