good evening everyone I'd like to welcome you to the February 11 2025 board ofed meeting we're calling the meeting to order at 7:03 PM if everyone could please rise for the Pledge of
Allegiance Pledge Ali okay 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 me meeting to be published in the Star Ledger posted with the township of Verona and the Verona
educational Education Association postings of the meetings said setting forth the time location and agenda were posted at the Verona Board of Ed educ Board of Education Office and 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 uh yeah would you please call for attendance yes Mr Waka yes uh Mrs Farrar
yes Mrs prisco here Mrs uh verzella here Mr Boom here we have Quorum thank can I please have a motion to approve the meeting from the January 21st
2025 uh board so move by Miss pris second second by Mr Boon can we have roll call please yes Mrs farar yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs Ral yes Mr Boon yes motion carries
okay and then now for the superintendent's report good evening so starting off with some very uh good news uh just want to congratulate Isabella Lambert as the VHS class of 2025
valedictorian and Margot dasta as the class of 2025 salutatorian that was announced uh this afternoon um Mr cogil did his traditional um call home and tell them you're in the principal's office
Frank and they giggle just want to um shout out to child uh and all their work that they uh did to make inclusive schools week a fabulous event um there is uh a nice
slideshow um that they put out as well um with pictures from across the district uh so thank uh the members of child and the teachers and uh coordinators who all helped be this effort um the Verona spelling be uh was
uh a week ago Saturday and we have we have um Sebastian Tai from hbw who was uh first place Matthew uh barado from uh FNB uh FM Brown in second place and
Andrew schaer from hpw who came in third place it was a very eventful spelling thing very stressful and tense um but they always amaze me um we had our final meeting of the smart
device policy committee um uh uh yesterday thank you to the members of the of the committee we had two students not uh uh sorry Isaiah Mendes and Maddie Hosley and Isaiah is a sof more at VHS
and Maddie is an eighth grader at hbw we had two parents Mr Martone joined us and Mrs oo and then the staff Mrs acman director of School counseling Mrs buen she's our kada 12 multilingual learner teacher Mr cogdal the high
school principal Kim Craven is a high school teacher Maryann Halbert Andre Kish and Stephanie lejoy are hbw teachers sage nardy and Jamie reachi from uh Landing Avenue Kim rothenberger parah from hbw and Mr wble from FN Brown
um the policy and regulation will be up for first reading at our next board meeting um our first meeting we actually got it done in two meetings our first meeting was a very rich discussion about um what should um what
we should be doing regarding whether or not kids are allowed to bring cell phones to school or not now you know my feeling I think they should have them walking to and from school I have no problem with them using at study hall lunch um but during instructional time they should be put away so that's uh
pretty much what the policy is going to State um for the elementary it's a little bit more restrictive um it's in the backpack or in the in the um uh container uh for the entire day comes goes in when they get to school comes
back out when they leave for the day um I was is that policy different than what's occurring now it's not it is what's occurring now it's just formalizing it so that everybody's on the same page because what we don't have is we don't have implementation across the board are you looking to or is the
committee looking to make this a recommendation for official board policy or is it official board well it's already a board policy but it's not it's policy through our electronic use yeah electronic uh Communications so would this would this be just put in within that number or you looking to make a
brand new thing just for yourself put in with it's just a revision of that policy and regulation very good thank you sure um we do have new legislation that allows us to post notices electronically through electronic newspapers so I went back and looked at that policy there's no change to that policy the legislation
is um our policy is not as specific as the legislation was so we're good there um but we that problem we were having is we were going to post meeting notices um we are now uh we can stay with the um Star Ledger uh online to post for our
our meeting uh the student safety data system report um we as you recall I do this twice a year I'm reporting on um the reporting period one which is July 1
2024 and December 3 to December 31st 2024 excuse me at the high school we had a a total of 10 incidents um and that was two alleged HIV what that means is they were alleged but not confirmed uh
one confirmed uh uh HIV and two that were um determined not to be not initiated in other words um in the legislation and in our policy we have something called the principles Pro uh preliminary determination and what that
says very simply is if everything that is alleged is 100% true as stated if it doesn't meet the criteria for HIV they don't investigate it as HIV so we had uh two preliminary determinations initiated at um at uh Verona High School
we had one fight um zero incidents of violence or vandalism zero incidents of uh other things that lead to a removing student um through suspension and excuse me for substance abuse I think they were
all vaping um that's good because that is down from 21 incidents last year uh which included seven hi be alleged five Hib confirmed five preliminary determinations one fight three other incidents leading to removal so um and
