##VIDEO ID:IOmeww9d7lA## check one two check check one two e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e call to order let's rise for the flex salute Al to the flag United States of America to the stand One Nation indivisible liy and justice for all thank you roll call Mr to yes Mr buo Patel yes president Mr Rano president miss Pang Miss White Miss White here Mr Schneider here Mr AA here Mr vichel Patel miss anena pel Mr luel here here president Patel you have a quorum thank you opening statement yes in accordance with the open public meetings act that isent Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted in the Board of Education and administrative offices copies of these notices were sent to the home News Tribune and the Star Ledger thank you at this time the board is going to adj to priv session in accordance with njsa 10412 the isent Township Board of Education Joon to confidential session for the purpose of discussing the following confidential personnel and board matters and student matters we have a motion to adjin to privileg session motion second motion Mr Romano Mr Schneider roll call Mr to Voice vote Voice vote yeah all in favor I I I right meeting is ajed to privilege session we expect to come back once it's over e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e screen tap the three horizontal lines in the bottom left to see all of the menu items to turn on push notifications tap settings and select notification preferences tap subscriptions to subscribe to your school the event section shows a list of events throughout the school you can use this button to add an event to your calendar or tap here to share the event with friends and family the feed is where you'll find a updates from Administration about what's going on throughout the school whether that's celebrating a Student Success or reminding you about an upcoming deadline search Edison Township Public Schools in the app store or Play Store to explore the app for yourself it's everything Edison Township Public Schools in your e this is the home screen tap the three horizontal lines in the bottom left to see all of the menu items to turn on push notifications tap settings and select notification preferences tap subscriptions to subscribe to your school the event section shows a list of events throughout the school you can use this button to add an event to your calendar or tap here to share the event with friends and family the Fe is where you'll find updates from Administration about what's going on throughout the school whether that's celebrating a Student Success or reminding you about an upcoming deadline search Edison Township Public Schools in the app store or Play Store to explore the app for yourself it's everything Edison Township Public Schools in your pocket e e e e tap subscriptions to subscribe to your school the event section shows a list of events throughout the school you can use this button to add an event to your calendar or tap here to share the event with friends and family the feed is where you'll find updates from Administration about what's going on throughout the school whether that's celebrating a Student Success or reminding you about an upcoming deadline search Edison Township Public Schools in the app store or or Play Store to explore the app for yourself it's everything Edison Township Public Schools in your pocket e introducing the brand new app for Edison public schools on Android and iPhone it's everything Edison Township Public Schools in your pocket this is the home screen tap the three horizontal lines in the bottom left to see all of the menu items to turn on push notifications tap settings and select notification preferences tap subscriptions to subscribe to your [Music] school the event section shows a list of events throughout the school you can use this button to add an event to your calendar or tap here to share the event with friends and family the feed is where you'll find updates from Administration about what's going on throughout the school whether that's celebrating a student's success or reminding you about an upcoming deadline search Edison Township Public Schools in the app store or Play Store to explore the app for yourself it's everything Edison Township Public e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e this point the board will reconvene to open session motion to reconvene to open session motion second all in favor I right thank you so much um I'm thrilled to announce this week that uh our own very own rock star superintendent Dr Alder Elli has been awarded class links New Jersey 2024 Visionary superintendent award so this this prestigious honor recognizes leaders who are dedicated to creating innovative practices that will shape the future of our students in our schools that's great and we congratulate him and very proud of his work and that's why there is no wonder we keep calling him Rockstar so I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the strategic planning teams sitting here all the leaders and their tremendous efforts and hard work in charting the course of our District's progress over the next 5 years through vision 2030 all your dedication ensure that our students and Community will continue to thrive and all the principles administrators everyone all the supervisors who are here thank you so much and thank you for contributing towards this great cause um I also want to express my deep gratitude to Heather Daniel and her intern safia for their outstanding work in designing and implementing our new District website which is going to be released very soon in a in few moments and I'm pretty sure the whole district is going to love it their efforts have enhanced our Communications and it makes it easier for everyone to stay connected and in and together we are all Paving away for a brighter future that being said I would give it to our Rockstar Dr Ali all right thank you so much for that uh introduction there board president Patel uh good evening ladies and gentlemen um we do have uh a few presentations this evening um all of which are are extremely important and Encompass um you know everything that we believe here in in Edison Township um the first one is is acknowledging uh the retirement of uh an Edison High School Jersey uh number 24 uh an individual by the name of James malown uh on his behalf I'd like to actually call up um our EHS um athletic supervisor and director Mr Dave sandal if you want to come up and um I know you've got a a a brief piece to to talk about and um I I can I think it's it's definitely uh required to formally read the resolution which I'll do right afterwards thank you Dr Al you got it Dave sandel 50 Boulevard of the Eagles proud 1990 Edison graduate and uh your supervisor of Athletics for Edison High School Thomas Jefferson and Herbert Hoover I prepared my comments to stay on I sometimes will be long and winding like the road in life but I'll prepare the comments here in my 31 years as a board employee this this is the first time I've spoken at the day at a board of ed meeting so it must be something important to me I'd like to first thank Dr Al delli our superintendent and the entire board of education for supporting my idea of retiring coach malani's 24 number 24 across the entire athletic department this is one of the highest honors I can think of for an individual I would be remiss if um also and not thanking Judy Cox for the tremendous help in Penning tonight's resolution thank you Judy no other EHS athlete in any sport will ever wear number 24 in honor of James malani that's how much he meant to the Edison to Edison High Athletics he was truly a local boy makes good story Jim graduated from EHS in 73 and came back to teach and coach in 1981 retiring in June of 2018 as our district uh supervisor of Health PE and driver ed a pretty impressive run for a kid from Taft Avenue along the way coach malani positively impacted the lives of thousands of student athletes whether it be in fiz ed class on the baseball diamond basketball court or soccer field Jim's commitment to Excellence uh and getting the best out of his student athletes was realized with perhaps his greatest team the 1993 Edison Baseball team that team finished the season ranked number one in the state and number four in the United States that to my knowledge being the Edison Sports historian that's the highest ranking for a New Jersey team in in the history of the USA Today top 25 rankings New Jersey is a notoriously cold weather state for baseball so to to end up fourth in nation is pretty impressive he set the goal standard for coaches and administrators in this District quite simply he is what's great about Edison High and what's great about the Edison Public Schools if you have a minute tonight I urge everyone to read his accomplishments on the Edison Hall of Fame plaque in rlby quite impressive for a Southside kid who just wanted to make an impact at his alma mater in closing I would like to thank you all once again I'd also like to have the malani family rise up to be acknowledged wife Anne is a FDR parah at the FDR building Mary Lynn is a grade four teacher at Washington Elementary and our Varsity softball coach here and assistant girl soccer uh Anthony is the pride of the Montgomery school system and Jersey Joe is uh a big wig at JB Hunt so once again the malis are well represented we will have a formal dedication ceremony at halftime of our home football game against North brunck on Friday September 20th and I'll be sending out invites to all of you and once again I really appreciate this uh if anybody was ever and I a few of you up there on the stage I know Brian's a 95 Eagle Doug you're a 97 Eagle uh you know Jenny I know you knew him pretty well uh he was he was a legend you know not only in our town in the county but in the state of New Jersey so thank you thank you thank you Mr sendal I know it's an attachment to the agenda but I think it's fitting to formally read the resolution if I may uh be permitted to do so board president whereas it is with a profound sense of loss that on May 21st 2024 the Edison Community noted with sorrow the passing of Mr James Diamond Jim mown and whereas Mr James MD was not only a 1973 graduate of Edison High School but also a dedicated teacher at Edison High School from 1981 to 2000 the Edison athletic director from 2000 to 2008 and the Edison supervisor of physical education and health from 2008 to 2018 a member of the New Jersey coaches Hall of Fame a charter member of the Edison High School athletic for Hall of Fame in 2006 and whereas under his Dynamic leadership as the Edison High School baseball coach from 1998 to 2000 Mr James mown won 24 total state championships 10 red division titles seven GMC tournaments five central Jersey group four titles and two overall group four titles with a final record of 275 to 75 with his team winning 20 games in 10 straight seasons and whereas James malani is considered by most to be the greatest High School baseball coach in Middle sex County's history and now for now for there it be resolved that to memorialize the outstanding accomplishment of Mr James Diamond Jim mdy the Edison Township Board of Education by this resolution approves the retirement of James MD's jersey number 24 throughout all of Edison High School athletic teams using uniform numbers and be it further resolved that a ceremony will commence on Friday September 20th 2024 at the halftime program of Edison High School's home football game and a copy of this resolution will be presented to the mold family in commemoration and appreciation for Jim's outstanding diligent and dedicated service to the students families and staff of the Edison Public School District and that a copy of this resolution be recorded in the permanent minutes of the Edison Township Board of vacation Board of Education thank you thank you all right uh thank you so much again uh uh thanks to uh Mr sandal Miss Cox as well as the mold family um we transition now to um kind kind of a a a labor of love of mind to be honest with with you I know that I I've I've actually been really excited um with all of the work that's been done uh not only behind the scenes but um in concert with um our Consultants Bill and Stacy Adams who I can't thank enough for the work that we we've done in relationship um to our strategic plan which um we implemented in early fall of 2023 and the culminating activity um is the final presentation to the board of education and its final report as well as has a report out by the action teams I I I I would be remiss if if I didn't highlight um I I was recently attended a a national uh superintendent conference where the entire focus of that conference was was strategic planning and it was it was in June so it it really resonated with me because we were kind of at the Finish Line in setting our goals it it not only is this a highly utilized strategy um in in all organizations it transcends organizations but it it literally shapes the landscape for school districts right it it identifies Trends it identifies challenges that the school districts face it sets us on a path for what we identify to be the mission and the vision um it guides our educational practices and uh more importantly for us it it really signifies where our field of education is going is where our district is going it's it's like an enablement tool to provide us with an opportunity to ex excute a plan that many members of our community and Bill and Stacy are going to attest to this we had overwhelming participation um I can't thank uh the the Committees the advisory committee anybody that filled out a survey anybody that participated in any level um that contributed to this plan because I really wanted to see what the community felt I cannot thank the administrators that are currently in the audience right now it is an absolute pleasure to yeah you should give yourselves a round of applause for the the work that you do each and every single day right alongside of our teachers um I I thank you so much for your participation in everything that you do um it is you you make my job easy in in not only your work ethic but your commitment to the students of Edison Township um so without any further hesitation I am going to turn the microphone over uh to Bill and Stacy Adams who um I've had the opportunity to work with over the course of the last 11 months right and it's been an absolute pleasure thank you well thank you so much Dr Alder and thank you everyone on the board of education it is an honor to be here and what a night to be here as well um congratulations to to um your father and the retiring of the Jersey um I am thrilled if we can get um to get moving on this because really although we've been working at this for quite some time um going back all the way to to December the real work now now begins right um and I'm going to try to do my best here to swing back and forth because the work that was engaged in this process as was already mentioned was really all of you in this room and others that are out there um in the community um and so with that um yes we started back in December last uh last year we did a whole flow through that winding road as um was mentioned and it landed us um to oh yeah we need to go back yes it landed us to that participation that Dr alderi was talking about you had over 5,000 participants uh in this process wow you did one round of applause I really think you need to do it again because that is really quite an accomplishment in and of itself and what I want to point out to you is that that's just the first two points the engagement and the focus phase of this process the execution phase which is what we'll be talking about tonight the plans for that there's so many more opportunities for others to be a part of this those in this room those in all the schools those in the community and I think that's what part of the exciting part of being one Edison is all about so in order though to move the process along obviously we couldn't have 5,000 people in the room all the time right nothing would ever but what we did is we took 30 members across SE section of the community and we formed an advisory committee those are the members that are up um there on this if you're here in the room could you just raise your hand real quick