Good evening everyone. I would like to welcome you to the September 9th, 2025 board of education meeting. We are calling the meter the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. If everyone could please rise for the pledge of allegiance. a reading of meeting notice. This
meeting is being conducted in compliance with the open meeting session that the Verona Board of Education passed a resolution at its annual reorganization meeting held on January 7th, 2025. The meeting set forth the schedule of its regular meetings which resolution was
within 7 days of passage. The schedule was sent to the Star Ledger, the township of Verona, and the VA. Postings of the meeting setting forth the time, location, and agenda were posted at the at the Verona Board of Education office and on the Verona public school district website. Copies of tonight's agenda and
resolutions have been available to the public and press. Mr. Cruz, could you please call attendance? The Walka present. Mrs. Mrs. Ferrar here. Mrs. Priscoll for the record. Mrs. Prisco is absent. Mr. Boon
here. We have quum. Thank you. Uh, I need a motion to pass routine matters. I'll forward I'll first it if you want to get second. I'll second it. Oh, is there any discussion?
Seeing none. Seeing none. Mr. Walker, yes. Mrs. Ferrar, yes. Mr. Boon, yes. Motion carries. Good evening. Well, we opened schools uh to a great start with the exception of the
erroneous attendance marking all of our students attended out absent uh which uh was it was really an unfortunate glitch. Um, I know there were a lot of parents that were very concerned and and upset about that and I
did send an apology uh email. Um, we are using a new um alert system and uh there was a radio button clicked between the two that led to chaos. I happened to be at Lanning Avenue School when it
happened and chaos was um an understatement. So, we apologize for that again and Mr. Valage is working with both um Genesis and with Aptigy to make sure nothing like that happens again.
Uh the Verona 911 memorial is being conducted at 8:45 uh on 911 at the town hall. As usual, our um our HBW students will be in attendance and our high school choir will perform. Back to school nights. Uh we're starting
with FN Brown on uh that day on 911, Forest Avenue at 9 on 9:16, Landing on 917, HBW 9 uh on the 18th, Brookdale on the 25th, and the high school on the 26th.
You can check their calendars for start and end times. Each school does have a different starting and ending time. Uh the VMAC family night has been moved from October 9th to October 8th um due to uh conflicts with some of our our tournament schedules that we don't
schedule ourselves that were scheduled for us by NJSIA. Um we are working on uh well actually we've put our building goals our building academic goals on hold for right now simply because we are still waiting for the department of education
uh to provide guidance as to whether or not we will have NJSLA data from the spring administration of the new adaptive NJSLA. It's um it's my belief that we will not and it's likely um
would be problematic and present challenges to compare the scores from the non-addaptive test to the adaptive test. So that um the spring 2026 administration data may become the new baseline. We'll wait to hear more on that. I did email the department of
education and I was told don't make any decisions yet. Uh wait for the next broadcast. So hopefully Tuesday next week we'll get get information from them. Uh reminder that our schools will be closed Tuesday the 23rd for observance for the observance of
Rashashana. Uh we are in the process of a business administrator search. We conducted round one interviews today and three finalists will move on to a second round of interviews. Uh they are scheduled for
Monday uh September 15th. All of our candidates are currently under contract. So, the best case scenario, uh, we're looking at a December start for the new BA. Uh, we have secured an interim who is Steve Robinson of School Accounting Services. He'll be at our district three
days a week. Uh, Mr. Robinson recently retired from Livingston Public Schools where he was the school business administrator and board secretary for 23 years. I real quick. Yeah. Um, I know that the board approved a uh a search agency that helped which I
which I fully supported to find this. Uh, what was your experience working with the agency and was you think it was a boon that we did that? I think it was I think it's great. I mean, they're still working with us. They sat in on the interviews today. Um, not only did they screen all of the
candidates, um, they had, uh, some information that I, I didn't have about potentially not who not to waste your time on. Um, and they, uh, re he he and and his partner Dana uh, Sullivan, who
is u was the BA in Milbour and Westfield for her career, who is now the interim in Monontlair, are dealing with that mess. um really did uh a tremendous amount of research on the candidates and provided us with good intel with regard
to making a selection for round one. They provided us all of the questions and sat in um for our committee which was quite large but the majority of our committee don't have a lot of finance background and so the they helped clarify the answers to some of the
questions and and help our committee members um see the strengths and and uh weaknesses of some of the candidates. It was very helpful. I know maybe 10% of what it's like to be a BA, right? There's like a whole I like what you said about the idea that like
they're going to know the minutiae that like the layman like us won't won't know. Um I don't exact number approximately how many applications did we get for that job? Uh interestingly enough we got many applications but very um most were not qualified. Yeah. Yeah.