that's uh very consistent across the school district so for uh hbw we had five total incidents zero alleged HIV zero confirmed HIV one preliminary determination two physical altercations one other incident leading to removal
and that happened to be um in subordination pretty severe and then one act of uh School vandalism no substance abuse that's down from 17 occurrences last year which included three HIV three um
alleged four preliminary determinations three physical altercations three other incidents leading to removal and one incidents of uh vandalism at Brookdale we had one in incident um reported and that was a preliminary
determination and um that's it nothing at Landing nothing at Forest nothing at uh ground this is more than 50% reduction in those um incidents that need to be reported to um the uh State through this
student safety data system or the ssds one question on on this and it might be a move point considering the low number of fights at the high school and Junior High but do we or do you categorize the cause or the reasons uh
for the flights just in case that if there are multiple events that we're able to track you know if there's a consistency among among yes so they're they're tracked in Genesis pretty lengthy description of what uh what happened and we also have to when we
report this to the student safety data system have to put um you know a detailed um entry into that as well so yes we can track that um uh more good news the Verona environmental commission host hosted the junior environmental um
commissioner program throughout the 2024 calendar year and Jessica Pearson who is uh chair of the VEC uh emailed me uh yesterday and said that they had had we knew we reported this last year but CC Manis and Nia parari both participated
in the junior environmental commissioner program and um Jessica Pearson said that they were both um couldn't say enough about these two young women they are both motivated interested service-minded and hungry to learn uh each was also
given a slot on their monthly agenda to lend their thoughts ideas or Innovations to the planned events or topics um they were great representatives to the VEC and for us as a board um this is perfect
evidence of implementation of our strategic plan because our strategic plan had in uh goal area for Community School relationships objective two is encouraging students to seek opportunities to engage in community planning and
events so um happy to hear that always happy to get um good reports like that and we know we have students on the Verona Library board as well that's my report for this evening one question I have um would have been a lot more helpful if I
thought of this you know before now so I don't expect like a detailed answer now um but I noticed that Strauss s May came out with their recommended AI policy um could you inform this board at some point what if any key differences are
between what their recommended policy is and what Verona ended up creating I can and I can I can start quick I have to dig deeper into it their um AI policy um started out as being much more um it's
not good like when calculators first came out um our policy is much more about using Ai and teaching students how to use this tool that's going to be ubiquitous like a calculator and a spell check um I think they and I didn't go back and check I only saw the first
draft of the policy I think they added some of that um education and how to use it appropriately but I know at first it was all about cheating and plagiarism that's why they changed their plagiarism policy as well um we also adjusted our plagiarism policy just by saying just
referring it or cross linking it to the AI policy because yes AI can be used um in a nefarious way we want students to use it appropriately um I use it almost every day it's a great efficiency tool
but I'm not along the way of learning anymore in the same way so it's easier for me to use it than it would be for students um but there's lots of good ways for students to use it and we actually have for our Ed camp in March we have um Nicole Castle Bono is going
to be doing um a a workshop on using AI appropriately and um I was going to do one as well on how to use it for efficiency teacher efficiency and then we have um Jen kleinet who is offering a
a workshop in merging AI in Atlas so that you can pull curriculum into AI to help support their understanding of how to write learning targets that are appropriately at the right taxonomic level so um it's it's I think people
were afraid of it when it first came out and now we're really seeing there's a lot of good uses for it but I will delve into that policy and come back with a better answer than that sure thank you very much um moving on we have our student report Mr Ryan
go Strauss asme did have our policy they asked for months ago yeah char we should have we did not okay so good evening and so so far in the world of Athletics sorry some we
had some pretty notable achievements over the past month or two and so our boys basketball team was had muant uh in the ECT the SX County tournament with a victory over Westside on on Saturday and a victory against New York Cab on Monday
I believe earlier today they were playing West Orange and uh vs VHS Jr uh winter track participant gwendo Neil had taken the title of the 2025 Essex County girls winter track champion in the 800 meter race the girls swim team for the
first time in VHS history has qualified for uh the state tournament moving on to sectional finals after beating parpan Hills yesterday in the semi-finals and they will be facing Morse West Morris in finals tomorrow and our cheerleader team competed in the first ever out of state
