001e e I'd like to call this meeting to order roll call please Mr Bono present Mr foki here Mr Harris here Mr Holmes here Mrs Perez here Mr Rivera here Mr Silva here Mr sabran President Mrs kisp here in compliance with the New Jersey open public meeting law commonly referred to as the Sunshine Law the violent board of education has caused notice and posting of this meeting to be sent to the following announcing time place agenda Etc The Daily Journal SNJ today the Press of Atlantic City vist wayo the clerk for the city of vinand and the administrative office public bulletin board would everyone please rise for the flag salute they're not Al to flag of the United States of America the stand indivisible e e [Applause] at this time I'm going to ask that
002we have a moment of silence for the two young men who died from delce Regional and the one from Winslow Township Mr mustell do we have a resolution for executive session we do now therefore be resolved that the Board of Education of the city of vland school district will convene an executive session for the following reasons is outlined in njsa 10 4-12 discussion is about employment matters and any matters falling within the attorney client privileged to the extent that confidentiality ality is required in order for the attorney to exercise her ethical duties as a lawyer do I have a motion move second second roll call Mr Bono yes Mr foki yes Mr Harris yes Mr Holmes yes Mrs Perez yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Silva yes Mr sabran yes Mrs cottis body yes motion carries
003Mr janana do we have any special presentations this evening yes we do we have a few this evening first I would like to invite Mr Sylvester salio director of our Athletics program he will present the winter sports wrapup okay good evening thank you to the board of education and our Central administrators for inviting our VHS athletes to share their accomplishments with you from this past winter season uh tonight is for our seniors and all of our senior athletes are here but I'm really proud to see all of our coaches here uh and all all of our underclassmen are also here to support their senior um teammates so we're really happy really proud to see you all here thank you okay I'll jump right into it with boys basketball our boys basketball team is led by
004head coach Dan Russo there were 54 participants this year the team won 15 games and qualified for the state group four playoffs uh those 15 wins if you look back at our past 25 seasons of boys basketball that ranks in the top five of our most successful Seasons so another big positive there um we beat a private school for the first time in 12 years and that's not something that happens very often in the sport of basketball in South Jersey but we did beat Holy Spirit on a Friday night at home uh it was a great night feel like the whole student body was there many of our board members and Central administrators were there so thank you for that some individual highlights our sophomore James Lawson set the all-time VHS scoring record in the
005single game with 60 points sophomore Ricardo Johnson LED all of South Jersey in Block shots so the the future's bright that's two sophomores that really made their name in South Jersey this year our seniors and we're going to call all our seniors up at the end for one big group picture guys so with our seniors First Team all conference was Jack barui honorable mention for the conference was Noah snof we also had Seth supi Darius frell taan seagar and Dakota folks okay moving on to girls basketball with first year head coach Ashley Cornwall there were 36 members of the girls basketball team they won 11 games this year uh and in coach cornwall's first year with her staff uh that 11 wins is actually the total of the previous two seasons combined so a great
006first season for her the girls made the group four playoffs uh some individual highlights Takira Tucker and Britney Herbert each had over 150 rebounds and Britney Herbert had 104 steals so you know anybody who watches Sports you know those are hustle plays those you know rebound steals that's about heart and determination the seniors on the team Leo aloy Gabriella de la Roa Camerra Doyle Britney Herbert Miley Rivera Jer Spencer and Julissa [Music] [Applause] vente okay our cheerleading squad we had a really young group of winner cheer uh cheerleaders this season as you see we only have two seniors but the Focus for our cheerleaders was on improving uh they were at all of our senior nights for girls basketball boys basketball wrestling very positive very loud the fans love them the two seniors for winter
007cheer were canani Gomez and Jalin [Applause] King okay boy swim this is one of our hardest working groups um 27 members of the boys swim team led by coach Sarah Bennett 14 players achieved varsity status 17 we're at the South Jersey qualifier meet and 12 we're at the Cow qualifier meet where everyone achieved their best times our seniors on the boy swim team Tyler Chong Nick Monero Hayden Burton Azie Robbie chapalain and Noel Ooa Martinez okay girl swim we'll start with our head coach Mike Schneider uh and if if you guys remember from the fall we had our boy soccer coach Paul Paul Myers was nominated for South Jersey coach of the year and this year Michael Snider has been nominated for swimming South Jersey swimming coach of the year there were 30 girls on
008the team that uh Advanced all the way to the South Jersey finals we defeated Kingsway in the first round defeated the defending Champion EHT in the second round me of champion qualifiers in the 200 relay the 100 butterfly the 500 freestyle the 200 freestyle and the 400 free relay uh the team was led by Avis Smith who was an All-American all all conference American first team winner and the seniors on the team were Gabby Brown Elena Bono Ava Cohen Ilana Figaroa Ava Smith and Aliana too okay as we move on the wrestling I I want to thank again the Board of Education and Central Administration for their support as we uh we're able to add a second assistant coach to the wrestling program this year as you we can see the the beginning of you
009know we have a lot of females coming out for the team so much like we did with golf last year adding an extra coach gives our females the opportunity to compete and maybe one day have their own team there were 56 members on the team team this year those numbers are going up and up and up you see some of our leaders in individual records Chase bardley freshman he Advanced to the sectionals and then at 145 pounds it was sophomore female Exodus Hollander who was 10 and five and was top six in South Jersey she was the first ranked female wrestler in school history also for the wrestling team the athletics department we nominated Chad Shore as the winter Cape Atlantic League scholar athlete and because of that Chad will be receiving a $500 scholarship
010from the njs AA he has a 4.7 GPA and he's going to graduate with 68 credits senior wrestlers Everett Kon Noah Cruz Alejandra Calderon jel Diaz Noel drumond Joe egb Alfred Garcia Lionel pal Chad Shaw Matt T Matt Torres Nathan travelli Ali parent and Haley tagini okay winter track and field is always one of our biggest program we had 120 participants so you'll see some other big numbers 82 medals won indoor six indoor school records broken three outdoor records broken of course we all probably follow coach the shields on social media he lets us all know about the successes of his team of course violent Athletics Facebook and Instagram also shares it um group four sectional Champions Georgina shallow in the 1600 Ashlin Newton in the 3200 McKenzie shallow Moore was sixth place in PVA
