##VIDEO ID:ZJVc1dD1GRE## [Music] na God indivisible and justice for all thank you uh roll call Mr to Mr B Patel here Mr Rano here miss Pang Miss White here m Mr Schneider here Mr aa oh yeah I'm here Mr Vel Patel here miss Patel here Mr Lugo you have a quorum thank you opening statement yes in accordance with the open public meetings act 1975 c231 Sunshine Law the Edison Township Board of Education has called caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted in the Board of Education Administrative Office copies of these notices were sent to the home News Tribune and the Star Ledger thank you at this point we are going to adjourn to privilege session in accordance with njsa Section 10412 the Edison Board of Education adjs to confidential session for the purpose of following confidential personnel and board matters pending litigation student matters Hib can I have a motion Mr Romano motion moot second second Mr Snider all in favor I all right we'll adjin to previous session we will be back once it's done thank you see you all soon call to order we will reconvene to open session time is 7:05 um the first thing on the agenda is strategic Plan update uh M Heather Daniel oh Dr H do you want to you have to command Zach you have to take a vote to command of Zack oh yeah sorry vote to come out of exit um from executive session motion motion second second second all in favor hi hi hi right uh s Daniel and Dr H for strategic Plan update yeah Dr hus and hether Daniel good evening thank you Mr Patel thank you Dr aldarelli members of the board members of the public as a pleasure to be here to present in front of you this evening um in honor of the great Charlie Ross and being that we are guest in his building I'm here to tell you tonight what's great about the engagement action team of the Strategic plan what is great um about this plan and to start with is my co co-chair Heather Daniel who is going to present with me tonight and the members of our action team who if you recall when we presented in August um we had a plethora of people involved in our committee and a nice sampling of parents administrators teachers a student and different representatives from without the from throughout the district if you also recall we did go over the four engagement goals and they're a bit wordy on the slide um but in summation uh goal number one was about enhancing District decision making um and presenting more opportunities for their students and their families to give us input in the decision making primary goal number two was to improve upon our transition processes and that's transitions from year to year and transitions from school to school our primary goal number three was to promote the district's Mission Vision and initiatives and our primary goal number four was to create awareness for Community involvement and to enhance the the positive District image so I have the pro the privilege of uh presenting on the even numbers tonight I'm going to cover primary goals two and four and Miss Daniel is going to take primary goal one and three so we'll begin with Goal number two to ensure smooth and positive transitions for all students when we talk about that there's two types of transitions transition from year to year first to second grade third to fourth grade and then the bigger transitions which are building-wide transitions when you have those uh targeted years of fifth grade and eighth grade right when you're in a school for six years from kindergarten through fifth grade and then The Big Year comes when you're going to go on to the middle school and we want to look at how to improve those transitions for those four schools that are going in um or those three schools that are going into a new middle school and then similarly the other transition year that's a huge one for students and maybe twice as big as fifth grade is 8th grade to nth grade right when you finish your middle school and you're heading off to the high school um what we're doing to look at those two different transition types is auditing our current practices meaning we just had back to school nights in September early October we had parent teacher conferences in November and we are going through conversations meetings um data Gathering about how those went how our back to school nights um were received by parents what recommendations teachers have to improve those and and similarly doing the same thing with conferences and asking the same type of questions um we are also looking at modernizing our models right presenting um some of the things we do in a virtual capacity so that if you're working at night you might still be able to to get into your classroom virtually and see what's going on back to school night we're having discussions about how to do parent teacher conferences differently um especially at the high school level those of you who have high schools you know you have eight minutes for a parent teacher conference that goes very quickly um what would it be more efficient to do that virtually and those are things that are being discussed that there's pros and cons to doing um virtual and there's pros and cons to doing in person so there might not be one right answer but it might be a hybrid of those options to create the best answers um we're also looking at Community Building Retreats and other special events when we're talking about engagement ways to bring people in um to the schools other than just those two nights right a lot of parents they're at school at back to school night and then teach conference and they may not be there again until the end of fifth grade or until the eighth grade moving up ceremony or maybe to high school graduation so how can we do special events or Community Building Retreats that bring more people in more often um and mostly our redesign is going to to be witnessed and seen at the start of next year um like I said back to school night parent teacher conferences are behind us and we didn't change much for this year if anything but what we did do is after those evenings took place is we did a lot of um brainstorming thought-provoking conversations and data Gathering so that we can start the plan for next year and make different changes um and then this spring with our transitions that are already in place a lot of them are already taking place orientations fifth grade tours of the middle schools eighth grade tours of the high schools we are going to look at them and really when we have principal meetings have them share best practices because a lot of them are operating in what they do in their building but not knowing what's being done in another building and by sharing those best practices we can establish routines and consistency amongst all 12 elementary schools or among all four middle schools that no matter where you go to school you're getting the same experience as your friend across town across the street or anywhere else in a different School in the district for goal number four we're looking to Foster Partnerships among all our stakeholders and when we say all we are really taking a wide um breath of uh people that we're trying to Encompass in this um Endeavor we are looking first and foremost to enhance Partnerships with local businesses to establish mentorships and internships opportunities especially for our older students um those who are going to college but also those who may not be thinking about going to college and want to explore different career opportunities one of the steps we have taken to achieving this uh goal is meeting with people who are on the Chamber of Commerce in town and uh we're we're trying to establish um more regular meeting maybe a monthly meeting or attending their existing monthly meetings to create these relationships to then open the doors for more mentorships and internships we have them really started at a small microscopic level but we would like that to expand over the next couple of years you know this is a Five-Year Plan by the F fifth year of this plan to have multiple and um an abundance of of opportunities for kids to be mentoring and interning within our community as you know you drive down Route One you drive down 27 Oak Tree Road there are businesses everywhere and there are a wide variety of businesses so depending on what the interest of the student is we're going to be looking for ways to find um way um opportunities for them to collaborate the students and the businesses one of the things that we were receiving feedback from the businesses is we have to figure out a way to do that without making it more work for them right we don't want to drop off students and be like here you go take care of this uh young man or young woman for the next eight hours and uh good luck with that but if we can find a way where it's symbiotic and the and the businesses get something out of it and they get help from someone who has an interest who's a high level student who can contribute they'll be more willing to partner with with us on these Endeavors excuse me um we're also looking to establish Community Advisory board so you don't have to be a small business owner you don't have to be um somebody who who runs something uh on Route One but you have an invested interest in in our education programs and you want to give us feedback I think one of the best things that came out of the Strategic plan is that each area each action plan committee had advisory boards and now that this is done we want to continue with advisory boards and welcome parents input and take that input to help us with our decision making so look forward to spring for more information about that coming out in addition to us keeping in touch with the uh people who are on are our action teams already um our third our third bullet point here is to develop an Education Foundation and that really is directly correlated with the first bullet point um again with the Chamber of Commerce if we can start a Ed Foundation then we can ask for financial contributions that are specifically targeted to fund things that are without with that are not within the scope of the budget things that maybe we figure out by this time of year right oh that's a great idea I wish