By a vote of 1,766 to 1,065, Verona voters resoundingly approved a referendum to make a host of much-needed repairs to Verona’s six public schools, improve their security and technology, and fix two school fields.

“This referendum was so much more important than any one individual,” says Superintendent Steven A. Forte. ”It was really about the community. To see this type of turnout and positive vote was humbling.”

The margin of the victory was huge in Verona terms. In 2005, the buildings portion of the last Board of Education referendum passed by just nine votes. There was a separate fields question on that ballot, and it failed 1,909 to 1,101. A 2007 referendum to turf the upper field at VHS failed 1,428 to 955.

Turnout for today’s referendum was strong. Several groups of parent volunteers, representing different schools, sports and activities have spent weeks talking to potential voters about the referendum and reaching out to them through social media. On Tuesday, many parents gathered at Bella Gente restaurant to call friends and neighbors to urge them to get to the polls.

“Six weeks ago, some members of the Town Council told Mike Passero and myself that this referendum would never pass,” said Frank Ferrari, who actively lobbied for a Yes vote. “And here we are today, thanks to the leadership of Steve Forte and the other Verona residents who put a lot of time and effort in, and it did pass.”

While the results are only provisional, the Yes votes were ahead of the No votes in every district but one, district 7. This is a district of streets around F.N. Brown, where flyers appeared in mailboxes over the weekend urging a No vote. But the margin in that district was slim: There were 146 No votes to 131 yes votes.

The final cost of the referendum to taxpayers was $13.8 million because the Board of Education won a $2.8 million grant from the state, largely on the strength of the repairs needed at Verona High School. The referendum will replace its heating system, which is original to the building and has struggled to keep the high school at a temperature conducive to learning this winter. The referendum will also let Verona put a security system in place at all school entrances, upgrade the schools’ 10-year-old computer platform, and fix potentially hazardous masonry and paving problems at many of the schools.

According to Forte, who will be leaving Verona after the current school year ends for a new position in Denville, the work covered by the referendum will begin almost immediately. “We will start the process of getting plans drawn up and bids prepared,” he said. “After that we award contracts. We will also send out information on the process to the public and inform everyone like we have been doing about the planning phase.”

That outreach will be particularly important to the redevelopment of the fields at VHS. As a result of the “Yes” vote, the Board of Education will be able to remediate problems caused by improper landfill on the upper field and parking lot more than three decades ago, problems that the current BOE was legally obligated to remediate. But the BOE determined that it would be too costly and difficult to fix the field enough to return it to use as a football field. Instead,  the referendum will make it possible to create  a turfed complex on the lower field that can accommodate baseball, softball, lacrosse, soccer, football and marching band.

To The Editor:

The Verona Board of Education would like to thank the citizens of our town for the overwhelming voter turnout and support for the school construction referendum. As our mission statement reads, we believe our schools are “the center of an engaged and supportive community”. Our community is the foundation that makes everything we accomplish possible.

We specifically thank the many residents, both parents and non-parents, and our staff, administrators and teachers – who worked together to communicate the objectives and merits of the projects across our community. Your tireless effort reinforces the sort of community we have in Verona and has been instrumental in making the referendum successful.

Finally, we thank Mr. Forte for his relentless focus in building community support for the referendum. The countless meetings, public presentations, phone conferences, and many individual conversations with constituents are a testament to his commitment to the sucess of this effort.

(We add Glenn Elliott on this letter, given his enormous contribution to the Board, especially toward our Buildings & Grounds objectives.)

- John Quattrocchi
- Michael Unis
- Joseph Bellino
- James Day
- Steve Spardel
- Glenn Elliott

John Quattrocchi
Verona Board of Education

This morning Cheryl Nardino, the Verona Board of Education’s business administrator, sat down to work on this stack of paperwork. It’s one of seven similarly sized folders that she will need to fill out just for the so-called Regular Operating District (ROD) grant as part of the referendum that Verona voters overwhelmingly approved Tuesday night.

