God, >> call >> Mr. Vichel Patel >> here. >> Miss Pang >> here. >> Mr. She Miss White >> here. >> Miss Angina Patel Mr. Lugo Mr. Ronac Patel
>> here. >> Mr. Ero >> here. >> Mr. Azerella >> here. >> We have a quorum. Opening this statement. >> In accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act, public law 1975 C231 Sunshine Law, the Edison Township Board of Education has caused notice of this
meeting to be published by having the date, time, and place thereof posted in the Board of Education administrative offices and posted on the board of education website. Okay. In accordance with NJSA section 10412, the Edison Township Board of Education adjuns to confidential session
for the purpose of discussing the following confidential personal and board matters, student matters, pending litigation, legal matters, contracts, property acquisition, and HI. Motion to privilege session. >> Motion.
>> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> I. >> Motion carries. Okay, let's go. And we expect to be back between 5:30 and 6 p.m. Thank you. >> Reconvene to open session.
>> Dr. John to >> Yes. Um first item up. We have a um resolution on the agenda tonight. It's a resolution of the board of education township vettison uh in the county middle county authorizing the termination of the contract for the
purchase of the town road property. >> Okay for president. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Before uh that go uh I would like to make a motion to table this because we are missing two board members today. I would like to make a motion to table this resolution.
>> Second it. >> So we have a motion made uh uh at the table from Miss Pang, seconded by Mr. Azerello. I'll now call for a vote. Okay.
Got to go to page two. Sorry guys. Um Mr. Azerello. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ero. >> Yes. Mr. Ronach Patel. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lugo. >> No.
>> Miss Miss White. >> No. >> Miss Pang. >> Yes. >> Mr. Vichel Patel. >> No. >> Motion is carried to table. >> So what does that mean? is we cannot
vote on the abolishing abolishing the land purchase because there was a motion to table so we cannot vote it until the next future meetings. So I'm moving on to the next agenda which is budget representation. Dr. Elder Ali, >> thank you so much uh board president. Um
so uh not not for action on this meeting but uh through um discussions as well as correspondence with the board of education. Um we have uh the approval on the Tuesday night agenda for um our budget. Uh there will be a budget presentation as well as a budget hearing and we'll talk about the contents of the
budget, what it entails, how it supports student growth uh in relationship also to um staffing programming uh etc. Uh we are going to uh myself and Mr. Toth will also present information on how it will
uh affect the taxpayer as well too. Yes, >> ratables uh increase in average taxes on the average home uh all of those uh separate components. So that will be done on Tuesday night. It will be a board presentation. It will be a board of education hearing and then a board
vote at that time on the um newly revised uh budget numbers here. >> Thank you. Uh superintendent report. >> Yeah, sure. Thank you. All right. Just bear with me one second. I had the document up. Okay. All right.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I hope all is well with you. we have a uh uh a pretty active month. Uh I I do want to start off by saying uh and again I'm going to save a lot of my comments for Tuesday's action meeting, but yesterday uh we were plea pleased to celebrate
administrative professionals day here in Edison recognizing the essential contributions of our dedicated staff. Uh I know I speak on behalf of all of us that we extend our sincere gratitude to these professionals for their tireless work ethic, their commitment uh which is
vital to uh our daily successes. I know that uh the administrative professionals that are responsible for my day-to-day operations uh run my life uh along with Mrs. Alderelli and that is greatly appreciated. So, I thank you so much for the work you do. Um, as uh as we engage
in the uh upcoming month of May, uh today also I had the uh the honor of attending the daytime celebration for our JP Stevens uh Hall of Honor inductees. Uh I think there were 12 uh this year uh that got the opportunity to not only tour the facility, take a walk around the new building, uh listen to
our talented choir and our instrumental music programs, uh mingle and reminisce uh at their times as a JP Stevens Hawk. I I just want to congratulate uh all of the inductees uh and special thanks to Dr. Kim, her administration, the Hall of Fame uh or the Hall of Honor committee
and everyone else who contributed to the success of it as well too. Uh couple other highlights. Uh I'm pleased to share we we I actually just got this uh email uh last week. Uh some wonderful news regarding artistic successes here of our students. Uh we're we're proud
that um students who participated in uh Congressman Palone's Congressional High School Art Competition. It's called an art artistic discovery. Uh seven of our students uh were actually uh recognized and received accolades in relationship to that from both Edison High School and
JP Stevens. Uh congratulations to all the winners on this prestigious competition. Uh it just shows the uh the great uh you know talents that we have here in in Edison Township. and I'm and I'm a proud superintendent to endorse those programs and I thank everybody that supervises those pieces in
relationship to uh those student successes. Uh Mr. Patel, I will uh give the rest of my report at Tuesday's board meeting. >> Thank you. Uh next section is president's comment. I mean I had an experience of visiting a Herbert Hoover
Middle School last week. I was invited by a few students who were doing the VIPAR project and the subject of the the Vipar project was mental health right so I could not say no I I went to meet them in person and I was excited to hear the line of questionings they were asking
about the mental health and how to deal with it and I know that is one of my vision this year to kind of have more mental health awareness in a school and maybe start some program where we can teach students to identify any issues and and and teach them how to deal with it. So I was excited that middle school
students who were asking me about the mental health. So thank you. Um next is public comments for anything. Yes. >> Oops. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. Agenda review. >> Yeah. The agenda. >> Sorry for that.