So we got uh 19 applications in total. Okay. Um weeding out those that are on administrative leave or have had tenure charges filed against him. Yeah. and uh and bringing in, you know, and also saying that this is a hard budget and we continually give Mr. Cruz
a lot of credit for the work he's done here. Um having someone with no business administrator or assistant business administrator experience was not Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think that like we're in a position where we're we're really st like our strength right now is
is one of our strength is is our is our BA spot for sure. and anyone could be the board secretary, but the the BA part of the job is meat potatoes. Um, and I I I think it's very wise that our district looks to invest in a high
quality candidate as high quality candidate as we can get because it's it's a shallow pool right now. As you know, it's a very shallow pool and there's a lot of job openings. So, that's why I said base best case scenario. So, we we really moved three what we think very solid
candidates forward. Um, but we're going to be uh, you know, competing. Yeah. I I don't want to I I I I speak for myself at the board. Um, it's it's a position too vital to to low ball. So, I I'd like us to be aggressive to get some of that for at least the next five
years. We can count on the way we counted on. Uh, I was really impressed with the people that we interviewed that we're putting forward. So, um, kudos to them. And I think any of those three would be a decent choice, a good choice.
Now we just have to get them to say yes. Is is it um if if uh you and the committee have um three in mind, what what would be um distinguishing factors for the ultimate candidate?
Uh well, experience OB I mean um and two are sitting uh school business administrator board secretaries. One of them is an uh assistant business administrator but with a a great variety across the finance office in school business. Um it would be uh somebody who
has the whole package in terms of their knowledge of accounting and school business accounting because school business accounting is different than general accounting. Um, and the ability to work to understand that our everything we do about our budget and
our um and our school business office is about kids and and making sure that we have what we need to support our students and uh and community and um and staff and uh that has that ability to
work with others because we've all worked with business administrators that don't have that and we were lucky that Mr. Cruz does have that. Um, but when it's very difficult when you work with a business administrator that doesn't have that ability to work collaboratively in the best interest of kids because in
my in my experience, which is why, by the way, I reached out to Mr. Robinson. I worked with him for 18 years. Um, and he has that quality as well. Um, if you don't have that, it just makes it so much more difficult to get the work done in the business office.
So that would be my uh mostly experience with the ability to work collaboratively. We expect to see a candidate for on an agenda. Well, um I will we're going to interview the last three. We'll we'll decide who
we're going to make an offer to. I will make an offer if I can either Monday night or Tuesday. Then that has to go to uh we have to generate a contract. Contract has to go to the county business uh sorry executive county superintendent for approval. Once we get that um contract approved by them, we
can place it in front of a candidate. They can sign it. Then it goes on the board agenda. The county um what what does the count what I'm sorry for my education? I'm asking this is what is the county looking at in terms of their approval uh
standards? Oh, there's a there's like a a one pager that shows uh salary, benefits, um other um associated like cell phone um fe things that we're providing like perks that we're providing and make sure that they
fall within the law. Okay. For a superintendent contract, I'm sorry. Yeah. No, I was just going to say similar to what they do when they look at superintendent contracts. The difference is they're still looking at salary. Like if the superintendent salary is too high for what the department of ed thinks is
superintendent salary, they'll come back with it. That's too high. Yeah. So they're looking to see like, you know, you have x amount of students, here's your administrative costs. Yeah. Versus other school next to you, school the other side of you that has x amount of students has x amount of
administrative costs. Um and as long as you're within that that that goldilock zone, then they're going to say yes. I think in Verona they they will be because uh you know we've we've cut down a lot of especially with stipens a lot of administrative costs. Yeah. Um so we should be good to to look to
