[Music] one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all thank you uh roll call Mr Toad yes Mr B Patel here Mr Rano here miss Pang Miss White here Mr Schneider here Mr Rivera Mr Vel Patel here miss Ana Patel here Mr Lugo here we have a quorum thank you opening statement yes in accordance with the open public meetings ACT public law c231 Sunshine Law thaton Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and the place thereof posted in the Board of Education administrative offices copies of these notices were sent to the home News Tribune and my favor with the star lger thank you it's uh okay so welcome to June 11 Caucus meeting we have very short and sweet agenda today there will be a huge uh lengthy meeting next week where we'll talk about lots of things including a wonderful one of the best meetings of the year which is student recognition uh today specifically we will talk about certain personal items and other caucus items one thing I want to notify the public is the district haven't done superintendent evalution from many years now from few years now right now the board is in the process of doing superintendent evaluation so it's essentially like how I say we are going to evaluate our Rockstar here so uh we are in the process of that um is going to be completed before plan is to complete before July 1st which is a statutory deadline for it and the board members um who take a part of the in the evolution are working towards it so just wanted to keep everyone updated once the district finishes the evolution at the future board meetings we'll have an update about that one as well the results are certainly confidential not disclosed to the public but board members have a participation in that so I just wanted to give everyone a heads up and one more thing is before before the next meeting there will be juneth only know there will be after the next meeting right so we'll have the opportunity for that but there is a Father's Day so happy Father's Day to everyone this uh coming Sunday thank you that being said I will give it to drer early thank you so much for that introduction Mr Patel um good evening uh ladies and gentlemen um you know just to Echo uh Mr Patel sentiments this is always an exciting time of year as we kind of come to the close of another successful school year um and next Tuesday's board meeting is really the culmination of everything that we do here with the rubber meets the road um our student achievement uh highlighting all the success the talents and hard work um of our students our staff members and our parents because it takes everybody including Board of Education members uh and believe it or not central office staff too sometimes as well contribute to the success of those pieces but um I want to thank everybody for a wonderful successful a wonderfully successful school year in my estimation and look forward to the road ahead so um uh in relationship just to uh a couple of pieces uh for the board uh regular agenda items that you've normally seen on the agenda in relationship to um curriculum and instruction uh we've got a couple field trips that are currently going out right now um our summer school program is in full swing we seem to be adding programs left and right uh not only for our extended school year but we have a robust participation in um some of our other extracurricular activities particularly our Sports Camp um we are also looking at uh underneath the administrative reports some of our inter Scholastic athletic agreements with the njsiaa and This falls under um our Administration uh aspect of it we have our statement of assurance for high school voter registration which is mandated by law each and every year um I think one of the highlights in the board has you know had the opportunity hopefully you know obviously as we reviewed the agenda over the course of the last uh couple days as it went public we see the um uh ever popular pieces that will be coming up in relationship to uh uh summer hours as well too so that's um really the context and the highlight of uh this agenda uh the majority of it's going to be student recognition so right thank you and any board member comments only one Mr Romano uh just to let everybody know we're still looking for bus driver yes we are Matt's not here but where's Matt just to let everybody know that we are looking for new bus drivers uh the transportation department is looking vigorously for bus drivers thank you and thank you so much Mr Romano for continuously marketing that it really if we get more it will help the student so thank you so much any other board member comments saying none we'll move to public comments uh Mr Mara Anthony Mara 5 ketto Court in Edison I'm here once again speaking on policy 5756 sir that's where it's agenda items only sir oh sorry thank you sir no I think this is General because we don't vote upon anything right now so you can go ahead oh I'm going forward okay I'm here once again on policy 5756 I have spoken on a numera numerous occasions I have intentionally avoided talking about God in my emails and here because I'm here not here to preach but inevitably some things about God cannot be avoided so what I'm going to do is I'm going to talk about something that's very fundamental whether or not you believe that Jesus Christ is God he quoted us the Golden Rule try living your life apart from it do unto others as you would have them do unto you even if you don't believe the Bible if you live your life apart from that rule and it's relevance to this so hang in there if you live your