yeah right on woo now let me just point out they did a lot of the heavy lifting um throughout this process so please keep that in mind especially as uh we look back uh at or we look at the action plans that are forthcoming um we met uh several nights during the month of March um and and clearly some of that time no pain no gain but I think you'll be pleased with the outcomes were so what we did during that month of March um is we looked at when I talk about heavy lifting the findings so through the process we did a lot of Engagement as we've already recognized and then we met with the advisory committee and we talked about the data the district data we did a look back and then we looked at all the perception information that was garnered through that engagement phase and those 5,000 participants um or at least a large part of that was a part of our surveys and our focus groups the group the committee definitely spent time um hashing through a lot of information sometimes it was information overload sometimes it was very engaging but what it certainly allowed is for all voices to be heard and to work through that process to develop um where we're going with the proposed Vision the proposed Mission our portrait of a graduate and um our action PL so one of the things before we moved into that though is we looked at the strengths um the challenges the opportunities and the threats um that were in front of us as a part of this districtwide community I'm not going to go through all of these together but we will highlight the strengths because education is a people business and um it's certainly at the the top of the list was that the strengths of the district were the students and the staff right the people that we are that are serving and being served was recognized as the number one strength and then as you'll see you're coming from a great Foundation there's um High graduation rate you've got high standards you've got all kinds of recognitions um and in particular we're also want to point out of the experience and the expertise that exists not only in the school district but also throughout the community and I think that's really important here as we continue along um and then we did take a moment to check out our challenges because in as much as that we are strong one Edison there are some challenges that exist and again I'm not going to go through each one of these points directly but I will um make note of some of the overarching challenges that the advisory team had to consider as they processed all the um all the information and made some decisions and those were some inconsistencies in systems um there were um also recognized that there is some um concern about equity for all students to have the same opportunities as much as there's so many opportunities here in Edison Township um there was some concern that all students need varying in different ways to be engaged to rise to their greatest potential and then um obviously with everything that's happening after after covid and um just our world as we know it the concern was for mental health and wellness but underpinning most of these U uh challenges here was the challenge with regard to your infrastructure um I can only wrap this up in one statement that I can paraphrase from one of your students that said you know whatever's happening in my life outside I come to school and I want to be ready and I I'm here I want to get to my class on time but I start at one end of the building and I have to make my way across to the other side and in the meantime there's a traffic jam and so just little basic things like that with regard to the infrastructure and the movement of kids and their experiences here um in some of the buildings um there um are definitely some challenges that need to be addressed in order to support some of the other areas um of these plans forthcoming so with that being said um the team worked together they The Advisory team hammered through the existing Mission the existing mission was tweaked to offer this proposed Mission the not yet but the next slide will offer the vision and then we also um as a part of the advisory team tackled the um uh portrait of a graduate so with this being said can I do the corny thing that we always do all right so everyone if you would please with me and I'm going to step away um this is the proposed mission for from the advisory committee can you say it with me on the count of three one two three the public schools Township create supportive learning environment that empowers every student to L contribute to a dynamic interconnected Global Society our commitment is to ensure that all students achieve at their highest level of academic social and emotional success and with that the proposed Vision on the count of three one two three supporting and enhancing the education psychological and social needs for well-rounded students Edison Township Public Schools a premier school district will cultivate Innovative teaching and learning experiences for all students wonderful and we would encourage that uh you use this at your board meetings at every meeting that is conducted internally within the district and obviously um you're in great hands with Heather to promote the vision and the mission uh should it be adopted so um our next SL SL the target areas um as an outcome of all the information that we um work through as the advisory committee um were five infrastructure facilities and finance programs Pathways and proficiencies Wellness engagement and portrait of a graduate at this juncture once that was determined by the advisory committee action teams were organized there were actually uh well over 50 uh 52 I think we were actually closer to 60 team members again a great cross-section of team members uh worked on all of uh the action teams from parents students community members local business people Administration the instructional staff support staff and government and First Responders um exciting to be a p part of these teams and with this it's my um honor to turn this over to the action team co-chairs um to present the action teams that will guide you you uh from this juncture forward so I believe our infrastructure and facilities and finance team uh John to and Jackie be are you here perfect Jackie you coming down to the podium all right I'll I'll meet you over there part of this so the um infrastructure facilities and finance team could we bring up our slide this is all our team members I'm not going to read them verbatim I'm sure we'll post this we'll be posted on the website uh this is uh our support of our vision right we're going to develop some goals through collaboration in our meetings of which we did the first goal I'm not going to actually you guys want to read it we did no I'm just kidding I'm going to uh I'm going to paraphrase so to speak um we're basically going to invest in our infrastructure to support safe Innovative educational environments for all students that's the goal and some of the implementation and and um ways we're going to implement this and also measure it is partnering with District Architects uh to update the longrange facilities plan um that's actually been ongoing complete a demographic impact study update the district Tech technology plan and develop Mr Romano a long range District transportation plan that's one of the things that are really important here in Edison to our kids Jackie anything to add no I just think it's important to know that this the infrastructure facility Finance really is the foundation of your strategic plan I would call it the Bedrock I like that better it's actually the Bedrock it it's what supports the other initiatives that you're going to hear tonight go ahead excellent the next goal uh again not going to read it verbatim it'll be posted but uh obviously this is seeing that we're going to develop budgets and spend finances in a fiscally responsible transparent way that supports students and student programs so that's developing uh budgets with uh Flat state aid in mind and adherence to budget caps I I do believe that our state aid windfalls at sometime are going to run out um investigate alternative funding sour ources for capital projects and program growth um building budgets in collaboration amongst District administrators um that used to be done kind of in a silo and I think that everybody in here all of these administrators are a budget manager and take ownership of their own budget um and then finally uh maintain an unmod unmodified audit opinion on state and federal audits um this is so the public and the board at large knows that we're doing things in a fiscally responsible way Jackie anything to add no I think think it's time that we are going to hand this off to vinder gromer and Nicole Halpin for their target area of programs Pathways and proficiencies all right thank [Applause] you good evening everyone um I'm really really proud of the work that we did on this uh I myself is a product of a career pathway in high school so I know the impact that it can make on students and I think these are things that are really going to be able to hit all of our stud students so the way we looked at our vision is we broke it up into the different grade bands exploration of careers exposure to careers and training and all of that is going to lead to real world success so you're going to hear the word CTE a lot um so I always like to know what those acronyms are that everyone's talking about uh so CTE is Career and Technical education and that incorporates a lot of different things but what we're realizing is there are gaps of our students students who are graduating and our traditional K12 schools are not filling those gaps for our kids so this whole part of the plan is to make sure that we are going to be incorporating the skill sets that our students need to be successful in life and these are those skills that our employers are looking for and if you're looking at that list it's hard sometimes to incorporate those into our traditional classrooms so again by expanding our programs and our offerings we're going to try to make sure that our students hit these things that our employers are looking for so goal one is our P5 grade band and what are we doing in this we're really giving them exposure to careers what are careers what are ways that they can uh build on that as they go through Middle School and High School we're increasing career awareness um we're increasing stem stem is something that can make all of those other skill sets come to life um and we're going to figure out ways that we can incorporate career awareness into our curriculums Middle School one of my favorite grades to work with uh the exposure to careers so how are we doing this increasing programs increasing elective options uh you all heard that we're increasing different options for our kids to be able to choose um and that's all exposure to new career options uh we're looking at summer career exploration camp where kids are going to be actually able to try the electives at the high school while they're in Middle School um take advantage of our auto shop come to our culinary arts area and see what's available for them and the big thing is our elective fairs uh are we've realized our middle school students don't know what their options are when they get to the high school and making sure that they're aware of that as well as our Counseling Services as well and then we get to the high school um our 912 this is really exciting um we are looking to start our career Pathways we're looking at ones in business Logistics uh which is transportation and Hospitality three of our really more popular elective choices so our student students are already interested so what do we do more for them and that includes course Pathways uh professional credentials that they're going to graduate with to bring with them into the workforce looking at uh share time Co-op situations and then even being able them to leave school early and then go to work in the field and that's it for Pathways and programs we're going to call up Dr Tui and Kate gausman now [Applause] well hello everybody thanks for having us up here tonight um Wellness as a whole was very strongly represented our survey data and Kate and I just wanted to thank the Board of Education our community for the opportunity to to address this issue through the Strategic plan so our team we had a really C solid cross-section of Administrators parents community members guidance cstd even a medical a medical doctor a physician that lived in the area so it was a good group shout out to Mr AA for being part of it on our committee appreciate the feedback so our vision itself was to ensure that all staff and students experience a physically and emotionally safe environment and our vision was was pretty tight so when we get to our first goal it aligns really closely what we're trying to do is ensure a safe environment for our staff and our kids and we try to do that a couple different ways one we want to expand expand Wellness services and coordination for students and staff throughout the district what that looks like is creating an integrated staff wellness program securing mental health professionals at the elementary level um internally and expanding our secondary Partnerships to make sure that we have those mental health professionals to address our St students needs grade 6 through 12 expanding our enrollment Department Outreach an idea of a co-responder um if we have an attendance officer go to a house and uh you know there may be issues outside of attendance perhaps a social worker or another mental health Prof professional could help with that we want to evaluate teleah Health Resources and then ultimately coordinate that service and Staffing throughout the district going along with the safe environment we have to take a look at our actual physical spaces um the committee suggested we latched on to this idea of conducting systemic safety audits audits through all of our buildings and then finally from an instructional programming standpoint making sure that we're conducting um implicit executive functioning andal instruction in all of our classrooms now I'm not going to hit the action steps for each one because they're all very similar we have a few stages we want to plan to start out I gave some we gave some examples of what that planning looks like we want to make sure that we budget accordingly uh the business office like to hear that you know in public education finances are not the only um decision but they're involved in every decision um and then finally implementation and evaluation we're going to implement the programs on the left hand side and evaluate them and adjust as needed throughout the years so next one the second goal is to identify and integrate programs to assess and address Stress and Anxiety this was a big aha moment Not only was it reflected in our survey data but the committee at a whole as a whole said our students are under a lot of stress um the first thing we do is need to understand what's causing that stress so pursuing the idea of A needs assessment for our students partner partnering and collaborating with uh with local mental health agencies we have a lot of support in the community and then leveraging our parent organizations our PTO our Parent Academy to provide events and supports for our students outside of our walls again we have a plan stage a budget stage an Implement stage and then an evaluate stage then finally um on the staff side we want to create a uh a safe environment for our students and staff and you know quite honestly I was just at a at a meeting today where we talked about teacher burnout and administrator burnout and the fact that in order to have a healthy classroom you have to have a healthy staff room so similar to the students we want to assess the needs of our staff and evaluate compensation and benefits that may fall outside of salary I mean that speaks to the the staff Wellness initiative we were talking about there's um language to indicate that we're thinking about That's What exploration there exploring a District Health Clinic there are models through for this throughout the state um and in year one that's something we'd be going out to visit and see if it's feasible um expanding the