we could fund that but it wasn't in the budget and and everything we have um in our budget is already tied up we can go to the Ed foundation and we could do grants and and fund innovative ideas and and make great things happen and then in turn give our businesses credit for helping us make those great things happen so again in spring when not even the spring when we get back in January uh be on the lookout for more news about the uh Edison Township Ed foundation and finally uh the last bullet point is about engaging our senior citizens and one of the nice things I I was firsthand witness of yesterday is our JP Stevens choir came and sang at the Ed Center beautiful Angelic voices um but not just did they do that for us after they were done singing at the Ed Center they went out to the uh senior citizen complex the assistant living complex and they sang to our senior citizens to help bring them some holiday cheer but also to showcase the great things that go on in our schools so we want to figure out a way to continue that and to increase that um let those who are live in our community but maybe do not have a direct connection to our schools anymore let them in the doors get them here at school plays get them at our concerts and let them see the great things going on so again more to more to come when we get back in in January about these but those are the highlights of goals two and four that we're working on trying to strengthen our operations and build community and of course my rightand person here Heather is going to come up Mrs Daniel and talk about how she's enhancing our collaboration thank you Dr hus and thank you Board of Education members uh for the honor to present to you tonight regarding our progress with our engagement pillar so first and foremost there was a call for website redesign to enhance engagement and really connect our community with the information that we want to get out to our stakeholders so we embarked on our website redesign as well as an integration of an AI chatbot which was launched September 1 and we have to remember that our engagement drives progress but I'm going to share some metrics with you right now some measurements of the engagement over the last 90 days or as of the September 1 launch so you can see the kind of numbers and the kind of responses we're getting for both our website and our chapot this is a very concise snapshot of Google analytics as of Monday we had 2.2 million events as of this morning we had 2.3 we may be increasing at this very moment since launch we have 2.3 million ion events on our website 164,000 active users with views of two per active user of two views per session and five views for per user interestingly 57 is of our users are accessing our website via desktop whereas 41% are accessing our website by mobile and 1% by tablet you can see the platform that our users are most often access ing via as well as locations for the first 90 days as and the browsers not surprisingly our calendar has had the most hits since launch with 142,5 hits as of September 1 so our calendar is the most popular page I'm sharing this with you because this is a backward design model in terms of designing websites and really determining what engagement means and how do we drive our engagement for the future we can look at every school every metric all of our 20 schools and our district website so that's 21 sites and work backwards by seeing what our users are engaging in where they are engaging and with what content they're engaging so that we can better improve our product for ultimate use the second feature i' like to highlight tonight is our AI chatbot I want to emphasize that the chatbot is not just a tool I really look at as our chatbot which I'm going to model for you in a moment as a bridge that connects our users not only to our website with but with seeking information specific to their own needs empowering and fostering accessibility across our district which is a huge component a Common Thread across all of our goals so when you access our website our chat B is in the bottom right hand corner and our users can enter a question so they might enter a question like who is our superintendent and the AI will deliver an answer and here we are we have our answer as who our superintendent is now you C our users can rate our answers and I'll talk about that in a moment now let's say they want to know if our superintendent is really a rockstar they can enter in the question is he really a rockstar and the AI will generate the answer yes he is and I rated the answer as very helpful so this is an example of programming the chatbot but I'll talk about that in a moment notice all the languages that the chatbot is available in as well as a new feature on the top of the chat bar bot which is the survey rating the experience a three or lower will give an optional question of how to improve the website experience as well as the communication preferences whereas a five or a four or five will give the optional prompt as to what communication preferences are in the future again this is a backward design model that we can determine where our users are coming from and how we meet their needs in the future now to the metrics from the 91 launch we have a record breaking 5,000 plus total engagements and 7,300 plus questions what does that mean we have over 5,000 individuals who have asked questions via our chatbot yes and more than 7,000 questions so several users are asking obviously more than one question the accurac accuracy rate is now at 98% I'm going to get a sip of water because my mouth is dry regarding the programming you notice that we asked the question or I asked the question um is the superintendent really a rock star so on the back end I'm training the AI to answer questions in a certain way I will be taking that training off after this meeting however we can train our chatbot to make sure that it's answering the questions accurately so on the back end on the data end I'm daily going in to our platform to see our results and to better drive our users to get the correct answers another real world example is a beginning of the year question are there maps of our school or or of our schools so that question was the most frequent asked question within the first week prior to school starting as well as the first week after so I noticed that question was trending we don't provide maps of our schools for security reasons so in the back end I was able to program the chatbot to answer the question maps of our schools are not available online so there is an example of programming the chatbot or training the jack a chatbot on the back end interestingly enough our top languages that are being used in terms of entering the language natively in the chatbot are as listed which is very different than the list of languages that are determined by our parent Port Genesis data so the languages you see here are the native languages that the questions are being asked via the chat bot on the left on the right those are the top categories some general questions and then you can see a breakdown of some content area questions this is an example of analytics that will really Drive Improvement in all of our websites each chatbot metric range is aligned to each school this is the district chatbot metric range so for example the question school year calendar we've had 301 questions regarding the school year calendar since 91 and obviously 301 questions are not listed on the right hand side but you can see the breakdown of the authentic questions on the right and if you look down you can see questions are being asked in Native languages and that speaks directly to one of the goals to make all of our resources accessible to all of our community members so moving forward I'm speaking to goal one as well as goal three as Dr hus mentioned he's doing the even numbers I'm doing the odd numbers the major Crux of goal one is enhancing decision- making through inclusive inclusivity and collaboration these are the main centralized Communications points that we have really made progress on and this progress has been recorded in our dashboard online we've redesigned our websites for ADA compliance we've integrated a new app we've integrated a calendar system by Building 21 Google calendars and streamlining those into one main calendar that can be fed into the app so parents can subscribe to specific schools or the district to get the individual feed that they would like we have an Insider newsletter that launch launched last year we have over 40,000 viewers as of yesterday we are going to be implementing our parents Square pilot program which is a streamlined K through 12 classroom to home communication system so that all classrooms have the Streamline Communication System whether your child is in kindergarten or 12th grade and of course we have our dashboard where all this data is being uploaded which is also evidence of making progress our public Outreach and recognition platforms include the integrated live feed and news features where every school can post their live feed and news to the district and vice versa we've launched a new YouTube Communications channel that celebrates our students we are growing social media platforms and Dr Al Al delli is establishing a sages program superintendent Advisory Group for empowering students which is welcoming students from all of our high schools to apply and have monthly or bimonthly meetings with Dr Al delli to truly get a pulse on the student experience here in Addison Township Public Schools and the application will be closing next Monday evening so any students who might be listening to this or if you know any students who would like to encourage to apply in grades 9 through 12 please welcome that also we'll be launching a superintendent podcast and of course all of the surveys that we are doing are gathering ongoing Fe feedback goal three I've hit on many of these items the first one is I think the most important gold three is a districtwide communication plan and we have to look at this as a plan within a plan a communication plan is embedded in the Strategic plan the communication plan is not just these