for good afternoon this is the township of cranberry Municipal Alliance committee Tuesday February 16th 2025 I'm sorry Tuesday February 18 2025
thank you typo you guys will definitely have to check me okay so we're starting at 3:34 p.m. I'm reading the state statement of adequate notice pursuant to
the Sunshine Law adequate notice in accordance with the open public meeting Act was provided on January 3 2025 of this meeting's datee time place and the agenda was mailed to the news media posted on the township bulletin board
mailed to those requesting personal notice and filed with the municipal clerk so we will um stand do the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the FL of the United States of America and to the Republic
[Music] for jice all we're going to do a roll call um just say here or present want can I call your name please um Ria benov
here Joanne charwin here Chief diera here Dr dler here Andrea Kaplan she's excused Pon Patel here Erica Schulman here Diane Stanley is excused Sasha
Weinstein here okay thank you okay our student uh minutes so um did anybody have any questions or comments about the minutes any changes to the minutes from
the January meeting would anybody like to make a motion to approve the minutes I make a motion to approve the minutes of January 21st Dr dler would anybody like to second Chief deera okay so we have to have a roll
call vote um Ria benov yes yes Joanne sharwin yes chief yes Dr dler yes um Andrew is excuse P Batel yes Erica Schulman yes Diane Stanley is
excused and Sasha Weinstein yes okay great thank you okay and the student representative report we don't have the students right now I did send an email to their student council advisor just to
let her know that um the date is coming up for the middle school public service announcement challenge through the partnership for a drug free New Jersey in March this is a contest through the
partnership for a drug-free New Jersey and the the date that this needs to be submitted is March 28th and our goal is to have it completed by our next meeting so we can show it to our members and and
it could be available to show to the middle school students during drug and alcohol fact week on March 17 to the 23rd so um we're looking forward to hearing from them next month about how
that's going and um as far as the jamfest is concerned we were able to get the paperwork and the purchase order all sorted out for the jamfest which I believe is coming up is it this Friday
this Friday okay great and so um you'll have the the game truck um already um set and they'll be paid afterwards and that was approved by this committee at the last meeting yeah it's not a it's not a game truck it's they they bring
the games in but it's all like we had from the fall and it was awesome I know it was a new group and it worked out really well great I'm glad that it worked out well and then I was in um email correspondence with the new advisor for the jam fest the the parent
representative and I believe the the theme is Winterfest Winter Wonderland I did have um a picture of it on my phone but I don't know what I do with my phone um but I think it's some kind of
winter wonderland or Winterfest theme and she did um say that she she requested money for decorations and I know at the last month's meeting there was a motion to approve $200 for up to
$200 for her to do that so um I looked into how to set her up as a vendor so she can get reimbursement for that so I know that she did purchase some decorations Winter Wonderland okay Winter Wonderland okay great so that's
exciting and I'm really looking forward to hearing how it all goes at our next meeting okay any questions or comments about the jamfest okay thank you all right so um
our police report from our chief is there anything that you would like to share with us um no uh the the arrive program um is underway uh we're trying to do two times a month as opposed to one so we were successful this month it
determines on officer um availability obviously to work hands in hand um it's been very successful um not only in Cranberry but you know when that um representative comes from uh Robert with Johnson or udm andj I apologize um
they're partnered with an officer and we cover three or four towns but um Hometown is always first um and we've answered bunch of calls so we're we're underway with it but other than that everything besides this weather is quiet right well about the arrive program I
think it's really wonderful that that all started last fall it did and that you have this mental health professional um once hopefully twice a month to um be there at the station all day not only to
go with the officer during calls that involved a mental health crisis but also to follow up on other um calls that you've had that involve mental health issues yeah the followup is key because a lot of times it's um you know we go do
our job it's very simple if you're in crisis we'll get you the help you need you know you're going to be you put on a bus or you know um whatever you need but then there's no followup right there's no hey it's a week later how you doing let me just check in you know and sometimes they need that and it's and
it's important and uh there's a list like I said cranberry comes first and then if there's an emergency we act accordingly I wish we could do it once a week um but you know we have to we have to start slow so but I understand that it's a reciprocal thing that other
townships that are involved in it if you don't have the person that particular day and that person's not involved in emergency in the town that they're in then they can participate with cranberry they can but again home rule always wins so it's the other towns that's covering
you and there's four or five you know you're just stacked in Q so that's the disadvantage of it it's nice that there is um but you know it it's always better if it's in at home you know okay thank you that's all I have the report thank you any questions about
the arrival program okay the liaison report Mr Christopher thank you for being here and serving as our liaison to the township committee is um you don't have to but is there anything that you would like to share
with us from the township okay all right great thank you for being here we really appreciate it okay our budget um I have have down here on the agenda to review the budget the budget is going to be adapted in
March so we can't um have a copy in front of us right now because it's not available but um we did get all of the money that we put in the budget with the exception of the $8,000 for the Teen
Mental Health First Aid and that's because that money is coming from a grant this year so it looks like as long as everything goes smoothly with the budget being adopted that um we should be okay with what we submitted in the