offer a competitive salary but we want to change his mind. Yeah. What's the deadline for that as to what the deadline? The deadline would be before Monday. Um okay. So uh just an update on the
trees for schools grant and it's not a positive update. uh we may decline we may need to decline that grant. Um I spoke to the grant administrator uh two weeks ago and she urged me to come to the mandatory professional development
session or workshop session on um n September 19th to have more information. There are two um major issues that may lead to us not accepting the grant. We can always apply for it again. Um the first issue is that in between the first
application process last year and the second application process uh they changed the way they're reimbursing. So on the initial grant that we filled out, the reimbursement was spelled out very clearly as uh 70% of the grant that
you're awarded you get up front and you use that money to purchase trees which are very expensive and and dig holes and do all the care that you need for those trees. excuse me, and that 30% of the grant would come from district funds for reimbursement in the following
subsequent school year. um when we saw the grant come out again and I spoke to the the grant administrator about what we didn't do well on in order to make our chances greater to receive this
grant. We spent a lot of time talking about how to fix the grant in that they changed the way uh the reimbursement was happening and now we need to um find 80% of the funds from your district budget that you won't get reimbursed until
September end of September 2026. So um that would mean that this bud this district would need to find $41,364 in order to buy the trees and and take care of them. I understand their point.
What was happening was um people were uh districts were uh purchasing large numbers of trees and planting them and not doing the care that it takes for them to survive. So now they're not giving you the money until that you can prove that you are not just planting the
trees, but you're caring for them so they can survive. But they weren't clear and they weren't upfront with this change and many school districts have dropped out as a result of not being able to um to do that. And the second piece is there's a tremendous amount of paperwork that I was relying on Mr. Cruz
to do. Like I when I speak for myself, when I ran for a board member, right, of course you want the environment to be better, but like the number of trees in Verona public school property was was not a campaign issue,
right? Like we have enough, right? Um, if this is something where it's it's it's not, you know, the the best time interest or the best any interest of Verona, you know, I I could live with that. And if
we want to reserve money over time in capital reserves to to make some kind of tree project, I could live with that. But I I also know that tree root I've seen personally how much tree roots can can ruin, you know, things that you built, right? Um, so I I'm not
anti-environment, but it it if it's prohibitive to the district to spend 40,000 upfront on something that we may or may not even get reimbursed for, I think my vote would be no. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm, you know, I had when I called the grant administrator, I
spoke with Carol Thomas who is the um Shade Tree Commission on the Shade Tree Commission uh co-chair uh for the township. I mean this was really uh we were approached by the township and sustainable New Jersey to join with them to do this grant not the shade tree commission
sustainable New Jersey well make that clear to to that point on the um Verona's shade tree commission with uh working with the town is there any I don't know a better way to describe it other say and is there any arm twisting that they can do on our behalf for the
grant people to make this problem go away? No, they were adamant. Um, and and I'll learn more on the 19th. I will go to that uh workshop. I and I'll I'll get as much information as I can, but the the actually bigger piece because I talked to Mr. Cruz about whether or not
we could procure that $40,000 or so a way we can do it. Um, but it it's kind of like paying the mun to pay Paul. Uh the bigger piece is that there's a tremendous amount of paperwork that is required to be done by the business
administrator and we will not have a business administrator on staff more than three days a week through potentially December mid December uh depending on uh our search process which um will not being able to start this
grant until December is a grant that's not going to not going to be successful. Yeah. I get I get texts and emails and calls about Verona public school stuff all the time as I'm sure Mike does and does. No one's ever called me the the trees.
Um so like if this isn't a a real positive no-brainer win for us then then I would recommend we just focus on our strategic plan which which is you know I appreciate doesn't have trees. I appreciate that.