individual items but truly doing a road map for what our Communications will look like within the next 5 years embedded within the Strategic plan so again like Dr hus had mentioned about some of the other programs that we are progressing with we are auditing and designing our communication plan under the standards of the new the national school public relations Association so that we can ground our communication plan in our vision 2030 strategic plan all of these other items that I mentioned align with the streamlined Communications and the addressing of the language needs as well as identifying the communication gaps where metrics and the language acquisition via all of those platforms are key we have also engaged 20 web Masters new positions so in order to align our districtwide vision and to give each School their unique identities within their school website branding we have extracurricular web Masters now in place at each school and they're engaging in monthly trainings and ongoing trainings with me to align their websites to our strategic plan I invite all of you if you haven't done so already and our community to stay informed stay engaged and stay connected you can do that by downloading the app if you have not already done so also connecting to some of our social media including a new LinkedIn that we're using to start really celebrating what it's like to work in Edison Township Public Schools which is a gift and uh LinkedIn is our next big move in terms of social media also we invite you to share your experience via the chat bot the only way we can improve our Communications is to get feedback so the built-in survey that we created will allow us to start to get realtime feedback transactional feedback Beyond those broader surveys that are initiated throughout our district and I'm going to hand it back over to Dr hus thank you so much so really nothing more to say other than how great is Heather Daniel and how great in addition is she it's no wonder that she won a communication director of the Year this year from uh her her Association and uh we look forward to great things to come in the new year we've do been doing a lot of behind the scenes work you do see a lot upfront on the website and through the communication tools but uh we look forward to the year to come and and a lot more coming out to Pro improve the engagement and make uh the members of the community for feel more welcomed in the in the education process so thank you and happy holidays everybody thank you thank you Dr hus and thank you Heather Heather you are phenomenal with your personal situation and everything that you have been through this year the website was launched on time and what you put together so far in this website is truly admirable the chatboard this is all new stuff and if we talk about all the features it's giving the right answers like Rockstar Dr aler is giving the correct answers so you have probably trained the chatbot well so that's very good really very promising so thank you so much Dr hus for all your efforts with this pillar it looks very promising with the engagement and how we love to see the fact that Dr Roi is very much engaged with the students and the community and more to come with this pillar and looks the future is in great hands so thank you both very much great job um next on the agenda we have uh update of long range facilities plan uh by Mr to you got the clicker Miss Daniel no problem in any which way our uh we've received the uh draft of our long range facilities plan for the next five years which was prepared by DMR Architectural Group along with um input from District stakeholders holders building administrators um central office administration students and the like uh that can be found on our website um under the Strategic plan you can go through and look at the varying uh Concept Designs um also improvements to building infrastructure in terms of mechanical HVAC air conditioning um and an Associated cost estimate for each project at uh each building it also takes into account the um VAR in capacity issues for the needs of our students as we continue to grow uh like I said this is a fiveyear look ahead and um we'll be submitting this to the doe ultimately for them to review based on the New Jersey Department of Education guidelines um and their building standards for their approval thank you thank you so much so piggybacking on what Mr tot said uh DM architect they developed a comprehensive facilities master plan which is this one the LA long range facilities plan this effort is focused ensuring that our district can continue to provide an optimal education environment that supports modern teaching practices and anticipated future needs um in collaboration with the district and the representives from DMR they visited buildings gain insight into the uh you know the needs of the building U and and looked at the enrollment and everything else all the other factors and they identified specific requirements for enhan ing the all the Comforts and all the all the things that we need to resolve to get what we need uh for for our students so that's the result and every District does it once in few years the last time we had Dr Al if I'm not mistaken was 2018 so it's been more than 5 years it's U recommended to do it five years as a part of the audit so this year we did the long range facilities FL it's completed in the draft and the next step is going sending it to the doe for approval so great job everyone who was involved in that Mr to and Mr kibas and everyone else and uh we have a very light agenda last day of the wonderful year where we had significant achievements successes including we just saw the brand new launch of the website and our Rockstar Dr alrai and his team the administrative team had really achieved a lot this board has achieved a lot so you know we look forward to uh celebrate the successes at the end of the year um right I will give it on to superintendent Dr alari great thank you board president Patel um for my um uh superintendence report I'm actually going to just keep it brief um you know obviously we have a light agenda this evening um but I would be remiss if I didn't Begin by wishing all of the members of the Edison Township Public Schools Community a joyful uh and peaceful holiday season um you know this is the time to spend with family friends rest relax um make connections with loved ones that you haven't seen in quite some time um and I know I speak on behalf of the entire board when I wish all of you a a very healthy happy and prosperous New Year um and we're looking forward to uh 2025 with great enthusiasm and I do have a few me recognitions right now as well Mr Patel if I can transition into that um uh at this time uh we do have um uh three Board of Education members uh who we would like to recognize uh for our service for their service uh over the past three years here in Edison Township uh on behalf of the entire Edison Township community we want to sincerely thank you um Mr Brian Rivera Mr Doug Snider and board president pel for your service and your commitment to our schools your leadership support your volunteerism has been instrumental in shaping the educational landscape always prioritizing what's in the best interest of our students and our staff and always making sure you're doing so with an attention to detail when it com when it with regards to finances through your hard work thoughtful decision-making and dedication you've made a lasting impact on the future of our community we are grateful for the countless and tireless hours that you've put in and devoted to ensuring that our schools continue to thrive and grow making Edison a premier School District your legacy of service will be remembered it has been an honor and a privilege to work alongside all of you um I I can't thank you enough for I and I know I speak on behalf of our team and all of the faculty here um we greatly appreciate the service that you've provided to the Edison Township Public School so I do have some commemorative plaques if I wouldn't mind coming to the front there I'll call some names and I know Miss Daniel is somewhere maybe take a picture does that sound good yeah perfect all right I'd like to begin with um uh board member Mr Brian Rivera [Applause] luck yes you do at this time board member Mr Douglas Schneider [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and lastly our Board of Education president Mr Bal [Applause] Patel beautiful actually very very pretty [Applause] and Mr Patel that concludes my report for this evening thank you Dr Ali um next we have student council Representatives Edison High School president D Toc hey everyone there's been a lot of good stuff going on around Edison High leading up to winter break and that includes concerts on backtack nights earlier this month with both the choir and band having successful performances in this Auditorium and this Thursday the orchestra is joining the party and having their winner concert at 6:30 p.m. again right here and this past Friday our Orchestra ran their annual gingerbread housem contest and the day before that we had our language orang society inductions which all went well we also had our fall Sports Varsity Awards night last week with athletes from every sport from girls tennis to the football team being recognized for their accomplishments this past fall season it was also another opportunity to recognize the large amounts of winning we had with our teams in general and speaking of sports our winner Athletics are ramping up and getting into their Seasons with the boys basketball team having its first game tomorrow matched up against North planfield so come out and support if you can but if you can't drive the half hour to get there our first home game home game is on the 23rd which is next Monday against piscato and the girls basketball team just had his first game in Lost in a heartbreaker to Highland Park yesterday with a final score of 44 to 42 however a bright spot is freshman Carmela Arana leading the team and scoring in her first High School game and the boys bowling team has been perfect through six games so far shout out to John Ray and James