On Wednesday night, the Pascack Valley Regional High School District Board of Education discussed Pascack Valley cellular, reminded the public of nomination petitions, and listened to resident concerns regarding midterm and final exams.
To begin, the appointment of the BOE vice president was postponed to a later date. The BOE then entered an executive session, in which Superintendent Sarah Bilotti clarified the contents.
“Executive session is to cover contract negotiations, legal matters, and personnel. It should be about 30 minutes and we will take action when we return,” she said.
Upon the board’s return, Bilotti updated the board on Verizon communications for a cell tower near Pascack Valley, allowing the township to take over negotiations. This will hopefully result in better cell coverage at Valley. She also addressed extending Valley wifi to parents for pick-up communication.
Bilotti mentioned that nomination petitions for open seats are due soon and Yas Usami reminded those viewing.
“There are three seats open, one in Hillsdale, one in Montvale, and one in Rivervale…the deadline to submit your nominating petitions is 4 p.m. Monday, July 29th, 2024,” he said.
When the board opened to take comments, Pascack Valley parent Mr. Fox addressed midterms and finals concerns as a continuation of public comments from previous BOE meetings.
Fox provided many statistics, quoted syllabuses, and addressed conversations with the administration. He discussed his concerns, changes over the years, and what he wants for the future of district students taking these tests.
“Please remember teachers are assessing all students regardless. [There is] no need to cram for a test that causes immense stress with no feedback, [which] doesn’t help with any depth of knowledge that we want our students to obtain and enjoy learning,” he said.
Regarding Fox’s comments, a BOE member spoke on her daughter’s experience and how to approach this problem.
“My daughter said that when the midterms came she couldn’t even get into the Wellness Center because it was so popular…that’s something that I think we really do need to take a real good look at if we’re going to claim that the wellness and the mental health of our students is Paramount then we need to make sure that that’s not being impacted,” she said.
By doing diagnostic exams throughout the year, she voiced that the administration may go back and revisit those tests and use them for informing instruction.
Superintendent Bilotti, President Gini Varghese, and other board members agreed that the systems for grading currently in place are very confusing and that clarity should be a priority for student mental health.