Yeah, I I I think I agree with Mr. Walk in that I would love to have as many trees as we can. Um, but I mean this process needs to be user friendly if we want if they want us to help them by helping the environment. It's got to be it's got to be an easy process. We just
don't have the resources. Okay. And uh two more things on my report. Mallerie's Army uh assemblies and uh evening event, a community event uh is finally coming. Uh thanks to Verona Together who raised funds with
their cornhole tournament last year and made a sizable charitable contribution to Mallerie's Army Foundation. Tell them that you won the first round match. You played him. I did. I won the first round match. I didn't win the second round, but I had I had Laura Paulreezy with me
as a partner. Yeah, she was good. Yeah, we did. Um I thought we were going to keep going, but got to practice more. Um uh so Diane Gman, who is Mallerie's mom and founder of Mallalerie's Army Foundation, will be presenting at uh to our 6th to 12th grade students during
the day on October 6th and 7th and the parents and community on October 7th at 6 PM. Location to be determined. I think it's most likely going to be at the high school auditorium. Um, Mallerie's Army Foundation mission is to empower kids to be the kind of person they uh they want
to meet. To educate parents on how their kids interface with the world both online and in school, to enrich schools by sharing Mallerie's story and promoting kindness among students, to enhance communities by uniting everyone in an effort to blue out bullying. Uh, the Mallerie's Army Foundation describes
Mallerie as an all-American tween girl who is an avid gymnast, cheerleader, and lover of all things outdoors. Her devotion to competitive cheer and gymnastics taught her determination and humility. She loved spending summer summer weekends at her favorite campgrounds with her family, and she
admired the simple pleasures of nature. Her love for her friends, family, and even though she didn't know it was immeasurable, she had a passion for the arts and crafts and found and when she found out that children with cancer couldn't go to camp for free, she used that uh passion for arts and crafts and entrepreneurial and her entrepreneurial
wheels began to turn. She made and sold bracelets in an effort to raise money for her favorite charity, Camp Good Days. Mallerie called her life a bracelet kind of life. It is understood and understood that something as simple as a bracelet on her arm could act as a
reminder to be good in the world. With um so much life ahead of her, um sadly on June 14th, 2017, Mallerie died by suicide. And it's been her family's mission to empower kids to be amazing people, educate parents, provide an enrichment program for schools and
enhance communities to bring people together. And so, um, you know, when I my first year in Verona, parents reached out to find to ask me if we could bring Maller's Army Foundation and Diane Gman here. And, um, she hadn't she wasn't doing her presentations. Uh, she took a
small hiatus from that. And when, um, uh, Mr. L love Lass Lass at Verona together reached out to me and said that he had this partnership with her. Um it was a way to bring uh Diane Grossman to the district. So that is will be on
October 6th and 7th for our students and October 7th in the evening for our parents. More information will go out with a flyer. And uh lastly uh we are I'm presenting tonight quickly on our student safety data system for reporting period 2 and the end of the year for the
2014 2020 2014 2024 25 school year. Thank Do I control it with this or are you going to control it for me? Okay. Okay. So, reporting period 2 is uh
January 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2025. I can't see that. So, I'm have to look on my So, I I have the 23 24 data uh up here for J for reporting period 2 as well as a 2425. At the high school, we
had um a decrease uh by two alleged uh HIV investigations and a decrease um with two of two confirmed HIV and a decrease of three um what we call preliminary determinations are not
initiated. And what that is, just as a reminder, is when someone uh makes a complaint that HIV may have been perpetrated, um if the if the the in our policy and in the law, it allows for uh our principles to make a detiminary
determination. And what that looks like is if all of the facts that are presented in the HIV complaint are 100% accurate and it still doesn't meet the definition of HIV, they are not required to investigate it as HIV. Um, so that
went from last year five uh to this year two uh not initiated. I mean these could have been code of conduct violations but they were not uh investigated as uh an a potential HIV. Um we saw in reporting period 2 zero physical altercations at