staving for their respective 191 and 206 averages and just yesterday the team beat what was an undefeated JP Squad to reach a record of 6-0 and remain at top the division alone and now we're going away from Sports we're currently having our holiday themed spirit week with today's theme being holiday hats and tomorrow's being festive feat which is our alliterative and now that I'm saying it aloud somewhat off-putting theme for uh wearing Christmas theme socks and looking ahead we plan on getting some EHS merch out to start the new year sometime in January and that's all I got for now I hope everyone enjoys the winter break and merry Christmas and happy holidays to all thank you good job thank you Mr D um next is JP Stevens High School president sanv budam good evening everyone my name is Soni buyam and I'm one of the co-presidents at JP and I'm excited to share some updates on our school our homecoming last month was a tremendous success the energy and excitement were palpable as students and faculty came together to celebrate our school spirit and tradition the decorations were stunning with vibrant colors and Creative Design that captured our theme of Enchanted Garden overall the event not only highlighted our school spirit but also fostered a sense of belonging among everyone involved last week student council also hosted our annual talent show JPS Got Talent our talent show featured dancers singers guitar ensembles and a Rubik's Cube Master the the the theme of our talent show was Harry Potter and we sorted all the audience members into houses as they walked in the Harry Potter talent show had skits and magical decorations which filled the woodro Wilson Middle School auditorium and our winning act was our dancer upas and overall it was an enchanting night next month student council will also host Our Family Feud contest between all the classes and the staff so come out to support in terms of Athletics our winter sports are starting up their preseason with practices and scrimmages and we wish them the best of luck going into their Seasons lastly at JP Stevens we truly embrace the f of spirit throughout the year especially during the Christmas season our hallways are come alive with the joyful sounds of caroler singing while the Bandon Orchestra students travel from class to class filling the school with holiday cheer this wonderful tradition brings everyone together creating a warm and inviting atmosphere that embodies the true Spirit of the Season thank you for your time and on behalf of all of JP Stevens happy holidays thank you so much next up is public comment on resolutions only any public comments on resolutions saying none oh M yes go ah good evening Matt revnak ETA president uh believe it's under resolutions as Personnel uh just want to congratulate Mr Marzano for getting the athletic director's position over at JP Stevens it's a great choice I know Mr Marzano for years we were colleagues I am parted when he was coaching baseball at JP Stevens and um Excellent Choice by the uh Administration and board thank you thank you any more public comments on resolutions only saying done motion to end public comments on resolutions motion motion second second all in favor I hi this sends public comments on resolutions now we will um move on to on motion to approve Personnel report can a motion to approve personal report this is white motion I'll second it uh roll call Mr to Mr Lugo yes Miss Patel yes Mr Fishel Patel yes Mr AA yes Mr Schneider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes vice president Romano president Patel yes motion carries right thank you so much uh everyone uh now I'll pass it on to Dr Al Ali for a comment great thank you very much um I would just like to acknowledge the board's action just now we have just uh appointed and named uh the new supervisor of Athletics at JP Stevens High School uh Mr Robert Marzano Mr Marzano congratulations if you wouldn't mind maybe saying just I know I told you I wasn't thank you Dr Al Robert Marzano is uh an educational thought leader ascd SM than I am a lot smarter than I am thank you Dr aldarelli and the board uh for having confidence in me to lead the JP Stevens athletic department I've been a part of Edison public schools for over 45 years as a student a teacher and a coach and it's always been a dream of mine to be athletic director at JP Stevens I'm very excited to get started and I'm looking forward to working with all of you thank you thank you much Mr marzo and welcome aboard uh in your new role uh next we have motion to approve Administration curriculum and instruction and pupil Services report can I get a motion motion Mr V second Mr Schneider uh roll call Mr to Mr Lugo yes Miss Patel yes Mr Vel Patel yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Schneider yes Miss White yes Miss Pang yes vice president Romano president Patel yes motion carries thank you next is motion to approve Finance report motion Mr Vishal Patel second Mr Schneider second uh roll call Mr to Mr Lugo yes Miss Patel yes Mr Vel Patel yes Mr Riva I obain Mr Schneider uh yes on all except one abstention on a conflict which one is that sir uh my wife got reimbursed like a 100 bucks for something got it you know the number John yeah I have it yeah he's got it fine uh real quick Mr you up stay on everything uh yes okay noted Miss White yes Miss Pang yes uh vice president Romano president Patel yes motion cares thank you next up we have committee reports fost his policy committee Mr R the policy meeting met um on Tuesday December 3rd at 4:30 uh pm at the educational center um we discussed a bunch of policies I think Eddie we're talking about a couple of hundred policies that were outdated right Eddie I'm sorry we we were talking about about 300 policies or so outdated yeah there was somewhere in the ball park of maybe 150 that were mandated that we had to revisit um another 30 that were you know missing so yeah so these are some of the policies that we were looking that at but Eddie what's the number at now where we at with the work that we did this year right now M we're just shy of 100 nice appreciate that yep so again the policies that uh we looked at and revised there's a list of them there um there's also policies for discussion and then some additional policies we talked about was competitive Contracting choice of vendor an emergency uh contracts um basically we were looking at um some of the people in the policy committee including myself felt like there's too much uh conversation with vendors so we're looking at ways on how we could rectify that situation um I did ask the attorney to look into some verbiage uh about 2 weeks ago I'm still yet to hear from the attorney so I don't know the attorney is going to fulfill the request but one of the concerns we had other than these new policies were again vendor reform of some sort okay that's it okay uh thank you next is special at committee report Dr toi hello everybody uh Mr Rano thank you again for the opportunity to deliver the special education and preschool report special education and preschool committee met on November 21st in attendance were Mr Rano Mr Vera Mr Patel U Miss Pang Dr R myself Dr hust and I believe believe I believe Mr to was there too correct so actually it's not going to sound like good news to start but we really have some incredible news um on December 3rd the district's preschool expansion aid application was denied by the state of New Jersey um this program had always been communicated to the community as contingent on state funding so the district went through an exhaus of appeals process with actually ended up on the assistant commissioner's desk um I got to wrap myself out a little bit Alder Elli had to ask me to maintain my professionalism during that meeting but the end of the day um in the 2425 school year the Edison Township Public Schools is not going to be receiving State funding for our preschool program however on the 21st um through conjunction with Dr Al delli our business office and our local private Partners we proposed a plan to our special education committee that involved meeting with our private Partners securing letters of intent ultimately having them complete contracts to reflect a modified agreement that both sides had had to live with um and tonight our Board of Education on the finance uh report just um approved maintaining the programs of 540 preschoolers so I want to thank you for that and um as we move forward the district will continue to apply for this funding we're very confident that we will'll be in a better position next time or this time next year so thank you everybody really appreciate your support um and on behalf of all the parents of the three and fouryear olds um thanks for keeping them in school thank you so much uh Dr Tui one thing I would like to mention and highlight over here is um whatever situation was brought upon on the district um with the ter in terms of funding there are there's very few who would step up and think out of the box and really try to resolve this in such a short time frame in the favor incredibly in the favor of the district Dr alar Ali Dr hus Dr toi and Mr to all of you achieved that that's a great achievement kept the program running up and running and maintain the same level of program thank you so much for your incredible contributions really appreciate that and the little kids who will be part of program will remember so thank you so much for that um next up is we'll have board member comments I'm sure everyone wants to speak today so we'll start from here Mr Lugo thank you president Patel uh firstly I would just like to say um um it was very nice working with the three parting board members uh president Patel uh board member Brian Rivera and uh board member Doug Schneider I've learned from each and every one of you my first year here on the board than and thank you for um um thank you for help helping thank you for helping me and um you'll be missed and I know this is the last meeting of the year um I would just like to take the opportunity to wish all of our students faculty and staff all the board members and all of our residents a very happy safe and healthy