fall okay okay good Mr Christopher arazon agrees thank you okay old business Teen Mental Health First Aid I have down here that it's starting in March Ria I guess
you're getting all set for that yes we are uh starting March 11 and it'll it'll be every day except for Thursdays um with a rotating schedule so we have the staff for that um and we're just ready to
begin that's fantastic and you've had the staff trained which is important you had a certain percentage that you need every three years yes and that's great okay we're looking forward to it and it will go from March until how many weeks
approximately well there there's seven well six classes and then we build in a makeup okay so we did we did the intro in December or November December so hopefully we won't run into the problem last year where classes don't show up
and then we have to use the makeup for that reason okay um and but the schedule's simpler this year okay good are there any last period classes because I know that oh yeah the students it kind of runs into a problem with the students who have to leave early to go to sports
games yeah um there are that's it's their schedule that they gave to us so there's nothing that really could be done those students can't necessarily make up if they miss okay I mean they can try to go to another class but they're going to have to De you know we can't keep track of
that there's so many classes right I know okay okay and and how did the introduction go did was it like one introduction in the auditorium for all the students was it individual it was no it was several sessions in the AUD tum though okay more than one class per
session went well yeah it was one day great and in the past I know you talked about how it would be great to bring this program to middle school but um I know the way it's designed now it's only really developmentally appropriate for 10th 11th and 12th grade um if you were
to do something like an overview or an intro to Middle School um in at an assembly what would that look like well it depends like how many classes are you talking about like in for the whole grade for once ass the
whole grade how many eth graders do you have just you know to um explore possibilities oh that's not too bad my classes are small yeah I mean the intro would probably be similar to what we did for the 10th graders in December
just an overview of what what to expect in the class so you know it really but they wouldn't have the class so no they wouldn't have the class so then would it not make sense for them to have like um I mean that we
had some comments as I mentioned previously that they would have liked to learn this when they were younger right you know that's the issue but but there's really no way the way it's designed now I mean I can check to see if there's if there's
another program but don't I don't think there is it's just teen to teen okay I could see what the ages are but I I believe it's 10th to 12th right yeah yeah that's my understanding okay but I'm sure that the health classes you
address mental health uh Wellness in in all of your health classes yes that's uh a topic we touch on every year and then each year as they get older we just dive in deeper okay so they get it for years with us okay great
thank you um Joanne can I ask something um I was looking at this report that came out with um in this in New Jersey the schools that had the most um police you know come in for bullying violence
this and that and the top 30 right in the state of New Jersey and I was shocked to find the most of the schools for Middle School I was like shocked I thought it would be all high school but I was like oh my goodness it like blew
my mind and fortunately Princeton High School cranberry school is not in there but still like the need for the middle schoolers obviously is there and um they need it early now you know it's not the high schoolers anymore it's the middle schoolers who really need to know how
to process their intense emotion in a productive you know positive way and they're not learning that right now right well you know my my idea is is you know um address it from all as many angles as you can to try to get the
message across to the students you know the parents the school you know um Scouts whatever kind of community organizations that kids are involved in uh just to know that there are supports out there you know people care people
are listening people want to help and it's okay um to say if you need help so I mean wherever they can get that message I agree it's so important and you know if if we can as a committee you know uncover other ways to
do that to get that message to the students that it's okay to ask for help it's okay you know to say you know um I'm having a hard time right now then if there's another way for us to get that message across that would be
great okay thank you okay so the um Municipal Alliance pamphlet homeowner liability everybody has a copy of that we had talked about this at previous meetings so I just want to go over it um
there's also a flyer that says no so this is something that we talked about in the fall it's um it's a brochure that says it's actually um it's a two-sided brochure but I made a copy of it for you so it's like a two-page on
regular copy paper you you guys have it looks like a oh it looks like this if you guys can share it I don't I don't know if I had enough for everybody okay so uh parents who host lose the most and it has tips
for parents on um as a parent you know of course to not serve alcohol to your teens friends under the 20 uh age of 21 to let your neighbors know if there's going to be a party to secure all alcohol Etc um things that you can do as
a parent in party hosting suggestions and then on the back it gives some facts and St statistics um and in you know um Chief Owens did review it um the only suggestion that he had was you know if
we were to add anything he would add the 211 in case there are emergencies um well it's not really for emergencies but it's for resources people can call that number to get information so um when I went to this website at the
bottom drug-free action alliance.org it doesn't really take you to um a valid website because the organization is now called the prevention action
Alliance and they um this organization is out of Ohio and they were the ones who put this slogan together parents who host lose the most and there looks like there's an upto-date one but it's not
clickable for some reason so it doesn't look like something can be ordered but in looking a little bit further I did find this flyer and this flyer actually does have the correct sponsor which is the prince
Princeton action Alliance and it has the same type of information that the brochure has unfortunately we can't get the brochure but it looks like you could just make copies of this flyer so I just really