mentorship opportunities for our instructional staff and then really just trying to focus on a cultural shift um you know from a from a demographic standpoint the individuals entering the workforce right now aren't always focused on benefits and salary they're focused on finding meaning they're focused on feeling supported and that's something we can do as Educators so again action steps we're going to plan for these initiatives we're going to budget and make sure Mr toast's um office is on board roll them out and then adjust as necessary so thank you so much for uh for the Wellness Plan and letting us do it and with that I want to introduce Dr hus and Miss Daniel for [Applause] engagement so it's pleasure for me to represent our Target area of Engagement um we often started our meetings by saying wow look around this room or look around the zoom and and look at the group we have together it's the best group of all the action plans and I'll stand by that to this minute um I had Ana Patel's in the room narava is in the room I think I saw Jen back there in the room um I hate calling out people because you always forget somebody but Maria orchid's usually here and may be in the room um but you can say it's an Eclectic group of parents uh community members teachers administrators and even a student Who provided their insight into helping us form this goal and all the actions related to it um this the vision basically is to do exactly as the goal is called improve engagement and I think I was lucky to to lead this committee and have Heather as my co-chair because she's already started and has a goal for a lot of the ways the district is going to improve our engagement and you'll see after this presentation of the Strategic plan she's unveiling the new website so one of our action plans is to um improve and and expand the website and it's already done so I feel like I've accomplished so much already and really it's thanks to Heather so if you want to go to goal one the Visions encapsulated in all three goals um goal one when we broke everything down was to enhance our decision making really by collaborating better with our students our family and our staff member and to Foster that um Bond of inclusivity right we have a very diverse community and we talked about how some people are marginalized and left out we want to bring in as many voices as we can some decisions we make and it's just with the board other decisions we make it's just with the administrators other decisions we make is we hear from a really outspoken group of parents but we don't get input from everybody so the goal here was to try to diversify our ways of communicating with the community and getting as much input and as much feedback as we can when doing um our decision making really trying to involve as many stakeholders as possible um the way we want to do that is to improve our ways of surveying uh we have such Advanced Technologies nowadays to distribute surveys but we were very cognizant and thoughtful about making surveys and using them to our advantage where we don't reach a saturation Point as many of you know you survey too much people stop participating and then you go from really useful feedback to no feedback at all so we do want to work on improving our surveys uh putting out surveys in multiple langu es putting out surveys in multiple formats and um even going into communities and talking to people and and listing input face to face so again goal one get feedback from as many people as possible let to simplify that goal two um was really interesting focused on students and improving transitions for all the students um really from school to school grade to grade especially in those big grades um 5ifth to 6th 9th to 10th I mean sorry 8th to 9th and uh trying to create cohesive bonds you have 12 elementary schools that then um funnel into four middle schools four middle schools that then go down to two high schools and very often more often than not people are in silos and they don't know one another until they move up into those next grades and um what was an aha moment from us that we took away some of the things that we used to do here in Edison were very good at helping us accomplish this goal that went away whether from just um overtime and attrition people leaving and and ideas leaving with those people or covid blowing up something like the camp Bernie trip that all fifth graders used to go on and create bonds with one another before going to sixth grade so one of the major goals is to find those best practices bring them back and identify other best practices that aren't being done and Implement them um and that takes us to goal three and gold three is really with the engagement not just take feedback in push out the message right what we just read a mission out loud we just read a vision out loud after we just read that out loud is anyone going to hear it again probably um but maybe not and our our goal here is to make sure that they do because I've been in many districts and I've been around long enough I'm long in the tooth these days and I've read visions and I've read mission statements they were on paper and you never see them again once you spend hours and hours forming them so our third goal is to really promote that promoted in the community and then Garner support in the community to make sure that mission and those and that vision is is put out and is accomplished and one of the big ones that comes away from here is the creation of Education Foundation and our goal will be to create an ed Foundation to partner with the the abundance of businesses and and um you know business owners and Community groups that we have in Edison and and bring them into the schools and let them feel like a part of the schools and again it'll help promote our mission but create that bond in some cohesiveness so really robust goals we have one more the fourth one is to create that partnership with the stakeholders um and when we say stakeholders that there's a lot to that right community members parents people who've lived here for 60 years who don't have students in the school anymore who still have a lot of pride in their community and and figure out ways to get input from everyone and and to help them form what this is a 203 that's scary to say right the the goal is 2030 Mission 2030 um so by that time what is the goal of what Edison schools will look like and and what our students come out looking like and it's a perfect segue into the next um Action Group which is the portrait of a graduate because by 2030 kids who are now in what seventh grade sixth grade will be our graduates what do we want them to look like and to figure that out I'm going to hand it over to Mr Cohen and uh Mr mcgr [Applause] thank you thank for the opportunity what do we want our students look like we want them to look like Mr McGrath uh so we're happy to talk about the great work of the portrait of a graduate uh we also just like all the Committees had a real eclectic diverse group a lot of really powerful voices we had some of the richest discussions with this group that Mr McGrath and I have had in our careers after the first session we both called each other like that was just an incredibly powerful discussion that we really benefited learned of us so we really appreciated the contributions of the members I want to give a particular shout out to Michin and Bill our student reps from Edison High and JP they spoke with such Insight maturity and Grace representing their their thoughts really clearly respectfully but also representing their peers as well not just speaking for themselves uh student voice was was a real big part of uh of this work um so so we go to our next slide know this action team had a big task they've got to take the input from so many stakeholders um and sort of put it all together to to make a something that was reflective not just of what the strengths of Edison are the values and the high expectations of our students for the future but to talk about in our discussions like you know we're preparing our students for success in a world that's going to be very different even just 5 years from now that work place will be so different there'll be jobs that didn't exist when kids graduated from here and they get out of college or there'll be jobs that no longer exist so it's what are the characteristics that will lead them to success in an everchanging world that's evolving all the time a big part of the voice when you see the different uh sources of data up there was the student input we had an advisory meeting with over 20 students from the high schools and their voice voice rang very loud and clear uh but again we took that into consideration with uh a lot of good information and came up with these six characteristics um I won't read them off but I will make an illusion to one of the previous slides that Nicole halin presented from the pathways committee where they talked about the top 10 uh employable skills and you see uh critical thinking problem solving all over that adaptive and resilient all over that effective communication all over that you didn't necessarily see emotional intelligent but you can see that in so many other uh research studies that show what does it mean to be successful in the workplace in life now so I think they did an incredible job in mapping out what we want for all of our graduates and then did something unique by turning uh rather than bullet point list of descriptors came up with these mantras more powerful statements uh so when we are really able to dive deeper and say what is this mean what are we going to teach our students to be able to do or be and we can break that up into developmentally appropriate age groups um when we talk about being emotionally intelligent we want all students to be self-aware well well regulated and socially conscious where they can read the room critical thinking and problem solving you saw that twice on the list of most employable uh characteristics uh getting our kids to be academically prepared and to be critical thinkers but not just critical thinkers and problem sers but Innovative doers right it's one thing for they can learn to think about content at high levels it's another thing if they can turn that into something of value and then of course being adaptive and resilient also on that list you'll see that being emotionally intelligent critical thinking problem solving and adaptive res are intertwined they all lead to the other um we want our kids to be academic Risk Takers we want them to feel that confidence in themselves but also be willing to fail and learn from failure here when it comes to being an effective Communicator this is where our language arts uh programming is is such a strong program as it is right now we're going to expand upon that and have our kids be effective communicators in every content and every context we want our students engaged we want them to be not only just taking what they learn and making contributions at school but outside school in the community and get them involved in service learning and lastly as resourceful lifelong Learners we want them to be able to give back to their community in ways that they are the role models we want our older students our our high school students and our middle school students to be able to impart what it means to be reflective of this portrait of a graduate for our younger students whatever they attempt to teach they learn 90% of so it's lifelong learning and they'll be able to get back and with that I'm going to pass this on to Mr mcrath thank you so I'd like to thank the Board of Ed Dr Al delli Mr Cohen and everybody who participated in this process related to a portrait of a graduate um as I see it my charge tonight is not to read slides to you but it's to help everybody who's here and who's at home to connect to this work um the reason that that's so important is this end result all of the folks who spoke uh here this evening before me um directed all of that work towards this towards this portrait and I think it's important that I start by explaining what a portrait of a graduate is not um it is not a singular mold that produces human carbon copies that go out and do the same thing in this world uh the portrait of a graduate is essentially the end result of a listening process that everybody here engaged in in a very thoughtful way so that we could collect the ideas and the experiences of our students of our parents of our Educators in the community and the end result is what we have here um on the screen are our goals and to summarize them they revolve around the individual students leaving with the skills and the knowledge that we feel as a community they will need to be successful and baked into that are some of the accountability measures that we will Implement over time to ensure that this comes to fruition if you could go the next slide please so our our takeaways um they're vast um first and foremost if I asked everybody in the room and those viewing at home to Envision um that caring adult who when they were a child leveraged their resources their time and their energy to make them or help them meet their potential um you could probably all do that the takeaway is as a system we have the ability to do that if we approach this in a thoughtful way and we listen to what has been said and all the data that's been collected um we can systematize that and put ourselves in a position where as a system we're we're leveraging our resources and our humans uh to to really give our kids what what they deserve um the voices of our students were were um profound um through the work that we did we heard over and over again that they thrive on those High academic expectations and they appreciate all the support from the teachers and all the staff here in Edison um but they also long for an environment that's not high pressure and one that holds those high expectations but also provides enough support uh around them so they don't feel that it's competitive but it's iterative and that they're they're moving in the direction of their dreams and the things that they want to develop and that came through and and really um I I think that the work that we did will move us in that direction so there's 18,000 reasons that we did this this is the first step towards bringing all of this home um so with that I'm going to ask Stacy and Bill Adams who were the Consultants Stacy was up earlier and uh bill was integral in in bringing this to Edison and keeping us organized um so I'm going to turn it over to them and they have some some closing [Applause] comments well thank you action teams action chairs uh and certainly the advisory committee and everyone involved in this uh I'm the closer so my job is uh to to bring you the 10 recommendations that came out of this uh and uh eight uh suggestions I'll try to do that in a concise way all of you will have access including members of the audience and uh those at home this will be posted on the website uh it's a 39 page document but it's supported by literally uh 450 slides in eight different presentations uh so we come to tonight with a lot of hard work behind us but the real hard work begins from tonight on for implementation so as we look at that the first three recommendations really are are together uh you know adop the adopt the mission and vision the mission really says who you are what you do who you do it for and H and and and what the end result is the vision where you want to go in the next three to five or even seven years so we're recommending with the effort that went in with the representation from across the community with both internal and external uh stakeholders that those those two um be adopted and then uh we're we're also uh recommending ing uh as as part of of this whole process that once you adopt the action plans and we're recommending you adopt those B annual these are the first two-year action plans that you agree to quarterly review them uh assess the metrics that were set were the metrics met uh if not what needs to be done to meet them uh and then uh we recommend that if as you you achieve some of them then you look at some of the objectives and goals that were not put in uh to tonight's action plans because it was too much to grab on to at this time