011uh Georgina shallow was also sixth place in the group four finals and you see it goes on and on meet of Champions 4X 800 team was ninth over all with the new School record the seniors for winter track Jason arbona Kylie black Skyler Brooks Georgina shallow McKenzie shallow Moore Kareem faler Addison Manel leam MIRS Ashlin Newton jaman Bennett Mike Dunton Zan Evans Rosa Dolce flues zarya gold Natalia Kobes Elijah Milbourne and jalexis Rodriguez [Applause] before I preview the spring which practic has already started this past Monday you know none of these games or events are pro are possible without our athletic our athletic trainers athletic maintenance security and transportation those are spring sports baseball softball girls and boys track and field Boys Tennis lacrosse boys golf girls golf middle school boys track and field we
012also have boys and girls crew uh some big events our Hall of Fame ceremony is on April 10th and our athletic senior banquet is on May 29th both in the VHS a Sela building at this time we'd like all senior athletes to come up to the front so we can take a picture you guys for all our social media pages it's I down [Applause] e e e thank you coach Schiff and our athletics department for a wonderful presentation it's always exciting to see our students excelling and participating and doing wonderful things for our community at this time I would like to ask Mrs susette Demari or executive director for curriculum and instruction uh she will be highlighting the VHS course selection guide and advanced placement programs and gifted and talented programs Mrs Demari thank you
013um good evening M kispa Mr sbrana and board members uh Mr Yano Central Administration and community members this evening uh we have some exciting academic updates uh that we'll be sharing we will be highlighting our VHS selection guide for the 2526 school year I do have Dr Stanger here he will be highlighting our advanced placement courses and I have Mr Martin and Miss manone who will be highlighting our gifted and talented program at our elementary schools to begin our course selection guide um if you were to click on the link that says guide it would take you directly to um our updated handbook for the 2526 School year we definitely it definitely took a facelift this year so lots of great um updates to the handbook it can also be found on our vinin High
014School uh website under the counseling tab the school counseling tab uh if you cck click on quick links and then course selection the whole catalog and the presentation that was shown to our students um is right there first thing that we would like to highlight in our course selection guide is the ninth grade academy there is a full description um and course offerings that will be um offered to our incoming n9th grade students for the 2526 school year they are the class of 2029 uh Mr Adams did present um at the last board meeting about our ninth grade academy this full description and overview reiterates his presentation for our families so we do encourage um all of our incoming freshman families to take a moment and review uh the VHS handbook something else that's new
015is our academic flowcharts uh that you will find within our course selection guide our instructional supervisors have worked very hard to ensure that we created flowcharts for our core four areas our Ela our math our science as well as our social studies what I want to point out here um is that in our Ela flowchart it actually starts in sixth grade so for students and families that would like to really begin their High School academic planning they can begin as early as sixth grade to see the flow and the various course offerings that their child could take so this is an Ela example as well as a uh math and again there's also social studies and science uh that are Incorporated in the handbook so I know this is very exciting to um many of
016you is financial literacy and I wanted to really focus on the last sentence it says beginning with the vinin High School class of 2029 students will be required to take a standalone financial literacy course this course will be offered starting their 10th grade year the financial literacy standards are still uh throughout uh our various course offerings however for our incoming students our incoming ninth grade they will be required for graduation to take a standalone financial literacy class which I think is definitely critical um for all students to take uh for their future the next uh academic highlight is our AP offerings and at this time I'd like to turn uh this presentation over to Dr Stanger thank you Mrs tamari members of uh Central Administration uh the board members and members of the community thank
017you so much for the opportunity to present our our AP program this evening uh AP testing is essentially a high school level class that is comparable to an introductory uh I'm sorry it's a high school class class rather if I misspoke that's equivalent to an introductory college level course uh each course culminates in an exam which is standardized across all students in all 50 states that take the course um vinin offers 26 different AP courses in the areas of math English science social studies art music uh and computer science and in addition to that uh we are also what's called a Capstone uh School uh Capstone courses incorporate two different uh courses called AP seminar and AP uh research which are essentially courses that students take that are individualized and based around uh a problem
018that the students research and then they ultimately will research the problem and some potential Solutions and we were one of the first schools in New Jersey to be awarded uh the opportunity to to teach AP Capstone we at the time we were the only District South of Burlington uh to be able to offer that and uh in addition to that it offers the College Board offers us the opportunity to uh provide students with what's called an AP Capstone diploma which again helps our students to be differentiated from other High School seniors when applying to college and it just further shows College admissions offices uh and and college admissions uh officers that our children have gone above and beyond and and come from a very highly reputable High School uh that offers this type of rigor
019so I'm very proud to be able to say that uh we do offer AP Capstone um and again we do offer one of the largest selections of AP courses in New Jersey we don't offer every single AP course but we've come a very long way uh in terms of where uh from where we started to where we are now exams are scored on a scale of 1 to five and uh a score of three or higher shows um rather equates to passing if you look at the last three years we've pretty much increased uh coming out of the pandemic from 40% passing 41 40 and then 45 uh so we we do well um in terms of our total percentage of students scoring um but just to give you a little idea of where we
020started when I started in the position of overseeing AP we offered 13 courses and again as a reminder we now offer 26 we offered those courses to 82 students and they took 168 exams uh but since that time you know right now we're looking at 313 students and 532 exams that those students will take um and thankfully uh members of the board have been willing to pay for the students to take those exams so so every time a student passes one of these tests it's essentially free college credits that the students don't have to pay for and the parents don't have to PID for uh we do offer a uh a website for parents and members of the community uh that is listed under our curriculum website for uh parents and students who want to
