001I 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. Ms. Amel. Here. Ms. Cristobal. Here. Ms. E. Giovanni. Here. Ms. Hollingsap. Here. Mr. Scherer. Here. Mr. Samponis and Tessin this evening. Mr. Toth. Here. Ms. Wajdowicz. Here. Ms. Calderon. Here. The notice of the March 17, 2025 meeting of the Board of Education was emailed to the clerks of the Burgess, North Essex Dells, North Colorado, and Roseland, and to the Township of Fairfield, and to the Editor of the Progress on January 7, 2025, in the Star-Ledger on the same day. Welcome, everyone. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Thank you for sharing with us. Not in close communication. So, each year, the county gets together, and they recognize
002and unlock the power of the state. And, the school board has a special event for the students. It's called the Unsung Hero. A student from within the, all of the schools within the Essex County District, who are brought to their attention from administration within the school, to be recognized for the above and aboard of everything that's going on in their regular academic life. So, this year, on March 7, on March 13, the Essex County School Boards Association had their annual Unsung Heroes program. And, Orange Preparatory School in Orange, New Jersey. Last year, we hosted. Each year, a different school is a host. The prestigious recognition celebrates the exceptional contributions of students, and serves as a testament to their value with their high school community. The Essex County Unsung Heroes are students who have made a
003lasting impact through their unique and outstanding contributions to their schools and communities. Their efforts often overlooked by tradition. Their educational student recognition programs are essential in helping our schools and communities thrive. It is these remarkable contributions that we aim to honor and celebrate. This year's award recipient for West Essex School was Senior Thomas Ruina North Caldwell. So, we congratulate him. Mr. Maciochi went. His parents, grandparents. It's a lovely event. A very large, extraordinary event with all of the schools in Essex County. And, it's nice because they're recognized for the things that they do, you know, above and beyond. You know, who is an EMT, who does outreach programs in the communities, leadership roles, donating their time and effort. So, it's a time when administration within the school gets together and shows this gentleman, and we
004wish him well for it this year. So, that was one thing that we had going on. And, another thing was the once again fabulous production done by the masters. And, this year was the Wizard of Oz. And, we have a few board members who did attend. So, does anyone want to give us any report back? I took the entire family and it was just an incredible presentation. It was several masters events and this was probably the best one yet. All the students were incredible. It was a great production. They were well done by the actors and the whole support staff, the staff, the sets. I mean, just everything was, it was as close to a Broadway production as you can get without actually going into the city. I definitely agree. I give a lot of
005credit to Ms. Drew. Thank you so much. She was the one responsible for the success of this wonderful Wizard of Oz. Like Jonathan said, I wanted to go back the next day. It was so good. And, they're all good. But, I think by far this is the best, closest to like a real Broadway show. Unfortunately, we don't have enough money. Maybe next time. But, we were rich enough to get real props. But, it was really a great job. Thank you, Ms. Drew. And, to you and your cast. Thank you. Well done. I would have liked to have gone back too instead of going to my sister's dance competition. But, you know, priorities. So. So, once again, accolades. You know, I mean a West Essex production is always phenomenal. And, this one was exceptional. Mary, did
006you? I was just going to add to that and say it as well. I mean, they go above and beyond. The students are amazing. It is as good as Broadway. You know, I've been to so many productions. And, I agree this was great. I think they've all been great. But, I mean our students are just, you know, they are amazing. And, they're just so talented. And, not just the students. And, you see the set crews. Even, you know, I remember the Once Upon a Mattress last year. Like that set was like unbelievable. So, we really do. This school does a great job in preparing the kids. And, just, you know, the set, the crews, and everyone involved. So, thank you. Yeah. It's a great production. Every year. Every one. So, the first week in April.