holiday season and New Year and um look forward to 2025 that's all thanks thank you Mr Lugo um Mrs an Patel I'll come back to your brand for good evening everyone i' like to thank you Mr Schneider and Riva for being our part thank you so much for everything and we look forward if I need any help I'll say you and thank you everyone all more members like 2024 is awesome no argument no nothing so this is Year good and I hope 2025 is same thing thank you everyone thank you uh Mr Vishal Patel yeah I think I'd like to thank you know Mr rera Mr Snider and and Mr Patel for their service I think it it takes a lot of commitment all of the board member knows that so I appreciate you know you you committing your time and uh um everything to the for the community so thank you thank you uh Mrs White well I would like to just take this opportunity to say how privileged I am to serve with Brian Buel and Douglas I'm so grateful to have the to have had the three of you this for this length of time it's just so incredible the only thing I can give you is a heartfelt thank you so very much for your in unselfish service you know uh to the children of Edison you thank you so so much and I'm going to miss all three of you you know I am thank you uh Mrs bang uh yeah I do wanted to thank you um Doug Brian and BAU for your time your service and it's totally volunteer work it's not easy we've done this and it's um very timec consuming and a lot of times it's time away from your family and uh you know your dedication to supping our staff and students really made a lasting impact um on the district really appreciate your work and your effort and your energy to this board um also I just want to say um kudos to Heather and Dr hus for the wonderful website um as it professional I know it's not easy to build a website every you know line every picture every page uh in involves a lot of you know lines of with code and tremendous testing and uh debugging and retesting so it's a you know a wonderful job done um lastly um want to say a congratulations to several students that I know that got uh committed to college already either through athletic recruit or early decision and to all those seniors best of luck you know it's last few days before the deadline uh it's stressful but uh you know uh it's only a couple few weeks more and uh I as a leaz on to uh Addison actually to JP ptso I do want to take this opportunity to thank them for um their work recently I heard that they collaborate with outside uh education organization to help our senior students with their college applications uh answering questions how helping them review their applications to make sure nothing is missed and all these service are down free of a charge so I do want to you know commend them for their for being creative and uh help our students when they need the help the most and um finally um to all the staff members students parents merry Christmas happy New Year enjoy the holidays thank you right thank you Mrs bang uh vice president Romano thank you uh I don't know what constitutes a rock star see that's one of my problems here uh now if you play piano like somebody I know plays piano uh he actually is a rock star when it comes to that I'd just like to say Merry Christmas to everyone happy New Year but I have to I I have to really ad we have a staff that works tirelessly we have teachers they're amazing they're what makes this job easy because we ask for stuff and they they Supply it we have custodians that do their job every day grounds people maintenance staff without them we couldn't do this yes I want to thank everybody and it's the Constitution says it starts off with We the People no it's you the taxpayers of Edison without your support and without all of our staff working together this job would not be easy our staff is one of the best in the state we have a great superintendent we have assistant superintendant we have directors we have team leaders they all all work hard every day and our students are challenged every day that's one of the things that people don't see our students are being challenged to go further to climb the mountain without the public support without us the people we the people our problem is simple we have to communicate better we have to take and realize the people that are doing the job for us so once again I thank you all of you all of we the people thank you very much have a great great end of the year and beginning of the next year thank you so much thank you vice president Romano uh Mr R your final speech uh good evening everybody I I actually wasn't planning on speaking I was just going to make my way out but um I do want to say thank you to the board and thank you for to um the teachers administrative staff people that we worked with um I guess you could say I'm having mixed feelings so I just really didn't want to talk I was going to bring up issues that I think the public should be be aware of but I'm choosing not to that'll come out another day but I do inquire I do tell the public to please inquire on certain things that you see on this agenda um with that said I do want to say you know happy holidays I'm doing the right thing going out um taking advice of my fellow board members um wish you a happy holidays um and I will see you sitting next to Carol and Miss Conway next meeting thank you Mr Rivera Mr Schneider uh hi everybody uh same with as as Mr Rivera said I didn't really prepare much but I will say that this has been an overwhelmingly positive experience the last three years have been amazing to be on the board I recommend to anybody especially those of you that are lifelong Edison residents um it means a lot to be up here and especially with the with uh I have the privilege of my kids are now at the school and uh Mr Ross I see a lot and uh Dave sandel the athletic director here always does a good job of shouting us out when he says hey that's Doug Schneider class of 97 for he's an eagle he's an eagle or if Brian's there he calls us an eagle and it is something that means a lot um walking these Halls as a student being able to impact the students now however we could do it and again there's disagreement there's uh politics there's social media all the stuff that nobody really likes but when you really boil it down you need to distill everything we have done um amazing work together the last three years have been overwhelmingly positive um when you do this the right way this is not a sport this isn't a TV show this is actual work we have work product to prove that we did a nice job the last few years I I believe next year's board will do great and do great things and I look forward to watching it um I appreciate all of you in the audience many of you I know I I see uh Mr ER Co here which is nice so he's going to be up here maybe this seat or that seat who knows but can't wait to see it next year and um I look forward to uh everything that this wonderful District um has to offer for not just uh me as a resident but as a parent of students here and thank you to everybody thank you great thank you Mr Schneider uh greetings everyone I do have a speech and if you want to fall asleep that's fine hopefully you can watch this if you fall asleep watching it now you can watch this in the future so this is my final speech as a board of ed member and the president of Board of Education though my tenure has come to an end I am so very proud to have served in what is undeniably one of the greatest School District in the state of New Jersey it has been disting honor and privilege to serve with and for you uh we have made tremendous achievements growth and progress in the last four years of my 10 here as a board of fed member and everything all the challenges was met with hard work determination collaboration and ending to a fantastic result the highlight of my tenure has to be the hiring of our Rockstar superintendent Dr alrai it is a sigh of relief and as a passionate parent and a passionate resident it is wonderful to leave our district in such capab hands as I have said time and time again I know that his hard work and his passion and commitment will mean great things for our district and I'm pleased that I have assisted in laying the groundwork with him on which he will build on and what a beautiful Foundation we have built in the last four years thanks to our hard work the state aid and I might say my own hope and determination the district has EXP experienced a historic and unprecedented 0% tax increase in two of of those three those four years I had a distin privilege to be the chair of finance and to work on that budget and I hope that continues I know the effort and careful planning it took it is this financial responsibility that is our Testament to the district's commitment to financial um goals despite of that despite of 0% tax increase the district continued its progress on the infrastructure in the last four years the completion of the Lincoln School which you guys uh approved before I got in here uh the four new gyms in all the middle schools which we just did the ribbon cutting for expansion of JP Stevens High School with 30 classrooms and the labs and other facilities which will come to fusion and open up next year for the students the energy saving Improvement plan highly uh which provides Z budget neutral facility Improvement for the district with zero tax increase as well as solar panels which will save money and which will help the district for years and years to come and at the same time we work to ensure that this went beyond the flashy projects after Decades of disrepair we have taken on small projects as well to fulfill the wish list of all the principles administrators and staff members to provide resources to our students call it parking lot upgrades bathroom upgrades hwac upgrades at the school the playground upgrades everything name a thing despite of 0% tax increase because it's our commitment to provide our students the best we can we also built up on less tangible infrastructure now again despite of 0% tax increase just because learning cannot happen on empty stomach the board continued for last four years free breakfast the subscription bus fees did not go