to reach the vision of the future so those quarterly reviews become very important and then at the end of the first year do an assessment and then decide where you're going to go for the next two years so it's an ongoing process as was stated about the mission statement if you don't say it if you don't follow it then it just becomes a something else that goes up on a shelf and that's what sometimes happens with strategic plans so those first three steps are very important uh to moving forward uh so they they're they're recommendations one two and three and then um your your your name your your uh your tagline one Edison as we look at one Edison if you really want to achieve one Edison look carefully as as Mr to said when when you when you that in that infrastructure facilities plan that's the key to making the other four happen and actually the other three actionable for for the students and then the engagement piece to make sure the community is involved so as as you as you look at that really three things need to happen if you're going to reach that one Edison for everybody one is that some of these facilities needs have to be met intermediate uh immediate intermediate and longterm and as as you look at at at those those facility needs uh you're looking at at crowding it the the the hallways that Stacy was talking about was at JP Stevens uh just those hallways weren't made for the number of students in that building uh so those things need to be done in order for the other things to happen so that that that's number one and then while there's some really great things and these action teams did some really outstanding things there's some silos in a district and those silos really need to be broken down you need a systemized model and I know Dr aderi is working on a a a Leadership Model that that will that will knock down those silos and make more efficient and actually allow some even greater things that are happening to some of the the things that are are really happening already uh that will also as part of this require the action teams which almost uh had to work because of the timeline independently they've got to coordinate there is some duplication we know that so there's some things that need to be done there uh to make that happen and then obviously the engagement piece and and and Heather and and and the staff are already uh incorporating the Mantra and I think you'll even hear about some of that in the in the website presentation so they're they're the uh the uh the uh four first four uh recommendations fifth recommendation is to embed the portrait of a graduate in the culture of the Edison Township School District in literally everything you do there were six target areas mentioned by the co-chairs for each of those target areas you really want to look at the academic skills the social skills the life skills the emotional skills that are needed when students exit kindergarten first grade second grade and so on to reach the portrait of a graduate that could ultimately over the next Two Three or even five years drive your entire curriculum to reach the portrait of a graduate that would let on an individual basis every Edison Township student reach their full potential whatever that full potential is not as a cookie cutter but to be the best they can be so that that that's uh recommendation five and then the communications piece if you don't stay connected with the community you won't get the support of the community especially as you look at what may be some cost in the future and we'll talk about the need to be Innovative and creative uh with in that area but you have a very strong uh engagement plan that needs to be uh pursued immediately and I think that next step will occur very very shortly uh as you look at uh each of the five action plans each of those plans are interconnected and we recommend from this point on that that they be totally coordinated so that duplication is is eliminated and so that U the most is made of of the resources uh that are available actually as you look at then the action plans and you talk about providing staff with the skill sets they need professional development in the future should be driven by each of these action plans three in particular uh the three in in uh the the uh uh program Pathways uh the port pit of a graduate uh and and certainly the the wellness part of it your all of your professional development moving forward should be centered around those if you take the the Strategic plan to heart and then we re and this is an easy one for you the board to to achieve we recommend taking a couple of minutes at every board meeting and talk about the next step beginning in September if you implement and adopt the resolution tonight uh if you implement start at your September m board meeting take five minutes and just get one little piece of an update as to what's happening with a piece of the Strategic plan and then if the facilities uh and infrastructure plans going to be met uh you're going to need to be creative uh certainly uh with budgeting and uh and and and and and how resources are are utilized uh and I know some initial steps have already been taken as you have an architect looking at at what some of the needs are uh but as as you do that uh Finance is going to be important but looking at the organizational structure looking at Staffing is going to be important uh so all of that needs to be considered from a financial responsible side as you look at at cost that are associated the one thing that I I I kind of skipped by on on a couple of the action plans they're all great plans a couple of them need to be uh focused a little bit more on budget and and staff resources because you're going to be working on the 2526 budget very shortly if not already uh and uh we know that it may require some reallocation of existing resources in the 2425 budget uh to move forward so there are the 10 recommendations and I'll hit just very quickly on uh the uh eight uh suggestions we made we're recommending that to keep the public informed as part of the engagement process that you consider a dashboard that has the goals on them so the governing body you the board will have access to those at all times so that uh uh certain parts of it would be available at all times to the leadership team the cabinet certainly the the the District staff parents students uh and we believe that's one way as part of the effort you're making with uh the the website uh to keep the information out there to keep the community engaged and to keep community in support especially as uh you you you may have some resource needs over the next couple of years especially as some of the U this the state funding uh dries up that you're you're currently getting so the dashboard is is uh one option that we're recommending or suggesting uh you take a look look at and then certainly as strategic planning updates are are uh made as you make these quarterly checks uh they ought to be published in a prominent Place get them on the website get them on the dashboard if you go go in that direction and then uh the the next suggestion uh was not part of the advisory committee but you're already doing some great things with uh safety security uh we recommend continuing the efforts around Safety and Security and then Talent recruitment uh and uh uh and retention uh and and certainly uh onboarding of of talent and one of the things that did come out is as you are recruiting uh to make u a greater attempt even at recruiting staff uh that look like the community that look like the students that are being served uh as as part of that um we also um where where there needs to be a little bit more specificity and specific ficity in some of the action plans is uh to uh move forward and some of that gets to to budgeting and then as we just look at the the last couple of things together we've presented some resources to help uh as you move forward with a portrait of a graduate uh in particular uh one of the resources uh We've provided is some work that we did in South Jersey in Washington Township back in 2018 where they actually implemented their portrait of a graduate through K12 um we're also provided uh information on the Utah Department of Education uh work that they've done and it's work that's being looked at nationally we we just suggest as the teams move forward they they look at some of those those documents uh another document we've provided in the resources and you can see these on page uh 38 of the report is the aasa uh National report for Education 2025 and then there's a group uh that we're recommending uh they're taking a look at education 250 in the United States well why education 250 well in a couple weeks you're going to have some kindergarten students start and they're going to graduate in 2037 so as you as you look at strategic plan it's not just today it's about the future there our recommendations and our suggestions uh we're asking that begin with you the governing body of supporting those certainly uh we'll we'll address any questions uh that you may have uh before you consider uh anything further and I turn it back over to Dr aderi thank you so much thank you I first of all just want to compliment um not only the chairs of the action team for their presentation tonight I I couldn't be more proud of the work that you you've done but everybody that participated in the plan from the board members that are on this stage to previous Boards of Education to the community members and to everybody else that donated their time um Bill and Stacy hit the nail right on the head right the planning phase is completed and the and the most important part now and and probably the most difficult is implementation right this can't be a document that sits on the Shelf this is something that we need to monitor this is something that we as a board of education should speak about at um as well as an administrative team speak about at board meetings highlighting our faculty meetings as well as our administrative team meetings so um I I do thank you for that was a absolute pleasure throughout this process I don't know if there's any other board member questions or I do just first of all I want to say thank you for all your work and I also want to say thank you to the planning teams um I work with some phenomenal Professionals in the Edison Public Schools um I got to work with some teachers some administrators and even um some community members as well so it was a pleasure actually working with with you guys it's nice admin working with admin so it was pretty cool experience that's that's all I really wanted to say um but this is actually going to be a 5-year plan and obviously it's going to be a plan that the ministrative team is going to be working on every year it's a fluid document I'm guessing there's going to be changes with with uh resources finances and stuff like that from what I'm hearing yes I'm I'm guessing AB absolutely um it is a living document and that's why I said quarterly reviews uh every one of the action plans uh and you can you can see the the the cliffnote version of that in that 39 page document and then there's also the complete action plans that are available uh electronically uh though each action plan has a metric as to how you measure success each action plan is required to have a budget it's required to have a person or persons or job positions responsible to implement the plan so there's accountability across the board so I took a bunch of notes I'm sorry about the scribble but I'm just looking at this so like the superintendent's role he's going to be executing oversight he's going to ensure that the action plans are followed um objectives are pursued initiatives are launched or scheduled uh he's also going to be do progress monitoring I'm guessing with his team these are terms I'm hearing uh problem solving adaptation providing uh PD uh sustainability this is stuff that he's going to be doing every year correct well ultimately the buck stops with a superintendent and uh yes but I assume there are other team members that will will be responsible for portions of of that happening all right and again this is a 5year strategic plan that's going to be implemented So based on what I heard here my my um participation in the process um I'm I'm looking at Eddie now as a New Jersey Visionary superintendent I'm looking uh you're very receptive with the evaluation process too which I thought was great and one thing that really caught my mind yesterday was the summer Institute in the culture that you're building here and especially the culture you have with your admin team I'd like to commend you with that thank you um but I do know this role for you is tough and it's a five-year plan so 2020 not 2030 sounded so much better I will tell you I did take a little bit of Licensing to extend it that way all it's a 5-year plan 2030 sounds much better right this is the work Daniel for that this is the work I see you have to do you and your team this is what I think of you based on what I've seen with you just as a person and as a leader but I also know this is a 5-year plan so based on this I wanted to do a motion to board president in the ba to extend your year extend you another year for your contract so you could establish a fiveyear uh strategic plan I'd like to accept that motion I would like to make the motion there's a motion an a second roll call R was that for an extra year for me no I'm just kidding kid no throw it out there yeah yeah put your glove back on all right here we go Mr Lugo yes Miss Patel yes Mr Rivera absolutely yes Mr Schneider I have to thank you yep Miss White abent ition I have to abstain as well miss Pang yes vice president Romano yes president Patel oh for our Rockstar anytime yes motion [Applause] carries sorry Eddie I had to do it I I listen a little speechless to be honest with you and and unexpected so um f first of all the work that I've doing I I'm fortunate to to be in this place to be honest with you I I do believe things happen for a reason um and and I've been blessed with having great interactions and relationships with not only Board of Education members but our administrative team too uh Mr Rivera I I thank you so much for your your kind words and and unexpected um I hope my mom is watching tonight you know was as well too I know my dad is probably sleeping um and maybe my wife so I I've I I really appreciate that and I'm sure I'll be talking with the board president and our attorney right after this so thank you can we look forward to that executing that Foster ASAP so thank you so much Mr rera and thank you all the board members who uh some things like this are is music to my ears I still can believe in myself this is what we are doing but it's amazing I look forward to executing that so thank you so much and we by second everything that Mr R said about your services and the planning and everything so that's very good job and um Mr Adams and Mrs Adams very good job with the teams and all the administrators a very good job with pulling this together it was lot of hard work all the administrators supervisors everyone who is here in this room thank you so much for your incredible efforts really means a lot and this is investment in time investment of time for the district for the future and the kids will remember this and they will bless you all for that thank you we didn't for we forgot somebody yes Mr Roman go ahead uh I believe the website launch going through that the next so we do have we do have one more presentation current how it's a right about 10 minutes about 10 minutes and I know the administrators here if you would endure 10 more minutes andal Parts making this it's actually the fruit of their work and yours as well too absolutely and I'm going to allow them to come in nine minutes late tomorrow so it can be an 809 an 809 start all right so um we are going to make sure our sound is on yes Mr McDonald okay just bring up the site and here we are so I'm actually thrilled uh to share that tomorrow and I'm going to say the date Wednesday August 21st at 4M we are launching our new District website not only are we launching our new District webs website we are launching 20 20 school websites and this truly marks a moment I think I'm getting feedback am I getting feedback