thank you please be seated roll call Mr to yes Mr Beer Patel here Mr Romano here miss Pang here Miss White here Mr Schneider here Mr Rivera here Mr Vel Patel pres Miss Ana Patel here Mr Lugo here you have a Corum thank you opening statement yes in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings Act 1973 c231 Sunshine Law the 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 these notices were sent to the home News Tribune and the Star Ledger thank you uh today we have a couple of presentations the first one is for Verity tutors free tutoring many of you may have heard about it uh Mr Rick Kohan thank you board uh for this opportunity first I want to congratulate every everybody for all your success our students parents and staff congrats on a great school year I promise I'll be super quick I did want to let everybody know that you know while I come from the academic office and we are super excited for everyone to enjoy summer go on some water slides but no summer slides all right and so in order to help you out with avoiding the summer slide and you know also we don't want you to spend too much time on social media because there's all this research that says it turns your brain to Mush a little bit so an alternative would be there's some free great uh learning but fun opportunities that you can have from on demand it's on class link so you can click on Varsity Tutors and on this platform you'll find a lot of great fun things that you can do at home during the summer or from your phone including 247 chat tutoring so if you're taking any online courses and maybe teachers aren't around or accessible in the summer you can get any help anytime you need uh there is also great weekly classes so if you're bored and wondering what to do you can learn about coding or game design uh if you're think if you're thinking about the PSATs or the SATs and summer is a good time you have some free time to do some of those practice tests there's a lot of great resources there to help you get ready for college and entrance exams uh there's a lot of fun courses led by some interesting celebrities again you can learn to do some brain teasers and some fun games and there's this presentation be we posted on the website there's a video that has lots more information again go to class link go to Varsity Tutors lots of great stuff and then I also just want to give a shout out we have this uh program for the next five years and there's 247 tutoring so at any time at any point you're getting ready for school you want to turn you want to unmush your brain or undo the summer slide get ready there's a lot of great resources there for you don't worry about school next year you need help at any point it's right at their fingertips all right that's all I'm going to say thanks congrats again everybody and have a great night thank you so much Mr Kohan We hope everyone takes advantage of this free tutoring program and just get um better grades next is our rock star uh Dr alrai and our ba Mr to for finance for the facilities upgrade presentation right how you doing folks yeah I didn't hear you I yeah that doesn't sound like you're doing it how's everybody doing all right good deal so so listen this is one of the best board meetings of the year because it's kind of the culmination of all of the hard work from our students our staff our administrators and our parents um and so we're really looking forward to this so I promise this this piece and this presentation is going to be short but where wherever we have a captive audience Mr to and I like to do just a little bit of a presentation along with the Board of Education to show all the hard work other than kind of the academics that we're doing um so without any further Miss Daniel you you'll click yeah you got it I trust you with those pieces so right now we're just going to do an overview of some of the expansion projects um construction and modernization of our schools uh that are currently underway in progress and also in the planning phases so moving right along all right oh there we go there we go perfect we got Edison High School home of the Eagles how about anybody anybody from Ed and time right here no we're quiet tonight quiet tonight yeah so so moving forward part of our phases here um that uh previous boards as well as this board have endorsed are classroom expansions modernizations we're looking at um classroom Orchestra beautification of the front offices new vestibules here at Edison High School really looking forward to those pieces and um the great part about this is that Mr Ross is not only um uh hands- on in this approach but really has a good vision for what the school is going to look like so we we compliment him congratulations uh on another successful school year perfect number two all right or three and four so this is the part where there's usually like a musical interlude or something along those lines to kill dead space sure all right looks like it's moving right along now great we also have an Edison Success Academy um a couple years ago the uh Board of Education purchased a property directly across from menow Park we are currently uh turning this into a um Success Academy um for uh select groups of students um this project has been currently underway um it's going to provide um a path um for our most atrisk students currently right now and we're really excited about the opening uh of this program um Miss Meredith quick who is the principal of the Success Academy has had hands-on experience along with um Mr to uh Mr cabus I know that Dr Tui as well as uh Kate Gman and Rick Cohen have been in involved in this as well too so we're really excited about these piece a lot of moving parts that are currently going on we appreciate all the hard work that they're doing and here we go we got Hoover Mr McGrath is also Hands-On every detail of every aspect of the school including this brand new custom kitchen a beautiful gymnasium that has an unbelievable mascot there that was been has been drawn um I think freehand from Mr McGrath too correct no no yeah that's yeah 100% um but we are so excited for the opening of this of September 24 um and it's really going to provide a nice flow um between the cafeteria into the gymnasium so um congratulations to all involved in that uh we have our upcoming plan to jmi as well too classroom Edition yeah right gy and the gymnasium as well um we have jams jams did a makeover of their locker rooms to accommodate um our most talented musicians uh and and Orchestra and choir and we also are looking at a brand yeah and a brand new gymnasium there Dr Valentine is always hands on and know experiences so we applaud her efforts there every detail of those pieces and we're also looking forward to uh additional completion of phases in jams uh for a classroom Edition as part of our phase one commitment to uh making sure that we're modernizing and expanding our programs uh what's what's great about Marshall what's this the magic of Marshall where are we all right the magic of Marshall there we go so the magic of Marshall is also getting a makeover um classroom Renovations modernization of the front of the school building we have a gymnasium as well um really looking forward to it I mean if you can how exciting is are these images of of the upcoming pieces right now yeah there's a lot of Buzz around it and and uh thanks to um Miss Hoffman's decorating uh pieces right there the school's look going to look beautiful also part of phase one JPS yeah all right Mr to those are those are footings Mr to you have what you have there is you have the foundations in and footings going for the I believe uh 28 classroom Edition so all right a lot more space excellent excellent much needed space over at JPS right there beautiful layout um really looking forward to the expansion of this project as well as a brand new renovative Auditorium which is what you see right here on the initial phases so um you know we have an auditorium on the south end of town we're going to beautify one on the north end of town to house The Unbelievable talents of our music program uh and Band program we're really excited about that so um uh congratulations everybody involved in that process all right we got Thomas Jefferson I think is next in the batting order is that correct TJ we got a Jim and TJ I I walked around this with with principal edden who knew every nook and cranny of these places uh we've got a new entrance way we've got some different office spaces right there going to open up the front way going to make it more inviting for students to come and congregate in the morning we did some bathroom Renovations there as well um really exciting project um and uh and and a lot of work going on you know you moms and dads and students and Board of Education members should be really proud of all the work that's happening here in Edison Township it it really is amazing um moving on to the next one woodro we got another we got another locker room conversion we're making some classroom space down there all right Miss blevens knows each and every aspect of this of this project as well too she took me on a really nice tour showed me all the ins and the outs um and the classroom space is is really magnificent um I believe some bathrooms off of those classroom spaces too as well um and here is the gymnasium also uh and bathrooms off the gymnasium bathrooms look done already too so um yeah so the gym space bathrooms uh an additional classroom space much needed over at wood R too one of our uh our our largest uh actually the largest middle school so yeah great and this is just kind of a culmination uh of everything towards the end right now we've got a lot of stuff that are coming in the upcoming phases that we will tackle but we wanted to make sure that all of phase one that previous boards have put together and and this board has fully endorsed uh is is ready to roll we would be remiss if we didn't highlight our Rod Grant projects which will provide air conditioning in yes got got a go a got a right we should provide air conditioning in some of the um spaces in the element school I believe FDR as well in its entirety perfect so um I I and again I I want to thank you so much uh you should actually applaud applaud the people that are on the stage currently right now as well as previous Board of Education members who have um and previous administrations too have who have made a commitment to um addressing the overcrowding issue uh in in an unbelievably Swift manner so um thank you so much for all of your support and uh I am going to turn it back over to our our Board of Education president can we do a quick survey who wants air conditioning all right so thank you so much Dr Elli now after our Rockstar Dr alder's presentation this report is going to be very boring you can write bad reviews about me but if there and you can sleep uh there is nice air conditioning here in this room but if there is something you like in this report which is music to your ears please make sure you Applause and cheer for it and you will hear hear some of those in this report that's what I promise all right so welcome to our June meeting as we reach the midpoint of the calendar year this meeting is also the last Board of Education Action meeting of our students's Academic Year I would like to take a moment to highlight some of the significant achievements and progress that we have made in the last six months first of all I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Dr Rick Coen Mr Rick Coen for his outstanding work with Varsity Tutors thank you so much he's been very helpful additionally a special thanks to our Rockstar Dr Elder Elli for providing us with vital facilities updates and to our ba Mr to and very importantly our facilities director Mr Bill kibas thank you so much for the great job you have all done together the P 6 months that's a lot of progress made in this area we have almost completed or almost moving forward with everything in phase one thank you so much all of you huge thanks to Heather Daniel for all the wonderful com contributions made throughout this first half of the year including newsletters Communications policy updates and social media updates all done single-handedly thank you so much Heather Daniel among many of our achievements is this year maintaining the same fee for the bus Subscription Service without any tax increase your bus subscription service fee stays the same Yes you heard it right so this is one of the music to your ears furthermore despite of the fact that we have no tax increase on the School portion we have we are going to continue to provide free breakfast for all the children in the upcoming school year because a studies show that the students who participate in the school breakfast exhibit decreased behavioral and psychological problems and lower rates of absences so make sure you all present in the school most of the time and enjoy the free breakfast last Wednesday June 12th we celebrated 50th anniversary of woodro Wilson Middle School now woodro Wilson Middle School despite of being our youngest Middle School in terms of when it was built it reminds us of our aging infrastructure in our district the board REM remains is committed to upgrading our facilities which we will see more progress for incoming months really applaud the work of the administration for the celebrations um Mrs Jen blin uh Mrs mandetta and Mr zako it was a pleasure to meet woodro wison first principal in that wonderful celebration as well now coming back to the hot topic for the hot weather quite a few parents have expressed concerns about lack of air conditioning in our schools especially during this hot weather today the schools closed early due to high temperatures this situation remains reminiscent of what we faced in the beginning of this school year if you remember in September it underscores the need for a comprehensive plan to address climate control in our buildings imagine two weeks like this will we close early every single day for 2 weeks if that were to happen we cannot remain dependent on the weather Gods just as learning cannot happen which I touched in my earlier statement just as learning cannot happen on an empty stomach if there are climate safety issues the students cannot learn appropriately I personally believe air conditioning must be installed in every single School building where the infrastructure challenges do not exist the other day I along with some other administrative members where at senior Awards night it was a really hot day but much lesser than today I saw people the parents who were constantly Fanning themselves with those hands that should have been used for clapping and cheering for their kids who are getting Awards now remember this board and previous boards for the last four years had zero% tax increases so when people people talk about taxes the taxes have not gone up for the School portion in last four years implementing air conditioning will incur cost but it seems a necessity especially on days like this I had asked our superintendent Dr eldr Ali about this and Dr Eldar Ali has a plan and he will go over that momentarily and in 2022 this board at the previous board started to put a comprehensive plan together to put air conditioning in every single School building at present our Architects are working on a long range facility plan I will ask Dr Al Ali and Mr to to direct our Architects to make sure air conditioning is included in our long