>> Just if I may, Mr. President, just to be clear and manage expectations as uh members of the board know and members of the public uh assembled here heard, the board voted on a resolution to table uh agenda item F, Talmage Road land resolution. So that item is not on
tonight's agenda. So this public comment period on agenda items only uh shall not and cannot be used to comment on that. Thank you. So, as far as the uh the agenda items that are on the board for discussion, um we have our personnel report which we
will um approve at our upcoming meeting. Uh we've got a couple resolutions under administration currently. Right now, it it will be teacher appreciation week. Uh the week of May 4th to May 8th, I will uh make official comments on on that times, but you know, I pride myself on
supervising uh the greatest teachers in all of uh our nation. So, um, they make my job easy and they make this school district look fantastic and it's a pleasure to work alongside of them each and every day. Uh, uh, as well as National Nurses Week, usually the most popular office in a school, especially
elementary schools. Um, we have that celebrating from May 6th to May 12th as well. We thank them so much for our service and uh, for taking care of all of our students here in Edison Township. Uh we also have uh just a revision to the calendar for the 2025 2020 school
year uh 2026 school year current school year that we're in. Um just uh formally adopting the uh approval of the addition to a final day of school in lie of utilizing that snow day uh for the holiday of Eid during March. Um, we also
have on this agenda our uh settlement agreement. And moving forward to curriculum and instruction, we have the approval of our field trips. As we kind of wrap up the end of the year, we've got a bunch of uh trips for our theater department, our chamber choir, uh, and
some of our special education students as well. On the agenda as well is also our pupil special services section where we are approving the out of district student placements uh for the upcoming months. Uh for our finance and facility
there Mr. Toth um we have uh just the usual pieces. I will turn it over to my colleague um to go over some of those components. All right. Just uh up above that, I want to touch on the 2027 budget. Uh the preliminary budget we submitted to the county was at 12%. As you can see from
this agenda, the uh tax increase now is basically cut in half. It's at 6%. Um when we follow down to the finance and facilities section, item A, we have our uh bills list and associated financial reports. Uh item B is our contracts. We
have a few contracts on up there for this month's uh approval uh for restaurant equipment and some uh electrical service work. We also have an exhibit of all our FY27 contracts which are probably about 85% of our educational software program licenses
that we use. Uh so we're going to be approving that. under procurement. Uh we had put out bids uh due to some changes with the uh co-ops and uh laws in regards to using um using co-ops for public works projects. We put out uh a
bid for various time and materials for um various trades from HVAC to boilers to fire. We're going to be awarding those. Uh under further down under procurement, we have gone out to competitive contract for a variety of
our insurance uh consultants uh risk or property and casualty as you'd call it uh prescription health. We have received those bids. They will be evaluated. I'm not sure if we'll be evaluating them in time uh for this meeting's uh next meeting's appointment or if we'll be
moving that to the uh May agenda. Uh under facilities, there's a few change orders under some of the projects that are ongoing right now at the uh James Madison school uh the uh Edison High School as well. Um under grants,
there is uh a resolution on the agenda in regards to prek. We were awarded uh the pea grant uh for the FY27 school year. Um due to uh budget restraints, we are going to be rejecting the uh state
aid uh in regards to the prek program and under transportation. There's nothing to report at this time. Thank you. >> Thank you. Well, I guess next section is the public comments. Shi have a couple of clarification questions. My first question is um when
will the budget actually be presented? When do we get to see the full budget? Because per my understanding, you know, at this meeting the budget should have been discussed in detail and then within 48 hours the budget should have been available on the website so people could
have um taken a look and then the board votes on the budget on April 28th. So right now like what's what's the process? >> Yeah, finish all the questions and then we'll we'll answer them. >> Okay. My second question is at this
point because this this is the open uh public comments right so people can talk on any topic. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And my third question is what is your policy regarding public comments and because then I will know whether I can come back or not come back.