can you guys hear me okay I'm okay um this marks a truly important step in moving the district forward in terms of communicating with our community communicating with our staff our students and our parents um it's truly an anchor from what I'm hearing throughout the strategic planning process to move mov us forward to meet each of those five pillars so I'm excited to giving to be giving you a sneak peek tonight prior to the uh 4:00 turnover tomorrow um the culmination of this process really is due to a year of listening analyzing and developing a comprehensive intuitive growing website cannot be created overnight it is grounded in stakeholder feedback we receive feedback from PTO organizations we had parent feedback forms on all of our newsletters we had uh a feedback Forum on our old website uh I've also spoken with all the administrative teams in each of the buildings getting individual feedback from the buildings and u based on that F feedback there were many pain points the primary pain points were the lack of a cal integrated calendar system a lack of a streamlined navigation system lack of ADA and language accessibility and um lack of consistency throughout the district so this new design takes in all of those pieces and really has truly been designed from the ground up you can approach a website redesign project in two ways one of which is a full content migration from the old site over to the new site the second of which is building from the ground up we took the ground up approach because our old site had so much extraneous old information so we really took a look and sifted through the information to make sure that this new website will become an anchor of Truth for our community an anchor of facts for our community and a place that they can go first to find their information so now we're going to get a sneak peek to our website and let me scroll a little bit let's see okay so given those points the I want to Features parents uh based on analytics and their feedback had specific areas they want to be able to access with kind of a one click uh Food Services tutoring Transportation enrolling their child curriculum the district calendar and an enhanced search feature this enhanced search feature allows us to not only search our site but search segments of the site and you can search different sites so for example you can search just the district site you can search each School site so it does give you a filtering option in addition to the search feature in 10 days we are going to be implementing or integrating an AI chatbot which will take about 10 days to index once we go live that chat bot is customized to our district website as well as each of our building websites so when a user logs on to our website they will be greeted with a a chat a cute little chat bot that I'm still trying to make cute and um you'll be asked just in a commercial uh organization you know what can I help you with today and that chat bot will respond so not only do we have our search features and I'm going to show you about a little bit about the navigation excuse me in a moment but it's going to be truly interactive and call information for parents the translation feature if you look at excuse me all of the languages that are offered through translation you can pick all of these languages and parents have access to that translation feature right here here's our Global icons excuse me I'm going to take a sip of water you these Global icons linked to different areas of the website District news and events will be listed here rather than our popups we have a live feed that I'm going to describe to you in a moment we have some facts figures kind of telling our Edison Township Public Schools story we have etps and action will which will highlight videos throughout the district a high requested element is our district events every school now has a dedicated Google Calendar that I created for every building across the district the buildings enter their events into their individual School G uh calendars and those events feed into the district calendar so the district events and the school events are listed here you can click on a school here and specify the schools that you would like to see the events for and you can see that our amazing administrative and supervisory staff has already begun entering in events right back here bear with me there we go sat and and uh we do have an app so I'm going to uh play the app for you in a moment or play a video that is on every school web page I'm going to go to one School web page and I'm going to describe the school's web pages I think I'll go to jmi so if you notice for each School web page as you navigate through each school there is a now common navigation structure another request from families every school has the our school student life programs and services families and communities and employees resources structure every school has the same Global icons so a parent moving from one school to the next has consistency in their navigation experience they also have their news in their live feed and again videos that will'll be able to populate as well as their individualized school calendar every administrator and supervisor in the district will and and District administration has access to the live feed every administrator teacher I'm sorry supervisor and uh central office administrator has the app on their phone if we're in a classroom or we're in a building and we see something amazing going on we can take a picture through the app immediate immediately feed it to the live feed which is an internal social media portal that is one-way communication so it's a way for our district to tell to tell our story The me the news feed here schools can post their own news Districts The District can post down to the schools and I will give you a preview into the app I know we're all tired so I think I'll go right from here and see introducing the brand new app for Edison public schools on Android and iPhone it's everything Edison Township Public Schools in your pocket this is the home screen tap the three horizontal lines in the bottom left to see all of the menu items to turn on push not notifications tap settings and select notification [Applause] [Music] preferences tap subscriptions to subscribe to your [Music] school the event section shows a list of events throughout the school you can use this button to add an event to your calendar or tap here to share the event with friends and family the feed is where you'll find updates from Administration about what's going on throughout the school whether that's celebrating a Student Success or reminding you about an upcoming deadline search Edison Township Public Schools in the app store or Play Store to explore the app for yourself it's everything Edison Township Public Schools in your pocket I have to say that um I probably recorded that 30 times so that I could get the right recording my husband at one point wanted to leave my house or asked me to go someplace else it's so hard to do that right to hear your own voice so that app is downloadable um for our families it'll start to be promoted tomorrow on social media and um they can scan a QR code and once they download the app they'll be able to customiz that customize that app specific to the schools that they their children attend and and really streamline the information that they're receiving I do want to say though that um an effect in in a dynamic website is not stagnant and this is only the beginning so when we we design a website it doesn't stop today it's actually a beginning uh part of the process was training all of the administrative teams and I'm I'm going to be at your supervisor meeting next week to not only use the website but to really Garner their expertise in the content because if we have a collaborative voice in creating the content for this website we truly are able to represent and brand Edison as the great District that we are and start to really tell our story through our website um I thank you all for your support in this journey I thank all of our um administrative teams and our community members who participated in feedback and I really look forward to the this next step on our journey of creating some anchoring communication tools that we can use to start to Brand Edison Township Public Schools as the amazing School District that we are thank you thank you so much is there a cake header for cake cutting ceremony for the website that yes sure right okay why not all right thank you so much any board members want to come in on the website I would just like to thank everybody this was a this is a Monumental task and uh it's nothing but going forward we are going to go and get better at this we're going to do tremendous things communication between you the parents and the schools and the administrative team here that's the goal the goal is to make things better to make make things run smooth in other words our job is to see that it runs well that's the Board of Ed the administrative staff that's what they're doing right here see that's what Heather's doing working with Ed and work with all of the other administrators our principles or assistant principles that's what that's what they do they do a job they do a real good job we just sit here and watching in amazement at what they do so Heather nice job see you tomorrow morning 8 o'clock yes James Monroe presenting at 9: to new teacher Institute Communications thank you all right so thank you so much everyone for being here and we will see you soon at the convocation great thank you so much to all the administrator tonight do we want to see five minute breaket any e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e right at this point we'll begin our [Music] meeting right uh public comments on resolutions only any public comments on resolutions only saying none motion to end public comments oh your resolutions Jerry yes go ahead Chan uh this is about some of the policies um I see the policy 3324 on the agenda but uh we also the district has 5516 so to me 3324 about the not allowing videotaping recording is actually contradicting with policy 5516 5516 stated that the uh during school hours cell phone use is not allowed so if we enforce 5516 we don't need 3324 okay so go read it um and through the chair to the uh um policy committee chair Brian Rivera uh this is about the bylaw 1432 this is about the high school uh Representatives attending school board meetings is it in the resolutions it is in the resolutions 143 do2 bylaw so um why we changing that bylaw it says if you have more than one high school you shall rotate the representative why are we doing that we only have two high schools it's been working well for the past two years um they're coming bring their um you know thoughts I don't know why we're changing that and also for there are so many of them I didn't have time to read all of them and the other one is BW uh1 this is about type two School District it doesn't even apply to us why it's on the uh on the agenda hear that all right thank you so that's um I hear your last comment it's type for for type two School District we're not type to school district why we're adopting that that that bylaw okay so anything else Mr she the other is just just a comment uh BW 0163 it stated about Quorum and uh especially towards the end of the uh um the bylaw it clearly stated people who has conf conflict you know School Board member who are conflict should not be discussing issues that they have conflict with but we all know that we have conflict board members um you know a policy cheer you know that they are discussing things they're not they have conflict with so I hope that uh you know you guys passing this policy anding by this laws and reason and abide by these policies and by laws thank you thank you uh Dr Al you want to answer any of those yes so so these are are strikethroughs in relationship to that so again this is the the first read of these particular pieces right so the the practice for the board of having two um on there um is is definitely something that's going to be uh kept in place um so there they are strikethroughs in there the board has um access to this and uh not only the executive content as well thank you any more public comments ments on resolutions only saying none motion to close public comments on resolutions motion second Mr Romano Mr Schneider all in favor I I right at this point we will move to motion to approve personel report anyone motion to approve personal report motion Mr Schneider second second Mr Romano uh roll call Mr to Mr luga yes Miss Patel yes Mr rera yes Mr Schneider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes vice president Roman yes president Patel yes motion carries thank you at this point I will give it to Dr Aly for some comments yeah I would just like to acknowledge that we hired two new members of the administrative team currently right now uh our Benjamin Franklin uh vice principal if you wouldn't mind standing uh Mr Daniel vanzo and uh language arts uh English language arts supervisor over um for uh our high school programs Miss Michelle CIO congratulations looking forward to uh two wonderful additions to uh to our administrative team I know it's a little late so if if you'd like to be excused right now and go home and celebrate by all means you go ahead and do that thank you next is motion to approve Administration curriculum and instruction pupil Services reports May I have a motion motion Mr Lugo second second Mr Schneider uh roll call Mr to Mr Lugo yes Miss Patel yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Schneider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes vice president Romano yes president Patel yes motion carries thank you next is motion to approve Administration curriculum instruction oh sorry motion to approve Finance reports we have a motion to approve Finance reports motion Mr Schneider Mr Romano roll call Mr Toad okay Mr Lugo yes Miss Patel yes Mr Rara yes Mr Schneider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes vice president Romano yes president Patel yes m cares thank you next up is our committee reports first one is Edison preschool and special ed committee uh who is reading the report I can read it okay you okay all right perfect so the uh committee met on August 12th 2024 at 4 pm in attendance were Mr Romano Mr Rivera Miss Daniel myself uh and Dr Tui um based on this report um we talked about preschool expansion Aid um it's fully on track for full day program um for roughly 600 students um ages three and four beginning in the fall the district's application was reviewed by um the nation in the National Institute for early childhood education out of ruter in July was submitted to the Department of Education on Monday August 12th uh students have been selected and the families have been notified of those locations transportation is currently working on Roots um and this will be available in Genesis uh shortly and that will be uh discussed in our upcoming Transportation report as well um our Edison Success Academy um all construction projects are either completed or on track for a September um opening staff planning to move into the buildings on 8:26 um and they will be planning the openings of the doors to the students on the first day of school I'd be remissed if I did not um compliment Dr Tui um these are two large initiatives him and his team have done a wonderful job uh moving them forward it's my understanding that this is um one of the largest if not the largest preschool uh Grant uh application that the um Board of Education or that the state has ever seen so um extremely impressive and I believe exactly what the state's looking for so congratulations yeah that's a Monumental [Applause] task thank you next is uh Mr River policy committee good evening everybody so we had a policy meeting on a couple I'm sorry a couple days ago um attendees were myself Chris anena uh Dr Elli Dr Tui and Heather Daniel so the policy committee met reviewed alert 233 from Strauss asme the committee discussed mandated and revised policies as per to June 2024 alert and made choices from the options provided within the policies pertaining the policy 014 one number of the board members and term served and the types of physical evaluations