range facilities plan and when that's completed the board should immediately review and act upon it in addition to that we had our ad hoc culture and climate committee which said um which met this month it was a huge success several parents joined and provided valuable feedback the thought exchange is open till June 30th for anyone to fill out we encourage everyone to fill out on that note for the ad hoc thought exchange this afternoon the board the communications committee sent out a survey to all the parents as a part of communication committee initiative I encourage every single parent who can is and is able to to complete this survey as it represents a very important step in seeking and valuing parent feedback as we move forward as a district with graduation approaching Friday I want to extend my best wishes to all graduating seniors of both the high schools this is a significant milestone for everyone and we are very proud of your achievements I would also like to Express gratitude to all the principals all the parents all the students all Educators staff members and our entire central office administration for their hard work and dedication the entire year your commitment is what makes our district Thrive and shine remember we are one Edison on Thursday June 6th I had the honor of attending JP senior JP Steven senior Awards night a wonderful event recognizing the achievements of our students student recognition along with staff recognition is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a board of fed member and of boardof fed meetings I would second to what what Dr Ali said this is one of the best nights of the Year thank you so much all of you for being here this evening and this year as a whole we have a record breaking list of student recognition and I could not be more prouder and I would whole edly thank Mr Thomas White supervisor of Visual Arts and Music for putting the wonderful student recognition list together together thank you so much now to all the students who are recognized or not your hard work and dedication make our district proud for those who are recognized today this is your moment let's have a huge round of applause for all of you thank you for joining us tonight and let's continue to work together to make the second half of the year as successful as the first half I wish all of our students and families a great summer that being said without any further delay um we'll start with the recognition first we would like to recognize our hardworking student council Representatives here I would ask Dr Elder to read their names and we'll hand over certificates okay so right now we would like to recognize our our um our student Representatives that that sit up here with the Board of Education members that have been an active part of um our process here and their input is always valued so um I know we have a couple that are currently sitting up on the stage right now as well as others that have uh participated in this so um I am going to briefly read the names right and we can get the certificates later all right Edison High School president charver pamam Edis high school vice president Muhammad Hadi Edison High School secretary vidik abui Edison High School treasurer sir arthy CTO Kumar all right JP Stevens High School co-president Aaron bansal JP Stevens High School co-president also a strategic plan member as well too right all right Bill Tang my man second Vice pres uh first vice president JP shovan Patel second VP is Nathaniel Williams High School corresponding secretary Ruben Thea cver prasin Vera siku and high school recording secretary Reena Robinson congrats thank you so much um you guys contributed a lot to coming to every single board meeting and we really appreci appreciate that uh now we would pass it on to our superintendent Dr alari for his comments all right thank you so much board president Patel uh ladies and gents I know I stand between you and student recognition so I am going to keep my comments brief uh I just want to thank everybody in my first year here as superintendent um I couldn't imagine um a better trajectory and a better experience I thank you so much for not only the support that you've shown me um but it's a privilege to come to work each and every single day work with the people that are on this stage um our teachers are building level administrator supervisory support staff everybody makes the wheels go around over here uh I I thank you so much for everything uh you actually make my job easier and um and your support does not go unnoticed so thank you so much for a wonderful school year um you know if it were up to me every board meeting would be like this uh student recognition upbeat positive tempo right starting the first year off on a good uh first meeting off on a good note and and the culmination of uh of our June meeting is always great so um congratulations to all of the uh students that are yeah that are getting recognized you give yourselves a round of applause we we do have somebody else that's that was going to be recognized as well this evening we were just notified um recently I think today um that our board president has received um Master board member certification um which is a process in which he had to undergo certif certification classes things along those lines which just demonstrates his commitment to the work that we do here in concert with the other board members on the stage uh they provided him with a nice plaque that we have right over here so maybe a round of applause for Mr Patel all right and on behalf of njsba you are now a certified Master Board of Education member congratulations Mr Patel perfect and and then maybe a a uh quick picture all right maybe a quick picture yeah perfect coming great Mr Patel would like all the uh to invite all the board members up into the front right now for a quick picture should probably go in front of the days right where do you thinka in front of the days dress probably should go in front it'll look nicer no or let me get out of the way all right and that concludes my comments at this moment currently Mr Patel I will turn the floor over back to you thank you Dr aleri uh for those who are asleep please be awake now because this is your moment I would like to invite Mr Thomas White for the student recognitions now you guys put me in a really tough spot because I have to follow up air conditioning good evening everyone my name is Tom M I'm supervisor of Visual and Performing Arts i' would like to welcome you here today for our student recognition night uh before we begin I'd like to do a couple thank yous I'd like to thank the Board of Education Dr aldarelli and our central office administration for hosting this event i' would also like to thank my secretaries Maryann and Judy who did an amazing job putting a lot of the paperwork together I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to retire tomorrow with the amount of kids that we had this time around because this is our largest recognition night program that I've ever seen personally since I've been a supervisor here with that said typically what we would do is ask you all to stay here till the culmination of the program but what we're going to do is call a brief intermission after we introduce the elementary school students and allow them to leave real quick because as you can see looking left and right we're at standing room only right now uh and that'll allow more chairs to open up for for everyone who's standing without further Ado let's begin our program first I would like to introduce Donna abat Marco principal of James Madison Intermediate School good evening everyone thank you Dr alderi and to the Edison board of education for allowing us to recognize our amazing students this evening I am honored to come before you tonight as the proud principal of James Madison Intermediate School to congratulate the following students for being accepted into the New Jersey state Elementary choir on under the tutelage of our wonderful music teachers Miss Becky tarby and Mr Brian harkavy students please stand if you're not already when I say your name Shrea asoke Shari K kukar npor karney lulua Merchant nethan Nan debaki rowry ran tragi and mahen solot congratulations jmi Knights and congratulations to all the students being recognized this evening I would now like to introduce Mr dougen and Dr Feldman the principal and vice principal of Meno Park Elementary School thank you Mrs abarco thank you board thank you drelli um we would like to announce for Crescendo International competition first place at Carnegie Hall Natalie Shen and moving on to our Odyssey of the Mind team second place Regional Tournament team three opening night Antics we have Ana Sharma please stand when I call your name make sure you stand up when we call your name GG Singh Yos Sherice Ain eodi Daniel La ion Verma and Nisa via Dr felman's going to introduce our other team team five rocking World detour second place in the regional tournament svir so Yash pupala sanina murugan shua Kumar tanishka girar ARA Patel minaho sakib thank you to Mrs Blair and Mrs celeski for being the advisers this time I'd like to introduce Lisa dck our vice principal at M mil thank you Dr Arelli and the board for a chance to recognize our amazing blue Lions today we celebrate the incredible achievements of not one but two outstanding godsy they mind teams and they dedicated coaches Miss vogle and Mrs Kai your hard work creativity and perseverance have truly paid off culminating an unforgettable Journey to the world's competition in Iowa before I call the students names I just want to send a special shout out to Miss Ruth vogle she's retiring this year and has big shoes to fill in our om Club so she'll be greatly missed congrats Miss Bogle and cheers to our om champ so we have two teams third place World Finals first place New Jersey state finals and deep space structure RIT Vick so stand when I say your name rittick shrinivas Zara gyala akshara dandi sahasra shaval CIA gandi Dario Mali Myra daa for our for second team Seventh Place World Finals first place New Jersey state finals for rocking the world detour uh she ashva chowdery Nish bani shria go a maheswari puchia Yola cavia agal and anuka Jane thank you before I call the next principal I'm going to go a little off script ripped real quick for one last recognition I want to shout out our fifth grader Adia merchandani for winning the George lechner medal for achieving a perfect score in the math Olympiad Elementary division congratulations and now it is my pleasure to introduce the principal of Thomas Jefferson Middle School the school I started at when I started in Edison Miss antonet emden intermission oh sorry intermission this is that brief intermission and I was talking about we're going to reconvene at 7:45 Apple time all right so our elementary students would like to leave that's fine and that'll make room for our other parents here for our secondary portion of our program all right ladies and gentlemen here we go it is my pleasure to introduce antoanet emden principal of Thomas Jefferson Middle School good evening I'd like to thank Dr aldarelli and the Edison board of education for providing an opportunity to recognize student Excellence beyond the classroom students when you hear your name please stand under the direction of the FCCLA advisor Mr Hugo Estes I'd like to recognize pra schori First Place Silver for the category food innovation and Arian oswal first place goal for the category bread Basics right under the direction of the Odyssey of the Mind advisers Mrs Kristen Peterson and Miss Erica Levy I'd like to congratulate the following students for achieving second place in the regional competition and sixth place in the state competition rashne civicore Prav chandron Katherine doog Emily H sabam dah twisha Aral under the direction of Mrs Melissa Banu the following students Place fifth out of 43 teams for the middle SE County Academy math competition John cus aulu panak Paul shandre sadar kugali Alicia kajani congratulations under the direction of our head coach Miss Kelly Ryan I'd like to recognize the students of Thomas Jefferson Middle School girls basketball team for winning this year's Edison Township Middle School basketball tournament please stand when you hear your name Emma Fardo Aaliyah Johnson Gabriella shuck Alice Shia Malik ilam Mahana Delany Pelican Kaylee Smith Carmela Arana Alana Edwards Sophia pakora Payton Pelican Susan oshinski and Eva Simone congratulations under the direction of Miss Dedra pascarelli I'd like to recognize Johnny Ren for cjmea intermediate region Orchestra and all state intermediate Orchestra congratulations congratulations to all the students and advisers recognized tonight it is now my honor to introduce the principal of John Adams Middle School Dr Valentine good evening I am honored to be here before you tonight and representing John Adams Middle School and all all of the students being recognized tonight specifically the J amazing students of John Adams so we'll begin with fccl congratulations to the following students uh along with their adviser Miss SEO first place gold Civic engagement Gia and soam peer-to-peer Career Connection ofd and shinjini peer-to-peer facts soam kilin arav peer-to-peer Financial Fitness Kushi Kira Niha program cover design Arya ciona and Arya second place gold cake decorating ofd gold manners matter anusa Zoya story book effects anvid Ria and Gia yarn art svi First Place Silver Lessons Learned shinin Second Place Silver International Foods Alia and svi silver manners matter apara and aditia story book effects ashita heli and Evelyn and bronze toys that teach tur cin and Aran more FCCLA accomplishments this time under the adviser Miss Kelsey Whiteford first place gold manners matter sigh and Gia the Effective Teacher Aditi and Ria second place gold Civic engagement aana and ADI Reinventing spaces chatna toys that teach Sarah and Vita and anuka silver story book of ethics duto and mahika window of fashion sanaha and Ria yarn art samita bronze intern national foods Ayana and shria food truck food Rashida and Trisha congratulations to all of our FCCLA accomplishments our next Award winner had a perfect score on the PSAT t89 must be good DNA in the family because it is the brother of the um Martin Luther King student sidarth merchand Donnie congratulations sarth next up we have our math Awards under the advisers Miss Megan Doty and Mr sha artfit first place chapter competition Neil SAS Krishna and babab congratulations for the math Olympiad first place Top 25% of all participants Sedar NE SAS Neil and Jay honor roll certificates top 5% of all students nationally Neil harith Shas nethra Krishna amag and VAV congratulations certificate of achievement scored over 15 on AMC 8 chish congratulations ation middle sex County Academy math competition fifth place josin third place Krishna second place bav and first place Neil in the team round the big four first place Neil Krishna Shas and VAB congratulations see the Mind under the adviser Mr Jack spel second place State finals AI techno art world's finalists Navia vibu TR trita Gia ARA Neil and suar deep space structure six Place worlds manav Kiara soam ASI Kish shinsa and Samantha congratulations next we have adviser Mr Jared borha and the njac da All State Honor Choir arushi Anana Anushka Harish Hera havila jatin cavia Leo Nikita nural priia sharini rean Ryan chiali suara and VA congratulations and last but