the high school. Other incidents leading to removal of a student. These primarily are insubordination um cutting things like that. Nothing significant or they be in another category. One act of vandalism this year. Um a
decrease from four to three um incidents of substance use and thank god no weapons at uh Whitehorn. We um saw six investigations for HIV but only one of them was confirmed compared
to three last year and only one uh HIV uh preliminary determination which was not initiated. Zero fights uh which is down from five from last year. One other incident leading to removal and again very similar to the high school. This is generally in subordination um sometimes
um uh foul language at the middle school. It can be that no acts of vandalism, no acts of substance abuse and no weapons. For the elementary schools, we had one uh incident uh that was uh alleged to be
HIV but was not initiated uh Mrs. Tudtor's preliminary determination felt that if it even if it met even if it was 100% true and accurate, it would not have met the definition the legal definition for HIV. and no incidents at FN Brown, no incidents at Forest Avenue
in reporting period 2. And at Lanning, uh we did have restraint. Um the new category of restraint and seclusion when a student elopes um or is an acting in a way that they could harm themselves or others. We have trained professionals in
all of our elementary schools um uh on how to restrain a student safely. And so we had one student that needed to be restrained this year. The end of the year data again we're looking at 23 and 24. Um so this
includes the reporting period one that we reported on earlier in the year. Uh end of the year data uh we had at the high school six HIV alleged. So they were investigated as HIV but not found to be HIV. Three confirmed HIVs. One uh
preliminary determination. One fight. six other incidents and this is total. So this is the same six that were in the reporting period too uh as well as the vandalism and substance abuse. Same with uh HP Whitehorn uh six alleged HIV, one
confirmed, one preliminary determination, no fights. Uh that same incident leading to removal, no vandalism and no substance. Uh for the end of the year data for the elementaryaries, it is the same as reporting period 2.
And that's the SSDS uh required report for 202425. And that's the end of my superintendence report for this evening. Thank you. Are there any questions? Uh I have two from from the uh school
safety uh report. one on any incident involving fighting. Uh once we determine the the end result of it, do we log or track what was the initial cause of the fight? Um beyond
yeah that information there's always a summary in the student information system in in Genesis uh under there's a category of incidents and um in that there's um usually a summary of of what happened between the students and the consequences. main street.
Yeah. I the reason I ask for that is is if if and it it's not a festering problem here, but if we see several fights, are we looking for any trend lines on what's sparking that? No, I have to say we have really good kids here. Yeah.
I mean, looking at this data negotiable to even present it, right? Most of what it is, most of what's on here are kids like cutting lunch detention. That your biggest problem? Yeah. Well, good problems to have. Yeah, good problems to have, right? Um, and then this is probably getting
ahead of the cart a little bit, but looking into this coming school year, are we investigating or how are we investigating the uh the TAC issue at uh Brookdale? Uh, we are not the uh I saw the police. It wasn't it's not on our It wasn't even
on our I thought it was on the Brookdale. It was not. No, it's not. Okay. I misunderstood the on the property of the apartment complex um that owns that property. That's the That's the p uh path that goes between the apartments and Brookdale. Yeah. So, no, it wasn't on our property
and um I know it's an active um investigation. Um but it was very dangerous and I hope they find out who did it. I know they found a bucket of of tax. I mean, this was public knowledge um near the apartments. So, uh somebody over there
was had excess tax more to put out there. Just what a dangerous ridiculously dumb thing to do. Upsetting. It is upsetting. Good. Brian's a booked outfit though, right? Don't you live in the little house right
out front? Yes. Yeah. Okay. I thought for some reason when I saw the initial reports, I thought it was back behind the uh softball fields. So much. Thank you. Uh Mr. Cruz, your board secretary report. Yes.