needed for all new certified and non-certified staff further the committee reviewed the guidance provided by the attorneys in relation to policy 5756 additional policies reflected on August 20th 2024 board agenda or from March 2024 audit conducted by Strauss Esme further meetings will uh address the remaining policies that need to be updated from the audit I don't know if everybody remembered but we had tons of policies that needed to be updated I believe it was a couple of hundred so we're working on these diligently uh the committee also discussed policies related to vendors and board member interactions for future meetings thank you thank you next is buildings and grounds Mr Schneider uh yes thank you president Patel um on Thursday August 1st we did a buildings and grounds meeting it was an all day meeting we basically spent the school day together we met at the Ed Center at 9:00 it was myself Joe Romano and anena Patel we were joined by members of the administration and we had a great day we started off with um a meeting in the Ed Center and we talked about all of the updates and looked at pictures of everything that's happening um we looked at uh all of the data and timelines of when things are going to be finished the good news is by September a lot of stuff that seems to be in disarray today on August 20th we'll still um you know it while it looks like it's not going to be done it will will be done so some examples of that we have bathroom upgrade upgrades throughout the district U Mr cabus is leading an effort to renovate a ton of bathrooms just to be uh clear on that that's five bathrooms at Herbert Hoover Middle School four bathrooms at Ben Franklin four bathrooms at EHS four bathrooms at woodro Wilson two bathrooms at Lincoln four bathrooms at MLK and two bathrooms at JMP in addition that was all this summer in the last month or two um in addition we looked at the status of the future projects not even what's started yet but the things we've started on paper those included three major major projects jmi being one jmi is already funded um USA Architects is the lead architect on that and that should be ready for a bid package in December um John Marshall which is a if uh I don't know if those plans are out there yet but the plans are just spectacular um the Project's with the New Jersey Department of Education for review right now and it's being reviewed by for a fiveyear ground lease by Acacia financial and lastly was the Edison High School project we have been um you know the previous board and this board is working hard to to renovate this building that we're in right now and um there's a number of different choices we can make but in in a nutshell our uh very um aggressive initiative is to get that done we still have to think about financing for that and figure out how we're going to do it um it's not like the money grows on trees but at the same time I think that um you know the the the students here deserve it we also have um all the projects so the most exciting part after we talked we actually went to uh we got into a couple of SUVs and drove around and we started um by going to all four middle schools we went to TJ Hoover woodro and John Adams and all of the projects and all of the renovations going on there should be completed by September I don't think that has changed right Mr cbus I think we're good for September um the major wow factor at all of these buildings is obviously the um gymnasiums auditoriums that um we have stages in a few of them it's just um the technology and the the the grand nature of these structures is just it it was really incredible to see it was actually emotional we started these projects in 2022 if anybody's really bored when day go on YouTube you could watch the phase one it was Dr bragan introducing the phase one projects and we had a committee the whole meeting and um so it's like April or March of 22 was when we initiated the conversations and we're cutting ribbons in September right so that gives everybody a timeline as to how long it takes to get things approved to go through the entirety of the process and obviously end on something that ultimately is great for our students right um the the the projects uh the one project if you if you're familiar with Thomas Jefferson you'll see that that in addition to um and all the all the buildings have a little bit different in terms of bells and whistles but Thomas Jefferson if you've ever been in the Breezeway there now the Breezeway is super duper wide it's got a hallway that leads to the new gy gym and it's got a proper um security vestule and it's just a really Safe Way for the students and the staff to enter the building previously our security officer was sitting in the hallway on a little desk it was dilapidated and um for a building built I think it was the 1950s or something so it's just so wonderful to see how modern the building is going to look in the entry way and when those students enter the class rooms um in September they're just going to feel good about what they're walking into it's going to be spectacular um we then went to JP Stevens now the JP Stevens project was also started um with discussions in 22 but that's a bigger project if to remind everybody it's like 28 classrooms it's it's um the auditorium is getting totally redone there's just a lot going on there so it takes a little bit longer but uh the progress has been significant um Interiors some some cool things like just new ceilings and and new LED lighting but like the big thing is you see the steel structure that's up and you really see the the the vastness of it and how impactful it will be for the student students you could only imagine that you know when we're talking about the Strategic Vision the biggest impact we as a board could have on that vision is infrastructure right so um all of these efforts are now paying dividends and that steel structure gives you an idea of what kind of impact it'll have um big problem there was the auditorium in the stage so imagine ripping that entire um you know Auditorium apart essentially and converting a an an Old Stage that used to have a lot of flooding issues they did a whole French drain outside they dug down they did all the waterproofing that you'd see at almost like a house but like way deeper and way more significant and then on the inside the stage is now concrete so the technology is going to be similar to this the beauty is going to be similar to this but like the stuff that nobody really um you know might see is the real important things like the the the French drain and the concrete of the stage and the way that you're able to really protect it from future um uh issues with the water um because everybody knows if you've been around JP St the water table's a little funky over there um oh another note I have here is the TJ um uh cafeteria because we put a stage in the new multi-purpose room which is the gym we also then ripped out the stage from the old one and what that enables us to do is add another 50 or 60 or 70 chairs for the um cafeteria so the students will just have more room to eat lunch and it'll be more comfortable for them um we talked about a lot about air conditioning we talked a lot about a lot of stuff I mean we had lunch together we had a great day together um we took a ton of pictures um I think it was really positive I think uh everybody that was there would agree and um I think that everybody should really look forward if you haven't been to the buildings when you walk in if you walk into any of these buildings you're going to be wowed um lastly the Edison Success Academy it was touched on here um that's a building that's been in our possession for quite some time it's now being used for this purpose and it is spe you know really spectacular in terms of the the the the use and also the way it feels when you walk in and that openness if you haven't been there if you ever get a chance to go it's got like this really cool room when you walk in it's a repurposed our savior's church so they used a lot of the architecture there to make it look and feel cool it's going to be a very inviting space for the students that are there and um a great great way to utilize real estate that we had so and that also will be uh available for use in September so I that was a long report but it's really important stuff and I thank you for for the time board president thank you Mr Schneider so I have a question for Mr to when is the ribbon cutting so board members can mark their calendars for each of this gym openings yeah we're going to set that up for September awesome very good we look forward to that right next is um Township lers and Mrs White okay here we go uh the township Bo Lea sign committee was held on Tuesday August 6th 202 24 at the education center the meeting began at 11:00 a.m. and ended at 12:00 noon in attendance in person were mayor's Chief of Staff Bob deal community community constituent relations coordinator B Coyle councilman John pointer Lieutenant Doug Turner superintendent Dr aderi assistant superintendent of operations Dr hus assistant superintendent of special services Dr tuy director of security Pat Cain Boe Boe Vice President Joe Romano and Boe members Brian Rivera and Virginia White Deputy Chief of Police Bob dudes and Boe member angine Patel attended via Zoom we began our meeting with deputy chief dudes Who provided the following updates pedestrian activated crossing signs were moving forward steadily and they're appearing all over I mean you can see them at different schools uh the JM the Jam's uh traffic study is ongoing the junior Police Academy was very successful this summer uh possible collaboration with the police health department and Boe for the hidden in plain sight program this is something new that's coming up uh the National Night Out was cancelled due to weather and the Police Unity Tour in Edison ride uh the Edison ride took place Lieutenant Turner thanked everyone who assisted in the unity Tour the unity Tour is just getting started and we're hoping to continue to move forward with this project Dr aldarelli mentioned the Boe convocation scheduled for September 4th at the Expo Center he cited traffic concerns and alerted chief dudash who said they would be addressed uh Chief of Staff Bob Doo provided the following Township up updates the Battle of Short Hills dedication was very successful thank you to the JP Stevens band band director John Cale and choir director Matthew Lee for providing the music and national anthem for the event the new Splash Park is open and very successful the township Bond and Bud budget passed and the township master plan was adopted at the July council meeting councilman John pointer asked questions about the plan regarding maintenance of the cricket pitches and the Boe will coordinate with the township to address these issues Pat Quil stated that the mayor's second boot camp for Edison students begins on August 12th this is an opportunity to promote available opportunities for students looking for leadership and internship programs offered by Edison Township the next liaison meeting is scheduled for uh Tuesday October the 8th respectfully submitted Virginia white chair thank you thank you thank you next is Mr Lugo Transportation committee thank you board president uh the transportation committee met on Monday August 19th 2024 in the education center our meeting started at 4:30 in attendance that was myself uh Mr virgin white Mr Doug Gian Mr John to Dr hus and Dr Alder Elli the transportation supervisor um has informed the committee of the following as it relates to subscription bossing so far this year um there have been 200 uh 2,844 students placed on buses with new enrol e are uh being addressed information regarding acceptance and payments for subscription busing has been provided for those who are interested Advanced payment is necessary in order to secure subscription busing also the subscription portal is set to reopen for those who are interested October 1st and will close on October 15th there also be a meeting held for bus drivers and AIDS on Thursday August 22nd where attendees will complete required training and related uh training related to safety and other job related procedures to date the district has 45 drivers and 16 16 AIDS Mr Gan is in fored the committee that the bus passes will be available on Friday August 23rd and they'll be able to be viewed in the parent portal on Genesis Mr G has also updated the committee on the following software and tracking updates uh stop finder uh invitations will go out to parents of students on board Vehicles Prior to school starting for the trip finder Loggins have been sent to principals and their delegates to enter class trips sporting events and other student related trips and finally wayfinder the wayfinder training has started and 15 d drivers to date have participated our meeting concluded at roughly 5:15 p.m. an additional meeting will be set up in the month of September to debrief after the opening of school thank you board president thank you Mr Lugo next yes Mr and just as an additional uh update to that um I did speak with uh Mr Gan our transportation supervisor today in relationship to the wait list um that we had talked about during Transportation currently right now he informed me um that there are currently only seven individuals seven students that are on the wait list right now okay um that have requested so those um uh those families that requested sub subscription busing um that have had the opportunity to get that there's seven students on the weit list currently that's awesome so looking forward for a better year thank you uh food and nutrition committee uh Mr Roman comment who is going to read the food and nutrition committee I have no comment okay all right so now we'll open up for public comments U Mr R want to read that read it okay all right now comes the section of the meeting for public comment as mandated by the board policies please come to the microphone and provide your name and address for the record you will be permitted six minutes to address the board when speaking please address all comments to the chair the board will not permit any profane defamatory or political commentary as a reminder please use your time wisely public comment is not intended to be a question and answer period in the it is the time for the meeting where the public may speak on any topic associated with the business of this board um the superintendent um with this new website is going to be um if it's appropriate answering questions so the entire public not just the members of the uh of the public that are here presently or watching it on the screen there might be information that anybody uh in the public would like so he's going to uh provide answers uh and a timely basis uh on the website for the citizens so please again time for you to address the board not for the board to uh have debate back and forth thank you so before we open up the public comments quickly any board member comments if any board president Mr Snider go ahead yeah I just wanted to um Miss Daniel Miss Heather Daniel the website presentation you made was really really special it was great um as a parent I can't wait to use it um the calendar aspect of it is really exciting I think it's going to be great to just click on it and put it on my phone and um I I want to commend you for that because I know that I can't imagine to on board all of the schools and the content and everything how much that must have how much effort that would have taken um the other thing is the Strategic plan that was presented tonight I didn't comment I did not comment on it before but I want to now it's a huge huge thing for this District we haven't done one since 2012 people might think it's a waste of time but anytime you run any kind of big organization it's important to have some sort of mission and some sort of goal so this way when we get off Mission which sometimes we do we can point back to it and say is this is this really what we're here for and I think that it really encapsulated everything that this um Township not just the school district but everything we stand for in Edison so I just wanted to thank Dr Al delli for um for spearheading that um it there's a reason it hasn't happened in a while and