021learn more about what to bring to AP testing and how to be successful and how to study um so that pretty much covers AP testing but at this point I'd like to turn the presentation over to uh Mr Jeffrey Martin uh who's going to be speaking on behalf of himself and Miss Jenna minone who are two new gifted and talented teachers uh before they begin I just wanted to offer a brief uh thank you to to both of them as well as to Mrs deari and Mr Yano and also you members of the board for your willingness to uh trust me and trust us in the process of overhauling our gifted and talented program which we really have done over about the past year um Mr Martine and Miss Manon have been absolutely integral in
022doing that and have been doing in my opinion an absolutely wonderful job of providing uh gifted and talented services to our children and um thank you personally from me uh thank you so much for all you've done Jeff I'll turn it over to you thank you Dr Stanger and um Mr March is as well and Mr Yano and the Board of Education um Miss Manon and I are really appreciative of all the support that we've been uh receiving for this new program and we're just very excited to Pioneer something new and exciting in Vinland um so it's my pleasure to talk about our gifted and talented program and all the amazing things our students have been doing so quite a bit is new um with how we're servicing our gifted and talented students this year
023um we've developed criteria for screening our students uh a new curriculum that's been super exciting implementing um as well as instructional practices um that are kind of Reinventing a lot of exciting opportunities for our students um we've developed a manual as well as a pacing guide for each grade level of instruction so miss men and I have been uh hired and trained to provide targeted instruction for our gifted and talented Elementary School students um on a on specific days at rosi and sabotage schools respectively so my students come from the East side of town um and come from pway Men's Rossy and Winslow and Miss manone caters the other side of town which is Duran depalo barcy and sabot um instructions on scheduled days so Monday we have second graders Tuesday we have third Wednesday's
024fourth and Thursday's 5th um fifth um on that fifth day Friday we are doing basic skills instruction so we have a lot of um opportunities to differentiate instruction and also Implement what we're doing with our gifted and talented students in a lot of ways to our um general education students at our respective schools as well so for choosing our gift and talented uh students there's quite a bit that went into the development of the criteria um for one thing we use our hmh growth measures for Math and Ela and that's just to get a a baseline on how they're performing academically in both of those areas we also look at their reading ability through uh assessing their Dibble scores um and Miss Manon and I helped helped a lot with our home schools as well
025in getting those assessments completed as well as a test of non-verbal intelligence um or the tony4 and it essentially measures your problem solving abilities and reasoning skills but in order to be Equitable in our practice um it can be given completely non-verbally if needed um Miss Manon and I gave the assessment to students who speak English and Spanish as well um and she um Miss Manon at least has a sizable population from our English language learner population um and we also look at State assessment data from grades 3 to five and the whole idea here is to get a a pretty complete picture of the academic profile of our students in terms of curriculum like I said it's a lot of handson project-based student centered um topics that we're we're going we work on with
026our students so it's very research oriented so our students are building those skills that are going to be essential for 21st century skills and a you know career after Ving the public schools um we're doing a lot of engaging and um exciting activities with them each week whether it's a stem building challenge or a deep dive in violence history our students are really benefiting from uh curriculum that's custom tailored to develop their skills um we encourage independent exploration to Discovery as well and um many of our units are actually aligned to portrait of a graduate competencies um so with Project based learning we're not eding out 40 minutes math time 40 minutes Ela it's a project that our students are able to apply interdisciplinary skills and interests in so a lot of our students like
027to decide how they're going to be presenting the material that they're learning so some students like to do Google slide presentation um some students enjoy working on a poster with markers and crayons and other students um will build a diarama um so we we kind of let them have free reign in how they choose to deliver the material then we hold them accountable with a rubric that often the students create themselves and in this way we're we're giving them the agency and the freedom to have a role in their own education so that going forward they're able to apply those skills in the in you know the real world um so our program provides a rigorous curriculum and encouraging and supportive environment where students are challenged to reach their full potential and that's something that
028we're very adant about doing your best doing the work and applying that growth mindset and if something is challenging we encourage them to you know keep on working so these are just some examples of some units of study that we're doing and they're all Guided by a central question um for second grade they're they were studying the life cycle of the bee the role of the bee in our ecosystem um and that central question is where have all the bees gone so our our second graders um you know they're they're tiny but they're fierce and they know quite a bit about our environment our ecosystem after having completed our unit on um bees and where they've gone third grade we've been working on growth mindset and our students were actually able to TurnKey what they've
029learned and did presentations to other classrooms at both Rossi and sabot so they were able to apply what they learned in an action-oriented way and really engage with other students and show them what they've learned fourth grade we've been doing a lot of stem and Engineering challenges with our collaboration conundrum unit and our fifth grade did a deep dive of the brain um everything I'm talking about you'll be able to see weekly with our newsletters that Miss Manon and I put together and Miss Missori puts out uh to The District in uh her newsletter um and we do engage a lot with our um families and our communities Miss Min and I are very accessible as well as Dr Stanger and Miss Marie um to our parents so any kind of concern we've been able
030to deal with swiftly and and we especially appreciate the building administrators um for their help in that area as well um we have opportunities for guest speakers I know uh Mr Holmes came for our R across America um and of course if anyone is want wanting to come in and and chat with our kids they'd love to have you this is just an example of um part of our newsletter we do a continued the conversation segment and we talk about um you know just ways that you can engage with your students at home so this is really geared towards our parents um so they're able to engage with their students about what they're learning in g&t um and so that's about it so again we're really appreciative and just super excited to continue doing great
