[Music] one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you everyone uh roll call Mr to Mr Lugo here miss Patel here Mr Vel Patel present M Pang here Mr Mr AA here Mr Schneider here miss white here Mr Romano here Mr Bureau Patel here you have a quorum right opening statement yes in accordance with the open public meetings act 1975 c231 Sunshine Law the Addison Township Board of Education caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time in place posted uh in the Board of Education Administrative Office copies of this meeting notice were sent to the home News Tribune and the Star Ledger thank you next up is a superintendent report Dr Al yeah thank you board president uh Patel good evening ladies and gents I hope all is well with you um we are going to go a little bit out of order right now in doing the uh in in preparation for Tuesday's Action meeting um and do my report first and then uh we'll talk a little bit about um some of the highlights that are that are coming up here for Tuesday so um today was take your child to work today uh really fantastic day in schools uh hopefully uh members of the Board of Education as well as people in the audience had the opportunity to spend a little bit of time uh with their children uh at work today um uh also just a quick shout out um I'm going to be attending the uh New Jersey band Gala at TCNJ this week uh both Edison High School and JP Stevens will be highlighted fully represented from The Talented members of uh of our student population so we're we're we're extremely excited those are just you know two kind of public service announcements before we get into the agenda um so uh April 30th we will be giving our uh budget presentation along with the resolution to approve the budget um uh special thanks to all the members of the finance committee and this board of education for continuing to being um fiscally responsible to not only our uh taxpayers but also the wonderful programs that we have here in place we also have another presentation that's going to be the Civil Air Patrol um they're going to come briefly about 10-minute presentation just to discuss uh what the organization does um and show their appreciation for the partnership that they have here uh with the Edison Township uh Public Schools uh also in my report I'm just going to give a brief update um on where we are in the qac process our monitoring uh as well as our strategic Plan update uh maybe highlight some really good celebrations about our sporting programs um and some of the extracurricular activities that we have going on uh and a quick status and update on uh preschool Lottery program so those will be part of my report as far as the action that the board will be taking we will be reviewing and approving our uh Personnel AG agenda uh we've got a few administrative resolutions that are coming about um great time in school first week in May I think it's first week in May May 6th through 10th Miss Schomer okay yep uh is going to be teacher appreciation week as well as National Nurses Week also so we'll highlight some pieces in there um we have our second readings of our policies uh from our previous board meeting so as per policy both go through a two- reading piece we also have our curriculum instruction re resolutions we only have two for this uh upcoming agenda it's an approval of field trips as well as all the wonderful professional development that our staff goes through in order to um enrich their practice and then last but not least is um Dr Tu in his special education department we will be reviewing our outof district placements and then I will turn it over to my colleague Mr to just to give the highlights of Finance yeah some quick highlights our uh budget has been substant approved by the county uh the overall budget is going to be $353 million of which 235 million is from local tax levy which has been the same Levy for the past four years congratulations four years nice job guys and to the previous boards as well uh we'll have our monthly Financial reports and minutes we'll have contract Awards we uh are going to have a contract going out to Academy construction for the renovation to the Edis Edison Success Academy so we're excited to get that off the ground for school opening and September uh we'll have some procurement uh bids to award uh we'll have some facility change orders at the varying uh capital projects going on throughout the District Two Grant amendments no I'm sorry one Grant acceptance uh for fcl fcla and one uh Grant Amendment and then our usual Transportation report that's all I got thank you Mr Toad uh so looks like bunch of things going on on Tuesday heavy agenda packed agenda we'll be here for for much much longer anticipating so everyone be ready for Tuesday uh that being said I really wanted to wait till Tuesday for this but I can't wait to say this I I really can't wait so the US News and World Report which has one of the most credible ranking methodologies in my opinion they just came out with their latest high school rankings and JP Stevens ranked 27th out of um all the schools higher than Princeton High School than Montgomery High School higher than Westfield High School and so many other reputable High School one of the criterias used for ranking was AP participation rate but only 59% of JP student passed one AP test uh pass um if you improve the score then just imagine that you know how can the JP where will the JP rankings will be there are other criterias come into place but think of this the percentage of students who had passed that one AP exam at EHS was 36 percentage so we got work to do there so as a district uh needless to say it impacts Edison High School rankings um as well so we got work to do there but JP Stevens the students to all the students incredible job you make us feel proud assemblyman carbin also posted on social media yesterday that he's proud of his alumni where he went his children went and so many of us are proud about that so really could not wait to announce this and which everyone must have seen this now so far by now 27th so that brings us to our commitment and we'll talk more about it on Tuesday our commitment to investing in our school infrastructure and Facilities of JP Stevens that we did last year and we want to this board wants to work together and continue to work hard I want to work with every single board member here and I will get in touch with all of you in coming days to work on a plan to make sure which infrastructure facilities we upgrade this year we continue the progress that the board has been making along with the 0% tax increase we also want to continue the progress on improving the infrastructure facilities so let's work together on that thank you so much everyone any other board member comments saying done oh Mr Lugo yes uh yeah I just have a comment about uh uh the Civil Air Patrol and uh the only thing I could say is I'm very happy to see that they're coming to do a presentation I'm very familiar with their mission and the activities and one thing I could say is the Civil Air Patrol and if anybody uh hasn't heard of the Civil