wanted to kind of close the loop on this because it's been on the agenda um you know for for different um for the last few meetings and I want to see if um how the committee feels about making this
flyer or information available to parents and if so um have how what would be the best way how we can do it what would be the best way to make it available so I just want to leave that open to the committee to um for
discussion first question is um what do you think about um this information being available to parents I mean it's self-explanatory anybody against this you have the question I think it's a great thing um
to make it available I mean we could put it in town hall we can um I know I don't have too much traffic coming into headquarters unless there's a problem but actually that um we do have some information on um in the headquarters yeah we could put it on the township website I mean I I think I would want to
go look at it myself a little more um you would want to know what I'm sorry I would want to go look at the website myself a little bit more just to you know see uh See but I I don't I don't see any negative in in advertising this you know whether it comes from the school um as an email or um publicly
putting it out I mean you know it is a law New Jersey you know God forbid something happens and you're hosting a party and you know you're going to be charged in a way around it you know and a lot of parents don't know that or or the ones that do then roll the dice
right without divulging any confidential information about cranberry is this an issue that should be brought to the attention of the community well I'm G to take cranberry out of it I'm I'm gonna say as a parent yeah it should be brought to the community I mean you know um are we having ramp of parties here
that we're having problems with no we do a very good job of uh policing ourselves in this Township but nonetheless there's always exceptions to everything and I think um this kind of information cannot hurt a parent whether they choose to listen or ABY by it then so be it you
know it doesn't hurt to information is power what you do with it is on you right thank you you're welcome any other thoughts feelings about this Dr dler I I Echo what um jeppi has said and I I think that you know it could be added we have a digital backpack that's part of
our weekly Communicator that has a lot of different kinds of resources in it could easily go there I'd also make the suggestion um what are our connections to the high school and can it be shared with them to kind of communicate home to the families there okay um Sasha you
used to be our PHS liaison I know that you're not on the board um of the p uh PTO but do you have any suggestions on how it could be shared with the high school because that's a great suggestion because um you know if we're talking about teens this would be helpful for
parents I want to be naive and say I don't need this at my school but I won't say that but I definitely think that this could be shared at the high school too it might be uh more more appropriate but again not to say that we shouldn't share it as well thank
you um I mean in terms of sharing it with the Princeton High School Community I guess um you know um it it probably requires some tact because um I think it's just one of those topics in
Princeton that you know uh we could put out there and see who would um open the door for us to share with the community um and um you know I like what you said about rolling the dice I feel like a lot of you know households do roll the dice
on this one and so far it's been okay but you just need one wrong thing and then you know everybody knows what happened to that household in West Windsor last summer but you know and those kind of stories needs to be shared and
um I don't know exactly how to go about that well um in um you know piggybacking on with Dr dler said you know uh the digital backpack I mean I could send um a letter to the principal and saying you
know we discuss this through our cranberry Municipal Alliance and you know cranberry school is willing to send that out in their digital backpack you know um we you know we're providing this for you as well do you have something
like that that um you know you can share with the parents they may already have it in place they could yeah and we just piggy back and um you know I I only brought up our our school because I've been doing this now for 26 years and I'm
a parent of 24 a 24 year old and a 19y old and I have never seen communication like our our school does here ever and obviously my kids have gone through uh the whole um you know K through college um so to that end I will say eventually
our kids are going to wind up in in high school so it's not a bad place to start but Princeton might do it already so I just think someone you know you should reach out and say hey this is what we want to do our Middle School you know we were encouraging it I will tell you that the majority of our problems that we
have in law enforcement with this kind of stuff that we're talking about even in cranber they're high school not too many middle schoolers that are you know partying it up um but to that end there's exceptions to everything um but this you know will be well served my my
thought behind it is these kids in our Middle School sixth seventh and eighth grade are going to go to Princeton you know for the most part the small small portion will go elsewhere but they're going to wind up there so if they see it now yep yep we know about it let's let's get going so is everybody um on the
committee in agreement that it can go through the middle school students through the digital backpack at some point that you deem appropriate yeah you just send it my way I can put it in there draw attention and then it can stay there as a resource okay maybe it
can Al um maybe one time to think about that it could go out is during drug and alcohol fax week um if you think that that would be a good time and is everybody also in agreement that I can reach out to the high school I can see if they already have something like this in place um and if not if they're
interested I I would make the connection to the high school of of what the municipal Alliance how we are already connected to them you guys do we do so much for them and do a lot of service there and they they they get the benefit of it because of the kids that we send
there so they just reminding them that we have this great connection with them already and that we'd like to share this resource for them to you know disseminate in in how they you know see fit but I think just reminding them that it's already a connection it's not just our kids but it's something that happens
for the high school what's the program Mara that you do it's all of the training the um yeah the first aid piece so there's a already a really nice connection that that we have and in addition to that we do participate in the Princeton High
