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>> You have not >> please reenter the meeting. >> Good evening everyone. I would like to welcome you all here again for our Thursday Mar 14th 2026 board of education meeting. We are calling the meeting to order and it is 7:10 p.m. And if you could please rise for the pledge
of allegiance. I'm ahead of myself. It is May 5th, 2026. Sorry about that. Not May 14th. Um, let's see. A reading of meeting notice. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the
right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies in which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of the act, the Verona Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the STAR
ledger online and can also be re be viewed by the public on the board's official website as linked in the paper agenda. Legal notices for New Jersey public entities will also be accessible at the New Jersey Department of State's
legal notices website, also linked on the paper agenda. Copies of tonight's agenda and resolutions have been made available to the public via the board of education website. Dr. Riley, if you could please call attendance. >> Mr. Waka, present. >> Mr. Pera,
>> here. Miss Kenotic, >> remote, >> please enter the meeting. Sorry, can you hear me? >> Mr. Boon, here we have a call. >> Great. Thank you. Moving on to our superintendent report by Miss Diane DJeppy. >> Good evening. I wanted to take a moment
to thank the community um members who have shared emails, questions, budgetary priorities, and suggestions with me, Dr. Riley, and the board of education. We understand that there are many competing priorities for limited district funds and appreciate the care, creativity, and
commitment reflected in the feedback we've received. Community ideas and perspectives are important and I don't want to dismiss them. At the same time, developing a school budget is not simply a matter of collecting ideas and choosing from among them. It requires requires specialized knowledge of state
funding, contractual obligations, certification requirements, mandated services, negotiated salary guides, health benefit costs, special education obligations, transportation requirements, class size trends, enrollment uh scheduling constraints, and the legal and personnel implications
of any proposed reduction. The budget has been developed by credentialed educational leaders in the district's central and business office with input from building administrators, supervisors, and program leaders. This does not mean we believe we have every answer. We do not. It does mean that the people working on
the budget understand the full scope of what must be preserved, what is legally required, what is educationally necessary, and what can realistically be implemented. Many suggestions may sound workable in isolation become but become much more complicated when applied off
across an entire K12 um educational system. Following the failed budget vote on April 28th, we carefully reviewed the feedback shared by students, parents, staff, and community members. One message was especially clear. The community values having dedicated vocal
and instrumental music teacher at Verona High School as well as a dedicated instrumental specialist for grade four band. and the community also spoke very clearly about um u concerns at about the elementary impact um with some adjustments to the current
staffing model. We believe we can address the concerns uh for 2627 school year. The revised plan with regard to uh the music program um would move Verona High School to part-time music staffing model, one with a teacher dedicated to
instrumental music and band and another to vocal music or choir. This would require some reassignment and shifting of current music staff, but it would preserve dedicated expertise in both areas at the high school level. And it would also allow for uh and at the elementary level, um students would cons
continue to receive services of three trimesters of general vocal music and three trimesters of grade four band taught by a dedicated instrumental specialist. Um, all elementary students will also continue to have at least one special per day every day throughout the
entire year. And many days they will actually wind up with more than one special per day. Um, for additional clarity, each K4 student will have PE and PE/Halth twice a week for 45 minutes for the full school year. Um each
student in the elementary um uh K4 will have Spanish, library and art once a week for 45 minutes for two trimesters and they will have as I said general music across all three. Um additional whole class instruction in chorus will
also continue as will um uh the ability to check books out across the entire school year. So uh book checkout will uh be available to students each week every week. Um we are also actively thinking about how to best showcase student work
uh with regard to um visual arts and um uh concerts uh performance art. So those uh those that scheduling is going to be coordinated jointly between teachers and build building administrators. Uh while planning is still underway, we
maintain opportunities for every student to share their hard work with the community in the form of art shows and concerts. Finalized schedules for buildings and classrooms will not be developed until later in the school year when student registration is complete as possible and IEPs for students receiving special
education services are finalized. This allows our building schedules to reflect the actual enrollment, student needs, staffing assignments, and required services. And we also had some concerns about counseling at the elementary uh level. Counseling service will continue to be coordinated across the district.
