[Music] one nation under God individual with liy and justice for all roll call Mr to yes Mr BR Patel here Mr Rano here miss Pang Miss White here Mr Schneider here Mr rer here Mr visha Patel miss an Patel here Mr luga here you have a quum opening statement yes in accordance with the provisions of oh I'm sorry uh in accordance with the provisions of the ACT Edison Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof post posted in the Board of Education administrative offices copies of the not of these notices were sent to the home News Tribune and the Star Ledger thank you thank you at this point we will head on to previl 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 confidential Personnel matters pending litigation purchase of real property student matters motion to ad on motion all in favor I we had on to previl session we'll be back by 7:00 thank you the board reconvened to open session time is 7:11 p.m. good evening everyone I'm happy to share with you some of the productive initiatives that have taken place with within our district throughout the month of February our Board of Education committees including Finance audit and oversite buildings and grounds curriculum technology and student achievement special ed and preschool expansion policy Communications community relations and Township L convene to discuss pertinent issues to advance our educational goals the detailed reports from each of those committees are available on the agenda for your review which will be presented later today last night our Communications committee organized a highly informative webinar during which Mr Rick Cohen our chief academic officer of secondary education presented valuable information about our high school and middle school program of studies introduced new middle school and high school initi I atives electives and discussed the placement criteria I'm pleased to inform you that the recording of this presentation is now available and accessible on our website we eagerly encourage you all to share your feedback and your suggestions through the thought exchange survey also available on our website furthermore we are diligently working on a reference guide for parents which for shown last week and we'll see it um real quick today as well which was shown last month this one is to facilitate quick access to all the frequently needed information ensuring an enhanced user experience and accessibility looking ahead to March I am particularly very very excited about the upcoming read Across America that happens in Edison Elementary Schools the events are scheduled in our buildings throughout the month of March these events will feature numerous guest readers including myself emphasizing the importance of cultivating AOW for reading among our students I extend my thanks to our staff and community members for their commitment to the advancement of our exceptional School District that being said uh we have wonderful presentation from our auditor I will ask Mr to to introduce him thank you thank you much very much Pres president Patel uh today we have uh our representatives from our audit firm HFA uh to present our FY 2023 budget Mr Cony you very my name is Jerry conned I'm a partner at HFA um as Mr Toad said here to present the audit for the year end June 30th 2023 um I just want to State uh we're here a little later than we normally prefer to be uh kind of sounds repetitive when we say that year after year but unfortunately we've been waiting for information from the state of New Jersey that's required to get implemented into the the audit report uh for the district that's not just for Edison school district but uh all school districts across the state of New Jersey so um happy to report that we are issued uh And Timely with the state of New Jersey um there's two schedules that I point people to if you're looking for a really good summary of kind of where the district has uh some of the major initiatives that have been undertaken uh and some of the things as financially where what transpired over the past year and where it's kind of positioned moving forward uh those are on the letter of transmittal which is on page one of the report and the uh Management's discussion and Analysis which is on page 25 of of the report uh we have an unmodified opinion on the financial statements that is the best opinion that we can give it says there are no modifications necessary to bring these financial statements into compliance with generally accepted accounting principles um one of the main things I want to talk about tonight we've gone over this uh report in detail with management but one of the things I want to talk about especially as the governor just released uh had his budget addressed today in state aid number numbers are going to start to come out is fund balance and where you're at uh at June 30th 2023 and what you have is as management starts putting together the the budget for fiscal year 25 uh the district finished the June 30th 2023 with about $ 79.1 million in fund balance the maximum amount that you're allowed to have on hand statutorily uh is $7.2 million that's the most that you can have in and unrestricted uh the state allows money to be set aside into reserves for specific purposes uh the district had about 45.1 uh 41.5 million set aside in those various reserves uh those are your maintenance your Capital uh emergency reserves important to note about that you guys had utilized about $20 million of those reserves uh for various capital projects in your fiscal year 24 Budget moving on from there you had another about uh $9.2 million set aside for incumbrances those were Goods that had been purchased by the district before June 30th but had not yet been received uh in in District district and then from there you had about $12.4 million that the district had utilized to help balance the budget in fiscal year 24 so all of that left the district with about $7.2 million of what's referred to as excess Surplus so as as management starting to put together the the budget for fiscal year 25 that will be the minimum amount that you're going to be required to utilize to help balance that budget all right in addition to all of our testing uh and all of our testing for our financial statement accounts as well as the uh compliance testing uh from the state of New Jersey we also have to perform an additional layer of testing referred to as a single audit uh we do those on both your federal and your state grants uh and that's an additional testing that's on specific compliance requirements that are set forth by the granting agencies uh I'm happy to report we had uh well we tested about four programs for your federal single audits Your Child Nutrition cluster special education cluster uh education stabilization fund and your title one grant for federal and on the state side we tested three grants uh your state aid public uh your extraordinary Aid and your transportation Aid um we also took a look back at last year's uh findings and recommendations there were six uh findings and recommendations in last year's audit uh I'm happy to report that in this year uh there are only two findings uh that require corrective action so we've seen significant Improvement in the district's finances and accounting uh and and accountability um and happy to report that only one of those is a repeat find uh in regards to the general ledger and uh again we continue to see Improvement in that last year that was a material weakness uh this year that uh deficiency is a sign referred to as a significant deficiency so uh tremendous Improvement in that um the other finding that we have is in regards to uh the Food Service fund uh there's a maximum amount that the Department of Agriculture allows you to have on hand uh referred to as net cash resources um with a lot of the the covid money that we've seen flowing into uh Food Service funds across the state school districts across the state uh that's definitely not an uncommon uh item that we've been seeing so district has I know a corrective action plan that they've already been working on to put in place to to rectify these these items and uh before I turn it over for any questions from the board I just want to give a huge thank to thank you to uh Dr Alder uh Mr to and and Miss fesi I know is in the audience here too uh for anybody that's never undergone an audit it's it's a lot uh it's a lot of questions a lot of asking for documents and things like that my wife is an accountant so I get to hear all the the horror stories of the Auditors coming in and asking for everything so I just want to thank you guys for for all the courtesies extended to to myself and my team throughout this entire process but I'm happy to answer any questions if anybody has any I have one so you said that there was for the past couple years or at least last year one of the major recommendations was this general ledger and I I I see this for a second time I guess maybe even three times already what's your recommendations or what's the best practices on how they can move forward to get that done completed yep we we've already had uh conversations on some of the actions that need to take place to to fix some of those issues um I know that they've already uh started to implement some of those corrective actions uh there were just obviously the timing of last year's audit uh was I think we weren't done with the audit until April uh late April last year so there just wasn't a lot of time to implement a lot of corrective action uh but the district obviously did Implement a lot of uh that corrective action a short period of time so I know they've already been working on cleaning up fiscal year 24 and uh we we have continued meetings on on what else they can do so so steps have been given and we're going on with those steps to improve that that's yes that's correct all right the other question I have does this affect our qack score this should not okay thank you president Patel I I just had a comment not a question I just wanted to thank you but also uh extend public kudos to John to and his staff as the business administrator Miss bety in the back and and your whole team this is a significant improvement from last year's report um you you said that out loud which was awesome to hear um this seems to be your grade for the year right um at least you know in a way yeah I got all the students in Edison town ship get graded every day and this seems to be one of his grades for the year and it seems like you did well on your report card so thank you Mr to thank you thank you any other member no questions all right thank you so much thank you very much everyone AI right so I'll pass it on to Dr eldy for superintendent report great uh thank you board president uh Patel uh good evening ladies and gentlemen I hope all is well with you just a few uh announcements that we would like to kind of touch bcee uh upon um as you can see on one of the resolutions moving forward uh March is uh youth art month uh within this community it's it's great that we uh make sure that um we not only celebrate that but promote Arts education in our programs not only our talented students but our administrators and our building principles and teachers that support these Pro uh programs and make these opportunities available for our students um as we prepare for spring Sports we wanted to congratulate uh our students uh our athletic directors our coaches as well as our uh building level Administration on another successful winter season for all of our um programs that we have here in edent Township I know that Mr uh Patel mentioned read Across America uh is coming up it's actually one of the greatest times in schools especially if you're in an elementary school um getting the opportunity to get in and read to students and uh and interact with them is is something that um not only I TR truly miss uh being a for former building level leader but uh I think I speak on behalf of the board as well too it really is usually the highlight of the month so um I'm glad to see that we are um uh participating in in that um to kind of piggyback on Mr to's grading process he is deep into budget season currently right now along with his team also um we are currently meeting not only with um our budget manager managers but but myself as well too in coordinating efforts to ensure that we present a budget that's fiscally uh sound and responsible to not only the board of education but to the taxpayers and to the students of our community as well too um uh a couple other pieces and other service we we've we've transitioned to uh a new platform for um disseminating Board of Education information it is entitled board docs um we are kind of going through some learning curves currently right now but um we do believe that not only from an internal perspective it's easier for our group to craft an agenda and um also easier for us to provide um information in a timely fashion to the public which includes uh resolutions reports uh committee meeting M minutes Etc um and I think uh we have up right on here right now as we kind of transition to this process we're going to look to maybe lessen the amount of paper that we use as well too we are going to have QR codes available so you can preview the agenda on your phone um or any tablet that you that you bring in at that time um you'll have the opportunities to email that to yourself um or you can always obviously go to our district website as well too so um we're actually excited about that uh two public service announcements we are even though we are in the midst of a teacher shortage we have an outstanding uh response for our upcoming job fair I believe that is March 20th it's going to happen at menow Park Elementary School that is at 5:30 p.m. we're extremely excited about that we are looking um to make sure that we secure the very best talent here um in all facets of our positions especially our certificate ific at staff our teaching staff um our power professionals any positions that we have posted at that time so um if you are have any interest at all we have information that's posted on our website that you can float it to a friend um we are looking for the the very best here in Edison Township uh to fill our schools and teach our students and last but not least tomorrow night is our parent University uh we've got over 200 registrants currently right now uh we are extremely excited about the opportunity to uh partner with our community um in your child's learning experience uh we have a number of different workshops uh that are going to be run by our teachers and in its in its first year I think it's definitely meeting with success uh we would love to grow this program so that we have parents uh and teachers partnering together to deliver information uh sessions that tell her from how to help your kids with homework how to plan for college um how to write resumés all of these things that maybe moms and dads need to uh a little bit of information on um and we can share our expertise as well as yours as well too uh and that is the close of my report there board president Patel thank you Dr uh next we would like to invite our Edison High School representative Miss charvey padman abini hello Board of Education members and the public my name is charve pavini the Edison High School pres student council president and student representative this week at Edison High School we are having our class 2024 Spirit Week a part of our Battle of classes competition Monday is wearing a singer/ band concert t two Tuesdays wearing a city's name Wednesdays wearing an advertising a product Thursday is wearing something green and Fridays wearing something College related the class 2024 and the student council hopes students will engage in these Spirit weeks to promote further Spirit shalow EST Stoke set a School record for the track team in the 60 meter dash with a time of 7 Seconds Jimmy Le and Christina prad were awarded the February rotary senior of the month month award and we hope they continue to excel at Edison High School Edison High School hosted its eighth grade parent teacher night last Thursday current students are able to speak to parents of incoming freshmen introduce themselves to numerous unique extrac activities that as has to offer lastly to honor Black History Month black student union will have their showcase on February 29th thank you thank you uh next JP Stevens representative Shani Patel good evening everyone my name is Shani Patel and I'm the first vice president of JP Stevens High School since our last spor of Education meeting there have been many exciting events at JP Stevens our girls basketball team is having their best season in Gears with 20 wins and only five losses they won the white Division and Captain Katherine beuty reached a record score of 1,000 points in her career our girl swim team has also had great victories this season with five wins and four losses freshman Angela Zhao has broken and set many records for the swim team with her 200 free 200 IM 50 free 100 free and 500 free the girls bowling team has a record of 14 wins and this season this season and the boys bowling team won the J the Joe RoR classic High game trophy with 246 last week the current sport season has been outstanding with the boys basketball team ending their season with a score of eight wins and 14 losses and the wrestling team participating in districts this past Saturday also the student council is preparing our first schoolwide volleyball tournament on March 1st and we have gotten great participation from the student body with 11 teams of six to eight people having entered so far our school student council has also made significant progress with JPS royalty and we have invited 10 girls and 10 boys to participate in this event we plan to begin rehearsals within a few weeks additionally these past few weeks JP Stevens has been buzzing with Spirit due to the many botc games where representative from each grade rep participate in fun challenges like ice cream eating contests or a whipped cream contest to win botc points for their class our DEA Club is preparing for their state level competition the Harish trip to Atlantic City in light of many of their members receiving first and categories for districts the JP Stevens research Society is about to start their projects with professors and Key Club is continuing their volunteering with numerous organizations JP Stevens as a whole has been participating in numerous events and fostering great school spirit thank you for your time thank you so much both of you for the wonderful updates we appreciate that uh next we want we have public comments for Resolutions only I would like to specify this is for the resolutions only I see some people may be here for the Cannabis issue we will certainly give you enough time to speak afterwards right now at this point only for the resolutions anyone uh are you okay we'll we'll cover that later on right thank you saying none um motion to close public comments motion second second roll call Mr to Mr Lugo yes Miss Andre Patel yes Mr a yes Mr Snider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes vice president Romano yes president Patel yes car read closed uh next is motion to approve Personnel report like to make a motion Mr Romano second Doug Schneider second Mr Schneider uh roll call Mr to yes Mr Lugo yes Miss Patel yes Mr AA yes Mr Schneider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes vice president Romano yes president Patel yes motion carries next is motion to approve Administration curriculum and instruction pupil services and special services reports motion anyone motion I'm going go Mr Schneider Mr Schneider all right roll call Mr Mr luga yes Miss Patel yes Mr AA yes Mr Schneider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes vice president Romano yes president Patel yes motion carries right the last one is motion to approve Finance reports like to make a motion to approve financial report Mr Romano I'll second it roll call Mr do who's the second I'm sorry I second oh Mr Patel Mr Lugo yes Miss Patel yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Schneider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes Mr Romano yes yes president Patel yes motion carries thank you now before we move on to our committee reports I have an announcement here to make so for anyone who is paying attention these days on social media and with the news you will know that there are some concerns raised by several residents over the past few days on the location of kabes retail locations retail outlets in Edison that was related to the ordinance that the township Council had put together for public hearing this is not related to a discussion whether to have cannabis locations or not it was about adding some locations which from the way I see was adding five more locations who would want this establishments in residential areas and definitely it should not be near any of our schools I myself sent a letter in my personal capacity to the mayor and the township Council to reconsider that decision using these um concerns in in mind I'm happy that they have decided to withdraw their ordinance and we will be looking forward to seeing that materialized tomorrow when the council meets which brings me to another Point vaping and substance abuse it has been brought to our attention that issues persist especially in two of our high schools to have an enforcement so everyone feels safe updating policies are very important so administrators have the tools to address the issues we must go to the root of the problem so we can address it adequately school bathrooms have been identified as one of the problem areas so are vaping instruments which Escape notice because of the way they are packaged as a normal day-to-day Goods such as p there is this and then there are many other issues that the students face which the parent Community has brought to our attention so as a president of Edison Board of Education I hereby announce putting together an ad hoc school security culture and climate Committee in order to address some of the concerns and the overall culture of the schools that can look into all the problems and the all the areas of problems related to this on vaping on substance abuse and come up with an enforceable Solutions I will work with our superintendent Dr alrai and his team which includes our security director Mr Pat kisan Dr hus uh Mr Ralph Bara principls from both the high schools and the member of two from our Board of Education as we work upon forming this in coming days we can look into EXP exploring other stakeholders and we will be happy to report back to the community on the progress meanwhile please feel free to reach out to myself vice president Romano Dr eldari via email any time if you have any concerns and would like to share any thoughts that we can include as a part of this committee on the same token I'm also very very happy to announce that today we approved two contracts for The Vape detectors at high schools at Edison High School and JP Stevens High School the finance committee approved monitoring measures to approve the weape detectors at both the high schools just today thank you so much now we'll move on to committee reports we'll start with U buildings and grounds Mr Schneider is the chair of the committee thank you Mr Patel Mr to yes one second please okay so the buildings and ground met on January 7th present uh was Miss Patel uh Mr Patel Mr romano and Mr Schneider as chair um DMR and dco provided us with a update to the EIP project uh Roofing and weatherization is almost complete throughout the the district PV installation is ongoing and project scope discussion took place FY 2024 projects by DMR JP Stevens uh rebar has been installed at the site and concrete is being poured for footings and Foundations Herbert Hoover CME will be completed in the next two weeks Roofing windows and interior utilities has begun Thomas Jefferson addition foundation work is ongoing JP Stevens Auditorium uh work is going to be starting it was um pushed back to march in order to accommodate some performances in the auditorium but abatement will be taking uh Place uh aestus abatement in the next coming weeks uh JMP CMU work or concrete concrete masonary unit work is ongoing or or near completion brick steel decking and roof work has uh started woodro Wilson and John Adams locker room demolition is complete and aestus abatement is ongoing Sports field and batting cages a discussion took place with regards to uh a bid receive from Keystone construction the project is uh tabled to the next uh committee meeting Rod Grant projects uh these these were uh reviewed and referred to the finance committee uh projects by USA architect u USA Architects John Adams jimm slab CMU and rough utility work is ongoing at woodro Wilson jym steel deck work is ongoing and SSP the alternate school program uh we held a discussion led by Dr Tui in regards to Concept Designs the committee moved on to discuss change orders at the V various projects these were discussed in detail and then referred to the finance committee um FY 2020 uh FY 25 capital projects uh that are in the planning stages were discussed uh we are going to reconvene once the state a is released in order to discuss further um and we discussed a draft demographic report which will be presented to the board in March that's all I got thank you Mr to and thank you chair Mr Schneider next is finance audit and oversight I am the chair of the committee um the finance audit and oversight committee met on Monday February 12 members in attendance were myself uh Mr Lugo Mr romano and Mr Schneider uh the committee reviewed the change orders um they're all there in the agenda I don't want to go into the details of that but please feel free and everyone is encouraged to look at the agenda for the detail change orders um the procurement and contract items the committee reviewed and discuss the procurement methods and contracts uh the financial items uh to highlight Rod grants and uh the committee also learned from Mr Toad the fiscal year 2025 budget is under review and very soon the committee is going to meet to go over the first budget numbers as soon as State numbers Mr to is supposed to come out this week right the State financial aid numbers hopefully tomorrow tomorrow very very good so we are all looking forward to uh that and um you know everyone loves was uh good uh numbers in terms of taxes so we'll we'll wait for that uh and the fiscal year 2023 audit which the auditor was just here uh to present um that portion so again everyone is encouraged to look at um the reports online and I I don't want to go into many details about the committee report um the next one is curriculum technology and student achievement committee uh I'm the chair of that committee um the committee met on February s uh members in attendance for myself uh Mr Rivera Mr Lugo and Mrs anjana Patel the agenda items were discussing program of studies discussing adding new courses such as AP prec curriculus and Spanish Heritage 2 uh the committee discussed placement criteria discussed changes from last year and the rational for those changes uh curriculum committee had a thorough discussion and careful review about for the placement criteria the program of studies and suggested some modifications uh to Mr Cohen committee also came up with suggestion of adding advanced level courses and AP courses committee asked the administration to present uh the changes as a part of community Relations Committee in the form of a webinar uh and take some feedback from the parents as well the curriculum committee is open to receiving input from parents and consider suggestions if applicable for the current changes or or for future purposes and would like to encourage parents to attend the webinar and as I mentioned earlier the webinar was um yesterday uh which was very highly attended by uh members of the community the second curriculum committee met on February 21st and uh members in attendance were myself um Mr Lugo Mr Rivera and Mrs anjun Patel and um the agenda was the new and rebranded uh Middle School elective courses for year 2425 um and the new courses um new electives that all the middle schools were getting um the committee discussed renaming of existing Middle School elective of art for sixth seventh and eighth grades uh the presentation to the communication committee was discussed and presentations included all the middle school and high school um placement criteria a wellness aspect was brought up and discussed in the past the committee has often heard about yoga yoga from different different organizations what this committee discussed is how how do we really bring it forward to the community water is really very helpful so the committee has t Mr kohen and Dr Elder Ali to look into this area as a component as a wellness component overall and bring some suggestions and the committee members are also going to bring some more suggestions in the upcoming meeting and we'll take it from there uh next is uh special education and pre school expansion committee uh Mr Romano you are the chair for that Mr to or Mr Tui hello everybody Tom tuy um the assistant superintendent of pupil special services here in the district and uh thank you for having me up to talk about our preschool expansion initiative again I'm giving this report on behalf of our uh preschool and special education committee and at the request of Mr Romano so uh the committee met on February 21st at 4:30 we had our chair Mr Amano there um Mr Rivera Miss Pang Dr aldarelli myself and Miss Daniel um before I go into this very quickly this is based on the preschool expansion aid grant it's a competitive Grant process that we'll be applying for in uh come the summer months and we're feeling like we know that we've taken the steps necessary to secure it so some information uh to date we have 985 students pre-registered it's looking like based on the letters of intent from our private partners that we're going to have roughly 450 seats that means that half of all of the residents of Edison looking for prek next year most likely going to get it um we are going to have to have a lottery process that's a tiered process based on two things the requirements of the grant as well as uh our commitment to prioritize our four-year-old students given that we have less seats than we or we have more students than seats those students will only get one sort of bite at the Apple concerning this program that Lottery is going to take place on March 20th it will be Live recorded and observed so people can go back and get all of that information um and we will be contacting families shortly thereafter on the minutes that we have there are some um some other plans they they entirely revolve around how we expand over the next 5 years to uh to secure our entire universe of roughly 2200 students the two um the two really important ones are are one item three which is um as part of the application requirement the district will be forming a preschool expansion Aid advisory councel uh that will include parents and it's not just parents of pre- students goes all the way up to third grade um the other one we're taking a look at is uh potentially putting an RFP out to secure a commercial real estate broker um there is available commercial space within the township and the requirements of the Grant in terms of allowable uses do include lease so we're exploring those options um myself Dr alderi Mr to aren't necessarily experts in that field so we're going to try to get some expert guidance on it uh beyond that anybody that's listening at home I would just ask that that um you check out the website if you're interested with what's going on um I just tried it Edison preschool expansion put into Google brings you directly to our site so Edison preschool expansion there's a number of videos on there where this program has been described at length um and again Tom tuy assistant superintendent pupil special services feel free to reach out with any questions but Mr Amano thank you for the time and I appreciate you having me up here tonight thank you Mr thank you uh next is Communications Community Relations Committee reports I'm the chair of that committee the meeting was February 15th in attendance for myself uh Chris Lugo Mr Lugo Mrs anjuna Patel and uh Mrs Virginia White uh Heather Daniel our director of communication uh Mr hus and Dr Tom toi the committee discussed status of following communication initiatives the new website is under development the features of the new new website includes redesign rebranding content migration district and School news with a live feed integrated calendar system streamlined School newsletters and app development the social media engagement is increasing the district is continuing campaigns for preschool expansion Aid as Dr toi just me mentioned Varity tutors parent University strategic planning job fair Dei showcase that's diversity equity and inclusion showcase which is coming soon um the committee discuss status of development of central office District newsletter which will be published very soon in the month of March the committee discuss plans of communications and community relations forums throughout the year the community the committee looked at the reference guide if we can put the reference guide um on the screen uh this is something that we started putting together last month uh which will help the parents as a one place to you know access all the links quickly have everything handy and have all the information quickly and easily accessible and I would like to give kudos to so many members of the community who contributed especially two names Shan natala