007I think it's April 4th and 5th. Yeah. Yeah. 4th and 5th. There will be the first middle school production of The Little Mermaid. So, we're all looking forward to that. That will be great. And, getting our students prepared for high school. So, you know, it's always the great part of being a part of the Board of Ed. And, being able to come and just see, you know, all the great things that are going on in every department. You know, so congratulations. And, you know, we wish you well for The Little Mermaid. Thank you. Okay. Anyone? Do we have committee reports? No. Okay. Thank you. We'll have one more on that. On that? We can hold on to that. The independent studies? We're going to start with the students and the independent studies. So they don't
008have to sit here and listen to us. Alright. At this time, I'm pleased to introduce West Essex High School Student Helena Love-Now. Who's going to present her fashion independent study project under the direction of Ms. Kelly Clark. Hello. Oh my goodness. I'm not the first one to introduce you. You're not the first one to do it. Well, off to a great start. But as Ms. Swanick said, I'm Helena Love now, and this is my Phantom of the Opera historical costume design presentation. So our table of contents is just a brief overview of what I'll be showing. The first three chapters are just an overview of the show and the research that I have done over the past few months. And then the second three chapters are my physical recreation of my own vision for the
009show and just kind of everything that went into that. So this is just a meet the artist. My Aunt Lynn took me to see my very first Broadway show when I was 11, so I owe everything up to now to her. She inspires me, and she's one of my favorite people. I've seen a few shows, and I was in my sixth grade show, which is just a little bragging point for me. But my best friend and I have seen every show together, so this is also for her. This is costume design and the history of costume design. The importance of costume design dates roughly back to 400 B.C. in Grecian and Roman theater, but it was really in the 1500s, Elizabethan theater, that the latest fashions were kind of brought in to really create characters
010and convey feelings, the tone of the play, the setting of the play, everything in between. But then in the 19th century, costume design began to be recognized as a true profession. And just in general, color and shape have been the most important parts of costume design because they are really what convey status, emotion, and again, even the plot. So this is just an investigation into Greek and Roman theater. They were the very first ways of entertainment. Grecian theater was very religion-based. A lot of their plays were dedicated to the Greek god Dionysus, who is the god of theater, feast, wine, among other things. A lot of the myths we tell were actually dedicated to the Greek god Dionysus, who debuted on a Grecian stage, which I thought was a little fun tidbit. And then the
011costumes consisted of things called chitins, or they were long wool tunics. And then, of course, as you can see there, the kind of scary but also very intricate, elaborate masks. And then Roman theater, it served to entertain the audience, and it's kind of where comedy was very first displayed. They had a lot of drama and tragedies, but comedy was probably the most prevalent one. Other than the chitins, the costumes were togas, which I believe they're just draped fabrics. And then, again, like the Greeks, they had masks. Now, one of my favorite theater facts, which Miss Drew actually taught us, in old amphitheaters, the stages were sloped so that people in the way back could see really well. And the elaborate masks served to portray the feelings better, because if you're way back on seats, you
012can't really see what's going on on the stage. So we call the tilted stage upstage, and downstage, and then we have the masks to really portray emotions and characters. French theater, 19th and 20th centuries. Theophila Thomas worked in the French opera and the French theater, but he's most accredited for Sarah Bernhardt's transformation into Cleopatra for the 1884 play Theodora. Sarah Bernhardt is just an old-time actress, mostly staged, some vaudeville. And then Georges Barbier, he was a haute couture designer, but he also designed costumes and sets for both the French theater and the French ballet. His most famous work was for the Parisian cabaret Folies Bergères. This cabaret is just kind of like a fun dance club, you know. And we come to American theater in the 21st century. These are two costume designers that I
013admire and look up to very well. Catherine Zuber, her work is best known in the show Moulin Rouge. It's won many, many awards for everything from direction to costumes to actresses and actors. But Catherine Zuber is also known for My Fair Lady and Fiddler on the Roof. And then we come to Paul Tazewell, who I have just started to admire a whole lot more after his most recent Oscar win for his costume design in the Wicked movie, or movies, which will come out later this year. Chances are you have seen his costumes. He designed for Hamilton, Suffs, which is a show about the suffragettes, recently closed, unfortunately. Death Becomes Her, which just recently opened. The Color Purple and so many other shows. But then he also worked for Wicked and West Side Story, the movies.
014So he is one of my greatest inspirations. He was also the first black man to win for costume design for the Oscars. So props to him. Then we come to the actual Phantom of the Opera. It's a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and it's about this ghoulish figure who lives in an opera house and he falls madly and dangerously in love with the opera house's lead singer, Christine. Maria Bjornsson, she is the costume and set designer for the show and her work laid the groundwork for the longest Broadway show. It opened in the West End, which is London's version of Broadway in 1986 and then it traveled to here in 1988. Unfortunately, the show was closed in April of 2023. These are just some brief statistics. Sorry, statistics. One hundred sixty million people have bought
015tickets to see Phantom of the Opera. Three hundred fifty costumes were worn by the thirty-nine actors and actresses on stage. Two hundred cities have hosted Phantom of the Opera, whether it's a tour or a long-standing production. And Phantom of the Opera has been translated into twenty-one languages. So these are just some facts about the show. This is the costumes, just what I chose to highlight because I feel they were less recognized in mass media and they were some of my favorites. This is a quote that I took from a play called Phantom of the Opera. It's a playbill article. It's about the masquerade scene and there are fifty to sixty design costumes on stage, but they're not all on humans. Maria Borenson actually dressed some mannequins in the back darker corners of the stage to
016look like that the set was actually like a crowded packed ballroom, but they're just mannequins. They're not actual dancers, which I thought was actually really cool because not only did she have to take the time to make the costumes, but they were really moving. They were just kind of stationary. So this is from Christine's Hannibal costume. Hannibal was an opera show that the characters in Phantom of the Opera performed. The skirt is from the 1997 German production of Phantom of the Opera, but it is entirely hand beaded and hand painted. And the costume is a very large, very elaborate costume. It has many tassels and elements that make Christine look like a . . . very nicely dressed servant girl. This is one of my favorite parts. Maria Borenson actually thought of everything because for
017some of the main characters, she created custom hand painted tights, which when you think of costumes, you think of tights as just things to go under your costume so that you can quickly change in and out. But she hand painted them to match each character she had in mind so that each character had its own unique way of representation on stage. You can see . . . the second one down says monkey girl. Elbows on red tights. She painted stripes and gave fur and I admire her very much for the dedication. This is called the wishing dress. I appreciate it particularly because it is probably the only dress in the show that Christine wears to represent herself rather than what everyone else wants. She's an opera singer so she doesn't have very much creative liberties.