>> What's the policy for coming back for public comments? >> No right now. >> One sec. I'm just going to pull up the policy for you. So policy 0167 that's district bylaw. Your question was what's the policy for coming back to speak? You
said >> I mean >> how many how many times how many minutes can I speak and am I allowed to come back if I have not used up my minutes? >> No. So generally speaking you get six minutes to speak pursuant to this policy which for the record is substantially longer than just about every other time
>> school district in the state of New Jersey. Um public public comment is not a conversation. Um it's not a back and forth. Um and no, the general spirit and the intent is not to have a roundroin with people kind of just coming back
continually um to ask questions or or make follow-up rebuttal comments based upon what other speakers say and or uh what the administration and their board members say. Um so again, you get your six minutes to ask your questions, make your comments. uh the administration and
or the board president um may answer them uh at that time or they may just wait until after everyone speaks uh to answer um any particular questions keeping in mind that certain matters may be protected by the attorney client privilege personnel exceptions etc. Um, so again, your time was paused. You got
4 minutes and 44 seconds. I think that was a Jay-Z album recently. Um, you can uh continue your comments. >> If I if I don't finish my minutes, am I allowed to come back and speak? >> No, that's not how it operates. No. >> Okay. So, I just forfeit my time basically. >> Thank you. Yes, ma'am. >> Um, so yeah. So, if you could please
answer my question. Um, and if you're going to present the budget for the first time on April 28th and then just vote on it, I feel like that's not transparent. You need to give the public time to, you know, be able to come back
with suggestions. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Dr. >> Yep. I'm going to uh talk about the process and uh absolutely hand it over to my colleague, Mr. Toe. Oh, so in terms of the budgeting process, I think you know a lot of you know and I've said
this time and time again that this the budget starts uh being developed back like in October, right? And we go through uh a long process with administration uh in the business office and the central office along with building principles and vice principles in order to build the budget. In any event, um as to once it comes to the
board, we start working with the finance committee to develop parameters right in in January as to where we're going to be in terms of revenue, right? Because it's a revenue driven budget. you can only uh budget for the revenue that you have right if you don't if it's you know 2% above the you know tax levy that's what
it is um the current budget that we have right now uh the preliminary budget that we submitted last March is that just what it is it's preliminary budget so we've got that back obviously we um had a lot of feedback right from board
president and various board members as to what we can do to you contain the cost or contain the increases to the taxpayer within that budget. Right? So, we're we have come down off that 12% tax increase to 6%. Um, and and that's what
you'll be uh presented with on at the budget hearing uh next Tuesday night. The budget in and of itself, the 12% budget, that's what's approved by the county. That's the advertised budget which is on our website. uh we don't we can't make official changes to that
until after the hearing uh is when we can submit those changes to the county. So yes, I have, you know, adjusted my internal accounting software with my team to reflect a 6% tax increase. Um but you won't see that in the DOE budget
because we have to have a budget hearing. We have to have uh which will be on a 6% tax increase. uh we have to have that hearing. We have to have the support. We have to take a vote. The board has to approve of it. And then all the changes that we've made between the
time the preliminary budget uh was approved and um next Tuesday, I have to go and transpose into the DOE software. So then the county uh can review it and ultimately approve it, approve a 6% uh
tax levy budget. So, you won't see all of those in the DOE on the on the line item budget because they haven't been done yet. I can give you an overview. I have no problem, right? I mean, that's going from 12 to six is six is substantial, but I have a firm uh
understanding of what I reduced. Many of uh many people have asked me via Oprah or whatever, what have you, and I I have no problem commenting on that. Um, but yes, the the advertised budget is out there. Correct, Miss Daniels? Uh, it's also been sent to the paper that's out
there as well. Um, so it's available at at any time you'd like. If you if you also would like a copy of it, just just email me and I'll send you a copy of the the DOE and advertised budget. Thanks, >> Mr. Patel. Please. >> Yeah, sure. And and just for for clarity overview, you know, we we're currently
working um on our budget presentation too, which uh we plan on uh providing on our website in advance of Tuesday's meeting as well too, which will provide an overview of um you know, the difference between the 12% and the 6%,
some of the areas that have been cut, some of the areas that have been maintained. Um for those of you that had the opportunity to attend the town hall, we talked about some of those potential things uh that we would definitely look at, right? And that would be um you know, a loan payment that was built in
for district-wide air conditioning, some of our uh playgrounds that needed additional uh you know, a little bit of TLC, some of our band equipment, uh the uh as Mr. toe that said too the burden
uh that is uh on the taxpayer for prek um in relationship to that grant as well um a reduction in uh subscription busing uh as well as a reduction in staffing at all levels too. So this kind of entails that the budget presentation will have a
more detailed uh list of those things as well as the uh impact to the taxpayer in relationship to the uh average assessed home. >> Okay. Thank you. Yes, Sue or Beth. >> Beth Talkey, 15 Midwood Avenue. I
understand nobody wants to see a 12% increase. You know, I don't as a lifelong resident here. But to chop it all the way to six% from 12, any of that bank cap that we have, right, we're going to lose. We can't use
it next year or the year after. That's my first question. Because if we think this year is bad the subsequent years, are you being proactive rather than reactive to the public being upset about it? And are you
also looking, Mr. president to what's going to happen next year and the year after and we're not going to have that extra money to raise taxes if we have to because things are getting more expensive. And Dr. Alderelli, I know you just gave
us some things that are going to be cut. Can you give us more specifics of what impact it's going to have today while the public's sitting here from 12% to 6%. So that's, you know, a lot of money and a lot of things that are going
to be cut for our students right in the classrooms. So if you can explain that and why we went so drastic to like, you know, halfway from 12 to six instead of more like an 810
where our children wouldn't be losing as much because we're going to lose more the next year and the year after that. And are we looking down the pipe at that rather than just reactions to the public right now? Thank you. >> Yep.
