On Monday, May 18, the Pascack Valley Regional High School District Board of Education (BOE) honored outstanding staff for a variety of awards, delivered presentations on school climate, and reviewed a district self assessment on bullying.
The Board began their staff recognition with support staff. The Board recognized Joseph Bellafiore as the Outstanding Support Staff Member of the Year for the district’s offices, serving as the school’s electrician. For the Pascack Hills Outstanding Support Staff Member of the Year, custodian Courtney Hastings was honored.
The final two honors to be awarded were Teacher of the Year and Education Services Professional of the Year. World History teacher Jane Yeam was the 2025-2026 recipient of the Teacher of the Year Award. Guidance counselor Jenna Howard was awarded the Education Services Professional of the Year.
Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Dr. Mark Russo delivered a presentation reporting on the results and takeaways from the climate survey administered in March to staff, students and parents.
“The survey was designed to help schools obtain multiple perspectives on aspects of school climate, with the goal of helping us understand strengths and needs in our schools,” Dr. Russo stated when describing the survey.
The survey found that the district’s overall scores from students in all grade levels, staff and parents exceeded state averages and the results at Pascack Hills from previous years. Students Isabelle Mednard and Sari Narins, two students who worked on analyzing the data from this survey, identified areas of improvement, citing academic culture and classroom practices as the least agreed upon section; the section’s prompts were disagreed upon the most by students and faculty out of all sections.
Both students from the climate team and Dr. Russo discussed areas of improvement for the school’s climate. Dr. Russo analyzed the goals from the previous year to improve school climate, noting that while some of these requests have been implemented, action is yet to be taken on certain goals the district set.
The Pascack Hills Climate Team has set some goals for the following school year, including “[to] build a culture where student feedback is part of the decision making process,” Mednard stated.
The district also gave a self-assessment on bullying. The assessment contains 26 sections scored from zero to three, with a maximum score of 78. Pascack Hills scored a 77/78, marking an increase from the previous year’s 75. The presentation also highlighted both student and staff centered HIB initiatives including World Culture’s Day, School Safety Team meetings and staff training administered from professionals.
The meeting reached its close with the superintendent’s report from Interim Superintendent Dirk Phillips. In his report, he identified the various testing within the district in the past month, including SAT testing, AP exams, and the NJSLA testing. He also outlined some of the many upcoming events in June, including the end-of-the-year dinners, prom, field trips, and graduation. He notified the public that the district faced two cyber-attacks recently from programs utilized by the district, but the lack of critical information on these websites and monitoring by the tech department ensured that the district faced no serious impact. He concluded the report by congratulating the Pascack Pi-oneers for their impressive performance at the Mid-Atlantic District Championships.
For a full viewing of the BOE meeting, click the link below:
