On Monday night, the Pascack Valley Regional High School District Board of Education (BOE) discussed school-wide achievements in sports and academics, budgeting concerns for officer salaries, and the future of the district size due to the affordable housing obligations.
BOE student representative Andrew Varian discussed the Spanish and music programs’ trip to the Metropolitan Opera House to watch the Spanish opera Ainadamar and he discussed Julianne Downes’ culinary classes’ new recipes. Natalie Macke’s AP Environmental Science classes’ trip to Pascack Brook in Westwood and Ringwood State Park was also discussed regarding their collection of water samples to test for pollutants and biodiversity.
In terms of events, Varian explained the food truck festival on a half day to promote unity, the Medical Club partnership with Chestnut Ridge Pediatrics in their annual flu drive, and the Teens Against Cancer (TAC) club hosting a school-wide pink-out and walk on Oct. 14 in support of breast cancer awareness.
Hills sports was also addressed, highlighting cross country (XC) freshman girls JV team placement first in Bergen County at the Freshman JV championship meet, girls volleyball’s three consecutive wins, girls volleyball’s 8th place ranking in the state tournament, and the girls volleyball team making it to finals in the Bergen County invitational tournament. Additionally, the XC boys team qualified for the Bergen County Meet of Champions, and boys soccer recently won three impressive games, entering the state tournament ranked 9th.
Academically, seven Hills students were honored as the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program commended students. Also, new Hills clubs include the Black Student Union and the Women in Business Club.
When the board opened for comments from the public on agenda items only, Hillsdale resident and Councilman John Ruocco commented on the shared service agreement to provide a fully trained officer on-site at the high school each day the school is in session.
Ruocco argued that the true economic cost of officers is not recognized in the School Resource Officer (SRO) agreement nor expensed through the district budget. He elaborated on how to rectify taxing concerns and how to properly budget for experienced officers in the next year.
“That 40,000 [dollar fee] is the same amount that is contained in similar shared service agreements over the past 10 years; it was inadequate then and is even more inadequate now given that price inflation…the total cost of the officer [is] approximately 140,000 dollars [including benefits and salary]…I respectfully ask that when you construct your budget next year, you consider the economic fairness of the present shared service agreement in the face of the importance of the SRO position to our high school here in Hillsdale,” he said.
Montvale Mayor Michael Ghassali spoke about the affordable housing obligations for the four towns in the district. By using housing standard approximations and assumptions based on the history of the towns, Ghassali provided the board with statistics that may change budget and school considerations.
“The four towns will have to build about six thousand housing units in the next 10 years…Putting all these numbers and assumptions, again in a very considerate formula, will give us [about] 578 new students K through 12, that is 48 children per grade, almost 200 for the high school, 100 per school…I think [these numbers are] very conservative, I would maybe double these numbers,” he said.
For a full viewing of the BOE meeting, click the link below.