018So . . . I'm going to show you a little bit of her dress. So when she finally gets to dress for herself, this really shows her personal style. It's seen through the intricate braided edges and the velvet center and it just kind of shows what she wants to do, how she prefers to be rather than how anyone else envisions her. This is Christine's wedding dress. It weighed . . . just the bustle alone, which is the little part that attaches to your back, it weighed a whopping 35 pounds. It was made of silk and lace so if you think about it, that's a lot of fabric. And even though it appears white on stage, it's actually a lot more gray than you would think. The reason they made it gray is because the harsh
019stage lighting would have cast more of a blue hue on it so they wanted it to appear as pristine white. So they created a gray toned dress. Then this is just my own personal vision and what I knew I wanted to do. So when you'll see my final drafts or my final copies of my work, the black and white picture in the bottom left-hand corner. . . . is where I took a lot of inspiration from. I actually have a . . . my four drafts, if I could pass them around. They just showcase my initial thought process and what I knew I wanted to do but I had not yet narrowed down to one exact design. It has my chicken scratch handwriting all over it and some color palette. But it just . .
020. I had an idea. And I didn't know how to execute that idea. But as we go on, I slowly grew to just . . . I knew what I wanted. I knew I wanted to encapsulate the iconic chandelier. I didn't know how I would do that. I knew I wanted to encapsulate the phantom's mask, which is the most well-known element of the show. And I knew I wanted to have something that represented a lot of 18th and 19th century fashions. So . . . . . . . . . . These are just the initial drafts, which one of them is being passed around. But this is another one. So the fabric elements that go into the show, the original costumes alone, it's kind of simple but also they all serve their own purpose.
021So velvet was used mostly for the phantom's cape. It's a very heavy fabric but it creates beautiful drapes and folds that really show a lot of dimension. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
022. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . because she is this very dainty, very elegant, naive figure. And what better than lace to represent a blushing young bride, or silk to represent just the liquid movement of fabric in general. And then sequins, because who doesn't love some flair, and the sequins catch very nicely in stage lighting. So they really, sorry, they're really standing out, especially in scenes like the masquerade scene or when Christine is alone on stage. Again, number two just kind of shows a better picture of where I took my main inspiration from. You'll see when it comes around the folds of the dress, I knew I
023wanted it to be short, I knew I wanted a lot of layers and volumes. And then you'll see number one, the iconic phantom mask. And then three and four are just very, they're very intricate. Someone hand drew those, and they took the time to create them, they took the time to color them and send them out. And whether or not they were used in the actual show, the dedication that went into it is truly something I can take inspiration from. And then we come to the final results. So this is, these are my final copies. I chose to do three different angles to fully showcase the full extent of my design. The red sleeves you see as they come around, I chose to have them represent the way the chandelier not only falls, which you
024can see by the asymmetrical draping, but also just the way the phantom just floats around. The corsetry is reminiscent of typical, the way they displayed peasants in it, but also it has an element of gaudiness to represent the upper class. The base is simply a white, whitish gray, ruffled slip, nothing special to it, but it really shows, again the structure shows my idea for the chandelier design. And it also just, it gives it a lot of dimension and shape. The mask, I didn't want it to be a plain white mask like the phantom, because I feel this, the way I chose to do it, in more of a very clownish way almost. It represents a lot of character in my person, and I feel that through my drawings I can show a part of myself.
025Her stockings and her boots were just, I indulged myself, I wanted to do some gold accents, and the gold ties in with the belt on her corset, and the stockings were just regular old stockings. But this is my finished copy, yes, but I have more in store for the St. Penn study. I plan to do a menswear collection, which for me I feel is infinitely harder. I'm used to working with like a women figure, and I don't have too much practice with a men's figure, but I would very much like to challenge myself and carry this St. Penn study into June, where I can design a look reminiscent to the phantoms, or other male characters. These are more angles, you can see them as they're being passed around. And then my work cited for all
026my information that I gathered over the months. Thank you very much. Thank you. Christine, what impressed you the most about this presentation? I think it was the fact that you guys have wheels on it. How did she drive around 35 pounds? I'm sorry to not tell you, but her actresses were very, very, very strong. Very strong. I admire you for this presentation. It was really outstanding. I love that we could feel your passion and excitement, and I learned a lot too. Thank you so much. It's just that I never saw the play. I know, yeah. I heard it was very soft. Are you going to be going to school for this? I was. You're a senior? Yes. Okay, you'll see what you do. At this time, I'd like to introduce Aria Modi. She's going to
027be giving her independent study presentation on music composition under the direction of Miss Marion Drew. Hey, y'all. My name is Aria Modi, obviously, and I am doing music composition. So, music composition is pretty simple. It's in the name. You compose music. So, I've been composing music personally for quite some time. I've been writing songs since I was like six. I've been putting actual sheet music on there. I've been composing actual sheet music since I was 12, but I wanted to use my independent study to specifically focus on expressing my creativity and put my thoughts and audible ideas into something tangible. One challenge that I had personally, or like one challenge that I wanted to do during my independent study, is that I have a lot of ideas, and I end up voice memoing a lot
028of my ideas or like recording them, but I wanted to use those skills to hear what I'm like putting on as an audio and transcribing them into actual sheet music. So, my main goals for this project was to one, finish songs and have a structure with specifically classical rules set, and two, be able to dictate music and transcribe audio and singing into sheet music. Throughout my couple months in this independent study, I have been able to resolve music and bring listeners through a journey with meaning, both literally with the like composition and with this rule set for it and figuratively with the listening so listeners can understand what's going on in my music. Likewise, I realized too, that to effectively transcribe music and audio into sheet music, it takes time and practice. But not only