>> Hello, this is Sarika Karivala. Our understanding was that the budget was supposed to be reviewed today from 12% to 6%. We would like to understand what cuts were made, why how it got reduced to 6%. Number one. Number
two, I'm very much surprised that the Talmage deal is still on table. It has to stop. No matter what entity of Edison Township ultimately executes, whether it's BOE,
whether it's township, the financial burden will be back on residents. We want that to stop. Second, we want full accountability on 19.7 million in short-term capital lease obligations. We deserve clear
explanation on who how that uh debt was was authorized and how it is impacting the operating budget in a way that drives up the taxes. Third, our core responsibility is K
through 12 education. If the pre uh school program is not 100% funded by the state, it must be passed until it is financially sustainable. Fourth, large scale upgrades such as air
conditioning projects. These projects were promised without verified transparent funding plan. We don't even know what schools were picked. We don't even know the entire plan. What is the contract? All these details needs to be communicated for us
to even look at. Fifth, optional services like subscription busing provided to students which does not qualify the statemandated transportation should not be subsidized by the general taxpayer in a time of rising cost.
Sixth, administrative cost, they must be reduced. Non-essential year-to-year BOE positions uh that do not directly impact students mind do not directly impact students. We don't want teacher cuts. We don't want staff cards. These positions
should be eliminated to add to that adds to long-term expenses. This is a step to reduce overhead while protecting what matters most be uh most of the classrooms. And finally, I really hope that the board is transparent on all the
uh budget items that will be presented. I feel it's very unfair that it's not uh clearly communicated today why the uh how the the cuts were made and what is the revised budget. We need time to analyze the revised uh budget and then
suggest and opine on it. Reviewing and approving the same day does not cut it for us. It's not acceptable. Thank you. >> Yes. The >> No, no, he Yeah, sorry. Yeah. Hi hi hello everyone uh thank you for
this session so uh before before I ask my question so I'm asking that in front of uh community what is here >> can you please identify yourself name and uh >> I'm I'm I'm Pavl my name is Pavl uh
hello >> and street >> uh excuse me >> street address or or are you from medicine? It's it's a policy. You have to identify yourself and tell us where you're from. >> Cly Hills Road to zero. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. So I'm staying in front of uh our community right now. So and we analyze the budget for several years and we can see huge increase of using cost.
Our community does not have increase of income in such huge percentage uh as you increasing budgets as you
it's our taxes so I just want to remind you guys so you do not have money it's our money and This money you need to use with wisdom and use how we want to use
them because because not you do budget and everything. We do it together because we discussing our money and we discussing how our community has a
visibility on that. We discussing what is going on company uh you know so now we have technically crisis in the country you know so many people lost jobs many
people almost lost jobs you know so everything going up inflation uh payments something uh grocery and etera. So payments going up
instead to try somehow to manage money wisdomly and reduce using some some what is extra you increasing them. It's a shame. I'm
sorry. It's a shame this deal with buying some land which is definitely overpriced. It's not it's a horrible it's not what we want. Another part of budget doesn't
matter do you want them to show off them or or not you need to take a look on them. You need to look on them carefully because it's time not increasing something in it's time to save what we
have because no one from us able to go to our employer and us increase for 12% just in case where we should take this money out for you. Please tell me where
what what we supposed to do. We should we should take something out from our table and feed less our kids or we should use what? Less fuel. What's the plan for us? What's the plan for us for
you? You make a plan. So please don't hide from us. You serving us. You our servant. So please cooperate with us. And please and please work with us. Don't don't do what? Don't play the game.