life apart from that rule you're going to have difficulty with your life and your relationships on the contrary if you live your life according to that rule your life will be better and your relationship will be better the relevance to this is that policy 5756 is contrary to the golden rule do un to others you have't do to you imagine yourself as a parent and your son or daughter or whatever pronoun the lgbtq community wants to use says to a teacher or other faculty member at a school I'm going to change my gender or I'm even I'm thinking about it policy 5756 says don't tell you keep you in the dark there's something fundamentally wrong about that if you don't see that then you're not practicing the Golden Rule because you're doing it to other parents and other students do you want to do that to other parents I think not I think as a parent I don't I suspect at least the majority here are parents do you want to be kept in the dark about something that important about your child then why do you do it to other parents prac practice the Golden Rule and tell other parents that this is your your son or daughter is considering doing this and things will be better you will bless the parents in this town then there's the issue of suicide the numbers are undeniable I've sent emails on it uh the LGBT community would have you think that it's prejudice against it it is not you're messing with some of the most fundamental things in the human race changing gender that is fundamental to to the foundational building blocks of of the human race we're the Educators you are the Educators our teachers we're supposed to educate our students about the risks of this I don't know if that happens in our public schools in Edison but it needs to they need to know the long-term consequences like not being able to have children you take hormones or whatever else is out there available to change your gender extreme case being surgery they may not be able to have children for the rest of their lives is that what we really want is that what we want to teach our children they can't have children because it's a rash decision they don't know the long-term consequences teach our children then policy 5756 says with respect to gender segregated classes or Athletics activ activities including intramural and in Scholastic Athletics all students must be allowed to participate in a manner consistent with their gender identity give me a break we're all about equality around here I I suspect that's high on the agenda well that's unequal you're giving the transgender student an advantage because he or she let's take the case of the the the one born boy wants to be girl he's got an advantage he's got born into him what a what makes a man stronger than a girl this isn't Prejudice this is fundamental human nature that's that's prejudice against the girls but it gets worse now we're sharing bathrooms policy 5756 says all students must be entitled to have access to restrooms locker rooms and changing facilities in accordance with gender identity ow to allow involvement in various school programs and activities the school district shall allow a change gender student to use a restroom or locker room based on student's gender identity come on do you want your mom to share the restroom with a transgender who transgender student who says one day you know I decided I'm transgender yesterday but today I'm not I'm a boy is that what you want you want your daughter or your mom sharing a bathroom with that W with that person come on wor about lawsuits have some courage have a backbone ultimately you have to decide which is more important our children's education or our budget I know it takes money we all know it takes money to run a school district what will you say to the student in the future I didn't f because we was worried about our budget the LGBT community is bullying you stand up have the courage if you don't do it now you won't do it later thank you for your time thank you next for public comments Mrs con as general public comments by know Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle as we're coming to a new uh the end of another school year we look forward to next year but at the same time this is a sad time of year for some of our teachers we're losing two of the main executive board Jeff Bowen and Michelle wsel who have served our district terrifically for many many years and I went to their retirement dinner and each and every person that got up was thankful for having these people stand up for our district and I look forward to Matt and the new board continuing in the same way but the saddest thing came we had it used to be called enra now it's the uh retirement dinner for the whole school district and they announced that we were losing teachers that had put in over 1,400 years of experience and I'm thinking wow how terrific was that but at the same time we're losing these great teachers and I beg to you to make sure that we're getting the Excellence of teachers coming and that our district continues to go in a positive direction for our students in the future thank you thank you Mrs conve yes myself and Mr Romano were both at the dinner and we Echo the sentiments that we heard both of us so uh next for public comments Joyce good evening J preman Edison New Jersey has brought to my attention from parents um they act like middle grade students they said that and I sat here too most of the time we continually and continually make more and more AP classes and some way or another and not just covid our middle students and our lower level