On Monday night, the Pascack Valley Regional High School District Board of Education listened to presentations, monthly reports, and comments from the public. 

In the coming meetings, members will listen to presentations about the curriculum in respective subject areas. At this meeting, they listened to presentations from the English, Social Studies & Business, and World Language departments, which were given by Director of Curriculum and Technology Barry Bachenheimer and each department’s respective supervisor. 

Valerie Mattessich, the supervisor of the district’s English department, discussed the new courses being offered to students, specifically in grades 10-12. 

“Ultimately, the goal was for students to have more choice and for their interests to be the driving force,” she said. 

Joseph Orlak, the supervisor of the district’s Social Studies & Business department, discussed the internship program and new business courses. More morning internships will be offered soon in addition to courses such as accounting and financial investment. 

Argine Safari, the interim World Language Department Supervisor, concluded the presentations by discussing the Seal of Biliteracy, National Foreign Language Week, and other activities that the students in the district have partaken in, such as this month’s music competitions that occur globally, similar to March Madness. 

Superintendent Sarah Bilotti acknowledged the upcoming presentations and junior testing conflicts in her report. She also thanked the supervisors in advance for their presentations. 

“[The curriculum updates] are designed so that the Board can get some highlights and understand some of the new and innovative curriculum items that we have in store. This is obviously our high scheduling season, so we are pretty excited about some of the new things that we have, and we wanted an opportunity to share that with you,” she said.

BOE representative Olivia Ge gave her monthly student report. She discussed history classes participating in civic discussions, music achievements, and club fundraising activities. She also discussed recent athletic achievements regarding the basketball, wrestling, hockey, and dance teams. 

Before entering an executive session to discuss HIB and legal matters, BOE members listened to a comment from Montvale resident Carolee Adams about a policy regarding student journalism. She questioned its need for approval, and Bilotti said that the policy “is meant to expand the rights of student journalism.”

The BOE also approved several athletic and co-curricular appointments. William Siegenthaler and Steve Casamento were appointed the assistant baseball coaches and Kelly Tengco was appointed the assistant musical director.