and Harish taani who are very instrumental in helping us out provide the feedback and then we took it to our committee and all our Communications communication commit members provided their feedback Mrs White Mr Lugo Mrs Ana Patel and um you know uh I would like to give lot of credit to Heather Daniel over here she put this in matter of like no time and we enhanced upon this this will be rolled out very quickly uh the community discuss uh the committee discuss plans for the current Health Des structure this is something that is very near and dear to Mrs White and she has been working on it from few years now uh so as a starting point for the parents seeking the support with technology how to enhance and how to um come up with the numbers and system for tracking and many other aspects of it and once we have more information we will declare in the future meetings um the committee discuss um plans for presentation for the curriculum placement criteria which was um which I presented earlier for the curriculum committee and uh how we'll do the live Zoom webinar for that one and and um that being said yesterday we had the first live webinar with the parent Community for the placement criteria the webinar in which Mr Rick Kohan our chief academic officer of secondary education presented the proposed new Middle School and High School courses for the enh enhancements for our program of studies and placement criteria um everyone has got the link so everyone is encouraged to watch if if you missed out yesterday the feedback regard regarding the presentation is very important as well as the suggestions and comments regarding this the initiatives and now we are doing that through thought exchange thanks to Dr aler Ali his team and M Heather Daniel for putting this together uh in matter of no time we received so many suggestions from the parents and it's just growing as I understand uh so here's a link that you see on the screen for Thought exchange uh QR code everyone is really really encouraged by our community to use this tool provide feedback about the webinar and about everything we can do for the curriculum thank you so much the next one we will go with uh policy committee Mr DEA I know Eddie you wanted to start it off right sure sure um good evening ladies and gentlemen you have the policy committee uh report the committee met on Tuesday February 20th at 4:30 pm uh presid at that time um were the committee members uh the chair Mr Brian Rivera hjan Patel Buel Patel uh Mr Douglas Schnider uh on behalf of the committee there are a few policies here uh one in which uh is 1642.1 which is the new sick leave policy this policy is adopted by the Board of Education in accordance with the new sick leave Law um in doing so we have to abolish our old sick leave policies to replace those as you can see we are abolishing 3161 um and um I'm sorry uh 3432 and 4212 in relationship to that um the new sick leave Law um provides opportunities in expansion of the uh sick leave policy uh and allows staff to utilize sick leave for days um as specified in the code um we have two new rewrites of policy 3161 and 4161 Examination for cause uh these policies were uh completely Rewritten to be in accordance with case law currently right now um and that was the extent of the meeting uh was a short meeting this it was a short meeting and there was a few policies discussed but um I do want to give kudos to Dr aleli I wanted you to to speak first but I wanted to follow up and one of the roles of the board member is to ensure that the school district is run well but also for creation creating and updating policies so I want to thank you for your initiative and being proactive and getting the policies audited because the information that was provided to the committee was I open opening so just a few numbers I wanted to bring up based out about 225 policies that we looked at it said about 155 of them were done in 2011 so it was a recommendation from the audit auditor that we need to improve about a 100 or update about 100 policies there's also discussions about abolishing policies and also policies that are missing so I want to specifically thank you and thank you and your team because this data was eye openening and I appreciate that you contacted in order to do it the bad news for Eddie though is based said that conversation now it's going to be the work of this committee to make sure that Eddie updates all this and it's updating in a timely fashion I think we're were talking about maybe before September yeah the goal the goal is to um make sure that we have these policies in place um prior to September so we will tackle them month by month um and not only that also do the mandatory updates that come out you know sometimes monthly sometimes every other month somewhere in that ballpark so I I appreciate that Mr Rivera thank you very muchos to you because I know this is a lot of work and I appreciate your diligence thank you thank you thank you Mr Rivera uh the last is Township Le and Mrs White thank you Bureau uh Dr ala RI sure absolutely um we had a um liaison committee meeting today um hold on one second second my computer's just a little bit slower right now mind Chief you got there you go thank you team yep so we had our policy committee uh me I'm sorry not our policy committee me we had our liaison committee meeting today uh at 11 o'clock in the education center uh members of the committee chair Miss Virginia White uh Mr Beer Patel Miss anena Patel and Mr Douglas Schneider um the meeting began with uh a review of uh some of the current initiatives that are currently taking place with the town several Edison Township representatives were there uh and they piggybacked on a lot of the initiatives that we're going forward in relationship to um uh the state of the Town address uh the committee discussed traffic challenges and sidewalk repair as well as a collaborative approach to Solutions with our uh Edison Township officials in relationship to um some of the traffic issues that you know pose themselves outside of um John Adams Middle School uh as well as some of the sidewalk areas that were brought to this board's attention uh the Edison Township Police civilian Academy has been uh a huge success the summer program will include the junior Police Academy and a program for high school age students uh the district will post information on the website and social media Pages as well in order to support these efforts uh the township does continue to have a need for additional crossing guards um you know they're definitely in high demand we will continue to dis discuss strategies uh to see ways that we can you know Assist the Township in the recruitment of these individuals uh the township is also interested in facilitating a civilian program for the fire department similar to that of the uh police department uh uh myself as well as Patrick cassan uh are going to follow up with Chief Andy to uh to make this uh potential program possible uh the district is also in the process of facilitating a demographic study for our schools um as Mr to mentioned before upon the uh the conclusion of that demographic study and after the board of education and the administrative team uh anal analyzes this uh the the committee will discuss uh you know potential ways uh to address its findings and the potential for further Partnerships uh and last but not least the OEM is donating uh bleeding control kits I believe they've done so already to each of our schools for use in the case of uh you know emergencies uh the Board of Education and myself as well as Mr cassan our director of Safety and Security are thankful for the generosity um and are always looking to uh partner with not only this organization but anything that supports the safety and well-being of our students and staff and that is the conclusion of our liaison report thank you so much great thank you next uh we will move to board member comments who would like to go first I will pick Mr Lugo in that case thank you board president um have nothing specific at this time but want to say you know good work there was a lot of work that was done in a lot of these committees um and uh just want to you know you know thank the administration um especially with the policies I know um I I would second what uh what board member Rivera said you know you know coming up with these policies it's no easy that's no easy LIF and um but uh know it was good work and good progress so thank you yeah you thank you Mr Rivera appreciate that Chris um I really don't have anything specific to say but I do know we have some retirees out there and some retirees that have been in this district for a very long time so I just want to wish everybody um the best of luck on their new Endeavors and I hope um your second win or around uh your next PATH uh treats you well but other than that I hope everyone's doing well thank you Mrs San Patel thank you everyone I'm glad we have a nice team they're working hard for us our student and our parents so I'm glad we have a good team and they're working hard for us so thank you so much thank you uh Mrs fight really nothing at this time thank you thank you Mr Schneider uh yeah the only thing I have is I can't wait to find out how much the state wants to give us um it's a huge thing for not just the board here but for every taxpayer in Edison because hopefully we'll continue to get uh funded at a level that won't impact the taxpayer's pockets but we could still progress we could still uh do everything that we do now and then more so with any luck we'll get a whole bunch of money in the next 24 to 48 hours or so announced that it's coming to Edison so we'll see what happens thank you uh Mrs B just one quick question because um for the last I I don't know six seven years at least when I'm on board it's always the committee chair who read the meeting minutes because usually the committee chair would be responsible for initiate the meeting set up the agenda comprise the meeting minutes and also most importantly answering questions that anybody might have in regarding to the meeting to the uh committee what the committee has been doing so I just noticed that right now you're probably the only one committee chair that's reading the many minutes so is there a reason specific reason why this change right so that's not my decision but the committee chairs decided to read their U to ask the administrative team to read the reports okay I see but they're still you know be able to answer the questions that you know anybody would have right right I suppose for okay thank you good thank you all right uh vice president Romano thank you uh as as it is to the audit uh I'd like to say uh way to go John Jackie and your people uh it's better than last year and quite sure it'll be just as good next year uh the other thing is is that uh all of the projects that we're working on it's all because of the board the board members the pass board members and our superintendent and John to and his people we're making the district bigger we're making it more accessible it's the way to go it's the kids it's our students our students need all of our students not just the top all of the students so Ed thank you thank you John thank you thank you vice president Romano um I have something quick um to recognize two students from uh JP Stevens Edis High School uh threea ner Katherine botki they both received recognition in the GMC for high achievements for basketball and they won the division with a record of 26 um so that's that's quite some achievement and the high school program of studies will be on the website tomorrow as um you know advised by Heather Daniel so it's sure please look out for that one and um everyone in the month of March so many events are happening so look forward to a wonderful month of March anyone else board members everything good all right so now we will open to public comments uh any students in the audience no students that uh lady next to Mo Mo behind you yes yes you can go first yes you can come there Hi um I'm sonal sha 25 year Edison resident recently in last few years I've moved to Cinder Road and I'm here to represent all the parents living on Cinder Road and mind Brook and that area who are not getting subscription busing or busing in general so I wanted to find out if you have any update on the request that I had forwarded to one of the board members with the list of parents uh where are we in that decision are we going to get the busing or no that's the only question you have no I have a second question but not related to this uh should I ask a second question now if you can finish all the questions we'll the second question was related to the meals I found out from a lot of kids including my son that the portion size that has been uh they're getting in the school is very very less and they remain hungry and especially for vegetarian kids they get merely one thin slice of pizza how can a pre-teen or a teen survive on that one slice of pizza all day especially if they have sports afterwards that they have to attend to so this two questions I had thank you thank you so for the busing U I can understand you spoke with our board member Mrs Ana Patel so she is doing a great representation in your community over there and uh I would like Mr Toad to give some update on that so in regard to the subscription busing issue I think that's the one that uh Miss Patel and I spoke of today uh we had a discussion about that uh we are going to refer that to the transportation committee next month to discuss and hopefully make some action on and regarding meals I would ask toer early to speak about that real quick in regards to I could speak to uh portion size in regards to food right so the uh portions that we serve right in the cafeteria it's dictated by the uh School nutrition school lunch program so everything is portioned accordingly to their standards and that's how we have to serve the food so it's not like you know one slice should you know it might seem a little bit small but this is this is how we're mandated to um serve the uh food products based on the the New Jersey school lunch program thanks thank you next public comments the gentleman here hi uh my name is pranan kavuri I'm from bam toown South the uh first of all kudos to the amazing job you guys are doing um I have pretty much three questions the first question is uh in my community I think there's a uh there's a chaos about the the transportation um especially in our Community uh there are like for example uh two buses one bus is completely loaded and the other bus is completely empty I don't see that there's a point of like having two buses like when we can accommodate two you know everyone in one bus um second thing is like is there uh a possibility to um to introduce some some kind of security feature to track the kids especially when you know I have three girls going to uh Elementary and uh uh Middle School so um if there's a possibility to um do some kind of ID based tracking I see that like there are some other school districts where this is happening so is there anything like that that you are proposing because I just heard that you have something called You're introducing security uh Comm committee sort of thing so is this something that you can uh you are planning to take it up um uh the other question is um there are some certain sometimes like there are delays in the buses and um and and it it really becomes hard to um um you know coordinate uh when when the bus is coming when what time the bus is leaving uh so it kind of uh puts us in a limbo where to trace our kids so that's uh another thing one my last question is um recently we had a issue where um the parent teacher meeting was uh at the same time for elementary and the middle school which was like really really um uh tough to handle because it was the same timing we were just running around the streets like trying to uh accommodate you know all the all the uh meetings at the same time so if that can be segregated in a in different time zon like that'll be a great help so that's pretty much it thank you I'll let Mr Toad answer some of your questions yeah I mean sir it seems that you know you have a a lot of questions that um probably we're going to take some time to discuss if you could why don't you give your name and your contact number to Dr hus right there right here and we'll be sure to contact you after uh after this meeting in furtherance of all these questions you have thank you thank you thank you next Jerry thank you board president uh Jerry she Edison um just a a a recommendation a recommendation for you uh board president since this is a combined meeting when you go through the resolutions can you have the administration go through Administration first before we open up for public comments so just a suggestion I just a quick question um on page 24 25 of the bill list there's item called TJ uh parental media upgrade it's a about the eight or 10 items a total about somewhere around 45k uh it's a Title One Grant U do you guys know off your head what it is uh the reason I'm asking the question is because it's called parental media upgrade I'm just wondering if that can be reciprocated in the other schools as well um that's the purpose of the question um I I think uh some parents are here are talk about cannabis and we know that the council has um withdraw the um uh agenda item uh they're going to do a committee a subcommittee to discuss but that's a different story but I think as a board um you guys are all here for the students the Board needs to have a position where you guys stand so I challenge you guys to send a letter as a board to the council tell them to stop putting Cannabis shops in residential area put your position clear to them and I hope that's something that it's not picked up picked up at the uh the township the on meeting put the position clear okay um the other things I noticed the change with the applications is also the change with the practice uh some of these salary um guide uh adjustments and stuff there no salary being printed um can we still have that because you know although it's a contractual agreement and uh we want to see it uh the other thing is the audit report um the auditor say that we got 7.2 million if I remember correctly uh the the cash in the hand um it's good right that's a good finding we have more money and this goes with the uh facility report and if you look at the 2025 projects um the CH James um jmi is ALS is listed as in a planning phase just like uh Edison High and the Marshall my understanding is jmi is moving way along we were planning to go for bidding in January so why it is part of a planning phase so uh that's a question for the um the committee chair um if you don't mind asking and also there are three projects that was planned one is John Adams expansion the JP Stevens lab and the um uh Maintenance building that was tracked last year and I don't see them in the 2025 projects so I don't know what's going on with that so another question for the for the chair um the third thing is there's you guys mentioned demographic study uh that's in part of the committee report and canot be made public when it's ready um there were a couple projects that was uh um bad Eng caged that was uh too high and uh it's not moving forward so I just want to find out what's the status with that and uh thank you Mrs pen for brought that up and I was very surprised when I sit in the audience 10 years on a school board that was the first time that I hear the committee I see the committee chair do not read their report last year when V show Patel mentioned that he wants administrations he wants supervisors to read the reports the very people sitting over there we just thought he came from another planet to suggest that now that report is not being read by the committee chairs I don't know what's the change you guys still responsible for for the committee you are the chair you set up the agenda you're supposed to tell people what is going on and you just sit back and let the administration do their job I don't know if that's right right thing or not but that's the observation I just noticed so I pr to brought it up thank you very much thank you so I will answer your question about kabes last week uh when this issue was very hot um myself and Dr elderi had a conference call with our attorney Mr MCH and we had asked Mr Minch to put together a letter by the time Mr Minch puts one together they pulled the ordinance out but um you know my position I I had already reached out to the township to oppose the ordinance in in my personal capacity and even me as a personally as a board member as a I am opposing this ordinance I'm not for the ordinance I am aware that Mrs Pang is also opposing the ordinance so these are two of our positions that's uh that's one thing um the we went a step beyond that now since the surf issue is coming up on Surface and there are issues such as vaping and everything reported in the school bathrooms and from quite some time today earlier I announced ad hoc committee to tackle this issue and Dr Elder Ali Pat kissan and his team has some great ideas and thoughts around it so that being said I would really like to Dr Al to share some thoughts that what uh their team is doing to combat the issue right now that that is in our schools thank you yeah you know listen student safety is as well as uh you know awareness of these pieces are are something that not only our staff communicate but um but our building our building leadership as well too so um one of the things that we we do is we increase Supervision in the areas that are a little bit less structured right usually the restrooms um we have um approved on this agenda I believe increased security cameras as well too that's correct in relationship to the opportunities to prevent Vape sensors also um but it's it's a you know it's a a multiple prong approach in that it's education it's supervision uh and providing the right infrastructure to make sure um that we're sending the right message to our kids in our community thank you uh next gentlemen the last one sorry all right good evening you can go afterwards go ahead good evening thank you for giving me opportunity to come and represent the some of the kids who goes to Woodbridge Academy magnet school and and I have a few parents with me and I'm I'm representing around 10 parents uh the kids who takes wv3 bus route they span almost more than 3 hours every day to commute to and fr school starts 9:00 first bus stop from where my son takes the bus he has to stand there by 7:15 still is anxious he'll be able to make it to the school for the first class on time sometime they have quiz and test in the evening school ends 3:30 they come back by 5:00 nearly 3 hours or more than 3 hours considering traffic in Edison and surrounding area it's not even absolute 3 hours they can come back there is no charity so the part of the problem is a huge huge route starting from new Duram Road near piscatway border going to Stelton Road in piscatway coming back to New daram Road Bridge Street Costco Route 27 Route 1 middle six County uh college and then going to the school it touches upon all major area major route of Edison Township to reach this SCH from day one we've been calling we've been emailing we've been talking to the people we've been talking to the authority there is no resolution so we are here to ask for the help that's all you have that's all all right thank you so much so if I hear correctly 3 hours to go to the school that's really that's not the experience we want our students to have fortunately I have something good to share with you uh and hopefully that you you may like hearing that is we had that same issue with another bus route recently and Mr hus sitting right there was instrumental in helping those parents so I would encourage you to connect with him right away right now he's sitting right there available so please connect with him and let's take it from there thank you so much thank you next public comments uh this gentleman in the front good evening anth Anthony Mara 5 coletto Court does the Edison Board of Education have a policy excuse me policy which requires a public school if it knows of a student's decision to change his sexual orientation to notify that student's parent if so what is the policy and if not why isn't there a policy that's the only question you have that's it all right I'll will pass it on Dr yep we can we can provide you with a copy of that policy uh if M Dr hust is going to get your name we'll we'll provide you with a copy of the policy for your review you have a policy we do have a policy that addresses that very issue yes uh I'd like to see it now because I I can't give it to you right now if you give your name to Dr hus we'll make sure that it's available for you okay sure yep and then there all the policies are located online as well too all right next uh you you can go ahead thank you board uh for the opportunity this is my uh first time ever uh coming in front of the board of the education um and uh the concern primarily that dragged me here is the Cannabis issue so I I think Dr she asked a question so is the entire board overwhelmingly oppos it I just heard on a personal capacity that the chair or the president and one more member so what is the stance of this entire Boe uh collectively is there is there passing it because what I heard is today you guys are going to pass a resolution against it to uh the administration Council and the mayor's office uh opposing cannabis in uh our school district that's the first question uh and uh thank you for addressing it this is something that was trending heavily last uh four five days or a week in terms of uh the the other concerns with the high schools where kids have been known and the reports of in in in some of the groups that janitorial staff is coming out they know the problem it's epidemic people are just blocking the bathrooms they have ceilings where the stash is stored and people have access to it I don't know the details but looks like there is a committee that has already been formed so how quick is that committee going to be formed how quick what is the timeline in addressing these issues and what is the finance or budget that is going to be allocated in addressing these issues right so all great steps but is there a timeline to get that it's not going to be like forever right we want it now and that's the second question right uh and the the overcrowding itself I don't know the position uh but the with this cannabis 10 as I heard somebody say five but it is from what I hear it is 10 locations five cultivators three p uh three uh retailers or five retailers or whatever that is the the numbers are all over the place the number is highed is 10 regardless what the number is there would be access to gummies there would be access to cookies uh and it would be humanly impossible to detect it so is that something that you know uh the board recognizes that there are dangers and there are proven instances where you know people ate cookies and then just uh each person's body uh operates differently and then they have committed suicides regardless of the mental damage they they're zoning off in the classes and creating a chaos so is that something that the board is aware and how would you prevent something like that from entering the schools right I mean if is that part of the committee we don't want all the solution right now but is is that something that the board is actually thinking right and uh I I I don't want to this last fourth question I think this I've been in the district for o from 2005 20 years plus right my kids my kids are in high school I have an elementary school uh uh daughter so uh I think what I heard some positive news is there is additional budget that people recognized and then there is uh you know you can expect additional State funding say what where do we stand on addressing the overcrowding like in JP Stevens is that I came late maybe that was discussed I apologize is that are we are the new classrooms that are coming out quickly I uh for JP Stevens and Edison High that's always a problem so where do we stand I mean it's been like 12 Years everybody discusses I'm sorry again this is the first time I don't know if that was already discussed up ahead any quick uh update on that is appreciated from the board so these are the four questions and I thank you for the opportunity thank you so I already said in my statement earlier about the Cannabis issue we just formed the committee today so not a single meeting has happened it was decided ad hoc right now because the issue is hot so the intent over here is to really tackle the issue around it the the Around The Vaping and everything that is so is just getting started you know um I have a lot of faith in our superintendent and his administrative team and we I'm I'm personally hoping for something positive to come out of it uh and as far as the ordinance here's the thing they we were going to put the ordinance today I was I was personally intending to put the ordinance in our attorney and M Dr alari is aware of that however Council decided to withdraw their ordinance so I don't know what we need to put now that hey you are supposed to put that and we oppose that like I already declared that I oppose the ordinance Mrs Pang can she can also speak but in what I from what I believe she opposes I have an understanding from seeing a message on social media Mrs anj Patel opposes it right the other board members can speak about it if they want to um if they choose to that's I have no problem I'd like to I mean ask everybody here I mean you could you can uh you know tell your position right here if that so your time is up Sir just to be just to be clear uh you know as a reminder I know some of you members I may not have been here uh this may be your first time here some may be frequent flyers uh I'm the the board attorney U just a reminder uh public comment is for an opportunity for you to give comments the board members are not required to answer any questions quite frankly uh you know the process right now is that often times questions get answered by the administrative staff afterwards if it was up to me they wouldn't answer any questions um but but they you know I'm the lawyer not the elected official here on the board so um there there's not a back and forth um you know you made your comments uh if board members choose they can but there's this is not a a back and forth dialogue it's you get a chance to give your comments board hears it and then they can but four questions so Dr Al will connect with you afterwards thank you um board president can I make a quick comments you can go I just want to say thank you for coming here to say your concerns be advocates for the parents because I know I I also want to thank Mr she for coming here be the strong advocates for the parents I receive a lot of emails from the parents regarding to the Cannabis issues and I responded to most of them I tried my best as I said in the email I stand very strongly opposing this cannabis ordinance I don't I would not support anything that pose even any danger to our students to our community it shouldn't be as you said whether it's five or 10 or even one I wouldn't agree to put anything you know we related into our residential area or close to our schools and I know we hold it off for now and I'm sure it's going to come back later I know the Town Council withdraw the resolution for now but ordinance for now but I think it's going to come back and I really urge our board members to put their stands out there put their position there I know you know as elected officials where're all here responsible to be the advocating to hear the parents to advocating for them to support them so this this is our position we need to make it clear to the city council that we're supporting this or we're not supporting this so we this is at least we can do for our parents and for our students that's where I stand thank you I I fully understand it's not a back and forth your time is up so thank you and thank you Mrs bang um next for public comments Anita thank you board president and uh board members thank you for the immense a great work that you do and I just heard about the ad hoc committee thank you so much for standing uh for student safety and uh health and well-being of the student I'll come to the Cannabis at the end I just want to start off by saying that uh when you go to the township building there's a good uh museum display from a meno Museum and I saw this name of other than uh Thomas Alva Edison that we know on this in the bulb uh uh Mark Lewis Pinsky he's from JP Stevens High School 1974 and he's a NASA astronaut so on that end I just want to bring uh the rich science culture that we have had um and uh uh on February 10th the Edison High robotics team uh conducted a hackathon for the entire uh District lot of students attended uh I want to thank uh our board president uh Bal Patel for uh spending time with the kids to know what their future aspirations are I know um in the past Dr Alder has also given us time to talk about it uh and I want to thank uh Mr Ross uh and the club advisers Miss core and Mr sources uh for U helping us in this um end I just wanted a request W um in the past the board has stood uh for uh the robotics club uh for both JP Stevens and Edison High um they have uh given funding if we can get continued funding whatever uh they can give uh to progress uh this particular area for the kids the kids are really interested uh and what whatever money you give goes for competitions for uniforms uh for buying uh the parts for the robots uh and this is what the