there's a reason it happened this year so thank you very much for that thank you thank you anyone else Mr um I also wanted to echo on on your on Doug sentiments but um I also wanted to wish uh congratulate mold family for the retirement of their number if anybody knew Mr mown they would know he had a good heart he was a good person and uh just his entire family his daughter taught my child so I appreciate his her efforts with my child as well but I really wanted to cont to con congratulate the family on that honor and I also wanted to wish all the the staff our students the families you know school year is about to start so I hope everybody has a successful School Year and a happy one a healthy one and I wish you all the best in September thank you girl yes M okay um as you can tell everybody has been working very very hard over this summer between strategic planning our transportation department has been doing amazing things and you know the proof is in the pudding we're going to see that during that first week of school to the staff and everybody and all of our students I wish you well it's going to be a great year I just know it and congratulations Dr Adell thank you you're the best thank you all right so public comments I know Mr Mara is here so let him go first thank you Mr Bell uh five C Court in Edison Anthony Mara before I start I'm here on policy 5756 as I always have been I want to make a comment about what I say I I've spoken rather sternly on policy 5756 I I want to make it clear to the board my comments are about the policy not about the board members I admire you guys you guys have a hard job um I hope you don't take this the wrong way I love you guys I saw how hard your work is especially last meeting at James um Madison School oh my gosh you guys have a hard job I see that so please understand my comments are not about you it's the policy the policy is evil that how much that much having been said let me get down to business uh I've spoken before about a rule that God gave us it's called the Golden Rule we all know it is do un to others as you would have them do un to you you can't argue with that policy it's a fundamental rule of living policy 5756 is contrary to that rule is there any parent on this plan who would want to be who would say yeah my son and daughter my son and daughter is getting is going to change gender don't tell me you at to school keep me in the dark there isn't a parent around who would say that we all want to know what's going on with our children if you say that as a parent keep me in in the loop don't keep me in the dark why are you doing it to the parents of this this Township policy 5756 says don't tell them if we know here in Edison that a student's going to do something to change his gender keep that parent in the dark that is wrong that is wrong you should be ashamed of yourself Abol you 5756 now wipe it out the golden rule is fundamental to living it's is it's it's Foundation it's building box just as gender is you mess with the golden rule you're going to have problems with your life Everyone likes to to work with someone who who treats you the way you want to be treated mess with gender it's the same thing that's why the suicide rate amongst transgenders is so high it has nothing to do with prejudice as as those who would claim it is it has to do with you're messing with fundamental building box that same God who gave us the Golden Rule also said have you not read that he created him from the beginning made them male and female male and female that's it there are two genders you mess with that you mess with the fun fundamental building blocks of human race and that's why the suicide rate is so high people who try to change gender they can't handle it that same God also gave us honor your father and your mother honor Mom and Dad if you're a parent you can't argue with that policy 5756 dishonors mom and dad by keeping him in the the dark again there isn't a parent around who doesn't want to know something like that about his children but you're keeping him in the dark shame on you abolish you 50 abolish 5756 now but 5756 goes further it says that the transgender student can compete with those of the gender with which he identifies generally men competing with women you know the transgender Community LGBT community is all about equality they they they they they march to that tune well that's not equality that's superiority you are persecuting you are you you you are being treating these girls very unfairly stop it stop it now but it goes further it says that the these transgender students can share the restrooms with with those of the the gender which with they identify generally guys going into the L room that is Unthinkable that is absolutely Unthinkable do you want your mom or daughter in there is that what you want you're persecuting the girls you're persecuting them shame on you abolish abolish it now if you don't abolish it now you think you're going to do it in the future when even more is demanded by the LGBT community if you cannot lift a 10 pound weight how are you going to lift a 50 pound weight if you cannot run a mile how are you going to run 10 miles if you can't abolish it now when it's relatively easy how are you going to do it when more demands are made of you you think this is the end of it you think 5756 is the end though it's the beginning more will be demanded of you if you don't have the backbone to polish it now you're not going to have it in the future a Bish 5756 now while you have the chance thank you for your time thank you uh Beth no Beth you can go ahead good evening Beth taly 15 Midwood Avenue first of all congratulations Dr aldarelli you finished all that work that we worked on and great presentation tonight and great hard work Miss Daniels you did a good job it looks like it's going to be great appreciate it um couple questions number one with all of the building I brought this up before that's been going on there was somewhat of a discussion about having a foreman who could be on site checking prog progress and construction as it's going on has anything happened with that move forward on that because with everything going on to the extent that it is the magnitude of the jobs it would be beneficial especially if Works being done on weekends and so forth so somebody could be overseeing it um also I'd like to bring up once again our calendar which I brought up last spring um Bureau about being that we are such a diverse Community to be inclusive of all holidays and all religions so we should have all of them on here or none of them and I've yet to see a revision to add in some of our Christian holidays like Christmas rather than saying winter break and Easter rather than just saying spring break it's not funny I don't think we should be laughing about it there was you know we've had issues about divisiveness in our schools and we should be inclusive of all and included all being that were diverse and teach everybody and educate everybody about all of them or not have any of them listed being that we're getting a new calendar updated maybe we can revise it while doing that lastly I'd like to bring up I see we have a new attorney sitting up on the de from I think a different Law Firm I didn't see anything like voted on tonight or why that ch change was done to us as a public to see what's going on and also mid meeting to hear that there's going to be a change that the Public's comments will not be answered directly at the meeting rather than Dr alzari will get to them when he can and I know he's a very busy man and sometimes if it's a quick answer that could be done at the meeting while we're here um to the attorney these are meetings that are um televis live and on our website so that people can very well hear the answers there and hear them live rather than waiting till a very busy gentleman like Dr aldarelli has time to respond to them um that's it but I'm sure you're not going to say anything or respond to it but just please think about it and kind of you know president if you can tell us why we have a new um attorney sitting up there cuz usually in the past I don't know I've been at meetings for many years when we've had a change of attorney in different firms it's been voted on and said something to the public about it thank you so I hope you can be a little optimistic Beth because uh this is not a new attorney he was voted upon um earlier in June and he was he weathered the Storm at James Monro with whole bunch of people that was his first meeting and he was with us at James Monro this is his second Mee meeting in terms of website and the questions and everything we always want to try something new right it's not stopping anyone for answering or speaking that's not the idea here um we can look into it as we go but the whole purpose is Heather is putting together a wonderful website and we'll try something new where they can really answer questions now the one of the thought process behind this is the parents can see what others are asking who could not make it to the meetings and they can see the responses in certain cases but some question like yours about if Mr to has answered he can answer right now about that infrastructure whatever it was thank you very much for your comment don't mean to be back and forth but it should have been stated at the beginning of the meeting prior to it voted on I'm not sure if the rest of Board of Ed members knew that thing was changing but you should let us know thank you ma'am yes Mrs con Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle I'd like to start by congratulating Dr aldarelli uh he's come a long way he was appointed as a HR person and he showed us his strengths and then he was taken upon to be an Acting Superintendent and after a number of months he proved himself to the powers that be and where he was elected to be the superintendent now his stien I recall when he became acting was not to my liking but he grabbed it but he proved to everyone that what he was doing was a good job what I'd like to speak about is his ability to be a visionary and be able to prove to everyone else in the district that if they prove themselves as being good workers good leaders that they too will get the recognition that they need and having all the principles here tonight was a great way to prove that he feels confident with the people that he hires and that in the same time the principles that we have here feel confident with the people that they hire that they feel confident that their workers have proven themselves also so kudos to you for showing the right way of doing things and I just would hope that everyone else would follow in that vacular and show their employees that yes you have proven your Worth to us and we are thankful for that and we Pro will proceed in appreciating ourselves are you doing that on purpose my time is not up we can well I can talk loud enough I was a teacher so I wish to have everyone know that this is what one of the things that Dr altarelli as a Visionary would hope for all of his administration and his administration would hope for all those employees the only other thing I'd like to talk about um two other things the first thing is I don't know why but people in my neighborhood come to ask me for the answers and the only thing I can say is I'll ask at the next meeting if you notice at um many of the television programs lately the news talking about the different districts and their um looking to ban the use of cell phones in the schools they're not allowing them to be used during the day and they wanted to know what our district feels about uh not allowing cell phones in the schools during the day and I my response was it's not my school district but I will ask so I don't know whether whether any conversation has taken place about it yet or if it ever will but people have been talking about pros and cons regarding cell phones so I wanted to just put that out and my last thing is I applaud everything that took place and Heather is unbelievable and the atams have been working hard for many months the only question or problem that I have is your agenda and Heather has promised me that she will make accommodations as a special ed teacher through my years I made accommodations for my students I would like the board to make accommodations for the people that are pulling their hair out with your current agenda thank you thank you next uh yes Miss sorry for apologies for the technical issues with the mic hi my name is Cindy Ma and um I live in Edison South Edison okay the speakers are bead oh okay uh you want to come in a little bit in the front speakers are down you can come the front speakers down okay okay okay hello oh okay back that was that's good thank God okay I come don't have to say my name again my name is Cindy Ma I live in South Edison um I come before you again to speak against policy 5756 works I sent you I sent you all an email about Elon Elon Musk in an interview with um wire podcast he said he was tricked into signing papers for his son to have a sex change even the richest man in the world was deceived because now he regrets that decision and is dealing with the pain of that decision he said to his son he said that his son is now dead meaning his son's name and body now is a female he was told that his son would commit suicide if he did not allow his surgic this uh surgical procedure now is it it's to don't you know that it's it's an emotional blackmail when someone says to us if you do not allow me uh to do things my way I will commit suicide it's totally manipulative what if a what if our children don't want to go to school well we make them go we give them boundaries for their good we love them enough to say no to protect them from harming themselves the school policy 5756 will bar parents from Guiding their child's confusion of their sexual identity there are physical and spiritual laws that if we break there are consequences for example the physical law of gravity if we jump off you know like a building or a tall tree we will fall and get hurt when we go against God um when we go against the the god designed and ordained order of sex if we break those laws we will suffer the horrible emotional outcome of those decisions like Elon Musk and his son lies of destructive and will not Outlast truth truth and and facts do matter because so much data have come out to refute this transgender ideology this new information just came out the American Society of plastic surgeons an organization representing 92% of all board certified plastic surgeons in the US has become the first Major Medical Association to break from the consequen over gender aering um care for for minors now this along with UK hospitals doing gender surgeries that have been closed due to lawsuits as well as the testimonies of the transitioners who are s who have who are suffering from irreversible changes damages and medical side effects of their decisions made when they did not know any better they are now questioning why did the adults in their lives did not stop them this policy 5756 from the government is taking away our con our parents constitutional rights to be parents to our children our children do not belong to the state the only place where children belong to the government is in the communist countries like China or North Korea in the communist countries they do not allow any dissenting opinion that is what is happening to us in the political realm in some places in New Jersey people who speak up against the lgbts getting death threats it is Viewpoint discrimination and I repeat Viewpoint discrimination when only one side is heard and policy are based on that one side only it is Viewpoint discrimination we followers of Christ want to speak the truth in love love without truth is flattery we care about the pain and harm that results from deceptions in making wrong decisions truth cannot be suppressed it cannot be hidden it transcends and transforms truth sets free heals and redeems dear board Ed members may God bless you and keep you and may God give you the grace and wisdom and strength to do what is right and honoring to God because we will all answer to him one day thank you thank you you next public comments yes ma'am thank you Mr President uh my name is Gerald maglio I'm from