029have I been able to reach my expectations that I've set for myself and continue to grow my goals, I've been able to train my ear more throughout these problem solving challenges. So, in the beginning of the year, I was working on making melodies with accompaniments with simple standard rules. I started by handwriting my pieces, which is on the left side, where I have gotten advice for my pieces, which is with the, um, scary pink post-it notes right there. So that's a photo of the first composition I worked on, and I got graded for. One thing I thought was helpful was that my composition was being graded through the classical rules of composition. As I am concurrently taking AP Music Theory, doing, right now we are doing part writing, which is set on classical rules. So
030I like that also my compositions were set on that, because it helps me strengthen myself in both of the electives that I'm taking. This way I can understand my compositions through a more classical or traditional aspect. Likewise, I felt that it was important to have a classical foundational base in my music in order to understand and compare my composition with my contemporary music. So, explaining what is going on right here. The first one on the left side with the handwriting pieces, that was, like I said, the very simple project. That was my first piece where I had to, um, make a instrumental melody with, um, an accompaniment, which I had my, a flute playing the melody with the piano playing the accompaniments. Then on the bottom right, right there, the one that says rainy days,
031that one was my second composition where I was given the, um, sheet music of Somewhere Over the Rainbow with the, um, chords and the progression. And I was made to do a new melody that fit within those, like, types of chords. Also with that I had, uh, lyrics, but it's really hard to put lyrics within my sheet music, so, yeah. And then the mumbo jumbo right up there on the top is the broken carousel. That, um, I realized that I, like, I don't like to make waltzes, too many waltzes. Most of, everything I've made are waltzes. And what are waltzes? You don't even know. But they are basically, like, um, so that is an idea, like I said, when I said I wanted to make audio, um, listen to my audio and transcribe it, like,
032into sheet music. This is what I meant. This was actually funny because I had a dream where this song was playing in my head. So it could be, like, slightly plagiarized. But I had it in, I had it on my, um, ear. And I was transcribing this. And I made a waltz in 6-8, which I've heard from Miss Ju is not possible. So, yeah. But that was the thing on top. So these are a couple compositions that I've made. Obviously I've moved to digital because it's easier to work on there. And it's more easy to read. So, yeah. But for my final project, I was given a three min- well, I had to make a three minute score for a four minute scene of a film. I was originally given two months to complete this
033assignment, but due to the change, I had to work on it. Work in other ways. And when I mean work in other ways, I mean emailing Miss Ju every, like, third day trying to figure out what's going on. So. Um, what I did was actually the reverse of what's going on. So I'm gonna explain it more on the last slide. But basically, I, like, how do I explain this? I made a song, basically. And then, with that, I've used the technique that I've always been doing. Listening to audio and then transcribing it into music. And then from there, I found a film and I montaged the film to fit what's going on in the piece. So, I, like, with the allotted time, I've transcribed each part ear by ear. So there is a vocal part,
034as you can see, a violin one, two, um, viola and violin cello, which is basically a cello. And then two, um, pianos. One of them is the lead one that's playing part of the melody, and one of them is the actual accompaniment with the chords. And I transcribed each part ear by ear. These, um, actually, hold on. Fun fact, I transcribed the melody in only two hours, and I've, like, used my study block and my lunch block to complete this. But most of everything else, I've had to listen to over and over again to make sure everything was perfect. These two pages you see are part of the 13 total pages of the three minute song. But if I were to show you them, you would go as insane as I did trying to figure
035this out. So, you're welcome. Save yourself. Save you guys a plaque. So, before I play this song, I'll explain how music composition can help me in the future. I do want to go into some type of music as my career, but music composition is only a form of music. It's really a fundamental base to what I want to do. As some of you guys may know, I actually have an occupation in a business in the music entertainment industry. I am an artist, engineer, musician, that type of stuff. So, what I wanted to do was use my own little aria taste into music composition and how this can help me in the future, specifically. So, with this song that you're going to hear, I've done mostly everything. I played the piano. I sang it. I produced
036it. I engineered it. I composed it, obviously. And then I... The only thing I didn't do, though, is I didn't play the violin parts because I do not know how to do that. So, I actually got an orchestra or quartet in Detroit to help me with that. But basically, like I said, for my final, I have to show a film that's going on with this. So, I'll explain a bit of the film. The film that I chose was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is such a great movie. I highly recommend that you guys watch it. And this... What's going on specifically over here, it's a bit different how I montaged it. So, the way that I phrased it is that the main character, Joel, is basically getting his memories erased of his past
037lover, Clementine. And while that's happening, he's remembering the scenes of them together and having fun. And then, you know, when the chorus hits you back, it's like a switch back into reality. And basically, him remembering that he's... forgetting those memories, if that makes sense. So, yep, without further ado, I hope you enjoy A Thousand Days. We're running away with it. So, there's no... Good evening, members of the Board of Education and the West Essex community. My name is Lisa Swanick. I'm supervisor of arts. March is a special month for arts in education, and that's part of why I wanted to talk to you this evening. Governor Murphy has officially proclaimed March as Arts in Our Schools Month for the state of New Jersey. And while we celebrate the arts every day, I want to take