kids told me it's very difficult to pitch and get grants from uh business owners if you have any business owners please pass it on to the kids um and uh just a big request from all the kids they were very busy today so I said I'll take all your points whatever you can I think you have given 10K in the past for both the high schools uh for me both the high schools are important JP Stevens and Edison I whoever represents our our school and you know wins those Awards and prizes is a pride for all of us so it's a big request um on this particular portfolio and uh in this same regard uh Edison has always been in the Leading Edge of anything to do with education uh last two years we had uh um uh Esports being introduced as a Leading Edge um for 21st century skills um and um now we are all uh hearing artificial intelligence I have been talking to uh uh our board president a lot on artificial intelligence and if you see the stock market the best shares today is the AI shares so that is the future or whatever uh help or support or introduction of this topic you could do for the kids that'll be really helpful um it's not just chat GPT artificial intelligence and machine learning is something thing which um is a recent Trend so I wanted to bring introduce this particular area so that when you have a future plan for Edison uh our kids can get aligned with the 21st century skills to get jobs in the future because a AI goes along all Industries uh if you see it's in law enforcement it's in health care different Industries and I've in fact I wrote a note to um uh the superintendent last but not the least thank you for the ad hoc committee again and yes uh lot of parents went and talked about cannabis yesterday they're all worried about the safety of the neighborhood thank you symbolically uh in your own way for standing uh for the safety of the neighborhood of the kids and also uh the parents have also gone and talked about the location for the retail stores they have addressed their concerns to the administration and uh they're put in a big request to do something about it so thank you very much to take the stand on that end as well thank you thank you so much so for the AI uh Club robotics Club certainly I'll bring it up to the finance committee when we meet again and we'll discuss there and um the Heaton I it was personally a pleasure to meet with those students and really really admire applaud all the work that they do and coming back to the Canabis I I said earlier as well I'm I'm against the ordinance the thing is that and I would go to an extent of saying that the township should have consulted the school district before putting five locations in in the middle of the town like that near it those are in my opinion near our schools and near residences so Township should have consulted the school district and I hope in the committee that they have formed the school district is consulted I really hope for that so let's keep our fingers crossed and uh let's hope for the best thank you uh next uh Joyce so again uh my apologies for today uh I personally apologize and it's it's on me it's my mistake we usually ask the speakers to announce their name and address before they start speaking in every single public meeting I forgot that in the beginning of the meeting for first few speakers that being said for today I don't want to be impartial to the remaining one I can't do that so if you voluntarily want to speak your name and address I will really appreciate it but again my apology is on me thank you sir so much so Joyce go ahead hey good evening everyone Joyce ship Freeman uh 41 South Main Street Edison New Jersey one correction I want you to uh has to be made is that the Cannabis is not withdrawn is still on the agenda so I'm correcting that and I remember as a teacher we got fooled into believing that the lottery was gonna cut our school taxes remember that that story that was told and I just feel very sad that we have to be drug dealers now in order for us to make up our taxes that's not cool with me and also with the policies with updating the polic policies which is a great idea all the time being from the school system so that when parents come in the parents always say well what's the policy can I see your policy and if your policies are behind the times that opens us up to a loss suit you know then I can't spend you know we spending enough money on a whole lot of ridiculous stuff that it is and I just employed Edison because I from being a student here I was afforded the opportunity to go to the best colleges there were because of my education here in Edison and I know the parents and everybody's interested and I I sat back and I just cringed because I think about the board aheed and back when I was in school you'd have to you could find a a joint or something you know marijuana you could find it but if these kids are bringing in gummy bears lollipops and brownies man you you guys gonna have a real hard job I'm just saying you're going to have a real real hard job but just think about it just think about it you want your town to be known for selling drugs just to make up the tax base drug dealers thank you uh next Beth good evening Beth taly 15 Midwood Avenue Edison New Jersey um Mr President I heard you say the other day March is going to be a celebration of Arts in our schools which um it's very dear to my heart especially our music program I enjoyed last week um going to see at JP Stevens the ETA sponsored the school's volleyball game but I was a little bit disappointed when I walked in to see a student carrying a tuba with missing buttons on it that they had to borrow from another school because there wasn't enough instruments at the high school we have award-winning programs nationally recognized it was a little disappointing to see this and I just want to be assured that all of our clubs activities whether it's music programs art programs and sports are equally being funded so that I don't have to see this child walking around with an instrument with a screw in it rather than a valve to play it but I appreciate it and I hope you guys fund all all of our clubs and extracurriculars equally equitably across the board especially with our Arts month coming up to celebrate these kids thank you thank you next public comments uh Mrs convey absolutely Mrs Bowski ring her Carol Bowski 39 Jonathan Drive I was very pleased with tonight's meeting um I know there's a lot of complaints about things that go on and there always are and there always should be I I've been in teaching a lot of years and I had been in three districts before I moved to Edison so that my daughter could receive the best possible education what I didn't know was that there were two parts of Edison but it's okay because I picked a house on the north side cuz we like that house and I've always been part of things for the whole District but I love the little graphic that you put on the top of the agenda welcome we are all one Edison I just like that I like to see it everywhere I go i' like to see the little sprinkles of it but for once I haven't heard those kind of complaints I was all ready to talk about that and everyone's talking about why don't we have this why don't we have that and one of the reasons is we have to pay for all those things and all those things are important I can say from my daughters going through school here that they learned skills that got them into the neighborhoods the jobs the lifestyle the way they're raising their children all these things came from school and as far as raising their children my daughters were very involved in family and consumer Sciences when you got the electronic baby for the weekend and uh you had to be the electronic baby would tell on you on anything you did wrong so they learned so many things and other thing was that when my daughter got two letters in the mail and she was at a conference for FCCLA and I brought her two letters and one was from the president vice and his wife and uh the other one came from Gettysburg College a small liberal arts college in south central Pennsylvania and of course she opened her hands and dropped the one from the president and grabbed the Gettysburg one and she found out she was elected you know don't sure was accepted to the college and that just made her conference but I hear the parents tonight there's still things going to be there no matter how long we work on it but we need to listen but tonight I didn't hear any this side that side I didn't hear too many other things that were common themes here complaining about things um as far as the way the board of Ved operates they have so many rules that they have to follow and if it doesn't say you can't do it that way then it's an okay way to do it if it works if they say you can't do it that way then you can't do it if you can't say make do uh Dr aldarelli read every report himself to the whole group well then he'd be taking water breaks and we would never get through the meeting the person who's the committee chair or someone on the committee is the best one to share it because they were at the meeting and they won't they're reading words off of paper and the person who ran the meeting or who was actually in the meeting I would always go oh no no no but it was these really cute exciting little things that they brought in that the children had made for us and it's different if you're part of the committee itself some people are brilliant and do not like to speak in public I'm not saying I'm brilliant but I don't like to speak in public and they may not want to read that those minutes up because they might be afraid they'd read them wrong or give the wrong impression so I don't think there's a problem if it isn't the chairperson that reads it nor does it need to be or can be I would think a district administrator who knows that topic so I've seen some of the things that people are saying makes sense and some don't but a lot of times their this group up here is controlled by so many government regulations and that they cannot meet them all they're doing the best they can and you could take a deduction from their salary if you don't like the way they're doing it but I think this I feel good seeing this group working together and I'm very happy therefore I am not going to ever run again so you freed yourself from one threat and now you got the other one thank you what this going go ah Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle uh just four items the first one uh is regarding the uh policy and having an audit done this year um I was a little confused because I thought uh we pay a company to always give us the latest updates of new policies and any policy that would be outdated would be removed so when I heard that um this was done through an audit rather than a regular happening each year I was was a little disappointed that it wasn't happening but I was hap happy that it is now and will be in the future uh I was called to a a policy committee meeting once in my three years and I could have ripped my eyes out rather than gone through all those policies so kudos to all of you on the committee the second one was a little a status of the sports field and batting cages baseball season is upon us and I was a little uh confused by the fact that the it was tabled so where does that leave us regarding um our baseball season that's coming up is my question that can be answered uh the third item is thumbs up to Dr aldarelli and Mr to and and the rest of the staff who uh did such a fabulous job was thrilled to hear about the audit um that's the greatest thing that I can hear and that the one item is being worked on so Kudos and I thank you my last item is regarding the Cannabis uh item that's going on in town I realize honestly that this is something that goes on uh an ordinance whether uh they are going to expand the number of places for it but it is a municipal item the only thing that we can as a board is to protect our district in the best way so I was very glad to hear that uh an ad hoc committee will be established and we'll move forward because I do hear horrible stories um my daughter works in another district and some of the stories that she shares from her uh colleagues are scary these days so I'm glad that the Board of Ed can do as much as they can do uh from the Board of Ed side but my only request to the public that is so concerned would be to flood the Town Council meetings when I attend Council meetings um Joyce and I are there and maybe Maria and a few other people but this is a very hot topic and it's something that as a town we need to put heavy pressure pressure on the council and the mayor to watch their PS and q's or they're not going to be sitting there very long and whatever can be okay whatever can be done on our side to protect our children is your main goal you can stand up and say we're against it but the only thing that you truly have the power to do is to protect our children thank [Applause] you thank you next public comments Mo thank you mohin Patel Edison and present all right a few things I want to uh talk about uh a lot of parents are talking about the bathrooms they're talking about cannabis they're talking about this and that right so let's start off with the potties all right so the bathrooms just to give you my personal experience uh I've I've gone to games in other schools where my kid is playing basketball and I've gone to our home games and just going into our bathroom it's sometimes horrendous it smells like piss it's garbage into the urinals and everything I give kudos to our custodian staff because they do their job the problem is times the kids are not doing their job into making sure that the garbage is put into place but I don't blame the kids for that we don't have any trash cans in the bathroom and I understand because of the vaping and so forth that we don't have the trash can so they don't climb on and start smoking into the ceiling but you could put smaller trash cans or you could put them right outside before we go out something to at least collect the refuse so they're not throwing it into the urinal or they're not throwing into the toilets and making the jobs much harder for our custodians the other thing thing is that when other parents are coming in from other schools and they're seeing and they have to use our bathrooms it's a disgrace that like this is the crap that they see in our schools versus what they what we experience in their schools so just just be cognizant of that and I know we've revamped our bathrooms like crazy this is a beautiful bathroom here uh but just make sure that we are taking care of all our school bathrooms now for the pot from potty to pot all right so I understand that this is an ordinance that was done in the municipal building in terms of they already took it off the table for now and they assigned a committee which they put a pill Pusher Patel president and pothead pointer on there too so you have conflict of interest let's watch yeah yeah we will watch whatever we saying so we have politics that are being played you guys are on the board there's politics that are being played here as well what you need to do is start looking out for the parents and the students the students are getting affected the most when cannabis is used by them and it's also part of our parents process to to also educate their kids in terms of what is good and what is not right so everyone has to take their role you guys have to take a role put a strong emphasis strong message out to the township that Hey listen this will not be tolerated in residential areas because our students live in this town they go to our schools and you're putting one right next to their right next to them and it doesn't make any sense so the politicians are beholden to the residents you guys are beholden to the students let's work together and make sure that that doesn't happen put a letter out send a strong message that Hey listen as a board as a whole board we do not approve of you changing the ordinance from an industrial side to a residential site sell all the licenses you want I don't care 120 30 40 doesn't matter the problem is someone's going to make a commission on that that's okay but the problem is you're putting it into the residential area and everyone is going to be affected by it our kids are going to be affected the most because the Cannabis affects the kids the most you're 25 and you want to smoke recreationally who cares do it in your own home but you have the kids bringing it into the schools and then it's affecting our grades and students so let's fix that the other thing is I want to talk to the parents I know the athletic uh committee is in here but they we need to do something about having our parents come out and support our kids and set a set an example for them say listen we are supporting you go to the games enjoy the games support them academics is great but the culture that we bring into our school makes a big difference and the parents have a big say when they're involved in not just grades but into their activities then you will see less addictions of other aspects going on so kudos to everything oh by the way I got to give you a prop Mr Jonathan too in regards to the audit that we had from six infractions to going down to two from the previous year to last year last from the last year to the previous year we had six infractions last year we fixed it so we are down to two so I commend the finance and Facilities committee last year with uh Mr Romano vice president romano and uh Jerry myself and V for and um Jonathan there in making sure that we did a better job in getting all those infractions from the previous year fixed last year into this year thank you thank you next public comments uh akur Octor Nasser Pleasant Avenue today I come here for your help I'm a 12-year resident of claraa Bon an Edison teacher and a Committee Member of claraa Bon or at least a section of it last week I attended an Edison planning board meeting to discuss my concerns with the three-story building that they were building on lot 103 which is also 1039 Amboy Avenue this is next to the only four-story building in clar baren iest I requested the applicant install a sidewalk on the rideway on cabit Avenue but the owner of the property a foot and ankle doctor refused even on the grounds of school safety I explained to the planning board and the applicant that since they are developing the property they must adhere to the newest guidelines of building those guidelines I CED were NJ admin code 5 21-45 and ordinance number 01938 d26 that sidewalks are required to be built within 2 miles of the school to provide students with safe walking routes Herbert Hoover happens to be3 miles away from that property which is also known known as total dimensions Unfortunately they didn't listen to reasoning um they rejected the site application for to three but they did not really talk about what I had suggested so since then I've reported and emailed to all the stakeholders which would be you the Board of Education Council planning board code enforcement Herbert Hoover Middle School and I'm thinking about contacting the Herbert Hoover uh middle school PTO uh thus far all I've heard from is President um Patel if we act quickly we can force these sidewalks to be put on to the new revisions of the plan the reason I'm turning to the board of education is because I think you can help our community last year I'd gone to a council meeting and I'd complained about what's going on W Wilson Middle School where there's very little safety there with the one way in and one way out and so I was told to go ahead and talk to Sergeant Simone and then a little bit while later then all of a sudden I saw construction happening there and for some reason I thought it was me that because I spoke at those meetings that it was because of me that some action happened but I learned very quickly that you guys were involved and I thank you for that so because you guys have done some work in the past for the schools and you have had some good um reactions and um basically you have had a turnaround that I probably can't do on my own I'm asking you guys to help me to go ahead and correct the oversight by the planning board perhaps you can work with them and you can perhaps get them to to do what you did for wi Wilson Middle School to Clara baren and all I'm asking is a sidewalk so we have the law on our side I'm hoping that you guys will help me help the community and make sure that students have school safety all around thank you thank you next the lady in the back okay it's optional for today my mistake but if you want to announce your name and address please thank you sure u n you can hold the microphone a little bit even more yeah n Tia um Edison New Jersey thank you so much uh I see uh resolutions made year after year I'm a resident of Edison for the past uh 15 20 years I see work being done addressing local issues uh I'm here today to with a request with a huge expectation from Board of Education regarding cannabis establishments and proposal for an cannabis establishments in Edison I look forward to a huge support from Boe as usual um please be a symbolic representation for student health well-being um and uh with the council meeting happening tomorrow and uh no official confirmation of you know change in plans I look forward to a support a huge support from Boe that's thank you thank you next Harish hi uh good evening Harish T 45 McKinley Street so several things uh number one any status update on the uh JPS uh renovation what stage it is has it started not started second thing um what exactly happened to the GMI renovation plan I thought we had money and it should have gone through in the December meeting itself um uh now we are towards the end of February not sure what's going on it would help uh if there is any update on that so third the transportation um app I know this has been going on like for almost 5 months now uh the last we heard was it is in beta testing and more parents are needed to test it out so I think it's a high time we need to roll that out then number fourth is obviously uh the bathrooms again don't want to mention any names of the schools but there is one middle school and one high school in Edison where the situation is really bad uh I mean you guys know the names of the schools I don't want to point out because uh some people might take it as an offense um it's all it's the names are there on the social media so um just like I suggested for the the food quality random checks maybe we need to do that for the bathroom cleanliness also or maybe um whenever the janitor cleans uh he could um update the principle um I understand we follow a pyramid system where Four elementary schools lead to two middle schools and it leads to one high school so obviously the population strength is high uh ideally we should have about rooms all four corners of the schools but these were built some time back around the same time frame maybe when I was born anyway uh so but we need to find a way out uh Mo suggested a few good tips um but obviously the random checks and cleanliness is a must the most clean bathrooms I've ever found anywhere in the world is in Dubai airport and they actually overdo it they clean it after every person uses I'm not expecting that level of service anywhere in any school not even in private schools leave aside Public Schools but uh we need to take some more concrete steps uh because it's a matter of hygiene ideally we should not be discussing this topic at all even in developing countries in the schools um the bathrooms are improving so in Edison which is not even a neighbor District we should not be having this topic uh but it is what it is and of course saved the best one for the last uh in the last so the cannibas thing yes uh we all went to the council meeting yesterday we uh expressed our opposition um during the public verbal comments and uh we did the online petition but I think Boe should also do um their part in terms of passing a resolution and uh forwarding it formally to the council I understand the real power is with the council but and it would be more symbolic but that strong symbolic message uh would be very powerful uh to the council to the administration and it will give some confidence to the parents and kids and the community also it will let the people know who stands where on this I'm sure it will pass with 90 uh that's my prediction but uh and if it does it's all the more better because that will send out a strong message I I I I still feel uh you guys should do the resolution I'm not sure if it is too late if it can be introduced now but uh if it can be done please go ahead and do it and I while I was driving I came to know about the ad hoc committee on The Vaping that's a good starting move uh I applaud that commend that and a lot more needs to be done uh I know it's a work in progress because it has been formed today so some policies and procedures need to be established around that there are some ideas uh we definitely need to this thing has been going on for a while in Edison schools and everyone knows it but somehow I I mean the web detectors were installed a few years back most probably they're not working I heard that uh new ones have been approved and that's a good move in addition to that as I said uh unless and until there are random checks uh it's not going to be effective there are always ways to work around the system and unless and until there is some uh strict prevention and prevention methods and consequences for wrongdoing uh we won't really achieve uh our Target so maybe a school resource officer uh could be uh going at random intervals and checking the bathrooms I'm not sure if that is doable or not uh I know there are privacy concerns and um there are lot of issues we heard about that earlier um but something more needs to be done uh in terms of uh what the exact procedures would be uh that would be followed by the administration and maybe the committee could uh give some more transparency in the coming days thank you absolutely thank you board president yes I have a question um this is for the attorney um Mr mench is there I I think you know as board members as parents as residents everybody hears um the concerns certainly um I'm I'm I'm sitting up here thinking to myself gez like I don't want anything being introduced into town that has a negative impact on our school children right so our responsibility as a board is to the Board of Education and the kids the residents I certainly want to tow the line and not uh cross the line into Township matters that we don't have I don't want to say jurisdiction but certainly I don't want the township passing a bunch of resolutions about curriculum and things like that um but we also should be protecting our kids in a way especially as it relates to the schools so I'm wondering if if you as as the attorney which I'm not have a way to kind of split the difference a little bit and show support for the residents I think we hear everybody loud and clear um protect the school children and how how it relates to the schools but also um you know come up with something that's that's within our boundaries and what we should be doing as a board of ed I mean is that something that you can come up with for us yeah so you know I think as the as you pointed out I think some of the public May realize uh this board doesn't have any direct jurisdiction over what the town does uh you can't prohibit them you know you can't bar them from taking action um and within your jurisdiction there are certainly things that you shouldn't comment on generally uh you know Township General Township uh business maybe outside the scope of certain things but to your point items that impact the school district there's nothing that I'm aware of that would preclude the district from you know passing a resolution or somebody making a motion and and having it voted on by the board with regard to uh the board's position on a matter that um impacts uh the district if if you know you chose to do that it could be as simple as a motion that says uh you know um you know the board uh you know has has concerns over the current proposal and ask the township you know to withdraw the current application you can be you know language can be as can be stronger can be uh um you know uh but it sounds to me like you know you could say uh you know at this board meeting you know members of the public spoke you know against the current proposal which would expand cannabis in Edison Township the board has uh heard the residents shares the concerns of the residents as expressed at the board meeting with regard to the potential negative impacts of expanded cannabis in Edison uh and the you know the board has concerns over uh over what an expansion would do and ask the township Council to abandon their plans uh limit their plans consider I mean it's up to the board how strong you want the language to be I mean we anticipate that there's some sort of tabling of this but as somebody pointed out it's still formal formally formally on the agenda because they have to table it right so prior to doing that it would be helpful if I mean I I know president Patel mentioned that you guys talked about this throughout the week yeah do you have something prepared that's enough that is within our boundaries so so I had started to you know put together some language for a written resolution that you'd have in front of you um when it got you know pulled I stopped working on it because you know I wasn't going to do the work and do the billing uh you know wasn't necessary but if it's the position of the board um you know doesn't have to be a written resolution pre-prepared uh any member of the board can make a motion with a position on something and if it gets seconded it' be voted on by right so can you help me with that I'd like to make a motion but I want you to help me basically craft something that's that's comfortable for me sure I mean that addresses all these concerns right that the residents have but remains board ofed Centric does that make sense yeah absolutely I think I think the the the question simply would be um and you can tell me what it is EA you're thinking how other board members are but uh just the the ultimate question be what is it you UL want to ask the the council or convey to the council is it that you want them to not expand cannabis at all is it that you want them to um not expand cannabis in the locations that are being proposed is it that you just want to make sure that the bo that the council in its deliberations takes into consideration the concerns expressed by Edison residents and the concerns that the board has over the potential impacts of whatever they do on the education system here in Edison so there's different ways and then the other language I can so Mr MCH um the discussion and we'll come back to you Mr Schneider the discussion we had myself you and Dr ELD last week when this was when no action was taken by the council yet was we sent you the ordinance what the ordinance says it is not about for or against the Cannabis it is about those locations that council is trying to add so the position that we discussed that time is put a resolution together requesting the council not to to oppose the ordinance requesting the council not to vote on the ordinance or whatsoever language and that's exactly the discussion myself you and Dr had and U then I sent you those ordinance that one and um what council did is some residents saw an email message from the council president saying they have decided to withdraw the resolution ution right now we are hearing from the residents that the resolution the ordinance or their ordinance is not yet withdrawn right so yeah that's a formality though yeah I was going to say so so that's probably whether they act on it or not if it's been noticed it has to be on the agenda they can table it tomorrow they can vote Yes they can vote no and we are assing I'm personally assuming that they will it will be withdrawn because they will not like lie to so many residents so it is going to be withdrawn so so from my position my perspective is like all the best thing we could do is um request them that listen withdraw it so I understand that from all the messages that has been floating around it is going to be withdrawn there is no slightest doubt about it and council is not going to like you know not withdraw it but if uh residents feel comfortable for Board of to take a position again we are not supposed to get into the municipal matters this is we are not supposed to decide on the ordinance like what does the council do right but because um the residents so many residents have emailed us with the concerns with their concerns about safety of the students the schools and everything uh we I I take a position that you know the council should not pass that ordinance which is loud and clear right now seen on all the social media messages seen all over the place in on Facebook on WhatsApp and all in in emails council president has sent numerous emails to all the residents saying many residents saying okay we're going to withdraw it there was a huge discussion last night but hearing that it's not withdrawn we can still request that you know you guys withdraw it it it's not going to matter because it's still request and uh they they still anyway is going to withdraw it is there's no meaning of it but if if everyone feels comfortable that okay you know we want to request we want to request so what what is your take on that yeah so you certainly could pass a resolution that that says based on the concerns expressed by the residents at this meeting uh and the concerns held by you