Nationals in Orlando Florida which they took the title uh Champion with first place in their traditional routine and second in their large varsity game routine so I just like to congratulate um our wonderful student athletes for some outstanding achievements and i'
would also like to extend congrats to uh of course our VHS 2025 back Victorian uh Isabelle Lambert and tooran margar D Costa so congrats to both of them as well and actually Isabelle Lambert is also in contention as a candidate in the prestigious US
Presidential Scholars Program which is um like a federal Invitational program for distinguished graduating high school seniors and in the late January VHS Junior Jenna McGrath had won a 4 $400,000 scholarship from a big future College
Board uh 2 22nd of January uh students in enrolled in the Mandarin class at VHS had participated in a very uh exciting ping pong tournament as part of a cultural exchange trip and on Saturday January 25th the model un team won three awards at a conference at Bridgewater
raron High School the VHS MOX team had reached semi-finals competing at the Essex County Courthouse in New York and over the this weekend the last uh VHS has been hosting students from uh North staro Academy in New York uh one of New Jersey's uh leading public charter
schools and and so uh High School representatives from Northstar were attending and becoming immersed in the HS classes as part of a initiative to prepare other students for college and uh us VHS students are very grateful for the opportunity to be able to interact
and guide such talented individuals and that's all for my report for tonight thank you thank you very much okay and then I lost my PL that's my moving on um to committee reports we have athletic up sure well thank you
Ryan for reporting all of the Athletics because we took a lot from me so thank youate I appreciate Miss prisco left her glasses at home yeah my readers so this is great she did a great job so thank you for that um no I'm I'm okay I could
make it through I think you um so thank you Ryan for all those reports and just to add on uh we have two field trips coming up girls lacrosse will be visiting Villanova on March 22nd to March 23rd the French and French art
trip is going to New York City on March 28th uh we are still looking for a JV girls lacrosse coach and the policy for uh spectator code of conduct is now out right still working
9163 and Mrs pommer will be here at our March 25th Board of Ed meeting to present all our our winter Recaps so I think we and congratulations to all our athletes um on Ryan's announcements so
thank you that's all I have very much and then moving on to public comments on agenda action items only if anyone from the public wishes to speak on any matter please appr the podium once recognized clearly clearly
State your first and last name for the record you will have three minutes to address the board there will be no cross dialogue during this portion if there is a question that can be answered only the superintendent board attorney or board president can respond and will'll do so at the end of all comments you'll be granted one time
to speak and there is a total time limit of one hour for public participation again please not there will we know back and forth and we request that you remain respectful thank you hi um AR cman um Hemlock Drive Rona um I
just had some questions related to the student safety report um just to get further information on it I saw that the report said it's from July to December is that how you I mean I'm not that familiar with it so that's where my questions are from do you usually report
the data like on a school year term it's not from like a January to December it's from like a September like a 2425 so it's like from a I don't know is it's like a SE um when school starts like around September to when it ends so what's the time Peri period that's the
one question if you want to answer that then I have a couple of other questions yeah want me answer that because I'll get lost in your questions so the first reporting period is July 1 through December 31st and then the second is January 1 through June 30th so it's broken into two pieces so it Go crosses
the whole calendar year so it also includes times when school is not officially in session but there's like summer programs yes summer programs or it you know it doesn't happen very often but um conflict that happens that spills over into the school year can still be
investigated as HIV even if it happens over the summer okay um and I believe you were indicating how the numbers have dropped were you talking were you using the numbers for comparison about period one from the previous year yes this
period was the same comparison do you can you indicate some things that have been done in hbw specifically and in the high school specifically to see these numbers drop we have we implemented a character education program at
hbw um we are using the um positive did you just give a high level of what that is sure high level it's called positive um I just went right out of my head yeah the positivity project and uh it's taught by our coun um each month is a different theme and
it provides students with an overview of different character strengths and different character um traits and how we can exemplify and strengthen our good character traits and kind of dampen some of those that aren't as as kind um and
it's been uh you know we we haven't done an actual study as to whether or not that's what's happening we also as we just mentioned have a no cell phone policy so kids are not on their cell phones as much anymore um which tends to