School summer orientation for freshmen we provide sandwiches and information so you know yeah I think and I would probably I would probably D direct it if you don't have a contact specifically I think to the guidance Department might be because
then their Sac um coordinator will be there that kind of so I would the head of guidance my John mc mc mcnight mcmillion mc McMichael I'll find out who it is
yeah something okay um I've been a sorry to him if he's watching this I mean I have to say I've been a parent of PHS for you know eight years straight and um I've never received any information from the school regarding any of this kind of stuff it's yeah okay so I think th those
were excellent suggestions thank you and I'll follow up with the um the the head of guidance one more comment I know um my par my kids are 20 and 21 now but um we actively use the Facebook group for
the par for the Princeton parents Princeton High School parents um and I think people are more apt to read things at least the people who are engaged in that group so um I'd be happy to talk to the moderator and distribute this if you want me to through that okay I can send
you the PDF yeah that would be great thank you very much okay um any other discussion about that okay excellent we can move on to the next item on the agenda which is the
speaker for students 2025 Ed gity I know that you talked about it last month um when I wasn't able to be here um we I had talked to the U middle school counselor at Berry school and she is
interested in having him come and speak during career day and the topic is all about um making safe decisions and so it falls in line with our mission as a municipal Alliance and it also fits in
well to career day and they they would like to have um a keynote speaker so last month it wasn't um we we weren't permitted to have any kind of roll call vote if we wanted to do that because the
budget wasn't adapted but I did talk um I did correspond with h Denise marabello and she said that there's enough money in our temporary budget if we wanted to pursue this and um so we would be able
to um have a roll call vote to approve it if we decided that we wanted to do that so before we have any kind of a roll call vote I just want to put it out there career day is coming up in March it's mid-march I'm not sure what the day
is March 14th okay so career day is March 14th Ed gy is a speaker that um has been at cranberry School numerous times I would say maybe at least six times for the career day keynote
um and he was very well received and we would have him back every 3 years as soon as we had a new group of middle school students and actually personally he was my favorite speaker that um I've
ever got to hear for that age group so um I would highly recommend him and this is our opportunity as a committee to have him present that message uh during career day to the middle school students the cost for the program is
$5,500 and that is for two 50-minute programs so he would do the keynote and then he would also be available to do a breakout session and that means that students get to sign up for the different speakers that they get to go to there are a number of speakers and he
would be one of the choices where the students will get to choose him that's the way that the school counselor sets it up so um does anybody have any questions or comments about having Ed G
um speak to the students on career day no okay so then um would anyone like to make a motion to approve having Ed gity at the middle school career day sponsored paid
for by the cranberry Municipal Alliance for $5,000 500 would anybody like to make a motion I'll make a motion okay so Sasha is making a motion and would anybody like to second the motion I'll second
who's that me okay Erica okay so let me just put that there that yours okay and now we'll have a roll call vote for um the cost of $5,500 for Ed G to do two session 50-minute sessions to Cranberry school
so Ria yes me yes Chief yes Dr dler yes yes um Andrew is excused uh Pon Patel yes and
um Erica yes yes Diane is excused and Sasha yes okay so the committee just voted to have Ed gity speak at the career day in Cranberry for the amount of 5 ,500 thank you I'll get I'll start
to get that processed okay so the next item on the agenda is the American Heart Association so I know last month um Erica shared that cranberry School through mid-February to mid-march has a fundraiser for the American Heart
Association and does um activities with the students so Erica would you like to talk about how the kickoff went for the uh for the American Association yeah so uh we kicked off on Thursday um and it went really well so the kids had their
buddy classes um the little guys were with the bigger kids um they watched a video just introducing what the fundraiser is what the American Heart Association is about the people that they help um all the resources that they provide um to people in need and then
they met um the characters for this year so like the theme um is ducks like the rubber ducks um I have little ones they're obsessed everything everybody makes like get their characters and rubber ducks and I don't know why but it's a fan favorite for sure um so they
introduced all the characters what they stand for um and then once they watched the video they had the red hearts um that they decorated some Drew pictures some wrote sayings um one that cracked me up was uh no drugs yes pizza and I'm
like we kind of need to talk about this a little bit um but but they really had fun with it um and now I am currently working on hanging up all those hearts around the building um and so it went really well the first weekend you know they went home with the paperwork to register and everything on Thursday so
the first weekend we already had um 17 students register um which is great they've uh raised already over ,000 um for the American Heart Association and it was only the first weekend so we did another big push today
uh during lunches and I think you know so far we're having some pretty good success with it um and we have our basketball game set um where we're going to beat PD um our our Varsity players are going to play them uh March 4th which is
really exciting the kids are pumped about it um you know and so we have a lot going into that as well um so hopefully you know fingers crossed this is going to be a success okay and if anybody watching this meeting would like
to contribute to your uh the cause uh for the American Heart Association how would they go about doing it anybody in the community yeah so if they would like to they should be able to go onto the American Heart Association and just put in like do a search on there for
cranberry school and they should be able to make a donation right to our page excellent It's also on our district website so they can go right to Cranberry school.org and um I just want to say thanks to Erica she's paid attention to every detail and organizing really great campaign and we're super