know members of the Board of Education the Board of Education asked that the C you know asked the council to uh withdraw its current ordinance at this time based on the concerns about the impacts of of the current ordinance on you know children within the school system period board president I'd like to just make it a little bit more gen I simply don't I'm not as familiar as maybe you are with the ordinance itself I'd like it to be more General in that anything relating we shouldn't be allowing zoning shouldn't be allowing retailers to sell anything that negatively impacts our students near schools right so it it shouldn't just be about this specific ordinance it's just about like I don't want bad stuff sold near our kids that and that are forced to go to that school you know so people could choose to go wherever they want but they can't choose what school they go to we tell them where to go and if there's something being sold near your school now the township may decide to sell cannabis or anything else um in an industrial area or a place that's not near school but I just think we should make it more General focused to the board of education and its proximity to the school children in my opinion wherever it lands on I mean I that's I don't know how everybody else feels but I think we need to Loop it back to the board of ed because I think we we should stay in our lane a little bito right so Mr Schneider to your point in the email that we sent to Mr MCH U I think that's what we address right so how do we address School aspect but while you were drafting the resolution um this thing got pulled out so we did not have the opportunity to do that if you have any suggestions around that that's fine otherwise my position is the best thing to do is send a simple request listen we we request you to withdraw the ordinance that's it great done with but if you have some to something to suggest based on Mr what Mr Schneider said um I'll let you speak yes vice president ran the resolution has to state my opinion okay that at its current verbiage it's not acceptable to the board of edge any there anywhere near a school a church is not acceptable but the way the ordinance is written we have to make sure that it also protects everybody that's the problem the resolution or the ordinance the the way we the ordinance the way they put it together oh yeah we don't have that in front of us okay and the reason we don't have it is because they pulled it now they only pulled half of it if you went to the board meeting which I did and you get the sheets at the very end at the very bottom they didn't pull that that one little section they didn't pull so if we're going to make something it should be the verbage the language isn't acceptable to the board of ed excuse me to the elected Board of Ed I cannot speak for the administration but I can speak for myself I'm a committee person in District 57 I am a board member in Edison Township Board of Education duly elected but we have to make it so the verbiage is correct if you understand what I mean Mr Schneider no I do not against you I'm just saying I think we're I think we're aligned right so um Mr Schneider one second so Mr Vice President Romano that's a great point and that's exactly what we try doing it before the council president's letter came out on a weekend so that's the process that we're working on the verbage and our original plan was to bring a drafted letter in the Clos session discuss in the close session and then pass the resolution now what happened is there was so so much back and forth with the township making that decision and we are learning that it's not pull then residents are certainly concerned about it I I don't know how many of the board members have gotten emails I saw some of your emails and Chris your email was mentioned incorrectly people have typed chris. logo is christopher. logo so you did not get many of those emails but I personally got so many emails I haven't responded to emails of the board because I had many other things to do with that particular ordinance opposing that but I did not respond to the emails but absolutely my position I am with the residents I am against that ordinance now nothing around it like whether other locations or this or anything but that particular ordinance it did have certain Lo locations which are concerning and the residents were also concerned so the proposal I have is at this point we have only 24 hours left before they make that decision so a request from Board of Ed to oppose that ordinance uh to asking Council to withdraw that ordinance something like that that's my proposal now uh if other board members have any other suggestions with the language I I will give everyone some time to pitch in here before Mr Minch puts together something president yes M sorry I do want to stress that you know we don't want to we want to make it General basically we all I think I personally am strongly against that we put anything like cannabis jobs near residential area or near schools we want to make it General but we want we don't want to make it vague so I would say say that we should oppose this alance at least and then add language that we we are against to put any kind of canabus shops in residential area so we can basically use both so if I hear correctly you to add the language like yeah I want to stress this right now so we think clearly request them to withdraw this and then we add language to I that what Mr Schneider said about the schools we make it gener enough that they try to we're going to try to block this in the future that they can't put any cannabis shop near residential area residential school I think that aligns with Mr Schneider what you suggested earlier Mr Patel the um so I wrote I wrote down a sentence here the me the members of the Board of Education are against any zoning or Township ordinances which allow substances that negatively impact our students to be sold around our schools our it should say there should be a limit Mr Roman I'm sorry there should be a limit such as distance I understand but I don't think we're I understand what you're saying and I'm not I'm not saying no let's not do it I'm just saying I want to make sure that if we send a letter we make sure that it's 100% legal 100% where they can't come back and go well you didn't do this I want to make sure that it's 100% legal I don't care but it's got to say that it must be legal right so I would ask attorney if if we if we're not specific in when I say sold around our schools we're not specific I mean is that enough to make our Point yeah I mean again this this resolution doesn't have any legally binding effect uh so it's not a matter of it being legal or illegal um you can't enforce it you know you don't have the power uh state law might have the power local zoning might have the power to literally govern where they go but you certainly can express your your opinion that it shouldn't be near schools um you could also consider language that says you know um uh as um Shannon mentioned about you know residential areas if you want to include that or not you could also include language it just says in in any future consideration any future consideration of cannabis uh to encourage the district to make sure that they excuse me uh make sure that the council or Township in the future considers all impact on the education of children when making decisions with regard to cannabis generally um it's a vake statement doesn't have a um all those things could be included um you know your statement there's nothing illegal or you know there's nothing improper about it if there's any language that wants to get added to it you can add it to it so I'm certainly for uh the School portion of it school and residential area so let's include that language um for those board members who are not spoken I would like to give them an opportunity to weigh in on that Mr Lugo uh yeah thank you board president along those lines yeah I was going to say uh do we want to add bus stops schools and bus stops that's all all right something something to think about okay any any other board members right seeing none so um I think Mr MCH from what I uh hear from Mrs Pang Mr Schneider Mr romano and myself my position is to request the council to withdraw this ordinance which is happening tomorrow but I really I feel strongly about that you know what a letter from Board of Education will probably help and that's that's a strong message to the council that listen guys this Edison Board of Education which was not involved in in the ordinance to start with is sending you a message that withdraw this ordinance so I I really am excited to put the resolution I hear the comments of our fellow board members Mr Schneider he specifically request about the school uh including the portion of the school that's a valid point and we should do that Mr Romano uh also mentioned about this uh that that U you know about the zoning and Mrs Pang did the same thing too so Mr Minch I'll leave it up to you word something based on this and we can do a roll call can I can I make the motion to have Mr Minch come up with the proper verbiage and make sure that we get this proper verbiage sent to us asap but then we don't have a board meeting until after the no as long as Mr mench as long as we make the motion and we vote on it tonight Mr mench correct me if I'm wrong if we make the motion we vote on it tonight that letter can be addressed to the Town Council from the board of the current Board of Ed members not from the administration if the administration wants to hop on board I'm well more than willing to help out here but the Board of Ed the elected Board of Ed strongly advises them reconsider the ordinance as it's written and you could add any other verbiage that you think can be uh pertinent to that yeah certainly I I think the letter that gets sent would be a letter probably from uh you know the board president on behalf of the board indicating this is not something that the superintendent would would send this is a letter that the that the board president would send indicating to the you know to the council that this is what action was taken at the you know pursuant to a vote by the the board whatever that vote is uh to indicate our you know the board's opposition to the it sounds to me like it's Universal that everyone opposes the ordinance as drafted um so that you know to to oppose the the current ordinance ask the board to um you know ask the C Council to um you know to reconsider or you know vote against the ordinance and that the board has serious concerns with regard to locating cannabis in area in residential areas and any areas which impact uh the school district and children within the school district which may include bus stops board president the the only thing I'll add is the reason I don't want to be specific about this specific ordinance tomorrow is that somebody brought it up I don't know if it was online or tonight but somebody brought up that they anticipate it to be brought up again at some point yes a few months from now it'll be somebody's going to bring it up and say Hey you know nobody's watching so maybe we'll do the same thing again so I think the resolution should read the members of this of the Board of Education are against any Township ordinances not the spefic specific one any Township ordinances which allow substances that negatively impact our students to be sold around our schools period and the the reason I say substan is I don't want a liquor store opening up next to a bus stop either or any kind of substance we don't know what comes out next year or the year after people you got some point so let's do this so you know because are you going to do this again in two months three months then then Mr so Mr one second so let's do this how about we do this vice president can I make that motion let me make that motion so I'm going to I I'll make the motion let's hold off I can make a motion I'm a member of the board I can make a motion what we want to do though what we want to do though is because there's so much language floating around let's give Mr MCH few minutes here right uh we still have some public comments let's give him some time I'll let some people go who are who are not spoken yet or who has some time remaining motion and Joe already brought up the motion need a second on the motion what is the language on the motion so there's no language on the motion yes there is I I want to make a motion with this language right here all right we we're not going back and forth here so what I'm going to do is I'm going let public finish their comments whoever is left because this came in between Mr MCH if you want to put together something real quick if we can come to a conclusion as a board here then we can vote upon it I'll withdraw my motion at this point to give Mr mench because it seems like that's what the board leadership would like however next time if I make a motion I just want it to be recognized thank you thank you all right who else um Mr Bo pres just as aside um my computer died so I'm going to go into the the ban room to plug in if uh if you know all heck break solution you need me please come get me I'll just be right back there okay okay sure thank you all right um that lady in the bag hello thank you my name is j lakmi and 20 Huntington Road I've been a resident of eldis for about 15 years now I came here with a couple of different topics but I think subscription busing is already being addressed Canabis is already being address so I get to my point and that is a really a request a request to increase resources towards mental health education I recently found out that my own kid was struggling with anxiety and depression for few years and he hid it so well from his family I also found out that he communicated about this to his close friends but none of them none of those kids spoke up I don't particularly blame these kids including my own kid they are middle schoolers they're high schoolers most of them don't even know what to do with this topic they cannot even recognize Mental Health Challenge as an issue issue there's also a lot of stigma around this topic but if you Google search suicide cases in universities nearby including the prestigious Princeton and Across the Nation the numbers are alarming young adults facing depression and taking their own life is on the rise especially after the pandemic we just had mental health education must be given more serious thought perhaps you can create a course just like physical health and PE uh gym education that we have whatever it is this topic warrants higher priority in our school system all the way from elementary school to high school I hope none of you have to ever face a situation where a regular knock on the door to wish good night to your kid is a time you find out that your kid is contemplating death over life thinking of self harm and suicide I must confess that I didn't think of this issue until it hit my home I don't want any of you and any of the my fellow parents to face the same so despite the sensitivity of this topic I am here today to request to to you to take action to further educate educate our kids on mental health issues just like how we educate them on science mathematics and history it is time for a big change on this area thank you thank you uh Mr Ross yeah without Mr Ross's comment we could have not passed another resolution anyways so thank you hey good evening members of the board members of the public just want to you know again welcome everybody to Edison High School we love that we've got you guys um captured until the JP Auditorium gets finished sometime next November I only wanted to bring up three of the many many things about what's great about Edison High um first off we just finished our unified basketball season so we ended up playing JP Oldbridge we went to Monroe Monroe came here and yesterday my man Eric Laray I have to shot him out hit a half court shot to end the third quarter somebody tried to steal the ball One Step boom straight through the net I'm trying to get it on the ESPN um top plays of the week but hasn't happened yet so give it up for my man Eric now when we come back in March we'll be talking about all of the different um great schools that our students got into right now we've got somebody that's working on we've got a full ride to Duke already we got somebody that's working on a full ride to Georgia Tech so our students already get in but when the colleges show show how much they respect our students by the amount of money they give that makes us really happy and I have to shout out my cheerleading team you know just like the Yankees of the 1950s the island ERS of the 1980s the UCLA Bruins that won all those championships in a row my cheer team five years in a row as state champ so give it up for Coach Gregoire coach jok and all of them and um also I want to invite anybody wants to come out on March 7th we've got the students versus faculty basketball game the students do a tournament then the teachers usually beat them this year will kib boss is coming out of retirement he's going to come play with us anybody on the uh board staff would like to come all right including most unsung Judy Cox's awesome unsung central office employee of the month but but also want to this time of year you guys see me here my hair is growing out a little bit long it's not just a bad hair day it's one of the things that we do at Edison High is always come together for the St baldrick's um charity for cancer started from a young girl that ended up going to school here and is now a district employee and my involvement came um probably about eight or nine years ago when a group of kids in the auto shop were like you know hey Mr Ross me you shave your head I'm like man if you raise $1,000 I'll shave my head so these kids one of those kids who is now also a district employee went around to school went around the town found a way to raise the money so I started shaving my head so I just want everybody to check it out if you want to get a QR code in the back it's if you go to St bald.cap teachers from the ETA it's from custodians and grounds people it's from administrators anybody can get involved so I really hope it's for the children so far today I had four people donate from the QR codes so I appreciate any support that you can give again to support this program thank you guys thank you uh Matt I know you didn't go so good evening ETA vice president Matt rnck uh couple things number one your ad hoc committee great idea I was a little just disturbed because all the people that mentioned nothing was mentioned about a couple staff members from each building so I'm hoping there'll be there and the other thing is it sounds like a high school thing but you might want to think about middle school as well you know it seems to be filtering down to younger ages as well okay so that's number one number two Mr Rivera thank you um you actually saw a little my thunder there's quite a few staff members that put in the retirement it's on the agenda and it was from 22 years to 41 plus years years so congratulations to the members that are retiring you know hopefully you'll have a great rest of your career over the next few months and um thank you for your service to Edison and of course the ETA third thing um our ETA volleyball tournament last Thursday it was a wonderful event as Dr alwell and I talked it's always great to bring staff together from around the district but I want to thank again Mr romano and Mr buo Patel for attending the event Dr Al delli a couple of your staff members I know Dr hus was there uh Miss Daniel and also Mr cassin so we thank for your presence but I also want to thank a number of other people that you know do a lot of things to help it's a large event it takes a lot of people to get that thing going first of all I want to thank from JP Stevens Rob Robinson our vice principal and our our uh athletic director for secur you know getting the facility allowing us to use it our was there the entire time and um it was he you know does a wonderful job our custodians for helping set up the tables and breaking it down and cleaning up after the mess that is made at times so I do thank the custodians as well but most importantly of course I thank the members that participated um every school was represented say for one who had an activity at their school and some injuries and things like that but even they raised funds for three worthy uh Charities we don't have final numbers yet but um buddy ball keny keepwell both Edison and our ETA scholarship fund so again it was a great night we appreciate the support that was given by everyone that was there the people that played the people that helped us out um running the show you know it's it takes a lot of people and a lot of things to make something like that go the final thing I wasn't going to mention it but since you guys were discussing about this and I don't disagree with Mr Schneider's take on a general statement but you can be General but and has specificity at the same time a general statement what you said and putting something like including but not limiting to the current resolution now you're all right now you're specific it covers all let the speaker finish but now you have you know specific for this particular thing in addition to everything going forward so just a thought have a good night thank you thank you so uh Matt a suggestion well taken about uh including the Middle School staff and the high school staff and will uh Dr Al will certainly will consider that strongly and uh you'll you'll hear good things about that thank you any first timers uh this gentlemen you just had one question but I'll let you go again if you have another question a follow excuse me a followup to my prior statement I was told that as does have a policy regarding whether or not a school will notify a parent if his or child is going to consider uh changing his sexual orientation the policy is not mandatory it's apparently policy number 5657 so I would like to submit to the board some matters it should consider to make it mandatory um a child who considers changing a sexual orientation can very well do damage to his reproductive organs his or her reproductive organs in that case that child has a very high likelihood of not becoming a parent do we want that to happen to our children Johnny considers changing from man to woman he does something that will do serious maybe permanent damage to his reproductive organs he's not going to be a father in the future isn't that serious enough to tell a parent my gosh if it isn't I I I I I don't know what else to say about that also the increased risk of suicide the statistics as was stated early are alarming uh in the lgbtq community there's an organization called the Trevor Project it claims to be the largest organization in the world devoted to reducing suicide amongst youth in the lgbtq community they did a Statewide survey every state in the country all 50 either in 2021 or 2022 I'm not sure but I have from their website some numbers 40% of the LGBT youth in New Jersey not just the nation New Jersey seriously considered suicide in the past year 14% of the LGBT youth in New Jersey attempted suicide in the past year that would be 20 either 20 or 21 71% of the LGBT youth in New Jersey reported experienced symptoms of anxiety and 54% of the lgbtq youth in New Jersey reported experiencing symptoms of depression the the the the statistics go on and on if reducing the risk of suicide that's a no-brainer we want to reduce that make it mandatory please tell a parent that his or her son or daughter is considering changing sexual orientation the parent can counsel his or her child to help help with those matters that I just mentioned thank you thank you very much any other yes sir Jerry she Edison um I asked a couple of questions at the when I first came and no answer one is where is jmi and what's the plan for the the uh the ongoing projects do I need to sign my up sign myself up with uh please do sir Dr hus to get the answer please do sign up and we will contact you thank okay you can't give me the answer where it is okay so the uh um on the agenda there are some some uh uh bids about contracts and a lot of them are bided and but it doesn't have all the other bids so moving forward can you list all the other bids that came in so we know that you know where is the range of the bid just say the one of the change order it's a lot of money would you please give the gentleman all your information ask the questions I'm asking question in the public and I'm telling you that that person is qu I'm asking the I'm asking the question in public he can give me the answer later okay so the change order and all the other bids you know can you list all the the bids that came in not just one item you award it to somebody and um the other thing is about the um the I don't know whatever the committee is vaping bathroom committee um V show Patel is not here uh he has done a lot of work last year uh I hope that you guys consider him on the committee uh to continue uh some of the works that he started and also um I forgot to give kudos to him on some of the uh curriculum things that was brought up uh that was under his leadership and was continuation of implementing that so uh unfortunately he's not here I you know I can't say anything you know but I hope he's watching and uh thank you aish show for getting those to the point where they're getting implemented thank you thank you y uh first thank you board for uh staying up late and trying to uh work your name and your and your address okay my name is Gopi atali I'm from Sagamore Avenue Edison New Jersey 08820 thank you very much you're welcome yeah and really thank you everyone and the board to sitting through uh uh trying to uh write up this resolution in trying to oppose uh the ordinance uh and uh I I I'm not uh I wouldn't say I'm not an expert but I'm not an expert here to uh comment on any uh language um but if withdrawal or voting against means the same I think that is what we want uh as as uh you know the board member is saying right we we don't want this coming back in any shape of form sneak upon us again and I 100% agree to of the same thing you know oppose this ordinance as is and including opposition of limiting sales anywhere in these locations that are included in the ordinance or anywhere near the schools as you just said and residential areas so it's a blank thing so that the kids are safe and everything is taken care of and with the subcomittee that you were trying to form uh uh you know for protecting the kids and it's awesome and the further the the council and its subcommittee would address uh the current the the rest of Affairs separately so this ordinance would be out of bounds and scratched off and have a protection for all the areas that are closer to residential areas and the other uh other uh places so thank you for that uh thank you very much for that I had one question uh separately is what is the current law if uh x amount of marijuana is found in possession for on an 18-year-old kid in the school with all the legalizations that is happening what is the current law and can that be addressed at the Town level to be making more stringent than uh what it currently says so uh maybe that's a that's the question if I can ask again I would repeat because Aton is here if you want me to the question if you wouldn't mind you would please give that gentleman there your name and your contact information and I'm quite sure he can lead you to the proper people such as the Edison police department to give you that information that I'd appreciate thank you very much for your comment thank you uh but it's a school law right what is that there is no that is you're you you stated one thing sir what you stated was was there a law there is no if in schools is specific right it's the law man it's the law sir it's the law okay there's no so you want me to check with than for sir let's let's have a seat all right thank you is everyone done Mr Romano is everyone do you have a yes so we have a conclusion here Mr moin Patel I thought you too late all right this this the last one appreciate it I got by three minutes thank you first of all I want to commend uh Mr Romano for actually putting out a motion thank you so much for doing that that's what we should be doing right now H secondly with all this cannabis stuff going on in our towns in other towns there's so many Cannabis shops all around our town mouin has a few Woodbridge has a few piscato you name every town in the state has a a ton of marijuana shops I don't think we need any more in our town actually or around our town but if we do there's one thing that I would like to suggest the board to do is try to start educating our kids a little bit more about the use of marijuana and Edibles and all that stuff that is going on and how it impacts them in their adolescent life I think that's something that we can do as a a school district and making sure that we educate our kids in regards to the effects of cannabis to their growth and the other thing is also sending out a message to the parents in regards to hey cannabis is not only weed or TC oil it's in brownies and gummies and everything so make sure your kids are aware that don't take anything from other kids that you don't know about so just education is a key we are in the process of we should do that I know you have that app or something that's uh going on there that should be another block talks about marijuana pot right Mary Jane 420 whatever you want to call it just name everything and let everybody know what it is and how it's going to affect them and like I said there's a lot of shops and all those guys that are trying to get licenses for the shops in Edison you guys are going to lose your money so might as well not put any more shops in here because it's a commission that someone's going to get but you're going to lose out because there's a ton of competition by the way the most marijuana is basically sold by your street vendor somewhere or a dealer somewhere or a plug somewhere that's where they're getting the drugs from they're not getting it from the shops because they're too expensive by the way thank you thank you right motion to close public comments motion second all in favor I I I all right we can do that now Jerry all right so uh we're going to move forward with the resolution we heard the comments from public we have so many emails from from the residents and this issue is out there like there is hardly anyone who doesn't know about it in Edison so we heard the board members comments everyone had different suggestions like I said we had plans to put this resolution for today opposing the township ordinance and the plans uh fell apart because there was an different email came from Council president to certain residents but then now since it's resurfacing we heard the input of the residents and based on the input of the residents and all those who attended today's meetings and emails and the board members we are going forward with the resolution now so that we don't have any complication in the languages or whatsoever based on the advice from our uh Mrs White can I please finish my um based on the advice from our attorney we already and to answer to Mr moin Patel too we already have formed an ad hoc committee is just getting started so we are going to bring up ideas include some stakeholders and we I'm I'm we're going to do some thought process around it think tank as you say and you know bring up some try to tackle this whole issue right U that being said between now and next month the first opportunity is for all the board members to provide their suggestions as well to Dr elari and myself and vice president Romano what all they would like to include now if there is a need for a broader resolution in the future that we should tell the township a BC XYZ that's fine they can submit their input and we will consider it in you know in in in the ad hoc committee and we can we can pass another resolution with different languages if needed for now the issue and as suggested by our legal council the issue at hand is the ordinance the township Council has not yet withdrawn so our position is to ask ask the township Council to withdraw the ordinance so our attorney has drafted a resolution I would like to him to read and then we'll do a um motion uh Mr Minch sure so so the the language that the board president has um suggested is uh the limited just to the ordinance the members of the board of ed u obviously make it you know more formal members of the Edison Township Board of Education are opposed to the current ordinance proposed by the township Council as would impact our schools and ask the council to withdraw this ordinance uh that's the language proposed by uh board president which would um and then as board president commented uh any more expansive you know uh policy would be referred to the ad hoc committee for consideration um uh Mr CER has proposed other language we've heard other language from other board members um as well so that's that's the language that board president has has proposed Mr President uh yes Mr i' like to make a motion to accept motion anyone second second second by Mrs Pang um roll call Mr to we should have public comments on this Mr M you don't need more public comment on a resolution I mean the board can debate it but you don't need public comment on it no they haven't opened it up right roll call Mr do 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 thank you thank you everyone uh motion to adjin the meeting motion second second all in favor the meeting is [Music] adj --------- testing one two check check one two to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God individual with and justice for all call Mr to yes Mr BR Patel here Mr Romano here miss Pang Miss White here Mr Schneider here Mr River here Mr visha Patel Miss Anja Patel here Mr Lugo here you have a Corum opening statement yes in accordance with the provisions of oh I'm sorry uh in accordance with the provisions of this act Edison 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 administrative offices copies of the not of these notices were sent to the home News Tribune and the Star Ledger thank you thank you at this point we will head joh on to previl 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 confidential Personnel matters pending litigation purchase of real property student matters motion to Ed on motion all in favor I We join to previl session we'll be back by 7:00 thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e the board reconvince to open session time is 7:11 p.m. good evening everyone I'm happy to share with you some of the productive initiatives that have Tak taken place within our district throughout the month of February our Board of Education committees including Finance audit and oversight buildings and grounds curriculum technology and student achievement special ed and preschool expansion policy Communications community relations and Township Lon convene to discuss pertinent issues to advance our educational goals the detailed reports from each of those committees are available on the agenda for your review which will be presented later today last night our Communications committee organized a highly informative webinar during which Mr Rick Kohan our chief academic officer of secondary education presented valuable information about our high school and middle school program of studies introduced new middle school and high school School initiatives electives and discussed the placement criteria I'm pleased to inform you that the recording of this presentation is now available and accessible on our website we eagerly encourage you all to share your feedback and your suggestions through the thought exchange survey also available on our website furthermore we are diligently working on a reference guide for parents which was shown last week and we'll see it um real quick today as well which was shown last month this one is to facilitate quick access to all the frequently needed information ensuring an enhanced user experience and accessibility looking ahead to March I am particularly very very excited about the upcoming read Across America that happens in Edison Elementary Schools the events are scheduled in our buildings throughout the month of March these events will feature numerous guest readers including myself emphasizing the importance of cultivating a love for reading among our students I extend my thanks to our staff and community members for their commitment to the advancement of our exceptional School District that being said uh we have wonderful presentation from our auditor I will ask Mr to to introduce him thank you thank you m very much president Patel uh today we have uh our representatives from our audit firm HFA uh to present our FY 2023 budget Mr KY very my name is Jerry conned I'm a partner at HFA um as Mr Toad said here to present the audit for the year end June 30th 2023 um I just want to State uh we're here a little later than we normally prefer to be uh kind of sounds repetitive when we say that year after year but unfortunately we've been waiting for information from the state of New Jersey that's required to get implemented into the audit report uh for the district that's not just for Edison school district but uh all school districts across the state of New Jersey so um happy to report that we are issued uh And Timely with the state of New Jersey um there's two schedules that I point people to if you're looking for a really good summary of kind of where the district has uh some of the major initiatives that have been undertaken uh and some of the things as financially where what transpired over the past year and where it's kind of positioned moving forward uh those are on the letter of transmitt which is on page one of the report and the uh Management's discussion and Analysis which is on page 25 of of the report uh we have an unmodified opinion on the financial statements that is the best opinion that we can give it says there are no modifications necessary to bring these financial statements into compliance with generally accepted accounting principles um one of the main things I want to talk about tonight we've gone over this uh report in detail with management but one of the things I want to talk about especially as the governor just released uh had his budget addressed today and state aid numbers are going to start to come out is fund balance and where you're at uh at June 30th 2023 and what you have is as management starts putting together the the budget for fiscal year 25 uh the district finished the June 30th 2023 with about $ 79.1 million in fund balance the maximum amount that you're allowed to have on hand statutorily uh is $7.2 million that's the most that you can have in and unrestricted uh the state allows money to be set aside into reserves for specific purposes uh the district had about 45.1 uh 41.5 million set aside in those various reserves uh those are your maintenance your Capital uh emergency reserves important to note about that you guys had utilized about $20 million of those reserves uh for various capital projects in your fiscal year 24 Budget moving on from there you had another about uh $9.2 million set aside for incumbrances those were Goods that had been purchased by the district before June 30th but had not yet been received uh in in District and then from there you had about $12.4 million that the district had utilized to help balance the budget in fiscal year 24 so all of that left the district with about $7.2 million of what's referred to as excess Surplus so as as management starting to put together the the budget for fiscal year 25 that will be the minimum amount that you're going to be required to utilize to help balance that budget all right in addition to all of our testing uh and all of our testing for our financial statement account accounts as well as the uh compliance testing uh from the state of New Jersey we also have to perform an additional layer of testing referred to as a single audit uh we do those on both your federal and your state grants uh and that's an additional testing that's on specific compliance requirements that are set forth by the granting agencies uh I'm happy to report we had uh well we tested about four programs for your federal single audits Your Child Nutrition cluster special education cluster uh education stabilization fund and your title one grant for federal and on the state side we tested three grants uh your state aid public your extraordinary Aid and your transportation Aid um we also took a look back at last year's uh findings and recommendations there were six uh findings and recommendations in last year's audit uh I'm happy to report that in this year uh there are only two findings uh that require corrective action so we've seen significant Improvement in the district's finances and accounting uh and and accountability um and happy to report that only one of the those is a repeat finding uh in regards to the general ledger and uh again we continue to see Improvement in that last year that was a material weakness uh this year that uh deficiency is a sign referred to as a significant deficiency so uh tremendous Improvement in that um the other finding that we have is in regards to uh the Food Service fund uh there's a maximum amount that the Department of Agriculture allows you to have on hand uh referred to as net cash resources um with a lot of the the covid money that we've seen flowing into uh Food Service funds across the state state school districts across the state uh that's definitely not an uncommon uh item that we've been seeing so district has I know a corrective action plan that they've already been working on to put in place to to rectify these these items and uh before I turn it over for any questions from the board I just want to give a huge thank to thank you to uh Dr Alder uh Mr to and and Miss fesi I know is in in the audience here too uh for anybody that's never undergone an audit it's it's a lot uh it's a lot of questions a lot of asking for documents and things like that my wife is an accountant so I get to hear all the the horror stories of the Auditors coming in and asking for everything so I just want to thank you guys for for all the courtesies extended to to myself and my team throughout this entire process but I'm happy to answer any questions if anybody has any I have one so you said that there was for the past couple years or at least last year one of the major recommendations was this general ledger and I I I see this for a second time I guess maybe even three times already what's your recommendations or what's the best practices on how they can move forward to get that done completed yep we we've already had uh conversations on some of the actions that need to take place to to fix some of those issues um I know that they've already uh started to implement some of those corrective actions uh there were just obviously the timing of last year's audit uh was I think we weren't done with the audit until April uh late April last year so there just wasn't a lot of time to implement a lot of corrective action uh but the district obviously did Implement a lot of uh that corrective action a short period of time so I know they've already been working on cleaning up fiscal year 24 and uh we we have continued meetings on on what else they can do so so steps have been given and we're going on with those steps to improve that that's yes that's correct all right the other question I have does this affect our qack score this should not okay thank you president Patel I I just had a comment not a question I just wanted to thank you but also uh extend public kudos to John to and his staff as the business administrator Miss bety in the back and and your whole team this is a significant improvement from last year's report um you you said that out loud which was awesome to hear um this seems to be your grade for the year right um at least you know in a way yeah I got students in Edison Township get graded every day and this seems to be one of his grades for the year and it seems like you did well on your report card so thank you Mr to thank you thank you any other member no questions all right thank you so much thank you very much everyone right so I'll pass it on to Dr for superintendent report great uh thank you board president uh Patel uh good evening ladies and gentlemen I hope all is well with you just a few uh announcements that we would like to kind of touch bcee uh upon um as you could see on one of the resolutions moving forward uh March is uh youth art month uh within this community it's it's great that we uh make sure that um we not only celebrate that but promote Arts education in our programs not only our talented students but our administrators and our building principles and teachers that support these Pro uh programs and make these opportunities available for our students um as we prepare for spring Sports we wanted to congratulate uh our students uh our athletic directors our coaches as well as our uh building level Administration on another successful winter season for all of our um programs that we have here in edent Township I know that Mr uh Patel mentioned read Across America uh is coming up it's actually one of the greatest times in schools especially if you're in an elementary school um getting the opportunity to get in and read to students and uh and interact with them is is something that um not only I TR truly miss uh being a for former building level leader but uh I think I speak on behalf of the board as well too it really is usually the highlight of the month so um I'm glad to see that we are um uh participating in in that um to kind of piggyback on Mr to's grading process he is deep into budget season currently right now along with his team also um we are currently meeting not only with um our budget manager managers but but myself as well too in coordinating efforts to ensure that we present uh budg that's fiscally uh sound and responsible to not only the board of education but to the taxpayers and to the students of our community as well too um a couple other pieces and another service we we've we've transitioned to uh a new platform for um disseminating Board of Education information it is entitled board docs um we are kind of going through some learning curves currently right now but um we do believe that not only from an internal perspective it's easier for our group to craft an agenda and um also easier for us to provide um information in a timely fashion to the public which includes uh resolutions reports uh committee meeting M minutes Etc um and I think uh we have up right on here right now as we kind of transition to this process we're going to look to maybe lessen the amount of paper that we use as well too we are going to have QR codes available so you can preview the agenda on your phone um or any tablet that you that you bring in at that time um you'll have the opportunities to email that to yourself um or you can always obviously go to our district website as well too so um we're actually excited about that uh two public service announcements we are even though we are in the midst of a teacher shortage we have an outstanding uh response for our upcoming job fair I believe that is March 20th it's going to happen at menow Park Elementary School that is at 5:30 p.m. we're extremely excited about that we are looking um to make sure that we secure the very best talent here um in all facets of our position positions especially our certificated staff our teaching staff um our power professionals any positions that we have posted at that time so um if you are have any interest at all we have information that's posted on our website that you can float it to a friend um we are looking for the the very best here in Edison Township uh to fill our schools and teach our students and last but not least tomorrow night is our parent University uh we've got over 200 registrants currently right now uh we are extremely excited about the opportunity to uh partner with our community um in your child's learning experience uh we have a number of different workshops uh that are going to be run by our teachers and in its in its first year I think it's definitely meeting with success uh we would love to grow this program so that we have parents uh and teachers partnering together to deliver information uh sessions that tell her from how to help your kids with homework how to plan for college um how to write resumés all of these things that maybe moms and dads need to uh a little bit of information on um and we can share our expertise as well as yours as well too uh and that is the close of my report there board president Patel thank you Dr uh next we would like to invite our Edison High School representative Miss charvey padman abini hello Board of Education members and the public my name is charve py the Edison High School pres student council president and student representative this week at Edison High School we are having our class 2024 Spirit Week a part of our Battle of classes competition Monday is wearing a singer/ band concert t two is Tuesday is wearing a city's name Wednesdays wearing an advertising a product Thursdays wearing something green and Fridays wearing something College related the class 2024 and the student council hopes students will engage in these Spirit weeks to promote further Spirit shilow estok set a School record for the track team in the 60 M Dash with a time of 7 Seconds Jimmy Le and Christina prad were awarded the febru rotary senior of the month award and we hope they continue to excel at Edison High School Edison High School hosted its e8th grade parent teacher night last Thursday current students are able to speak to parents of incoming freshman introduce themselves to numerous unique extrac activities that has to offer lastly to honor Black History Month black student union will have their showcase on February 29th thank you thank you uh next JP Stevens representative Shivani Patel good evening everyone my name is Shani Patel and I'm the first vice president of JP Stevens High School since our last Board of Education meeting there have been many exciting events at JP Stevens our girls basketball team is having their best season in Gears with 20 wins and only five losses they won the white Division and Captain Katherine beuty reached a record score of 1,000 points in her career our girl swim teen has also had great victories this season with five wins and four losses freshman Angela Zhao has broken and set many records for the swim team with her 200 free 200 IM 50 free 100 free and 500 free the girls bowling team has a record of 14 wins and this season this season and the boys bowling team won the jaia The Joe RoR classic High game trophy with 246 last week the current Sports season has been outstanding with the boys basketball team ending their season with a score of eight wins and 14 losses and the wrestling team participating in districts this past Saturday also the student council is preparing our first schoolwide volleyball tournament on March 1st and we have gotten great participation from the student body with 11 teams of six to eight people having entered so far our school student council has also made significant progress with JPS royalty and we have invited 10 girls and 10 boys to participate in this event we plan to begin rehearsals within a few weeks additionally these past few weeks JP Stevens has been buzzing with Spirit due to the many botc games where representatives from each grade rep participate in fun challenges like ice cream eating contests or a whipped cream contest to win BC points for their class our Deca Club is preparing for their state level competition the herish trip to Atlantic City in light of many of their members receiving first and categories for districts the JP Stevens research Society is about to start their projects with professors and Key Club is continuing their volunteering with numerous organizations JP Stevens as a whole has been participating in numerous events and fostering great school spirit thank you for your time thank you so much both of you for the wonderful updates we appreciate that uh next we want we have public comments for Resolutions only I would like to specify this is for the resolutions only I see some people may be here for the Cannabis issue we will certainly give you enough time to speak afterwards right now at this point only for the resolutions anyone uh are you okay we'll we'll cover that later on right thank you saying none um motion to close public comments motion second second roll call Mr Toad Mr Lugo yes Miss Andre Patel yes Mr a yes Mr Snider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes vice president Romano yes president Patel yes carried and closed uh next is motion to approve Personnel report like to make a motion Mr Romano second Doug Schneider second Mr Schneider uh roll call Mr to yes Mr Lugo yes Miss Patel yes Mr Riva yes yes Mr Schneider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes vice president Romano yes president Patel yes motion carries next is motion to approve Administration curriculum and instruction pupil services and special services reports motion anyone motion I'm going to go with Mr Schneider Mr Schneider roll call Mr to Mr luga yes Miss Patel yes Mr AA yes Mr Schneider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes vice president Romano yes president Patel yes motion carries right the last one is motion to approve Finance report like to make a motion to approve financial report Mr Romano I second it roll call Mr to who's the second I'm sorry I second oh Mr Patel Mr Lugo yes Miss Patel yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Schneider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes Mr Rano yes president Patel yes motion carries thank you now before we move on to our committee reports I have an announcement here to make so for anyone who is paying attention these days on social media and with the news you will know that there are some concerns raised by several residents over the past few days on the location of kabes retail locations retail outlets in Edison that was related to the ordinance that the township Council had put together for public hearing this is not related to a discussion whether to have cannabis locations or not it was about adding some locations which from the way I see was adding five more locations who would want this establishments in residential areas and definitely it should not be near any of our schools I myself sent a letter in my personal capacity to the mayor and the township Council to reconsider that decision using these um concerns in in mind I'm happy that they have decided to withdraw their ordinance and we will be looking forward to seeing that materialized tomorrow when the council meets which brings me to another Point vaping and substance abuse it has been brought to our attention that issues persist especially in two of our high school schools to have an enforcement so everyone feels safe updating policies are very important so administrators have the tools to address the issues we must go to the root of the problem so we can address it adequately school bathrooms have been identified as one of the problem areas so are vaping instruments which Escape notice because of the way they are packaged as a normal day-to-day good such as pens there is this and then there are many other issues that the students face which the parent Community has brought to our attention so as a president of Edison Board of Education I hereby announce putting together an ad hoc school security culture and climate Committee in order to address some of the concerns and the overall culture of the schools that can look into all the problems and the all the areas of problems related to this on vaping on substance abuse and come up with an enforceable Solutions I will work with our superintendent Dr alari and his team which includes our security director Mr pisan Dr hus uh Mr Ralph Bara principls from both the high schools and the member of two from our Board of Education as we work upon forming this in coming days we can look into exploring other stakeholders and we will be happy to report back to the community on the progress meanwhile please feel free to reach out to myself vice president Romano Dr alari via email any time if you have any concerns and would like to share any thoughts that we can include as a part of this committee on the same token I'm also very very happy to announce that today we approved two contracts for The Vape detector at high schools at Edison High School and JB Stevens High School the finance committee approved monitoring measures to approve the weap detectors at both the high schools just today thank you so much now we'll move on to committee reports we'll start with um buildings and grounds Mr Schneider is the chair of the committee thank you Mr Patel Mr to uh yes one second please okay so the buildings and ground met on January 7th present uh was Miss Patel um Mr Patel Mr romano and Mr Schneider as chair um DMR and dco provided us with a update to the esip project uh Roofing and weatherization is almost complete throughout the the district PV installation is ongoing and project scope discussion took place FY 2024 projects by DMR JP Stevens uh re bar has been installed at the site and concrete is being poured for footings and Foundations Herbert Hoover CME will be completed in the next two weeks Roofing windows and interior utilities has begun Thomas Jefferson addition foundation work is ongoing JP Steven Auditorium uh work is going to be starting it was um pushed back to march in order to accommodate some performances in the auditorium but abatement will be taking uh Place uh espe as abatement in the next coming weeks uh JMP kitchen CMU work or concrete concrete masonary unit work is ongoing or or near completion brick steel decking and roof workk has uh started wooder Wilson and John Adams locker room demolition is complete and asbest abatement is ongoing Sports field and batting cages a discussion took place with regards to uh a bid receive from Keystone construction the project is uh table to the next uh committee meeting Rod Grant projects uh these were uh reviewed and referred to the finance committee uh projects by USA architect u USA Architects John Adams jimm slab CMU and rough utility work is ongoing at woodro Wilson jym steel deck work is ongoing and SSP the alternate school program uh we held a discussion led by Dr Tui in regards to Concept Designs the committee moved on to disc discussed change orders at the V various projects these were discussed in detail and then referred to the finance committee um fy22 uh fy2 capital projects uh that are in the planning stages were discussed uh we are going to reconvene once the state aid is released in order to discuss further um and we discussed a draft demographic report which will presented to the board in March that's all I got thank you Mr to and thank you chair Mr Mr Schneider next is finance audit and oversight I am the chair of the committee um the finance audit and oversight committee met on Monday February 12 members in attendance were myself uh Mr Lugo Mr romano and Mr Schneider uh the committee reviewed the change orders um they're all there in the agenda I don't want to go into the details of that but please feel free and everyone is encouraged to look at the agenda for the detailed change orders um the procr and and contract items the committee reviewed and discussed the procurement methods and contracts uh the financial items uh to highlight Rod grants and uh the committee also learned from Mr to the fiscal year 2025 budget is under review and very soon the committee is going to meet to go over the first budget numbers as soon as State numbers Mr to is supposed to come out this week right the State financial aid numbers hopefully tomorrow tomorrow very very good so we are all looking forward to uh that and um you know everyone lovs uh good uh numbers in terms of taxes so we'll we'll wait for that uh and the fiscal year 20123 audit which the auditor was just here uh to present um that portion so again everyone is encouraged to look at um the reports online and I don't want to go into many details about the committee report um the next one is curriculum technology and student achievement committee uh I'm the chair of that committee um the committee met on February 7 uh members in attendance for myself uh Mr Rivera Mr Lugo and Mrs anuna Patel the agenda items were discussing program of studies discussing adding new courses such as AP prec curriculus and Spanish Heritage 2 uh the committee discussed placement criteria discussed changes from last year and the rational for those changes uh curriculum committee had a thorough discussion and careful review about for the placement criteria the program of studies and suggested some modifications uh to Mr Cohen committee also came up with suggestion of adding advanced level courses and AP courses committee asked the administration to present uh the changes as a part of community Relations Committee in the form of a webinar uh and take some feedback from the parents as well the curriculum committee is O open to receiving input from parents and consider suggestions if applicable for the current changes or for future purposes and would like to encourage parents to attend the webinar and as I mentioned earlier the webinar was um yesterday uh which was very highly attended by uh members of the community the second curriculum committee met on February 21st and uh members in attendance were myself Mr Lugo Mr Rivera and Mrs Ana Patel and um the agenda was the new and rebranded uh Middle School elective courses for year 2420 25 um and the new courses um new electives that all the middle schools were getting um the committee discussed renaming of existing Middle School elective of art for sixth seventh and eth grades uh the presentation to the communication committee was discussed and presentation included all the middle school and high school um placement criteria a wellness aspect was brought up and discussed in the past the committee has often heard about yoga yoga from different different organizations what this committee discussed is how how do we really bring it forward to the community what is really very helpful so the committee has task Mr Cohen and Dr eldari to look into this area as a component as a wellness component overall and bring some suggestions and the committee members are also going to bring some more suggestions in the upcoming meeting and we'll take it from there uh next is uh special education and preschool expansion committee Mr Romano you are the chair for that Mr K or Mr tuy hello everybody Tom tuy um the assistant superintendent of people special services here in the district and uh thank you for having me up to talk about our preschool expansion initiative again I'm giv this report on behalf of our uh preschool and special education committee and at the request of Mr Romano so uh the committee met on February 21st at 4:30 we had our chair Mr Amano there um Mr Rivera Miss Pang Dr aldarelli myself and Miss Daniel um before I go into this very quickly this is based on the preschool expansion aid grant it's a competitive Grant process that we'll be applying for in uh come the summer months and we're feeling like we know that we've taken the steps necessary to secure it so some information uh to date we have 985 students pre-registered it's looking like based on the letters of intent from our private partners that we're going to have roughly 450 seats that means that half of all of the residents of Edison looking for prek next year are most likely going to get it um we are going to have to have a lottery process that's a tiered process based on two things the requirements of the grant as well as uh our commitment to prioritize our four-year-old students given that we have less seats than we or we have more students than seats those students will only get one sort of bite at the Apple concerning this program that Lottery is going to take place on March 20th it will be Live recorded and observed so people can go back and get all of that information um and we will be contacting families shortly thereafter on the minutes that we have there are some um some other plans they they entirely revolve around how we expand over the next 5 years to uh to secure our entire universe of roughly 2200 students the two um the two really important ones are are one item three which is um as part of the application requirement the district will be forming a preschool expansion a advisory Council uh that will include parents and it's not just parents of pre students goes all the way to third grade um the other one we're taking a look at is uh potentially putting an RFP out to secure a commercial real estate broker um there is available commercial space within the township and the requirements of the Grant in terms of allowable uses do include lease so we're exploring those options um myself Dr Alder relli Mr to aren't necessarily experts in that field so we're going to try to get some expert guidance on it uh beyond that anybody that's listening at home I would just ask that um you check out the website if you're interested with what's going on um I just tried it Edison preschool expansion put into Google brings you directly to our site so Edison preschool expansion there's a number of videos on there where this program has been described at length um and again Tom tuy assistant superintendent pupil special services feel free to reach out with any questions but Mr Rano thank you for the time and I appreciate you having me up here tonight thank you Mr thank you uh next is Communications Community Relations Committee reports I'm the chair of that committee the meeting was February 15th in attendance for myself uh Chris Lugo Mr Lugo Mrs anjun Patel and uh M Virginia White uh Heather Daniel our director of communication uh Mr hus and Dr Tom toi the committee discussed status of following communication initiatives the new website is under development the features of the new website includes redesign rebranding content migration district and School news with a live feed integrated calendar system streamlined School newsletters and app development the social media engagement is increasing the district is continuing campaigns for preschool expansion Aid as Dr toi just me mention VAR City tutors parent University strategic planning job fair Dei showcase that's diversity equity and inclusion showcase which is coming soon um the committee discussed status of development of central office District newsletter which will be published very soon in the month of March the committee discussed plans of communications and community relations forums throughout the year the community the committee looked at the reference guide if we can put the reference guide um on the screen uh this is something that we started putting together last month uh which will help the parents as a one place to you know access all the links quickly have everything handy and have all the information quickly and easily accessible and I would like to give kudos to so many members of the community who contributed