students are being neglected because we're not spending the time and energy on them and as you keep building and building the AP and leaving the rest behind you're going to wind up like an urban school you're going to wind up that the 10% at the top is going to be the cream and everybody else is going to FL flounder now I graduated from the school system here I don't want that to happen so I want us to spend more time with our special Leed some of them are 504 some of these kids can be successful with a little bit B of help but if we spend all our time on AP what about the rest of the kids what about the rest of the kids in this District I I think we need to get together and we need to do that I used to consult the child study team to to bring those kids up because they have the ability they need to be en encouraged they need to be challenged and they need to have some type of ladders and stuff to help them along the way so that's what um the parents are straight out complaining about so if you can do something about bringing those kids up to par no everybody saying oh yes yes yes and they even told me even with some of the AP some of them drop out halfway through all right so we need to spend some time and energy on the lower percentage of the students so that our school will still stay great because if you're only going to skim off the top we're not going to be great thank you thank you Hanah uh good evening everybody my name is H Zin to Hy Street Edison um I'm here to share my experience with one of the school personnels I had for the past 2 years this school year since September 2023 to 2024 out of 180 working days I had to call my child sick due to postconcussion syndrome around 80 Days look at the ratio out of 100 days 80 days I had to call him in because he was not feeling well each of those days I saw swelling around his eyes his he had body fatigue headache and nausea he wasn't ready for his day it is such a difficult situation to deal with with such a big change in life he lost his clubs His Friends School activity he can't play any sports anymore and this happened in 2023 in this JPS school when my son suffered concussion while he was playing a friendly scrimmage game in his gym class at that time I had no idea what an accommodation is or what are the rights of a person or a child with with disability but the failure of JP school coordinator Mr Brian glasberg at every level for my child made me realize that though the rights are free you have people sitting at every level to strip you off those rights like Mr glasberg did time and again in my son's case in May 2023 the school agreed for my son to complete his missing work after coming back from our summer trip in mid July Mr glassberg sent us an email stating that the child has to complete his work before going on vacation should we choose to do so he further stated that the child should finish marking period 3 and marking period 4 together when I asked him if he was aware of my son's disability he replied back saying he's well aware and there is no change in his decision during the 504 virtual meet he came in 5 minutes late after my husband emailed the principal and we were waiting for him and he cut the meat on us this aggravated my child's situation and headaches and nausea due to concussion finally when the matter was escalated to Dr Alder Ali and Dr Tui they gave my son time till August 30 I'm just going to call a point of order um right here oh okay um we you can't discuss specific staff members you can talk about your experience but but that's an executive so then so then where should I go with my grievance I would suggest that you speak with superintendent alderi after I did I did I can conclude that if you don't want to listen to everything no we're not saying that we don't want to listen to you just that would be yeah so um what I would recommend is just without the names just finish I will I will then I'll give you the ending okay then I'll even say then um in the second meeting with person X when I when we had the meeting during 2024 when uh 2023 24 school year when my son relapsed I was laughed at and told in the meeting that um my son cannot get the AP accommodations that we are asking because the district has no AP accommodations and then I had escalated this matter to Dr Tui and when we went to him in the meeting Dr Tui gave us all the AP accommodations I'm going to call a point of order again you can't okay nobody's name positive or negative right just I would ask that you don't do that okay so positive okay I won't take anybody's name so now I'll tell you something about Ed your AP program that you have provided the child I mean this kind of shows and Echoes what she was saying that how the school doesn't care about the disabled children or those children who are not at the top top level although my son was and because of the concussion he was gone back the program does not guide the child to finish the AP course on time and be ready for the AP exam in May this was only clear to my child by January as a result he had to drop out AP math and AP Physics exams the Edis year program is broken in two parts for the whole year once you complete the first marking period half of the course is locked and only the other half is open to you we all here understand in math or physics you have to refer to the previous Concepts occasionally and look locking the first half of the course is not a fair thing for a child who's mentally disabled and he's self- teing himself again this this issue was never addressed and only upon escalation