##VIDEO ID:z7CxioOvKyM## good afternoon th uh Tuesday uh November 19th cranberry Municipal Alliance meeting call to order Al let's all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all hi it's okay statement of adequate notice all right the statement of adequate notice pursuant to the Sunshine Law adequate notice in accordance with the open public meeting Act was provided on February 23rd 2024 of this meeting's date time in 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 we're going to move on to roll call Miss Schulman here miss charwin here miss benov here Dr dler here uh Miss Stanley is excuse okay thank you Mr Patel here Chief Owens here miss Kaplan here miss Weinstein here Mr Kumar is excused and missett is excused thank you okay thank you the minutes of October 15 2024 does anybody have any changes or additions to the minutes okay does anyone want to make a motion to accept the minutes make a motion to accept the minutes Chief does anybody want to second the motion I second okay Ria thank you and we need to have a roll call vote yes so the uh minutes of October 15 2024 Miss shman yes Miss charwin yes Miss benov yes Dr dler yes Miss Stanley is excused Mr Patel yes Chief Owens yes Miss Kaplan yes Miss Weinstein yes Mr kar's Excuse miss shete is excused that is unanimous thank you thank you okay the student representative report report our students are not here but we do have a jam fest upcoming on this Friday and that's very exciting would you yes um yeah so um we're readily getting ready for it there is a new um PTO person in charge and um they've made some tweaks and I think um it's going to be exciting for students the spaces they're utilizing the new auxiliary gym um I know that they found a different vendor for the games um so we're really excited exed and can't wait it'll be I think a fun night it's Friday from uh 7 to 9 p.m. would any representatives from the municipal Alliance be permitted to go if we wanted to just check it out and see how things are going yeah we're going to use the entrance at the big gym so um if anybody wants to come by and see it I'll be there so if you even want to just ask for me I I'm happy to walk you guys around and let you see it okay thank you and I did work with um Amanda uaz and Scout to get the new vendor rolling video games of New Jersey and we're really excited about that I think Amanda worked really hard to find a company to put that in place and I gave her all the feedback from the students of the games that they wanted and she said that they'd be able to you know um include those games so I'm really excited that that worked out and I know Scout really worked hard you were really in a lot of communication with Amanda and with rolling video games of New Jersey because in the past it wasn't done through a purchase order so and this is a new company to work with so I know there was a lot of going back and forth so thank you for doing that okay so the cost of the Rolling video games per jamfest will be $500 and we've paid around that about $480 in the past so I would just like to make a motion that um moving forward Ward we just continue to have this service at the jamfest the rolling video games of New Jersey for $500 per Jam F Fest two Jam fests per year so would anybody like to make a motion to um approve that expenditure of ,000 a year unless there's additional Jam fests question absolutely my concern is that we haven't used them yet so I almost feel like should we see how this week goes how it is and how we like their service and then make this decision and do this motion next month and by all means we can do it and undo it I guess too but we just haven't seen them yet and I would probably think we'd want to know that it's a good company to use okay so yes so the $500 will be for the rolling video games of New Jersey and we'll just then make a motion that we pay for the $500 for this Jam this Friday and we will come back as a committee and we'll talk about how it went and then we'll decide if we want to hire them or if possibly look into another company for the future okay so would anybody like to make them oh any more discussion about the video game vendor okay would anybody like to make a motion to approve the $500 it pretty much has been approved in the past but we'll just make it official official since it's a new vendor I make a motion Dr dler would anybody like to second the motion I'll second okay and a roll call vote all right Miss Schulman yes Miss charwin yes Miss benov yes Dr dler yes uh Miss Stanley's Excuse miss rtel yes Chief Owens yes Miss Kaplan yes Miss Weinstein yes Mr Kumar is excused machete is excused that's unanimous to pay the $500 for the jamfest vendor thank you okay and I understand that the theme is going to be um a glow theme this Friday and uh Mrs uas the new coordinator had also asked if in the past we paid for decorations and we have not paid for decorations in the past so she reached out to the PTO at the same time that she reached out to me on behalf of the municipal Alliance and the um the cost she she did the approximate expenses for decorations for this jamfest and it came out to $190 40 cents and the PTO said that they have not paid for decorations in the past but they would pay for um this Friday but they didn't really commit to like an on an ongoing basis so I just wanted to throw that out there if um our committee would like to contribute possibly $200 per jam fest that they could use for decorations what are your thoughts about that I know Dr dler last time we were together mentioned how popular the jamfest is how many students go it's it's um and it's really something that the students enjoy very much I support it I mean the kids come out because they are you know excited about the theme and it sort of reminds me of in high school they have like