the research shows that even a student that takes their cell phone into the bathroom goes on it gets into a dialogue with someone gets distracted gets you know um can get upset which triggers other behaviors so we're hoping that the
positivity project which is now being implemented uh in grades k through eight um and the cell phone policy as well as some changes to how we react to HIV and how we um we are doing more uh
restorative practices um with with our students when they do um engage in conflict or um harassment intimidation and bullying so it's our response to their behaviors in a teaching way versus a punitive way students still have
consequences but we try to um use what's called restorative practice where we get students to think about what they did and what its impact on others have have been and it's a very different approach to teaching good behavior and what about the high school
are similar things on there more restorative practice um they have a um like a pillar of character program it's not really a character education program um we really have great kids I mean I think I'm going to give them the credit for it um but I think restorative
practices are really what's helping when you when you so when a student can't divide fractions we teach them when they can't read we teach them when they don't make good behavior choices we punish them it's a different approach to teaching kids how to make better
Behavior choices okay um sorry two more questions and again this is my first time so I just like looking at the data um how has the trend been in what the school has like initiated HIV like you know I I think the I don't have the
report on my phone but the report is I think was Zero for this like School saying that this is like an HIV case has that always Beena the case or has that also gone down no the hibs have gone significantly down and I can tell you that that's not true of our surrounding
area and that was my other question how do we compare and I don't know who do we use as a main comparison like do we use Cedar Grove do we use cedar Gro Glen Ridge um West Essex High School when we're talking about high school middle school because that's a junior high school high school so how do we compare with them share the superintendent share
data okay no I mean how I mean the we right now this year and last year significantly better in terms of incidence incidence of HIV and general conflict do we know why I don't know why okay curious I mean I'm I'm just
assuming that they probably have similar programs there I don't know much about their programs but you would think that they have I don't know I'm not sure I I mean I can certainly find out I know um there's some concern about one of those districts is in the first reporting
period this year was up over 30 investigations for HIV wow and and do you think this I mean based on what you've seen previously do you think like the second are you expecting like I know it's just a guess but are you expecting like the second half of the year to
match like the first half the second half of the year is always a little higher because people are tired um but no I I think you know our responses to those behaviors and trying to reduce them is
is showing some good results so I don't expect it I expect it to be lower than it was last year maybe higher than reporting period one okay thank you sure thank you okay moving on I just say add one
one thing and I don't know what um I don't have any of this data information from other districts but I do I do believe that in Verona we offer a lot of um clubs extracurricular activities after school and opportunities for kids at the middle school and the high school
to be involved and I think um you know oftentimes right we're we're approving these types of clubs on the agendas and so many of our teachers are volunteering for them and I think that when students have opportunities to be a part of clubs um it provides Athletics Athletics
it provides those opportuni to build relationships and the more relationships that are built typically the better environment it is so I I also want to just good point give a little shout out to our teachers who do take the time to stay after school even if it's it's you know extra help extra
credit I know at HB my kids teachers are always offering it right they just stay after and help kids and it's a place for them to go then and get that so I think it's also shout out to the teachers for that I I did want to follow I did want to follow up on the comments
about this is on on the restorative education if you will um I know that this is a theme in the broader uh criminal justice areas um and I'm a big fan big component of this process I'm just curious to know how many
schools in New Jersey or in our area uh follow such a practice you know that's I don't have the answer to that question I know Livingston reached out to us um to find out whether we could support them in their movement to restorative practices
so I know living sin is moving in that direction um I I don't know the answer but I can quickly do a survey yeah of the Essex County supers yeah I think the reason for my asking is is I think that this is a very significant program and
I'm frankly wondering if we are at risk of doing ourselves a disservice by not promoting that enough because that's I think it's a very exciting uh thing to do and the more more it gets talked about I think the more traction it could get add from this topic since we're on
it and we also do take mental health very seriously in Verona and so whether you are a student who has been the target of a bully or the person who has been the aggressor um often there is an
underlying mental health need um that we are able to provide some counseling and and some redress too so that if something does happen it's not a repeat absolutely over and over just the fact that we have the mental health staff that we employ as well as having Care