031things for our students and we're you know very appreciative Dr Stanger Mr marchie and you know all you guys thank [Applause] you does anybody have any questions okay thank you very much thank you so much for the presentation it was very formative thank you Dr Stanger Mr Martin Miss Manon and Mrs Demari next I would like to invite Mr mustell the one and only School business administrator who will present the 2025 2026 preliminary School District budget he enjoys a round of applause as he approaches the podium thank you board members Mr Yano Central Administration public so I'm going to propose the 2526 proposed School District budget uh basic overview is we have a budgeting process historical summaries proposed revenues proposed tax levy uh proposed Appropriations and budget highlights the process that we follow is Administrative
032budget planning meetings we meet with principles with accounting for school-based budgets supervisor and department heads meeting with myself and my assistant business administrator for district the budget and review of preliminary budget with board members to discuss increases decreases proposals and initiatives um our enrollment did dip a little bit uh based on this is our projection for next year based on the Assa at October 15 so what we're proposing for 2526 is a 6% increase in tax levy as it has a compounding effect going forward the tax levy would be 34.3 million and we'll talk about that later on in the presentation Medicaid dipped down from 422,000 to 880,000 just about uh due to Federal um adjustments regulations state aid I'm happy to announce did increase by 9, $44,000 miscellaneous revenue is pretty much stagnant and
033use of fund balance or excess Surplus did go up by 3.4 million and change uh our total budget total general fund budget will be about 210 million grants will be almost 28 million for a total budget of around $238 million based on last year's 224 million this is basically a picture of what we just discussed you can see state aid makes up 76% and change of the revenues that run our district District so the state has a computation they call it local fair share the state says our local fair share is 9,757 n11 which is to say that the state says we should that's how much we our tax levy should be for the school system our proposed tax levy is 34.3 million which means according to the state's calculation we're under taxed by $56
034million uh Municipal wide that's about 62% lower than what we should be so talking about the tax rate our ratea Bulls are just about4 billion for the entire city 3, 991,00 sorry 3 billi 991 million in change the average home assant as U given to me by the tax ass is $162,300 47 the tax rate is now going to be 8596 which is an increase of 4.87 cents at 6% so how does this affect me that's what you're asking yourself right so this is going to affect you if you have a home worth1 62,000 it's going to affect you by $78.96 to a little over $6 a month um I think it's poignant to point out the tax rate and what makes up the tax rate so 2024 is the LA is the last information
035we have uh in total the county is at 1.2 35 cents which is 38.797805 point4 7% of the tax rate and the municipality is at 1.38 which is 35 35.74 per of the tax rate so basically in your average District your tax rate for school is going to be somewhere between 45 and 55% vinent is at 25.4% the other 74. 53% is between t uh municipality and the county so the county is 52% higher than us and the municipality is 40% higher than us uh we broke down the budget Appropriations by cost center so you'll notice that the regular instructional is the line share at 54 million special educations 24.5 million support services are 16.7 million tuition is 13.5 million that will include Charter inclusion um administrative Services essential Services is 14.4 million facilities is
036just over 17 million security is 3.5 million transportation is 14 million benefits and taxes 47 million clubs and sports is 1.7 million and capital outlay is 4.7 million so the total for 25 26 Appropriations is $212 million for just the general fund now you may ask yourself I thought you just told me the bud was going to be 210 million on a revenue side it is 210 million we get an additional $2 to3 million from Esa Title One title 2A that contributes to our District budget and that's what makes up the difference again just a graph of the information we just covered you'll see regular instruction categoricals make up 26% of the entire budget uh and benefits make up 22 I got a better picture here now yep so salaries and benefits salaries and benefits
037make up just about $150 million of that $210 million budget we're talking about that's 70.6% the other $62 million is is other costs it's everything other than salaries and benefits so you can see the salary which salary heavy not heavy where we have a lot of salaries in the district budgetary changes so contractually we have bargaining units um the net increase due to salaries when you talk about contractual obligations and breakage and retirements and attrition uh will probably net out to about $1.8 million um we have some contingencies at 350,000 our health benefits hospitalization insurance is going up by 7% what does that mean that's 2. almost $2 million if you remember the tax rate increase at 6% is going to be $2.2 million so that tax rate just barely covers the increase in our
038hospitalization let alone everything I'm about to cover prescriptions are going out I just found out yesterday by 19.75% that's uh almost 1.5 million Dental premiums are pretty stagnant our chapter 78 44 that's what our employees contribute to their health benefits obviously if premiums are going to go up that's going to go up uh sick and vacation time buyout uh that needs to go up by 150 ,000 based on historical um historical data Pur payment this is our pension payment to the state inevitably it goes up 300,000 every year uh our non-health insurances I was told they going up by 11% that's about 350,000 tuitions are going up vocational vocational 1:1 AIDS charter schools going up by 676 th000 um we have tuition changes for special ed DCF homeless Etc that's going up by 685,000 preschool
039inclusion amount is going to go up by 466,000 um we're going to add technology coaches uh it's in conjunction with a grant that we're receiving for uh Chromebooks for the students and staff at the middle schools we are adding a bilingual teacher due to the numbers believe that's a saer um one of our bus lease purchases we have bus lease purchases coming all the time uh to buy new buses this one is expiring this year I just paid the last payment so next year I won't have to budget that out of District subcontractor bus routs you know we have we have staffing issues uh in transportation we're not able to make all the trips ourselves all the routes ourselves so we have to subcontract out especially with um some special ed items some placed students
040um so while we did budget 350,000 that's going up by 500,000 for next year based on this year's data um we'll be able to reduce bus drivers by three people it's not going to affect any jobs it's not going to affect any people it's just positions uh electric rates there's a long drawn out discussion about that but bottom line is we're going to be reducing we're going increasing electric rates by 22% um due to pjm our electric bill is $4 million so that equates to $850,000 uh armed guards are still in the budget however we've reduced the scope we you know originally planned for 10 11 hour days you know it's not conceivable that would happen so we reduced it to an 8 hour day and we're able to save 350,000 backend technology replacing all