Th this time this day we should to make a decision to stay with zero increase. That's it. Thank you. Thank you Harish. After Harish you can you can go. Sorry
he raised the hand before you. So, so can we talk about Talmage or No, >> no. >> Yeah, it's it's it's agenda items only. So, the Talmage motion was on a table. I mean, it was put on a table. So, you
cannot >> again ladies and gentlemen of the public as I referenced earlier to manage expectations uh the board of education is permitting public comment in accordance with the open public meetings act. Uh there is specific uh reference
on the agenda for public comments on resolutions only. Um I did hear one speaker make a reference. She slid it in there real quick. Um it was too late or too fast for us to stop her. But again, respectfully, public comment is on agenda items only. You have six minutes.
Um you can use it for that time. Um you can come back next week or when I think the next meeting in May when that item will be revisited by the board um as expected. Thank you. So again, so members of the public, this is a public meeting. We're going to ask you all to we're going to we're going to
ask you all to conduct yourself with respect and decorum so as not to disrupt this meeting pursuant to board bylaws. If you disrupt the orderly operation of this meeting, the board can and will have you removed by law enforcement who is here present in the building. Please let the board conduct its business. This
is a board meeting held in public. It's not a public meeting. Thank you. Are we in the resolution part? >> It's a public comments part. >> Public comment on resolution. >> Please, Harish, it's Harish's time. >> Please stop blurting out from the
audience. Thank you. Yeah, sir. Your time is up. >> Harish. >> Okay. >> It's actually an agenda and Robert's rules also prohibit people from blurting out from the audience. Thank you, ma'am. >> Harish Tatini, 45 McKinley Street. Um
so first the positives uh definitely a good move 12 to 6 um as I said we complain when there is something wrong we will acknowledge if there is something good so I I stand by that at least so now coming to six
we don't know all the details but u what I hear is that middle school band equipment has been cancelled by 700 K postponement of playground equipment projects reduction in field trips. Assuming that this is true um I don't
know what's the correct choice of words to criticize that. So I'll go straight to the point. Uh that's not acceptable. We need to do better. And since we are nickel and dimming everything. So I have
some uh ideas which I collected from community uh by which we can definitely save uh uh quarters and dollars not just nickels and dimes. So number one the school grounds we gave it to the
township for soccer cricket and baseball uh matches or whatever because we apparently didn't want to take the headache. It's time to get it back into our domain and uh increase the fees also. I know five years back I supported the cricket fees being very less uh 160
per team. A lot of people criticized me on the social media but anyway those times were different. At that time we wanted to promote the game. Now it is time to increase the fees for everybody all the private teams or whatever especially for the out of Edison teams.
Same thing for the ABC revenue. I know the township runs it and I do not know how much rent they pay you. I went to the council meeting yesterday and I asked the numbers. Recreation director said he will send me the email. Uh revenues, costs and profit. Obviously,
they run it. So, staffing is there. That is a cost. But rent, I don't know how much rent they pay you. So, time to take that back and manage it efficiently and save some money. I mean, it looks really bad when you say that I have to cut the
field trips for kids. that is like a few thousands of dollars and we are talking about 300 million plus budget also rental uh renting of the auditoriums of EHS uh JP JAMS and all those I heard that for the nonprofit
organizations there's a 50% discount time to cut that discount let's cancel all those things I mean it is what it is I I don't feel happy saying that but we have to do that and we have to manage it efficiently and council did say yesterday, council
president Joe did say yesterday he's willing to work with BOE and administration on any issue anytime. I don't know the politics behind closed doors, but that is the public statement. So I think it's time to forget our differences and work together because
this is a crunch situation and as uh Beth probably pointed out next year will be even more bad. So next year Vishal and Shannon I don't know if uh you guys will still be the president and vice president but again
don't shoot the messenger. These are all ideas coming from different people in the community. they didn't want to be identified and I have been doing this for three years. You guys know me. So, one of the most important things that people said um was
introduce a new goal for superintendent rockstar. You can hate me for this. Okay. Uh to cut the fixed cost by at least 1%. Ideally, it should be more than that. uh I think it should be 2.5 or whatever
because when we have the 3.5 increase in salary in the contract I really don't see uh if it if 1% will do but that is something that needs to be done and there are lot of positions
which can be either merged or made more efficient and I never took the names I won't take the names this time also But and also again this is coming from the Edison community and all those are not my
ideas. So don't shoot the messenger. It appears that at lot of places teachers are being used instead of substitutes. Uh so that is a higher billing rate. So that needs to be changed. VPS of the school can be cut by half. Two for high school and one for
middle school. If push comes to shove we have to do that. Uh 500 is to1 ratio is recommended. It's not mandated by state. Chief administrative officer, do we really need two? Maybe one can. One is enough. Transportation and BA office. Lot of hires were done.
So maybe we can cut some. I know some cuts might have already happened. So the I might be repeating some of the things but personal things I'm not aware. So I have to say what I have to say. HR and diversity director positions can it be combined?
