Emerson BOE Meeting 4.28.25

001to the appropriate newspapers and posted in the board office three schools municipal building and filed with the clerk of the burrow of Emerson. If you're able, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you everyone. This meeting is called to order at 7:33 p.m. If we could have the roll call, please. Mr. Growler. Mrs. Mara here. Mrs. Ricardi here. Mr. Smith here. Mr. Pasar here. Miss Grombone here. Thank you. Thanks for being here everyone. Tonight, what we're going to do is start with a presentation by Miss Janna Apachella on our special education. So, with that, we'll we'll actually are we going to do the

002Let's do Let's do Kayla first. Sorry. So, we're going to She doesn't have to stay if she doesn't want to. Okay. So, what we're going to do is we're going to make a great presentation to Kayla Ell, career points in girls basketball. So, Kayla, if you could come up here. First question. How long have I Okay. Well, we have Kayla here. Whereas Kayla Ellen has received the achievement of scoring 1,000 career points for girls basketball. And whereas the accomplishment is testimony to her dedication, tireless effort, and commitment to excellence. And whereas the Emerson Board of Education, Emerson, New Jersey, County of Birmingham, wishes to recognize this outstanding achievement. Now, therefore, it be resolved that the Emerson Board of Education on its 28th day of April 2025 hereby recognizes Kayla Ellis achievement. Who was the last

003person to receive the to uh achieve a thousand points here? My sister. That's amazing. I I hope this isn't embarrassing because I don't know the answer to the question. In total, who had more points? You had you had a you had a great career. I enjoyed watching you play basketball since you were a very little girl. um every year and uh you've been a joy to watch. I know uh is coach here. Coach is not here. You know, great things that she would she would have to say about you. Um and uh you've just had a great year and I enjoyed I think many of the board was there to actually I was just going to say the story behind that walked in and we're actually there to to watch you achieve that. So we're

004really very very proud of you. So uh we like to get a quick picture. Yep. One, two, three. Okay, great job. Thank you. Congratulations again, uh, Kayla, uh, on your amazing milestone. So, with that, now we'll move on to our special education presentation by Miss I think I'm pronouncing it correctly, right, Apachella. So, please So, I'm Jenna Ael, the director of special services, and I'm here with some of many valuable team members, and I'll introduce them. We have Lauren Fuka, who's our learning consultant in Emerson schools. She sits on the child study team. We have Jessica Spinosza who is our principal at Vano School. We have Emily Cooper who's our district BCBA. Amanda Benedetti is the social worker at Vano School. We have Kristen Dande who's our social worker on the child study team and

005Kristen Mahajer who is the learning consultant at the middle school high school level and then Amanda Galata who is our school psychologist at the middle school high school level. And I say some of many valuable team members because there are so many people that play into some of the things we're going to talk about tonight. And I want to make sure that we acknowledge all those teachers and administrators and specialists and other CST members who couldn't be here tonight that it takes a village for sure. So these are some of the many valuable people that work with our students who need supports. So tonight we're going to present on a variety of different supports that we uh offer students in the general education environment, what those system of supports look like and how we move

006along with students in other directions if we find that our supports aren't as effective as we'd like them to be and what are those different routes that we take. Hi everyone. Um so one of our goals here at Emerson is build a collaborative approach and that's done through the district and school leadership team as well as family and community engagement and just overall building a positive school culture and climate within that community. Um there's an MTSS approach. It's the multi-tered systems of support and there's three different tiers that we'll talk about today. Um there's tier one, tier two, tier three. So um for academics there are three different tiers like Anna had said um we have tier one which is universal is for all students. Um this is what teachers do within the classroom. They're

007they just pull from their knowledge and they throw different ideas to help students with various things. Um it could be them consulting with a teacher um or someone else in the school to you know target different areas within the classroom. So that's for all students. Then tier two is a little bit more support. There are some students that fall under this category. Um it could be tutoring, it could be um different programs that the schools have. Um there's some a lot of programs at Memorial and Volano um that target specific groups of students to really help them in certain areas. It could be basic skills teachers pushing in. And then tier three is that um more intense support. So there are a few students that fall under that category and those are more intensive supports.

008So it could be um a student receiving basic skills daily um and various other supports and again those are that's for a few students. Um next year we will have an interventionist ato and this person will be a really um useful for all of the teachers and help across all three of those tiers um to really target and individualize um the need for some of the students. Uh and this tier support does continue up into the middle school and the high school um in various different ways. Um including in our double block of language arts. We do have some basic skills pushing. Um we've built an algebra support class for those students who need a little bit more help in the math realm as they reach the high school. Um we also we have some

009tutoring available up here as well. And we've built plans um with multiensory reading approaches just to better assist students in all the different areas. for behavior, we also have the three tier system. Um, so the tier one is for all students. So this would be things like classroomwide positive behavior support systems or schoolwide systems. Um, for tier two, um, this gets more specific to students. So, this would be more like social skills training, um, behavior contracts, excuse me, uh, reinforcement systems, check-in, checkout systems. Uh, in tier three, we get even more specific to students who have, um, specific needs and behavior intervention plans. This is where we're having therapeutic services um, and special education services come into play, too. I'm going to apologize for my voice first before I start speaking. Um, okay. So, once

010again, we have the three tiers of support. Um, so for social emotional learning, um, in these three tiered systems of support, um, at tier one, we see again that support for all students. Um, so this is where we really focus on promoting social emotional learning across um, basically all students and all grades. Um, so this is where we see schoolwide programs. Um, for example, at Memorial, uh, we have, um, heart-c centered classroom and then at Milano school, um, I push into classes with the health and wellness teacher, Miss Mzan, to um, teach some classes to each of the grades. Um, and then at the high school of character character education, some more based um, supports there at the tier 2 level. Um, this would be for students that are showing some more signs of need.

011So, uh maybe some anxiety, some friendship conflict, um relationship conflict, things like that. Um and this is where we kind of in implement that small group intervention. So, some social skills groups, um you know, small groups of like, you know, three to five students, being able to um target some specific skills. Um and even some counseling check-ins. So, being able to check in with students on a monthly basis or a um you know, twice a month basis just to check in with how they're doing. And then in tier three, we have that an even smaller group of students who need some more individualized support. Um, and so that individualized support can really look like one-to-one counseling. Um, that can look like some behavior support plans. Um, which can be put into different IRS plans or

012support plans. Um, and then additional mental health support which can often come in with our West Mental Health social worker um, Miss Gordon. Okay. So once many of the tier one and tier 2 um interventions and supports have been attempted and and we're still not seeing the progress we would like um with certain students who are having a hard time in certain areas um then the intervention or referral services team is consulted um about that particular student. Um so a teacher will identify a student, bring up that student with the INRS team which consists of um different um professionals in each building, myself included. So usually a child study team member, an administrator, um counselors, different specialists that kind of bring in all their perspectives to come up with a plan for a student on

013how we're going to help that student make some meaningful progress um and get to where they need to go. So in um the INRS plan, so it'll be a document that's created for a student in need. Um it'll discuss the area of concern. Um there will be some data that's discussed on how the team or the teacher came to decide that that student needs more support in the classroom. Um what kind of support they're going to receive, whether that's basic skill instruction, um certain accommodations provided in a classroom. Um, and there's certain goals that are um, discussed in the INRS plan to where the student should be at a certain point in the year. Um, based on those areas of concern, their progress is monitored and then the team meets several times throughout the year

014to talk about how they're doing and and then what needs to happen from there on out. So, occasionally a student will come into a 504 plan, which is also a general education intervention for a student who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity. And that major life activity could be learning, it could be attention, it could be mobility. And the goal is to provide equal access for that student. The big difference between a 504 plan and an IEP is it is about providing access. It is not necessarily about providing a specialized educational program. So that is the key difference. But it does support students through formal accommodations and a written plan where we meet yearly and review that plan and make necessary changes as we go through the process.