up single scent on top of it the board in last four years reintroduced full day kindergarten it came back and at the same time um I thought you'll say about that Mr R at the same time uh we have Universal prek which we just talked about and Dr toi and his team put tremendous efforts in it ensuring a good start for every student who calls at this their home no matter how young we launch the parent help desk in the last four years something that Mrs White is very passionate about um a brand new website which we saw enough about it today and has come to frion and hopefully everyone is taking advantage of that the thought exchange Miss Daniel that seeks feedback from the parents on a continuous basis the year end survey we have a new Chief academic officer Mr Rick Kohan who is is doing wonderful job in curriculum thank you so much for that our students are getting more AP and stem opportunities and they are being provided Cutting Edge tools and Technology to be the best we also refined our waiver process to make it simpler and better for the parents and to provide more opportunities to the students who are seeking so thank you so much Mr Cohen for all those efforts um at the same time we increased the funding and provided more opportunities to our robotics and stem clubs at both the high schools thank you Mr Ross for helping the students out with that one we fought back against those items which plague our school systems and affect the health and well-being of our students I'm talking about the ad hoc culture and the climate committee to address key issues such as vaping bathroom conditions and school safety with webinars and initiatives and the tools and everything that superintendent Dr alar Ali and his team are working on uh Dr of Mr Ross Mrs bevens from woodro Mr to and everyone else great job with everything that you are doing in the direction Mr kissan as well um I personally Thrive to work very hard with the community with the PT PTO connected with the students at all levels and in that environment we build we continue to thrive so that the students Thrive and will continue to thrive my greatest joy was to participate and celebrate their education I Marvel that our bright with our Bright Young Minds which I had privileged to see year after year in participating and read Across America in every single Elementary School where I read to at least three classes in each school for four years came across met thousands of students and staff members I attended four years of lively and energetic GR graduations of our seniors it was such an honor and privilege to hand over diplomas to so many wonderful students at each graduation thanks to all of my fellow board members uh superintendent Dr alari Mr to Dr hus Mr Kohan Dr toi Miss hether Daniel Pat kissan Mr kibas Judy thank you so much um Mrs tyon thank you so much for all your effort M Mrs be um Patrick for the wonderful videography all your help everything that you did for us and if I missed anyone's name I apologize for that but thank you so much to the entire administrative team who has supported us tremendously it really feels like a family the district is in very good hands for that finally I want to express my gratitude to the parents teachers staff members all the principls vice principls all the building level administrators the central Administration supervisors and most importantly the students and the residents of Edison Township for your dedication and commitment to making Edison an exceptional place to learn and grow their dedication is truly remarkable and serves as a testament and commitment of our entire Community towards Excellence I am very hopeful and confident that superintendent Dr alari and the board coming in next year Mr Jerry shei Mr Ralph ero and my very good friend Mr ronic Patel uh they will work together and continue all the wonderful progress that we have been the board has been making in last few years um and which will benefit our students tremendously the district is in good hands and I urge everyone to come together to work together leave the differences aside and always think we are all here for the students and do what is best for the students and help them CL mountains and they will be thankful to you and their Generations will be thankful to you it has been a distinct honor and privilege to serve on the Edison Board of Education last four years helping others is a core belief of mine encapsulated in saying that in the joy of others lies our own I come from a background deeply rooted in volunteering and community service and that's something I take much pride on and due to which I will never give up my efforts to give back to the community help the community whatever way I can hence today I ask all those students who are watching this or who will watch in the future one small favor give back to your Alma matter there are countless ways you can help Edison you can help help your peers other students so I encourage everyone to give back to Edison for years to come and I hope I can count on you to help help the other students Thrive the best they can be even though I will no longer be in the board in a few days my commitment to serving the Edison Community and helping people will grow stronger day by day for those who know me I am always reachable and available and try to help in any way I can I am very proud of the work the Board of Education have accomplished together as a team it was indeed a pleasure a great privilege and an honor and an incredibly great experience which I will cherish rest of my life thank you so [Applause] much thank you everyone uh next we'll open up for public public comments Mrs con thank you Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle uh I have a few things uh first I would like to start with on the really good note and thank uh Britney malikia I believe her name her last name is pronounced who uh directed The Edison High School strings that was very close to my heart to be able to experience um some of the good things that go on in Edison they were fabulous I'm sorry you guys missed it but I really enjoyed it thank you and I thank uh Miss Mia uh the second thing uh I'd like to talk about is I noticed the one two policies on dress code were abolished and my quick question and I don't want to discuss it in my six minutes is um will there be a replacement for that at all uh the next item was um I know I heard about the um prek and the application was initially denied but because of uh hard work we were able to be successful I was just wondering if uh what the initial reason was that we were denied uh the next thing is congratulations to Dave Marzano I've known Mr Marzano for many years he coached my son who's going to be 40 next year in baseball so uh and I taught his son in third grade who's now 21 so that tells you a lot um the next thing was I would like to appreciate and thank the board members that are leaving I know what it's like to sit here tonight to have a eulogy and a funeral I hated it when I was up there but I just want to say my personal thank you for stepping up and hopefully not going away as Carol and I will never go anywhere um next I'd like to thank Dr hus and Heather Daniel you are fabulous you you make sense out of what's going on with the district I truly thank you and I and I appreciate that you come back and continually explain things to us I had wished uh I had gotten more information regarding uh what's going on with um construction I was able to go see um the ribbon cutting at John Adams just lately and woodro lately and the Edison Success Academy was beyond fabulous uh I'm just I'm looking forward to the opening of JP Stevens Auditorium and it would be nice to find out you know how far away are we from that I realized the construction going on in uh JP is going to take a while but I'm really looking for forward to initially because missing all the items of what JP puts on is exciting I know uh Mr Ross always gives me an update of what's going on at Edison High and I look forward to hearing the same on JP is back in order and application Britney and Dr and finally happy holidays to everyone in enjoy them there's multi- ones so see you next year thank you minutes uh yes gentlemen over there so uh first uh Mr rally and Mr Patel thank you for your leadership and service um my question is regarding the Edison High stem program um I've been an Edison resident since 2015 um and I have an eighth grade daughter who is going to a private school so last week I came for the open house uh right in this building um for the Edison stem program from 9th to 12th uh and I was told that um I have to be a resident plus um my daughter has to go to a public school um so U I have a request to you if that policy could be amended uh to include all the residents um especially because I've been like you know I purchased my house in 2015 10 years I'm in Edison could anything be done on that thank you is that for the STEM Academy thank you yes STEM Academy yes so so criteria for the STEM Academy um is definitely open to um any student uh that fits the criteria um that's currently enrolled or is anticipating on enrolling in school so you'd have to officially be enrolled in school and then apply for that position or in the process of enrolling um right but um why is it that private school students even though we have been in Edison for 10 years uh being excluded um because you're not part of the Edison Township Public Schools would be the most simplest answer for that but in order to attend a program that's offered by the public school you'd have to be enrolled in in the public program or in the process of doing that too right so if you were in the process of enrolling um your child and saying Hey listen you know we've got um interest in applying for the STEM Academy at that time frame we would make sure that the enrollment Department would um you know make you know put put you in touch with with uh the right people provide that application process but it it is a requirement got got it so uh I wouldn't be able to apply is that a fact right I'm sorry say I wouldn't be able to apply right because of this criteria if you're not enrolled in the school