The Verona Board of Education held a public forum Tuesday night in the high school library to highlight their progress on district goals as well as to set new goals for the upcoming school year.

“We have been holding these reflection meetings for the past nine years and we believe it is a good, healthy practice,” said board president John Quattrocchi. “We have also extended these evaluations to take place on a quarterly basis.”

The board is now into their fourth year of their five-year plan, said Superintendent Steven Forte. “We have taken our goals from this current year and have re-evaluated them to see how far along we are to reaching those goals,” he said.

The board of education's mission is to “prepare students to be scholars and productive citizens through outstanding teaching, challenging curricula and engaging co-curricular programs in safe and modern facilities,” Forte said.

Strategic goals for the upcoming school year were presented as well as specific strategies and how they will be implemented in order to meet those goals and uphold their overall mission.

The districts current goals for the remainder of the school year are as follows:

1. All graduates will have mastered a challenging curriculum that prepares them for prospective futures as problem solvers, independent thinkers and responsible citizens.
2. All students will demonstrate character, service and social awareness through curricular and co-curricular programs.
3. All teachers will meet or exceed the highest levels of professional teaching standards.
4. All district facilities will provide students with state-of-the-art, safe learning and working environments.
   
   

Suggested goals for the upcoming 2012-13 school year are to execute year five of the current strategic plan, to develop the next five-year strategic plan, set to begin July 1, 2013, and to expand the use of data to drive instruction district-wide.

The board also highlighted previous strategies that have shown significant progress such as the creation of more than 75 new curriculum documents, adding high school electives such as “Holocaust” and “Careers in education”, college partnerships and an improved relationship with the township. 

“Its important to look at where you are and what you have done to decide where you want to go,” said Forte. “From here we need to finish up the five-year plan and to develop the next five-year plan. We have accomplished a lot but we still have a decent amount of work to do.”