Air Patrol I really encourage you to to to research it it's probably one of the best leadership programs that a young person could actually partake in and um I'm very thrilled to see that they coming to to speak great awesome anyone else all right thank you everyone uh we will now open it up for public comments uh tendra no you can go to the m my name is tendra lanar I'm a PhD and working in the field of education training at City University of New York past 20 years and happy resident of Edison Township I have two questions basically related to the Edison High STEM Academy my first question about that is that given the current prerequisite of reaching geometry by 8th grade for Edison high can the board elaborate how this criteria ensure the fair and Equitable admission process for students including late entered and transport student in a Edison school district my second question that similarly middle six Academy uses combination of assessment exams and interviews for admissions can similar thing considered in the addition High STEM Academy thank you so so thank you uh so yeah since you're a PhD I'm sure you have very well thought of before speaking about this I'll let Dr answer and without without getting into it back and forth I it's definitely a conversation for our chief academic officer Mr Co Mr Conan I mean we do pride ourselves on having um pretty strict requirements in capacity to this but you brought up some good points in relationship to late entry and students that come a little bit later or for coming from another District um so let's let's definitely continue the conversation if you have a couple minutes right after uh prior to going to close session we'll I'll I'll come over and talk with you okay sound good great thank you next Mr Mara Anthony Mar 5 kto Court Mr Batel I'm grateful you remember my name I'm once again here on policy 5756 um policy 5756 there are there are law New Jersey that says a parent must be present in order for his child to have an ear piercing or a body piercing but policy 5756 says don't tell Mom and Dad if if if Edison school system knows that child is going to have a sex change operation or taking having something like that that's hypocrisy that is utter hypocrisy and policy 5756 must be repealed must be abolished there's a law in New Jersey that says and I have it with me in case you're interested in seeing a minor cannot have genitalia piercing even with parental consent it's in Administrative Code chapter 8 27- 2.6 so even if Mom and Dad says go have your you can have your genitals pierced why someone want to do that Beyond me but you can't do it period it's it's a it's a a person's offense if someone does it but again if policy 57 policy 5756 says don't tell Mom and Dad if student if child is going to have a sex change operation or something like that that's hypocrisy put yourself in that position one day you get a phone call your son or daughter just came out of surgery you didn't know it but someone in the school system did your son is no longer your son anymore he's your daughter or your daughter just had a surgery she's not your daughter she's your son to the extent that medicine can actually take it that far and someone in the school system knew but did not tell you maybe someone here has gone through that my heart goes out to you if if if you have but someone in the school system know and didn't tell you imagine the burden on that person you're the person who knows you found out I don't know how but you found out that Johnny or Mary is going to have such sex change operation you want to tell their parents but policy 5756 says you can't don't tell them procedure goes through child is is has whatever he or she thinks he wanted you want to carry that burden with you the rest of your life do you want your your faculty to carry that simply because this policy 5756 says don't tell Mom and Dad that's absurd that is absurd last time I was here I gave you the hypothetical I didn't even like talking about it but the hypocrisy was so be it's so bizarre son goes is going to hire a doctor to cut off his penis don't tell Mom and Dad because of 5756 but njac 8 colon 27- points26 says you can't even have genitalia piercing with par parental the hypocrisy is beyond description it's off the chart repeal abolish 5756 it has no business being a policy in the Edison school system other school districts have done it they've abolished it the a court case of Handover Township versus plating gives you the authority to do that it's not a requirement policy 5756 which basically says don't tell Mom or Dad under very limited with very limited exceptions don't tell Mom or Dad that son or daughter the student in our school system is going to have some kind of drastic uh sex change operation or something like that assuming you know if you don't know you can't tell anyone what you don't know I've been into enough of these meetings to see that budget matters are very important obviously money is always an important matter and every dollar is budget there's no no room for Waste I wonder what parent would do if parent finds out that his or son is no longer his son but her daughter or daughter son because of his operation and someone in the school system knew but didn't tell me I wonder if that's going to land up end up in court I wonder how much money is budgeted for a lawsuit like that thousands of dollars maybe a 100,000 I don't know how much to to defend against a lawsuit like that because someone the school system knew didn't tell anybody parents going to be ticked off that kind of thing ends up in cour in fact there was a lwuit a woman named Khloe Cole she didn't SCH the school district but she had sex change operation and she Su her doctors okay I I think that's still pending but I can imagine a par in our society I'm not threatening anyone right I I'm that's not me I'm just telling you what our what I think we all know our society is rather litigious and mom and dad doesn't get told uh you can almost gu I won't guarantee um that that could end up in court one last matter holidays please reinstate Christmas good FR Good Friday and Easter and celebrate them for what they originally intended I guess my time is up not for Santa Claus or bunny rabbits reinstate them please thank you right thank you Mr Mara for your comments uh anyone else public comments last call public comments all right saying none motion to close public comments motion all in favor sorry right now we will addj on to privilege session in accordance with njsa Section 10412 the Edison Township Board of Education adjs to a confidential session for the purpose of discussing the following matters confidential personal and board matters pending litigation property acquisition student matters motion to adjourn to privilege session second M Mr Romano um roll call Mr to Mr Lugo yes Miss Patel yes Mr Vel Patel yes Mr yes Mr Schneider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes vice president yes president Patel yes motion carries the meeting is adjourned we will go to privileg session and today we really don't expect to come back thank you we this [Music]