Plus New Jersey is another um component so when you do a root cause analysis which I didn't do here um you would look at all of that including what how kids are engaging after school during school cell phone use positivity project all of
those factors you would look at each want individually to see its impact on overall student wellness and kindness um so that was a quick answer and they were pretty it also helps that you know
they've made the law more principle having the authority to choose if they he wants or she wants to lead an investigation where before he had to do it no matter what so I I think we were always naturally going to see a fall I'm sure you know gona and others practices things we've doing are helped but I
think that's also a big part of it okay so uh moving on to discussion items old and new business does anyone have anything they wish to discuss I I would like to just yeah just a few things um yesterday I met with uh
the vmac committee um for April 3D for the presentation for Chris heren who will be coming to our school district uh vac um is hosting him here and we have to get the word out he will be speaking to our high school students
on April 3rd in the afternoon and then in the evening he will be doing a presentation to the community um he I saw him in Ramsay over in October as a speaker and he is has his me his message
is really unbelievable he was a rising super athlete um basketball player star and um unfortunately he was addicted to pain pills and everything else um and his story is just very moving and um I'm
hoping that we could get a good turnout especially for um the night presentation for the community um because it's very important that's I heard he was during the day right for the students not at night though right I don't think so um so that'll be April 3rd so we'll be
pushing that information out um as well also just a quick thank you again to Bob Prout for we attended on January 23rd uh St Ben prep um and their kindness that they show in their school is just incredible so just a little bit we could
take back to our district is very powerful so thank you again to uh Bob PR and this Satur this Sunday was the annual uh Rescue Squad pancake breakfast and I really want to just give a shout out again to our students we have 31
students approximately 31 students that are on our Verona Rescue Squad and they were there making making pancakes flipping eggs um flipping flipping pancakes making eggs um yeah I got it so um I just want to give a shout out to
those students because it was just really um I didn't I know we have a lot of students but I didn't realize how many we had so I reached out to Mayor tamboro and he he gave me the number of 31 so congratulations to those students
and it was a great pancake breakfast that's all I have um I'm sorry I just have one question in comment uh the question um with your uh visit to Newark will there be a follow-up presentation like uh last year or are we going to
oh they didn't do the pool that was my favorite part it was my favorite part too so um and uh just the one comment since we had a fair amount of discussion on cell phone policy I would like to point the community um last night on
WNYC there was a very nice round table discussion on this issue with uh the Newark superintendent a Newark uh high school student as well as a um psychologist from Ruckers and talked about the right ways to go about um
handling cell phones in schools and it also talked a little bit about what parents can do to help their students uh navigate some of this to so it's it's a community uh response uh again it was on WNYC it's also on their website uh if you just Google it or find it on the top
of the WMC it's I strongly encourage everybody to uh check that out I agree with you I think that you know it is a community response because you know there are a lot of benefits to cell phones but you know we we're all
aware of the the potential dangers but I I think what's what's really hurting our kids is staying up super late on Instagram reels and and becoming almost addicted to that and coming to school tired the next day um and and obviously the you know the their self-perception
based on social media I so I think that you know I think that this movement aims of banning cell phones in the schools you know it it it it comes from a good place but I I think like the what we're really bleeding is is what's happening with cell phones when the when the kids
aren't in District and that's that's I feel like that's still going to keep bleeding with this um and just to inform the board um well thank you Mr Walker that was actually very insightful um that was was very insightful without
the you know um I just wanted to inform the board um I think some of you already mver MAA um while she was in Verona to talk about the um
the thank you in k212 that is being threatened um with the recent activities in the federal government um we specifically spoke about the um no woke School P to2 executive order um that has
since been stayed I believe um the purpose of the the the conversation was more about the funding um aspect of it because Verona does receive $680,000 um approximately from federal funds mostly for Ida in Title One
um funds um which Target our students with special needs and our um lowincome students and low performing students so these these are our students that need the help the most and they they're the funding we will figure out a way to do
it but it you know it's funding that we need the bulk of the funding is for special education um almost $600,000 uh we would have to make up that's not something we could cut out of our budget it would come out of general education and that would be six seven