In addition to gathering all the facts and figures for the initial filing, Nardino will need to resubmit aspects of the paperwork every time Verona reaches a milestone in the projects. Still, it’s well worth the effort: The $2,796,855 ROD grant cut the cost of the referendum to taxpayers to $13,845,000 from an initial $16,641,855.

According to Nardino, there were 541 ROD grants awarded to New Jersey school districts this year. The paperwork on those grants must be reviewed by a team of only 10 examiners. And no, none of this seems to be computerized.

The Verona Foundation for Educational Excellence (VFEE) will hold its spring fundraiser on Thursday, March 27, at the Verona Inn. There will be food, beer and wine, and a silent auction.

The event runs from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. and if you want to save a few bucks on the ticket (and use them on the auctions) you have until March 19. Tickets are $45 per person until then, but they go up to $50 on March 20.

To get your tickets e-mail veronaexperience@vfee.org .

The silent auction items will include a wide range of “experiences” including sports, restaurants, music, technology, theater, education, fitness, and more.

VFEE helped fund the purchase of a contractor’s transit that is used in physics classes at VHS.

The Verona Board of Education will hold a special meeting on its 2014-2015 budget on Tuesday, March 18, in the Verona High School library.

The meeting will start at 7 p.m., one hour earlier than regular BOE meetings.

Verona got a total of $843,727 in education aid from the state of New Jersey for the next school year. That’s an increase of $43,920 (a little over 5%), though the total is roughly half of what Verona should get under the state’s own education funding formula. Most of what the state sends us–$794,481–is earmarked for special education. Of every dollar that Verona sends to Trenton we now get back just three cents, down from seven cents before the recession.

The Board of Education will, however, be getting a so-called Regular Operating District (ROD) grant of $2,796,855 to defray some of the costs the we would have incurred under the referendum. That is paid out as the referendum work is completed.

The Children’s House, a Montessori preschool in Verona, is holding a casino-style fundraiser on Saturday, April 265, and tickets are on sale now.

There will be entertainment, games of chance, food and drink, and entertainment from Blue Soul. The event will be health at the Commonwealth Club in Montclair.

Tickets are $65 per person and include dinner, beer, wine and $100 play money. To buy tickets, download this order form or please contact Lucinda Davis at edludavis2@mac.com or 917-375-7963. Tickets are payable by check or cash. Admission is limited.

The Children’s House is a 501(3)c tax exempt charity. We rely on tuition, fundraisers and donations to be able to provide each of our students with a quality Montessori educational experience in a loving environment.

The Project Graduation 2014 committee will be holding a fish-fry dinner at Verona High School on Friday, March 28 in the Verona High school cafeteria from 5 to 8:30 p.m.

The meal is being catered by the Thistle restaurant in Kearney. You can eat in or take out. Pre-orders are encouraged but walk-ins are welcome. The menu includes fish and chips or chicken and chips, and all meals include a drink and dessert. The cost is $15 for adults and $10 for kids. If you would like to pre-order your meal, download this flyer.

Project Graduation is an initiative started by concerned parents in a small town in Maine in 1980 after the loss of seven seniors who were victims of different drug and alchohol-related incidents during the graduation season the year before. The goal of Project Graduation is provide a fun, safe and substance free celebration night for community graduating seniors.

To The Editor:

On behalf of the teachers, counselors, medical staff, administrative assistants, and custodians of the Verona Education Association, I would like to thank the voters of Verona for approving the school referendum.

Your vote was a clear message of support for our teachers and students. You have not only made an investment in our facilities, but also in our students. The projects will allow the children of Verona to learn more effectively through both academic and extracurricular opportunities.

The VEA looks forward to our continued partnership in educating the children of Verona.

Christopher Tamburro

President

Verona Education Association
Verona, NJ

Philip Chivily will represent Our Lady of the Lake School at the National Geographic Society’s New Jersey state Geography Bee for the second year in a row.