poo dance and you know the kids love going there to see what the theme is about so yes I do support it okay because I don't know where they would get the money for the supplies if the PTO didn't have it in their budget and we didn't Supply it so um any other thoughts or ideas about um contributing towards towards their theme and supplies and the things that they um have in their list uh cotton candy sugar cotton candy cones table cover covers photo booth backdrop photo booth props glow sticks back strip lights paper garlands and glow streamers those are the kinds of things that they're going to um that they needed money for that the PTO is going to pay for for this Friday is there anything that's reusable that they would hold on to for the next jam fest or like the photo Groth stuff is that something that they would use again so maybe the expense wouldn't be the same for every jamfest um I I could ask I could ask um I I know that um it seemed like these past two years they pick a theme and they do that theme for both Jam fests so but there were other kinds of decorations and now I'm wondering if maybe they were just supplied by the person and maybe a donation and um but they would reuse so but it sounds like some of that is um like probably needed and they might have to replenish but if there was other things that were just really decorative they did an alien theme and they had these little alien things and they were used both times that kind of stuff I'm sure they could reuse um but it it probably sounds like some of that is like disposable that they would need a fresh Supply um I was thinking of like the photo boo stuff can usually if they keep the them and if they keep the theme the same for both they would probably be able to use of those things for sure so do you think I should get more information from Mrs uas or do you think that if this is something that we want to support moving forward we can just pick an amount pick an amount that we're comfortable going up to and make a motion to approve it what is I I would suggest again waiting and see um like right now it's covered unless it's because we're trying to build like the budget but if that's the case then I'm sure we can probably all agree but if if if it doesn't have to be done I think waiting to see and then just seeing if if um it's something that even the PTO might say we'll do the fall one and then you guys do the spring there might be some kind of an agreement that could be made and maybe again it's something to follow up with and then decide but if we have to do for Budget purposes I I don't think it's a big deal okay we don't have to do it right now for Budget purposes because it would be for the next jam fest which is in January or February um it's actually yeah February oh okay so the next one's February okay so we would have a meeting thank you we we would have a meeting before that actually two meetings so we don't have to decide that now I think that's really good feedback you know to just see how the jam fest goes and see if it's something that we may want to contribute to and see what what might be used um and what might be reused and what might need to be purchased and perhaps the PTO could like you mentioned maybe do one and we can do the other it's February 21 okay okay so we'll hold up on that right now um let's see if there's anything else about the jamfest okay okay and the other item that I had for the uh student representative report is the Middle School PSA challenge through the partnership for drug-free New Jersey and we can follow up with them when they come to the next meeting okay the police report Chief just a brief report that our arriv program began this month uh we had our officer driving around with our social worker or our mental health worker uh and they will be collaborating and working together for the rest of the year and next year coming up okay that's all I have okay thank you you're welcome the liaison report Iman said that she would not be able to join us but she did send an email uh with information she wanted me to share the uh first thing is the middle sex County Office of the prosecutor um is having an opioid education for health care providers and this is through um through the partnership for a drug-free New Jersey and the Attorney General's office and let's see middle sex county is expanding its ongoing commitment to combat the nation's opioid epidemic through educational content for healthc Care Professionals including doctors of medicine dentists nurs Nur practitioners physician assistants nurses residents fellows and medical students the county is partnering to provide to to empower health care providers in the county with opioid free opioid prescribing education so the seminar is called Do no harm exploring strategies for safer prescri safer prescribing of opioids and this is at no Co cost and the the um the providers that attend can get um educational credits continuing educational credits so I'm really happy to see this because this goes along the lines of a program that we had two years ago from Dr Omar Abu Bakr who is a dentist and actually a professor and he did a program for us talking about alternatives to opioid for dental surgeries and other kinds of surgeries so seems like that there are um there there is attention now to this topic which is really important so um that's one thing that she shared and number two she said that congratulations cranberry was selected as one um of 11 recipients for the grant for mental health awareness from the quality Institute so we have a grant for next year to do the mental health first aid in Princeton High School so that's really exciting and there exists an opportunity through men middlex County to utilize another Grant towards training instructors to conduct the Teen Mental Health first