teachers and we would have to cut yeah and as part of my conversation with her I asked her to advocate for obviously the continuation of these funds um to us and in addition I did actually reach out to our see I use actually for me too to
our state senator our two state representatives the governor's office the acting Commissioner of Education um our congresswoman obviously congresswoman and our two uh Federal Senators um again asking them to for the
State uh wide offices I asked them to advocate for New Jersey ensuring that all school districts if they lose their federal funds that the state will make up the funding at least in the short term until we can find alternate
Solutions and obviously I I advocated um on behalf um of us that for the Federal that we maintain our funding um you know I tried to keep it very funding focused um because I think that's
um the best way to approach that topic um and then one more thing I had what was that was that oh and yeah I said I I called the governor's office um and the commissioner's office so I think that
was it from me anyone has any questions I wanted to kind of pigy back how much have it B did we take with with semif funding did did ours go down like everybody else's it's about 20% uh drop and we got 20% that's actually pretty good comparatively so what was the total number that we lost uh so the total
number is a about uh was like four thou almost 5,000 all right so it's not a it's not a make a break that number good we don't get a lot though so 4,000 20% yeah um other my next question I guess for jge and then Diane so the first part
of it is how's the how's the transition going with the the new housing you know right now and then also do you expect when you give your budget presentation next month there's going G be any significant changes or that's you know attributed to the the new housing in
town we are um yeah there's there is significant changing changes um significant in that uh there we've had I say this nicely um because we care
about all kids but a significant rise in special education costs okay and um we're waiting for the next wave of movein there so are we because of the next wave of movement I'm guessing you're just you're almost gonna have to just anticipate or take a guess
of of what what it's going to be as far as which kids might need extra Services right yeah on on the other side with um pre-reduced lunch uh this year uh and this is after October um is when we saw the increase uh we did see um an
increase of about 10 students uh free reduced lunch student which is significant uh because we're we're around uh 25 students and then we're already at 35 uh so then a third if you think about it like that's already a 30% increase um
just just in a few months so we that that that is some a trend that we have to continue looking at and hopefully if it does actually continue increasing to let's say 40 or 50 students is going to definitely give us a determination of where we're going to go with
that we had anyone move in um that requires us to to send them to an alternative school based on their IP not yet but there's um it's still a possibility a possibility so we must have to kind of factor like take a guess
yeah on that which is a tough number to to predict right yeah and um we do we will be increasing the number of teachers in the first grade at FM Brown due to um an increase in the number of multilanguage Learners in that
school so we are adding a teacher there and um we're keeping the two kindergartens as two first grades at um Brookdale so we could have overflow of uh students into that program as well so
we've been I feel like we've been talking about this for five years yeah at least two years uh and pretty much everything that we anticipated is here um so now that we're officially here and it's and it's
happening what does this look like for the schools for possible redistricting anything like that are we i c I can't even think about M making those decisions until everybody's moved in right now there's still only 15 units
out of 90s something so then do we think that by June I think there's only 15 units where people actually have moved in it was 10 in the first round this place we might not even know by the Fall I I don't know by driving by I thought there were more yeah and there
may be there may be but we they when we first met with the with um what's the name of the company Pam Conifer Conifer I was gonna say Willow when we first met with Conifer this first round they were opening 10 units and then in the second
round it was going to be uh another did they open more think so I think the big building is open I think it's they're starting to move in um those are mainly I think one
and some two one and two the the all the three bedroom units I believe have been moved into okay so I think it's the two-bedroom that we'll probably see students from yeah from there I I
just I just worry um I I understand that there's nothing to be done until we know what the numbers are I recognize that but I also um want to try to not find us in a place where we're starting in September and now it's October and we're busting at
the scams I mean now it's January we have a couple months but what are we going to do to try to at least plan so that September can look just just to if I just to that and I forgot to to include these I did invite
the Town Council to come to a joint meeting I think this and future pilot programs and funding from that should be one of those topics um because there's another area that they're looking for redevelopment which even if it doesn't