Chivily is in the seventh grade at OLL, and he’s been preparing for the bee with the help of his teacher, Marilyn Kessler.

The state finals will be held on April 4, and they promise to be intense. Students compete in eight rounds of questions, and the top ten qualify for the finals, which include oral, written, and identification questions. The state champion goes to Washington, D.C., for the finals on May 19 to 21.

F.N. Brown Elementary School participated in the Hearts of Hope community service program led by their art teacher, Joni Jasterzbski.

The school sent approximately 250 hearts to local hospitals to be distributed to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Each heart was created with love by the students and teachers. With the support of their principal, Dr. Anthony Lanzo, this program has become an annual tradition at the F.N Brown School and has touched the lives of over 2000 patients.

Pictured below (bottom left): Sarah Komninos, Sabine Matta, Sienna Griffin, Dylan Frey, Liam Frey; (2nd row) Christopher Zysk, Shane Costgan, Aimee Griffin, Aeryn Curren; (3rd row), Mrs. Joni Jasterzbski and Dr. Anthony Lanzo.

The Verona Board of Education approved a tentative $34.6 million budget for the 2014-2015 school year at a special meeting last night. The tax levy increase is 2.78%, up from 2.5% for the 2013-2014 school year.

The total budget would be $34,561,382, of which $29,561,382 would be funded through Verona property taxes. Verons is getting $843,727 is state aid for the coming school year, roughly a 5% increase. That sounds like a lot, but Trenton is still sending us only half as much aid as its own formula calls for. Most of what we get–$794,481–is earmarked for special education programs.

The BOE approves a tentative budget to give county and state education officials an indication of what school spending might be in the coming year. It could change before it is approved and funding could shift within the budget. There may also be some savings from what the BOE calls ”breakage”–the difference between the salaries of retiring teachers and their replacements. Only two retirements have been announced so far, that of Verona High school science teacher Rose Ann Prendergast and VHS attendance officer Molly Emiliani.

In January 2012, Gov. Christie changed the process for school budgets, exempting them from a public vote unless they exceed his 2% cap on increases. Though Verona’s increase seems above that limit, that is only because Verona is using some of the so-called cap waiver it got from Trenton last year but held in reserve. A waiver is, in essence, permission granted by the state to spend more than the cap because the school district faces high costs; the ever-rising cost of healthcare has been a reason for many waivers. But while the waiver lets school districts spend more, using them means that taxpayers have to pay more. The solution has been to use some, and “bank” the rest.

Verona banked $389,521 from the waivers it got for 2012-2013, and a further $137,067 from 2013-2015. We did not get any waivers for 2014-2015. But the “banked” caps expire after three years, so the BOE is looking to use $222,269 of what it has on hand, largely for maintenance projects. Maintenance took the biggest hit when Verona had to tighten its belt after the state slashed aid to us in 2010-2011 and again in 2011-2012.

You can hear a discussion of some of the ways that the maintenance money might be spent in the BOE video below. There will likely be more discussion at its meeting next Tuesday, March 25.

The Verona High School Alumni Association (VHSAA) will be offering scholarships for 2014 high school graduating seniors.

Two types of scholarships will be available. The first is open to all Verona High School seniors who plan to continue their education in the fall of 2014.  This application is available only at VHS through Diane Newman in the guidance department.

The second scholarship is open to non-VHS graduating seniors who are planning to continue their education in the fall of 2014 and had at least one parent, guardian or grandparent who graduated from Verona High School. This application is only available via the VHSAA website.

Please see applications for rules and deadlines.

The Verona Foundation for Educational Excellence (VFEE) is holding its spring fundraiser on Thursday, March 27, and the event includes a large array of silent auction items. There is something for everyone–from museum memberships to a fresh butchered organic lamb to golf outings at Montclair and Essex Fells Country Clubs. The most recent addition is an SAT prep course from Chyten in Montclair.