you can't apply for a public school program thank you thank you I think I think that was the question yes uh before we go to the next speaker uh I forgot to ask can clarify I think his question is his his daughter goes to private school he wants to go to uh you know stem program how can you apply because application process starts pretty much in December or January starts in December or January so he would have to start the enrollment process in other words saying hey the next year for the next year absolutely so she can or he can apply correct I did start the enrollment she's currently in eighth grade and I applied and I was told it's not open for me so so why why don't you work with him offline how we do this you can sit with Dr hus over there he'll be able to uh clarify a little further now before we go on to the next speaker uh some of Mrs con's questions I forgot to ask if you want to share some I I think what Miss con was referring to was sick leave not not grooming right the two that we're abolishing are sick leave on this one um and the sick leave ones it are um it's just uh it's it's not in in line with the law so the the uh the sick leave law has changed we've adopted a suit a new sick leave policy um I believe two agendas ago actually probably even more than that um and this is just house housekeeping you know uh the sick Le for 3432 and four uh 432 are outdated they're they're in contrary to the contrary to the new law new sickle law correct correct and I think sick leave you can you can take a look I know that uh it is updated I make sure that Mr cbus up updates it on our website progress towards um our current outstanding projects even the ones that are in development phase they're all located on our on our website right there miss Danel will be able to click the link in relationship to that and I think that was it I hope that's what I wrote down is it the preschool oh preschool Dr two there's a there was a couple areas right there Dr Tu will kind of fill you in on the on the devil in the details in relationship to that back here uh it's just for miss cway doc offline off you got thank you thank you thank youc uh next public Mr Mara good evening Anthony Mara 5 Colo cord and Edison I'm not here to talk about policy 5756 this is Christmas time and I want to bless each and every one of you God says there's a time for everything and a time for every activity under heaven so I want to bless each and every one of you by name I'm not accustomed to reading from paper so I ask you to be be patient with me Mr Vel Patel may the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and keep you may his face shine upon you and be gracious to you may he turn his face toward you and give you peace Miss Virginia White may you come to know the love of God our Father through his son Jesus Christ and may he be your guide forever and ever Mr Schneider may the Lord Jesus Christ reign in your heart and in the hearts of each family member you each member of your family may his wisdom permeate you for all of your days May shine in Pay May the light of Jesus Christ rest in your heart in your mind to where it overflows with joy unspeakable Mr be Patel when you come to know the love of God our Father through his son Jesus Christ and living according to his word then you will know him and his love Mr Joseph Romano May the Christ of Christmas be R real to you not just now but forever and ever and may his righteousness and Truth be the foundation of your work on the board of ed Mr Rivera oh I'm sorry Mr an ananna Patel may you know Jesus Christ through a personal experience with him and may his Joy be yours forever and ever may you tell all of his grace in your life Mr Rivera I pray favor upon you and blessing upon you may God our Father through his son Jesus Christ bless you and may you know him and draw near to him forever and ever Mr Lugo I pray that you stand firm in the one who has called the way the truth and the life Jesus Christ and may he be the foundation for your life it is been an honor coming before this board this year um I will be back in January regarding policy 5756 but as I said this is a time for blessing this is a wonderful time where we celebrate the birth of Christ may you all have a wonderful Christmas God bless you thank you so much Mr Mara uh nobody gives board members anything ever you gave us blessings we really appreciate that happy is to you Mr Mar thank you so much something that feels very special uh next speaker uh next for public comments uh yes [Music] Anthony Anthony Damron uh Wy a I'm just trying to get my thoughts together here uh first off I I noticed has the has the motto changed for the uh for the district no more nothing about Excellence it has when when was that we did that with our uh rebranding of the uh District website in the launch rebranding I like it okay not bad not bad I just happen to notice it still committed to nothing M last of course absolutely absolutely um second um you know I I I I really quick I usually don't do this but uh I wanted to give a uh shout out and recognition to the uh to the teachers union actually um and uh you know they've they've they've been to countless number of of Township meetings outside of the Board of Ed uh backing up residents of this town um many I believe you know I don't know how many teachers here that that work here live here but I'm sure there's a good amount but uh I happen to see uh the president Matt uh at the council meeting last week um I didn't have a chance to talk to him there but uh going back when Jeff was here um they stood with the residents um and you know what it needs to be recognized um you know I don't know if he had a chance to speak but just the fact his presence alone of of the positions they hold um it's important it really is important it helps on these battles and these fights so uh I just wanted to give them some recognition and uh you know say thank you um the the next thing I wanted to speak about is the recreation department um and these Recreation Sports regarding this the use of the schools uh or the school in this case Hoover um you know we I don't know how the recreation department and how we got to a point where they control and decide on who uses what gym when they use it um but to to to have them in control of this it's my belief and my understanding that they do not have the recreation department with all due respect to them and and the the the woman that uh that works there I believe she's leaving now uh retiring but not a full understanding of what's going on inside of the gym uh specifically at Hoover um I also don't understand why you know we the Hoover has a new gym they just built a new gym I believe yet she has the final say on who utilizes that gym that gym belongs to the board of education and belongs to the taxpayer of edicine so I don't know why the recreation at Town Hall controls that decision and she clearly does not understand in my opinion what is really transpiring over there to have these sport programs fighting over you know time and space and and so on and so forth um is is a bit is is ridiculous uh you know I don't believe she's ever come down to to see this for herself what what's transpiring there uh the tight space the safety concerns um and I just speak for myself I'm not speaking for anybody I speak for myself but there are some major concerns these parents uh that run these leagues um are are just parents dedicating their time trying to give their child the best possible uh um experience for their sport but we have so many schools in this district and and to be stuck at one school I understand for instance wrestling they have the mat problems you transporting mats and so so on and so forth um I understand that but you know but what about the other schools I mean we could we could transfer you know we could utilize some of these other schools to be stuck at one school fighting over one gym is a bit ridiculous to me and and and I think that the power should be back to the Board of Education I think you guys should have control over who gets to use these gyms all right designate somebody um but I think I believe the next year hopefully it's reexamined going into next season onto how we structure this a little better um you know I I know I I know the the parents of cheerleaders the cheerleaders uh you know they they they they they need some space the wrestlers need space but space is an issue but when you have other schools just sitting there you know during the night time um it's to me it seems more logical than anything else to to maybe maximize that the the space there um and and and accommodate everybody I'm not saying use every school but you know obviously uh some of the some of the other schools um so that's I really want to just say that I'm not here to throw anybody under the bus I mean it is what it is but that's just that's that's just the reality of the situation um wrestling is is the type of sport that you know what kids are moving around the wrestling you could just think of you know just just think about all the possibilities of hurting yourself being stuck in with you know a side a a side room where where they sometimes are uh you know left to left to use uh I don't know what that is a weight room or whatever it is there at Hoover I can tell you this though I will say this you know thank you to Hoover for allowing them to use utilize that facility they're very appreciative of it I I know they are uh but to to just put it all on them it seems a bit much maybe opening opening it up to the other schools would be a uh more logical situ you know uh answer to to this going forward so um with that said I wish wish everybody Merry Christmas and uh and that's it good luck thank you yeah thank you thank you uh who is next uh Mr Ross go ahead good good evening everyone um again H want to Echo everybody's holiday wishes Mr Romano talking about the staff um our custodians grounds of course the ETA of course the principal supervisor Association that come out and work this also our security officers that don't just act to keep people safe but they try to teach the young people how to grow up and do things the right way so