001[Music] oh my goodness hello and welcome to the verona public schools excuse me board of education meeting this is a special meeting tonight and we're calling the meeting to order at 7 and if everybody would please rise for the flag salute i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all the reading of the meeting notice this meeting is being conducted in compliance with the open meeting session that the verona board of education passed a resolution at its annual reorganization meeting held on january 5th 2021 the meeting set forth the schedule of its regular meetings which resolution was within seven days of passage the schedule was sent to the verona cedar grove times the
002star ledger the township of verona and the vea postings of this meeting setting forth the time location and agenda were posted at the verona board of education office and on the verona public schools district website the verona board of education operates under a consent agenda format any board member has the right to have an item pulled to be voted upon or discussed separately copies of tonight's agenda and resolutions have been made available to the public and the press mr cruz can you please do a roll call for attendance sure mr all earth here today here mrs strepping here mrs fresky here mrs prisco we have corn thank you very much and at this point if there's any public comments on agenda items uh you can please come to the podium and i see that there
003is not so we are going to move on with uh are there any just excuse me we're going to do um my presentation before discussion okay my apologies so i'm going to turn it over to dr deonisio to do a presentation and an introduction thank you mrs fresco apologies the agenda did not have a superintendent's report so um i will give one and then i will turn it over to mrs fresky who will have one on behalf of the board of education this evening so it is my pleasure to announce this evening ms julia albertson as our new supervisor of humanities for the verona public school district ms albertson is no stranger to our verona family as she has served our students and community as both an elementary and middle school teacher ms albertson is
004committed to building a positive and vibrant culture of learning alongside a highly collaborative team she believes deeply in verona public schools district's mission to inspire our students to be creative critical thinkers and compassionate global citizens ms albertson joined the verona public schools district as an elementary teacher at brookdale avenue school in 2016. as a teacher in the primary grades ms albertson fostered the development of the whole child promoting a love of learning amongst her students through a child-centered constructivist approach ms albertson then moved on to hbw middle school and has served there over the past two years she has been deeply involved with the columbia university teachers college reading and writing workshop model she's been trained in orton gillingham multi-sensory reading approach through fairleigh dickinson university she's been engaged in fourth grade literacy curriculum using
005understanding by design and working to include rich responsive learning opportunities for students with resources for quick access to anchor charts rubrics and exemplar student work she has been very actively involved and has even participated and received a grant from the verona foundation for educational excellence in 2018 which supported the implementation of flexible seating within her classroom she sought to create student learning spaces to complement current best practices in teaching to promote collaborative learning problem solving and hands-on instruction during her tenure mrs albertson has also been involved in work with teachers and administrators and curriculum council as well as our district evaluation advisory committee also known as diac she's done work and participated on our diversity equity and inclusion committee and she has also participated on the future ready schools team and was a member of
006the strategic planning subcommittee team on professional development as a verona community member herself ms albertson has served on the verona public public library's diversity task force ms albertson received her bachelor's degree in elementary education and english from the college of new jersey she earned her master's degree in educational leadership from unclear state university and she's excited to join and continue to contribute to the verona community in her new role please join me in congratulating and welcoming ms albert as our new supervisor of humanities welcome is albertson and i'll ask you to please come up to the podium thank you dr deonisio first i'd like to thank the board of ed and administrators teachers who served on the interview committee and throughout that process i'm so humbled to be selected as the new supervisor of humanities
007verona has become my home and i feel so fortunate to continue to grow as an educator alongside the outstanding students teachers and administrators here in verona it's an honor to be part of this community i'm excited to continue to support the amazing work that's already happening in classrooms across our district and i look forward to fostering continued growth in the english social studies and world language departments thank you again for your support and i look forward to working together in this new role congratulations again ms albertson we're looking forward to working with you and we're very excited about you taking over and working on the team and supporting our teachers in the best interest of our students congrats and that concludes my portion of the report this evening thank you so much and welcome we're
008really excited to have you begin and i have the distinct honor of introducing our interim superintendent dr lydia fernari and the verona public school district is collectively pleased to announce the appointment of dr lydia fernari as the interim superintendent dr fernari has dedicated her 37-year career to serving students with a focus on supporting schools in attaining their goals and keeping students at the center dr fernari holds a ba in music education and an m.a in supervision and administration both from montclair state university as well as a doctoral degree in educational leadership from nova southeastern university dr fernari began her career as a music teacher with the patterson public schools and then the montclair public schools after 14 years in the classroom dr fernari moved on to administration as principal and then director of an elementary
009and secondary education with the elizabeth public schools she then served as an administrator in the area of curriculum and instruction with the montclair public schools and as assistant superintendent in the south orange maplewood school district in 2014 dr fernari became superintendent of the franklin lakes public school district since her retirement dr fernari has served as interim superintendent with the green township school district and the lafayette township school district dr fernari also serves as an adjunct professor at caldwell university as well as a profession professional developer and educational consultant she is also a member of the board of the american heart association for the northwest region dr fernari and her husband russell and their family reside in west caldwell new jersey during her discussions with the administration and members of the board of education dr fernari
010shared that her personal and professional goals center on rigor and high expectations that benefit all students in verona with high quality standards in education the board of education believes that dr fernari's expertise in leading schools and developing leadership skills in others makes her the right person to guide verona public school district as we seek our next superintendent and just a little quote before i invite her to the podium she says that i'm honored to have been chosen by the board as interim superintendent of verona public schools and look forward to serving the staff students and families of verona and dr fernari will begin the process of transitioning transitioning to the district over the next several weeks so i'd love to invite you up to the podium and say hello we're so excited thank you mrs
011fresky and thank you members of the board of education i am so honored to be here this evening with you and to have been chosen as your interim superintendent um while i am uh not a verona native i was born and raised in in essex county in many of the surrounding communities and i know verona to be an outstanding school district with a a program that embraces all of the different areas that that children can learn grow and create through um as you know i'm a music person so the arts are near and dear to my heart and i also have had a great deal of experience but a humbling experience in learning about all of the other disciplines through wonderful teachers and administrators that i've had the the honor and pleasure to work with
012through my career i'm hoping that my time here in verona is one that will benefit the district and i'm here this evening to tell you that i will do all i can to help you as you transition and thank you so much for having me come to join you [Applause] thank you so much and we're truly excited and during the interview process one of the things that you said that i want to share that really stood out to me is that if you were our top candidate and and person we selected that we would be getting a superintendent not an interim so that really struck a chord and i'm happy to have you here thank you so much all right so we're going to move on with the agenda are there any discussion items that
013the board has so we are going to do a roll call on resolution so i need a motion to approve resolutions number one and two so i moved hi mr day thank you back up by mrs prisco is there any discussion nope so i am going to ask mr cruz to please do the roll call for the resolutions yes there's a day yes this is strappy yeah mrs fresky yes mrs prescott yes excellent thank you everybody and with that i believe that we can adjourn the meeting and it is public oh i'm sorry i am messed up tonight if there's any public comments on any topics uh now would be the time to come to the podium and i do not see anybody approaching the podium so we will adjourn the meeting and it is
0147 45 i need a motion to adjourn move by mrs prisco and i'm going to give mr allworth the second hi favorite okay and our next uh regularly scheduled uh public meeting is september 28th at 7 00 pm and that's a wrap thank you so much have a good night