Innovation and communication director positions can it be combined? Assistant and deputy superintendent positions are they really needed. So those are the some of the things and there is one thing I wanted to point out
before my time runs out. So um regarding last meeting um public was very upset with two people some of they they both are your right-hand people Dr. Elder and you know whom I'm referring to. Uh as I said I don't take names and it came across as they were intimidating people
by giving u scary tactics like oh 12 to 10 yeah I might have to cut entire subscription that's not the way to talk honestly sorry I mean >> time sorry thank you yes ma'am. Yeah yes
yes no you go after her. Yeah. >> No, no, you are fine. I'm I was telling her >> don't know her name. >> Okay. Uh good evening. Good evening members of the board, administration
and my fellow neighbors. >> Can you give your name and uh address? >> Uh I am Dr. Namisha Shukla living at 76 George Avenue, Edison 08820. Uh thank you. Thank you for being here tonight.
And I want to begin by saying that most of us are here not because we enjoy spending our evenings at board meetings.
We rather be at home with our families and enjoying some quality time. Sometimes just pretending to work on iPhone but just scrolling. that's okay too for me. Uh so but we are here we are
all here today and why we are here because this is very important to us and I'm disheartened that you guys didn't even present us the budget for which we have uh you know spent probably combined more
than 230 hours. You know, we were here eagerly waiting to see the line item budgets and you have failed to, you know, make this small simple uh expectation come true. And sometimes
when it comes to budgets and all uh you guys have to know that we are not here asking for a finance degree from you guys, right? As long as you know that we are not asking for a finance degree from you, please don't throw word mumbo jumbo
at us so that you can confuse us and if there is no clarity and if you can't explain it to us then why approve it, right? Yeah. So you just want to throw the word jargon at us. But remember
though I am a doctor and I have studied for 35 years of my life. I'm not here to take a finance education from you guys and I'm not asking for any degrees and same is for most of us. So tell us in a simple way how these line items are
going to work and we are asking for honesty from you not delaying tactics and not tactics so that you know we'll get exhausted and we'll just give up and let you you know put any numbers throw any numbers at us
and at the time at the time when we are all stretched to make our budget numbers was we met for our family. Why are we shopping for real estate? We need realistic planning from you.
Budgets are harder. If air districtwide air conditioning projects are proposed, as residents, we deserve to see the full numbers, not your broad estimates, not your assumptions. We need a clear,
transparent plan on this because nobody likes surprise costs, especially when they hit us on our tax bill. So, please make a note of it. it you should be providing fairness to taxpayers.
We should be able to review the optional services and where their costs are getting distributed. This is not a uh criticism but this is just a responsible budgeting that we expect from you.
Um you know lot of us run our own organizations whether it is forprofit nonprofit all of us periodically ask ourselves that are we operating as efficiently as possible
and it is just a simple good management and sometimes I doubt if you guys are asking that question to yourself that are we operating as efficiently as possible. And when residents are asked
to pay more, that is when we expect that every layer of spending has to be examined. If you ask for more money from us, please examine every layer of spending. In the end, I want to say that we are
not here to fight you. We are here to work with you and we are asking you simple questions. We want accountability. We want transparency and we want common sense. Just like I
said, when we are stretching our budgets, why are we shopping for real estate? And when we are asking for this transparency from you, it goes beyond presentations and beyond summaries.
Residents want a line by line understanding of how you make your decisions. And if you need, we believe that we can even provide volunteer citizen oversight committee if that can
improve trust between the board and the community. We are not asking for perfection. We are asking for partnership. We are asking for your honesty. We are asking you to remember something very simple. The budget is not
just numbers on paper. It represents the people sitting in this room, the families who live here, the seniors who worry about their fixed incomes, and the taxpayers who make all of this possible. Thank you.
Elizabeth Conway, 20 Netherwood Circle. This problem started many years ago when we were underfunded as a district and for many years we were playing catchup because when we got a certain percentage
increase it was only on the increase of the money that was underfunded to double that problem was the 0% budgets for the last number of years.
uh each year I questioned the 0% increase because everything was going up but we held to a 0% increase which I felt was just not a good idea and now
we're in a mess because it's caught up with us. Yes, at a certain point, Governor Murphy did give us back some of the money to help us catch up, but we knew once we did
that, our piggy bank was going to hurt. And that's exactly what's happening this year. So therefore, now we're seeing the brunt of it. As far as tableabling an issue, earlier you had the five votes. Why
bother when those other two people show up next time? You're still going to have your five votes. So, you're only prolonging the inevitable. As far my question to you regarding prek is you said you were going to cut back
on that. Does that mean we're eliminating prek or is there some way to make the program that we have more subst uh sustaining? For years, uh I questioned subscription
busing before I was on the board, when I was on the board, after I was on the board, because it was always an issue that subscription busing had to maintain itself. It had to be self-sufficient and that was not happening. Yes, the board
tried helping it out by moving kids around and putting them on buses of mandated buses to make up the difference, but that was not the way to do it. There needed to be a gradual increase. I don't want to hurt anybody's
pocketbook, but that was something that needed to be done. As far as public comment is concerned, when we get up to speak during public comment, I have a right to ask Dr.