041our servers um we're looking at $760,000 over the next five years it's a 0% Finance which is great um Panorama some instructional software that's going to cost us 85,000 uh we're adding 10 special ed classrooms to the tune of almost $1.8 million we're adding some special ed resource roomates we are reallocating resources at the sixth grade icr level um we have a guidance counselor position that we be able to eliminate due to the um dispersing of the BD program from one building so nobody will lose their job they'll be put into another another school Johnstone's social worker we have to add that due to Johnstone's enrollment growing we're adding a nurse at the violent High School North we are adding behavioral consultation to our budget that's 330,000 we're done paying for the remodel of the
042medical office at final High School Tanner building uh reducing an EIP by 143,000 sabater pool so we had $2.9 million budgeted last year um in our Capital outlay we're going to use that plus 950,000 to uh hopefully convert the sabater pool to classrooms that's the plan plan uh reduction in some fun 12 equipment um so we're getting an SDA Grant as well a little over $1.5 million the cost of Duran's roof is going to be $1.55 million so the grant is going to pay for 1.5 million of it the additional 50,000 will cover in our District budget the poone rwy need bre encapsulation not going to go into what that is but it's $200,000 Johnstone AP room divider along with some HVAC units $150,000 some sabater and security issues uh guard rail and fencing which
043will be $80,000 addition to our budget uh we want to irrigate the athletic fields uh out front of V High School it's 222,000 we want to replace the bleachers at Van High School Celta building and we're hoping to add some scoreboards and a score table to the uh V high school as well so some of the budget highlights school security armed guards are remaining in the budget we're purchasing a security vehicle for to serve as a mobile command unit we're implementing new emergency management software which includes a reunification package it integrates with all the current security and Emergency Services systems uh continuation expansion of visitor man management software to include all schools transportation uh we improveed the Ral and dismissal times with new route tiers ongoing efforts are to improve route efficiency are occurring partnership
044with zoner to improve pre-trip procedures and improve system for parents and Guardians to track buses and students uh we're expanding our training program to include Class A and Class B permits student services we I mentioned before we're adding 10 classrooms to the special ed due to compliance uh there's going to be four Elementary autistic classes which means four teachers eight AIDS there's going to be two autistic classes at the secondary level it's going to be a resource room at the elementary level and L class at the elementary level and two lld classes at the secondary level it comes to 10 teachers and 158 um continued behavioral support through the contracted vendor for both General and special education additional classroom support through new new positions of instructional AIDS and nursing position added at Van High School
045to the Tanner building facilities I talked about the SDA Grant that's going to cover our Duran roof I talked about the Brooks encapsulation for both Rossy and Theo I talked about Johnstone uh the fencing and guard rail at sabater talked about the pool uh sectional asphalt replacement there's going to be concrete repairs for slip trips and falls and districtwide painting um we also mentioned the Athletic Facility upgrades uh the field irrigation and the cab building bleachers uh we also we're also going through an EIP it's an energy savings Improvement plan basically we're going to improve for instance we're going to replace all the lights in the district with LED what's that going to do it's going to save our energy costs and in the meantime it's going to pay for those upgrades so we're just
046making the district more efficient and that's going to pay for itself basically uh some of the capital items we have our U Communications equipment uh the technology vehicle we're budgeting custodial cleaning equipment uh maintenance we talked about Johnstone sabater the athletic gear irrigation and the bleacher replacement construction is the encapsulation the Duran roof and the sabater instructional space um let's talk about program and curriculum C critical curricular resources and student options through the following activities continued focus on Ela and Mathematics implementation to K to 12 support data driven instructional decisions focused professional learning communities PLC activities focus on improving instruction through evaluation rubric upgrades and training updated 2002 2022 Danielson teacher evaluation rubric District launch 2526 continue to provide professional development for our staff district and service days for all staff implementation of the ninth
047grade academy at the final High School continue to revise curriculum across content areas to meet State mandates we're going to continue to implement our gifted and talented program in creates 2 to8 we're going to continue to implement and expand advanced placement and offerings at Van High School continue to focus on supporting our Career and Technical Pathways for construction agriculture Studio graphic design automotive and health Pathways continue to expand portrait of graduate implementation art and articulation uh districtwide we're going to continue to expand social and emotional learning support for students including restorative practices continue to implement and expand stem curriculum in the middle school with Project Lead the Way continue to implement career Explorations in Middle School continue to encourage and expand teacher Advanced degrees programs and expand College Partnerships for students seeking early college credits
048um I want to thank the team I want to thank the board of education for their support I want to thank Mr Yano Mrs godo Mrs deari Mr Deo and Mr Bermudez I want to thank my business office um Shannon Cary David Hart huge help in this process Millie Torres my account of course I can't leave out Cara Irvine it's my left hand and principales and supervisors played a huge role as well so thank you to all of you uh it's been a three-month process process and I'll take any questions the board may have I answered all your questions I see okay thank [Applause] you thank you Mr mustell are there any questions or comments on the hi report approval of minutes are there any questions or comments do I have a motion so move
049second roll call please m Mr Bono yes Mr foki yes Mr Harris yes Mr Holmes yes Mrs Perez yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Silva yes Mrs sabran yes Mrs cpot yes motion carries reports uh Mr Rivera Mr F I'm ready good evening uh start jamming out to that finance committee met Tuesday March 4th at 8: a.m. via Google meet in attendance was Mr mustell Mr Yano M KY Mrs PR Mr Silva Mr R and myself following topics were discussed uh $1.5 million SDA grant for dur roof replacement um bids rpce contracts RFP contracts for 25 sorry renewing contracts for 25 26 none new cont contracts Transportation jointure awarded rfps lease for 1350 Southwest Boulevard athletic field maintenance contract substitute Staffing Services carpet and flooring technology services and coming soon will be data analysis Alternative High