excited about this game I think it has the chance to be really big and the the importance behind it is raising money for the American Heart Association but the way cranberry works it brings a community together too so the idea of us partnering up with the police is fun um
we are getting the PTO involved they'll be doing a big sale we've got um uh girls that outside of school cheer they're going to do we we're going to have some cheerlead and we also will probably have the mascot and there's one other group that
I now it's it's totally just slit my mind of just trying to get all different areas involved so oh um Miss shank is gonna have the students perform they'll be singing the National Anthem so it's bringing in a lot of different schools which I think will bring a lot lot of
families to this event for such a great cause so we're excited and all of it's up on the district website so again shout out to Erica and big thanks to our new Chief over there for making this happen than you go PD no we're gonna win do we have to do a nice little bet here
no no no no no thank you Erica and thank you Chief um uh Mr Christopher would you be able to share with the TC um a way that any Community member who would like to contribute um direct them to the appropriate
places okay when is the basketball game by the way March March 4th is it in the even even or 6m oh so the community can go to that yes excellent okay and who are the police playing against they are playing our Varsity
kids so boys and girls varsity yeah they'll each have two quarters to play them so they'll have fresh legs that's excting we will not have fresh legs okay so um since it's a fundraiser what is the cost to get into the game five at that's a great deal and so much fun what
a great night okay and um just to say that since I wasn't at the meeting last month I did send some ideas over to Erica on how the municipal Alliance can you know um contribute in some way so I got those hearts to you I got string
with little clothes pins so you can hang them up and um I sent you some resources one of the things that I sent was um a little exercise guide from the American Heart Association for kids and and um hopefully you were able to make use of
that resource um it's it's here somewhere um but I can't get my finger on it so I'll pass it around later and um also I sent you some mindfulness activities um breathing
yoga um and then also very short scenes uh peaceful scenes from around the world that the children can watch during transition times so um I hope that so those ideas are useful yeah so I plan on sprinkling those in throughout the month
that we're doing this um and again thank you very much for sending all the materials uh our way we were able to use them and the hearts will be up tomorrow morning excellent awesome so you're going to hang them up in different places around yes I'm finding chunks of
hallway that I can take up yeah so they'll be everywhere for kids to see so you'll have a lot of them oh yes so it'll be nice it'll be a nice little be awesome display okay I did find 25 ways to keep moving and all the resources that I sent Erica are actually from the American Heart
Association for kids even the mindfulness activities so I'll just pass this around so everybody can see and again thank you so much Erica Chi Dr dler um I love how cranberry School comes together for a good
cause okay so we'll move on to the next uh National drugs and alcohol week which is March 17th to the 23rd um hopefully the students will have the the public service announcement ready to show and also um last month I
know you talked about the parent break through a partnership for drug free New Jersey I'll just give um a quick little summary of the video for anybody who didn't get a chance to watch the video um it's it's about the role the
important role the parents play with preventing underage drinking um and uh using vaping for students and any kind of substance abuse and the earlier parents start the talk with start to
talk with their students about these issues the um the better it is and it says that you can start as early as the child is ready using age appropriate examples and language and they talk about um starting to have this
conversation with your kids at their level of understanding at least by the third grade so parents who talk with their kids are 15 minutes per day are uh the kids are 67% less likely to um experiment with drugs kids are
stressed we're all stressed and the video talks about healthy and unhealthy ways to deal with stress it talks about information about opioids um about the how doctors must tell parents that opioids are addictive
it's New Jersey mandate and um New Jersey has a limit doctors only allowed to prescribe 5 days Supply some states are seven days teens are who are prescribed opioids before high school graduation it increases the risk of
future opioid misuse After High School by 33% then it talks about the Medicine Chest initiative and um and it's there are five easy steps to the medicine chest challenge one take inventory of
your prescription this is for parents take inventory of your prescription medications and over-the-counter medications secure your medicine dispose of unused unwanted medication do not share prescribed medications and talk to your childrens and Physicians about the
dangers of prescription drug abuse so um those are some really important messages along with um let's see in the last five years there's been a 900% increase in vaping among um
students and it gives suggestions on what to talk to your kids about regarding ecigarettes how to talk to them a lot of great strategies so the video is 20 minutes long and I know that
the committee talked about the possibility of making that available to parents during drug and alcohol fact week so I just wanted to see since that week is occurring next month if the the video um if the committee is in favor of
making that video available to parents any thoughts yes okay okay so everybody's pretty much in favor now you can't um you can make it available but whether the parents watch it or not is really up
to them so I was wondering if um what everybody thought about having some kind of an incentive uh I don't know how this would really work but if a parent watches the video they can somehow let somebody at
the school know that they watched it and they can be um included in a drawing maybe to win one of those little Medicine Chest safes that you can buy on the internet um should we have that's
just one idea that I'm throwing out um could anybody think of any um incentives or any ideas for encouraging parents to watch the video because it has good facts and information but uh it's very