038a moment to highlight some of the incredible work of our students. And your continued support allows us to cultivate creativity, innovation, and excellence in our arts programs, and for that, I extend my sincere gratitude. Our students have been making remarkable achievements in various disciplines in our department. On Friday, March 7th, our culinary arts program had a momentous occasion. Valedictorian Alex Bajani and Junior Ella Mesopotanese were selected as finalists among over 100 applicants for the Hamiltonian's 6th Annual Healthy School Lunch Challenge. This initiative emphasizes the importance of nutrition and using the cafeteria as an extension of the classroom. And we're both incredibly proud that Alex was crowned the Super Grand Prize winner for his zucchini boat lunch, while Ella received a grand prize for her quesadilla lunch, and both dishes had to feature secret ingredients, and
039their secret ingredients for nutrition in our schools month was apples and tomatoes. So those were the ingredients that they had to highlight. And their success was celebrated in an adjudicated cook-off challenge where they collaborated with master chefs and they toured Driscoll Foods. In addition to cash prizes, they received professional kitchen tools, and their award-winning recipes will be featured as lunch specials in our cafeteria. So we are very excited for that. Our art and music departments have been equally active in celebrating Arts in Our Schools Month. Highlights include an AP Art History and AP Studio Art trip to the Museum of Modern Art. Our Concert Band and Symphonic Winds attended Band Day at William Paterson University. Participation in the New Jersey Association for Jazz Education Jazz Prelims at Wayne Valley High School. We've had multiple artist
040in residence experiences for our middle school and high school band and orchestra musicians. A middle school choir competition, and then as you know, this past weekend, our high school production of The Wizard of Oz, which we are extremely proud of. We've brought to the community. Additionally, we received fantastic news today. Mr. Drew actually just left. West Essex students Catherine Ruggiero and Miles Schmidt auditioned for and were accepted into the New Jersey Association for Jazz Education Region Jazz Choir for the first time in our school's history. And they will perform at Livingston High School on Sunday, April 14th at 3 p.m. A little bit more, yes. It's very exciting. A lot of times when we give our department presentations, they're very... We can't really dig into some nitty-gritty, but we were excited to give you some
041details this month. Looking ahead, our students will continue to shine in the upcoming events. Tomorrow, West Essex will host day one of the New Jersey Music Association Region 1 Concert Band Festival. That's a three-day adjudicated event that we are actually hosting daytime and evening tomorrow. That we're actually... We just did set strike, and we've turned over the auditorium for the next groups coming in. The high school band is going to be there. The high school band and orchestra will travel to Washington, D.C. and the University of Delaware this weekend to work with renowned professors Dr. Lauren Reynolds and Dr. James Allen Anderson at the University of Delaware. Our art department will compete in the Essex County Teen Arts Festival at the South Mountain Recreation Center in West Orange. That's on March 27th. March 29th, our
042indoor percussion program will participate in the Caldwell University percussion competition. And then as we... Ms. Calderon said, in the beginning, our middle school theater program will present Little Mermaid Junior on April 4th and 5th at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium. Tickets are available now, $10 for general admission and $8 for students, seniors, and children. Our high school small ensembles concert featuring our Winter Guard indoor percussion jazz band and our newly formed West Essex faculty band will take place on Monday, April 7th at 7 p.m. in the high school main gym. And last but not least, the high school jazz band will perform at Crossroads in Garwood on April 9th. So that should be a great fun time. So more details and information will be on our district website. And I just want to
043take a moment to acknowledge the immense talent of our students, our staff, and our community. And the arts are a vital part of education. It's fostering creativity. It's discipline, hard work. It's all the real-world 21st life and career skills that all of our students are really... You saw just our awesome... independent study students today. You know, they're doing some really wonderful things in our department. So that's my report for today. Thank you. Over to special services. So that was pretty incredible hearing all the arts, which I do have a slide actually about the arts, so it'll kind of tie into my presentations. So special services foster success through collaboration and partnerships, creating an inclusive community where everyone excels. So you're going to hear me talk a lot about that inclusive part tonight. Who are we
044when I say special services? We are all those people up there, from special education teachers to our child study team members, you can see our speech language pathologists, our PTs, our administrative assistants, our special class aides that help us out. That is everyone that I say make up who we are. I always say great schools are built by the great people that you have, right, that are within your department. So the best staff is not just the skilled staff. They're the ones who are compassionate, dedicated, and committed to every student's success. We build that here. So West Essex, the people we've brought on and that you guys have, you know, approved Mr. Maciochi's recommendations, we are building exactly that. We have great people, and that's what then makes the special services department really wonderful. In
045addition to all the people that stand behind us as a special services department, I have to say that our special education parents, our parents are such an integral part of our lives. They are a part of our school community and the department. And Ms. Boyle is pictured there. You can see through the support. She is here tonight supporting special services and all that we do. I can still remember when I was hired, she welcomed me with the West Essex welcome to make sure that I understood that I was going to be in partnership with the parents and the community. So you can see from the highlights, we have been expanding in our CPAC what we offer to parents. We offer social events for our students, activities that Ms. Boyle has organized, everything from the fall
046hike, you can see there to Dave & Buster's was the most recent, Rock & Joe, Zeppelin hobbies, you name it. If the students are interested, they create social opportunities for our students outside of just what we're doing in our school setting. In addition to that, we really try to offer parent workshops based on feedback that we get in surveys. Two workshops that we ran already this year, planning tools for life after graduation and raising resilient adolescents. You can see on the left side of the slide, there's some upcoming workshops. I'll be presenting on the 31st, 10 key tips for your child's IEP or 504, that's virtual. We find that we get a higher percentage of participation when we offer them virtual, so we are still doing that. And then we'll be presenting on unified sports