certainly not least Mrs Penny Montana and the cjmea region Orchestra njmea VAV Camen congratulations to all of our award recipients and congratulations to our upcoming graduates for the class of 2024 this has been a jamazing opportunity again I'm so proud to be here and so grateful and at this time I'd like to introduce the principal of woodro Wilson Middle School Mrs Levin good good evening thank you Dr Adell and the board of education for recognizing our amazing students tonight we are so proud of our ww students and all their many accomplishments we have so many students to recognize tonight so Mrs mandera is here to help us as well so big round of applause first up is our Orchestra under the direction of Miss Lou who is retiring after 30 years this year our 2024 cjmea intermediate chamber orchestra paig Wang Leilani gopel aana Shaw jacqulyn B our 2024 cjmea inter immediate String orchestra yashwanth balager assami Katherine woo aana hedge 2024 New Jersey All State intermediate Orchestra Leilani goel PA Wang ywan bagar assami jacqulyn B aana Shaw and on to our chorus under the direction of Miss jzos cjmea Region 2 treble choir dpia aapu daa BAGI Gia poer Trisha poer havisha gangula suar Joi a Kana Sharma a Shani chakravorti CJ EMA Region 2 mixed choir Kira Bali rayad data anvita nir anuta tripathi nalani bar aajan rashab Girish Ram sheth Arian Tani cjmea Region 2 Intermediate band under the direction of Mr FAA Mr FAA Krishna sanj sish sahil go arav Kumar Sai Akida prud kesav Menon Mahi palal tier Shaw scho Buu ravir Balaji meah prit cower and NJ AJ sorry NJ AJ Region 2 Intermediate jazz band Krishna shande saish cow sahil go and now moving on to our FCCLA under the advisement of Miss Welch and miss Patel for FCCLA gold storyboard ethics Sophia cradi ciona theage food truck Feud sha Chavi tiagi art of garden manager Sherie Lono May silver International Foods fak Khan Shrea Singh bronze fashion runway career Iman wall Kushi Patel Rachel Rara math competition team under the advisement of Miss Jasper first place Mount St Mary's Academy math competition anelie chahun first place WRA Wilson math competition aana Shaw Second Place St Joseph's mathematics competition rashab Girish Ashwin kirubakaran penov Sankar Third Place St Joseph's history Bowl Prav vantan arav Kumar third place overall first place team round middle sex County Academy math comp comptition aan sha aneli chahan Arab Kumar sill go fourth place wooder Wilson math competition sahil go math counts Regional competition aan sha aneli chahin AR of Kamar sahil go and top 1% Nationwide distinguished honoral amc8 20 24 arav Kumar we have a first place script spelling be Regional winner and National qualifier who we fully expect to be on ESPN next year harini morali first place middlex County science Bowl sill gohost shk wki s cow R of Kumar Junior Scholastic follow the food research project root vetty sixth Congressional District middle school first place social justice category awarded by Mr Frank palone is Barrett m watang GM XC small school wrestling champ Chase Sullivan and kashish Vias and we aren't just good in academics we're also good in sports we have our Edison tournament boys volleyball Champions chrish mwari rashab Jane naon Kumar non Jane Neil Patel suj budam vihan sandar ahan Kumar Ain sh FASA Adia Gala kashish VZ cardi AIT moitra saravana AR of mohindra shres Kuma perju James Kobe arit multra both those athletic teams are under the advisement of their coach Mr papernick Odyssey of the Mind adviser Mr Keith Thomas first place the vehicle problem drive in movie vihan sandar Omar shap Ashwin kir bakaran Shia Patel rashab Jane Shia thear panov Sankar first place performance problem rocking World detour Narin harah Haram Avan parar CIA Patel Gia hukari JP nadat NE chakra and Nathan oara second place Classics problem opening night Antics Ana saan Rachel Lopes Sai AA prudy Rachel Robinson Arty raal Tanisha Sharma third place the vehicle problem the drive-in movie rayan spodu Mahana Kumar shirana gadu Elna arot vontel asuk Kumar aush kucheria Amar mun I to see the Mind Gateway region Champion third place structure problem deep space structure Yash Camara jiga aara masar ad Gala Arnav Singh aditia Ram sheth manav bat third place performance problem rocking World detour Mahi pandia root Vetti Joshua rajash Shing D baju Vash naavi shaa sashes Odyssey of the Mind New Jersey state champions first place the vehicle problem drive in movie vihan SAR Omar Shake Ashwin kir bakaran Shia Patel rishab Jane Shia thear penov Sankar greatest History Day challenge Regional winners top five on grade level National qualifiers Karan K vihan Gandhi vihan karney AAR vaki Krishna sanj Richard ping arv Kamar Regional winner National qualifier Dion kudapan sear pretesh Shir Ramen radut Regional winners nishal hosamani akshaya Santos Kumar arav Kumar Rachel Robinson perfect score PSAT 89 arav Kumar I'm going to turn it over to Mrs mandera to announce FBLA hi it is my honor to introduce FBLA under the advisement of Miss Cameron and Miss fipe before we recognize the students we would like to share that this year miss Cameron and Miss Felipe were recognized by fpla as the best advisers for their hard work and dedication a big round of applause now for the student recognition business ethics second place Magna imedi Kiara Roy fourth place Nan Kumar tanu yakali for business etiquette first place Candace Solomon career exploration second place Atara mashalkar third place perati bandali fourth place arti ra career Research thirdd Place vihan Gandhi community service presentation second place J mannon DTI V ashwaria sentil critical thinking first place shre karur Guru AR Mahendra arav Singh third place Raj ratar suali Singh rut Ved digital citizenship first place Shanta shirasa second place Ashwin kirubakaran fourth place an tendon elevator speech second place ronit Kana third place RIT AAR W fourth place Muhammad Zaki second place ahan sha Shanta shiras perti tanuku third place ashal arti ra exploring computer science third place adya kaimani exploring economics first place arav Mahendra second place sahil Goos third place aana sha exploring technology second place ahan Gupta fourth place kanishka jakab fbl Concepts first place ashwaria SEL second place Place San panduga third place Arun buala fourth place Sali Singh now for FBLA mission and pledge second place Anish panti third place sahib Singh fourth place sudip Partin financial literacy fourth place pav Kumar interpersonal communication first place Gotham rajes second place rayan Hussein third place Rahi lakpa now for leadership first place Ana yadav second place pul kadam fourth place darini bandali learning strategy is first place manit Kana second place adya dinu fourth place arav Singh I repeat arnov Singh marketing mix challenge first place adiya Gala Gotham rajes Arjun sudhakar third place Shri Watsa vadlamani now for multimedia and website development second place pernal venkataraman second place kashmi shet running an effective meeting first place jashun Rajesh Kanan second place ad Gala third place Ashwin Agarwal for video games first place Ryan Hussein arit Malhotra sh Jen for challenge second place sahil vula for third place Rohan jaganathan congratulations to all the fbaa participants and to the advisers big round of applause and next week our FBLA is headed to Orlando Florida New Jersey National History Day under the advisement of Miss herwitz and Miss rhs first place state competition website arv Kumar exhibit of Apollo 11 Prav vitaran thirdd Place state competition documentary Trisha hakeri darini Pali havisha gangula exhibit on katsu vers United States nanana PES Nan mantre Swati Donna sakar and Vara Rajesh regional state qualifiers paper on the Battle of Stalingrad ishan Menan paper on the Renaissance architecture ashwat sharat Kumar website on Thomas nass political cartoon toini morali website sa cow website arv Kumar exhibit on the first interstate highway system AA Kumar exhibit on Apollo 2 Prav vitaran exhibit on katsu vers United States nanina pesh Nan mantri Swati Dakar Vara raes exhibit on the impact of the birth control pill akshana Sharma Ashani chakori documentary on the impact of the Boeing 747 a non J Sharma rashab Girish documentary on the wansi conference darini banali havisha gangula Trisha hoker documentary on WW2 women Air Force pilots nandana bachari and last but not least our model un under the advisement of Miss aramini outstanding delegate JPS U mu NC Rachel Robinson outstanding delegate beginner best delegate conference V Rajan Rebecca Robinson harini morali trat vadlamani ananas Sharma akaya sanes Kumar devoni pahuja outstanding delegate Advanced best delegate conference Tanisha sahai alhani chakravorti outstanding delegate beginner best delegate conference baraj chiaretti congratulations to all of our recognized students tonight for the district congratulations to wooder Wilson students and now it is my honor to introduce Mr Brian McGrath principal of Herbert Hoover Middle School thank you and I would like to thank Dr aldarelli board president Patel and the entire Board of Education I would like to begin I would like to begin by honoring Sophia woo Who under the tutelage of Joseph Cunningham made the cjmea All Region band Mr Mr McGrath hold on one second ladies and gentlemen if I could just ask one minute we're going to take a brief intermission right after the next Middle School piece if we could just please sit down right now folks in the back if you wouldn't mind shutting those doors let's give these other Middle School uh students this last school the same attention that we did the other three be greatly appreciated we'll take a quick break right after this Mr McGrath thank you so much thank you Dr aldarelli uh up next we'll be honoring those students who participated in the spring FCCLA competition under the tutelage of Joanna D Francesco first place gold toys that teach Tasha kadakia and Sonia sheath International Food cavia Kori and shria meta Reinventing spaces diaa kandani Tia meta and rayan Sayed up next First Place Silver International Food Avery go shuie thermal congratulations program cover design siia venata desika Sandu Yu taking home bronze in Hospitality Hospitality 101 orello aanii congratulations up next Food Truck Feud and Vita Parisa and Ava manukan we'd also like to recognize under the tutelage of n Naraj Shasta Nan shrivastava who took home the highest score in the math count Regional competition school Round congratulations I'll now turn it over to Mr Ross from Edison High School great thank you very much there Mr McGrath we're just going to take a brief moment right now quick little intermission and as Mr White had said Apple time we're going to come back at 8:20 that's what hurts yeah too all right good evening everybody good evening Mr Ross good evening Mr Ross thank you sir I was a little confused going first I thought the home team got Last Licks I thought I'd go last but maybe this is one of those situations where like when a Jet's playing giant stadium and you're not sure because they don't have their own place I don't know I was just not sure but we'll get to JP Stevens now for my Edison Eagles that we're going to shout out tonight so many great things so great to see all of the young people get their awards for all the works for the families all the works for their advisers their principles it was great seeing the presentations on all of the um new building that's going on and bordered I've got the Edison hard hats and the silver shovels so when you guys are ready to break ground in the back just come see me I've got everything ready because you know we need it down here too be all right very good okay now what I want to talk about today is going through the Edison High now my Edison High people as we sit and we get our Awards please stand up like I said was senior day today A lot of people are out doing a lot of different things getting ready for our graduation at the rack but my Edison people if I shout you out please stay for the JP Stevens so that we can give our sister school that same attention and love that they give us so first off starting off with our FCCLA under our adviser Miss Megan Reed first place goal let's go for ronal Shaw ver kahai pav devaraju rashita jambula yashwin raka Gary chandrasen FaZe Ahmed pav Dian kosher Patel Raga Puli and second place goal our state officer stti sha stti in basketball under the leadership of our most our winningest coach in history Charlie Moore let's give it up for First Team all white division Rich Harvey everybody saw the Celtics won uh 18 championships on and off on and off but our most um awarded team is our cheerleading team back to back to back to back to back state champions it's give it up for GMC white division small Varsity NJ state champions Avery Abrams Elise bulck Tiara Campbell Lela Dixon Kylie Ying Kiki green micaa Rooks Gina rafino Olivia short and Lindsay yasco that's for Coach gregar coach Yokum in allh division under coach Jason Worland of boys volleyball Ajit pav civa Kumar Muhammad Hadi Brady boslet Gavin Garcia and they were white division co-champions ciry Amin Ron Dora Brady boslett garciaa Hadi Mari Jamal Muhammad pav jiki as shock Jacob Lee pranet Mur pav civa Kumar KES rajanu V kudai Abrahim vula Adrien zapala under coach Yokum she also does the ladies lacrosse all-white Division allwhite division All Conference going to play in college Elizabeth Lizzy melinger the all-time leader with 186 goals also all white division Lila Robinson Joselyn gross and our goalie Maha Khan giving it up for the rest of the team that was a co-champion in the white division Haley Aman Chelsea Aila Laura clunis Mary Elizabeth Conway Adrien Di Maria shagun goodar April gooddy Katherine Kovalchuk T Tasia lir Jay Leon Tossy Patel Lela Robinson Rachel Rodriguez verica SI Sidi Ashley Smith and Allison Z under the leadership of Tracy Smith our boys bowling all-white division were John Ray and James stavern allwhite division girls bowling let's go for Pua qara and Payton Stone from the legendary Avalon wrestling family and we have allh division Fernando Avalon and our own Jeremy Negron first team allwhite division GMC All County girls basketball Chelsea go with the second most points in Edison history over a thousand right now coach Smith is the boys tennis coach and the boys tennis team for the past two years has been undefeated in the white division let's give it up for vinia alango ashid Gandhi Chetan colam hold your applause till we're done Jack McMahon um manuri advic Mishra ARA Patel AR Patel pra Patel sarves premkumar ishan shedi Prav Shas ban yurov yungi woo allh division were sarves premkumar Prav rasian Bano Vin elango all right isan chedi Bill Wu and Arya Patel and under coach yasco for the first team all white division boys lacrosse Chris Eagle Dean Lee and Alex Alexis Gonzalez also lacrosse all conference was Colin praddy now the track team was also white division back-to-back Champion so we got a lot of different names let's hold our Applause to the end we've got for the ladies naren aona Jada Bond Zina cappo amab boaen Kiana Rose Isa Bristo Cabrera Gracie white Kaden aravena and for the boys white division we have Ricky Harvey torianne retree Alex Lang Fabricio suo Joe Panero Remy bet Mustafa abdulal for the under under coach Maly for the girls softball all blue division Ava Austin and kayin Klein in girls golf under Coach Frank Giuliano all red division was Madison zicaro Edison Baseball