015So a 504 plan is available for students in need in that area. So there are times where we've um engaged in all of these parts of the process for a particular student and we review data and we have ongoing meetings to analyze the data and determine if the what the interventions are are effective in making some kind of progress with the student. So with that uh we look to refer students to the child study team when we have more questions. So at that point at the end of that process of exhausting everything that we have gone through through the INRS team through the 504 team or possibly just through the INRS team the intervention general referral service team we may question is there a suspected disability and if that question comes up multiple times throughout

016the process with the family and the student and the staff that work with the student we ask ourselves a few questions to make that determination if it's time to evaluate the student. So we ask ourselves, are the learning, behavioral or developmental issues that we're seeing or concerns that we have for the student impacting their educational environment? We also ask ourselves, is there lack of progress? Are we targeting a specific intervention that we don't see improvements with? And how long has that been happening? Is there some progress that's relative to that student's strength or some progress that's aligned to the scale that we see a deficit in? That's good. If we don't see progress with the interventions we're putting into place, we ask ourselves if there is an underlying potential disability. We collect a lot of

017data throughout the process to determine if there's growth and we look at um different concerns we may have for the student whether it's socially, emotionally, behaviorally or academically. And with that we analyze, have we exhausted everything? And this can be over time. This can be through multiple years, maybe multiple months depending on the lack of skill acquisition that we're seeing and the data we're collecting. Um, and if we feel that we've exhausted everything, it's a team decision that we walk our parents through that process of determining that uh an evaluation is is appropriate at this point because we're suspecting a learning disability. And that process is really to rule out is there a learning disability and if there is what we can do to assist the family. So just through our our our brief discussion

018this evening we wanted to you know create some kind of image to leave you with as to what our all the experts in the district do for our kids. And through collaboration and through every tier we make sure that the students needs are identified early. we support them effectively and we address with the collective expertise of the team um what it is that we can do to support that child. So together with administrators, teachers, staff, specialist, counselors um we work together to support our students. Great. Any questions for Mrs. A seller of the team on the board. Oh uh in terms of board members any questions? No no no questions. No thank you. Um I have a uh more I guess I guess a question in terms of so you've you have this system this

019three tiered system across the various categories. What are some challenges that you see or or things that you would like to see changed whether it's in the industry or things that are like the big big hitters that you're like if aside from funding obviously but so that's a great question. Um just starting out this year with pretty much a new child study team. We've been able to target those different things that we noticed we could do differently or maybe do better to support our students. And we've already implement those kinds of systems where we felt that the team could have used a child study team u member to give some input and feedback. Having those experiences of students with learning needs and having a lot of strategies in their toolbox, right? We all have strategies,

020but coming together as a team, having more specialists on the team, we found that that was a great improvement to make for this school year. And data collection, we can collect data um on so many things and we want to make sure that it's aligned to the deficit we're seeing. Right. Right. Or the gap that we're noticing. So, we want to make sure the data we're collecting is is specific to the need that we see and the goal that we have for the student. And that gets challenging because data is not easy to collect and it can be overwhelming to do in a classroom while you're teaching if there aren't other support members in the classroom like a par profofessional or other specialists. So, we offer ways to support that through having our BCBA go

021in or having a social worker or our learning consultant this year on both levels, both teams have been able to do some screeners for students that we weren't doing prior to to make sure that we're pretty confident that we're at that part of the process. We we need more information and a referral is necessary. So, we we've been targeting those types of things that we feel we could do differently and support our students more and we're still working on that. So great, great. Well, thank you very much and thank you to the the whole team. Appreciate what you do. Thank you very much. Good job. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and open the meeting now. Uh, Mrs. uh, Ricardi, would you mind opening the meeting to the public? I move to open the

022meeting to public for input and comments on agenda items only. I second. Seconded by Mr. Smith. All in favor? I I remind that the public people here, but this is for that. That's right. So, uh, Dr. Nissanov suggested that, uh, we may have some new people in the crowd. So just as a reminder or or for those who are new, if you have a comment to make, you can step up to the podium, mention your name and your address and make your comment and uh agenda items for the first part, but then we open it up again to on the agenda items only. And then the second part is going to be for non-aggenda items for anyone who's not familiar with that process. Okay, Mrs. Mayor, would you mind closing the meeting to the public?

023I'll move to close the meeting to the public for input and comments. Second. Seconded by Mrs. Ricardi. All in favor? I. So before we go ahead and and uh have the board vote on the agenda items, I would like to call out uh specifically as we have our teachers appreciation week coming up next week. Um I wanted to on behalf of the entire board convey our appreciation and our gratitude for all our teachers. um you you spend so much time with our students. You you give of yourself, not just the time that you spend in the classroom, but the time you spend outside the classroom coming up with lesson plans, dealing with things that you weren't taught necessarily in in your education and and dealing with all the things that you have to deal with.

024So to all our teachers out there, I personally wanted to convey and on behalf of the entire board how much we appreciate and the the gratitude that we have for all of you and and I hope there's many of them out there watching and if not I hope they watch it uh later and if not I'd like for those who are here perhaps to convey our gratitude and our appreciation to the entire teaching community. So thank you for that and I'd like to give you a round of applause. So with that, the board wanted to formalize that. And uh we we have an item on our agenda to officially and formally recognize that. So uh if you could all bear with me, I'd like to read that and hopefully it's not more than FOP. Um,

025so be it resolved that the Emerson Board of Education recognizes that teachers are the heart of our schools, inspiring students to reach their full potential through their dedication, passion, and unwavering commitment to excellence. And whereas our teachers work tirelessly to create inclusive, nurturing, and dynamic learning environments where every child is valued, supported, and challenged to grow academically, socially, and emotionally. And whereas our teachers demonstrate extraordinary professionalism, creativity, and resilience in meeting the diverse needs of their students, often going ab above and beyond to serve as mentors, advocates, and role models. And whereas the impact of a great teacher extends far beyond the classroom, shaping the future of our community, our nation, and our world through their influence on young lives. And whereas the Emerson Board of Education reaffirms its unwavering support for all of our

026teachers and expresses profound gratitude for their essential contributions to the success of our schools and the well-being of our students. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Emerson Board of Education proclaims the week of May 5th through through 9th, 2025 as Teacher Appreciation Week and encourages all members of the Emerson community to join in recognizing, celebrating, and thanking our teachers for the extraordinary work that they do every day. So, thank you again to all our teachers. And with that, Mr. Smith, would you mind uh adopting motion A, please? I move to adopt all items on the above consent agenda. I second. Seconded by Mrs. Ricardi. Roll call, please. Mrs. Marin, I. Mrs. Ricardi, I. Mr. Smith, I. Mr. Pasd. Thank you for that. We'll move on to committee reports. Uh Mrs. Mara, chair for the

027buildings and grounds. Sure. Thank you. Uh brief report. We're going to have a very very busy June. Um not just for the board of ed members or we feel like we live here every day along with our teachers and students, but because we have um a lot happening in terms of buildings and grounds and facilities. So last week we had a pre-construction meeting that was held um to kick off the turf project and construction will begin after graduation. So we're very excited, looking forward to that. Um our tennis court project will resume at the end of June as well to allow the um the boys to finish out their season. And then we also have um the HVAC project at the high school for the gym is going to also be commencing as of June

028as well. Great. Thank you for that. For budget and negotiations, two items. Uh we've been meeting with the uh teachers union to discuss the contract and I'm happy to report that we're nearing the completion of that uh that meeting and that negotiation and we'll be finalizing that shortly and I think it's been going great. So we'll report on that when it becomes finalized. And then also uh tonight Mr. Memorial will be presenting on the final budget for the um for the year and that will be after the official meeting is ended and we open that budget meeting up. So more to come on that um for the curriculum instruction and student achievement uh chair Mrs. Ricardi. Good evening everybody. Uh we met earlier this evening. Thank you Mrs. Offerman for all of your hard work

029and diligence. Uh so let's get down to it. We as mentioned earlier we will be adding an interventionist to Bano. Fantastic for our students. Um ladder for those at the back. Uh New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment requirements are remaining the same. So there's nothing really to report there. It's status quo as is and something that we have always had our finger on the pulse of over here. Something absolutely worth mentioning is that a school performance report came out and our AP score is as an astounding 66.9% of students. We'll call it 67% whereas the state is at 35.9 and we'll give them the 36. So absolutely fantastic. In 2024, there was a vote for a new literacy assessment requirement for grades K through three to be implemented in the um hold on for the 25