Alderelli how many times he gets a haircut. >> And I do have a right. >> I'm not talking about particular resolutions. I'm talking about what's going on in the district.
And I'm sorry, but you're wrong. You can read whatever you want, but you're wrong. As far as particular resolutions, we may be questioning them, but in public comment, we have a right to ask
if something was confusing. We have a right to get an answer. And that's just not happening. And I don't understand how the board is going along with just doing willy-nilly,
which does not make sense. If you're going to cancel a contract, cancel it. I don't Is it going to cost us money by holding on to it for another month? I surely hope not. My last item, I still have two minutes.
My last item is regarding uh the budget presentation. I've been listening to budget presentations for Carol maybe 40 years, 35 years. And my first question regarding uh a budget
presentation was there was a line item to clock repair was $29,000 and I questioned it to Dr. Kresky at the time. But I had a right because I was able to look at the line by line as he
was explaining it after him. Diane Mashad did a fabulous job. But as much as I loved what Dan did, you two were unbelievable with your presentation and I let you know that and I don't always
give out that good a response and you all can go by that. But are we going to get that type of presentation on Tuesday? And are we able to be able to look at it prior to your presentation so
that we can question anything as you're talking >> because that would truly show us what's happening, where are the cuts being done. And I mean cuts are going to happen because of our history, but we
need to be able to understand what's going on. And to be very honest with you, I am not a financial person, >> okay? But I don't want to knock anyone, but I come on a regular
basis to keep track of what you're doing. So I understand a little bit more of what Mr. Toth has to say, what Dr. Alderelli has to say. So I understand where my dollars and cents are going.
And then I can understand why I'm paying for the betterment of this Edison district. Okay. Can I address the budget question >> whether public will have I mean you tell >> your presentation
>> about the presentation. >> Yeah. So the right we much as uh Dr. Al Alderelli and I have done uh every year right. Um we will have our presentation that we'll be doing Tuesday. Uh we're going to get uh obviously uh into detail into the revenues into the appropriations and some of the you know
challenges with this budget. Uh I I think everybody in this room knows those challenges. I don't know that it's going to be uh a lot of pomp and circumstance as it has been in you know previous years when we're at zero because obviously we have uh a tax increase a proposed tax increase but we're also um
going to be uh losing you know a lot of the things uh that that we you know come to have. But we will be going through that again and we will have the uh presentation uh posted beforehand so you guys can get a look at that or if you have a a question to email in. and so on and so forth.
>> Can you give an idea? >> So, right with the with the line by line budget, the the current DOE, the the the budget that I am required uh along with the business office to build in the state software program that every business office in the state of New Jersey has to do. It's a required
document. It's online, right? It's 176 pages, so it's very detailed. However, it's reflecting 12%. I cannot make any changes to that document. No changes can be made until we we have the hearing. We're gonna we're going to do um the
presentation, right? And you'll we're going to talk about going from 6% to 12%. And you're going to hear about the things that are cut. Some of you guys will be happy, some of you won't be. Um but any event, it it's going to show that reduction in the local tax levy going from 12 to 6. We're going to have
that conversation. We're going to have that PowerPoint. We're going to have the board will have that discussion. And if they approve that, then I could submit those changes to the county who that that the county is uh the representative the educ the county education department
is the uh commissioner of education's local authority. If I if the board approves those uh changes, the county will reopen the software so I can make those changes. Then I will make the changes in the software, you know, redo
the 176 page budget and post it online for everyone to see. And that's that's not my process. That's the process we're in when you go from changing the preliminary budget to, you know, in between the the time you submit the preliminary budget to making changes at
a budget hearing. That's the process. >> So, so Dr. Elder Ali, when the presentation that you're going to present will be available for people? >> Yes. So I I I'm going to try and get the presentation out to the public by Sunday. >> Thank you. Uh Nimsh.
>> So the good news is that you recognize me by my name. >> My name is Nsh Dawe. I am from 13 Remington Drive, Edison. >> First of all, I would like to openly say and publicly say Vishal, tonight you are our hero. And he is truly our hero.