we had two all division all count players Jackson appelman and Rob Roma Jr and all division was Anthony kanton njmea All State band Hannah Chong Dev delal aay katri and Jonathan Le 2024 USA bio Olympiad semi-finalist was Drew he Patel and before I do the last word just a big shout out to our security staff that always keeps us safe through all these Gams and extracurricular activities we appreciate all you do and the last Awards of the night our National Merit Scholarship winners are augustia caligara and aarva in mandar and now it is my honor to bring up two of the esteemed Vice principles from John P Stevens High School Mr Rob Robinson and Fay wowski thank you everybody good evening everyone thank you Dr Ally board of education for this opportunity to recognize some great JP stens talk this evening sorry we have to go last but after all we did say the best for last we have so many awards we had to bring two administrators tonight so but Mr Ross is a tough act to follow but I do want to thank him and Mrs blevens they've opened up their schools to JP Stevens this year they've opened the auditoriums cafeteria and allowed us to continue to offer co-curricular programs we are excited about getting Auditorium next year so I do appreciate that they've been very accommodating to us so without further Ado I'm going to present to us the JP Stevens athletic awards let's here for the Hawks there it is all right thank you very much so moving forward we have the old GMC ice hockey we have aleski Ser jev we have all red division boys basketball we have Anthony Hicks we have red division sportsmanship award boys basketball we have seix sethy we have Leo bunan we have Ryan low Baron panetti nasier Kimbro Anthony Hicks Derek anad Lewis Michael Gonzalez Deb Desai Shamar bur Kareem osmir Logan Batel Gotham Swan methan and that is the Red Division sportsmanship ladies and gentlemen that's right we have we have the white division championship for girls basketball under the tutelage of Tim Weber we have Katherine buaty we have kloe Chan Emma Clemens Cassidy jez Waldo Isabelle malano Aliyah Manley Mony Maharaj trishan nir Janiah Singleton jzn Victor Amber white and Tom V Yaki that's right and moving on down we have moving on down we have all GMC girls basketball once again Katherine busky R in the back and then we have the allwhite division girls basketball and we have traire everybody okay very good moving forward yet again we have girls GMC all all conference for girls swimming we have Angela zal and Anish OHA and for boys GMC All Conference boys swimming we have son stanic all red division girls swimming we have Angela zal Anisha OHA Shahara boa sanskriti nyak everybody all right very good and for the boys the all red division we have boys swimming we have once again Sean stanic Jaden Zang Arnav L and Anthony Chu moving in again we have the all white division boys bowling under Mr John Kenova we have Charlie Heyman Cruz and the all white division for girls bowling once again under Mr Kenova we have shyona all GMC all red division girls winner track under Mr Joe Rito we have Grace best the all GMC Red Division boys winner track we have hien bord all red division Boys winner track we have Kik aneru we have Obby rum T prata we have the Red Division sportsmanship award boys winter track hold your applause we have Neil bajwa hi bord ano Poncho abiam tagata Neil boel V Singh sa no Roy Ador Scot kavari Kik anaju we got Shai nand ad did travet and Andrew Mato and we've got the Red Division sportsmanship girls winner track we got Brianna Fenderson Jayla AE na potti peruvi kathore Au spena Serena young Tomi adamu namada anad Shrea Teel Lauren Chen shya Nahar Sophie B Grace best zil Shaw Ariana betro and iomi George for all blue division wrestling we have ad Doo malaban malabanan under Anthony Maia one of my former students all right very good and we have for spring 2024 Red Division the sportsmanship award in boys golf we have anat Gupta abak garan Akash Jane vion sad Arun lill tanou patil Joel Oran AB yashvir hinari and Akash Patel and in the all derision all GMC boys golf tanou ptil on Red Division boys volleyball under Tim Weber yet again we have soan Patel all GMC girls lacrosse we have once again Cassidy JZ Waldo we have the all red division girl softball under Carolyn Reta we got Carolyn ready I'm sorry we got faith from Maro Red Division sportsmanship award for girls softball we got faith fororo we got Vanessa Yim we got Emma Clemens Olivia rigliano Daniel boset Yana Chidori Myra rajet Anna rou Royce Bella maleno Diva pakani Sophia maleno Amish Gupta Caitlyn dear Giana moscara and Gia shandel and for allh division boys lacrosse under coach Adam scar we have Kevin saath all red division girls golf under Mike Cider we have Puja Jade all GMC girls golf Puja Jade and ishan vakil and the white division sportsmanship award for boys baseball under Tyler Jacko hold your applause we have John papani Peter dudes Michael Gonzalez Caston mu Chris chudari Arman bamora Jason Jackson Fong John Dickerson mukan Roo Dev Desai jayen km Lon moo Nolan overmy so Paretti and arouche Patel and the all-white division for boys baseball once again John papani all white division girls lacrosse once again Cassidy jaldo and Christen whitne the GMC all red division all all GMC second singles for boys tennis is AA Dewan GMC Champions all red division all GMC first doubles Boys Tennis we got Trevon vott and Brandon Chang Ora division first singles Boys Tennis we got sapan Shandra at this point that concludes the athletic pre presentation it's my distinct pleasure to hand this over to our very own assistant principal Mrs Fay wowski ladies and gentlemen Fay wowski thank you so much I'll be taking over and starting with band our directors are Mr John zazali Raymond henriksson Pamela falei for the cjmea region band we have Nicholas alcade Benjamin alter Gotham balaj Conan Brandon Chang Hong Chang Rishi Dugan py Rishi gani abashik gascar Jonathan Jang Christopher Juan sjin Kim ad karney sahil karney Sumit karney Arnav Lan Andrew Lee Luna Lea Samantha Lu sarima munagala Justin ni sidarth parakala Rihanna shirali C shavasan Mahir tatap party simron tangri Shas thali Sedar viia Taran vaka Andy Shu mang for the NJ mea all say band Brandon Chang Hong Chang Rishi gani abash Shake gurb bascaran Christopher Juan San Kim sahil karney Smit karney Andrew Lee Samantha luo samima mongala Justin ni sadar perala Rihanna sharai sad sadar vadia Taran vaka Andy Shu Mia Zong JP Stevens Wind Ensemble also represented Central Jersey at the New Jersey state band gala this April at TCNJ moving on to Orchestra directors Dr Brian ver and Mr Justin Lee the all all state Orchestra certificate goes to Howard Shu first place Monclair State University string Festival Olive Wang Andrew akimoto Vidia rajak copal Paige Wang moving on to choir under directors Matthew Lee and Regina mroy the njmea All State mixed choir advika ananthi Arun paramat sanvi chukar Sarah Deo kiage Jane Sarah Jasmine Ki nul Malu Dru merchandani Tanish matal s sanva viika shavasan cria vidula NJ mea Al say treble choir subish bascaran sha bopu Aura Chad Marcy dangerville Riva Dave abish carik AAR meub car moving on to FCCLA advisers Nicole de Matia lyanna olenek Stacy doranski for our first place golden scholarship certificate for cake decorating Emma daa also first place gold winners L shanas via Sara Manu Jam Jenna trotman Amisha G charisa hea shrinivas Zara Merchant Dia carot Amira Vini subaman malv sha Ram chadri Anika sandip Ashna agal mayak Patel yashvi Patel CIA Patel rousi REO Sarah bandari shria umeni Estelle Tang om singal Shar gar ronak sarangan anali CA K Patel Leia pasui this year's New Jersey FCCLA state officers malav sha heas shinas mihak Patel shridar gar under advisor at Wendy herwitz National History Day State qualifiers and Regional winners shanjana panar phak sair nitia Bola panaga kosaraju Isabella Rios Joshua Litman Adida shinoy carala Amba Kumar Arya matre Tanish CTI ad sides kandasami anana kandaswami pragna Kura SRI johani Cena Mana sayal Abra abiram tala prata anth bua Sai voruganti Samara munagala shardul Krishna Kumar Dees Chinta Michael leang sat Vic Paul sarak Kumar rayan Bari Rubes praj juven Mala Harish angala Ryan peral s Dave Freda Aras sail Chara our national qualifiers and state winners sanvi Dave Frida ARA Vil charisa SE Mana sayal under adviser Mr Benny paradon Odyssey of the mine Regional first place for problem three vivon Sant omag basani Varun a an batia samit gadar Akash Jane Duba bachari for problem four Regional first place and recently awarded third place at World Finals soang SEI Enos Divia Marvin Patel vasista vumi shria pururu AR Gard State finalists for invitation to the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals air modok Ash gar Kushi habar shashan de de vaju shria Gupta Ved Pont D Patel soang SEI Enos Divia Marvin Patel Basista vumi shria pururu arar Prav th MAV kuruba ad dasari akam razik vikrant yadav vibat Pali abav ptia yes naavi bnavi palum Shanda Kar Raga DTI zarel milin tingting he Taven Singh our final three certificates tonight our National Merit Scholarship goes to Arnav sadish Governor School finalist School of Engineering and Technology Daniel Park finally our Governor's School award Hong Chang that concludes our acknowledgements this evening congratulations to all our students recognized have a great night great job great job all right ladies and gentlemen this concludes our student recognition night program thank you again let's give one more round of applause for our students who receive recognition tonight and at this time I would like to turn the meeting back over to our Board of Education president Mr bul Patel thank you thank you everyone there are a few more recognitions which uh could not be here uh today um as many of you may know probably Edison students broke the Guinness world record for the longest line of batteries from Woodbrook Elementary School Dr Kik Arjun panda shvan da Neil Patel AK bodu kirana Arya from woodro Wilson sadna Dar ran Sapa sanii kapi rash bodu harri Chala gundla from John Adam Middle School anakala Anish baju Mano Mana gagan Shri bachu and from JP Stevens yes bid PTI kha Manar jashita Sapa and shiam orar congratulations to all those as well congratulations we'll take a 5 minute break here for everyone to settle down and then we'll start our regular board meeting e e e e e at this point we'll start with our regular board meeting uh first we will have our student council representatives from Edison High School Mrs charvey padman abini good evening board member m in public as we draw near the end of the school year I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for the incredible opportunity the board has provided me with as a student representative serving as a student council president and attending these meetings has been an enriching experience that I will cherish forever as the school year wraps up our school is buzzing with a mix of excitement and Nostalgia just yesterday we celebrated with our senior barbecue today we had our senior send off and a clap out at the elementary schools it it was incredibly nostalgic to walk those Halls again and feel the enthusiastic support of the younger student a reminder of how far we've come on Fridays our graduation at 1: p.m. the student council and I are thrilled to see our peers step into the next chapter of their lives being part of these meetings and contributing to discussions that shape our school's policies and programs has been a profound learning experience my board and I thank you for valuing the voices of students and for allowing us to further represent our peers this role taught us the importance of leadership collaboration and advocacy I'm confident that these lessons will serve us well in the future and we're excited to see the new student council board will continue to build on our work thank you thank you so much uh before you leave uh we would like to give you your certificate from collect from Dr next is uh JP steam is Mr Bill Tang yes thank you so good evening everyone my name is Bill tang and I am one of the co-presidents of the student council at johnp Stevens High School and I also want to add that being in student council and just sitting here is such an amazing opportunity the time here is really rewarding and I look very forward to this time next year since the last Board of Education meeting our school student body and staff members are working up to wrap up this school year so first our seniors were able to have a lasting high school memory by attending prom hosted by our senior class Council and they have also attended the senior award night and are preparing for their long awaited graduation this Friday next clubs and extracurricular activities have also had their n ofd Year events performances meetings and banquets including our school orchestra band choir guitar dance team spring Sports as well as a hackathon in the form of hack JPS 2 Saturdays ago as well as the school's Dei team in hosting the museum stories which is an event whereby the school recognizes and celebrates the diversity of the student here at JP and finally student council also hosted our last school event for the school year Battle of the classes with a Spirit Week leading up to the event held last Friday which is basically our student body dressing up in different outfits to show School support and they wore their class colors to show support for their class in the battle of the classes the event itself was a great success everyone was really happy it was um very energetic with the senior class taking the trophy and the junior class coming in close second and lastly our school finished up with all of their necessary Logistics including the end of the year assessments like njla Locker cleanouts MacBook collection and our St um teachers administering the last few assignments before allowing the students to relax and just go about with summer vacation overall JY Stevens High School is doing all that we can to finish the year off strong and thank you guys so much for listening thank you thank you so much both of you next is uh public comments on resolutions only public comments on resolutions only saying none motion to and public comments on resolutions motion second all in favor I I great next is motion to approve personal report motion second uh Mr Schneider okay um roll call Mr to yes Mr Lugo yes Miss Ana Patel yes Mr Vel Patel yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Schneider yes Miss White yes M Pang yes vice president Romano yes president Patel yes motion carries right uh before we move on Bill Tang your certificate please collect from Dr thank you Judy if you can help him out uh if there are any EHS you can take that away from him Dr yeah I just wanted to acknowledge um a uh assistant principal that was just approved over at uh John Marcel Miss Kathleen glitch Kowski who is currently in the audience right now congratulations you're going to make an excellent addition to the administrative team thank you congratulations right uh next is motion to approve Administration curriculum and instruction people Services reports Mo Mr Schneider Mr V Patel second um roll call Mr yes Mr Lugo yes Miss Anda Patel yes Mr visha Patel yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Schneider yes M white yes Miss Pang yes vice president Romano yes uh president Patel yes motion carries next is motion to approve Finance reports to have motion motion Mr