we got to shout everybody out and a merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy K Quanza when you look at all the different celebrations they always seem to have something to do with light and family and love so whatever holiday that we're all going to celebrate I hope that we all have some peace and we can all look for love and peace as we go in the New Year kind of funny that well I love to talk about what's great about Edison High I have to start off by shouting out JP Stevens don't believe they could have found a better person for the position of athletic director having been here for 15 years have seen the dedication he had as a coach as just someone that goes to events that sits there and is looking out for the athletes and their family he's one of the things that makes Edison a great district and you know Dave great job look forward I'll see you on Thursday because on Thursday we have the John spe game here at 5:30 John spe was another another great North Edison person that did a lot of wreck um basketball and a lot of different things and we're privileged to have his daughter with us as a teacher and as a coach and Edison and JP girls basketball be playing um there'll be a lot of donations and things for cancer so I'd love to see everybody out to that event on 5:30 on Thursday we've got hockey games in Woodbridge hopefully the long-term facilities planned we can get a rink uh but we've also got we've got hockey games in different places going back and forth they're in the Woodbridge club they're across the street in Woodbridge at least we're not going down to proscape but please come out and see those things and I appreciate Miss Conway's fine words for the orchestra because after the John speci game Mr Ross is going to be stepping out across the hallway to the orchestra concert and if you want to see why uh we need to get that Orchestra room built so that we have the the space for this fantastic group and this unbelievably dedicated professional and all of her parents that work so hard that's also on this Thursday night and I know I'm going to see um I'm going to be honest my favorite Miss White coming out on Friday night for our wrestling as um I missed last Friday but we've got another Friday against some school on tingly Lane I don't know what it's called um but we're going to wrestling is off to a fantastic start so we're looking for some great things there um I wanted to you know say you know Mr Schneider look I'm glad we got your kids around that we'll be able to see you around from place to place where really excited about tying up loose ends with the new board that's coming in and as always you know just appreciate all the work that everybody does and appreciate the ability and the chance to be the principal of Edison High School so happy holidays everybody thank you Mr Ross and yeah I think we really forgot about the rink in the long range facilities plan so hopefully Mr Toth can do some magic and get that one in there all right uh next for public comments yeah I gotta say following Mr Ross is always a difficult position to be in so first of all I want to mention again to the three board members Mr Schneider Mr Rivera and Mr Buel Patel thank you for your service to the district and obviously the town of Edison you know we don't always see eye to eye on everything but it's always respect for the time the dedication that you have you I was thinking back as I'm sitting there you know there three people that are sitting here that are in sometimes thankless positions or you know it's easy to second guess and that's Dr Adell myself and the board members you know you can't make everybody happy all the time but if you walk off this stage today saying you know what I did the best I could for the right reasons then that means you were successful and you should take pride in that second thing I want to bring up um end of the year is usually our biggest time for retirements the second biggest time is probably the end of December so there was a few people that were listed in today's board minutes and there actually have been in previous board M minutes in September announcing that they would be retiring so again I want to thank all of those out there my own members but also the members of the other units um that are retiring wish you much success as you move on in your life and whatever Endeavor you undertake moving forward wish you the best and hopefully you know good health in the future uh the next thing and unfortunately Mr R again stole my thing but I just want to wish everyone out there our students our staff and of course the residents of Edison a very happy Pica a happy K Quanza a Merry Christmas and actually Dr ald you said what I usually said to people a very happy healthy and prosperous New Year 2025 if you're traveling please please be safe in your travels if you're not that's great hopefully you spend as was mentioned good quality time with your families that's really what the holidays are about and for everyone involved with the school district the students the staff obviously Administration a well- needed week off and rest up and come back rejuvenated for the beginning of a long stretch now in the winter months have a great night thank you thank you Mr revach uh during my speech earlier did thank the teachers and all the staff members but one thing I forgot to thank is the ETA as the special thanks for all the wonderful events that you put together around the year so many of them I had the honor and privilege to attend many of your events and they were all very very nice it made us feel special so hopefully I look forward to continuing to participating in those events uh when I'm yes there's one thing I forgot to mention I apologize no problem I happened to be you know in the Ed Center yesterday morning after a meeting and I happen to walk in with the JP Stevens Choir performing hearing I believe it's they're called the Winden s I'm not a music person but playing the violin as you guys were in closed session and actually tomorrow night at oura holiday party we have the Edison High School jazz band performing and you got to say I know Mrs White was there the kids are so great it just shows again what Edison's about the talent that's here the dedication and commitment of our students and our staff it was really great too seeing a couple of the choir kids yesterday were students of mine last year so getting to see them as well as the uh conductor Mr Lee was a former student of mine so Inc I just want to mention that and I do appreciate that thank you so much mad and thanks for all your efforts Jerry Susan um everyone else who works in your team so hard Kelly and everyone K and everyone thank you so much um next public comments uh yes off good thank you uh Ralph Aro plasy Drive Edison New Jersey first and foremost I would like to thank the three board members that are uh leaving Mr Rivera Mr Schneider and Mr Patel um we've had conversations you know in the hallways at the debate and um appreciate everything you've done for the district um been there done that a few times now and then again so uh hopefully I could live up to those expectations and uh do well for the students and the taxpayers and the and the student uh the everyone in the building Dr Al look forward to working with you I was with you for a little while and then I got a lot of new faces I got to now familiar myself my I mean I only left a couple years ago I mean and I don't know of maybe one or two people in on your staff so hopefully I'll get to meet them shortly and work with them and have discussions with them and uh over the next couple days a busy time of the year uh I think I told Dr Ally um in 12 days my daughter's getting married so it's all wedding mode right now um then I'll be an empty nester no one be at home and uh I look forward to uh seeing everyone on January 2nd and happy holidays to everyone and be safe and uh joyous New Year thank you thank you so much Ralph so I told you Ralph earlier before walking in that four years back when I attended this board meeting the last meeting of the calendar year um you were the board president it was your last meeting that time and then now I'm the board president and it's my last meeting four years fast forward so welcome back to the board like I said earlier during my speech the board is going to be in great hands with yourself Mr shei Mrs anj Patel Mr Vishal Patel Miss Pang Mrs White um and vice president Romano so and my very good friend Ron Patel so I'm the reason I'm so happy and not regretting at all is the board is in great hand with this board members on top of it if now he will be bored if I say one more time our superintendent Dr Rockstar Dr alar Ali and his entire team so it's everything is good so thank you so much yeah looking forward to seeing great things I don't I don't wish to come and sit there uh with you guys from next month on unless there is if there is no 0% tax increase I will come there and I will tell the new board members that yes do the 0% tax increase so otherwise I don't wish to come there and sit there because I I believe that it's going to be good U but I look forward to working with the administration on any issues that the community encounters so thank you so much uh next uh for public comments good right no more public comments right so that uh that was amazing this was a like I said it was a Roy light agenda thank you so much everyone thank you to the administration everyone who comes in M Mrs con Mrs Bowski for being regulars in this meeting the whole year has been wonderful the fellow board members vice president Romano uh Mr Roth thank you so much for your services uh U we really appreciate everything and we have lot of high from the new board uh especially with the zero tax increase and all continuing the progress that is going on from years to make things for our students better and better uh thank you so much everyone wishing everyone a wonderful and very happy holidays uh motion to end public comments second right all in favor motion to adjin the meeting motion motion Mr second Mr Schneider second all in favor all right right thank you meeting is at thank you [Music]