especially two names Shan natala and Harish taani who are very instrumental in helping us out provide the feedback and then we took it to our committee and all our Communications communiation committee members provided their feedback Mrs White Mr Lugo Mrs Ana Patel and um you know uh I would like to give a lot of credit to Heather Daniel over here she put this in matter of like no time and we enhanced upon this this will be rolled out very quickly uh the community discuss uh the committee discuss plans for the current help the structure this is something that is very near and dear to Mrs White and she has been working on it from a few years now uh so as a starting point for the parents seeking the support with technology how to enhance and how to um come up with the numbers and system for tracking and many other aspects of it and once we have more information we will declare in the future meetings um the committee discussed um plans for presentation for the curriculum placement criteria which was um which I presented earlier for the curriculum committee and uh how we'll do the live Zoom webinar for that one and U that being said yesterday we had the first live webinar with the parent Community for the placement criteria the webinar in which Mr Rohan our chief academic officer of secondary education presented the proposed new Middle School and High School courses for the enhan enhancements for our program of studies and placement criteria um everyone has got the link so everyone is encouraged to watch if if you missed out yesterday the feed feedback regarding the presentation is very important as well as the suggestions and comments regarding this the initiatives and now we are doing that through thought exchange thanks to Dr Elder Ali his team and M Heather Daniel for putting this together uh in matter of no time we received so many suggestions from the parents and it's just growing as I understand uh so here is a link that you see on the screen for Thought exchange uh QR code everyone is really really encouraged by our committee to use this tool provide feedback about the webinar and about everything we can do for the curriculum thank you so much the next one we will go with uh policy committee Mr rera I know Eddie you wanted to start it off right sure sure um good evening ladies and gentlemen you have the policy committee uh report the committee met on Tuesday February 20th at 4:30 p.m. uh present at that time um were the committee members uh the chair Mr Brian Rivera hen Patel Buel Patel uh Mr Douglas Schneider uh on behalf of the committee there are a few policies here uh one in which uh is 1642.1 which is the new sick leave policy this policy is adopted by the Board of Education in accordance with the new sick leave Law um in doing so we have to abolish our old sick leave policies to replace those as you can see we are abolishing 3161 um and I'm I'm sorry uh 3432 and 4212 in relationship to that um the new sick leave Law um provides opportunities in expansion of the uh sick leave policy uh and allow staff to utilize sick leave for days um as specified in the code um we have two new rewrites of policy 3161 and 4161 Examination for cause uh these policies were uh completely Rewritten to be in accordance with case law currently right now um and that was the extent of the meeting uh was a short meeting as it was a short meeting and there was a few policies discussed but um I do want to give kudos to Dr Al Elli I wanted you to to speak first but I wanted to follow up and one of the roles of the board member is to ensure that the school district has run well but also for creation creating and updating policies so I want to thank you for your initiative and being proactive and getting the policies audited because the information that was provided to the commit was eye opening so just a few numbers I wanted to bring up based at about 225 policies that we looked at it said about 155 of them were done in 2011 so it was a recommendation from the audit auditor that we need to improve about a 100 or update about 100 policies there's also discussions about Abol policies and also policies that are missing so I want to specifically thank you and thank you and and your team because this data was eye opening and I appreciate that you contacted order to do it the bad news for Eddie though is based on that conversation now it's going to be the work of this committee to make sure that Eddie updates all this and it's updated in a timely fashion I think we were talking about maybe before September yeah the goal the goal is to um make sure that we have these policies in place um prior to September so we will tackle them month by month um and not only that also do the mandatory updates that come out you know sometimes monthly sometimes every other month somewhere in that ballpark so I I appreciate that Mr Rivera thank you very muchos to you because I know this is a lot of work and I appreciate your diligence thank you thank you thank you Mr Rivera uh the last is Township Le and Mrs White thank you Bureau uh Dr Al rally sure absolutely um we had a um liaison committee meeting today um hold on one second my computer's just a little bit slower right now mind Chief you got there you go thank you team yep so we had our policy committee uh me I'm sorry not our policy committee meeting we had our liaison committee meeting today uh at 11 o'clock in the education center uh members of the committee chair Miss Virginia White uh Mr Beer plel Miss anena Patel and Mr Douglas Schneider um the meeting began with uh a review of uh some of the current initiatives that are currently taking place with the town several Edison Township representatives were there uh and they piggy backed on a lot of the initiatives that we're going forward in relationship to um uh the state of the Town address uh the committee discussed traffic challenges and sidewalk repair as well as a collaborative approach to Solutions with our uh Edison Township officials in relationship to um some of the traffic issues that you know pose themselves outside of um John Adams Middle School uh as well as some of the sidewalk areas that were brought to this board's attention uh the Edison Township Police civilian Academy has been uh a huge success the summer program will include the junior Police Academy and a program for high school age students uh the district will post information on the website and social media Pages as well in order to support these efforts uh the township does continue to have a need for additional crossing guards um you know they're they're definitely in high demand we will continue to dis discuss strategies uh to see ways that we can you know Assist the Township in the recruitment of these individuals uh the township is also interested in facilitating a civilian program for the fire department similar to that of the uh police department uh uh myself as well as Patrick cassan uh are going to follow up with chath Andy to uh to make this uh potential program possible uh the district is also in the process of facilitating a demographic study for our schools um as Mr to mentioned before upon the uh the conclus clusion of that demographic study and after the board of education and the administrative team uh an analyzes this uh the the committee will discuss uh you know potential ways uh to address its findings and the potential for further Partnerships uh and last but not least the OEM is donating uh bleeding control kits I believe they've done so already to each of our schools for use in the case of uh you know emergencies uh the Board of Education and myself as well as Mr cassan our director of Safety and Security our thankful for the generosity um and are always looking to uh partner with not only this organization but anything that supports the safety and wellbe of our students and staff and that is the conclusion of our liaison report thank you so much great thank you next uh we'll move to board member comments who would like to go first we'll pick Mr logo in that case thank you board president um have nothing specific at this time but I want to say you know good work there was a lot of work that was done in a lot of these committees um and uh just want to you know you know thank the administration um especially with the policies I know um I I would second what uh what board member Rivera said you know you know coming up with these policies it's no easy that's no easy LIF and um but uh you know it was good work and good progress so thank you yeah thank you Mr Riva appreciate that Chris um I really don't have anything specific to say but I do know we have some retirees out there and some retirees that have been in this district for a very long time so I just want to wish everybody um the best of luck on their new Endeavors and I hope um your second wind or around uh your next PATH uh treats you well but other than that I hope everyone's doing well thank you Mrs SEL thank thank you everyone I'm glad we have a nice team they're working hard for us our student and our parents so I'm glad we have a good team and they're working hard for us so thank you so much thank you uh Mrs fight really nothing at this time thank you thank you Mr Schneider uh yeah the only thing I have is I can't wait to find out how much the state wants to give us um it's a huge thing for not just the board here but for every taxpayer in Edison because hopefully we'll continue to get uh funded at a level that won't impact the taxpayer's pockets but we could still progress we could still uh do everything that we do now and then more so with any luck we'll get a whole bunch of money in the next 24 to 48 hours or so announced that it's coming to Edison so we'll see what happens thank you uh Mrs bang just one quick question because um for the last I don't know six seven years at least when I'm on board it's always the committee chair who read the meeting minutes because usually the committee chair would be responsible for initiate the meeting set up the agenda comprise the meeting minutes and also most importantly answering questions that anybody might have in regarding to the meeting to the uh committee what the committee has been doing so I just noticed that right now you're probably the only one committee chair that's reading the many minutes so is there reason specific reason of why this change right so that's not my decision but the committee chairs decided to read their U to ask the administrative team to read the reports okay I see but they're still you know be able to answer the questions that you know anybody would have right right I suppose for okay thank you good thank you all right uh vice president Romano thank you uh as as it is to the audit uh I'd like to say uh way to go John Jackie and your people uh it's better than last year and quite sure it'll be just as good next year uh the other thing is is that uh all of the projects that we're working on it's all because of the board the board members the past board members and our superintendent and John to and his people we're making the district bigger we're making it more accessible it's the way to go it's the kids it's our students our students need all of our students not just the top all of the students so Ed thank you thank you John thank you thank you vice president Romano um I have something quick um to recognize two students from uh JP Stevens Edis High School Tisha ner Katherine botki they both received recognition in the GMC for high achievements for basketball and they won the division with a record of 26 um so that's that's quite some achievement and the high school program of studies will be on the website tomorrow as um you know advised by Heather Daniel so it's sure please look out for that one and um everyone in the month of March so many events are happening so look forward to a wonderful month of March anyone else board members everything good all right so now we will open to public comments uh any students in the audience no students that uh lady next to Mo Mo behind you yes yes you can go first yes you can come there Hi um I'm sonal sha 25 year Edison resident recently in last few years I've moved to Cinder Road and I'm here to represent all the parents living on Cinder Road and mind Brook and that area who are not getting subscription busing or busing in general so so I wanted to find out if you have any update on the request that I had forwarded to one of the board members with the list of parents uh where are we in that decision are we going to get the busing or no that's the only question you have no I have a second question but not related to this uh should I ask a second question now if you can finish all the questions we'll the second question was related to the meals I found out from a lot of kids including my son that the portion size that has been uh the they're getting in the school is very very less and they remain hungry and especially for vegetarian kids they get merely one thin slice of pizza how can a pre-teen or a teen survive on that one slice of pizza all day especially if they have sports afterwards that they have to attend to so this two questions I had thank you thank you so for the busing U I can understand you spoke with our board member Mrs anjuna Patel so she is doing a great representation in your community over there and um I would like Mr Toad to give some update on that so in regard to the subscription busing isue I think that's the one that uh Miss Patel and I spoke of today uh we had a discussion about that uh we are going to refer that to the transportation committee next month to discuss and hopefully make some action on thank you and regarding meals I would ask toer early to speak real quick in regards to I could speak cover uh portion size in regards to food right so the uh portions that we serve right in the cafeteria it's dictated by the uh School nutrition school lunch program so everything is portioned accordingly to their standards and that's how we have to serve the food so it's not like you know one slice should you know it might seem a little bit small but this is this is how we're mandated to um serve the uh food products based on the the New Jersey school lunch program thanks thank you next public comments the gentlemen here hi uh my name is pranan kavuri I'm from bam toown South the uh first of all kudos to the amazing job you guys are doing um I have pretty much three questions the first question is uh in my community I think there's a uh there's a chaos about the the transportation um especially in our community uh there are like for example two buses one bus is completely loaded and the other bus is completely empty I don't see that there's a point of like having two buses like when we can accommodate to you know everyone in one bus um second thing is like is there uh a possibility to um to introduce some some kind of security feature to track the kids especially when you know I have three girls going to uh Elementary and middle school so um if there's a possibility to um do some kind of ID based tracking I see that like there are some other school districts where this is happening so is there anything like that that you are proposing because I just heard that you have something called You're introducing security uh Comm committee sort of thing so is this something that you can uh you are planning to take it up um uh the other question is um there are some certain some sometimes like there are delays in the buses and um and and it it really becomes hard to um um you know coordinate uh when when the bus is coming when what time the bus is leaving uh so it kind of uh puts us in a limbo where to trace our kids so that's uh another thing one my last question is um recently we had a issue where um the parent teacher meeting was uh at the same time for elementary and the Middle School which was like really um uh tough to handle because it was the same timing we were just running around the streets like trying to uh accommodate you know all the all the uh meetings at the same time so if that can be segregated in in different time zones like that will be a great help so that's pretty much it thank you I'll let Mr Toad answer some of your questions yeah I mean sir it seems that you know you have a a lot of questions that um probably we're going to take some time to discuss if if you could why don't you give your name and your contact number to Dr hus right there right here and we'll be sure to contact you after uh after this meeting in furtherance of all these questions you have thank you thank you thank you next Jerry thank you board president uh Jerry she Edison um just a a a recommendation a recommendation for you uh board president since this is a combined meeting when you go through the resolutions can you have the administration go through the administration first before we open up for public comments so just a a suggestion I just a quick question um on page 24 25 of the bill list there's item called TJ uh parental media upgrade it's a about the eight or 10 items a total about somewhere around 45k uh it's a title one Grant U do you guys know off your head what it is uh the reason I'm asking the question is because it's called parental media upgrade I'm just wondering if that can be reciprocated in the other schools as well um that's the purpose of the question um I I think uh some parents are here are talking about cannabis and we know that the council has um withdraw the um uh agenda item uh they're going to do uh a committee a subcommittee to discuss but that's a different story but I think as a board um you guys are all here for the students the Board needs to have a position where you guys stand so I challenge you guys to send a letter as a board to the council tell them to stop putting Cannabis shops in residential area put your position clear to them and I hope that's some something that is not picked up picked up that the uh the township the on meeting put the position clear okay um the other things I noticed uh the change with the applications is also the change with the practice uh some of the salary um guide uh adjustments and stuff there's no salary being printed um can we still have that because you know although it's a contractual agreement and uh we want to see it uh the other thing is the audit report um the auditor say that we got $7.2 million if I remember correctly uh the the cash in the hand um it's good right that's a good finding we have more money and this goes with the uh facility report and if you look at the 2025 projects um the J James um jmi is Al is list Ed as in a planning phase just like uh Edison High and the Marshall my understanding is jmi is moving way along we were planning to go for bidding in January so why it is part of a planning phase so uh that's a question for the um the committee chair um if you don't mind asking and also there are three projects that was planned one is John Adams expansion the JP Stevens lab and the um uh Maintenance building that was tracked last year and I don't see them in the 2025 projects so I don't know what's going on with that so another question for the for the chair um the third thing is there's you guys mentioned demographic study uh that's in part of the committee report and can that be made public when it's ready um there were a couple projects that was uh um bad Eng caged that was uh too high and uh it's not moving forward so I just want to find out what's the status with that and uh thank you Mrs pen for brought that up and I was very surprised when I sit in the audience 10 years on a school board that was the first time that I hear the committee I see the committee chair do not read their report last year year when visha Patel mentioned that he wants administrations he want supervisors to read the reports the very people sitting over there we just thought he came from another planet to suggest that now that report is not being read by the committee chairs I don't know what's the change you guys still responsible for for the committee you are the chair you set up the agenda you're supposed to tell people what is going on and you just sit back and let the administration do their job I don't know if that's the right right thing or not but that's the observation I just noticed so I pr to brought it up thank you very much thank you so I will answer your question about kabes last week uh when this issue was very hot um myself and Dr elderi had a conference call with our attorney Mr MCH and we had asked Mr Minch to put together a letter by the time Mr Minch put one together they pulled the ordinance out but um you know my position I I had already reached out to the township to oppose the ordinance in in my personal capacity and even me as a personally as a board member as I am opposing this ordinance I'm not for the ordinance I am aware that Mrs Pang is also opposing the ordinance so these are two of our positions that's uh that's one thing um the we went a step beyond that now since the surf issue is coming up on Surface and there are issues such as vaping and everything reported in the school bathrooms and from quite some time today earlier I announced ad hoc committee to tackle this issue and Dr Elder Ali Pat kissan and his team has some great ideas and thoughts around it so that being said I would really like to Dr Al to share some thoughts that what their team is doing to combate the issue right now that that is in our schools thank you yeah you know listen student safety is as well as uh you know awareness of these pieces are are something that not only our staff communicate but um but our building our building leadership as well too so um one of the things that we we do is we increase Supervision in the areas that are a little bit less structured right usually the restrooms um we have um approved on this agenda I believe increased security cameras as well too correct in relationship to the opportunities to prevent Vape sensors also um but it's it's a you know it's a multiple prong approach in that it's education it's supervision uh and providing the right infrastructure to make sure um that we're sending the right message to our kids and our community thank you uh next gentlemen the last one sorry all right good evening you can go afterwards go ahead good evening thank you for giving me opportunity to come and represent the some of the kids who goes to Woodbridge Academy magnet school and and I have a few parents with me and I'm I'm representing around 10 parents uh the kids who takes wv3 bus route they spend almost more than 3 hours every day to commute to and fr school starts 9:00 first bus stop from where my son takes the bus he has to stand there by 7:15 still is anxious he'll be able to make it to the school for the first class on time sometime they have quiz and test in the evening school ends 3:30 they come back by 5:00 nearly 3 hours or more than 3 hours considering traffic in Edison and surrounding area it's not even absolute 3 hours they can come back there is no trity so the part of the problem is a huge huge route starting from new Duram Road near piscatway border going to Stelton Road in piscatway coming back to New daram Road Bridge Street Costco Route 27 Route One middle six County uh college and then going to the school it touches upon all major area major route of Edison Township to reach the school from day one we've been calling we've been emailing mailing we've talking to the people we've been talking to the authority there is no resolution so we are here to ask for the help that's all you have that's all all right thank you so much so if I hear correctly three hours to go to the school that's really that's not the experience we want our students to have fortunately I have something good to share with you uh and hopefully that you you may like hearing that is we had that same issue with another bus route recently and Mr hus sitting right there was instrumental in helping those parents so I would encourage you to connect with him right away right now he's sitting right there available so please connect with him and let's take it from there thank you so much thank you next public comments uh this gentleman in the front good evening anth Anthony Mara 5 coletto Court does the Edison Board of Education have a policy excuse me policy which requires a public school if it knows of a student's decision to change his sexual orientation to notify that student's parent if so what is the policy and if not why isn't there a policy that's the only question you have that's it all right I'll pass it on Dr yep we can we can provide you with a copy of that policy uh if M Dr hust is going to get your name we'll we'll provide you with a copy of the policy for your review you have a policy we do have a policy that addresses that very issue yes uh I'd like to see now because I can't give it to you right now if you give your name to Dr hus we'll make sure that it's available for you okay sure yep and then there all the policies are located online as well too all right next uh you you can go ahead thank you board uh for the opportunity this is my uh first time ever uh coming in front of the board of the education um and uh the concern primarily that dragged me here is the Cannabis issue so I I think Dr she asked a question so is the entire board over overwhelmingly opposing it I just heard on a personal capacity that the chair or the president and one more member so what is the stance of this entire Poe uh collectively is there is there passing it because what I heard is today you guys are going to pass a resolution against it to uh the administration Council and the mayor's office uh opposing cannabis in uh our school district that's the first question uh and uh thank you for addressing it this was something that was trending heavily last uh four five days or a week in terms of uh the the other concerns with the high schools where kids have been known and the report of in in in some of the groups that janitorial staff is coming out they know the problem it's epidemic people are just blocking the bathrooms they have ceilings where the stash is stored and people have access to it I don't know the details but looks like there is a committee that has already been formed so how quick is that committee going to be formed how quick what is the timeline in addressing these issues and what is the finance or budget that is going to be allocated in addressing these issues right so all great steps but is there a timeline to get that it's not going to be like forever right we want it now and that's a second question right uh and the the overcrowding itself I don't know the position uh but the with this cannabis 10 as I heard somebody say five but it is from what I hear it is 10 locations five cultivators three p uh three uh retailers or five retailers or whatever that is the the numbers are all over the place the number is highed is 10 regardless what the number is there would be access to gummies there would be access to cookies uh and it would be humanly impossible to detect it so is that something that you know uh the board recognizes that there are dangers and there are proven instances where you know people ate cookies and then just uh each person's body uh operates differently and then they have committed suicides regardless of the mental damage they're zoning off in the classes and creating a chaos so is that something that the board is aware and how would you prevent something like that from entering the schools right I mean if is that of the committee we don't want all the solution right now but is is that something that the board is actually thinking right and uh I I I don't want to this last fourth question I think this I've been in the district for o from 2005 20 years plus right my kids my kids are in high school I have an elementary school uh uh daughter so uh I think what I heard some positive news is there is additional budget that people recognized and then there is uh you know you can expect additional State funding say what where do we stand on addressing the overcrowding like in JP Stevens is that I came late maybe that was discussed I apologize is that are we are the new classrooms that are coming out quickly I uh for JP Stevens and Edison High that's always a problem so where do we stand I mean it's been like 12 Years everybody discusses I'm sorry again this is the first time I don't know if that was already discussed up ahead any quick uh update on that is appreciated from the board so these are the four questions and I thank you for the opportunity thank you so I already said in my statement earlier about the Cannabis issue we just formed the committee today so not a single meeting has happened it was decided ad hoc right now because the issue is hot so the intent over here is to really tackle the issue around it the Around The Vaping and everything that is so is just getting started you know um I have a lot of faith in our superintendent and his administrative team and we I'm I'm personally hoping for something positive to come out of it uh and as far as the ordinance here's the thing they we were going to put the ordinance today I was I was personally intending to put the ordinance and our attorney and M Dr alari is aware of that however Council decided to withdraw the their ordinance so I don't know what we need to put now that hey you are supposed to put that and we oppose that like I already declared that I oppose the ordinance U Mrs Pang can she can also speak but in what I from what I believe she opposes I have an understanding from seeing a message on social media Mrs anj Patel opposes it right the other board members can speak about it if they want to um if they choose to that's I have no problem I'd like to I mean ask everybody here I mean you could you can uh you know tell your position right here if that so your time is up Sir just to be just to be clear uh you know as a reminder I know some of you members may not have been here uh this may be your first time here some you may be frequent flyers uh I'm the the board attorney U just a reminder uh public comment is for an opportunity for you to give comments the board members are not required to answer any questions quite frankly uh you know the process right now is that often times questions get answered by the administrative staff afterwards if it was up to me they wouldn't answer anything questions um but they you know I'm the lawyer not the elected official here on the board so um there there's not a back and forth um you know you made your comments uh if board members choose they can but there's this is not a a back and forth dialogue it's you get a chance to give your comments hears it and then they can but four questions so Dr Al will connect with you afterwards thank you um board president can I make a quick comment yes you can go ah M I just want to say say thank you for coming here to see your concerns be advocates for the parents cu I know I also want to thank Mr she for coming here be the strong advocates for the parents I receive a lot of emails from the parents regarding to the Canabis issues and I responded to most of them I tried my best as I said in the email I stand very strongly opposing this Canabis alance I don't I would not support anything that pose even any danger to our students to our community it shouldn't be as you said whether it's five or 10 or even one I wouldn't agree to put anything you know we related into our residential area or close to our schools and I know we hold it off for now and I'm sure it's going to come back later I know the Town Council withdraw the resolution for now but ordinance for now but I think it's going to come back and I really urge our board members to put their stands out there put their position there I know you know as elected officials we're all here responsible to be the advocating to hear the parents to advocating for them to support them so this this is our position we need to make it clear to the city council that we are supporting this or we're not supporting this so we this is at least we can do for our parents and for our students that's where I stand thank you I I fully understand it's not back and forth your your time is up so thank you and thank you Mrs bang U next for public comments Anita thank you board president and uh board members thank you for the immense great work that you do and I just heard about the ad hoc committee thank you so much for standing uh for student safety and uh health and well-being of the student I'll come to the cannibis at the end I just want to start off by saying that uh when you go to the township building there's a good uh museum display from from a meno Museum and I saw this name of other than uh Thomas Alva Edison that we know on this in the bulb uh uh Mark Lewis Pinsky he's from JP Stevens High School 1974 and he's a NASA astrona so on that end I just want to bring uh the rich science culture that we have had um and uh uh on February 10th the Edison High robotics team uh conducted a hackathon for the the entire uh District lot of students attended uh I want to thank uh our Bo president uh Bal Patel for uh spending time with the kids to know what their future aspirations are I know um in the past Dr uh Alder has also given us time to talk about it uh and I want to thank uh Mr Ross uh and the club advisers Miss core and Mr soures uh for uh helping us in this um end um just wanted a request um in the past the board has stood uh for uh the robotics club uh for both JP Stevens and Edison High um they have uh given funding if we can get continued funding whatever uh they can give uh to progress uh this particular area for the kids the kids are really interested uh and what whatever money you give goes for competitions for uniforms uh for buying uh the parts for