Romano second Mr Schneider roll call Mr to Mr Lugo um that' be a yes but I do have a couple of Exceptions there will be NOS um under contracts and and awards no to number three and number nine and under D procurement number six not number three and procurement six noted yes on the rest correct yes that's correct yes Miss Ana Patel yes Mr Vel Patel yes Mr AA on C I am also a no on three eight and nine noted yes on the rest correct that is correct Mr sh Schneider uh yes on all but on C I'm a no on eight and nine yes on arrest noted Miss White yes on all except for number eight and number nine Miss Pang yes vice president Romano yes president Patel yes motion carries right thank you next is committee reports first is athletic committee Mr V Char Patel I think uh Dr R is going to read it for me thank you thank you Mr Patel yeah so um we had a uh athletic committee meeting uh that was conducted on June 3rd at 4:30 p.m. in attendance were the uh chair of that committee Mr VHA Patel uh Miss White um Mr Rivera I Believe Miss Pang by telephone on that one as well right Dr hus myself and both athletic directors at that time uh Mr sandal uh and uh Mr ristoff um with the uh committee meeting uh reports are there for your review but I'm going to kind of Hit the highlights of these pieces currently right now um the meeting began with uh spring updates and highlights of our uh spring season uh all the accolades for both high schools uh the JP Stevens in relationship to the sportsmanship award um some of the student athletes that received accolades um uh girls lacrosse uh overall uh we are extremely happy with not only this success of uh a few of those select programs but all of our student athletes and coaches for the work that they did throughout the spring to make sure um our students have a wonderful athletic experience here uh Mr sandal finished off for the second year in a row five out of 10 of the spring Sports um were uh official winners in the white division currently right now uh highlights of those were the baseball team uh tennis uh track and field uh as well as lacrosse uh concluding with uh 12 track athletes advancing to the njsia group group championships uh that were held at Franklin High School other highlights from that meeting too we had an update in relationship to Middle School sports and the scheduling of those Sports in relationship to uh the upcoming fall season specifically uh and the opportunity to take a little bit more ownership of the schedule um to ensure uh further participation uh as well as um efficiency uh in relationship to uh conducting games on times maximizing student uh participation uh we are highlighting our tennis court renovation as well too that's happening over at Edison High School uh SC uh courts are ready to be scheduled for August uh there was an update in relationship to physical examinations uh the Department of Education changed its required medical forms uh as well as the electronic maintenance of those forms um Middle School track uh the committee also talked about hosting an inter Scholastic uh track meet for Middle School uh I had the opportunity to um attend one at the end of the year and it was really really successful uh kudos to all the coaches as well as the athletic directors that put that together was a really wonderful event um and I think it's something that we can put together moving forward for a variety of those Sports um You Really Got A sense of sportsmanship team spirit uh a lot of parents came out that day too really was a wonderful day beautiful day as a matter of fact um and uh to cap it off we talked about coach coaching ways to ensure um uh coaching protocols uh are established uh in a uniformed manner not only across schools but something that would be facilitated through the athletic director's office developing rubrics developing practice plans uh to ensure that practices are structured in a manner that's consistent uh amongst all of our schools uh the next meeting is going to be planned in the upcoming months I believe and future information will be uh provided and that is the conclusion of that report Mr Patel great thank you next is Mrs White Township Leon report thank you okay here we go uh the township Bo liaison committee met on Tuesday May the 21st 2024 at the education center beginning at 11:00 a.m. and ending at 12:10 in attendance in person were mayor's Chief of Staff Bob deal Community constituent relations coordinator Pat coil superintendent Dr aldarelli assistant superintendent of operations Dr hus assistant superintendent special services Dr Tui director of security Patrick hassain public relations Heather Daniel Boe members Douglas Schneider Angela Patel and Virginia White via Zoom we had assemblyman sterley Stanley councilman John pointer AJ pel Deputy uh police chief Bob dudes Sergeant Lisa simino and Boe member Brian Rivera assemblyman Stanley shared information regarding State funding current legislative updates and initiatives he discussed many bills including anti-bullying mental health school funding and extending the service life of school buses Mr Schneider inquired about the districts that gained funding and whether they would lose that money money in the uh 2025 26 allocation the assemblyman discussed the importance of sustenance or increase Dr Tui discussed improving the mechanism to support districts for out ofd District costs Chief of Staff Bob deal provided updates he began with condolences for the loss of Andy Dina Cola and Jim Downey and for their service and dedication to the district he announced the following events May 25th the Memorial Day Parade May 27th the street assigned dedication in the council chambers May 30th the ribbon cutting at the forers market in swes park on uh June 88th Job Corp uh the job corp would be uh hosting Dr opal Lee the Nobel Peace Prize nominee uh June 21st the splash park is is the complete supposed to be completed by that date and June 26 the Oak Tree Pond signed designation for the Battle of Short Hills were now on the historic register which is really great Cricket pitches at Thomas Jefferson Martin Luther King and jmi are to be repaired and maintained all the pictures are supposed to be addressed Stelton School the town is working on improvements examples would be the roofs the Windows this is not an easy project as we all know and it's been ongoing a really long time Chief dudash and Sergeant simino updated the group on The Pedestrian activated stop signs I express thanks for the two sets of signs they were located at Boulevard of eagles in all poost and woodro Wilson in planfield Road in add an additional order will be delivered early to mid June and will be installed short afterward the plan is to place them near School locations we also asked about the John Adams traffic study and Bob discussed the intent to make it more efficient and parking seems to be improving there and the school has been very proactive which is a good thing uh Pat Coyle announced oh and also that the junior policey are now in the process of enrolling uh Pat Coyle announced that mayor Joi is having his boot camp again this year in August for sophomores and juniors so we have to keep that in mind ipat about sidewalks near schools specifically near oost Road and Route One in front of Ray ca's place okay and he was going to look into that for us okay the next liaison meeting is scheduled for July the 16th respectfully submitted Virginia White thank you for listening thank thank you next is uh Communications community relations meeting uh it was held on 11 June before our board meeting last week it was had at commun education center attendees were myself Mr Lugo Mrs anjuna Patel and Mrs White and Heather Daniel the meeting focused on key topics related to development of an end of the year Family feedback for the thought exchange 2324 school year and the importance of incorporating staff feedback into overall communication strategy the committee reviewed the draft key considerations for the survey included use of like cut scale to obtain structured feedback the meeting concluded with following decisions and actions to be taken by Miss Heather Daniel edit and finalize the feedback and provide it to the committee for review share with bargaining unit leadership to include their perspectives and create and distribute a staff survey together their input the meeting was adjourned with plans to reconvene at a future date as determined uh the survey feedback email was sent out today and uh Miss Heather Daniel just gave me an update so far in just few hours over 1,000 families have filled the feedback which is incredible so whenever that closes Dr Al Ali and your team will able to take a look at it and our communication committee will reconvene and look at the results of what parents are uh filled out right thank you so much that concludes all of our committee reports next we will move on uh before we move on to the board member comments uh you know we talked I talked about it in the initial report about need for air conditions as I stated earlier we started with a potential plan in year 2022 and something that um we can ask our architect DMR architect at that time there was some costing and Analysis done uh so what Architects can do is look over it again so I would like to give it to Dr Aly what are the plans around it yeah thank you Mr Pres yeah so the the initial phase would be to number one as you stated earlier is to make sure that we prioritize and emphasize that information as part of our longrange facilities plan um the topic has also come up come up um in relationship to our strategic plan particularly in infrastructure as well as Wellness so um you know once the board has an opportunity to look at those and digest that information they will approve that and once we do approve that it codifies that as a mission and a goal that we move forward and then it is this bodies as well as the gentleman in my right to make sure that we have have a funding mechanism uh to ensure that um the board goals uh which you know would be air conditioning if that is the case um depending upon the scope um are fully funded in a manner that is um not only in line with our budgetary needs but also uh cost prohibited to the taxpayer as well too um so that would be it yeah thank you so much uh board member comments I have a few yes Mr um good evening everybody first of all I'm really surprised Mr Mara is not here because I really wanted to to acknowledge Him so um I just wanted to let Mr Mara know that um I want to wish him well first of all and I want to state that his time attending our board meetings were not wasted uh his concerns in regards to policy 5756 did not go on deaf years um several board members including Chris Doug and visell and myself have been engaged in conversations regarding that topic for a while now uh with that said um I understand the concerns parents have with the policy so I've asked the superintendent to place policy 5756 on the agenda for our next policy meeting uh we also invited our attorneys uh to the meeting for also their guidance um to us this is about encouraging par parental Choice uh maintaining standard for Parental notification and at the same time ensuring the safety for all of our students um I'm hoping we get uh good guidance to keep our kids safe and better assist our students par parents and again our diverse uh community so I did want to uh acknowledge Mr Mara because I he put a lot of time and effort with his statements attending these board meetings so I just want to let him know that he was heard the second thing I want to talk about is the the food U we've been getting various emails in regarding the menus I'm sure like the rest of the the board members my mailbox has been getting swamped with with these concerns so I know there's three members currently that are on the food committee I'm asking barl if I could be the fourth member because I would like to be a part of this and in part of these discussions is that okay if I could be the fourth member uh I will think about it okay volunteering for it so I hope you well as of last week I told Dr aler Ali that I will be the fourth member and that's in the email to Dr Al Al right I sent you email so I'll still think about it all right well I know you're busy so if you want I'll be happy to attend no thank you for the offer to volunteer okay um the other things I want to do is I want to congratulate all the students that received Awards tonight um special thanks to all the teachers and the coaches for their and the parents for their support I do want to make a recommendation to Dr Ellie arav Kumar if that kid ever wants a job i' say you pay attention to him because his name was listed multiple times so keep that name in mind um I also want to wish wish all the graduates success in the future in their Endeavors I'm looking forward for the graduation on Friday um and finally I want to thank all of our staff uh at Edon public schools for their hard work I specifically want to thank uh a special thanks to the staff at Washington School um I was able to attend my my child's fifth grade graduation today I actually went to work went to the graduation went to work and then came here so life of the board member but I I I really wanted to thank them is the my child had a wonderful experience at Washington School uh he received a great uh education he was supported well but um most part he was loved so thank you and thank you to Washington school thank you next for board member comments can I go Mr vber so I think I want to piggy back on uh Brian's common and food committee so I want to give an opportunity to Dr Al and you know let let us know your plans on how you going to handle those emails and if if just a quick comment board president yes so uh we received several emails over the course of the last couple of weeks um in relationship to uh menu item choices um and some passionate ones some really wellth thought out pieces so um it's a really hectic time of year currently right now at the end of the year I we're actually um you know kind of concluding uh lunch selection and things along those lines but I think having a meeting uh over the summer to not only get input um from the parents that expressed uh an interest in this but uh uh one of the other suggestions we would have is to include students right they're the ones that are eating the food they get on the lines um we can bring our food vendor in to do um a cost analysis to see if we've uh offered these items in the past how well they've sold um and what other men menu options we can have maybe a taste testing or something along those lines um but I think pushing the meeting um until maybe the last week in July and August will give us time to really have a more cohesive approach and make an informed decision coming September time so look forward to that thank you doc thank thank you um I also want to I also want to share a wonderful news about the cricket for anybody who's following right there's a T20 World Cup Cricket tournament happening right in our backyard in in New York where 20 different countries are participating and what's exciting about it is this USA cricket team is playing its first T20 World Cup ever this time um even more exciting they created a history by beating the team that been that has been playing World Cup for many many many years and it was an easy match the match ended with Tide it means the both teams had exactly same number of runs at the end of the 20 hours