030to 26 school year. Hold on. We will train our basic skill instructors how to use uh a cadence assessment to track this resource as it was highly suggested in the working group and student literacy recommendations report um which was published this year. And I'm sorry that is for next year. Yes, that's for next year. So my apologies. Other great news happening is that we were awarded a grant for AI. Um so thank you for doing all the the leg work on that again, Mrs. Oerman. This grant is to continue computer science programs in schools of and it was only awarded to 12 school districts this year in the state of New Jersey. So grades 9 through 12 um will have an aim or will have a course that will aim to prepare students for future

031opportunities in computer science and STEM careers and it is to be rolled out in 2026 and 2027. So as of right now it's really getting the groundwork underneath us to create the curriculum for it do the homework of such working with other districts that have already implemented such programs and uh seeing what's worked for them so that we don't make mistakes that they may have made. So when we, you know, set off where we're in really great shape. Um, so with that being said, we are living and exploring what other successful districts have implemented. Done. Uh, the middle school elective schedule is still in draft in draft mode as we try to offer opportunities throughout the years for all of our students. For world languages, there has been a policy change to match the state

032graduation requirements to five credits. Previously it was 10. Um but we absolutely still encourage our students to take four years as it's something that colleges do look for. The Italian program is to sunset after next year. Uh the principal has been in contact with current enrolled students parents. Unfortunately there has not been enough enrollment to keep this going. There is a there is a new elective. Sorry I had this as a question mark but no it's absolutely a check. There was a new elective as it's on Dr. Nissan's agenda uh for CP psychology which is a step before AP psychology. So if a student is kind of exploring with the idea not quite ready for AP they now have the they will have the option for that which is fantastic and special education programming is

033being updated to support students coming up from as well as supporting our out of district students who will be returning to district. So all good news on that front. Um, and of course, professional development, it continues and it goes on and on. So, thank you for all the hard work of our educators, of our administrators. You are valued and appreciated. And that concludes my report. Great. Thank you, Mrs. Ricardi. We'll move on to the individual board member reports. Mr. Smith, thank you. Um, I would like to uh thank the team tonight for that great presentation. Um, we've seen some great strides in that program. So, thank you for that. Um, I'm going to tease Kayla since she stayed. I think it was your coach from travel from third grade through 8th grade, but I just

034leave it at that. No, it was uh always worried to make sure you stayed healthy. You showed up for games because we surely needed you. Uh, congratulations again. I know how hard you've worked at it over the years, not just in high school. So, um I want to thank the uh teachers committee that we worked with through the through the process of of the new contract. It was my first time working through it. Um it's always a good learning experience and you don't know what to expect, but I can tell you it was it was a pleasure. Um it was it was great. So, anyone who ever complained about it before, that's their problem. But I'm I'm only teasing. Uh and then finally, I want to thank John uh Mammari here for the budget that

035he's going to present, but I'm trying to be short so we can move on to that. Um it's not an easy task every year that I've been here. I've worked on the committee. Um and uh it only seems to get tougher and tougher. Um he did a great job getting us through this. So I just wanted to thank him before he does his presentation. That's it. Great. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Mrs. is Merritt. Thank you. Um, first and foremost, I hope that everyone enjoyed the holidays and enjoyed their spring break. Much needed. We finally have spring today. I I think that we're actually like turning a corner because yesterday was horrible on the soccer and softball fields. Um, I wanted to just reiterate first before I move on to my report about teacher appreciation. I'm

036so grateful that we get to see so many teachers at our board meetings every single month. Um, you all really are the um the backbone, the heart of of our school district. Um, it's normally around this time of year, and I know that my oldest has two of her teachers sitting here, that she starts getting overwhelmed about not having that teacher come the fall and she starts to get weepy and tearyeyed, and we have a lot of tears between April and June. Um, and I don't know what I'm going to do in high school when she has more than just one. So, it's going to be a lot. But um you know if even if I could just share that anecdote and just show as a a mom of young kids and one still on

037his way and he might have a different outcome than his big sister. Um but you know she's certainly coming home feeling um respected. She's feeling heard. She's feeling loved. She's feeling cared for. And that's all I can hope for as a mom who's sending my child into a school every single day for six plus hours every day. And that even flows down to our fantastic staff for our before and afterare programs. Um, so taking my my board member hat off for a moment and just really saying heartfelt that I'm so appreciative of the teachers and I'm so looking forward to all of the teachers that they get to connect with in the future. So, thank you truly. Um, I was absent at the last meeting last month and I do apologize for my absence. This

038my daughter actually got me sick. Um, so I was home. I watched the meeting from start to finish. Um, had many conversations before leading up to that meeting and after the fact. There is one thing that I really wanted to report on when I was uh when I if I had been at the March meeting and that was the Bergen County Unsung Heroes Award ceremony that myself and Dr. Nissanov had attended to support our own Diana Tamayo who's also one of our student board representatives. Um she's a dynamo. She's fantastic. I'm so thrilled that we were able to give um this recognition to her. But this night means so much to me as a parent, as a board member and being involved in this work every single day. Um because these students are overcoming and

039persevering through so much. I I can't even tell you how many students were hit with cancer diagnosis or you know death of parents and they were still charging through as the most positive beacons of light for their communities. So it's a really special event. I'm so privileged to be able to attend it and I did want to report back that um it was another fantastic year and a fantastic showing. Congrats to Kayla Ell. Um I love that this is a family tradition. This is fantastic. Um congratulations and welld deserved on your achievement. Super impressed as always with Heritage Day, which was earlier this month. had a fantastic time watching our third grade students now realizing how much closer I am to having this day in a box of tissues with me. Um, congrats to our

040National Arts Honor Society inductees that were just in um uh uh inducted into uh the honor society recently. I want to thank again um John and the entire budget committee. All our administrative team are teachers. I know that John says this too is that in preparing the budget, it's not just him. It's not just the central office. It's it really is a team effort. And so I do want to acknowledge you too as well for all of the efforts that you put in. Um on the agenda, we approved the Creskill contract, the cooperative contract for the football um team for this upcoming year. And I'm very grateful for all of the efforts of Dr. Nissanov in um bringing us to the finish line or the the goal the line. I don't know what zone end.

041Yeah, the end zone. Thank you. Not a football mom. Um but thank you for that because now we can properly pray prepare and plan for this upcoming um year, this upcoming season. And um finally to Mrs. Auchella, thank you so much for your presentation. Truthfully, sometimes it's just great to have the presentation where you can really understand it from the ground up and you can really see the work that's being put into um these services that you're providing with your entire team. And um it's great to be able to see it just laid out so that's very uh comprehensive and easy to understand as to how much hard work and effort is being put into all of our students for meeting their individualized needs. So, I really do appreciate that and we knew you were

042going to hit the ground running last summer when we approved you and it's clearly showing. So, thank you very much for this and that's my report. Great. Thank you, Mrs. Mara. Uh, Mrs. Ricardi, follow that. Um, this past month has been incredibly busy. Before I jump into that, thank you very much to you and your team. You guys have been absolutely fantastic. Um, to Mrs. My's point, it's wonderful to see everything from the ground up, especially if you have never lived it. I can appreciate how how a parent or community member is just almost um confused, right? It's almost as if you're up against a brick wall. You're intimidated by it. And when you you have such a great team behind you and, you know, rooting for you, it it's not intimidating at all. So,

043thank you for all the work that you do. Um it's greatly greatly appreciated. And thank you to all of our teachers. Very excited to celebrate you all. Always, always, but definitely next week we'll be coming in with bells and whistles on. So, thank you for all the hard work that you do, all the kind comp kindness, compassion, and I mean truly just the work that you that you do for each individual student is part none. It's each child is an individual and you give them that attention, you give them that care, that guidance and I have never felt anything other than that. by you. So, thank you for all of your hard work. Wonderfully appreciated. Uh this past month, I too did also miss unfortunately um the last meeting, but I too watched it and

044had again many conversations throughout um throughout our team. Uh I did attend the DEI committee meeting. We had a really great showing with the DEI committee meeting uh this past month. So, thank you to all who attended. Um spring sports, we're in full swing here. Uh yesterday we were up from 8 a.m. and and home at 8:00 PM. And I just said to my husband last night, I think that this is how our next 10 years are going to be of our life. And this is I'll see you then. But uh but love you and see you then. Kayla, congratulations. Absolutely. What an astounding accomplishment, Mrs. Alec. I don't know what you're giving your children, but it's paying off. So fantastic. Congratulations. Uh I attended the STEM night this past Friday, uh which was wonderful.