Last. Yes. Uh I won't be here at the at the last at the last uh meeting of the month since it's on. Yeah. Those last two days I I'll be taking my last application days. So um good evening everyone. Uh in finance, I'm I'm pleased to report
that uh we have the J uh the July uh board secretary treasury report and transfer report. They're all in agreement. Uh at the board at the next board meeting, we will have the August report. Uh that will be my last uh financial report that I'll be submitting
to the board for approval. Um I won't be able to uh work on the September report because uh we normally wait until the bank statements to do the reconciliation. So uh the interim uh Mr. Robinson will will be actually taking
care uh September going forward. Um um during that interim period uh over the the next two weeks also uh we will continue to collaborate with our auditors. uh they will be um in the district on the third week of September
and uh verifying and reviewing our uh fiscal year uh 2425 and we'll be completing uh that and uh we're hoping that the auditors will have a final report to present to the board in the month of November uh
uh the the third week of uh September. So they will be here uh September uh the week of September 22nd. Um, I also want to uh share a message to families. We encourage families. We've been receiving um uh lunch uh free lunch
applications from uh families that qualify for free lunch. I just want to continue encouraging families that do uh qualify to continue submitting those applications whether it's at their schools or directly to the board office. uh we we'll have uh our staff available
to answer any questions and um any concerns they could contact the board office and we could help them um with that. Um as always, even though we have a deadline to receive the applications by the end of September, uh we will honor any hardship cases uh throughout the school year. So if there's family in
need and and for whatever the reason is, um we will um honor those lunch applications uh throughout the year. as um just want to continue the message out again. Um the Verona board of ed is not does not participate in the national
school lunch program. What that means is that we do not get federal dollars for free reduced lunch. Uh so what the board does is that the board subsidize and covers the cost of any students meals uh if they do qualify and meet the uh
income thresholds um as outlined in the free lunch uh application uh form. And in addition to that, I just want to also remind folks if also if if a family um it falls into the bracket of reduce
um we do honor that as well as a free lunch. Uh lastly, to conclude my uh report uh tonight, uh this is my last board meeting. Uh I I want to take a moment to sincerely thank the board for their partnership, the collaboration uh
and and the Verona community uh for uh the last four uh four years here. Uh in my 17 uh year career in school finance, um I definitely will cherish these last four years in Verona. I it's definitely been a um moments of memories of of I
know that even my first year in in Verona. was a year of a lot of challenges and and grit. uh being able to uh hear things of uh and and and even the challenges that that we continue
facing that um uh four years ago and and to look back um at the impact that we've have uh made um I I could always see that uh we've made a huge impact on teaching and learning and I thank all of you and the collaboration that um we do every day and and the work that you guys
actually do in supporting uh this amazing community. So thank you. I appreciate Y and we've asked Ryan to keep your car keys. So, I just also want to point out um families that qualify for free and
reduced lunch are also exempt from the uh Chromebook insurance. Thank you so much, Jorge. You know, we wish you all the best and we we thank you so much for all of your work. Um does anybody have any questions? Okay. Uh student reports fine.
Uh good evening. All right. So at VHS, the 2025 2026 school year is already off to a strong start as the senior class kicked off the year with the annual traditions of senior car painting at the parking lot and senior sunrise at Eagle
Rock Reservation. in terms of athletics and activities. Uh today was notably the fall captain's SEC leadership summit where student athlete leaders gathered to build a leadership skills and represent their individual programs. And today there was also a girls soccer
match against Bloomfield while the cross country team ran a meet at Branch Brook Park. And speaking of girls uh soccer, this week is part of a close succession of games uh for the team with an away game against Gwen Ridge this Thursday and a Saturday home game uh versus Pope
John Regional School at 2 p.m. And on the other hand, the boys soccer team had started their season with a resounding victory against Shabbaz High School and will be having a game at Caldwell at 400 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday. And the girls tennis team is facing Milbour tomorrow
uh Wednesday and West Essex on Friday. The girls field hockey team scored a victory against Scotch Plains a Fanwood yesterday with a match against Monontlair at Centennial Field this Friday. The football season started off with a win against St. Mary's at West
Orange on the uh 28th of August. And this Friday uh the 12th of September I believe is the home rivalry rivalry game against Cedar Grove. And in the same vein, uh, football senior Dean Aljieri has been nominated for USA football's heart of a giant award, uh, which honors
high school football students who inspire greatness, and you can vote for Aljuri on their website online. And beyond sports over the course of the summer, the marching band concluded a rigorous camp at VHS in anticipation of future competitions and football
games. And our cheerleading team also had a productive summer participating in the UCA Pine Forest camps to get ready for the season as well. And both of these wonderful programs will be performing at halftime for the first home game of the school year. So there's even more incentive to show up Friday.