047and unified champion schools at our next upcoming meeting, and we have another social event. So we have a lot going on in our CPAC parent advisory group. So as Ms. Swanick mentioned, it's difficult to get into all the details, of all the greatness that's happening, so I'm just going to highlight some things. The last time I was up here, I felt like I was being more the overview of what was happening. Now I've been here long enough to be able to kind of specifically tell you some of the great things that's going on. So some of our highlights. One, thank you to the board for the unified, how we have some volunteers approved in our events. It has been wonderful. So the reason why I mentioned unified schools and not just unified sports is because,
048unified schools gives educators, students, administrators, coaches, the power to create a more inclusive environment, right? Where then we're going to help end the stigma around intellectual disabilities. So it's not just about the sports arena, that may not be for all of our students, but that's why we offered a tie-dye event, just to have a social event. We're going to have a kickball event. And then building into that into next year, we're hoping to then gain some sports as well. But we need to find the interest area of what our students need, our students with disabilities, and our neurodiverse students, what are they interested in? Because we don't want to force basketball, if basketball is not the sport that they like. So far I've actually heard bocce. It seems to be, A, that's something Ms. Faggiani
049said, that they started out as sort of a rec thing, and the kids are really enjoying it, and it seems to be good. Unified sports does offer bocce, so that might be a possibility. And then we talked about bowling in the future as well. So other ways we're expanding, in 2023 we started this St. Patrick's Day social event. Which was with other transition programs in the area that were 18 to 21. We have now expanded to, we had 160 participants, 75 of which were students in other 18 to 21 year old programs from 11 different districts. It was incredible the other day. Some of the schools that we now have added on, Cedar Knolls, Mount Olive, they traveled as far as Mount Olive, Clifton, Milburn, Morris Hills, Morristown. So we welcomed the other students, and
050they had a blast. You can also see in those pictures, we have unified partners that we joined. Mr. Capello, the lead teacher, interviewed some students that could be a part of this event. And that worked out wonderfully, because then the direction given to students was not given by teachers trying to set up the event, but rather just from their own peers working together to create this event. So the next thing, which I'm very excited about, was by cultivating this inclusive culture that I'm talking about through this unified schools, creates more opportunities will start to arise for diverse perspectives. It will foster innovation, creativity. Naturally what starts to happen is teachers and everyone get excited about inclusive opportunities, and they come to you with ideas. So Mr. Galeota and Ms. Maidman came to Ms. Swanick, myself,
051building admin, about doing a sensory friendly show. And if anyone was there at the Saturday show, it was sensory friendly. The nice thing about that, having the doors open, the lights dim, other opportunities for coloring if someone needed a break. I, even sitting in the audience, was able to see students, from other towns that came, and brought their children to our event. This is innovative stuff. This is something that hasn't happened yet. I mean, I'm hoping, I know Paper Mill Playhouse was in the house, but I hope that they recognize our staff for this, because this was really an innovative idea that's pretty incredible. So I'm very proud of them for that. So then when we just talk about other highlights, this is just a quote I like about Unity. These are some of the
052great things that have been happening. There's been a commitment to the six period assignments, and the reason why I mention that to you as the board is because, as you know in special education, it was difficult to fill some certain positions when you have openings. But everybody pitched in to make sure that our students were still serviced the whole time. And that, I think, says a lot about our school community in both the middle school and the high school. We've been doing a lot with vertical planning to make sure our programming goes from 7 to 12 or 12 plus. We've also been cross departmentally, that's a picture of us working, myself, with guidance, I know our other administrative team, to make sure that we can do the best practices in the area of risk assessments
053and behavioral threat assessments. So we increased our flow chart for that. And the other thing that I think is pretty incredible is everyone transitioning new employees on. The same way they had transitioned me on, they give each other the support that people need. So how are we making an impact? Partnerships with our sending districts. So this year, I did start roundtable discussions with the sending districts. Our CST and directors got ahead of that to try to plan for our incoming seventh graders. We also, I did offer transitioning to West Essex parent presentations. I ran that again, we started that last year. Ran that again with three nights, two nights and one midday option. And we did have a nice interest that was a part of those meetings. And our West Essex case managers do attend
054our grade six IEP meetings. Some of the things in special ed to highlight, we're looking into AI, of course, that's the hot topic right now, right? We want to stay ahead of that and stay current. Special services also, we are constantly looking at what are the best practices out there, comparing to indicators and other things on the state website so we can self-assess how we're doing. So you see on the bottom part, I am about student outcomes. It's one of the things I always feel that if you don't have the outcomes that are producing for you, then you should rethink how you do it or use the existing resources and look differently. So one of the things that you'll see is we did change, I know that was a hot topic, right? Was the multi-sensory
055reading. We went back in and took out some of the supports in the electives. That's been going great. We're noticing that students' reading levels are going up and increasing. We also, our lead teacher started to look at the transition toolkit, which is on the Department of Ed website, as well as the quality indicators for the 18 to 21-year-old program just to make sure that our program is solid and we are hitting all of the indicators that we should be. Transportation is one of the things that we're looking at. So lastly, the best is yet to come because we're going to continue to enhance this inclusive culture and build on our unified opportunities for our neurodiverse students. Next year, we are going to embrace, I'll say, the monitoring that's going to come down, which is the