and USA beat that team in a tiebreaker over so USA cricket team is creating history I mean it shows that with dedication and hard work success is to follow even with the new teams and just like our JP Stevens team we had a brand new JP Stevens team who played a cricket tournament in M sex County and and they won the tournament so so let's celebrate the you know success of these uh students uh I want to thank you athletic directors our Administration and students for their for their passion and dedication and with with their passion and dedication maybe we can have our next cricket star right in our backyard in our Addison town so thank you I agree so thank you so much about that comment and as we saw United States team is now won international cricket match so hopefully they win couple of more in the round so correct I think I forgot to mention they moved on to the next stage of the tournament which is called Super Eight so out of 28 teams moveed moved ahead and United States is one of those eight teams in a very first tournament that they are Ever playing so they're creating a history thank you thank you more board member comments board president yes Mr SN I ju Just wanted to comment on a couple things first very happy to hear we're kind of re-energizing the 2022 plan for the air conditioning um this week is brutal um I don't think the last couple of weeks of school and the first few are are easy for our students um relating that directly to learning it's not just the the Comfort but it's actually the the results in the classroom I think by getting proper climate control we've talked about this for years it is in our long range facilities plan which makes me very happy and I'm happy this board is supportive of that um the other thing I wanted to bring up is that woodro Wilson 50th anniversary celebration we uh somebody brought up arav Kumar I think his name is the gentleman that was sitting over here from woodro um that that uh young man was actually the MC if I remember correctly right he was the one on stage mcing the whole thing I think it was him right yes it was him yeah and um it was so cool I mean it the the best part of the entire um the the entire night for me was that they actually catered it so I thought we would go there and they they advertised there's going to be dinner served but it was it was the students that actually cooked the food and the students served the food so when you went up to the to the food line they're actually actively serving you and everything and it was just so cool to have a student run event honoring decades and Decades of U woodro Wilson Middle School it was also cool that all of the um uh surviving administrators including the very first principal from woodro Wilson was there and it was just so amazing it was a great night and um you heard it audibly tonight how proud um the students are the current students are of woodor Wilson Middle School they were yelling and screaming louder than everybody else and it was just it's that translated when we went to that 50th anniversary celebration I just want to say thank you to miss blevens and everyone that was involved um and otherwise just really looking forward to the graduation at Jersey miks it's going to be great I hope to see everybody there and it's going to be a blast and the pump and Circumstance is always a great way to end the end the year so thank you thank you Mr Schneider uh any more board member comments saying none um we'll Now open up to public comments anyone for public comments general public comments Mrs convey Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle I just have one question you have a big undertaking starting in September regarding preschool uh is there any kind of update on uh the latest that's all okay uh Dr DOI you want to provide an update that would be greatly I don't want yesterday yeah great and just a piggyback on on Dr two he's there things are moving right along um you know kudos to him and his team in relationship to this you know he has two major undertakings this year uh that he has done an absolutely wonderful job and has led the process in that couldn't be more ha uh more pleased with the progress currently right now and we are on schedule to um begin the process of universal prek in uh September 24 thank you next public comments yes ma'am okay Matt you can go ahead you can go after mat Matt you can go ahead okay hi Matt revnak um couple things first of all Dr Ali thank you on behalf of the staff students on Friday for calling it a single session day today by 10:00 this morning those buildings were heating up so we appreciate that um second thing just a couple acknowledgements um first of all again the student recognition always a great night the great things our kids do but also for the graduating seniors as always I'm sure at Edison High I know at JP because I'm there again the great colleges that these kids go to you know representing our district as they move on in their life as well look looking forward as always a graduation uh third thing is thank you again for attending v v Across America last night we had our ETA sponsored um re Across America our contest winners and it's great to see and it was a great turnout by the parents and students from really you know prek up through um the middle schools so it was a nice night and thank you I believe at least so far long as I'm going I think you're the only superintendent that has attended so it's much appreciated fourth thing is you know again as was mentioned by some of the board members you know great end of the school year thank you to all the staff the students and all um I just want to acknowledge though the special group again we had our ETA retirement dinner a couple weeks ago and you know best wishes to all the retirees as I mentioned I was the MC 1,400 plus years of service to the Edison school district is retiring so we wish them all the best as they move into the next chapter of their life as well and other than that that for those observing June uh juneth tomorrow enjoy the the day the holiday understand what it's about and unfortunately we have school but everybody else has off um but uh you know hopefully everybody that celebrates it does you know understand what the holiday is about other than that we won't see you again so have a great summer everyone thank you so much uh speaking of the retirees congratulations to all the retirees I had a chance to attend the event and congratulations Jeff you will be in a better place now with no stress or anything but thank you all for your service over the years next for public comments yes ma'am uh we don't know you so please say your name and uh good evening Susan Cox for tivet Lane Edison sorry about um I'm here to speak about damage that was done to my car as well as many other vehicles from work that was being done on our building on November 22nd 2023 I brought to the attention of my building administrator that there was residue on my vehicle Mr cabus was made aware of the situation I was told along with other members of my building to have my car washed and the residue would come off um and that we would be reimbursed for the car wash that never happened I did get my car washed I did not get reversed yet um I also told my B business um building administrator at that time that that did not resolve the situation Mr cabus along with representes from high grade came to inspect the vehicles at our building to see the damage Arrangements were made to have the car detailed at precisions Auto um my car was the first one done it was done on December 19th after um it was detailed I picked the car up I drove around the block and went right back I said to Ken the owner the residue is not off the car I was then told that that was road debris all of us that had the detailing done have been told the same thing I ask how does road debris get on my windshield my driver's window my passenger window my mirrors my back window this is not road debris on May 13th I I wrote directly to Robert pone Jr the president of highgrade um and that's the company that was working on our building he asked for a few days to figure out the best way to remedy the situation on May 30th I wrote him again again told him it was more than 2 weeks and asked for an update um Mr pone wrote back and I'm going to quote what he wrote as stated before we sympathize with the district and never intended to drag this out this long we have done extensive research and concluded that the spray of polyurethane foam and silicone coating does not damage pit or crack glass please see the attached information provided by the detailer and the roofing manufacturer I'd be happy to to um present that to you as well but basically what it says is that they've been in business for 40 years and Clay barring should remove the residue Precision Auto uses one type of clay bar there are more than one type and one specific type is needed for glass which I don't believe was used on our vehicles um this to me is a safety hazard I invite any of you to come sit in my car and look out the window and see what I am looking at every day driving in the Sun or at night when headlights are coming this is a safety hazard um at this point I'm asking for the board's help um highgrade has offered us $300 to replace our windshield as you all know $300 will not replace the windshield and as I said it's not just the windshield I would personally be happy with just my windshield being replaced because I need to see where I'm driving um at this point like I said I'm asking for your help to remedy the situation I don't feel like I should be putting out money to repair my vehicle when this contractor was hired by the board thank you for listening thank you next for public comments Jeff good evening Jeff B ETA president I just want to thank this board and all the boards of the past since I started in Edison as a student teacher in 1983 and I student taught at John Adams Middle School and was offered a position in September of 84 where I spent 28 years as a science teacher that uh taught over 3,000 students truly was the hardest job I've ever undertook um even though barl says the stress here is not the same stress as you're teaching students every day uh I had the honor of teaching at John Adams we had a great community did a lot of great things there in 2012 I was honored by being elected to the ETA president where I've spent the last 12 years helping not children but adults that too is very rewarding gave me an opportunity to grow grow politically grow in many areas I never expected expected to grow into and I've worked with many great board members over those times also negotiating contracts was one of my favorite things to do having settled a total of 20 contracts since the mid1 1990s so I just want to thank this group of board members and wish you well in the future uh my role now will just be advisory for Mr herck who will be taking over August 1st so if there's any issues in July Dr aldarelli I'm still on the clock go all right thank you Mr yes Mr R uh hey Matt as long as Jessica be around you want to drive a bus thank you I agree with Mr Romano he always Champions seeking more drivers and that's I really appreciate his efforts in that direction and thank you Jeff and we really encourage you to keep coming to the board meetings please we don't want to miss you that at least right uh next for public comments Harish oh yeah hi Harish ttin 45 mck Street so requesting few updates number one any progress on the stop finder the latest Bus tracking app I mean it was supposed to be released 1 month before last year November election s but I know afterwards more parents volunteered because they wanted a bigger sample size so any update would be appreciated second uh on similar note um regarding updates any update about the capital projects uh that are going to happen over the summer uh I know JPS is going on but besides that uh there were a couple of schools uh in the phase one which are yet to be attended in one of those schools recently there was a snake that was noticed by grade four children which came out from below the trailer from the cracks and the cement I I could have exaggerated and created a huge drama on the social media like some people do for everything but that's not my goal uh we all know at some point trailers have to be retired and proper expansion has to be done so would appreciate uh any updates on those um regarding the food yes I'm very pleased to hear that new options will be considered the food options as we discussed a few years back they should be reflective of the demographics recently someone from social media just for pulling the leg they said we should have Cuisines from all over the world I told them it doesn't make sense and some of the reasons I gave was same as what Dr alderi said certain minimum threshold has to be there quality standards have to be there past experience and all that have to be met so talking about food in one of the elementary schools last month a child fell sick because she consumed expired milk I mean I don't want to get into the politics um of voting for and against mesos and all that nonsense uh that's not my goal I will just repeat what I have been repeating for last few months any new project or food option or anything we introduce that's good but it has to be maintained and for maintaining we need to have certain policies and procedures and one of the ideas that was suggested was principles of respective schools delegate somebody to check the quality at random of course 100% checking is not possible we all do understand that so it would be nice if that could be seriously considered in the next meeting also good to hear that um the policies regarding parental conser consent and all that are being uh discussed seriously since we are talking about policies probably it's a good time to revisit the nepotism policies which I talked about last year I know we had a minor discussion about that that significant other cannot be defined properly it is a gray area uh I believe uh domestic partner can be considered instead of significant other so that is one area to look at and a big thank you to the entire board and administration for seriously considering the installation of AC units and all I know we talked about that earlier cost factors and other but hopefully something will work out and the community relations uh meeting uh a lot of things were discussed about The Vaping issues and all so once again thank you for taking that up seriously thank you thank you uh Mr to do you want to answer some infrastructure questions sir I understand he has a a Litany of questions there from construction so on and so forth uh if you could give your contact information to Dr hus and we'll give you a call and we'll have conversation about those things thanks in the beginning of the meeting there was a presentation about facilities update so we can talk offline about that as well but I think all the projects are pretty much moving forward and and the goal of this board is to move forward with all the phase one projects and EHS is one of the phase two that's also in progress with the design and really move forward and nothing should stop and on top of it the board started discussing AC today so um the goal should be just move forward with everything right thank you uh anyone else for public comments saying oh Ma'am yeah there you go uh please state your name and address U my name is Geral maglio I'm from the Dolores turo