hard to you know put aside a little time in such a a time when people are so busy I think the idea is great I I think it would be really hard to control that or be able to know that it was watched so I don't I don't I think there's a 10
things that you could do as a raffle or or a giveaway but I don't know how you would be able to monitor or who would really be in charge of that in any way so I would be cautious of that I just don't know that you would and and I I think you're gonna have it's like
Murphy's Law you're gonna have all the people watch it that it's not the people that you want to be watching it that the people that you really want to be watching it don't really care about the incentive is my guess I said that on camera camera but I I feel that to be true it happens a lot um I think if we
make it available I think push it out that week I think with all of these things if we put it out there it's there for families and while they might not know they needed in that moment there might something come up where they say oh you know what I saw that I saw something and they're going to go back
to it and it's going to be helpful um I'd rather do that in that way than um incentivizing it it might just be hard and more work on on our ends okay okay just my thought okay well no I
appreciate your thoughts uh any other thoughts or ideas well I agree it would be really hard to you know get that information and this probably should be um a larger discussion at another time but uh the
way to really get parents out or um way to get parents to you know look at this information that's available to them you know it's a lot of the parents who come or parents who um may not be the ones who necessarily need the
information um but you're right to say that if they feel that they do need it uh they know it was presented and perhaps maybe look back you know each time um the municipal Alliance does different Gathering so I see one of your
agenda items is the National Night Out there's always information and things that you put out and bring to those occasions and maybe depending on each occasion you can highlight different things so it could really be all about this some of these topics that you have
right now and that be the focus for this year's National Night Out something like that because those are situations when you are getting tons of people coming by your table and you have these awesome crafts for the kids but then you have this great information for parents and so maybe it's just being mindful or
thought about what you'll do each time instead of not saying that this happens you probably do a variety of information each year but really kind of um pushing one type of information each each time you are at different events well that's an excellent suggestion and I agree with
you because I have found that there's too much information out it's really overwhelming but if you hone in on maybe two or three things at the most and you try to get that message across that
probably would be best okay excellent all right thank you so let's move over to the learning series webinar um this is just something I I bring up um every month there are two um webinars
that are available online through the partnership for a drug-free New Jersey one is on February 27th and that is preventing opioid misuse and addiction and then on March 13th Community strategies to fight opioid addiction so
those are available to watch you don't have to necessarily watch them on the specific day that they're on when they're live you can go to the recorded version of it and that's how i' I I've been able to get um speakers that we've had in the past and um they usually have
very knowledgeable um professional people to talk about the the different topics that they have so um I would highly recommend that and then I gave um everybody a flyer uh from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School prevent opioid
overdose save lives so um the medical school at Robert Wood Johnson they have one two six different sessions a month virtual sessions on um Narcan training and if you participate you get
a free kit that's mailed to you I know that this was discussed last month and um Diane had mentioned the benefit of having attend attend one person but if you're not able to and there aren't any available if you want um anybody could attend any of these sessions you just
have to call and pre-register participate in the session and then get a free kit and just have it on hand if you ever need it so this is just a resource and this is hanging up in the kiosk in front of town hall so um if
perhaps maybe this can be put um in the police department I don't know if there's a way to display this if anybody's interested in it that comes in to look at the different information you have in the lobby okay so I just wanted to put it out there that this is another
way that you can receive the training if um anybody's interested okay so new business National Night Out um that's coming up in August yes the first Tuesday in August and unfortunately it was a wash out last year uh but we were
we wanted to participate we had a a big tent we have a we had a lot of um people uh along uh on the topic of Health and Wellness that were going to be set up in the Pavilion and it was going to be a lot of great resources but it didn't
happen but we would like to well I shouldn't speak for all of us I would like to um see our committee to participate again in a similar way this summer um first so first I want to ask Chief are you doing it is it something
that we should explore is Officer Glennon the one to speak to um we're doing it he's being reassigned he's getting promoted tomorrow to Sergeant oh congratulations so he'll be all night so I'm not sure yet he'll be the contact
it's really hard for a midnight officer to you know engage in this uh obviously works during the night and then he's off during the day and to do it you know uh that fashion so probably be a day shift we are definitely doing it as long as I'm Chief we're going to do naal night
out there was something I pushed for as a lieutenant and it was granted under Chief varia so we're going to continue to do it so we can't do it anymore okay and um is it all right if we participate absolutely in the same way um would that be all right with everybody um are you
all in agreement you know for us to do the health and wellness Pavilion again give it a try Okay um now it's kind of early but um we don't have to start planning yet and will you let us know when you have the the officer who's
assigned to that and um is there anybody um on our committee who is interested in being on the committee we can't have more than four people because we can't have a quarum um but last year it was
Diane Sasha and me um would anybody like to work on this project okay Sasha okay I'll ask Diane anybody else interested um it's yeah it's this is for