050School and Food Service miscellaneous Finance item Cisco lease for backend technology esip approval and property appraisals for Cunningham and Asher Road uh Lots were received lastly 2526 budget review of state aid and budget summary thank you Mr curriculum and instruction met on the 24th of February present were superintendent Yano Mrs deari Miss galuski Miss Perez Mr sabran Mr Silva and myself we discussed the following topics secondary grade uh guidelines the CTE Carnival which was well attended and a great event uh tonight's presentation was discussed the Dillan Ro Grant update the Verizon Innovative learning schools Grant update the high impact tutoring Grant and special education student services update for transportation we met on Tuesday February 25th president R uh Mr superintendent Yano Mr Bermudez Mr mustell Miss Mason Mr Rivera Mr Bono Mr Harrison myself driver
051recap there are 143 drivers budgeted there are 140 Route packages PES which is drivers needed there are 135 fill positions Five drivers on leave 12 substitute drivers and four drivers in training the average absences in the uh morning of February 2025 was 24 the average absences in the afternoon of that month was 28 uh that has increased from 2024 we discussed the current number of open registrations and the number of registrations completed in February we reviewed the current joint chur and co-ops with other districts we reviewed the number of accidents in February which were three with no injuries to report we discussed Personnel items that are still in progress no new business regarding vehicles or or uh the garage we updated the Middle School boundary for uh grade six and that map is available to
052you in the minutes the pilot with zoner to demo new uh pre-trip procedure and the use of my view to allow parents and Guardians to track buses last we we uh prepare for the preschool registration thank you are there any other committee reports do we have a public meeting report by the board solicitor none other than I hope everyone's enjoying this beautiful weather thank you Mr iani good evening my name is Michaela julani and I am the senior class president at VHS the recent warm weather and time change have boosted morale around campus and our activity mirrors it as we had as we heard from earlier earlier from athletic director Mr shift our winter sports have concluded and our spring Athletics have begun last week the National Honor Society and shape Club visited VPS elementary
053schools to read Across America on Monday college or trade school bound seniors submitted their applications for Community scholarships the recipients will be announced at the Merit assembly in May on Tuesday class officers and student leaders met with executive director of special projects and operations Mr Bermudez to discuss improvements and future plans for VHS the conversation was very productive focusing most on how to build a stronger connection between the students staff and the vient community as a whole also this week our junior class completed the NJ GPA testing on Thursday our historical committee will be hosting their annual Hall of Honor ceremony formerly known as the wall of Warriors honoring selected past VHS teachers for their dedication it will start at 6 p.m. and be hosted in the south building Aela building Media Center next week
054we'll also be quite busy early Sunday morning members of the class of 2025 will be flying down to Florida for their senior class trip to Disney World and Universal Orlando to be honest I haven't been able to stop thinking about it the select choir will be doing St Patrick's Day singing grams on Monday and on Thursday and Friday the AP government and politics classes and model Congress Club will be going to the New Jersey model Congress convention hosted at ryer University all of the students participating have created a piece of mock Congressional legislation and on our last field trip to Ryder in February multiple students earned Statewide leadership including Chad Shore as Democratic party leader Adrien K as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee George Flores as chairman of the house government reform committee and
055myself as Senate President also next Friday students and staff will participate in vhs's World Down syndrome awareness Buddy Walk throughout the day this marking period is well on its way to the end and soon will be in the last quarter of the year and I can't wait thank you so [Applause] much not have any yellow sheets would anybody from the public like to speak see none superintendent recommendations yes thank you uh requesting discussion and approval regarding Personnel item 1.1 as noted on our agenda questions or comments do I have a motion so moved second roll call please Mr Bono yes Mr fi yes Mr Harris yes Mr Holmes yes Mrs Perez yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Silva yes Mr sabran yes Mrs kispa yes motion carries I have I just want to say that we
056have a lot of retirees tonight and when you add them up it's approximately 414 years of service to this district and I want to say thank you so much to all those who have put their names for retiring if you're here tonight can you please stand our retire our future retirees get up get up thank you at this time please join me in congratulating Carly oonu for taking on the men t [Applause] good evening everyone um congratulations to Jeff and Cari on your retirement you're on the other end of this but um I know you have great plans in front of you uh good evening members of the Board of Education Mr Yano colleagues friends and family I stand before you tonight with so much gratitude and excitement as I step into the role of
057principal of Dr William meny's school [Applause] it's it's truly an honor to continue serving this incredible School community in a new capacity and I want to take a moment to express my deepest appreciation first I would like to thank the Board of Education Mr Yano and his team for your trust and confidence in me your commitment to Excellence and education and dedication to our students is truly inspiring I'm eager to work alongside you in shaping the future of our school and District to my colleagues thank you all so much for being here teachers staff fellow Administration miss loveone you are the heart of this school your dedication passion and tireless efforts do not go unnoticed I have had the privilege of working with you as your vice principal and I look forward to continuing our
058journey together as we strive to provide our students with the best possible learning environment to the families and students of Dr William meny School you are the reason we all do what we do I believe that a strong school is built on collaboration respect and a shared vision for success as your principal I promise to listen support and lead with integrity and compassion our students deserve nothing but the best and I'm committed to ensuring that each child feels valued supported and empowered to reach their fullest potential this achievement achievement would not be possible without the love and support of my family to my parents who are watching live from Florida thank you for instilling in me the values of hard work perseverance and kindness to my sister Caitlyn thank you for always believing in me
059and cheering me on every step of the way I appreciate all of our educational talks and how much we push each other to be the very best we can be to my husband James your encouragement patience lots of patience and support mean the world to me I truly couldn't do this without you and to my daughter my Maggie Anne You Are My Greatest Inspiration everything I do is with you in mind and I hope to set an example of dedication and passion for you to follow your dreams as I step into this new role my goal is to create a school environment that values excellence and new ideas I will continue to Champion Student Success support our dedicated Educators and staff and build a strong relationship within our community together we can create an environment