was I given what my son required all in all what I felt was that the JP the JPS 504 coordinator he was really really he lacks empathy and professional and he's inconsiderate any path I took to escalate my experience with this person again I was left with nothing but dead end and I'm very sad that I think today I'm again standing at a dead end over here and each time I was I told my story to someone I was just told he's a very nice person and this is the reason I'm here today and again I think I'm being shut down so I cannot escalate this but I leave this open to the board that some inquiry should be done in this and be decided in my case whether it was actually highly incompetent of this person or was simply a racist experience I had in this school where the person was not able to do his Duty impartially due to our skin pigmentation or our religion this is left to the boat to decide my son's condition has not improved at all and next year if my child needs 504 accommodations I request the board not to send us back to get harassed and bullied by this person thank you very much thank you so we certainly feel sorry for the situation and uh I would ask Dr Al and Dr hus both of you please connect with the parent and meet with the parent and Dr toi as well if you can connect with the parent and meet with the parent and see what's going on there right thank you next for public comments yes J good evening first I apologize for being late sir Dan Finn uh coln I'm Grand uh father of five grandfather of five retired military and um uh I have friends in Edison and teach Sunday school to uh several of your students and I also want to thank each one of you for your service to this community one thing is clear there is a culture war going on with the hearts and minds of our children as the primary strategic Target of the extreme left our kids are under attack and so is the traditional family unit my faith informs me that it is actually also a spiritual war unfortunately many parents are largely unaware of what's going on to what extent or realize that much of the educational experience they received has been transformed to make room for social engineering and the science of secular humanism and Marxist ideology and because of this lack of awareness very few are speaking up to protest and protect the innocence of our children and future Generations you know when much of your day to learn has been replaced with an agenda of indoctrination it is no wonder we cannot get enough kids able to meet basic standards to sustain our voluntary military forces currently less than 30% of high school graduates qualify or are suitable for military service and during my 30-year career we lowered those standards multiple times so the importance of backto Basics education and discipline in raising children cannot be overstated this anything goes and affirming children's ideas and choices based on their feelings is an unmitigated disaster especially regarding gender identity when you connect the dots it is shocking how many conduits are being used to literally brainwash the most valuable asset we have our children and those children are impressionable and vulnerable not only are these kids being bombarded with deceitful distorted depraved and half-baked ideologies and failed systems the teachers are being groomed right along with them through the continuing education program hiring goals promotion criteria and more as our public education system is being systematically liberalized have any of you put CRT social justice Dei now climate change and other government sponsored programs side by side to realize that they are all pushing the same thing things entitlement feelings based a affirmation irrespective of basic biology or what is objectively true revisionist history victim and grievance mentality Etc ask yourself why lgbtqia A++ plus is now being infused into all of them I could list a host of substantive reasons that policy 5756 sets dangerous precedence is harmful especially to those struggling in adolescence and should be rescinded if you take some time to investigate think critically about the inevitable consequences and outcomes use discernment and check your moral compass you will easily be able to make a long list yourself please exercise your authority to stand in the gap for these kids and families at the local level push back against government and state overreach and join many other districts in resending 5756 thank you and may God bless America's future thank you good night thank you next public comments Maria gentl oh Mar you can go first I'll call you afterwards sir o sorry I'll I'll be quick Maria Orchid 83 Jefferson uh first I would like to thank everyone that volunteered for our Edison environmental cleanups we appreciate all your services um we look forward to September if the sophomores and juniors can join us we meet at the third Thursday in the municipal building at 700 p.m. everyone is is welcome and lastly I'd like to say congratulations to all our graduate class for 2024 thank you thank you yes sir your name and address hi my name is Ron Mack my address is Oldbridge um yesterday I sent each of the Edison Boe members a short video that was published June 6 just last week the title is doctors protecting children declaration by Dr Jill Simons and many other doctors do s this new release is a share is sharing concerns from the medical community about medical care for minor um gender dysphoria these doctors just like the growing Trend in Europe already happening are asking the US to follow the science and