A silent auction for all the items below will be held during the VFEE fundraiser, which will be held at the Verona Inn from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. The single price of $50 will provide wine, beer and appetizers throughout the evening. Limited reservations are still available.

If you can’t make the evening’s festivities but want to have a shot at two tickets to any Giants home game, it can happen! E-mail veronaexperience@vfee.org with what you’d like to bid on and a phone number to reach you and a trustee will be in touch. Also, if you’d like to attend (to be front and center for the auction) please use the same email and specify number attending.

Founded in 2006, VFEE funds grants to Verona public school teachers in the areas of technology, academic enhancement, arts and education, professional development and cultural rnrichment. For more information on its mission and past grants, see its Web site.

VFEE Silent Auction Preview List

Spring Fundraiser – March 27, 2014

On Thursday, March 27, the Verona Foundation for Educational Excellence (VFEE) is hosting their annual fundraising event at the Verona Inn. Even if you have a child in the Verona public schools, you may not be aware of much of the work VFEE does, or the grants they have fulfilled. These grants have provided award-winning composers, iPads, art supplies and an entire e-book library at the elementary schools and middle school. Educational grants have also been awarded at the high school level, but if you don’t have kids at VHS, you probably haven’t heard about the VFEE grant for the Finches. Not birds, robots.

The 12 Finch robots purchased in May 2013 with a $1,128 VFEE grant live at VHS in the computer science classroom. Directed by Rich Wertz and his AP Computer Science students, these robots are moving, talking, programmable objects. Developed at Carnegie Mellon University, they are inexpensive and virtually indestructible but also highly respected and well cared for by the nearly 108 students who have used them in their first year at the school. The robots, while cute and resembling the bird for which they are named, can do much more than the bird can. The Finches have been programmed by students to perform such activities as automated parallel parking, navigation through a cardboard maze, laser tag between two Finches, and even Spirograph-like pieces of art by attaching a magic marker to the end of a Finch.

Currently the robots are used only in the AP Computer Science classes, and they have been an incredibly successful investment. (The robots were designed specifically for school usage and the only cost was for the robots themselves; the software used to program their movements is free.) Their size, mobility and ease of set up make them an excellent accompaniment to a classroom that was not originally intended for use with robots. Typically, much of computer programming lives on the computer screen, but with the Finches students are more engaged and immediately see a live-action result from their programming efforts.  In the future, there may even be an opportunity to partner with the computer design classes to use the new 3-D printer to create accessories for the Finches.

Wertz, the author of the grant, says that the Finch robots “prove that generous contributions from community groups like VFEE can make a material difference in helping teachers enhance instruction.”

You can attend VFEE’s fundraiser Thursday or make an online bid for their Tricky Tray. Click here to learn how.

A team from Verona High School has won first place in the annual NJIT Web Design Competition. More than 400 students competed in the two categories of the competition.

The competition required teams to create educational Web sites following professional design guidelines without the use of a template, generating wizard, content management system or any other pre-built code. The Verona team consisted of Maddie Meyer, a senior, and juniors Dan Watabe, Sam Marcillo-Gomez and Larry Studwell. They designed a site to provide computer coding tips and advice to fellow students, called “CompSci LifeSavers – When Coding Sucks”. Sites were judged on content, format and functionality and, of course technical competency.

There’s no money for winning this competition, but the bragging rights are quite nice. Information on the top three finishers in both categories should be on the NJIT Web site soon.

Barbara Bochese, a Dodd Terrace resident, is part of a group that wants no lights on Doc Goeltz Field.

Joe Bellino, a member of the Board’s finance and buildings & grounds committees, said the BOE is formalizing contracts with the architect and engineering firms for the project, so that they can start to put together plans and specifications for potential bidders. The Board has also put out a call for residents interested in serving on referendum project committees. (For details on submitting your qualifications to be on one of the four committees, see here.) Bellino also said that bonds to finance the many security, technology, building and facilities projects covered by the work would likely go out to bid on April 29.