056Department of Ed, we are in the cohort three monitoring for special education, so the way that I look at this, this will be a great opportunity to review all the fiscal requirements and all of the other areas of our budget and all the practices that we're doing to see, hey, how do we compare? And then I also plan to continue to look at the least restrictive environment for our students overall and then continue to grow our community partnerships while considering that goal that we have of the career readiness and real-world learning experiences. We have a lot right in this community. We have a lot of people that reach out and want to be a part of our programs, so I think we just need to kind of expand and open that to explore all options.
057So this was actually AI generated. I was playing around with it a little bit for tonight's presentation. Not the writing, not the me thanking you, but the actual image. So, yeah. But so on behalf of the special services, I do want to just say thank you because without you supporting us with the resources, we would not be able to do everything that we do. So I understand and I respect the fact that special education, our budget can be higher, but I know that you support what we're doing because you know it's what's best for the students of West Essex. So that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Great program. It was a great program. I had the opportunity to attend on behalf of West Essex. And one of the things that stuck out for Thomas, our
058recipient, was the work that he does with the North Colwell Mountaineer Fire Department. He really spends a lot of time and has responded to a number of cases and really takes that part seriously. So I think his willingness to give back to the community was a big indicator of why he was selected for that award. Everybody said all the great things about the Wizard of Oz. I went on Friday night. Awesome show. Every aspect of it. Can't wait for whatever we're going to be doing next year. Just a couple of reminders. Wednesday we have a delayed opening. Two hours for PD, for staff. Friday is my next coffee chat with the superintendent. We have 10 parents signed up from all four towns. And our next school start time is Thursday, March 27th. Hello everybody. So
059I usually don't do this presentation now about the budget, but we're going to start speaking about it a little bit more because there's some changes. First, the Wizard of Oz was wonderful. My daughter loved it. I have to say hello to my five year old. She's been staying awake to see me speak on TV. So hi, McGinty. Go to sleep. But again, phenomenal. I was at the Century Friendly show with Liz too, so it was great. Okay, so for the budget this year, the 25-26 budget was definitely a little more difficult for a lot of us. I spoke to numerous business administrators and we've all felt a little bit of the crunch of the 2% tax levy and all that. So this year, finance has been a little bit more difficult. We've had a lot
060of changes. We've had a lot of changes. We've had a lot of changes. We've met and we are going to make some changes to bus eligibility for the next school year. So students under two miles will not be eligible for courtesy busing anymore. So we will implement subscription busing at a cost of $1,000 per child, which will be available to people affected by this change. The district will subsidize the other half of that. So, you know, we're trying to work with everybody too, but keep all of our actual programs intact as well. Okay. So we will also be making changes in the activity fees for the 25-26 school year. Fees will increase by $25 per student who participates in an extracurricular activity. The high school will go up to $150, middle school $125, and there
061will be still a family max, and that will be $300. We also want to try something different this year. We want to put out a transportation questionnaire to rising seniors towards the end of this year. Okay. For them to opt into transportation because what is happening too, and we've heard this now that we're doing the school start time committee. I think that that's brought a lot of dialogue with students. We schedule it. We route everybody on a bus, but they don't all use the bus because seniors can drive. And what that is doing is maybe they live out of, you know, where other kids live. It's adding bus stops. It's adding the length of time to the buses. So we are going to do that. We are going to send something out and let seniors
062opt in if they want a seat on the bus for next year in an effort to try to more efficiently route our busing as well. That's all I have for me at this point. I will give my big budget presentation at the April 27th or 28th meeting. Is that it, Dan? That's all of our presentations for the night? Yeah. Okay. Thank you all. Thank you. Yes. The Finance Committee met on... I'm going to just... From the date, March 10th, all members were in attendance. We discussed several matters. Obviously the most pertinent, as Ms. Keita said, was busing and the activity fees. The busing, the cut to, you know, under two mile busing and the subscription fee are certainly not things that we came to lightly. I think the Finance Committee and the Board as a
063whole understands the state of the economy and the impact on our families. Our costs are up across the board, across all of our requirements. And we are... Serve to maintain a balanced budget and maintain services. We thought this was the best way to do all that. Any questions for our board members? Thank you for coming tonight and doing your presentation. The arts are... They're phenomenal at West Essex. And it's due to the fact of our directors, our supervisors. Your staff. Who are just so ingrained and really there for the students and the productions that you put on. I don't know how you orchestrate all the things going on. Who's on the fields and tournaments and all that. And it's just, you know, accolades to you. It's a wonderful program. And we just want you to
064know that West Essex is recognized by it. And we recognize all of your efforts. Thank you. Dr. Quay, as you know, Special Ed is near and dear to my heart. Thank you. I live, eat, and sleep here for a long time. I have heard wonderful things about everything that's being offered here at West Essex. The inclusion programs. You know, everything that our children are able to become a part of. And how they are welcomed by staff, by students, by the community. It's been a very positive... A positive feeling among everyone in the community these days. Even those... I was with people from outside of this district. They were saying to me, is there anyone you can like really open it up and take more tuition-based students? And I'm like, that's not for me to say.