immediately stop one the promotion of social affirmation of gender dysphoria to within the schools stop the use of puberty blockers on children through three stop the use of cross- sex hormones and four stop gender affirming surgeries this is all for children who Express discomfort for their biological sex how does that relate here the in the Book of Genesis which was written 3,400 years ago it states that God created mankind male and female today this is more true today than the than it was 3,400 years ago the new science of DNA children cannot change their sex it's in every cell in the body by not resending policy 5756 the Edison school board continues to support this outdated medical view of the experiment on the children silence is compliance with this this is misplaced compassion even the suicide rates go up not down for young people who go down this path of medical mutilation uh on the right side of History bring policy 5756 to a vote to resend please protect the children that's your first responsibility thank you very much thank [Applause] you any more public comments yes ma'am your name and address I'm Alice Marie and I am on Five Points Road in cols Neck New Jersey um but I have had family in Edison um for a while anyway um I just wanted to add to this why this is an issue or why it's important um and I just hope that people will open their eyes about 5756 I know there are a lot of school boards in the state of New Jersey and a lot of them over 30 have now overturned it and you might think well everything's fine and there's no problem here in why are you talking about this well I'm talking about it because I care about the kids I am a high school teacher and this year in 2023 we have about a thousand students in our school and 100 students registered as nonbinary meaning they didn't want to decide what they were or if there were a man or a woman this is becoming a social issue I happen to have a transgender student in my class and um she's a wonderful person very talented and because I care about these kids and as a teacher I want to be able to tell them the truth the policy of the state is coming down with is saying as a teacher you have to change not call them a girl if they're a girl call them a a boy and I've had a lot of push back on that and I had to tell hey the student I'm going to try to call you by your first or your last name but I have to tell you the truth I'm gonna do my best to call you by your first or last name but this child is wonderful and talented it is not a discrimination thing that I have um and I want to tell you why because there are many people that are detransitioning and this the word from the state is that um they're going to be suicidal so we have to affirm what they feel like okay I was a tomboy growing up and I dressed like a boy even even at an early age I ran around and you know pretended I was a boy I played with Dinosaurs I climbed trees and I rode my bike and if I was living today I'm sure I would have been totally confused and may have taken a different path in my life these children that are AER they are going down this path saying I think I'm a boy and they are changing their physical biology by taking growth hormones which now the state the Senate has to still vote on it but the assembly passed to allow 14-year-olds to go to the medical center and get these hormones so this is not something that is far-fetched on that's happening then they go down the road to affirmation surgery and I just want to read you um just a quote from a woman who her name is Khloe Cole She testified in front of Congress on this issue and she said uh my name is Khloe Cole she says that she is um she's I'm a d transitioner she there another way to put this that is I used to believe I was born in the wrong body and the adults of my life who trusted affirmed my belief and I trusted affirmed my belief and this caused me lifelong irreversible harm I speak to you today as the victim of one of the biggest medical scandals in the history of the United States of America I speak to you in the hope that you will have the courage to bring the Scandal to an end and ensure that other vulnerable teenagers children and young adults don't go through what I went through so it says at the age of 12 she began to experience what her medical team would later diagnose as gender dysphoria then she goes on to say um that the that the counselors in her life they asked my parents a simple question would you rather have a dead daughter or a living transgender son the choice was enough for my parents to let their guard down and in retrospect I can't blame them this is the moment that we all became victims of the so-called gender affirming care I was fast-tracked onto puberty blockers and then testosterone the results the resulting menopause hot flashes made focusing on school impossible I still get joint pains and weird Pops in my back but they there were far worse when I was on the blockers um and a month later I was 13 I had my first testosterone inject injection so she goes on to say too that she really believed this that was going on from watching some of the social media things she believed that so she said when my specialist first told my parents they could have a dead daughter or life transg transgender son I wasn't suicide I was a happy child who struggled because she was different however at 16 after my surgery she had affirmation surgery and removed her um she had a masectomy double Mass ectomy I did become suicidal I'm doing better now but my parents almost got the dead daughter a promise