Before that happens, Superintendent Steven A. Forte has invited residents who live adjacent to the lower football field to a meeting on April 1 to listen to their concerns. Forte mailed invitations to approximately 50 addresses on Dodd Terrace, the stretch of Grove Avenue between Ann and Franklin streets, and the north side of Franklin. As of Tuesday, Forte said he had only 10 RSVPs for that meeting.

Some of those residents did, however, address the Board at Tuesday’s meeting, largely to object to the possibility of lights on Doc Goeltz Field. Barbara Bochese, who lives on Dodd Terrace, identified herself as a member of a homeowners’ association called Be A Good Neighbor. She is the registered owner of the group’s Web site, which says the group wants “no lights” on the field and asserts that the design plan includes “80-120 foot light poles”, even though the BOE has not filed a design plan yet. Bochese asked the Board how they would feel about living with night lights at her address “365 days a year”.

In reality, fewer than two dozen of the games now on the Verona High School schedule require night lighting. In the fall, only five events started at or after 5 p.m.: two JV football and two soccer games at Centennial Field, and the Marching Band Festival, which rented lights for Doc Goeltz Field.

This spring, 18 Centennial Field lacrosse matches start at or after 5 p.m., though by mid-April, when the final 10 of them are to be played, sunset shifts to 7:40 p.m. and later, which means that the games are likely to end before lights would have to be switched on. And though the VHS sports schedule shifts from year to year, Verona’s town code requires all artificial outdoor lights to be shut off at 10 p.m.

“I’m imploring us and the community to stick to the facts,” said BOE member Steve Spardel. “Stop with the innuendos, stop with the rumors.”

BOE member Steve Spardel recognized Bochese’s efforts to organize her neighbors, but added a caution: “Going forward,” he said, “I’m imploring us and the community to stick to the facts. Stop with the innuendos, stop with the rumors.” He went on to add that, “what I would encourage you to do, so that you’re not making stuff up in your group, have a person in your group as the spokesperson so that if they have questions they are welcome to call me or any one of us.”

Spardel’s concerns were echoed by Rob Caruso, a referendum supporter and former Town Council candidate. “There’s a lot of stuff on the [Be A Good Neighbor] Web site that is different from what they are saying tonight,” he said. “My concern is that they have too much of a say.” (Since the BOE meeting, Be A Good Neighbor has added a section to its Web site entitled “Verona Board of Education Encroachment Can Happen to Anyone Living Near a School Property”. There are no plans for changes to other school fields.)

Joseph DeVivo, a referendum supporter who lives on Laurel Court, praised the BOE for its “measured approach” to improving the schools, and he said he believes that people who live around Doc Goeltz should have a say in how the lights are done. “But to come down here and make it sound like oh poor me and all these people are ganging up on you is not true,” DeVivo said. “Some of these sports organizations that people are speaking of together equal 200 people tops. Obviously, there are 1,200 or 1,300 or 1,400 other people who agree this needs to be done. ”

Cheryl Nardino, the BOE’s business administrator, announced that, according to the certified vote count, there were 1,777 “yes” votes in the March 11 referendum and 1,067 “no” votes, a margin of 710 ballots. The 2005 referendum, by contrast, passed by just nine votes. The turnout was 27.19%.

You can watch the full Board of Education meeting on YouTube:

Verona High School senior Daniel Li has been named a finalist in the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program, which recognizes high scholastic achievement among high school seniors. Requirements for advancement to the finalist level include a record of very high academic performance, SAT scores and being fully endorsed and recommended by high school officials. Pictured above left to right are: Verona High School Principal Glenn Cesa, Daniel Li and School Counselor Colleen Green.

When the sun comes out this week, we’ll all probably find green growing things in our yards. Soon, we’ll begin to turn Verona’s dirt to help our tomatoes, beans and zucchini thrive in our backyard gardens this summer. But there’s one spot in Verona that been putting out produce all winter: the greenhouse at Verona High School.