the robots uh and this is what the kids told me it's very difficult to pitch and get grants from uh business owners if you have any business owners please pass it on to the kids um and uh just a big request from all the kids they were very busy today so I said I'll take all your points whatever you can I think you have given 10K in the pass for both the high schools uh for me both the high schools are important JP Stevens and Edison I whoever represents our school and you know wins those Awards and prizes is a pride for all of us so it's a big request um on this particular portfolio and uh in this same regard uh Edison has always been in the Leading Edge of anything to do with education uh last two years we had uh um uh Esports being introduced as a Leading Edge um for 21st century skills um and um now We Are all uh hearing artificial intelligence I have been talking to uh uh our board president a lot on artificial intelligence and if you see the stock market the best shares today is the AI shares so that is the future whatever uh help or support or introduction of this topic you could do for the kids that'll be really helpful um it's not just chat GPT artificial intelligence and machine learning is something which um is a recent Trend so I wanted to bring introduce this particular area so that when you have a future plan for Edison uh our kids can get aligned with the 21st century skills to get jobs in the future because a AI goes along all Industries uh if you see it's in law enforcement it's in health care different Industries and I've in fact I wrote a note to um uh the superintendent last but not the least thank you for the ad hoc committee again and yes uh lot of parents went and talked about cannabis yesterday they're all worried about the safety of the neighborhood thank you symbolically uh in your own way for standing uh for the safety of the neighborhood of the kids and also uh the parents have also gone and talked about the location for the retail stores they have addressed their concerns to the administration and uh they put in a big request to do something about it so thank you very much to take the stand on that end as well thank you thank you so much so for the AI Club robotics Club certainly I'll bring it up to the finance committee when we meet again and we'll discuss there and um the Heaton I it was personally a pleasure to meet with those students and really really admire applaud all the work that they do and coming back to the Canabis I I said earlier as well I'm I'm against the ordinance the thing is that and I would go to an extent of saying that the township should have consulted the school district before putting five locations in in the middle of the town like that near it those are in my opinion near our schools and near residences so Township should have consulted the school district and I hope in the committee that they have formed the school district is consulted I really hope for that so let's keep our fingers crossed and let's hope for the best thank you uh next uh Joyce so again uh my apologies for today uh I personally apologize and it's it's on me it's my mistake we usually ask the speakers to announce their name and address before they start speaking in every single public meeting I forgot that in the beginning of the meeting for first few speakers that being said for today I don't want to be impartial to the remaining one I can't do that so if you voluntarily want to speak your name and address I will really appreciate it but again my is on me thank you so much so Joyce go ahead hey good evening everyone Joy ship Freeman uh 41 South Main Street Addison New Jersey one correction I want you to uh has to be made is that the Cannabis is not withdrawn is still on the agenda so I'm correcting that and I remember as a teacher we got fooled into believing that the lottery was going to cut our school taxes remember that that's story that was told and I just feel very sad that we have to be drug dealers now in order for us to make up our taxes that's not cool with me and also with the policies with updating the polic policies which is a great idea all the time being from the school system so that when parents come in the parents always say well what's the policy can I see your policy and if your policies are behind the times that opens us up to a lawsuit you know and then I can't spend you know we spended enough money on a whole lot of ridiculous stuff that it is and I just imployed Edison because I from being a student here I was afforded the opportunity to go to the best colleges there were because of my education here in Edison and I know the parents and everybody's interested and I I sat back and I just cringed because I think about the board ahead and back when I was in school you'd have you could find a a joint or something you know marijuana you could find it but if these kids are bringing in gummy bears lollipops and brownies man you you guys G to have a real hard job I'm just saying you're going to have a real real hard job but just think about it just think about it do you want your town to be known for selling drugs just to make up the tax base drug dealers thank you uh next Beth good evening Beth taly 15 Midwood Avenue Edison New Jersey um Mr President I heard you say the other day March is going to be a celebration of Arts in our schools which um is very dear to my heart especially our music program I enjoyed last week um going to see at JP Stevens the ETA sponsored the school's volleyball game but I was a little bit disappointed when I walked in to see a student carrying a tuba with missing buttons on it that they had to borrow from another school because there wasn't enough inst struments at the high school we have award-winning programs nationally recognized it was a little disappointing to see this and I just want to be assured that all of our club's activities whether it's music programs art programs and sports are equally being funded so that I don't have to see this child walking around with an instrument with a screw in it rather than a valve to play it but I appreciate it and I I hope you guys fund all of our clubs and extracurriculars equally equitably across the board especially with our Arts month coming up to celebrate these kids thank you thank you next public comments uh Mrs conve she go first absolutely Mrs Bowski I wasn't rushing her Carol Bowski 39 Jonathan Drive I was very pleased with tonight's meeting um I know there's a lot of complaints about things that go on and there always are and there always should be I I've been in teaching a lot of years and i' had been in three districts before I moved to Edison so that my daughter could receive the best possible education what I didn't know was that there were two parts of Ed Med but it's okay because I picked a house on the north side cuz we like that house and I've always been part of things for the whole District but I love the little graphic that you put on the top of the agenda welcome we are all one Edison I just like that I like to see it everywhere I go I'd like to see the little spring of it but for once I haven't heard those kind of complaints I was all ready to talk about that and everyone's talking about why don't we have this why don't we have that and one of the reasons is we have to pay for all those things and all those things are important I can say from my daughter's going through school here that they learned skill skills that got them into the neighborhoods the jobs the lifestyle the way they're raising their children all these things came from school and as far as raising their children my daughters were very involved in family and consumer Sciences when you got the electronic baby for the weekend and uh you had to be the electronic baby would tell on you on anything you did wrong so they learned so many things another thing was that when my daughter got two letters in the mail and she was at a conference for FCCLA and I brought her two letters said one was from the president vice and his wife and uh the other one came from Gettysburg College a small liberal arts college in south central Pennsylvania and of course she opened her hands and dropped the one from the president and grabbed the Gettysburg one and she found out she was elected you know she was accepted to the college and that just made her conference but I hear the parents tonight there's still things going to be there no matter how long we work on it but we need to listen but tonight I didn't hear any this side that side I didn't hear too many other things that were common themes here complaining about things um as far as the way the Board of Ed operates they have so many rules that they have to follow and if it doesn't say you can't do it that way then it's an okay way to do it if it works if they say you can't do it that way then you can't do it if you can't say make do uh Dr aldarelli read every report himself to the whole group well then he be taking water breaks and we would never get through the meeting the person who's the committee chair or someone on the committee is the best one to share it because they were at the meeting and they won't they're reading words off of paper and the person who ran the meeting or who was actually in the meeting I would always go oh no no no but it was these really cute exciting little things that they brought in that the children had made for us and it's different if you're part of the committee itself some people are brilliant and do not like to speak in public I'm not saying I'm brilliant but I don't like to speak in public and they may not want to read that those minutes up because they might be afraid they'd read them wrong or give the wrong impression so I don't think there's a problem if it isn't the chair person that reads it nor does it need to be or can be I would think a district administrator who knows that topic so I've seen some of the things that people are saying makes sense and some don't but a lot of times they this group up here is controlled by so many government regulations and that they cannot meet them all they're doing the best they can and you could take a deduction from their salary if you don't like the way they're doing it but I think this I feel good seeing this group working together and I'm very happy therefore I am not going to ever run again so you freed yourself from one threat and now you got the other one thank you m con good Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle uh just four items the first one uh is regarding the uh policy and having an audit done this year um I was a little confused because I thought uh we pay a company to always give us the latest updates of new policies and any policy that would be outdated would be removed so when I heard that um this was done through an audit rather than a regular happening each year year I was a little disappointed that it wasn't happening but I was hap happy that it is now and will be in the future uh I was called to a a policy committee meeting once in my three years and I could have ripped my eyes out rather than gone through all those policies so kudos to all of you on the committee the second one was a little a status of the sports field and batting caging baseball season is upon us and I was a little uh confused by the fact that um it was tabled so where does that leave us regarding um our baseball season that's coming up is my question that can be answered uh the third item is thumbs up to Dr aldarelli and Mr to and and the rest of the staff who uh did such a fabulous job I was thrilled to hear about the audit um that's the greatest thing that I can hear and that the one item is being worked on so Kudos and I thank you my last item is regarding the Cannabis uh item that's going on in town I realize honestly that this is something that goes on uh an ordinance whether uh they are going to expand the number of places for it but it is is a municipal item the only thing that we can as a board is to protect our district in the best way so I was very glad to hear that uh an ad hoc committee will be established and we'll move forward because I do hear horrible stories um my daughter works in another district and some of the stories that she shares from her uh colleagues are scary these days so I'm glad that the board of Ed can do as much as they can do uh from the Board of Ed side but my only request to the public that is so concerned would be to flood the Town Council meetings when I attend Council meetings um Joyce and I are there and maybe Maria and a few other people but this is a very hot topic and it's something that as a town we need to put heavy pressure on the council and the mayor to watch their p's and q's or they're not going to be sitting there very long and whatever can be okay whatever can be done on our side to protect our children is your main goal you can stand up and say we're against it but the only thing that you truly have the power to do is to protect our children thank [Applause] you thank you next public comments Mo thank you mohin Patel Edison and present all right a few things I wanted to talk about uh a lot of parents are talking about the bathrooms they're talking about cannabis they're talking about this and that right so let's start off with the potties all right so the bathrooms just to give you my personal experience uh I've I've gone to games in other schools where my kid is playing basketball and I've gone to our home games and just going into our bathroom it's sometimes horrendous it smells like piss it's garbage into the urinals and everything I give kudos to our custodian staff because they do their job the problem is sometimes the kids are not doing their job into making sure that the garbage is put into place but I don't blame the kids for that we don't have any trash cans in the bathroom and I understand because of the vaping and so forth that we don't have the trash cans so they don't climb on and start smoking into the ceiling but you could put smaller trash cans or you could put them right outside before we go out something to at least collect the refuse so they're not throwing it into the urinol or they're not throwing into the toilets and making the jobs much harder for our custodians the other thing is that when other parents are coming in from other schools and they're seeing and they have to use our bathrooms it's a disgrace that like this is the crap that they see in our schools versus what they what we experience in their schools so just just be cognizant of that and I know we've revamped our bathrooms like crazy this is a beautiful bathroom here uh but just make sure that we are taking care of all our school bathrooms now for the pot from potty to pot all right so I understand that this is an ordinance that was done in the municipal building in terms of they already took it off the table for now and they assigned a committee which they put a pill Pusher Patel president and pothead pointer on there too so you have conflict of interest let's watch our we will watch whatever we say so we have politics that are being played you guys are on the board there's politics that are being played here as well what you need to do is start looking out for the parents and the students the students are getting affected the most when cannabis is used by them and it's also part of our parents process too to also educate their kids in terms of what is good and what is not right so everyone has to take their role you guys have to take a role put a strong emphasis strong message out to the township that Hey listen this will not be tolerated in residential areas because our students live in this town they go to our schools and you're putting one right next to their right next to them and it doesn't make any sense so the politicians are beholden to the residents you guys are beholden to the students let's work together and make sure that that doesn't happen put a letter out send a strong message that Hey listen as a board as a whole board we do not approve of you changing the ordinance from an industrial side to a residential site sell all the licenses you want I don't care 100 20 30 40 it doesn't matter the problem is someone's going to make a commission on that that's okay but the problem is you're putting it into the residential area and everyone is going to be affected by it our kids are going to be affected the most because the Cannabis affects the kids the most you're 25 and you want to smoke recreationally who cares do it in your own home but you have the kids bring it into the schools and then it's affecting our grades and students so let's fix that the other thing is I want to talk to the parents I know the athletic uh committee isn't here but they we need to do something about having our parents come out and support our kids and set a set an example for them say listen we are supporting you go to the games enjoy the games support them academics is great but the culture that we bring into our school makes a big difference and the parents have a big say when they're involved in not just grades but into their activities then you will see less addictions of other aspects going out on so kudos to everything oh by the way I got to give you a prop Mr Jonathan too in regards to the audit that we had from six infractions to going down to two from the previous year to last year's last from the last year to the previous year we had six infractions last year we fixed it so we are down to two so I commend the finance and Facilities committee last year with uh Mr Romano vice president romano and uh Jerry myself and visha for and um Jonathan there in making sure that we did a better job in getting all those infractions from the previous year fixed last year into this year thank you thank you next public comments uh akur Octor Nasser Pleasant Avenue today I come here for your help I'm I'm a 12-year resident of Clara Barton an Edison teacher and a Committee Member of claraa Barton or at least a section of it last week I attended an Edison planning board meeting to discuss my concerns with the three-story building that they were building on lot 103 which is also 139 Amboy Avenue this is next to the only four-story building in clar Baron iest I requested the applicant install a sidewalk on the rideway on cabat Avenue but the owner of the property a foot and ankle doctor refused even on the grounds of school school safety I explained to the planning board and the applicant that since they are developing the property they must adhere to the newest guidelines of building those guidelines i c were NJ admin code 5 21-45 and ordinance number 01938 d206 that sidewalks are required to be built within two miles of the school to provide students with safe walking routes Herbert Hoover happens to be3 miles away from that property which is also known as total dimensions Unfortunately they didn't listen to reasoning um they rejected the site application 4 to three but they did not really talk about what I had suggested so since then I've reported and emailed to all the stakeholders which would be you the Board of Education Council planning board code enforcement Herbert Hoover Middle School and I'm thinking about contacting the Herbert Hoover uh middle school PTO uh thus far all I've heard from is president um Patel if we act quickly we can force these sidewalks to be put on to the new revisions of the plan the reason I'm turning to the board of education is because I think you can help our community last year I'd gone to a council meeting and I'd complained about what's going on W Wilson Middle School where there's very little safety there with the one way in and one way out and so I was told to go ahead and talk to Sergeant Simone and then a little bit while later then all of a sudden I saw construction happening there and for some reason I thought it was me that because I spoke at those meetings that it was because of me that some action happened but I learned very quickly that you guys were involved and I thank you for that so because you guys have done some work in the past for the schools and you have had some good um reactions and um basically you have had a turnaround that I probably can't do on my own I'm asking you guys to help me to go ahead and correct the oversight by the planning board perhaps you can work with them and you can perhaps get them to do what you did for wi Wilson Middle School to Clara baren and all I'm asking is a sidewalk so we have the law on our side I'm hoping that you guys will help me help the community and make sure that students have school safety all around thank you thank you next the lady in the back okay it's optional for today my mistake but if you want to announce your name and address please thank you sure n you can hold the microphone little B even more yeah n Tia um Edison New Jersey thank you so much uh I see uh resolutions made year after year I'm a resident of Edison for the past uh 15 20 years I see work being done addressing local issues uh I'm here today to with a request with a huge expectation from Board of Education regarding cannabis establishments and proposal for an Canabis establishments in Edison I look forward to a huge support from Boe as usual um please be a symbolic representation for student health well-being um and uh with the council meeting happening tomorrow and uh no official confirmation of you know change in in plans I look forward to a support a huge support from Boe thank you thank you next Harish hi uh good evening Harish T 45 McKinley Street so several things uh number one any status update on the uh JPS uh renovation what stage it is has it started not started second thing um what exactly happened to the GMI renovation plan I thought we had money and it should have gone through in the December meeting itself um now we are towards the end of February not sure what's going on it would help uh if there is any update on that so third the transportation um app I know this has been going on like for almost 5 months now uh the last we heard was it is in beta testing and more parents are needed to test it out so I I think it's a high time we need to roll that out then number fourth is obviously uh the bathrooms again don't want to mention any names of the schools but there is one middle school and one high school in Edison where the situation is really bad uh I mean you guys know the names of the schools I don't want to point out because uh some people might take it as an offense um it's all it's the names are there on the social media so um just like suggested for the food quality random checks maybe we need to do that for the bathroom cleanliness also or maybe um whenever the janitor cleans uh he could um update the principle um I understand we follow a pyramid system where Four elementary schools lead to two medal schools and it leads to one high school so obviously the population strength is high uh ideally we should have bathrooms all four corners of the schools but these were built some time back around the same time frame maybe when I was born anyway uh so but we need to find a way out uh Mo suggested a few good tips um but obviously the random checks and cleanliness is a must the most clean bathrooms I've ever found anywhere in the world is in Dubai airport and they actually overdo it they clean it after every every person uses I'm not expecting that level of service anywhere in any school not even in private schools leave aside Public Schools but uh we need to take some more concrete steps uh because it's a matter of hygiene ideally we should not be discussing this topic at all even in developing countries in the schools um the bathrooms are improving so in Edison which is not even a neighbor District we should not be having this topic uh but it is what it is and of course saved the best one for the last uh in the last so the cannibas thing yes we all went to the council meeting yesterday we uh expressed our opposition um during the public verbal comments and uh we did the online petition but I think Boe should also do um their part in terms of passing a resolution and uh forwarding it formally to the council I I understand the real power is with the council but and it would be more symbolic but that strong symbolic message uh would be very powerful uh to the council to the administration and it will give some confidence to the parents and kids and the community also it will let the people know who stands where on this I'm sure it will pass with 90 uh that's my prediction but uh and if it does it's all the more better because that will send out a strong message I I I I still feel uh you guys should do the resolution I'm not sure if it is too late if it can be introduced now but uh if it can be done please go ahead and do it and I while I was driving I came to know about the ad hoc committee on The Vaping that's a good starting move uh I applaud that commend that and a lot more needs to be done uh I know it's a work in progress because it has been formed today so some policies and procedures need to be established around that there are some ideas uh we definitely need to this thing has been going on for a while in Edison schools and everyone knows it but somehow I I mean the web detectors were installed a few years back most probably they're not working I heard that uh new ones have been approved and that's a good move in addition to that as I said uh unless and until there are random checks uh it's not going to be effective there are always ways to work around the system and unless and until there is some uh strict prevention and prevention methods and consequences for wrongdoing uh we won't really achieve uh our Target so maybe a school resource officer sir could be uh going at random intervals and checking the bathrooms I'm not sure if that is doable or not I know there are privacy concerns and um there are lot of issues we heard about that earlier um but something more needs to be done uh in terms of uh what the exact procedures would be uh that would be followed by the administration and maybe the committee could uh give some more transparency in the coming days thank you absolutely thank you president yes I have a question um this is for the attorney um Mr mench is there I I think you know as board members as parents as residents everybody hears um the concerns certainly um I'm I'm I'm sitting up here thinking to myself gez like I don't want anything being introduced into town that has a negative impact on our school children right so our responsibility as a board is to the board of education and the kids the residents I certainly want to tow the line and not uh cross the line into Township matters that we don't have I don't want to say jurisdiction but certainly I don't want the township passing a bunch of resolutions about curriculum and things like that um but we also should be protecting our kids in a way especially as it relates to the schools so I'm wondering if if you as as the attorney which I'm not have a way to kind of split the difference a little bit and show support for the residents I think we hear everybody loud and clear um protect the school children and how how it relates to the schools but also um you know come up with something that's that's within our boundaries and what we should be doing as a board of ed I mean is that something that you can come up with for us yeah so you know I think as the as you pointed out I think some of the public May realize uh this board doesn't have any direct jurisdiction over what the town does uh you can't prohibit them you know you can't bar them from taking action um and within your jurisdiction there are certainly things that you shouldn't comment on generally uh you know Township General Township uh business maybe outside the scope of certain things but to your point items that impact the school district there's nothing that I'm aware of that would preclude the district from you know passing a resolution or somebody making a motion and and having it voted on by the board with regard to uh the board's position on a matter that um impacts uh the district if if you know you chose to do that it could be as simple as a motion that says uh you know um you know the board uh you know has has concerns over the current proposal and ask the township you know to withdraw the current application you can be you know language can be as can be stronger can be uh um you know uh but it's sounds to me like you know you could say uh you know at this board meeting you know members of the public spoke you know against the current proposal which would expand cannabis in Edison Township the board has uh heard the residents shares the concerns of the residents as expressed at the board meeting with regard to the potential negative impacts of expanded cannabis in Edison uh and the you know the board has concerns over uh over what an expansion would do and ask the township Council to abandon their plans uh limit their plans consider I mean it's up to the board how strong you want the language I mean we anticipate that there's some sort of tabling of this but as somebody pointed out it's still formal formally formally on the agenda because they have to table it right so prior to doing that it would be helpful if I mean I I know president Patel mentioned that you guys talked about this throughout the week yeah do you have something prepared enough that is within our boundaries so so I had started to you know put together some language for a written resolution that you'd have in front of you um when it got you know pulled I stopped working on it because you know I wasn't going to do the work and do the building uh you know wasn't necessary but if it's the position of the board um you know doesn't have to be a written resolution preprepared uh any member of the board can make a motion with a position on something and if it get seconded it be voted on by right so can you help me with that I'd like to make a motion but I want you to help me basically craft something that's that's comfortable for me sure I mean that addresses all these concerns right that the residents have but remains Board of Ed Centric does that make sense yeah absolutely I think I think the the the question simply would be um and you can tell me what it Isa you're thinking how other board members are but uh just the the ultimate question be what is it you ultimately want to ask the the council or convey to the council is it that you want them to not expand cannabis at all is it that you want them to um not expand cannabis in the locations that are being proposed is it that you just want to make sure that the bo that the council in its deliberations takes into consideration the concerns expressed by Edison residents and the concerns that the bo has over the potential impacts of whatever they do on the education system here in Edison so there's different ways and then the other language I can so Mr MCH um the discussion and we'll come back to you Mr Schneider the discussion we had myself you and Dr ELD last week when this was when no action was taken by the council yet was we sent you the ordinance what the ordinance says it is not about for or against the cannabies it is about those locations that c is trying to add so the position that we discussed that time is put a resolution together requesting the council not to to oppose the ordinance requesting the council not to vote on the ordinance or whatsoever language and that's exactly the discussion myself you and Dr Al had and U then I sent you those ordinance that one and um what council did is some residents saw an email message from the council president saying they have decided to withdraw the resolution right now we are hearing from the residents that the resolution the ordinance or their ordinance is not yet withdrawn right so yeah that's a formality though yeah I was going to say so so that's probably whether they act on it or not if it's been noticed it has to be on the agenda they can table it tomorrow they can vote Yes they can vote no it on the I'm personally assuming that they will it will be withdrawn because they will not like lie to so many residents so it is going going to be withdrawn so from my position my perspective is like all the best thing we could do is um request them that listen withdraw it so I understand that from all the messages that has been floating around it is going to be withdrawn there is no slightest doubt about it and council is not going to like you know not withdraw it but if uh residents feel comfortable or for Board of head to take a position again we are not supposed to get into the municipal matters this is we are not supposed to decide on the ordinance like what does the council do right but because um the residents so many residents have emailed us with the concerns with their concerns about safety of the students the schools and everything uh we I I take a position that you know the council should not pass that ordinance which is loud and clear right now seen on all the social media messages seen all over the place in on Facebook on WhatsApp and all in in emails council president has sent numerous emails to all the residents saying many residents saying okay we're going to withdraw it there was a huge discussion last night but hearing that it's not withdrawn we can still request that you know you guys withdraw it it it's not going to matter because it's still request and uh they they are still anyway is going to withdraw it is there's no meaning of it but if if everyone feels comfortable that okay you know we want to request we want to request so what what is your take on that yeah so you certainly could pass a resolution that that says based on the concerns expressed by the residents at this meeting uh and the concerns held by you know members