045is always wonderful. Thank you to Marcy Pacersia for all of the hard work that she does. Uh and she did let me know that she is not going to be running it any longer. So, thank you to her for all the hard work that she's done throughout the years. And uh she has the all that work not just from her but from all the volunteers has become an integral part of my family annual dynamic. So, we appreciate her. Heritage Day was wonderful. I mean, absolutely wonderful. You could tell the amount of work, the heart like between the teachers, the students, the administration. It was it's a collective effort and I loved every second of it almost as much as they did. So, uh, and for the Susicle, if anybody here was able to go see

046the Susicle, what a treat. I mean, the talent that these these students have is fantastic. Mr. Gibbs, Miss Benetti, Miss Beckley, truly, I just I don't know. There's a there's a certain place in this world for you and you have found it. Thank you for being here with us. Absolutely. Um and I Oh, how could I forget? John, thank you Mr. Mura for all the hard work that you have done for tonight's uh planning meeting and for your team. Truly, without you guys, we would just be operating, you know, like willy-nilly and that's not appropriate. So, we appreciate all the hard work that you do um and looking forward to it. And that concludes my report. Great. Thank you, Mrs. Ricardi. Uh, board president's report. So, the good thing about going after all of the

047individual reports is that uh my my fellow board members are so eloquent in and conveying the recognition and the thank you for all of the good things, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention them. So, I'll go through them quickly. Uh, first of all, Mrs. Zapella and the entire team. Thank you not just for the presentation but just the work that you do to to bring and present that to us. What you do is hard work. It's hard work. It's sensitive. It's it's it's just amazing what you do. And again, you know, in in the spirit of teacher appreciation, I'd like to show our appreciation and gratitude for what you all do in and that really important work. So, thank you to the entire team and all of the people behind you who support

048you. So, we appreciate that. Um, Kayla, congratulations. I I love the fact that the night of that night the uh we Mr. Smith and I were meeting with the teachers to have our discussion on the negotiations and we all broke before we went to our meeting and said, "Kayla's playing. We think she's going to do it tonight." So, we all went into the gym. I don't know if you noticed us there standing in our suits looking like a bunch of out ofplace people in the gym and we we got to witness it and I've never witnessed anything like that so it was a special treat for me. So I just wanted to say congratulations and uh well done. Um teachers, I'm back to the teachers and everyone's like okay we get it. you appreciate the

049taste, but if it seems like it's repetitive, it's by design because I think it's warranted. Um, if it was up to me, it would be teachers appreciation year. All year round, people should be acknowledging what you all do and and what the teachers do, what you give to the community and to the students. So, I I I want to make it redundant that everyone should be looking at what you do and appreciate what you do. So, thank you again for for everything that you do. Uh, I was able to attend the National uh Arts Honor Society. Congratulations to all of the inductees. Uh, Logan Clell and Isabella Lupano, the co-presidents did a great job of making their presentations. So, great job to them. Uh, I was not unfortunately able to attend the heritage night. It's

050the first time in my tenure as a board member. Uh the only good thing about that is that I didn't have to hold it together during the whole ceremony and act like it wasn't affecting me. So um I'm glad that it went well and uh was it was a cryfest. This is a fest. So uh so anyway, great job to them. Uh STEM night uh I believe Mrs. Ricardo Ricardi captured it well. They always do a great job. I'm sad to see that Mrs. Perce is not going to be uh involved in that anymore because I think she's been doing a great job. But I know that others are going to step up and make that a another hit uh next year. And also Susle, I was able to attend that and uh I tell

051you they did a fantastic job. I wouldn't have guessed that it was uh students at that level performing at that level. So uh great job to them and uh it really was great to see. So, uh, congratulations to them. And with that, I'll wrap it up and pass it on to our student representative, Miss Grumpo. Um, so just before spring break, um, at the high school, we had our spirit week and our pep rally, which is a really great time for all the students to come together and celebrate each other um where the Cabo uh cup was presented to the senior class. um that Cabo Cup is based on spirit points involvement which is really great way to get a lot of students involved in things. Um we also got the opportunity to present the

052Cavo Gold award which is presented from the student council to a staff member every year that as students we find it defines what it means to be a Cavo and is always positive and um uplifting as a staff member. So this year we got to present that to Mr. Ponchack which is a really great moment. Um we also key club was able to take 15 around 15 students along with some adviserss um to the city um for the midnight run where the students will get donations from nearby um grocery stores or um donations from community members of clothes where we can hand out food and toiletries and clothes to the homeless. So that's a really great experience for um students that are able to go there. Um and then as mentioned um we do have

053teacher appreciation week coming up. So the student council is very excited to um show our appreciation uh to all the teachers every day next week. Great. Thank you. Uh Dr. Nissanov, superintendent's report. Um sure. Um I'm sorry I'm not done embarrassing you yet. Uh where you going to school next year? Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech. Awesome. ACC. Yes. Awesome. And uh you know, I can't let a meeting go by without having some discussion or How did my playlist go? It was great. It was a hit. It was a hit. Yeah. Was it really compliments? Okay. All right. That may be under duress. I don't know. I didn't pay you to do that, right? Okay. Okay. Um first off, yes. Thank you to uh to the team for uh the presentation on special education. All of you,

054I'm not going to go through all all your names, but thank you. Thank you so much. Uh the only thing I'm going to add um to what Mr. Pazdar had to say about the work that you and the rest of the team that's not here, uh we do have some special education teachers in the room. We have special education teachers who are not here and team members that are not here. Um what often goes unsaid is that their jobs are some of the are one of the most difficult emotional jobs uh in education. Um dealing with um some great situations and some not great situations and children and families that might be at the lowest points uh of their lives. and we have such a such a phenomenal professional team um that that really helps

055to support uh those kids and families. So, thank you and thank you for presenting this because we do this work every day. Our teachers, they they're they're familiar with all with with our processes and some of the acronyms and all of those kinds of things. But for our board members, members of the community who come out to learn a little bit more, um it's uh it it's it's new information for them and good information for them. So, thank you very much. Um I'm going to go a lot of the things that are on my list people have mentioned. So, I'm just going to me I may mention them very quickly and briefly. Uh yes, the STEM night was the first one that I had missed in a very long time. I just want to shout

056out and thank all the teachers, the parents uh and administrators who were there uh volunteering and helping uh through that night. Thank you very much. Um Memorial School hosted a power hour of uh principles from throughout Bergen County came to Memorial School to tour Memorial School to look at our program, look at our facilities, talk to teachers, talk to uh uh Kristen uh Gaglaniano as well. The feedback that came from that was amazing. Uh so so many kind words and um administrators that were impressed with Memorial School. We talked about some of the honor society inductions. We actually had the National Honor Society uh induction, the National Art Honor Society induction, and the National Business uh um honor society inductions all this week. And Mr. Ponchack also uh became an honorary member of the National

057Honor Society as well. Big big month for Mr. Ponch. Amazing when you hit a half court shot, you know, you get all this fame and come come your way. Yes, Heritage Day uh Heritage Day was uh was a was a was a great was a great day. The Volo play and Miss Benetti uh one of the uh directors is here with us this evening. Yeah, it was it was it was fantastic, you know, and who was I sitting with? Your daughter, John, next to me. And I I leaned over and I said, you know, have you ever read Horton? Here's a Who? She never heard of it. And I was like, and I have here I have the book memorized in my head from reading it to my children over the years. And for me,

058it was just a a joy to watch uh to watch the play and and and see so many kids enjoying themselves performing and singing. They really did a wonderful job. Um uh Mr. Ricardi mentioned about uh the work of uh Mrs. Opperman um receiving a com very competitive computer science AI grant from the state. Yes. Only 12 districts in the state of New Jersey received this grant, $41,000. Um, and we're really really excited about that. Uh, John, we're going to talk a little bit uh later about the budget, but what what I have to thank you is, you know, for 30 years I had to do this presentation. I got to tell you, it's my second year of just watching you do it. And I thank you I thank you for all the all the