like a pre-planning committee just to come up with any other ideas and um reach out to different organizations to participate to get the tent and the um any kind of games we want for the
students okay thank you okay so we can talk more about that that um as the time comes uh pen medicine Princeton Health Community wellness program that is Ria's Department um I was looking at your different programs that you have
available I found a few that I was really interested in first of all um I know you have popup yoga classes yoga classes and I had gotten an invitation to that unfortunately I was not able to do it but that's very exciting and then
um I also saw that you're having a youth mental health first aid class I think that's free it's not free okay so do you want to tell us about that that's on March 10th and March 17th yes that's the program that we offered to the staff of
Princeton High School so it's um a I don't know how many hours it is but it's for people that deal with youth and to be able to same thing like s teen it's the same thing it's just giving people
resources a lot and to be that first line of defense if someone is struggling so it it's geared toward youth but it's for adults to take okay the course well that it's an excellent opportunity if anybody wants information about it um I have a couple Flyers here
and um or I could email it to you so if anybody's interested in taking that Teen Mental Health first aid for adults to be trained in working with youth it's youth it's Health youth mental health yes okay
because we have adults we have youth we have um Team peer-to-peer okay so it's youth Mental Health First Aid but it's for adults adults in learning how to provide resources to you yes all right to assess and then provide resources
okay thank you and is there anything else that you can think just that we will participate in National Night Out again okay great we do it every year last year of course it was rained out um and then we're in the middle of our free CPR month but we were not able to
to schedule with the the school um but we did go to Princeton High School I know that doesn't really affect you guys so much but hopefully next year we'll get you on the schedule okay and we we want to say thank you though because we have we did have pen medicine come out
to both our PD days offer sessions to our staff part of their programming um one was Cherry yoga and then the other was a body movements kind of like if you're to kind of keep active during the day um and uh both were really um well
received so we were very appreciative oh good well thanks yeah we we go to a lot of the schools on their professional development days so whenever you have them just let us know just give us a little more warning just so that we have enough staff but this month was is rough our our February is always rough because
we go all over like we taught over about 900 students in Hamilton over 900 actually in CPR we went to free CPR it's free CPR month family and friends so it was actually all actually we're going there tomorrow from a makeup Day from
the last last Wednesday was a snow day but uh it's thousands of kids wow it's all the middle it's all the elementary schools middle schol middle schools sorry no go ahead can I ask you how you were able to you know bring into the to
the school so we go into the gym and they bring the classes in and we do like actually each I had the numbers today I entered them some classes were 70 kids how did you we bring there you know we have a van we put all the mannequins in
the van and we have a bunch of staff I know was it the Board of Ed people who opened that door for you to come in and train the students we're we're at so many schools we're hunteran we're at Hamilton South Brunswick no because I've never heard of that at princ high school that's why I'm just shocked yeah we I
mean it depends on who you know who who we get in touch with that allows us to go in but I mean you I'm sure you heard the story in South brunic about the the two boys that saved their dad after taking the class oh yeah see so we
tryable we try to go to all the schools I mean it's it's 45 minute class or actually less if their periods don't last 45 minutes but um it's quite the scene we we're all walking around just making sure they're doing those compressions right what you're talking
about right now though is the free part you do programming that there's a pay part too and that's what South Brunswick does I I just know that from being there I know they do and then they do the actual the kids used to get the cards and have were official like it was part
of their programming yeah we could do that too yeah we can do that we do the staff for a lot of the schools as well so I know Erica had mentioned that she's hoping to have you guys out to do you know CPR for the middle school students in the future yeah okay yeah we were
discussing um staff and seventh grade students okay excellent and I know Ria you had mentioned that you do um you have done like you said Professional Day programs but um a whole like a half day
you've done didn't you say that like for for staff for student day so we do it two different things one's for the professional development days so we'll go in and we'll do like an intro to mindfulness or CPR or stress injury
management we'll have different sessions and the staff can choose sort of like what we did in cranbery the other day and then for the students we go in and we have stations set in the gym so one is how to wash your hands properly one
is nutrition one is Yoga one is CPR and we have all these different stations the classes come in and they rotate 10 minutes or even less per station that's fantastic and that's like a full day so it's kind of like almost like an assembly day so how long would
each class actually be at the rotation area it depends on how many stations we have but I think for me it was like when I did the yoga it was like eight or 10 minutes okay it's their period during the period there one period a class can
rotate during the different um places of you know different ways of Wellness yes okay okay I think we're going to Monroe next in March okay well that would be something you know for the school to keep in mind if you ever wanted to do
something like that with the students and with the staff yeah and um the one other thing I've wanted to ask about is I know that you have at the Plainsboro preserve a um a wellness day for whoever would like to participate and sign up
for that yeah that's our annual well we started in September it's a reset and renew Retreat so uh it went really well in in September and it's uh we're offering it again in May May 18 May okay I did attend it in September and I absolutely
loved it and I'm really looking forward to when you have it again in May yeah well you can sign up already for it oh I better sign up then as soon as I leave here thank you you're welcome okay any questions for RIA thank you for providing all these wonderful resources