aid program so we have to find out more about that from Iman and how that would work I know that penm you charged the municipal Alliance $88,000 for the program I know that it had to be supplemented with the grant right the team mental health first aid and also you used a grant for the training of the the te The Faculty this year yes we um we T we taught 45 um of the staff members just this month um yeah we didn't charge anything so you know the price might go up next year let's put it that way um it looks like we might get a grant so that would be great um and yeah we can talk about that later unless you want me to talk about it now sure since you on the top so yeah there were 45 um staff members it was nurses and counselors from all the different schools and we I think it's December 5th when we'll start the first session for the teens okay for the the 10th graders that's fantastic we're so excited about that it's such a great program thank you okay thank you so let me see oh and and she wanted to wish other students a happy jam fest so she's sorry she couldn't make it so the budget review upcoming expenditures we talked about the jam fest and we just also wanted to make sure that pened Princeton Health would be paid this year because there starting the program in December oh and and I just remembered what I what I was thinking of um regarding the teen Teen Mental Health First Aid I know every three years a certain percentage of these staff needs to be trained to support the Teen Mental Health First Aid Program yes so I think it's um 10% but with 45 staff members we we're good for three years yeah okay least three years yeah yeah that's last year I can't remember how many we trained last year um but we're we're good for this year at least is it every year or every three years every the certification is good for three years oh okay so yeah you're really on top of that thank you yeah we're excited to start um starting in March sorry were they all High School staff it was it no I I don't really know but it was 45 staff members so it couldn't it was counselors I think from all the schools that's really great that the counselors and the nurses were all trained because they're really I think very accessible to the students so for them to know what the students are being trained yeah I mean it would be good to get some of the teachers as well so hopefully next time um but yeah we're looking forward we're starting in March okay with the teens okay so that was that the first item on our old business does anybody have any questions for RIA about the team Mental Health First Aid okay Red Ribbon Week I know the students were going to be doing a coloring activity and they were going to be getting the items the pencils and okay great so it was pencils stickers and bookmark okay great and Halloween um Halloween went really well I have a picture to pass around to show everyone anelie Jolie who was a previous member on our Municipal Alliance board gave out the 500 pieces of candy the smarties with message about what to do um other things you can do instead of drugs so she gave that out in addition to her own candy and um it was very well received how did Halloween go at on Main Street excellent we had no reported incidences for the entire event which is great that's great I know that you have crossing guards out and you have a lot of police officers out and about so thank you for keeping our town safe okay the learning series webinars put out through a partnership for drug free New Jersey and I mention them a lot the partnership for drug-free New Jersey they have a lot of really great resources I would encourage all of the members of our board to check them out um online and just see the different programs they offer they offer programs for the community for schools for health care workers and they do weekly um I'm sorry monthly webinars and the next webinar is the opioid crisis where we stand as 2024 concludes and that's on December 12th at 11:00 a.m. and the focus will be learning about different aspects of the opioid epidemic from local state and National experts so if anyone's interested and if you can't watch it at that exact time it's it's recorded so you can always go back and watch you know previous programs and through the through those webinars I was able to find some of our speakers that we've had so they're really great they get great people to come and speak okay so I have on here the National Night Out Banner contest and I just wanted to check in about the shirts where the students they were excited the kids received them and were excited to have their name called on the um Dr dler I'm sorry sorry they were really excited to have their name called over the loudspeaker and it all announced and they came down got their shirts they were super excited so I think family were excited um because it happened in the summertime um Dr Kaza had sent emails home to families but we learned that some of the families didn't really check their their email so one of the families didn't know until that time that they that they won so they were very very thankful and appreciative so it was nice to have that followup um not just from the summer but at the beginning of the school year too it was nice that's nice will you be able to hang up the banner yeah we still have it in our office it's not as of yet um but we will hang it in the cafeteria okay thank you yes okay new business uh the municipal Alliance pamphlet homeowner liability Chief you um you had the opportunity you were going to check with attorney uh I didn't check with the attorney I just um went through the statutes on there they're all still good statutes and the pamphlet which I believe I still have in my truck uh addresses more of the Civil liability of Hosting parties uh a at your house so uh I did look