059work that you're putting into ahead of time. and uh I'll be there to help you uh help help you along the process. And I won't say any more about our our teachers. They're all here. I I've known I've known you all. You know how I feel about you. Uh all I will say is that I'm looking forward to um the the leftover strawberry cupcakes that are going to be left in my house uh at the uh after after next week as we uh this weekend goes into baking mode at my house. Um, with that, that's all I have. Great. Thank you, Dr. Nissenoff. And, uh, business administrators report, Mr. Memorial, and I'll defer for the budget hearing. Okay. All right. So, with that, we'll go ahead and open the meeting to the public for input

060and comments. Mrs. Mara, would you mind opening? Sure. I'll move to open the meeting to the public for input and comments. Second. Seconded by Mr. Smith. All in favor. I. I. So again, a reminder, if anybody would like to have uh make a comment, please step up to the podium, say your name and address, and make your comment, please. Good evening everyone. My name is Denise Downing. I live at 15 Lexington Avenue. I want to start and thank this crew right here. I have two students who are the recipients of your services. And some of you guys have been with me since first grade and I cannot thank you all enough. Um, one of my daughters who is a sophomore, Lily Downing, is here tonight um because we are very disappointed that we are suns

061setting on the Italian program. We're also disappointed because there was no warning. There was nothing put out to let them know that enrollment was down and that the program wasn't doing well. Lily does have an IEP and does have some dyslexia and Senora Hhabib is an incredible teacher and really made my daughter love Italian. Not just my father-in-law Carl Roso sitting in the second row who is Italian and got her to eat meatballs, but um really fell in love with the culture, the language, and having it be something other than Spanish. Prior to them coming into the high school, they were not exposed to any other language other than Spanish. So to have the opportunity to take an Italian class was so wonderful. And I know the enrollment was small. But I don't feel like

062as a parent it was communicated to us to say, "Hey, are your students interested?" Because our program is dwindling and we really need more support in the program in order to keep it. I know we are a small district, but I feel like we need as many options for our students as possible. So, I am here to ask if it is a possibility at all to reconsider or at least to look at it. You have students who are in the middle school now who have heard about the Italian program from their older siblings who are excited for the opportunity to try to take it. you know, trips to Italy and some of the Italian club things that were just enacted just a few years ago because I know it was a fairly new program to

063begin with. Would love the opportunity to have this relooked at the possibility to give it one more try or reach out to the parents to encourage their children to maybe get the enrollment up to see if this could be a viable program in Emerson. Thank you. Hi everyone, my name is Shannon Lucas. Um 126 Long View Drive. I was born and raised here in Emerson. My three children are third generation Cabos. My kindergarten teacher is here and my husband and I are very proud to be raising our kids in this wonderful town. I am in the unique position of having a child in each building in the district and therefore get to see three different teaching and administrative and administrative staff styles. I can honestly say without a doubt I wholeheartedly trust our teachers and

064admin to keep my children safe and provide them with quality instruction each and every day. As a veteran public school social worker, I am experiencing firsthand the impact of the recent Department of Education stance on DEI in the state's public schools and the threat to cut federal funding. Last month, I had the pleasure of attending our district's monthly DEI meeting for the first time. And the biggest regret I have is not attending sooner. I was beyond impressed with Dr. for just enough handling um and reasoning with maintaining the DEI committee in wake of all the loudness that is being heard regarding this issue. During this meeting, some parents of added district students emotionally spoke about how federal funds have helped the district in providing FAPE or a free and appropriate public education to their children

065who are currently thriving in their academic placements. Now more than ever, the value of inclusivity is paramount. This means actively working to understand and value different perspectives and creating a culture where everyone feels safe, seen, and heard. I am so proud to be a part of a district that is not backing down in supporting their mission and vision and continue to provide equity and inclusion within their buildings despite pressure to do so by some. Simply put, representation does not equal indoctrination. Exposure to different viewpoints help students develop critical thinking skills, empathy, and a broader understanding of the world around them. It's ludicrous to me that as as a society, we expect our teachers to lay down their lives for our children in an emergency situation, yet at the same time accuse them of executing personal

066agendas and indoctrinating practices. I think it's super important who this is all about ultimately, our children, our students. Like any other parent, I am just trying to raise kind and honest humans. I know that Emerson's teachers and administrators are helping me in this task each and every day. In this day and age, I firsthand know how difficult and taxing it is to be in the education field. Therefore, I believe it's important to outwardly show our gratitude and appreciation for our amazing teachers and administrators. I would like to ask anyone who is inclined to do so to please stand for a brief round of applause for our amazing educational staff. Please know there are so many parents who support you all and we're very thankful for all you do. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, I'm Erica

067San Antonio. I I think I've just seen my address. I'm sorry I've never been here. 147 High Street. Um, I have three children in the district similar. So, I have someone in Memorial, a child in our middle school, and then an out of district son. So, I have a different perspective in regards to support that I've received from Emerson. Um, so I just want to take this moment to recognize and thank the board of education, our superintendent, the principles at all three schools, and the remarkable staff and dedicated teachers who pour their energy and passions into supporting our students every single day. This is me at TBI too. Uh the work you do is nothing short of essential and the impact of your commitment is shown within our community. Your devotion to providing quality education

068is truly valued and I want you to know that it does go uh does not go unnoticed. The past few months have tested us all. As a parent of a child with a disability and as someone who believes in the importance of choice, understanding, equity, and education, I have witnessed these challenges with both hope and concern. I cannot begin to imagine how much more difficult it has been for those committed to ensuring that diversity, equity, and inclusion remain at the forefront of our educational system. These principles are not just words. They are the foundation upon which strong, compassionate, and thriving schools are built. our heart. They should never be optional, nor should they ever be removed. I'm incredibly grateful for your unwavering commitment to ensuring and uh they remain central to our children's education. Diversity,

069equity, and inclusion are not only necessary necessary, they are fundamental to ensuring that every child receives the education they need and deserves to flourish. Um, every student is unique and when we embrace them and adapt their individuality, we enrich our schools and strengthen our communities. This is something we must always uphold. Having lived in multiple states, Oregon, Washington, California, Georgia, Virginia, and now New Jersey for the last 12 years, I've had the privilege of experience very experiencing various educational systems firsthand. Through these experiences, I have gained deep appreciation for how fortunate we are to raise our children in a state, community, and district that truly strives to keep their best interest at heart. I've seen um the difference uh I've seen the difference that that getting it right can make not only in my own

070educational journey but for those around me and most importantly for my three children who have received services through Everson. Um no system is flawless and we always have room for growth but progress comes from the courage to learn to adapt and to keep our focus on what matters the most the students. I'm thankful to be in Emerson. To everyone of you who plays a role, seen or unseen, um, in shaping the future of our children. Thank you. Thank you for Thank you for your perseverance, for your dedication, and for your unwavering belief in the power of education. Your hard work and selflessness not only transforms lives, but it also inspires hope. This community is made stronger because of you and I deeply appreciate all that you do to build a brighter, more promising future for

071our children. That's it. Hi, my name is I have a speech prepared. I just want to talk straight from my heart about the Italian program. So, I was fortunate enough to be able to take it my freshman year. Unfortunately, this year didn't fit into my schedule, but it pains me to hear that it's going to be dissolved because I have a younger sister and a younger cousin in the district who would love to take it. And the fact that it was offered this year to the middle schoolers as a second option and it's going to be ripped away from them is truly heartbreaking to me because of how much this program helped me. As my mom stated, I have dyslexia and it's really hard for me to learn a different language in general. So when

072I was in middle school in different schools, it was hard for me to learn Spanish. So being able to come and have a fresh start of learning a new language so I can get my grades up and really understand what I was learning truly helped me in such a long run. And Habib was my biggest supporter in all of it with accommodating me with different with different tests and assignments to just being there for me during office hours to make sure that I knew what I was doing so I wouldn't fall behind. And it really saddens me to know that we're going to be dissolving it because students aren't willing like aren't going to take it. But it also hurts me to hear that you guys aren't willing to give the students a chance because