and I'm so thankful that you're a part of our committee so we get to you know pick your brain and um have you talk about these great resources that penmet offers well I'm happy to be here thank you okay so we'll move along uh let's
see parent programs cranberry School parent Institute I just wanted to check in to see how things are going and also to ask if perhaps you would like us to to provide u a speaker for next year I appreciate that um we are having
our next um parent Institute this Thursday and uh we've been using this year to try to figure out what the right recipe is to get parents um as you know we've had tremendous thanks to the municipal Alliance some tremendous speakers and then the number of of
parents that come out haven't been as as much many as we've hoped and the programming um for those who do come we get the greatest feedback it's been great things so we're trying to figure out what's the best format so this whole school year we've done things in person
we've done things online um we partnered with the police and we did cyber security and that was well received and actually for those that were there it was a virtual one and the numbers weren't all that large but for those that were there I think it was really well received and we're actually going
to bring in the people that did the cyber security to do something with our Middle School this year um so good things are coming from it this Thursday the one we're having is in person and we are having kids invited
as well we're seeing if that works better we had something in the fall that was math related but it was family related and that was actually well attended so tomorrow uh Thursday night's a steam night and um we're hoping that maybe it's the idea of creating almost a
family type event so that there's good information but um an opportunity for a family to come out together maybe that is the draw um but we haven't fully kind of cemented what works best we have one more happening in
March and that's around seal George mski is coming out and um I think it was supposed to be in person it's now going to be virtual so we'll see of that um I know it's the topics and I know it's the time of year and there's so many
variables um at this juncture I I don't know what the the right thing to do is so we're not giving up we're just trying to find the right one so before we have the municipal Alliance spend a lot of money on a speaker um I would you know
we're definitely open we've done surveys and just trying to figure out what our families want and need so it's been hard but we're appreciative and so if there's something that this group thinks would be good for our families we're we're more than open to try to keep trying
okay so perhaps it's too early to to talk really about um putting anything really um specifically in place for the fall yeah I think later on um in the spring we'll be starting to think about next year we're trying to finish this
year out we finish next month and then we'll have some data and we could probably make some decisions then so if we want to um talk about it in one of our later meetings that might make more sense okay so we'll put it on the agenda for a later meeting appreciate it and in the
meantime um we'll just kind of keep our ears and eyes open for the possibility of some topics okay thank you okay so senior neighbor activities um Iman Elba Dai had sent an email to me in the
fall saying that she passed along information to one of the township um administrative assistance Donna and she works she does a lot with the seniors and so I reached out to her and I let
her know about some programs that we learned about last year through Wellspring one is the wise program and the wise program is a program for seniors it's a six session curriculum facilitated by Specialists it
meets once a week and it talks about a lot of different you know topics based on uh it's evidence-based based on Substance Abuse Prevention and wellness topic Stress Management strategies for
Healthy Living um medication management Etc so she goes to the senior meetings that are not here at the senior center now because of the construction going on but at the library and she was going to put some feelers out to see if that's something that they're interested in but
it would be no cost to to us it would be a free program through Wellspring but we did learn about it when we had them here um to speak about the program and then there was another program called um senior Jeopardy and that's not a six
session program that's a one session program and there are six different topics that they can choose from conflict resolution substance use and abuse by older adult nutrition and healthy aging prescription drugs maintaining a healthy mind and healthy coping skills and it's a Jeopardy type
game that they can bring to one of their monthly meetings and it would be a fun way to just pass knowledge along to the attendees who are seniors so um any ideas that we have for senior programming Donna would be the person to
reach out to and if anybody has any ideas if you want to share with me I can pass along to her as well so I just wanted to give you an update about that so discussion I just wanted to tell you about a program that was forward to me forwarded to me
the scouts are doing a program Scout Troop uh 2024 is hosting an event at the cranberry library and that is I'm not sure when it is
because that's not on my paper here but oh it's February 24th and it's called real stories dangers drugs alcohol and tobacco and it is with the speaker is renowned forensic expert and former ruers
Professor Mr Michael Emmanuel and he talks about real stories and surprising facts he'll uncover the hidden dangers of drugs alcohol and tobacco in a way that's both engaging and relevant for middle and high school students as well as parents and there will be interactive
discussion and it's just a way to change the way um you think about substance risks so I just wanted to share that with everybody in case anybody's interested in that because um it was sent my way and I thought it was really great and um we do have an opening for
um an alternate if anybody knows of anybody who's interested and I just wanted to also just put out there that the number 988 is available for mental health emergencies if anybody has a mental
health or substance abuse emergency um there's a a national hotline number that's 988 so anybody can call to get help and resources so um there is no public here oh yes we do have a member of the public is there any
public comment okay um does anybody have anything else to discuss okay would anybody like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting motion Dr dler would anybody like to second the motion okay all in
favor I all in favor okay okay everybody thank you for being here and have a great day