foundation and our mission is to protect children from abuse neglect and exploitation um I could probably save my comments for next week but I must tell you I am very impressed with your school district with the quality of of educ ation that you provide with the commitment and the high standards um I quickly when I saw so many students with so many com commendations and awards I quickly looked up on uh online and I see that you're in high school on 72% of your students uh exceed meet or exceed the standards when the state average is 50 and I think it's 56% of your student uh that's in English and 56% of your students meet or exceed the math standards and the average in the state of New Jersey is 25 and I think it reduced now to 20 because of some of the um uh covid Etc whatever the issues are so um I I do want to take let you know that I'm glad I showed up today even though I will probably be here for the next meeting on the um I do concur with I guess Tony Mara may have been the one that's been bringing up some of these issues um and our our um we encourage you to repeal that policy I came prepared with the information why the legal the um uh medical the um social and just the moral reasons why this policy should be repealed it's a five-page summary I'm happy to leave it with you today or I can bring it next time um if I have a few minutes and you want to hear some comments I'm happy to do that as well um but uh I I realize you are going to have a session just for that so you let me know I would love to have that your document let the speaker finish sure I I was just asking if that's what you'd like I I'm more than happy to leave the documents and uh if you want some com let the speaker finish she has the floor right now yeah if you want some comments today I'll make some if you prefer I could leave my comments for next week so I asked the president do you feel I should take a few minutes to make some comments or do you feel you prefer to keep that discussion for next time so ma'am you have a total of six minutes you can go until the end of this time if you like to so surely then um for today I there's so much to talk about uh today I'm going to focus on the legal and um the law and policy 576 56 um first of I'm sure you know it's not mandatory but parents do have the fundamental right under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution to direct the upbringing Education and Care of their minor children federal courts are striking down these illegal and unconstitutional policies that infringe on parental rights and the courts have ruled that it's one of the oldest most fundamental Liberty interests that Americans enjoy uh one of the comments of a court case in California was further the notion that government power should supersede parental Authority in all cases because some parents abuse and neglect children is repugnant to the American tradition uh I want to point out two more things about the uh transgender experiment is being recognized nationally and internationally as the biggest child abuse Scandal of our lifetime 25 States passed laws restricting these procedures on minors Congress introduced two bills um protecting children from experimentation act and end taxpayer funding of gender experimentation act that would prohibit transgender procedures on miners Nationwide and prohibit taxpayer funding of these procedures regardless of the age uh another just happened this week 12 the courts that cover 12 states have struck down the Department of Education title 19 um law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools should now include sexual orientation in gender that was struck down those laws are very similar to 5756 regarding uh males and female sports and also harassment the pronoun use Etc considered harassment and the judge in this case ruled that um a rule that compels speech to engage in a Viewpoint dis in Viewpoint discrimination is impermissible these policies violate freedom of speech freedom of EX exercise of religion and also are arbitrary and capricious um I think that covers most of the law that uh that I wanted to speak about today there's one other thing I'd like to mention today that just happened this week in terms of I have a whole several pages on um the research but I would like to point out in the last few seconds here that just this week a coalition of healthc Care Professionals led by the American College of Pediatricians launched a doctors protecting children declaration and that's sounding the alarm on the harmful uh transgender dysphoria protocols and calling the medical organizations the AMA Psychological Association endocrine society and all of these associations um to stop the promotion of social affirmation puberty blockers sex hormones and surgeries for children and also to Define sex as male and female um according to reproduction so um basically there's a lot of things that are coming that are coming down the uh Pike I I can these procedures are mutilating children are sterilizing children and as I mentioned before it's being recognized your time is up okay I thank you so you can leave that with uh Miss Cox and she will be happy to hand over to all the board members right anyone else for public comments saying none motion to un public comments motion Mr Romano second Mr Vishal Patel all in favor I I uh this is end of public comments now we will the board will move over to Donelson hearing we'll let our lawyer Mr kri explain the board process before we get started thank you board president Patel um so I'm just going to go over the Donaldson hearing process um so that everyone has an understanding of it before we begin um essentially a Donaldson hearing occurs after a staff member has not received the recommendation of the superintendent for Renewal the staff member then has an opportunity to request a statement of reasons and then following receiving that statement of reasons has an opportunity to request what's called a Donaldson hearing basically a Donaldson hearing is their opportunity to appear before the board and offer their reasons as to why they believe that they should be renewed notwithstanding the superintendent's recommendation uh it's an informal hearing uh it's limited to a reasonable time they can present Witnesses but the presenter and the Witnesses are not subject to cross examination no one testifies under oath um if there's any questions I'm happy to answer them otherwise that's the general process for a Donaldson hearing and we'll be ready to proceed thank you Mr kig so we can has to the one other thing I would say is um this is occurring in public at the request of the staff member often times this does occur in the executive session okay right so Jeff you want to go ahead going to introduce so just want to make sure Jeff sorry so Mr kig how many times who gets just let us know when they go for the hearing okay we've allotted a a reasonable time frame I think that we'll be fine okay perfect right thank you go ahead thank you Dr Alder Ali for having this meeting in a timely manner um I'd like to introduce to you Miss Sydney Nigro she is an English teacher at Thomas Jefferson Middle School she has been there just over a year and she would like to comment tonight about her non-renewal and I bring up Cindy these are for the board where would you like them Mr Patel uh Judy if you can help with that please don't know might be timely for part of the discussion okay oh Mr do will come in thank you they're just packets of the evidence that I use in my statement thank you Mrs nro you can your acknowledge you can start I have wanted to be an English teacher since I was in the seventh grade I'd always love to write but that year I saw my teacher breathe life into the stories we read in class every day she called thunder and lightning outside our classroom window when Agatha Christie's last little soldier fell she looked Us in the eyes and listened when one of us had something to say she treated us like people instead of children and I wanted to be like that my path became clear I would teach students to be authentic creators critical thinkers and empathetic people English was just the way to get them there as I grew up alongside the 2st century and became familiar with the messiness of living in the current climate I realized that I had my cut out for me I only wanted it more every Mentor every observation every class every practicum every substitute and student teaching placement confirmed that I was in the right place I continue to hold myself to impossibly high standards and constantly try to find new ways to grow as a teacher and a person because I believe that every student deserves to have the best teacher I also believe that every teacher deserves a fair chance to become the best version of themselves for this reason I stand before the public and the Board of Education to implore you consider the possibility that I am an effective educator in your district and should continue to serve as such I was first introduced to the schools in Edison through my student teaching experience at JP Stevens High School I spent fall 2022 teaching AP Literature AP seminar and creative writing under the mentorship of Danielle derso where I developed personal connections with faculty Administration and students a few weeks before my time at JP Stevens ended I was observed teaching a lesson by both English supervisors as a potential long-term substitute Mrs Dunn contacted me shortly thereafter regarding an open permanent position that at the time was being filled at the personal expense of five selfless teachers each taking on an extra class my interview and hiring process was FastTrack to fill the vacancy barely 3 weeks passed between my demo lesson for Mrs emden and when I shook Dr Alder Elli's hand and signed my contract working at Thomas Jefferson Middle School I began working at TJMS as a sixth and seventh grade English teacher on January 2nd 2023 I was overwhelmed anxious excited hopeful all of the things that a new teacher should be I shadowed for two days before taking sole responsibility for my classes that first year of teaching challenged everything I knew about adolescence I'm not sure if anyone else knows this but sixth graders occupy a vastly different developmental stage than High School seniors I will not stand here and say that the transition was smooth that I never struggled to simplify a concept or regulate every emotional Outburst from a student that would not be the truth and the truth is that I struggled a lot in those first few months many of my lessons were overly complex or lacked structure but with time time and support from other teachers I began to find a balance that suited my personal teaching style while accommodating my students individual learning needs still things were far from perfect my classes struggled to keep up with a level of academic rigor that they were previously unaccustomed to I struggled to form meaningful relationships with students who were convinced that I their third English teacher that year was going to abandon them but we both got better at confronting our own discomfort and Tak taking risks such as teaching an additional class for the last 5 weeks of the school year only months after starting at TJMS I participated in the teachers versus students volleyball tournament operated a table at the annual book Joy event and chaperoned the sixth grade field trip all of which I have repeated in doing this past school year while also taking on new challenges after 6 months of being a teacher and two formal observations I earned a 3.0 on my first summative evaluation in April of 2023 this year I maintained my precedent of receiving positive observations all three observing administrators deemed my teaching to be effective and received a score of 3.1 on my second Summit of evaluation all three observing administrators attested that my classroom environment reflected a sense of mutual respect among both the teacher and students as well among the students themselves and that my instructional style provided an opportunity for the students to practice 21st century skills such as communication critical thinking and emotional intelligence additionally 89% of my students met the targeted growth objective 19% above the district's goal via the standardized link test 100% of my students were either approaching meeting or exceeding standards 98% of my students passed English class every marking period 100% of my students with IEPs showed personal growth in one or more areas and that's just data the 2023 24 school year was also my first full year as a teacher from setting up the classroom in August to taking everything down in June I was the first English teacher that my students would have and I was fortunate to teach them for the entire school year I built the learning community in my classes that I had always dreamed of and I'm proud of the work that I've done for my students and this District although I know there is still plenty of room for growth I am reflective and introspective and demonstrate a maturity far beyond most teachers at this stage in their career according to Lisa Caverly a veteran teacher with whom I share a split class my goal this year was to go beyond being a single teacher to join with other passionate empathetic and effective Educators to form a support system for each other and our students these were not easy accomplishments many students began the school year performing well below sixth grade level and the majority were ambivalent if not outright opposed to the the very concept of reading and writing how can you teach someone who has no desire to learn so I did what any Effective Teacher would do and called in reinforcements thankfully Thomas Jefferson Middle School has a surplus of talented teachers after my required mentorship with the literacy coach at TJMS ended I continued to meet with Jamie saki on a consistent basis to c-plan lessons and create scaffolds for struggling students When Miss saki reached out to members of the English and special education departments on November 22nd about forming a professional literacy Community I joined immediately this group of eight dedicated teachers met nine times throughout the remainder of the school year where we would discuss the specific learning needs of our TJMS students and capture a variety of perspectives across grade levels these professional meetings resulted in the shared creation of lesson plans and materials classroom management techniques and personal Wellness strategies when I struggled to engage students in my inclusion class Miss Zaki and I co-planned and co-taught Five Lessons in March establishing successful reading and writing routines that address students academic and emotional needs at all levels in tandem with their academic needs students personal well-being is at the Forefront of every lesson every unit every decision that I make the first course that every education major takes at TCNJ is dedicated to fostering equity for students that are marginalized by Society I was taught that a student will only be willing to learn when they trust the person teaching them and how can you trust someone that you barely know I wanted my students to have the opportunity to know me outside of curriculums and content so I volunteered to make myself known in various ways throughout the year I shared my love of volleyball in the teachers versus students tournament in March and on the field trip to iron Peak Sports Complex in May