And u the VHS marching band is also um looking for individuals to make contributions to the program which encompasses over 70 members this fall season. So, anyone who is interested in donating to the fundraiser would also be greatly appreciated. And in other news, picture day for underassmen will be
taking place this Thursday, September 11th. Uh the club fair will be held at lunch on Wednesday, September 17th, and all students are definitely encouraged to participate and uh find an extracurricular to get involved in and just like integrate themselves within
the community. And student council elections will be taking place next Friday, September 19th. And unfortunately, I do not have any polit I do not have any political opposition. So, it seems like you are all stuck with me until graduation. And then BHS administration Oh, uh VHS
administered uh the standardized math growth testing for freshman and sophomores today and we'll continue to administer them tomorrow morning with uh also next week. I I believe college visits will resume on the 15th with
signups on Nvian. And that is all for today. Thank you, Ryan. Is someone I speak for Pam as well that has ran unopposed. It's really nice when you know the outcome. It makes it a whole lot less stressful. Uh and I also voted for my buddy Dino Aleri. So hopefully that's the heart of a giant
board. Um is that so that's still open to to vote for Dean? Yeah, I believe I was just gonna say, do we have that link posted on the district web page? Okay, I think so. Okay, so we'll go ahead and make sure
that posted. That's excellent. Thank you so much, Ryan. Does anybody have any questions? Great job, Ryan. Thank you. All right, we're going to move on to committee reports of athletics. Have an athletics meeting and I assumed Pam would be here even though I knew she wasn't. Um, so everything's going great.
Um, I know we um what did we talk about? We talked about we talk about sports. Um, let me see if anything's noteworthy. Oh, the the girls volleyball team's like one of the best in the state and that's
exciting. Uh, I know that my even my son said like that's like the talk of the school is going to the girls volleyball games because like they're elite elite. So, that's fun. Uh, we talked about uh what else did we talk? You got to help me out. I was not prepared for this.
Well, that's my report. That's enough. That's it. Oh, we're having a female wrestling team. We're looking to get a coach for that because there's enough female participants that because my recollection Diana, you probably know this better, but um it was something
where there is a thing where, you know, now we're at a point where they the the boys wrestle on on a Saturday and the the females wrestle on a Sunday or maybe vice versa or something like that. for the most part. Now, we have enough people where it warrants, you know, having a someone to coach the females on
the day that they have like reserved for wrestling. And I think it's lovely that female wrestling is is is growing. I really do. Yeah. And um we did talk a little bit about the turf and uh potential upcoming uh replacement. Um we talked about the
rising cost of transportation. Got a new scoring scores table. Um and we are um we need to hire a JV softball coach and a JV girls wrestling link or not JV sorry girls wrestling link coach because of the number of
students. You're welcome. Uh I I actually do and I hate to be that guy. I do have one question and it is a question that I've asked in the past and I do know the answer but I feel like gota ask again. Um, we're 100% on board
with uh any astroturf I know it's not astroturf uh maintenance uh as opposed to considering a natural grass option for these. Uh my experience and and I can only speak to my most recent experience in
Kinolan where we did not have uh turf and it was a really horrible experience. Um the fields because they get overused. the same situation here as in uh in Kennelan uh because Wreck uses our fields, we use
their fields, the fields get really beat up playing uh lacrosse on a field that's full of uh rock really is what it is. when you go to scoop a ball and you throw u very often you're throwing a a big chunk of rocks as well between the
the maintenance of a grass field that's overused and um the amount of goose feal matter uh it's really our our athletes played in goose poop it's at a point where if we continue if
we go back to grass fields number one I'm I'm not sure we can because I could be wrong again I could be wrong But I believe that the town might have voted for an RFP just for astroturf fields. So we may have already, you know, said this what we we we want. But even if that's
if that's not the case, the district will absolutely not be able to share its fields with the local recreation and youth sports programs if we have a grass field that gets rained out. Like we just won't be able to to schedule all the things we're currently scheduling them.