073you just offered it to the seventh and eighth graders and now you're not going to be able to see who really wants to take it. I recently started a petition when I first heard about it and I have over 400 signatures from people in and out of the state and or just town in general about wanting to support to make sure that this doesn't go to waste. Other schools have multiple different languages and the fact that we will only have one really hurts because this is about diversity and really opening up ourselves to people and learning about other cultures. And learning Italian was probably the best thing that could have ever happened to me because it made me closer to my culture and my grandpa and it made me closer to my peers and I

074made so many friends in that class and I was able to really learn where I came from. I'm um Mark Cell, uh 186 Eagle Drive. Um I just want to take a short um I just wanted to shout out the custodial staff at Memorial. Um, I had the privilege of being able for the first time, uh, being a rep coach for seventh and eighth grade boy basketball. Um, and I just really appreciated how every time I arrived, the gym was ready. Um, the staff was around. It was just so easy to coach and just be able to focus on the kids because the place is great. Um and also we have the upcoming uh PTA book fair at Memorial um which is always held outdoors and the staff is always great in accommoding us, helping

075us uh being there to set up, being there to close down too. So I just want to say a big thank you to them. Um we couldn't do what we need to do without them. Instead, 132 staff. I don't have anything prepared. Um, I'm just kind of getting up on the fly, but I came tonight because I wanted to voice my support and appreciation for the school district and the teachers. Um, and to reiterate a lot of what people have said here tonight, I have two kids in the district. I also grew up in Emerson and graduated from here. Um, I didn't really expect to be raising my kids here, but it's where my husband and I came and I'm very happy that we did. Um, I always feel like it was the right choice.

076Um, the right place to be. I feel the kids are safe here. Um, without a doubt, the teachers here have they put themselves out be above and beyond. Um, whether it academically or for their things outside the classroom. um so much so much of what the teachers do above and beyond has shaped them and it's been it's made their you know their social lives have been shaped around those activities and I always think you know the hours put in they don't have to do as much as they do and they do and they do it with joy and with love and it's evident and um so thank you in spirit of uh teacher appreciation week you're appreciated all the time Um, and also I just hope the district um just always continues to uh all

077of the programs that are are given and the way um nobody wants the opposite of diversity, equity, and inclusion because everybody needs to be seen and included and understood and I really believe that they are here. um some specific things I I've always wanted to say thank you for. I've been into many meetings, but I never actually got up and said anything personally. Um so now that I'm here as well, um from elementary school when uh Odyssey the Mind was brought to the school for a few years, you know, it came at a time when my oldest who was not, you know, into sports after third grade. Odyssey the Mind came around when she was in fourth grade and it was a whole new world. it was there was something for her and for other

078kids like her who thrived doing things like that. That was amazing. Um, we are a small district and I know how scheduling can be a challenge when it's a small district and um, there have been times when, you know, if a student wants to take a certain amount of AP courses, maybe their music class doesn't fit in or something else and the district has worked to and the administration has worked to make sure that they could still participate in the things that they enjoy doing. Um, I'm sorry if I smell like a barbecue. My husband and I were just grilling outside and I felt pretty greasy, but I still wanted to come in. Um, and I know I wanted to say more, but basically just thank you. And um, I don't know what I'm going

079to do with myself in two years when my younger one graduates. I'm going to have to I don't know, maybe just get a job working. Thank you. And um, go Hello. I also don't have anything prepared, but Cheyenne Trevor is too lengthy drive. I can say with confidence that Mrs. Habib is one of the best teachers I have ever had. She is the sweetest and she's good at what she does. And it's one thing that she has to find a new job and she's going through interviews, but it's another thing to completely get rid of the program. It's said by our board that diversity is cherished, but limiting the amount of languages that's offered to students is the opposite of diversity. And just in general, I was also struggling in Spanish classes and I found

080it very helpful that the school was offering Italian as an alternative for students. And I know there are a lot of there's like a lot of Italian people in this town. That's true. And so I know a lot of them are happy to see that their kids can learn about their culture. That that opportunity is kind of being taken away while also being provided to younger students, if that makes sense. So, I just feel like it's very unfair overall for people who want diversity in the system in terms of language. And it's also unfair. Mrs. Hippie, who now used to have a great job, now has to go find interviews. And considering she also just gave birth, it must be very hard. So, I just hope there is alternative for the students who want to

081keep learning Italian. Thank you. I promise I'll be really fast. Danielle Jazzy, 64 Monzie, I'm going to be really short. Um, I actually really just wanted to issue a thank you and make sure that everybody in this room and everybody who's watching uh understands the importance of the grant that I think you helped to secure um regarding computer sciences. So, for anyone who doesn't know the numbers, I've done a fair bit of research on cyber security because we all should be. It's probably where all the jobs are going to go in the near future. Um, number one GDP in the world, the United States. Number two GDP in the world, China. Number three, anyone want to take a stab where all that money goes to, $9 trillion? Cyber criminals. Okay, so Germany should be our

082number three GDP in the world. uh they're making about half of what criminals make on cyber crime. So in case you're wondering where the jobs are going to go from a computer perspective, what we could potentially lose from coding to AI um is definitely going to show up in cyber security. Uh so it's a really hot bed. Um and there's going to be a lot of opportunity there. Uh your kids who are into computers and coding should definitely be exposed to it. So I think that what you've done by bringing in this grant is going to be phenomenal to get a lot of kids who are so inclined to go down that path um headed towards a very rich environment where there's going to be a lot of job opportunity. Um so I just wanted

083to issue my thank you to everyone involved in getting that grant. I think it's truly phenomenal. Thank you. Okay. Uh before before we close the meeting, uh well actually let's go ahead and close the meeting. Mr. Smith, would you mind closing the meeting to the public for input and comments? A motion to close the meeting to the public for input and comments. I second. Seconded by Mrs. Ricardi. All in favor? I I Before we go ahead and adjourn this meeting, uh I'd like to just uh I'd like to address Miss Downing. Uh first of all, I just want to say how proud I am of of the fact that you took something that you cared about and you you took initiative and you tried to do something about it. So that's exactly what we want

084from our students is to think, take action, and and go out there and try to make it happen. So I I commend you for that and for you to get up and and speak. So well done on that. I'm I'm I'm very proud of you. Um, I'd like to say that in regards to the petition, from what I understand, and I don't know if this is a function of just the program, the petition or what it allows you to do, but from what I understand, there's a decision maker that that it allowed. And and I'm sure you know that I was listed as the decision maker. So, I just want to make it clear for anybody who might think that an individual board member has the ability or the responsibility to to make decisions on

085individual curriculum. Okay. Right. And and so I'm addressing you because it it it was your petition, but just really for anyone out there, if if nothing else, just educational that no individual board member or the board as collectively as a whole ever makes a curriculum decision, right? We we're a policym board. That's why we have people like Dr. Nissenoff and Mrs. Zapperman who's a director of curriculum and along with other people that Mrs. Zapperman works with uh a curriculum board and other teachers and the principles and such. They are the ones that you know collectively make decisions on curriculum. So for anyone out there who thinks that Bruce Pazdar is going to you know I just wanted to make it clear it's more because I I just want to make sure that people don't think

086that whether it's Italian or anything else that board members don't make decisions like that. It's it's there's more that goes into it. So, but again, I want to thank you for for taking the initiative and uh you know, appreciate you getting up and and uh making your voice heard. Uh I will say that uh you know, in in our last meeting, not specifically regarding the the Italian uh curriculum, but we had mentioned that when when people get up in a board meeting and they make comments, we it means something to us, right? That we we take that feedback and we discuss it. We don't just dismiss it. And that the same thing applies that you know the the issue of communication. Uh we'll discuss that and see okay is there something that we could have

087maybe done differently. Um maybe there's more to it maybe there's not but I just want to make sure that you know we we address it and if there was a different way that could have been done that would be better then we'll we'll figure it out and and discuss it and go from there. So uh but again thank you for for your initiative and uh we'll uh you know more to come I guess with that and then from what I understand that there is a path for existing students to continue the Italian. So that was important that that wasn't something that we we were looking to just eliminate those who were uh in the program right now. Uh but again you know we we do the best and I know that Dr. Nissen off and