bring more children to the school system it does remove tax tax base from our from our funds um so it has to be considered um as well as other issu you know I don't want to say issues other
avenues that we can work with the town better um you know we maybe communication or or there's other ways we can work together but this is one of those you know areas where I think the Town Council also has to come up with something to to help do
we have steps for that um Mr brazal um Dr tamboro mayor tamboro said that they were going to discuss it at the next town council meeting I think on our end I think that's why you know ultimately um the superintendent and Jorge's guesstimate of that that's
that's an important guess right like that's it's going to hurt us if you guess too low and if you guess too high it's going to affect every every other program's kind of ability to to be maintain at least so it's definitely tough spot and um yeah good
luck thank you another suggestion yeah so I go to two board meetings a week about the same size and instead of all having individual microphones there's just one big microphone that's larger and more powerful right in the middle and it's equally distant and we've never
had a problem yet we have a seemingly have an issue every single board meeting getting these devices tocharge for more than 10 minutes without failing so that might be a solution instead of just keeping buying things that aren't aren't that
good maybe you can tell us what brand that is Will and I'll show you a video and you might actually like it thank you actually has anything anything
further anyone else please thank you Denise for advocating for our district and all those calls and emails that you made so that's a lot of extra work for you so thank you oh you're very welcome yeah it's my pleasure um and
then moving on do we have any correspondents nothing other from Jessica um P Pearson regarding the students okay so moving on to our action items can I please have a
motion to approve action items in Personnel A1 through A8 so second Mr Boon and then miss prisco can I please have rall discussion oh
discussion anyone have any questions or discussion points I just want to uh comment on Mr Spencer um zeso leaving our district um I'm sorry to see that he is leaving and I do wish him well um is he will be here in Verona and
thank you for thank you um so can we please have roll call Mr Walker yes Mrs farar yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs brazelle yes Mr Boom yes motion
carries thank you and then moving on to uh education can I get a motion for B1 through b n please so move by Mr Waka no second
second by Miss prisco uh any discussion no I have two quick questions um one comment and then one question one I'm happy to see um the student Observer from Essex County College our County College system is um excellent in New
Jersey and it's nice to see that um you know students starting there are looking for careers that go beyond just a two-year degree um I hope that uh she does very well and considers us should she get her bachelor's degree and then
um for the uh oh wait no that one's on the next one so it's just okay it and then roll call WKA yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco
yes Mrs Vella yes Mr Boom yes motion carries okay moving on to Athletics and co-curricular can I get a motion for C1 through C3 I moved moved by Miss prisco second by Mr
Waka uh any discussion um my comment was or question was the um safe Club is that still going to be running even though the adviser is yes there was two advisers okay so um Mrs jario was the other adviser oh okay
I just that's an important Club I I think to keep going absolutely okay so if any other comments no okay can we have roll call please Mr wer yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs prella yes
Mr Boon yes motion carries okay and then moving uh there's nothing in facilities so moving on to finance can I get a motion for E1 through e [Music] uh moved by mron I'll second second by Miss uh
Ferrera and any discussion okay I just want to thank um beefy uh for their generous donation as well as the FN Brown SCA and then um and as always the New
Jersey State Bar foundation for their uh support of our Pure uh mediation program at um fent so can I get roll call Mr wer yes Mrs Ferrar yes Mrs prisco yes Mrs
veral yes Mr Boom yes motion cars okay and then moving on to governance and policy can I get a motion for F1 through F5 second move by Mr Waka second by miss prisco any discussion okay hearing them can I get
roll call please Mr wer Mrs Ferrara Mrs prisco yes Mrs RZ yes Mr Boon yes motion carries okay and then uh moving on to negotiations can I get a motion for
G1 some moved by misson I'll second second by miss prisco any discussion just thank you to everybody involved and um thank you for uh pushing this over the Finish we can take um Dr Lanzo out to Olive
Garden Apple yeah I was gonna say I don't think I want to was was it Apple be actually why was I think because because my husband's obsessed with Olive Garden I didn't even know those were legal in New J okay can I have a roll call please Mr
Walker yes Mrs Farah m uh prisco yes M uh verella yes Mr Boon yes motion carries okay and then moving forward to public comments um anyone from the public
wishing to speak on any matter please approach the podium once recognized clear to State your first and last name for the record and you have three minutes to address the board seeing no one coming forward um we will can I get a a motion to
adjourn almost by Mr second second by miss prisco all those in favor I I okay the meeting is adjourned at 7:53 the next meeting will be on
February 2 Tuesday February 25th with confidential at 6m and public session at 7 in the Verona High School Learning Commons have a nice day everybody