through the pamphlet everything still look good uh some of the numbers I think could all be condensed into the 211 phone number for the county um but I'll bring that pamphlet back for us to uh look at again okay so why don't we put that on a future agenda so we can um have a copy of the pamphlet for everyone and we can talk about whether it's something that we want to make available and if so how okay great thank you so much okay the fourth grade bookmark contest through partnership for a drug-free New Jersey this is new um in the past it used to be a a folder contest and the students it's just for New Jersey students and they designed the folder and they can send it either themselves through their parents through school and they're not doing the folder contest anymore they're doing a bookmark contest and um I asked Stacy cranage if she would be able to do it with the students uh she said she did mention it to the the fourth graders but she's unable to have them to complete it in art class because last year's contest took three to four class periods which is a full month and they're on a six- day rotation and she only sees them once per rotation so she's really not able to do that in art class I wasn't aware that that was sent out at an ask I think from a curriculum standpoint it really you know from the mediums that she uses to the the types of of teaching for the different projects at the different levels there's probably just not enough time but to to hit every fourth grader and and launching it through art class to have them excited and if there was you know an need for for crayons or material like that's a great place to launch it but yeah I think having class time to do probably isn't as realistic as it as it might seem but I think launching it there is a is a great is a great way okay I do have a a form I was wondering if maybe this form it's it's all about uh explaining the contest and the contest guidelines if something like this can go out to the fourth grade students and if they wanted to do it so can I you can have that and can I copy this this is I could use this directly and send Miss so I can ask um Mrs cranage if she would give it to four fourth grade only yep we can do that and uh when is the deadline coming up okay so we'll we'll try to get this in next time she sees the fourth grade okay great thank you okay any questions about the book bmore contest not a question I was just going to say I also teach the whole fourth grade um for heal so I can double down on like getting the message across and just checking in with them to see if they're doing it um you know since it'll be on their own time and just making it you know keep it forr excellent so you can keep that one actually I have another one I'll just send another one down there thank you so much Erica yeah actually do you think it would be because we could do it through Health too do you want to just take it and and do it through Health that's what I was thinking um since it's you know for the drug free yeah it would probably fit in with Mewes easily and it'll take something off of her plate thank you so yeah of course thank you thank you Erica okay the next item is the parent break through the partnership for drug-free New Jersey and it's called a 15minute child break and this is offered again through the partnership through a drug uh partnership for a drug-free New Jersey and it's a video program and it's called 15 minute child break but it's not 15 minutes it's maybe about an hour long and the point of it is that I'll just read that what the description is let's see um during the 15-minute child break virtual presentation which is for parents it talks about the recreational use um of marijuana in the ongoing opioid crisis and how it continues to ravage the state the 15minute child break multimedia presentation contains upto-date information on alcohol marijuana Vape opioids and other drugs and provide specific strategies for parents on how to speak with their children about this challenging issue and I I started to watch the video but I didn't finish and it talks about how important it is for parents um to talk to their children as soon as they're ready to to talk about drugs and they talk about starting in as young as third grade how important it is you know what is what are drugs what is medicine and um just the importance of you know not taking anything unless it's prescribed to you or your parents say it's okay and it also talks about how important it is to talk about it during to talk to your kids during middle school and I know that it's in the curriculum and I know that they um they do we do the school does address it in a lot of ways but it really uh talks about it from the parents perspective so the the presentation is based on on Research finding that parents who talk to their children for at least 15 minutes a day have children who are 67% less likely to experiment with drugs and alcohol and the 15minute child break is a learning opportunity for parents to understand the signs of abuse use and abuse current terminology and trends of use and it has been updated we did it three years ago and we had guest speakers also to speak to the parents uh we made it a like a live video presentation we we showed the video and we also had speakers I think um Chief you were you were one of the speakers who spoke during yes the 15minute child break we had Bill Elias who is a representative we had Robin who uh ski who was on our committee and I um we may have had one other person so I would like to send everyone the link to the child break and if you have the opportunity to watch it it's about an hour long so we can talk about it the next time we meet and we can discuss if this is something that is worthwhile to make available to the parents and then the best way to do that and