Mrs. Zachman, our director of school counseling, works closely with building administration to ensure support is available when needed. In practice, when an immediate uh concern is identified, staff communicate with the building principal, who then partners with Mrs. Acriman to determine the most appropriate response. Um, we also have
uh a partnership as a result of the 2017 second question with Care Plus. They are therapeutic school-based service that we are required to keep because it was uh voted on by the public as a yes question. um those uh therapeutic uh social workers are also available to
work with our students across the district. We have um support in the form of social workers that are uh assigned as members of the child study team. And at the elementary level, there's an additional social worker and two additional school psychologists that while we typically think of um child
study team as working with our students with uh with special needs in uh in ele in the elementary child study team world, they very often work with our general education population as well in an effort to keep students out of the specialed pipeline. So, while it looks on paper that we are really reducing
counseling services to kids in elementary, we are not. We still have enough counseling services to um to address any mental health needs or any emotional support needs that our students uh will will require. Um and uh I think that's that's what I wanted to
say tonight and thank you very much. Thank you. Does anybody have any comments for Miss DJI up here? Moving on, I'm going to open up the public comments on agenda action items. So, um, anything regarding anything we
will be voting on tonight, personnel or finance, which is the budget, uh, you have this opportunity to come up to the podium. Again, just please state your name clearly. You'll have three minutes to address your concerns and if there is
an answer um that someone will answer you at the end of the public comment. Are there any? >> Thank you. >> Good evening, Brendan Walsh from Verona.
Um so first of all, thank you. Um I don't uh necessarily understand everything. I'm I'm still trying to absorb what uh what you just said, but thank you for listening. Um it certainly sounds like an improvement. Um you know, hopefully going forward and and I understand that um that it is a
specialized process that there's a lot going on, but you know, in the future, I think it would be good to have more transparency. So, um it I guess something to to think about for next year. Um just a a few questions. Um, I think you said uh the plan is to move to
a part-time staffing schedule for the high school music program. Um, I would just be I don't know if you can say anything more than that. Um, that would be helpful just to understand a little bit more. Um, >> I can because there's not there's not a line of people behind you.
>> Oh, sure. >> And then um just then um one other question I have um just has to do uh we were at the town council meeting last night. there was a discussion of pilots. Um, and I've I've learned more about pilots than I ever wanted to know. You
know, know there's a long history going back, you know, more than a decade um that I was not aware of. One of the things that that the town council said was that there was never um a specific request uh from the school board this past year for pilots. I was hoping that
you could address that and and >> that's not accurate. Okay. Right away. I would love to hear your perspective on that. highly unaccurate. >> Yeah. So, >> we had a joint meeting in this room with the council where we debated over whether or not we should be receiving pilot funds,
>> right? And and I know there was a video. I didn't watch the whole two-hour. I I watched parts of it. I I created a transcript, read parts of it, but I I think what I So, I'm just trying to understand what was actually requested and, you know, maybe I would like to just hear your version of that. So,
those are the two things that I'm wondering about. >> I can Thank you. can go back to the the video and and be more clear. Uh and I I don't want to misspeak, but I do know I mentioned um that at some point without support from um you know, as our as our
numbers grow as a result of um occupants moving into those uh pilot funded uh housing facilities that something has to give. And I I remember saying that very clearly. Um I I believe one of the council people
actually blogged about it about what I said. I said we are a school district first and foremost and what we would wind up cutting eventually when it got to that point would be things like our athletics and music program music and art program. And for those of you that are nodding that either watched the
video or were were present that night, um you can't get more clear than asking for support and explaining what could happen potentially to our district if we didn't get support. Um I will say that um Mrs. Prrisco spoke at a council
meeting. at the council meeting on May 6th uh 2024. At that time I was the board president and that was when Conifer Reality who developed who was the developer for um the Lind Drive project
on by across the street from the community center. I went to that meeting. I spoke um and I said to the council that we were going to need them to work with us because we were going to
be in big trouble based off of just enrollment numbers and what could be coming out from a new development with special ed needs and all of the above. So I did speak on May 6, 2024. You could watch that meeting on the YouTube. And
also we had our joint meeting on March 25th, 2025 with um the town council. Uh at the time Denise Vzella was our president. She coordinated that. Um so we did we have been trying I to just go
back um because I did watch the council meeting last night and the this has been an ongoing issue discussions for years way back before I was even on the board. It went back to John Quattrochi, uh, Glenn Elliott, Mr. Joe Bolino, Lisa
Freshy, um, all trying to get to work with the township to get something going with the pilots. And I have to say, I think this is the furthest we've gotten so far um, hearing the council meeting last night. And I unders the township
and the board of education, we work extremely well together and I don't want to lose that working relationship with the township, with our police department, with our public works. They do a tremendous amount of work for us.