088Mrs. operation of something like that. Um, and so we we keep the idea of what is what is best for the school from all these different factors as we make that decision. So I just wanted to make that clear. But thank you again. Can I say something in addition to that, Mr. Par? Yes, please go ahead. Because I've sat in on the on the curriculum meetings and it's not an easy decision to to take away a language, right? an opportunity from our students when what is really wanted and and needed in the hearts of every educator that is out there is to give as much opportunity as humanly possible to our students. So this it wasn't an easy decision and if I'm correct me if I'm wrong again, but um implementing Italian into the seventh

089and eighth grade was a means of effort to try to save the program. It wasn't to be like a teaser and then rip it away. Unfortunately, that is how it's been perceived, but that's not what the intended purpose was. So, it it really was to try to save it, to try to boost, you know, excitement about it earlier. And then unfortunately, there just isn't the enrollment that's there. Um, I did take Italian in high school. I loved Italian also. I understand and I appreciate, you know, all the work that's been put into it. just I'm very thankful that there is a path um moving forward uh so that students can you know finish up what they what they started and then hopefully down the road there will be interest in in more languages whether it's

090Italian or Chinese or Arabic and we're able to really just you know hone in on something exciting um to offer to our students. So but absolutely uh applause on making the initiative of taking a stand. It's not easy to do and we need more of them in the One one f final comment on that is and lucky for me the email address that was listed for the decision maker was not correct. So so um I'm only pointing that out if if there are people who had sent emails and were expecting some type of a response auto or not that that I don't know what that email was but it was I think the program maybe screwed it up for you. Maybe you put in like what school it was for and I think it just

091right. Right. Okay. So, um it just generates you president came up whatever email was in fact to you or to they found could be nothing. Well, somebody out there got a lot of angry lot of angry Italian emails. That's what came out of there. Yes, we know a guy. Anyway, again, so with that, we'll we'll go ahead and wrap it up then. Uh say, "Oh, Dr. Niss, please." Go ahead. Yeah, I normally don't have to much to say afterwards, but I just want just a couple just a couple things. Lily and Cheyenne, thank you uh so much. Yes, we're all very proud of you having the guts to come up here before a meeting. Ask any of the parents who came to the microphone how nervous they were before they walked up. It really takes

092a lot of guts. Number one. Number two, thank you for just being passionate about something and coming forward to adults. I I've been at this table now for over 30 years and I can't remember the last time students came up to protest anything. I I wish you'd protest anything, whatever it is. Um but and and we know how meaningful this this is to you and know that the community feels the same way. It was, you know, only four or five years ago, we had a strategic plan and the community came together and we all said the same thing. We need more languages. We need more exposure to different cultures. It was a goal of ours. Everything you're feeling about something that about it being taken away, we feel it too that we really believe in

093having that option and we would love nothing more than to have multiple options for uh for for world language. So know that we we really do feel feel uh the same as as you do. But more importantly, thank you so much for coming forward, for being so respectful and and articulate in coming and speaking before us. So we're very proud of you for that. Um and Mr. Pazar talked about issues of communication and things. know that sometimes things just get away from us and get out get get out in front of us before we have even a chance to think about the communication and that may have been the case in in in this particular uh situation. Um just lastly uh just a broad thank you um to the to the parents who came to

094the microphone. Um I I I believe I really believe that our teaching staff uh really needed this tonight and I and know that uh there's many of them many of the faculty are here tonight. Uh many are watching online. Many will watch it when they you know uh during during the week. Um but hearing uh the support that uh came from the members of the community, it really sends the message to the faculty of what real Emerson is about. And I think that was done tonight. So on behalf of the faculty and staff, I want to thank those of you who did come to the to the microphone uh tonight to speak. With that, that's all I have. Great. Thank you, Dr. Nosenoff. So, with that, and oh, by the way, did you all know

095it's teachers appreciation week? All right, I will stop now. But, uh, with that, Mrs. Mara, could you close this out, please? Sure. Um, I move to close the meeting to the public and adjourn at 8:53 p.m. to discuss an executive session, legal and personnel matters um, in the conference room of the board of education offices. No action will be taken at this time. and the board will return to open session upon completion of discussion and may or may not take action at that time. The next meeting of the board of education is scheduled for May 12th uh 2025 at 7:30 p.m. in the high school media center. I second. Seconded by Mrs. Ricardi. All in favor? I. Thank you very much everyone. Uh we are going to have a uh we're going to take a

096what a short break and then we're going to have our budget hearing. Budget hearing. So, for any of you who really want to hear the numbers, stick around. I saw that here. This I'm not the guy. I swear to No, but I got to tell you. All right. This meeting is being held in conformance with the open public meetings act and the time place and agenda of said meeting has been conveyed to the appropriate newspapers and posted in the board office three schools municipal building and filed with the clerk of the bureau of Emerson. This meeting is called to order at 9:06 PM. Roll call, please. Mr. Grow. Mrs. Mara, here. Mrs. Ricardi, here. Mr. Smith, here. Mr. Pazdar, here. Uh, at this time, we're going to have our business administrator, John Marura, make the

097budget presentation. Mr. Marmore. Thank you. All right. So, thank you everyone for joining us tonight. My name is John Omore. I'm the school business administrator, board secretary, and tonight I'm going to be presenting on the 2526 school year final budget. Um, with me also presenting a little bit later is going to be Dr. Nissenoff Schools. So, just before we get into it, um just going over a couple of the uh keyyn notes that we'll be going over tonight. Um one of them is going over the budget process. So just educating everyone on how the budget is put together uh some of the constraints and some of the guidelines that we have to follow as a public school district in order to comply with state guidelines and state statutes. And then we'll go over some of

098the budget facts uh that are unique to Emerson's budget for the 2526 school year. After that, we'll go over some um exciting capital projects that we have lined up. We'll go over the tax impact for the average assessed homes in Emerson and then we'll open it up to a Q&A session. So the budget process for Emerson starts early. It starts in September and in September that's when I start to develop the budget calendar which is a document that lists major milestones and deadlines that have to be met during the budget planning process. Um this document is actually approved at our October board meetings. So the board reviews it and approves it at the October board meeting. And as you can see here, it involves all stakehold uh stakeholders, teachers, principles all the way down to

099the board and the finance committee. Uh we use what's called the zerobased budget building process, which basically means that we start from scratch every year, start brand new. uh we take a look at every line item and every expense that's listed has to be detailed and come with a justification. Uh next, as we work to compile the data, we start looking at our estimated revenues and our expenditures, we start to forecast some numbers and specifically our state aid, which we won't get until well into the budget process, typically the end of February. And then we compare that with some estimated appropriations which was unique for this year because we were in a labor negotiation. Um so trying to hit a moving target on the largest cost center proved to be one of the challenges. And

100then all the while we're using our strategic plan and district and board goals as a guide to make any decisions uh any hard decisions that come about during the process. And now the budget it's approved in a two-step process. So first is the tenative budget which we had approved at our March board meeting and the goal of the tenative budget is to get it to the county so the county can review it for accuracy and compliance. Um once the county takes a look and gives us the okay and gives us the approval. Um that's when we can come back and see if any changes need to be made. If not, we advertised the budget. In this case, we advertised the budget well in advance to the meeting uh tonight's public hearing. And that brings us

101to tonight. So, tonight it's a public budget hearing that the public can have input on the meeting uh as they so choose. Um if all goes well tonight and the budget does get passed, uh we'll post the userfriendly budget right on the district website on the front page for everyone to see within 48 hours. I'll work with the bureau to certify the tax levy and then we'll finalize data input in the district's accounting software system um to start getting purchase orders ready for next year's budget. So going over some of the budget facts now this is the general operating budget um doesn't include any of the capital projects or debt service. So for 2526 school year, we're looking at a budget of 28,110,555. So when compared to this current year, the 2425 school year's budget,

102we're seeing a budget increase of $1,263,715. So now this is the number that we have to hit on both sides of our appropriations and revenues to balance the budget. Uh now a quick rundown on how we get to that 1,263,000 number is a listing right now of different cost centers that are in the budget. So number one and number two are always going to be salaries and health benefits. Um since we're a public school district, we're in the education and related services industry. Uh salaries is always going to be our number one priority, focusing on salaries and health benefits. Uh unfortunately this year we saw double digit increases to our health benefits well into the 10 it was 14 something% for health benefits which causes a large increase to that specific cost center. So you'll