to them by the doctors my doctors almost created the very nightmare they said they were trying to avoid so what message do I want to bring to American teenagers and their families I didn't need to be lied to I needed compassion to be loved I needed to be given therapy to help work through my issues not to affirm my delusion that transforming into a boy would solve all my problems we need to stop telling 12year olds that they are born wrong that they are right to reject their own bodies and feel uncomfortable in their own skin we need to stop telling children that puberty is an option that they can choose what kind of puberty they will go through just like they can choose what clothes to wear or what music to listen to puberty is a right of passage to adulthood not a disease to be to be mitigated so she says uh my child who was ruined along with thousands of D transitioners that I know through our networks this needs to stop you alone can stop it enough children have already been victimized by this barbaric pseudo science please let me be your final warning that's what she says in front of Congress so I'm here just to say we might not think it's a problem but it's coming in fast and the kids are believing this and I think excuse me ma'am your time is up okay I thank you so much for your time and thank you for listening and I hope that you just at least open your eyes to what's actually happening inside the schools thank you right anyone else for public comments saying none motion to end public comments motion all in favor I I right um at this point the board will adjon to privileg session in accordance with njsa Section 10412 the Addison Township Board of Education adjs to confidential session for the purpose of discussing the following confidential personel and board matters pending litigation student matters property acquisition and superintendent evaluation can I get a motion to adj to privilege session motion uh all in favor right um at the this point the time is 6:36 p.m. we will adjin to previl session and we do expect to come back and vote upon certain items thank you meeting is adj to privil session motion to reconvene motion second second all in favor I I I right we reconvene to open session time now is 7:57 p.m. it's still light out there right um at this point uh we will ask our business administrator to read in the resolutions that the board discussed in the close session uh thank you president Patel currently we have two reading resolutions uh as discussed in close session the first one is a motion to appoint Miss F Lee as the principal of I'm sorry fake Kim my apologies uh fake Kim uh as principal of JP Stevens High School effective August 1st 2024 the second resolution is in accordance with uh njsa 18a 1842 award a contract to the following firms to provide Insurance Consultant Services as for the specifications in competitive contract number 2418 and competitive contract 2419 as follows risk manager Brown and Brown medical broker Doyle Alliance and prescription broker assured Partners thank you Mr Toad any public comments on the resolutions resolutions any public comments saying none motion to and public comments on resolution motion second all in favor I I right uh roll call Mr to Mr Lugo roll call for all the resolutions resolution yes Miss Ana Patel yes Mr Vish Patel yes Mr a yes Mr Schneider abstain um on the Personnel yes for the Brokers abstain Personnel due to a conflict not for any other reason Miss White abstain due to conflict on Personnel okay and yes to the brokers noted Miss Pang yes I'm both okay vice president Romano yes on both president Patel yes motion carries congratulations congratulations so congratulations Dr Kim uh really proud of uh having a principal new principal for JP Stevens I we look upon this school very highly I personally look upon this school very highly we have a lot of expectations from you huge and our the parent Community out there has a million time more expectations from you so we are not trying to stress you out day one but the bar is very very very high similar to Westminster Plains borrow but we really hope you excel in your role and make our JB St School shine bright and our ranking was 17 something last year or 23rd we want to get it into top under your leadership over there so please do the needful for that and you know I'll also start calling you a rockstar after Dr if you are able to achieve that so congratulations very well deserved and if you would like to speak something and but before you speak I'll let Dr yeah I just Echo the sentiments of uh art board president um and I know I speak on behalf of the entire organization um we look forward to your transition here at Edison Township um and we know you're going to be great so uh congratulations and welcome to the team great so if you want to and you have unlimited time hello my name is and I will be just voted as the next uh principal of JP Stevens High School and I'm very excited uh to join the team um I'm really honored um and I feel very privileged to be have been selected I know that um JP Stevens is really special place and I'm just super excited to come in and meet everyone meet the community members um and we you know there's always a lot of work I know with all the construction and the various um things and we're onward at outboard which is my philosophy and I know that's Dr adell's philosophy as well and so I'm just very excited to be part of the team thank you thank you right uh that's it the motion to adjin the meeting motion second all in favor hi meeting is a [Music]