060where every student can Thrive academically socially and emotionally I am beyond grateful for this opportunity and eager to Embark this journey thank you again for your trust and support I look forward to Leading many's with dedication passion and deep commitment to our students and their future thank you so much and I'm so excited okay discussion requesting discussion and approval regarding procedures and operations items 2.1 through 2.8 any questions or comments do I have a motion so mve roll call please Mr Bono yes Mr foki yes Mr Harris yes Mr Holmes yes Mrs Perez yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Silva yes Mr sabran yes Mrs kispa yes motion carries request discussion and approval regarding builds and grounds items 3.1 through 3 point4 questions or comments do I have a motion so move roll call please Mr
061Bono yes Mr foki yes Mr Harris yes Mr Holmes yes Mrs Perez yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Silva yes Mr sabran yes Mrs cottis body yes yes motion carries request and discussion and approval regarding Finance items 4.1 through 4.22 questions or comments do I have a motion so move second roll call please Mr Bono yes Mr foki I need to recuse uh 4.8 and 4.20 yes to the remaining items thank you Mr Harris yes Mr Holmes yes Mr Mrs Perez yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Silva yes Mr sabran yes Mr kispa yes motion carries regular agenda none there are no proposed items for review or discussion by the board members are there any questions or comments regarding the the bills do I have a motion so moved roll call please Mr Bono yes Mr foki
062yes Mr Harris yes to all I need to chose myself from vendor number 1074 and 1333 what was the first vendor number 1074 thank you Mr Holmes yes Mrs Perez yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Silva yes Mr sabran yes Mrs kispa yes motion carries there are no Mar items old business new business board member comments I'm going to start with Mr foke nothing at this time Mr Holmes okay thank you uh to Duran for leading us tonight in our flag salute thank you to ad shift for your uh leading of the athletic department throughout this great winter season Mrs deari uh Dr Stanger Mrs manone Mr Martine thank you uh for your hard work with the g&t program it's it's a great success I was able to speak with those students last week and they
063absolutely Lov the program and I will continue to to support it uh last but not least thank you to Scott and his team for your hard work uh that you put into this budget we uh certainly appreciate it if you pay attention to the line items it's evident that Central administration's focus is on classroom and student achievement tonight this board has the profound Misfortune of approving the retirement of Mrs Carmela here a 35-year veteran of the school district beloved principal lifelong teacher and a dear friend I also want to make mention of Mr Deo who has served this district for 25 years in many different capacities Mr Deo has always been a level-headed leader able to adapt to diverse environments and take difficult task headon one of those tasks being his latest role as a
064Human Resources Director I'd be lying if I told you I didn't entertain the idea of voting no to both of your retirements tonight I first met Mrs here right here in this building some 15 years ago as a sixth grader even then I knew Mrs here was an advocate for The Underdogs the difficult students the students that didn't have someone in their corner all the time since then she has made significant impact on her students and their families as an assistant principal and principal in our district for many years she continues to cultivate a healthy family oriented environment uh from Max lter and now at Rossy today I'm sad for our students and staff because they are losing a truly transformative leader but I'm happy and excited for Mrs here who has earned a well-deserved
065retirement congratulations caring thank you for your Decades of excellence and service to our students lastly congratulations to Mrs odonahue who has been promoted to principal of many school we're looking forward to how you will improve morale and cultivate a healthy and productive working environment amongst the staff there as well as support student achievement thank you all for coming this evening Mr [Applause] Bono I agree with what everything Cedric just said excuse me I'm a little under the weather so I'm going to keep my comments short thank you to everybody have a great night for coming thank you director Schiff appreciate the report uh congratulations to all the retirements it's a little late now Cedric you're probably already SI sorry um but thank you have a good night Mrs Perez first of all I'd like to
066thank uh Mr mustell let me tell you you took a Yan's job and you and your team have done a amazing amazing job so thank you so much thank you very much to Mrs Don who it is apparent by the support you receiving this evening that you are going to be a blessing to that school to many schools so we're looking forward to that thank you that's all Mr Rivera good evening everyone um like to thank the flag sols from Duran school for coming out and leading Us in the flag salute a special shout out to my goddaughter Mia who was part of that group um also like to congratulate uh the gift and talented program um having two boys that every Wednesday look forward to attending the program in fourth grade um I can
067tell that they're doing some great things in that program and uh much appreciated uh to that team um Scott to your team thank you for putting together this budget um I know it's a lot of work a lot of numbers and a lot of long nights but we appreciate the time and effort that you guys take to put this together um had the congratulations to all the winter sports athletes all the seniors um our Athletics program is one of the reasons why I say this school district is the best school district in New Jersey and I don't care what anybody else says that's what I say um I had the opportunity to read uh this week at read Across America that's always a fun event um looking at the kids faces as they smile as
068you try to read to 12 13 14 15 uh fourth graders or third graders it's always uh intimidating uh but it's always fun um the CTE Fair uh that was that's a great event uh two years in a row I've been able to attend it and again another reason why we have the School District in New Jersey um I look forward to being able to expand that program so we can offer even more opportunities for individuals and and students that perhaps maybe College isn't what they want right out of high school maybe they want to do a trade maybe they want to make some money right out of high school and that and I think it's a great idea and a great opportunity for us to expand that program in the future um congratulations to
069our retirees um one day I hope to reach that Milestone um got a long ways to go for that but uh congratulations enjoy your retirement uh congratulations to miss ODU uh you are part of that team already you're part of that family and it's always good when we see when we could promote individuals from within our school district to continue that smooth transition so congratulations I know you're going to do great things over at many's um [Applause] yes and uh just I'm looking forward to the rest of the school year uh the weather's warming up days are the Daylight's a little you know a little longer so the you know our our Spirits are lifted so I'm I'm glad to to look I'm I'm looking forward to the rest of the school year and what's