065But they're like, we just want to be a part of the West Essex community. We live somewhere else, but we'd love to be a part of your community. And I said, well, that's good to know. And who knows what the future has in store for us going forward. So, you know, thank you to you and everything that you've written to our students and to the community. And to make these students feel so much a part of West Essex. And everything that we have to offer. So, accolades to you also. Thank you. To you and your staff. Comments, board members? Anything that you're looking forward to? At this time, we have open floor for public comments on agenda items only. We will start. Finance. John, please. The following finance motions are made at the recommendation of
066the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 through 11, will be voted upon in one motion. And I so. Ms. Amel? Yes. Ms. Christoffel? Yes. Ms. DiGiovanni? Yes. Ms. Hollenstaff? Yes. Mr. Scherer? Yes. Mr. Toad? Yes. Ms. Wajdiewicz? Yes. Ms. Calderon? Yes. Building and grounds, Lottowick? Yes, ma'am. The following building and grounds motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, item 1 will be voted upon in one motion. And I so move. Second. Questions? Ms. Amel? Yes. Ms. Christoffel? Yes. Ms. DiGiovanni? Yes. Ms. Hollenstaff? Yes. Mr. Scherer? Yes. Mr. Toad? Yes. Ms. Wajdiewicz? Yes. Ms. Calderon? Yes. John, personnel, please. The following personnel motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 through 11, will
067be voted upon in one motion. And I so. Move. Second. Questions? We have a motion to approve the building and grounds motions. The following buildings and grounds motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 through 4, will be voted upon in one motion. And I so. Move. Second. Ms. Amel? Yes. Ms. Christoffel? Yes. Ms. DiGiovanni? Yes. Ms. Hollenstaff? Yes. Mr. Scherer? Yes. Mr. Toad? Yes. Ms. Wajdiewicz? Yes. Ms. Calderon? Yes. The following curriculum special education motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Any questions? No. All those in favor? Yes. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 through 5, will be voted upon in one motion. And I so. Move. Second. Ms. Amel? Yes. Ms. Christoffel? Yes. Ms. DiGiovanni? Yes. Ms. Hollenstaff?
068Yes. Mr. Scherer? Yes. Mr. Toad? Yes. Ms. Wajdiewicz? Yes. Ms. Calderon? Yes. Sure. The following miscellaneous motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 through 15, number 15 is an add-on to the agenda, which I will move. And I will read, will be voted upon in one motion. Number 15, be it resolved by the West Essex Regional School District Board of Education that the terms, stipulations and conditions established in the settlement agreement and release between the board and a parent of the student whose name is on file in the superintendent's office, and which agreement is located in the student's file, are hereby adopted and approved by the board. The board present and business administrator slash board secretary are hereby authorized and directed to. to execute
069the agreement and any other documents necessary to effectuate the settlement. And I make a motion. Second. Ms. Amel? Ms. Cristobal? Yes. Ms. Egyabani? Yes. Ms. Hollinsap? Yes. Mr. Sher? Yes. Mr. Toast? Yes. Ms. Wajduk? Yes. Ms. Calderon? Yes. Before we bring closure to this, Mr. Judge, we'd like to speak in regards to one of our staff members who is going to be retiring. I just want to acknowledge in our personnel motion, Rosemary Rich, after 14 years of service to the district as a high school librarian, to be retiring at the end of the year. She's been a great asset to the high school and we're certainly going to miss her at the high school. She's retiring and we want to wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors. Congratulations, Rosemary. We'll open up
070the floor now for any questions on non-agenda items. Seven. Seven. Eight. Sure. There being no business, oh my gosh, there being no further business before this Board of Education be resolved this public meeting be adjourned. And that the, and it's adjourned at? Oh yes, 839. And that the board enters into private session to discuss matters of personnel negotiations and litigation with the possibility of reconvening to conduct additional business, which we will not be doing. The matter is discussed in executive session. The session will be disclosed to the public when the need to maintain their confidentiality no longer exists. Motion to adjourn into executive. Second.