of the Board of Education the Board of Education asked that the C you know asked the council to uh withdraw its current ordinance at this time based on the concerns about the impacts of of the current ordinance on you know children within the school system period board president I'd like to just make it a little bit more gen I I simply don't I'm not as familiar as maybe you are with the ordinance itself I'd like it to be more General in that anything relating we shouldn't be allowing zoning shouldn't be allowing retailers to sell anything that negatively impacts our students near schools right so it it shouldn't just be about this specific ordinance it's just about like I don't want bad stuff sold near our kids that and that are forced to go to that school you know so people could choose to go wherever they want but they can't choose what school they go to we tell them where to go and if there's something being sold near school now the township may decide to sell cannabis or anything else um in an industrial area or a place that's not near school but I just think we should make it more General focused to the board of education and its proximity to the school children in my opinion wherever it lands on I mean I that's I don't know how everybody else feels but I think we need to Loop it back to the board of ed because I think we we should stay in our lane a little bit too so Mr Schneider to your point in the email that we sent to Mr MCH U I think that's what we address right so how do we address the school aspect but while you were drafting the resolution um this thing got pulled out so we did not have the opportunity to do that if you have any suggestions around that that's fine otherwise my position is the best thing to do is send a simple request listen we we request you to withdraw the ordinance that's it get it done with but if you have some to something to suggest based on Mr what Mr Schneider said um I'll let you speak yes vice president ran the resolution has to state my opinion okay that at its current verbage it's not acceptable to the board of ed any anywhere near a school a church is not acceptable but the way the ordinance is written we have to make sure that it also protects everybody that's the problem the resolution or the ordinance the the way we the ordinance the way they put it together oh yeah we don't have that in front of us okay and the reason we don't have it is because they pulled it now they only pulled half of it if you went to the board meeting which I did and you get the sheets at the very end at the very bottom they didn't pull that that one little section they didn't pull so if we're going to make some something it should be the verbage the language isn't acceptable to the board of ed excuse me to the elected Board of Ed I cannot speak for the administration but I can speak for myself I'm a committee person in District 57 I am a board member in Edison Township Board of Education duly elected but we have to make it so the verbiage is correct if you understand what I mean Mr Schneider no I do not against you I'm just saying no I think we're I think we're aligned right so um Mr Schneider one second so Mr Vice President Romano that's a great point and that's exactly what we try doing it before the council president's letter came out on a weekend so that's the process that we're working on the verbage and our original plan was to bring a drafted letter in the Clos session discuss in the Clos session and then pass the resolution now what happened is there was so so much back and forth with the township making that decision and we are learning that it's not pull then residents are certainly concerned about it I I don't know how many of the board members have gotten emails I saw some of your emails and Chris your email was mentioned incorrectly people have type chris. logo is christopher. logo so you did not get many of those emails but I personally got so many emails I haven't responded to emails of the board because I had many other things to do with that particular ordinance opposing that but I did not respond to the emails but absolutely my position I am with the residents I am against that ordinance now nothing U around it like whether other locations or this or anything but that particular ordinance it did have certain locations which are concerning and the residents were also concerned so the proposal I have is at this point we have only 24 hours left before they make that decision so a request from Board of Ed to oppose that ordinance uh to asking Council to withdraw that ordinance something like that that's my proposal now if other board members have any other suggestions with the language I I will give everyone some time to pitch in here before um Mr MCH puts together something pres yes M sorry I do want to stress that you know we don't want to we want to make it General basically we all I think I personally am strongly against that we put anything like Cannabis shops near residential area or near schools we want to make it General but we want we don't want to make it vague so I would say say that we should oppose this ordinance at least and then add language that we we are against to put any Canabis shops in residential area so we can basically use both so if I hear correctly you know add the language like I want to stress this right now we I think that's not clear request them to withdraw this and then we add language to say that what Mr Schneider said about the schools we make it gener enough that they try to we're going to try to block this in the future that they can't put any cannabis shop near residential area residential school I think that aligns with Mr what you suggested earlier Mr Patel the um so I wrote I wrote down a sentence here the me the members of the Board of Education are against any zoning or Township ordinances which allow substances that negatively impact our students to be sold around our schools it should say there should be a limit Mr Roma I'm sorry there should be a limit such as distance I understand but I don't think we're I understand what you're saying and I'm not I'm not saying no let's not do it I'm just saying I want to make sure that if we send a letter we make sure that it's 100% legal 100% where they can't come back and go well you didn't do this I want to make sure that it's 100% legal I don't care but it's got to say that it must be legal right so I would ask our attorney if if we if we're not specific in when I say sold around our schools we're not specific I mean is that enough to make our Point yeah I mean again this this resolution doesn't have any legally binding effect uh so it's not a matter of it being legal or illegal um you can't enforce it you know you don't have the power uh state law might have the power local zoning might have the power to literally govern where they go but you certainly can express your your opinion that it shouldn't be near schools um you could also consider language that says you know um as um Shannon mentioned about you know residential areas if you want to include that or not you could also include language it just says in in any future consideration any future consideration of cannabis uh to encourage the district to make sure that they excuse me uh make sure that the council or Township in the future considers all impact on the education of children when making decisions with regard to cannabis generally um it's vag statement doesn't have a um all those things could be included um you know your statement there's nothing illegal or leave you know something improper about it if there's any language that wants to get added to it you can add it to it so I'm certainly for uh the School portion of it school and residential area so let's include that language um for those board members who are not spoken I would like to give them an opportunity to V on that Mr Lugo uh yeah thank you board president along those lines yeah I was going to say uh do we want to add bus stops schools and bus stops that's all all right something something to think about okay any any other board members right seeing none so um I think Mr MCH from what I uh hear from Mrs Pang Mr Schneider Mr romano and myself my position is to request the council to withdraw this ordinance which is happening tomorrow but I really I feel strongly about that you know what a letter from Board of Education will probably help and that's that's a strong message to the council that listen guys the Edison Board of Education which was not involved in in the ordinance to start with is sending you a message that withdraw this ordinance so I I really am excited to put the resolution I hear the comments of our fellow board members Mr Schneider he specifically request about the school uh including the portion of the school that's a valid point and we should do that Mr Romano uh also mentioned about this uh that that U you know about the zoning and Mrs Pang did the same thing too so uh Mr Minch I'll leave it up to you you know word something based on this and we can do a roll call can I can I make the motion to have Mr Minch come up with the proper verbage and make sure that we get this proper verbiage sent to us asap but then we don't have a board meeting until after the no as long as Mr mench as long as we make the motion and we vote on it tonight Mr mench correct me if I'm wrong if we make the motion we vote on it tonight that letter can be addressed to the Town Council from the board of the current Board of Ed members not from the administration if the administration wants to help on board I'm well more than willing to help out here but the Board of Ed the elected Board of Ed strongly advises them reconsider the ordinance as it's written and you could add any other verbiage that you think can be uh pertinent to that yeah certainly I I think the letter that gets sent would be a letter probably from uh you know the board president on behalf of the board indicating this is not something that the superintendent would would send this is a letter that the that the board president would send indicating to the you know to the council that this is what action was taken at the you know pursuant to a vote by the the board whatever that vote is uh to indicate our you know the board's opposition to the it sounds to me like it's Universal that everyone opposes the ordinance as drafted um so that you know to to oppose the the current ordinance ask the board to um you know ask the council to um you know to reconsider or you know vote against the ordinance and that the board has serious concerns with regard to locating cannabis in area in residential areas and any areas which impact uh the school district and children within the school district which may include bus stops board president the the only thing I'll add is the reason I don't want to be specific about specific ordinance tomorrow is that somebody brought it up I don't know if it was online or tonight but somebody brought up that they anticipate it to be brought up again at some point yes a few months from now it'll be somebody's going to bring it up and say Hey you know nobody's watching so maybe we'll do the same thing again so I think the resolution should read the members of this of the Board of Education are against any Township ordinance not the specific one any Township ordinances which allow substances that negatively impact our students to be sold around our schools period and the the reason I say substances I don't want a liquor store opening up next to a bus stop either or any kind of substance we don't know what comes out next year or the year after people you got some point so let's do this so you know CU are you going to do this again in two months three months and then Mr one second so let's do this how about we do this vice president can I make that motion let me make that motion so I'm going to I I'll make the motion let's let's hold off for I can make a motion I'm a member of the board I can make a motion what we want to do though what we want to do though is because there's so much language floating around let's give Mr MCH few minutes here right uh we still have some public comments let's give him some time I'll let some people go who are who are not spoken yet or who has some time remaining and Joe already brought up the motion you need a second on the motion what is the language on the motion so there's no language on the motion yes there is I I want to make a motion with this language right here all right we we're not going back and forth here so what I'm going to do is I'm going let public finish their comments whoever is left because this came in between Mr Minch if you want to put together something real quick if we can come to a conclusion as a board here then we can vote upon it I'll withdraw my motion at this point to give Mr mench because it seems like that's what the board leadership would like however next time if I make a motion I just want it to be recognized thank you thank you all right who else um Mr Bo pres just as aside um my computer died so I'm going to go into the the band room to plug in if uh if you know all heck break solution you need me please come get me I'll be right back there okay okay sure thank you all right um that lady in the back hello thank you my name is j lakmi and 20 Huntington Road I've been a resident of Elison for about 15 years now I came here with a couple of different topics but I think subscription busing is already being addressed canabus is already being addressed so I get to my point and that is a really a request a request to increase resources towards mental health education I recently found out that my own care was struggling with anxiety and depression for few years and he hid it so well from his family I also found out that he communicated about this to his close friends but none of them none of those kids spoke up I don't particularly blame these kids including my own kid they're middle schoolers they're high schoolers most of them don't even know what to do with this topic they cannot even recognize mental health chall challenge as an issue there's also a lot of stigma around this topic but if you Google search suicide cases in universities nearby including the prestigious Princeton and Across the Nation the numbers are alarming young adults facing depression and taking their own life is on the rise especially after the pandemic we just had mental health education must be given more serious thought perhaps you can create a course just like phys physical health and PE uh gym education that we have whatever it is this topic warrants higher priority in our school system all the way from elementary school to high school I hope none of you have to ever face a situation where a regular knock on the door to wish good night to your kid is a time you find out that your kid is contemplating death over life thinking of self harm and and suicide I must confess that I didn't think of this issue until it hit my home I don't want any of you and any of the my fellow parents to face the same so despite the sensitivity of this topic I am here today to request to to you to take action to further educate educate our kids on mental health issues just like how we educate them on science mathematics and history it is time for a big change on this area thank you thank you uh Mr Ross yeah without Mr Ross's comment we could have not passed another resolution anyway so thank you resol hey good evening members of the board members of the public just want to you know again welcome everybody to Edison High School we love that we've got you guys um captured until the JP Auditorium gets finished sometime next November I only wanted to bring up three of the many many things about what's great about Edison High um first off we just finished our unified basketball season so we ended up playing JP Oldbridge we went to Monroe Monroe came here and yesterday my man Eric Laray I have to shot him out hit a half court shot to end the third quarter somebody tried to steal the ball One Step boom straight through the net I'm trying to get it on the ESPN um to plays of the week but it hasn't happened yet so give it up for my man Eric now when we come back in March we'll be talking about all of the different um great schools that our students got into right now we've got somebody that's working on we've got the full ride to Duke already we got somebody that's working on a full ride to Georgia Tech so our students already get in but when the colleges show show how much they respect our students by the amount of money they give that makes us really happy and I have to shout out my cheerleading team you know just like the Yankees of the 19 1950s the Islanders of the 1980s the UCLA Bruins that won all those championships in a row my cheer team five years in a row as state champ so give it up for Coach Gregoire coach jok and all of them and um also I want to invite anybody wants to come out on March 7th we've got the students versus faculty basketball game the students do a tournament then the teachers usually beat them this year will kib boss is coming out of retirement he's going to come play with us anybody on the uh board staff would like to come all right including most unsung Judy Cox awesome unsung central office employee of the month but but I also want to this time of year you guys see me here my hair is growing out a little bit long it's not just a bad hair day it's one of the things that we do at Edison High is always come together for the St baldrick's um charity for cancer started from a young girl that ended up going to school here and is now a district employee and my involvement came um probably about eight or nine years ago when a group of kids in the auto shop were like you know hey Mr Ross me you shave your head I'm like man if you raise $1,000 I'll shave my head so these kids are one of those kids who is now also a district employee went around the school went around the town found a way to raise the money so I started shaving my head so I just want everybody to check it out if you want to get a QR code in the back it's if you go to St bald.cap team it's from teachers from the ETA it's from custodians and grounds people it's from administrators anybody can get involved so I really hope it's for the children so far today I had four people donate from the QR codes so I appreciate any support that you can give again to support this program thank you guys thank you uh Matt I know you didn't go so good evening ETA vice president Matt rnck uh couple things number one your at hoc committee great idea I was a little just disturbed because all the people that mentioned nothing was mentioned about a couple staff members from each building so I'm hoping there'll be there and the other thing is it sounds like a high school thing but you might want to think about middle school as well you know it seems to be filtering down to younger ages as well okay so that's number one number two Mr Rivera thank you um you actually saw a little my thunder there's quite a few staff members that put in the retirement it's on the agenda and it was from 22 years to 41 plus years so congratulations to the members that are retiring you know hopefully you'll have a great rest of your career over the next few months and um thank you for your service to Edison and of course the ETA third thing um our ETA volleyball tournament last Thursday it was a wonderful event as Dr alwell and I talked it's always great to bring staff together from around the district but I want to thank again Mr romano and Mr buo Patel for attending the event Dr Al delli a couple of your staff members I know Dr hus was there miss Daniel and also Mr cassin so we thank for your presence but I also want to thank a number of other people that you know do a lot of things to help it's a large event it takes a lot of people to get that thing going first of all I want to thank from JP Stevens Rob Robinson our vice principal and our our uh athletic director for secur you know getting the facility allowing us to use it our was there the entire time and um it was he you know does a wonderful job our custodians for helping set up the tables and breaking it down and cleaning up after the mess that is made at times so I do thank the custodians as well but most importantly of course I thank the members that participated um every school was represented say for one who had an activity at their school and some injuries and things like that but even they rais funds for three worthy uh Charities we don't have final numbers yet but um buddy ball keny keepwell both Edison and our ETA scholarship fund so again it was a great night we appreciate the support that was given by everyone that was there the people that played the people that helped us out um running the show you know it's it takes a lot of people and a lot of things to make something like that go the final thing I wasn't going to mention it but since you guys are discussing about this and I don't disagree with Mr Schneider's take on a general statement but can be General but and have specificity at the same time a general statement what you said and putting something like including but not limiting to the current resolution now you're all right now you're specific it covers all let the speaker finish but now you have you know specific for this particular thing in addition to everything going forward so just a thought have a good night thank you thank you so uh Matt a suggestion well taken about uh including the Middle School staff and the high school staff and will uh Dr Al will certainly will consider that strongly and uh you'll you'll hear good things about that thank you any first timers uh this gentlemen you just had one question but I'll let you go again if you have another question a follow excuse me a followup to my prior uh statement I was told that Edon does have a policy regarding whether or not a school will notify by a parent if his or child is going to consider uh changing his sexual orientation the policy is not mandatory it's apparently policy number 5657 so I would like to submit to the board some matters it should consider to make it mandatory um a child who considers changing a sexual orientation can very well do damage to his reproductive organs his or her reproductive organs in that case that child has a very high likel of not becoming a parent do we want that to happen to our children Johnny considers changing from man to woman he does something that will do serious maybe permanent damage to his reproductive organs he's not going to be a father in the future isn't that serious enough to tell a parent my gosh if it isn't I I I I I don't know what else to say about that also the increased risk of suicide the statistics as was stated earlier are alarming uh in the lgbtq community there's an organization called the Trevor Project it claims to be the largest organization in the world devoted to reducing suicide amongst youth in the LGBT community they did a Statewide survey every state in the country all 50 either in 2021 or 2022 I'm not sure but I have from their website some numbers 40% of the LGBT youth in New Jersey not just the nation New Jersey seriously considered suicide in the past year 14% of the LGBT youth in New Jersey attempted suicide in the past year that would be 20 either 20 or 21 one 71% of the LGBT youth in New Jersey reported experienced symptoms of anxiety and 54% of the lgbtq youth in New Jersey reported experiencing symptoms of depression the the the statistics go on and on if reducing the risk of suicide that's a no-brainer we want to reduce that make it man mandatory please tell a parent that his or her son or daughter is considering changing sexual orientation the parent can counsel his or her child to help help with those matters that I just mentioned thank you thank you very much any other yes sir Jerry she Edison um I asked a couple of questions at the when I first came and there's no answer one is where is jmi and what's the plan for the the uh the ongoing projects do I need to sign my up sign myself up with uh please do sir Dr hus to get the answer please do sign up and we will contact you okay you can't give me the answer where it is okay so the uh um on the agenda there are some uh uh bids about contracts and a lot of them are bidded and but it doesn't have all the other bids so moving forward can you list all the other bids that came in so we know that you know where is the range of the bid to say the one of the change order it's a lot of money would you please give the gentleman all your information ask the questions I'm asking the question in the public and I'm tell you that that person is qualifi I'm asking the I'm asking the question in public he can give me the answer later okay so the change order and all the other bids you know can you list all the the bids that came in not just one item you award it to somebody and um the other thing is about the um the I don't know whatever the committee is The Vaping bathroom committee um visha Patel is not here uh he has done a lot of work last year uh I hope that that you guys consider him on the committee uh to continue uh some of the works that he started and also um I forgot to give kudos to him on some of the uh curriculum things that was brought up uh that was under his leadership and was continuation of implementing that so uh unfortunately he's not here I you know I can't say anything you know but I hope he's watching and uh thank you Vis show for getting those to the point where they're getting implemented thank you thank you yeah uh first thank you board for uh staying up late and trying to uh work your name and your and your address okay my name is Gopi atali I'm from Sagamore Avenue Edison New Jersey 08820 thank you very much you're welcome yeah and really thank you everyone and the board to sitting through uh trying to uh write up this resolution in trying to oppose uh the ordinance uh and uh I I I'm not uh I wouldn't say I'm not an expert but I'm not an expert here to uh comment on any uh language um but if withdrawal or voting against means the same I think that is what we want uh as as uh you know the board member is saying right we we don't want this coming back in any shape of form sneak upon us again and I 100% agreed to of the same thing you know oppose this ordinance as is and including oppos of limiting sales anywhere in this locations that are included in the ordinance or anywhere near the schools as you just said and residential area yes so it's a blanket thing so that the kids are safe and everything is taken care of and with the subcommittee that you were trying to form uh uh you know for protecting the kids and it's awesome and the further the the council and its subcommittee would address uh the current the the rest of Affairs separately so this ordinance would be out of bounds and scratched off and have a protection for all the areas that are closer to residential areas and the other uh other uh places so thank you for that uh thank you very much for that I had one question uh separately is what is the current law if uh x amount of marijuana is found in possession for or on an 18-year-old kid in the school with all the legalizations that is happening what is the current law and can that be addressed at the Town level to be maken more stringent than uh what it currently says so uh maybe that's a that's the question if I can ask again I would repeat because Aton is here if you want me to repeat the question if you wouldn't mind you would please give that gentleman there your name and your contact information and I'm quite sure he can lead you to the proper people such as the Edison police department to give you that information that I'd appreciate thank you very much for your comment thank you uh but it's a school law right what is that there is no that is you're you you stated one thing sir what you stated was was there a law there is no if in schools is specific right it's the law man it's the law sir it's the law okay there is no so there's go back and forth sir let's let's have a seat all right thank you is everyone done Mr Romano is everyone you have a yes so we have a conclusion here Mr moin Patel I thought you're too late all right this this the last one appreciate it I got my three minutes thank you first of all I want to commend uh Mr Romano for actually putting out a motion thank you so much for doing that that's what we should be doing right now H secondly with all this cannabis stuff going on in our towns in other towns there's so many Cannabis shops all around our town matachin has a few Woodbridge has a few piscato you name every town in the state has a ton of marijuana shops I don't think we need any more in our town actually or around our town but if we do there's one thing that I would like to suggest the board to do is try to start educating our kids a little bit more about the use of marijuana and Edibles and all that stuff that is going on and how it impacts them in their adolescent life I think that's something that we can do as uh a school district and making sure that we educate our kids in regards to the effects of cannabis to their growth and the other thing is also sending out a message to the parents in regards to hey cannabis is not only weed or TCA oil it's in brownies and gummies and everything so make sure your kids are aware that don't take anything from other kids that you don't know about so just education is a key we are in the process of we should do that I know you have that app or something that's uh going on there that should be another block talks about marijuana pot right right Mary Jane 420 whatever you want to call it just name everything and let everybody know what it is and how it's going to affect them and like I said there's a lot of shops and all those guys that are trying to get licenses for the shops in Edison you guys are going to lose your money so might as well not put any more shops in here because it's a commission that someone's going to get but you're going to lose out because there's a ton of competition by the way the most marijuana is basically sold by your street vendor somewhere or a dealer somewhere or a plug somewhere that's where they're getting the drugs from they're not getting it from the shops because they're too expensive by the way thank you thank you all right motion to close public comments motion second all in favor I I I all right we can do that now Jerry Sor right so uh we're going to move forward with the resolution we heard the comments from public we have so many emails from from the residents and this issue is out there like there's hardly any anyone who doesn't know about it in Edison so we heard the board members comments everyone had different suggestions like I said we had plans to put this resolution for today opposing the township ordinance and the plans uh fell apart because there was an different email came from Council president to certain residents but then now since it's resurfacing we heard the input of the residents and based on the input of the residents and all those who attended today's meetings and emails and the board members we are going forward with the resolution now so that we don't have any complication in the languages or whatsoever based on the advice from our uh Mrs White can I please finish my um based on the advice from our attorney we already and to answer to Mr moin Patel too we already have formed an ad hoc committee is just getting started so we are going to bring up ideas include some stakeholders and we I'm I'm we're going to do some thought process around it think tank as you say and you know bring up some try to tackle this whole issue right U that being said between now and next month the first opportunity is for all the board members to provide their suggestions as well to Dr eldari and myself and vice president Romano what all they would like to include now if there is a need for a broader resolution in the future that we should tell the township ABC XYZ that's fine they can submit their input and we will consider it in you know in in in the ad committee and we can we can pass another resolution with different languages if needed for now the issue and as suggested by our legal council the issue at hand is the ordinance that Township Council has not yet withdrawn so our position is to ask ask the township Council to withdraw the ordinance so our attorney has drafted resolution I would like to him to read and then we'll do a um motion uh Mr Minch sure so so the the language that the board president has um suggested is uh the limited just to the ordinance the members of the board of ed u obviously make it you know more formal members of the Edison Township Board of Education are oppos the current ordinance proposed by the township Council as would impact our schools and ask the council to withdraw this ordinance uh that's the language proposed by uh board president which would um and then as what president commented uh any more expansive you know uh policy would be referred to the ad hoc committee for consideration um uh Mr CER has proposed other language we've heard other language from other board members um as well so that's that's language that board president has has proposed Mr President uh yes Mr i' like to make a motion to accept motion anyone second second second by Mrs Pang um roll call Mr to we should have public comments on this Mr M what you don't more public comment on resolution I mean the board can debate it but you don't need public comment on it no they haven't opened it up roll call Mr do 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 motion carries thank you thank you thank you everyone uh motion to adjin the meeting motion second second all in favor the meeting is a for