070to come so have a good night and thank [Applause] you Mr Harris Mr sabran asked if he could go next because okay Mr sabran good evening everyone congratulations to our flag Salters um the Pres presenters especially Mr mustell and his team also our retirees who you mentioned Mrs ctis body for their many years of service and that is an impressive number and of course as always we'll be looking for the best possible people to replace them uh not that they can be replaced but at least to fill those positions that we most need and also I'm very very sorry that I could not be there tonight to congratulate Mrs anahu on her um appointment to the principal ship at the many was something I really look forward to and unfortunately the state delay their budget
071figures to us and so my schedule got changed but I'm I'm really very very pleased to you see you I remember you as a little girl and in your dad's office at vinyl high school and it it it's so gives me a great deal and your pride to to see you stay with the district and reach this position I know you're going to do a fantastic job and I I'm here to help you any way I can uh and to everyone else thank you and I'll see you next week Mr Harris good evening everyone I want to say congratulations to the retirees congratulations uh on the promotion to the new principal uh Mr Deo in particular I want to say thank you congratulations on your retirement uh you were big help to me in my
072previous career and uh moving on I'm going to say k me miss here congratulations on your retirement I wish you well uh you were a very big help to me on my previous career care uh I seen that you really went out of your way you cared about the children and I was very impressed when I got moved to that unit I hope that other principles could learn from you and be as good as you were and care about the kids as much as you did so uh whatever you decide to do in the future if you decide to retire for 30 days like me and go back to work I wish you the best if you need anything from me anything at all all you have to do is reach out uh I want
073to thank you for everything that I tried to do as a juvenile officer and Beyond you always supported me and I always went out of my way to support you so thank you and congratulations Mr Silva yes I'd like to congratulate Miss danu um on your appointment looking forward to working with you and all the exciting job work that you've been doing already in that building um miss here congratulations on your retirement wish you the best I don't know EX exactly what you have planned but like you said hope you don't retire for 30 days and come back um take some time off of yourself enjoy life uh Mr deoy congratulations on your retirement um I'd like to thank the flag Salters all the special presentation Mr Schiff thank you for highlighting the amazing stuff
074that we're doing in sports in our district um Mr Demar and your team Mr Martin Miss manone on the exciting job you guys have doing in the GNT program thank you have a good night [Applause] Mr yanana yes thank you I like to begin by saying thank you to our board members who supported our read Across America program uh many of our board members visited multiple schools and I've had opportunities to read to our students it's always a hit when a board member makes it out it's always exciting for us in the central office my team was present as well and we had an amazing time uh congratulations to Paul Meyers uh who was named this year's starfish Award winner on February 6th and Tiffany Yan molda who received the child study team case manager
075Award of Excellence on February 11th we had the pleasure of attending the ribbon cutting ceremony for the together Cafe at rcsj the ceremony was a chance to officially recognize the collaboration between the college's act program and the VHS Rise program uh CTE Carnival which was already spoken about another amazing event had had a great time there looking forward to what happens next year thank you to the high school team uh for putting together an awesome day of activity for our students and for our visitors uh We've also been meeting with our middle school and high school students around the last few weeks around you know our Round Table discussions I want to thank Mr Bermudez for holding it down with our high school students yesterday and as always we get a lot of insights from
076our students when we meet with them hear them and speak with them to learn about their experiences in our schools uh we have a lot of events coming up um the wall of arnor Tomorrow VHS 6 p.m. Aela Media Center CAC meeting March 18th the Pops concert March 20th at 6 PM the eighth grade dialogue will be held here March 26 5:00 pm future chef competition April 2nd always a hit with our with our school district at Wallace school 5:00 p.m. and VHS career fair April 4th all day into VHS AA building on a quick note just want to send a special shout out to Melanie laison Sylvia Morano and Cary here awesome principles who helped me when I entered and arrived in the school district they are going to be very difficult to replace
077their experience is exceptional their positivity is always infectious and we look forward to learning more about their next steps I'm not sure I know K's already got some planed land that I've heard about so I'm not sure you know she'll be sitting still for too long and also to Jeff Deo another awesome team player team leader really stepped up came into a big uh filled some big shoes for us in central office he's got some time to go but we definitely appreciate the work that he's done and helping us sort out human resources and also being there as a exceptional guide to our principles who are out in the field the the experience that he has as a principal as a supervisor and now in central office he's he's got it all and we are
078going to have a major loss when he steps out but we know he's going to be very happy and his wife is going to be very happy so if she's happy he'll be happy so we're excited for you Mr Deo and thank you that's it for tonight can we still take our votes back and vote no for these retirees that all allow yeah um i' just like to thank the Duran students coach ship thank you for your presentation tonight I'm looking forward to the next presentation our Sports programs are just growing and our student athletes just from the numbers are increasing so I'm really proud of what's going on with our Sports programs Mrs Demari and your team thank you for the presentation um it's great to see all the the programs that we have
079and I and highlighted and so that the other people in the public can see what we're doing uh Mr mustell and your team thank you so much to everybody I know how hard it is and I know what a pain in the butt we are to you guys um especially when you told us it was going to be a 30 minute presentation tonight so thank you for doing that for us um I had the opportunity to attend the CTE Carnival what a great thing out there um I was so impressed with everything and I'm just looking forward to the growth that's going to happen um I was able to read um at several schools for read Across America those children are so loving and so so full of energy a lot of hugs a lot
080you know they they just love to hug and it was a great thing um again congratulations to all of you retirees and thank you for everything that you've done um as Mr Yano said and the other board members have said um it's going to be very hard to replace you Mrs odonahue congratulations we are looking for great things from you and I I've only heard really really good things so thank you um and good luck and with that being said do I have a motion to adjourn [Applause]