103see 621,800 just for health benefits. Uh next comes our insurance. This includes our liability auto uh casualty insurance. Um next up another large center this year um also seeing double digit increases and I'm sure for residents too they're seeing it for their PSG bills estimating a 17% increase on heating and electrical costs. So B&G which is building the grounds that cost center actually went up quite a bit in comparison to prior years. um modest increases to professional services, that's our attorneys, auditors, architects, and then rounding out with miscellaneous um that's our health services, technology, um such as uh ink, toner, uh that kind of thing. Now, with the appropriations, we also were able to see some cost savings. Um so, you see the salaries is a high number. um we were able to bring some

104out of district students back in district. So in comparison to prior year's out of district tuition budget, we're actually saving about 400 uh $474,000. And one of the byproducts of that is less students going out of district means less students to transport. So we're also seeing a decrease in our transportation cost center of about 60,000. and with child study theme and special education. This is related services, outside services. Uh also seeing increased efficiencies here too. So when you add all these up, this is the appropriation amount broken down of all the increases. It's about same number 1,263,715. So now to balance this out on the revenue side, we have an increase of state aid. So, we received the good news in in February that we were going to get an increase of about 88,000 in

105state aid. We're increasing our extraordinary aid allocation in the budget. Um, this is going to be to offset a specific and unique one-time cost. And with extraordinary aid, we fill out an application of all reimbursible expenses, special education reimburseable expenses, and we do get a prrated amount. So we're expecting to expecting to include this also in the amount that we go for the uh extraary aid application and then we have an increase in miscellaneous revenue here. So this is for interest on investments out of district tuitions that we're getting from receiving districts and also preschool tuition that we receive. And then rounding out the tax levy increase, which I'll get to later in the presentation when we talk about the tax impact of the budget and adding all this up, we tie out to the

106$1,263,715 number. So in the move of a pie chart, I thought this was like a nice graphic, a shout out to AI with the help for this. So um my first foray into an infographic and what this does is in the bottom right hand corner it shows that the total budget there 28,110,000 and it's a clear um runaway with the salaries and health benefits. So with this year's budget salary and health benefits actually make up over 77% of the budget about $21 million. So I put this up here. It's just a nice graphic to see that in comparison to the other cost centers, how much of a focus we have to keep on salaries and health benefits in order to manage and effectively maintain uh the budget. So, with that said, Dr. Nisnoff, I think,

107is going to come up and go over some of the um programs and other offerings uh that this budget is going to include. space. Okay. So, some of the thing, nice job, John, explaining appropriations, revenues. Um, some of the things big and small, some are large items, some are small items that are included that sort of impact our program. First one that we have up here is increasing teacher salaries. Uh, Mr. Pazdar spoke earlier uh about the um and Mr. Smith spoke about negotiating with our teachers. So part of this budget does reflect a commitment by the board of education to increase teacher salaries substantially and so part of that is reflected here in this budget. Um increasing reg regular education support. You heard the child study team in their presentation spoke about increasing interventions

108for regular education. part of our work if we want to um help best help our kids number one and at the same time because this is a budget hearing reduce costs for special education is put more resources to regular education. Um, we did that, the board did that this year with Memorial School and next year we'll be able to add an interventionist at uh Vano School as well. Increasing STEM opportunities at the high school. Um, we talked about the grant that that we uh uh that that we were awarded that will go to supporting some of some of the u uh programs we have at the high school. We talked about that that would help. We're going to work towards developing a course coursework for the subsequent school year, but this year we're looking at

109implementing a middle school STEM uh or steam. Uh we talked about STEM or steam. Uh but it's going to be more steam uh cycle and an engineering course as well. at the high school. We're looking at um uh improving our parent communication software platform. It's kind of been an issue. We've been talking about that. We have some disparit systems that are legacy over the years. Everything from our messaging uh calling messaging for emergencies to our newsletters. Um, so we're looking at uh perhaps a a new unifying uh platform to use for parent improve parent communication. Last year we added out uh after the budget, but we want to continue that this year, which is our community parent liaison um who's doing a remarkable job uh outreaching to members of our community who might find it

110difficult communicating with school administration, school teachers. Um expanding uh in district special education programs. Uh the uh team as you know was up here earlier. Um how we're able to uh work in our interventionists at Malama School comes from some of the uh expansions that we're doing at the high school. So we're expanding uh special education programs that will also bring in u some of those out of district students back into district. You mentioned, Miss Baron mentioned our continuing our cooperative with Park Ridge and Cresco. Um, one of the things that we're looking to do with this year's budget as well is expanding our in-house um, uh, internship program. Currently, we've been contracting out with uh Pasc Valley Regional and we're going to continue to do that next year, but at the same time, we're

111going to expand our in-house capability as well. Um talked about uh Mr. Mr. Cardi mentioned a new course that we're developing at the high school, a uh college prep psychology course, and we're going to continue to maintain our class, small class sizes, preK through 12, and we're going to continue to support our uh outstanding academic achievement. So, that's all I have. I turn it back over to John. Thank you. Okay, so Now, we could just kind of go over uh really quickly some of the um capital projects that we have lined up and some really exciting capital projects here. So, um starting off with the baseball and softball turf field. So, this is turfing the existing baseball field and then adding a new softball field in between the baseball field and the board of education

112offices. Um this is scheduled to start in the summer of this year and should be ready for the spring uh sports season. Uh, next up is the Vano classroom project. So, this is an additional phase in a long-term project. Um, last year we did two classrooms. This year we're being a little bit more ambitious and we're going to go for three classroom uh renovations uh this year. And then finally, um, rounding out with the high school gym HVAC project, which is also starting this summer, and we hope to have it ready for the start of school in September. So that'll be nice for the warm summer days in September. Um, also I had the note on the bottom there. So just important to uh note that this is utilizing capital reserve fund. So we're taking

113a withdrawal from our capital reserve account and it has no impact uh to the tax levy that we're going to speak about now. So now speaking on the the tax levy to do the maximum tax levy calculation here is to get the current 2425 tax levy and we can increase it by 2%. That's the state maximum. So now we're at $23,984,280. So that's the pre-budget amount. Now, there's different allowances or adjustments that the district does have um that they can use to increase that by um in this case, we had a large increase in our health benefit premium costs. So, we had a health uh healthc care adjustment of $496,747. So this allows us to have a maximum tax levy for the 2526 school year of 24,481,27. So with our maximum tax levy tonight, we're

114proposing a tax levy of $24,414,111. So we're coming under that cap by $66,916. And you might be wondering where that 66,000 will go if we don't use it. So it goes in a separate holding area. It's called um bank cap. So we'll have access to this 66,000 for the next three budget cycles. So bank cap is something that the district can draw from in the future years. So, it's peace of mind to know that if we didn't have adjustments for, in this case, healthcare that we're taking advantage of, we can go to something called bank cap. And now, the tax impact that this is going to have on the average uh homeowner. Um, with the debt service, we were able to save a little bit. We made a large payment to debt service to lower

115the overall tax levy increase. So, it's an overall increase of about 3.4% 4%. And what this equates to is the average assessed home in Emerson is up a little bit from last year. This year it's $447,845. So that equates to about $299 a year or $24.92 per month. Any questions? Nothing from the board. Thank you, Mr. Mamora. Thank you. [Applause] Anything you want to add before? Uh just to say again, thank you John both for doing the work and me not having to do that all presentation. I very much appreciate it. And no, you work you work very very hard. I know you've been working for now a couple of weeks on putting these figures together, checking the math and uh and all the work that goes into getting the approval by the county. Very

116much appreciated. You did a great job. Yeah. And I again, thank you from the the entire board, but uh again, a lot of the behind-the-scenes work that you have to do that is unseen. So, we realize that that's hard work and thank you for that. And and I very much appreciate it and I would think the public as well that the breaking it down in simple understandable concepts and numbers that are relevant to people. Uh so even though there's you know bank cap and you know all these things to to explain it in a way that is understandable I think is is great. So thanks for that. Um if no questions or other items from the board we'll go ahead and close the meeting out. Mr. Smith, you want to close it out? I move

117to close the meeting to the public. Second. Seconded by Mrs. Ricardi. Roll call. Mrs. Nara. I. Mrs. Ricardi. I. Mr. Smith I Mr. Pazdar I thank you very much everyone for coming.