And uh I get that there is some trepidation about you know what what the you know the potential I I don't know the studies are even mature enough to to to extrapolate that conclusion but the idea of like do they cause cancer they
do this and that um the I haven't seen any firm data that shows that. But I I do know that we can offer so much more to our community if we don't have to reschedule our high school games because the turf field prohibits us from having to do that.
And and spring sports that are on that are on a field like lacrosse uh uh really suffer because they're forced to practice. I mean get get a wet spring or late snow, they're forced to practice on a black top. It's
this this district cast its eye that a long time ago and we we want turf fields and and I think we've benefited tremendously because of that investment and and I and I get that these concerns should be explored
but like there's so much benefit to like having these fields that drain instantly and and you could play the second after a raintorm ends And I I think that going backwards and and it stinks getting tackled on a cold frozen football grass
field that that feeling stinks. Um and it's a lot nicer getting tackled in a cushion and and that's what we have now. So I I I I like where we're at in my my opinion. There are other materials uh film materials that are not um like coconut
fiber. There's other materials that you can instead of the rubber. Yeah. All all that. I'm and again I'm just raising the question and the question that I was going after more was just looking for when we have to start replacing it. The cost effectiveness was
really the angle that I'm looking at as opposed to any of the other concerns. I will tell you though as a former grass field u manager they are very expensive to manage because you wind up having to sod them every other year because they they they don't they're not sustainable.
So in goose poop is is is not to anywhere in the stadium. You were too fast to be tackled, Mr. W. Thank you for indulging that discussion. Move on to public comment on agenda action. Um, if there's anyone in the
public to come up, these are comments. Only items that are listed on the agenda to be voted on this evening can be discussed at this time. Is there anyone from the public? Okay. Seeing none, we are going to move on to uh discussion items, new business
and old business. Does anybody have anything? Okay. Any correspondence? There's no correspondence. Okay. Are you gonna hook us up with dinners at the conference or you going to hook the fairone people up? What's the story?
Get over it's over. But is the guy that makes the RSVPs but the vendors come to him. They don't go to Diane. I know that to you. Are you gonna hook us up or we are we on our own? It's on that's on YouTube.
All right. We are now moving on. I need a motion to move uh action items A for personnel. So moved. Okay. So we're moving A1 to A
five. Any discussion? No. Okay. Seeing none. Mr. Mr. Walker. Yes. Mrs. Ferrar. Yes, Mr. Jones. Yes. Motion carries.
Motion to move education B1 through B3. Any discussion items? So moved. I'll second. Okay, Mr. Cruz. Any discussion
after any discussion? Thanks. Uh discussion items. No, Mr. Cruz. Yes. Mr. Boon. Yes. Mrs. Ferrara. Motion carries. Need a motion to move
C1 to C3 athletics. I'll second. Any discussion? Uh just one question on on C1. What exactly is the relationship uh with JAG? JAG are um they provide athletic trainers for when we have multiple
athletic events that require a trainer to be present and when Mr. um can't be in more than one place or if he's away or sick. Okay, fair enough. On a s side note, thank goodness I as a person who had a had a really severe
knee injury in a football game professional year when it wasn't a varsity game, right? But it wasn't, you know, so if you that Jay wasn't right there main game have that extra support was was a nice piece of Yep. Good to know. Thank you,
Mr. Cruz. Mr. Boon, yes. Mr. Walker, yes. Mrs. Spar, yes. Motion carries. There's nothing for facilities. So, moving on to finance. I need a motion to E1 through E7.
So, moved. I'll second. Any discussion items? Seeing none. Mr. Cruz. Mr. Walker. Yes. Mr. Boon. Yes. Mrs. Ferrar. Yes. Motion carries.
Okay. Moving on to governance and policy. There is nothing there. Um, so we're now on to public comments. Um, public comments. We have three minutes.
Seeing anyone in the audience? Nobody. Okay, moving on. Uh, let's see. To adjourn. I I You have to make a motion, right? I have a motion to say I. Okay, I'll second.
All f All in favor? I I Okay. Our next meeting is being held on Tuesday, September 30th. 30th 700 p.m. and learn learning comments with potentially a confidential section
session at 6 PM. It is 7:52. Thank you.