the Dolores Turco Foundation I've spoken before I just do want to say that I'm very impressed I've been before dozens of boards and this is a very impressive one your students are articulate uh also impressive um so but I am speaking today regarding um 5756 and I thank you for your decision to critically review this policy and I'd like to address some of the concerns regarding lawsuits that came up at the last meeting uh to begin with Mars County court has determine that this policy is not mandatory School Board Statewide adopted it because of the misrepresentation uh that it was and are now seeking to repeal it according to Hanover the board Board of Education uh the policy is wholly one-sided fails to provide a mechanism to address and manage conflicting concerns of all students parents administrators staff and the district as a whole um they recognize the uh councel the fact that there is no Authority that gives minor children an unfettered right to the exclusion of their of privacy to the exclusion of their parents conversely the overwhelming binding Authority from from the Supreme Court to state and federal laws demand that parents be apprised and have access to all information concerning their children um also the the Handover attorney pointed out that the this blatantly exposes a district to liability for potentially withholding and concealing information from parents without a legitimate safety concern for doing so uh next I wanted to point out the Cedar Grove uh the New Jersey Cedar Grove School District um in a recent decision the department US Department of Education made a formal finding that the school district violated parental rights um the protection of pupil rights amendment PPR it prevents public schools from collecting information about political uh affiliation sex Behavior attitudes uh of individuals with whom the respondents have close family relationships in other words the do us doe made it clear that Cedar Grove cannot distribute surveys to students asking parents about gender identity without providing parental opt out notification uh next I wanted to point out the focus on the illegality of the Biden administration's mandate expanding Title 9 which prohibits sex discrimination in schools to now include sex orientation and gender identity this policy would allow just like 5756 males who identify as females the right to use female restrooms and also consider refusal of using pronouns as harassment well 20 federal judges in 22 states have issued injunctions to prevent the Biden administration's new regulations from going into effect um one judge well I better move on a little bit uh just to point out all the information is in a letter that I sent you but I do want to point out that the Supreme Court refused to allow the Biden Administration Title Nine changes included gender identity or sexual orientation to take effect 24 states have passed a help but not harm laws to prevent children from surgically and chemically disfiguring their bodies um I just want to point out something about doctors protecting children declaration this is the American College of Pediatricians and other medical organizations um they have affirmed that there are only two Sexes and they recognize the biological recognizing biological differences between male and female is critical to not only the practice of medicine but good sound public policy um they point out that so-called gender transition social transition harms children um that children that treating them different from their their sex Often by encouraging the use of new names inaccurate pronouns clothing Etc um is U that this is socially affirming them would progress to more harmful um interventions like puberty blockers and sex hormones um and then in just the last minute one other thing that they point out that transition affirmation does not prove to be safe or effective longterm it does not not reduce suicides it does not repair mental health or trauma minors cannot truly give informed consent because they have developing brains and their minds change often they're prone to risk-taking and um let's see and then just one last thing to end with in the last seconds here I I'd like to just end with a quote first we Overlook evil then we permit evil then we legalize evil then we promote evil then we celebrate evil and then we persecute those who still call it evil the simply behind the transgender policies is an evil agenda that is threatening the very lives safe safety Health and Welfare of our children States and even nations are waking up to these atrocities that mutilate and sterilize children those in a position to defend children must have the wisdom to see the deception and the courage to stand up for truth and not be bullied or intimidated into silence because our kids are worth fighting for thank you and God bless you thank you next Mr shei Jeri Edison first uh you know um I was so glad to see the uh fiveyear plan coming to fruition if 11 months in the making congratulation to get it done you know when you came on board we set up the direction to do the plan and it's done it's a living document we'll continue to work on it um I hope there are some of the the detailed plans that in there there's a a timeline with when these steps uh can be uh you know should be done otherwise it's it's open-ended document and the other is uh you know um the website great new hire last year and uh we're seeing the result um you mentioned about the but um the things that sometimes in the old search uh some of the old information is still there so when we move into the the new era if we can expire some of the old ones so they don't come into the the search result okay great all right um one thing I I I I don't know the the calendar are are they downloadable to uh to the people's phone okay the the whole thing I can download the whole entire okay um some questions for the the committee um uh chairs uh facility committee chair uh through the the chair to the facility committee chair doc Schneider um I didn't hear any uh updates about the road from new do to JP Stevens uh can I have an update on that and also uh we have seen the solar panels being stored uh on most of the school roofs uh is a solar project completed and uh if I recall um they promis they're going to give us some charging stations at least in the high schools and I haven't seen them so uh where are those charging stations um the jmi timeline was mentioned in December uh it was supposed to be bit ready in January uh why is a delay is a a change in the design of the uh the the the the building the other question is um when is the Marshall uh schools going to be bit ready um last year when we gave the U um the marching order for the architects for Marshall and Edison High um it's the same time but based on the update today seems Edison High is behind um there's no timeline as to when it's going to be bit ready so if we can get a uh um some information on the you know when the uh bid can be U uh issued uh again for the transportation committee through the chair to uh Mr L gole uh you mention the number two 2,844 and I assume those are the students who will be on the uh subscription bus so my question is with this year we have 500 students going to the prek program um most of them are not in the schools uh how many routes we have added and uh how many of these uh you know students are um amount the 2,844 uh some of the facilities they are smaller and uh if you're looking at a traditional 52 passenger buses probably will not even make it so what is a plan for the transportation committee um sending these little ones to uh these uh kindergarten facilities I know some of them Auto Town um so if we can get some update on that um that'll be great and uh you mentioned about the uh um stop finder that's the um tracking software uh is that going to be only on the school uh uh Edis buses or it'll be uh extended to the uh contracted buses so if you can have some clarification on on that that'll be great as well um I hope some questions can be answered because some of the the questions came from the parents and uh it's much easier to answer them takes 30 seconds rather than you know wait down the uh when it's going to be published on the website um you know we want be transparent you want people to come here attend the meetings and we will come here you don't answer questions that defeats the purpose so um that's my comment thank you very much thank you Dr you want to answer the transportation questions uh I mean the two that we can answer really quickly off the top of my head I'd have to research a couple more of them prek-k busing is mandatory as part of the grant so any student whether it's internal external all have to be uh busts as per um uh the Federal Regulations Dr Tu is shaking his head and yes tracking software is only on our buses currently interal correct and to add to that uh we are uh we added approximately 450 or we're busting I should say 450 additional more subscription bus studing versus the previous year to do the math on that I mean that's that's at least nine more buses could be in the ballpark of you know 20 or so rounds okay uh real quick I'll speak to jmi uh we hope to hold I'm not sorry not jmi Marshall The Marshall Project we hope to hold a public hearing on a ground lease in September uh jmi was pushed back because it needed uh final approval for the doe um and due to the nature of that project our AR of advise that um it won't be ready till December uh it could come in earlier but they're they're you're marking December um Edison High School uh we awarded SSP a contract to do the full uh design for the obviously the addition and renovation to the um Orchestra room that's from start all the way through closeout uh next steps is identifying financing thanks thank you next met Matt revnak ETA president first of all I'd like to commend the board and congratulate Dr Al delline extending the contract a year um you're a great person to work with you know as you guys know I've gone to Annapolis trust is always Foundation of anything we have that with Dr aldarelli and his staff and the other thing of a good leader is getting a good Supporting Cast around them and I believe somebody mentioned that before you know whether it be Jonathan or or Chris hus or HR Doug or the rest of you administrative team Heather Etc you know it's it's refreshing when you know you have an issue and you can talk it through and that's what adults and professionals should do so congratulations look forward to continue working with you for the next five years hopefully okay a couple of things I just want to mention um great presentations to everybody that did it tonight sometimes I've been coming to these meetings a long time and presenters I'm like God if they were a teacher they'd be fighting for their jobs not tonight I thought the presentations whether it be the two people that were from the you know research firm I talked to them actually individually while you guys were in close session or Heather's presentation the principles and supervisors and your administrative team did an excellent job in presentation um in fact I think people look forward to it at the convocation hearing you know what you have to say about the roll out of it next thing uh was all alluded to about our new member orientation as usual ETA and we thank you for having us um the first day we do Supply lunch as well I know they say it's the best lunch they get for the week so we're happy to do that as always but it's refreshing to see the young people the TR people coming in from other districts and the enthusiasm in spark in that room and it it really is great um I walked around even afterward I stayed a while just to mingle go more individually and you can see the the the glow in their eyes and you know the enthusiasm they have for coming here so again I think it's a great job hiring the new people and recruiting some perhaps some other districts that are coming here next thing I want to mention is the I know you guys voted on it appr appreciate it but I do want to um mention the evaluation system being approved by the state I was part of the original committee on that seven years ago seven years ago I expressed that it's the best committee I've ever sat in in my 36 years here and 7 years later reconvening the committee I will stand by that statement it's wonderful to have six administrators and six Educators come together and develop a very effective tool quite honestly better than any tool that's out there from the other evaluation systems glad it got passed by the state I think our staff will be happy also because while it's a great to always look to improve it and that's what the committee did so kudos to everyone on the committee both sides from the administrative point and from the Educators point my only sad issue is that now being the president I will be no longer on the committee I will have to appoint two Replacements Miss glowski also has become an administrator who is also an original member um but that'll definitely be done so again I thank you for your support on that and um you know obviously voting for the system the final thing a couple thing for ETA I just want to bring up some dates we know we have three um board candidate positions up in November um we will have our annual candidates night um that'll be on September 25th at James Monroe School those of you that are running whether you're here on the board or in the audience or those that aren't here if you're listening you'll be receiving some information from there from my office probably over the next week or so um finalizing all the details second thing a couple of the dates um we have our annual trunk Retreat that will be done on October 20th I haven't put in a form yet but we've had it every year at Meno Park school and I'm sure Mr dougen's always been Cooperative as well that U mow Park School will hold it and that'll be at 12:00 noon on um October 20th October 22nd Miss Campion said instead of coming up would you just address it again every year over the past few years this is a scholarship fundraiser that goes to the students at JP Stevens and Edison High School it's the bosov discount coupon so for $5 which goes directly to ETA for scholarships you can save depending what you buy 25% most clothing items for example 15% or 10% uh it's on October 22nd and actually now it's extended also to if you buy online so it's not only in person quite honestly I go every year and I usually walk out and at the bottom it's like you save $60 so for $5 I'm buying things I need anyway for in Saving $60 and the main thing is the fundraiser goes to the students of Edison uh one other thing I want one other data I want to throw out there and by the way if you want if you're interested in that Mrs Campion I'm sure we'll be at every event with them um through our building reps you can always call over probably to the ETA office or any of our activities that are going on we'll make sure that these are there for anyone that wants them the final one is uh on o sorry excuse me November 23rd ETA is sponsoring a trip to Radio City Music Hall it's that that is the Saturday before Thanksgiving so there are still seats available the bus will leave from our office parking lot nine sharp there Prime seats at 11:00 showing there'll be time for people again if you want to go for lunch or walk the city a little bit before we head home so if anyone's interested our uh one of our members Marilyn Clark is the person you would contact or through the ETA office and one final statement again we're coming to the end of summer everybody enjoyed the last couple weeks look forward to seeing everybody on the beginning of school and wish everyone a great successful school year thank you thank you uh I I'll buy that bosos thing but I'm glad you mentioned about online because cuz we are going to be in Atlantic City that day some of us so it will work out I was about to ask is it over there but it's it's online so it works unless it's over there we can buy in person thank you anyone else public comments saying none motion to end public comments motion motion Mr Romano second second Mr Lugo all in favor motion to adjin the meeting motion motion Mr Schneider second Mr Romano all in favor all in favor greeting is ajour thank you