it's free any questions about that do they have a shorter version like like you know I was thinking five minutes oh well I don't [Laughter] know maybe um there could be some kind of and this we we don't have to talk about this now but just kind of throwing it out there some kind of an incentive to parents if they watch the video I don't know what that would look like but it's just something to keep in mind okay so the next item is speakers for 2025 and I know it's early to talk about speakers but um I was in touch with a speaker that we've had at cranberry School Ed G you remember him I don't know if he was there when you were there no he hasn't been there for at least five years when I worked at cranberry school he came every three years years during career day and he um that the students really liked him and he I don't know how many he must have been there five or six times every three years and he has a topic the impact and consequences of choice and decisions choices and decisions and how every choice shapes our future and I think he would be a really great speaker to have coming up in 2025 and I was thinking about two possible times that he can probably speak and I just wanted to throw it out there because I know he gets booked really fast because he's very popular uh one possible time is the October time during respect week when we had Robert um hackinson and another time Christine Fulton had asked in the past if we could have him come and speak during career day and I don't know if she already has a keynote speaker so so um I could reach out to her to see if she would be interested in in doing that and then we can talk about that after the new year because we would have time is career day the end of March a little bit different this year because of the way not construction just the the the first weekend in March it's the 1 is the Saturday so I believe that day is the um career day is later it's March 14th okay and so I'll check with Christine and I'll also if she's interested I'll check to see if ited has that day available yeah a little later this year so yeah that's it okay is it on is it on a half day it's on a half day okay yeah by all means if you want to reach out to Christina we have a lot of time so that's okay great any any questions about um yeah I'd like to just add that you know when I was a parent at cranberry school I would always volunteer for career day and I still remember that speaker he was so good like he in fired me and I was in the group room large group room I think where all the students were there and I was there the parent just like you know and he just like inspired me so much and I still remember this one thing and he said that when the student is ready the teacher shows up and I was like oh my goodness that's me I'm the student I'm like right now learning so many different things about this and that but um he was excellent I just remember you know the students were really pulled into his his uh lecture I mean his uh talk and and the he really inspired just all the volunteers including the parents so I'm so happy he's going to be coming back to Cranbury school okay well we'll see if we can try to work that out do you remember him Andrea did you um I I'm sure I was part of many of them but I don't remember what I did yesterday so you know but yes I do remember him being very powerful and having um the kids had a POS positive reaction to all of that okay thank you and I think that's a good topic I think that um I think really fits into our our mission as a municipal Alliance helping students to you know make good choices and decisions okay so the next thing on our agenda is term expirations I think there are four members on our board whose uh term is firing and Scout sent out an email to all of those members asking them if they can respond and let her know if they would like to continue or um and if they would they should send an email to Scout and I think it was either by December 1st or December 5th that be the third the thir the beginning of December beginning of December okay thank you okay let's see the next item on our um on our agenda is the December meeting and um we need to decide whether we would like to have a meeting in December the date is 17th okay the 17th and we um have listed that as optional in the past I know for some reason it didn't get listed as optional this year I don't really have anything pressing to that we need to discuss by the end of 2024 I think we really covered everything that we needed to cover but is there anything that anybody else would like us to discuss next month if we were to have a meeting okay okay so since it wasn't listed as optional I think um Scout said that we would have to pay a fee of $15 it's roughly $15 to notice it in the paper accordingly okay so I would like to make a motion that um we since we've had it as an optional meeting in the past that um we do not have a meeting in December and our next meeting will be January 21st because we're continuing with the third Tuesday of each month would anybody like to make a motion to skip our December meeting motion to skip our December meeting Andrea would anybody like to Second it I'll second it okay Erica and do we all need to vote on that all those in favor all those in favor I I hi okay excellent okay is there anything anybody would like to discuss anything that I left out anything anybody want to add okay um I would like to just mention that the suicide crisis hotline is 988 so that's a number for anybody to call if they have an emergency regarding mental health or substance abuse and since we have no one here for public comment would anybody like to make a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion Dr dler would anybody like to second the motion second Andrea all in favor I I thank you everybody good