where I spent over an hour playing with a rotating group of sixth graders both my students and not I shared my love of language by continuing to manage a table at the annual book jooy event held on May 9th and by co-founding the first Debate Club at TJMS with Miss saki which culminated in a debate night held on May 29th in front of parents friends and Mrs Emon I shared my love of music by volunteering to chaperon the cafe night event on April 18th where students performed songs and poetry and by volunteering to chaperone the chorus students at the spring music concert on May 15th looking to the Future i' had also planned to join Kelly Ryan as assistant coach of the girls volleyball team next school year and had discussed the idea of founding a garden club with Mrs emen at my cycle 3 observation meeting on April 25th I received an email from Mrs emden informing me that I was to meet with her the following morning at 8:50 with our ETA building representative Mr burner present there the following morning at the appointed time Mrs mden advised me that the district had decided not to renew my contract for the 20242 school year I nodded too shocked to say anything she then left an envelope on the conference room table and informed me that Mr burner would answer any questions I might have before leaving the room I could not begin to list all of the questions that swirled around in my mind at that moment all I could pin down was a giant question mark beating rapidly in my chest I turned to Mr burner for any kind of answer that could explain being non-renewed after unanimously positive observations a 3.1 Summit of evaluation score and 89% of my students meeting or exceeding the targeted student growth objective unfortunately Mr burner had no such explanation to offer his wide eyes and furrowed brow mirrored my feelings of shock and confusion there had been no official reprimands or Warnings alerting me to the possibility that I was not completing my professional duties to the quality standard of this District's teachers if there had been I would not only have remembered but already acted and corrected the issue I demand Excellence of myself for my students I constantly evaluate my teaching and adapt to challenges and most importantly I ask for support when I notice that I'm struggling to achieve my full potential as an educator I racked my brain for a moment before collecting myself and walked back to my classroom to teach my first class of the day at 9:15 less than 30 minutes after being told that this school would no longer be my school but I'm a teacher and that was not going to change I spent the following weeks caught between the Mad Dash to the last day of school and the need to resolve the question mark that continued to weigh me down after multiple unsuccessful attempts by Jeff Bowen to ascertain the reasons behind my non-renewal from human resources and Dr aldarelli I decided to contact Mrs emden in hopes of receiving an explanation from her she responded to my request that Mrs Dunn already provided feedback at my summi of meeting after reviewing the feedback on my Summit of evaluation and finding nothing that seemed to justify the decision to not renew my contract I contacted my supervisor through email requesting that we meet to clarify my Confusion by the time Mrs Dunn was able to meet with me over a month after my initial request I had received the official reasoning signed by Dr aldarelli the reasons that were listed left me no less shocked or confused the first policy that I was accused of violating is District policy 3281 citing inappropriate staff conduct because I use Brain Breaks to break up long lessons into manageable chunks and I had one student with a history of documented behavioral struggles the sixth grade English period lasts for 87 minutes that is as long as the popular Pixar movie turning red students cannot be expected to stay fully engaged and focused on academic assignments for 87 minutes without breaking them up with time to let their brains rest rest in between each task neurological and developmental research has shown that brain breaks boost mood or motivation as well as restore the brain's Peak Performance so that students can remain attentive and receptive to new information throughout the lesson without these breaks to stand stretch and socialize students end up walking around the room and talking to their friends during direct instruction or playing games on their Chromebooks and falling asleep at their desks less structured Brain Breaks also create opportunities for classmates to get to know each other and form meaningful relationships I acknowledge that there are instances where these breaks last a few minutes longer than they should however these instances have become less frequent as I grow in my professional role and have not inhibited my students ability to learn similarly the reasons for my non-renewal claim that I had no knowledge of a student's inappropriate behaviors in my inclusion class that resulted in two meetings with Administration in November and December of 2023 however I was aware of the student struggles as early as October when I received an email from his mother she informed me that her child was being bullied by other students in the school and that Dr Falco was aware of and had been addressing the situation the students mother and I later spoke in person during the parent teacher conferences on November 16th after the matter escalated to involve verbal exchanges with another student in our class I immediately seated the two on opposite ends of the room and tried every day to keep them from interacting Mrs emden also held a meeting with all of this student's teachers on November 28th to discuss the matter while I was unable to attend due to being sick that day I received a summary of the meeting's events the following day where the other teachers reported that they were told to be vigilant and that not all instances of being bullied actually occurred I continued to remain Vigilant when the student was in my class however I was informed on December 4th that he was deemed capable of accelerated English and effective the next day this student was no longer in my class I was never formally reprimanded for the inappropriate behaviors that had occurred in this class nor was this class ever observed by any administrator on a formal or informal basis the second policy that I was accused of violating is District policy 3270 citing insufficient completion of my professional responsibilities because I did not review procedures and expect in enough detail with my accelerated students who had prior knowledge of these Norms the official reasoning cited in my cycle one and three observations of the same accelerated class said that I needed to model or provide an explicit instructional strategy for students to achieve the learning goal effectively following my cycle one postobservation meeting with Mrs Dunn on October 30th I began using timers with more tasks than just the doe now to ensure that my lessons kept an efficient pace I prompted students to deepen their Thinking by permanently displaying the unit essential question and I assigned students group roles with specific responsibilities to ensure equal contributions during collaboration all of these actions are explicitly noted in my cycle 3 observation report at my postobservation meeting with Mrs emden on March 20th I expressed to her that all students were already aware of the lesson objectives and expectations as there had been a book club meeting prior to the one that she observed students had received specific typed feedback on their individual performance in addition to verbal feedback as I circulated the room while they worked however I also agreed that I should be more explicit with my instruction at the onset of class to ensure that existing objectives are reviewed thoroughly before the students begin independent work regardless of their prior knowledge ultimately I still earned effective scores on both of the observations referenced I also received 11 highly effective ratings and only two partially effective ratings across all three of my observation scores this year the third violation is found in the teacher job description citing insufficient completion of major duties and responsibilities because I chose not to participate in a small selection of voluntary professional development opportunities that were offered to a multitude of teachers the first opportunity that is mentioned refers to an email my supervisor sent on February 21st saying that she would like the opportunity to plan and co- teach a lesson with me I interpreted this opportunity to be optional but recognized the importance of of such professional collaborations so I asked Jamie saki who my students already knew and trusted for inprocess literacy coaching I felt that my teaching and my students particularly those that struggled the most with reading and writing would benefit by receiving support from someone within the school Community who is well acquainted with the specific needs of the student population at TJMS the second and third professional opportunities cited refer to voluntary open invitations from staff development and Mrs emden that were given to all first year and untenured teachers any such professional meetings would have had to be completed outside of contract hours and as a firste teacher that was already attending regular professional Learning Community meetings managing The Debate Club and volunteering at co-curricular events I did not want to spread myself too thin there had been four English teachers in my classroom in less than a decade and I was determined to maintain a healthy balance so that I could do my job to the best of my ability for years to come I had only received positive observations and was never informed that there were concerns about my performance as a teacher I exceeded the required number of professional development hours both this year and last I completed a professional development Institute course through staff development in the spring of 2023 I took part in the voluntary non-tenured check-in meetings hosted by Mrs emden when possible and made up the meetings activities when not such as on January 29th I sought support and resources from Lisa Caverly when I had students who struggled with foundational literacy I visited Taylor bro's class on April 19th one week after my supervisor suggested that I observe other teachers at my summi of meeting and applied her group collaboration strategies to a peerreview assignment in my class I may have chosen not to engage in every professional development opportunity but I did Avail myself of professional development and support from experienced teachers and leaders in my building I believe that I've done all I can to show you that after 16 months I am an Effective Teacher who consistently evaluates my performance and addresses gaps in my practice I believe that my classification in the official reasoning as an average teacher directly opposes all of the evidence and testimony that has been presented this evening I believe that I was not given explicit notice that I had not demonstrated acceptable growth nor enough time to show that I had I believe that all of my classes would have been observed if there were serious concerns about the quality of my teaching I also believe that it is irresponsible to not renew an effective teachers's contract when there are currently multiple open positions in this District that are identical to hers students deserve to have teachers that are a reliable presence in the classroom and teachers deserve to do their jobs without having to take on additional classes when positions go unfilled that is why I've chosen to be here today for them all I ask is that each of you elected members of the board choose what you believe is best for them too thank you for your time thank you no okay so Jeff you want to say something there was one additional speaker that just wanted to say few words but I know we did use the 20 minutes you can go ahead thank you good evening Dr Al relli board members my name is Janine hinterstein 450 Division Street I'm a 24 year veteran teacher at Thomas Jefferson Middle School I teach Spanish I'm here tonight because I want to do my part in us not letting a good teacher go I wanted to share my experience in Miss nigro's classroom um truth be told um she was not there she was absent I was covering her class which makes this even more impressive and speaks volumes of the classroom culture that she creates so I was covering uh miss nigro's it was her second or third period class walked into the classroom the kids were so welcoming to me it was like I was going into someone's home they were very helpful I took attendance and then I was about to start giving them the directions for the lesson plans that Miss Nigro had left but they had already started working and they told me they were good so I looked at the plans Miss Nigro left and I proceeded to walk around the room and check the Google classroom and check what was on their computers because I didn't want to be hustled by a bunch of 11-year-olds anyway they stayed on task they worked together collaboratively at one point during class I saw a student who looked like he might not have been on task on his Chromebook and when I got up to walk over another student had already said you know Miss Nigro said when you're done and she started listing the three things they could be doing when they were done with their their assignment so um I mean it was like I was not necessary to even be there her classroom was a well-oiled machine even in her absence Miss Nigro had a class culture that was based on respect on collaboration and very very clear class expectations I share this with you because as a 24 year veteran of edicine schools and a 1987 graduate of Edison High School um I know that this can't be manufactured you can't just slap this together and expect it all to work especially when you're not there so I implore you to please take this little bit of information I've given you and please think about the volumes it speaks about the practice of Miss Nigro what she brings to Edison and what she does thank you so much for giving me the extra time thank you we thank the board for listening we hope that you reconsider her non-renewal thank you thank you Jeff right so at this point uh just from the discussion with our attorney if someone wants to or wishes to do a motion for an action they can go ahead I'll give it a few seconds no motion all right so attorney what's the next course of action uh Mr kig there was no motion so what's the next course of action uh it would be to move on to your next uh item on your agenda with no motion uh the decision of the superintendent remains okay thank you so at this point the board will Ed on to privileg session in accordance with njsa Section 10412 the Edison Township Board of Education returns to confidential session for the purpose of discussing the following confidential personal matters motion to adjon to privilege session make the motion Mr Romano Mr Schneider uh all in favor I I we are adjourned to privilege session and we may come back if the board decides to take action meeting adun to previlege session reconvene to open session motion to reconvene motion all in favor I we don't have any other agenda items or discussions at this point we'll do a motion to close the board meeting all in favor I I meeting agend thank you