It’s not the first thing you notice when you go to VHS. Tucked away off a classroom in the science wing, many people hadn’t paid any attention to the greenhouse for years, maybe decades. (The greenhouse might be original to the 58-year-old building, but nobody knows for sure.) It was being used for storage. The big glass windows leaked. Then last fall, senior Lucas Freschi took it upon himself to put the greenhouse back in production.
He bought caulk and sealed off the cracks and fixed what could be fixed. He found some pots and got potting soil to fill them. Having interned at the short-lived Sprout greenhouse on Depot Street, he knew how to plant, and set about planting lettuce, arugula, radishes and beans. And after he harvested the first radish sprouts, he thought he should perhaps tell someone what he was doing.

“I went to Mr. Cesa,” Freschi says, referring to VHS’s principal, “and I said ‘I just thought that you should know that I am using the greenhouse’.”

Since then, Freschi, who as president of the VHS Environmental Club is coordinating the April 26 cleanup of the Peckman River with the Verona Environmental Commission, has been trying to prove what he says is the “intrinsic value” of having a greenhouse in the high school. He spent the winter wandering the halls with paper plates filled with his harvests, to give fellow students a taste. He bought more seeds–corn, squash, and herbs–and just kept planting. And he discovered that he had a big green thumb. And organic one to boot.

“My first lettuce harvest yielded a couple pounds of lettuce,” he says. “I was able to feed my family, my girlfriend’s family and my grandma with just one harvest.”

Freschi estimates that he’s spent about $100 of his own money on his greehouse work, and considers it money very well spent. “My goal for this is to not only to teach myself,” he says, “but, through members of the Environmental Club and the teachers who teach environmental science, also to teach the kids here. I want to get kids to understand how their food is grown.” And he’s well on his way: VHS is adding AP Environmental Science to the curriculum and some of the class will revolve around the greenhouse.

As for Freschi, he’s got plans to study sustainable agriculture at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. The liberal arts college has a 300-acre farm on its campus and a greenhouse that is substantially larger than the one at VHS. The school emphasizes not only classroom education, but also a campus-wide work program and also service learning, much of which is geared to reinforce its commitment to sustainable living.

“There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be growing these things,” Freschi says of his VHS plants. “It provides such satisfaction and it’s such a useful skill. I plan on using the skills i’m getting now for the rest of my life.”

Lucas Freschi in the greenhouse at Warren Wilson College, which he will be attending in the fall.

Verona resident Sofia Kwon, a seventh grader at Montclair Kimberley Academy, has earned national recognition for her writing skills as the recipient of a prestigious National Gold Medal in the 2014 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards – an extraordinary accomplishment for a 7th grader.

Over 255,000 works of art and writing were submitted and only the top 1% was recognized at the National level by panels of creative professionals. Kwon’s entry was in the Personal Essay/Memoir category, and she wrote about an audition at the Manhattan School of Music.

Founded in 1923, The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, sponsored by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, is the oldest, longest running and most eminent recognition program for creative teenagers in grades 7-12 in the country. Former winners include Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath, Lena Dunham, Andy Warhol, John Updike and Joyce Carol Oates.

Kwon, who has previously received two gold medals and one honorable mention for other pieces at the regional level, will receive her award at the National Ceremony, an event that will be webcast live from Carnegie Hall on June 6 at 6 p.m.

The Verona High School concert band took home several trophies from its State Concert Band Festival performance at VHS last Tuesday. The band had a “Gold” rating with a score of 96.5, and won the “Best Brass” and “Best Percussion” awards.

On Thursday, the entire VHS music program, including the chorus and color guard, headed to Boston for their spring music trip. The concert band has performed at MIT, the jazz band is being heard in the Old South Meeting House and the Prudential Center and the entire group will be attending the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The video below is part of the concert band’s award-winning performance at the State Concert Band Festival.