Um, other thing that I found a little bit um, difficult to understand last night at the meeting is mostly everyone stated on the council that they were really unaware of our budget constraints and um, that we were had so such an
issue with our budget and they found out about it when you guys found out. And that to me is um I think that's false because on February 26th our budget presentation presented that we were in a $3 million we needed to find $3 million
and then again on March um 24th um our next hearing we also discussed it so >> with the number of cuts with the actual number >> with saying that we had 13 positions that we were going to be cutting. So it was it was out there. It was at our
meetings. It was just unfortunate that no one um attended those meetings. So again, I think this is and thanks to everyone out in the audience and your voice because I think this is the furthest from hearing the meeting last
evening. I think this is the furthest we're getting with getting as closer to getting something from the pilot funds to help. And I also want to point out that on August 27th, 2024, there is a lengthy resolution on our board agenda
that is um resolution to compel pilot funds to be shared with boards of education. So August 27th, 2004, you can see that agenda. Um you can't get more clear than that. >> August 27th, 20
I thank you very much, Denise Brazil, Verona, New Jersey. I just have a quick question. I know we've spent a lot of time talking about um the music and arts program, which I am 100% supportive of. Um my question is there is also um although not a riff, there is a math teacher that at the high school level
that's not being replaced. Um is how is that going to impact um what is able to be offered at the high school level and um the sizes of the math classes for um the students? >> So math classes, thank you. uh math class size will go will go up and uh we
actually have a science teacher that is picking up because of some changes in enrollment in the science numbers uh one of our science teachers will be teaching um across math and science so picking up one of those those math sections um and
um anytime you reduce I'll give you an example reducing the English uh staff member at the high school those remaining classes will get more kids in them we So, um, that's what's going to happen. Sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead.
>> Hi, Mariela McHugh. Um, I just have a quick question because we've gotten mixed answers on this question. The 2% cap um, for the budget, if the schools were to receive pilot funds, would those have to fall within that 2% cap or would
those be in excess of that 2% cap? Because we've received different answers on that. >> In excess. >> Thank you. Okay. Hi everybody. Uh Chris Barrows resident. Uh I I just want to say one thank you for the update. Still trying to come to an understanding. Uh one as the as a
parent of a middle school student who has loved his experience as music has been at the heart of his life. I want to thank you for working on these things. I'm interested in the the impact at the the middle school level and just making sure I have a full understanding. And the second thing I want to say was I was
also at the meeting last night and one thing I thought was really important was beyond the and I apologize but it's fact like 35 minutes that I got to hear from our mayor. Uh there was a lot of things in there but one of the things he said stood out to me and I wanted these
students to hear it and know it but I reiterate reiterated this. They talked about the shared services because it's more of a going forward thing on what maybe needs can tweak. It sounds like you've got good things, but you can always look, right? But one of the things that I reiterate because it was
stated in a way as if they provided more than you provided. And it kind of bugged me and I want to state loud and clear that the students show up and they perform at all of these events. They are singing the national anthem. They're
present. They were at an event for the business night out. And so I reiterated this that what I asked them and and I didn't I wasn't expecting an answer so not complaining about that but I asked them what is the economic value essentially of that because if you were to hire someone to sing your national
anthem you are spending money. So um I just wanted to reiterate that because I think it's incredibly important. Um, and when you come to those conversations, I don't want to call them negotiations, but when you come to those conversations, it's just a point I want to bring up because the amount that they would have to spend to do that is
extraordinary. And we have extraordinary students who do amazing things with their musical talent. So, I just thought that was important to state. So, that's all. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our shared services, and I do go on the record every time we talk about it and thank the that township for the services they provide us, but they
are reciprocal. We provide our fields, our classrooms for the summer uh camp programs. Um, >> and they can't you can't run a wreck department without the Verona Board of Education lending it schools. And it's really nice that they want to cut up the lawn as as part of the give back and then do the dumpster things. Um, but
like again, we don't ever want to go nuclear because we we love the WCK programs too. Um, but like there's there's a whole lot of value in how important the WCK programs are in Colin in in Verona and you you can't have it without us. Hi, Maria Ki Verona. Just wanted to say
thank you for uh listening and taking the time to review things. Um I also wanted to um start to maybe begin the conversation moving forward to next year. I know we haven't even finished this year, but um
a lot of us are really concerned and have um sort of pledged to ourselves that we would be more involved in this process going forward. we, you know, we hear we hear you and we hear the town council when you say, you know, we're sitting here talking to empty rooms. So,
um, with that being said, I I do think that we're going to try to, you know, be more involved. Um, and I hope that transparency becomes more of a priority as we move forward so that we don't find ourselves
here next April, May talking about what a surprise this this is. We'd like to be more involved. We hope you would like us to be more involved. And with that being said, also um I'm curious if a after we're done with this conversation, you
can give us a sense of what 2028 is going to be like. I know that there are a million variables that can change state aid funding and all of that, but are we in for even worse next year? Because that's something we would want to begin as parents thinking about.
Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone else from the public that would like to come up? >> Seeing none, we're going to move on to our action items. So, I need a motion, please, to approve our personnel
resolutions A1 through A2. >> I'll move it. >> Motion by Mr. Waka, seconded by Mr. Boone. Are there any discussions? Dr. Mr. Riley, if you could please call roll. >> Mr. Waka, >> yes. >> Mr. Pera, >> yes.
>> Mrs. Prrisco, >> yes. >> Mr. Boone, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. Moving on to our finance resolutions. I need a motion to approve resolutions B1 to B5. >> So moved. >> Motion second. >> Motion by Mr. Boon, seconded by Mr.
Waka. Are there any discussions? >> Dr. Riley, if you could please call roll. >> Mr. Waka. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pera. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Krisco. >> Yes. >> Mr. Boon. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. >> Um, if there is, we have one more public
comment. If there's anyone else that would like to come up on any items, please feel free state your name and you have three minutes. >> Brendan Walsh again. And I I And if if you don't want to provide an answer, that's fine. I I did have another Yeah.
So, I just raising it in the event you wanted to. If you don't you don't have to just raising it again about just more details about the plan. >> Yeah. So um in ripping it's still one position in music at the high school because enrollment was such next year
that for two full-time teachers we had effectively three and one half or three fullyear courses and one semester course of credit bearing courses. So that would and if we kept um the initial proposal
would be have to have um one teacher teach both choir and band which under New Jersey certification they are certified and trained to do. Um so that was our first go-to. Uh we realized that that was not making anyone happy including the individual who was going
to be teaching it. So, uh um in in looking at how we can do that, what's much more complicated is to say the one position is a half of a uh an instrumental instructor and half of a choir instructor. It's still the one position, but it's easier to staff.
Well, it's actually much more complicated to staff. Let me say that now because um RIFF uh constraints don't allow I can't reduce a senior member even to part-time. So then that has to be a
split schedule, right? So we're splitting schedules and it becomes much more complicated. Can we do it? Yes. Can we do it so that the priorities that were clearly articulated to us last week allows for it? Yes. It's more complicated for us and it's more
complicated for our staff and it has it has we actually lose a little bit of instructional minutes across the board because when you enter travel into a teacher schedule there's a mandated uh a lotment of travel time that we have to provide which will cut into instructional minutes. It's not going to
be horrible but um one of the reasons we try to not have staff move from building to building is we don't want to lose 15 minutes of instructional time. Someone's staying in one building all day. We don't lose that time. So um that was not our first consideration. Our first consideration is under certification
rules. What can we do? Because we certainly in a budget deficit of three and a 3.2 million say that a single teacher can teach one credit bearing course and 48 sections of lessons. It's just it can't be done. I mean it's not
it's fiscally irresponsible. So that's what I was faced with. So we decided to combine those positions. So that one person was teaching three and a half sections and the rest of the day lessons. And by the way, even with the part-time, it creates a a a like a
scheduling problem for administration, but it still preserves lessons at the at the high school as well. Does that answer your question? >> I'm not gonna I'm not going to talk staffing. I'm not going to say who's going where in this forum. It's really
>> Hi, uh Megan Walsh. um 95 fairway. Um just in light of that and you know I just was wondering because I know that the last meeting there was a discussion of an issue finding substitutes um could that part-time position be paired as also a full-time sub in order to maybe
make it more attractive if you're getting a little bit more money and also solve a problem of the district. I don't know if that's something you compare but just throwing it out there. >> Um actually because we're splitting positions it's really there are they are full-time across the district. They're just not full-time in one building. So,
that wouldn't work. Um, but it is a real that coverage problem is a real problem. We're we're on track to spending somewhere in the neighborhood of $79,000 in internal class coverage. >> Chris Barrows again of Veron resident. I
just one quick question. Uh, at the elementary level, you mentioned the kids are able to check out out of a library. Uh, is there any need because I know parents will do it, so I just want to say it. I know I'm not the only one, but books are incredibly important. I'm a library trustee in this town, so I adore
the library. So, I just want to make sure that just happen. So, if there is there a need for support from parents, parents already donate their time to obviously lunch and stuff. I guarantee you parents will donate their time to help the kids get a book and and all that if that's something that we can
help do and I'm I will probably be one of them. >> Absolutely. what you can help too and we will be asking parents to do uh library volunteering. >> Okay. Excellent. Thank you. >> That was actually a structure pre-COVID in this district. Uh we had parents in every library in the elementary and the middle school for that matter.
>> Excellent. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none. All righty. Our um the next scheduled regular uh public meeting will be held on Thursday, May 14th, 2026, beginning
with the confidential session at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. for public session in the Verona High School Learning Commons. I need a motion, please, to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Motion by Mr. Pera, seconded by Mr. Boon. All in favor?
>> I I thank you all again for being here tonight. Have a great night.