Today I am here to deliver the mandate of the residents of Edison. These are not my statements. These are the statements and emotions collected from several hundred resident of Edison. So if I am stopped, you are stopping
100,000 Edison residents. Please keep that in mind. That said, everybody is Edison residents are very much emotionally hurt for a very simple reason that Pearl's meeting was cancelled and none of the board members
showed up in spite of our personal request to each and every one of you. You kept us shivering in the cold. My question, if you do not want to answer, it's perfectly fine. Why? During the town hall meeting, we kept standing and
saying that hey, we want to see the faces of our elected officials. You don't want to answer, that's fine. But the question of the community is why we walked with you when you wanted a vote
and today you are hiding. The question the community is asking why we have rather than talking about a budget from 12 person to six person my question and my concern on behalf of my beloved
community is one why those four members or five members have voted yes don't you guys think they don't deserve to be there Yes. >> Don't you guys think we need a better board? Don't make reckless decisions.
>> Can you please direct your comments to the board chair, not the public? Thank you, sir. >> I'm extremely sorry if I I've crossed my line and I apologize. And before I said my once again my question is to you looking into your eyes, my dear board
members, I have personally voted for all of you. Please, please save us from such reckless spending. Voting yes is not going to help you. We are watching. We
are watching. And once again, I want to publicly acknowledge the courage of our president. He came to my home. He could not convince us, but at the same time, he had a courage to come to my home. Today, he did not vote for it. And he is
my hero. Thank you. Next. Yes. No. No. No. The Yes. Yeah. Blue. Blue shirts. >> Yeah. Mr. Mara. >> Anthony Mara Edison. I'm here again
about a matter I've been here on a couple times before. Uh the parental bill of rights that I emailed to you back in February. It's an excellent piece of work. Hats off to you. You abolish 5756, but
there's so much more work to be done. A couple of days ago, I you probably haven't seen it yet. I emailed to every member of the board a letter from an organization called the Thomas Moore Society. The Thomas Moore
Society is a is an organization that seeks to promote family This is a letter that they in turn wrote to the Westwood Board of Education
telling them that if they don't abolish 5756, which you have done that they would start a lawsuit. I bring this to your attention, not the threat. I honor I I respect you guys too much. I I don't I don't
threaten to bring to your attention the fact that the LGBT community isn't the only one that threatens. And again, I'm not I don't I use that word very cautiously.
The other side of the aisle also does that too. My point is this. You can't just wipe out 5756 and say, "Ah, we're done." No, there's so much more to be done. And as I said last time, the US Supreme
Court now has told us what they've ruled in Marbelli vers vers. This is this is a decision that can't be ignored. It's from our US Supreme Court. They said in Marabelli vers Bont
parents who object to policies no that's not the this the primary protectors of children are parents this is a quote the primary protectors of children's best interest their parents
if you don't replace the bad with good bad will come back this parental Bill of Rights that I emailed to you is an excellent piece of work. Please adopt it. You will bless our parents in Edison. If you don't, what will you say
to the parents of Edison? I've said it before, it's worth saying again. We have holidays honoring mom and dad. We call them mom's day and father's day. >> God himself has told us, "Honor your
father and your mother." That's in the ten commandments. God has also told us to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Is there any parent in this state who who wants to be dishonored as a parent? No
parent wants to be dishonored. Do the right thing. Send a message to the parents of Edison. We are with you. We stand behind you. and we're gonna adopt this parents bill of rights to show you that we prot we protect parents. There's nothing in this bill of
rights, nothing that abregates rights for transgenders. Nothing. The transgender community has tons of rights in the New Jersey law against discrimination. New Jersey law discrimination is a powerful law.
Nothing in this bill of rights diminishes that in any way. This simply states in very clear language that parents have rights, too. It's a shame we actually have to say this. There was
a time, I'm old enough to remember you didn't have to say that. Everyone knew mom and dad should be honored. But now we we we need to put it in writing. Well, then put it in writing. Say mom and dad need to be honored. Can
you honor? Can you argue with that? If you say no, we won't adopt it. Are you saying we don't want to honor mom and dad? Please look at this bill of rights. It's an excellent piece of work. Honor mom and dad. Adopt this parents bill of
rights. Thank you again for your time. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> Arcelon Heron. I'm from Tanike Place. Um, first I want to say I I want to go home. A lot of people are leaving. I'm tired.
Um, I mean, people up here tired. I see half of them were on their phones playing Candy Crush. It's fine. We're not mad. I'll do the same. Somebody's looking up NFL draft. You know, it's tonight. I know you were looking. Ralph and Ronag, you guys were looking at each other. Giants got two picks. Sorry.
>> So, you're sitting in the front row. I'm sure you heard me say earlier, please direct your comments to the chair. Thank you. The chair is right here. The chair of the meeting >> only you watch football. >> We're trying to maintain order of this meeting, sir. So, let's please direct your comments to the chair. Be professional and have decorum. Thank you.
>> Football. >> You watch football? No. >> I said earlier it's not a conversation. Make your comments, ask your questions. Okay. Keep it moving. Thank you. >> So, um I want to say first like I mean I'd say most of these people are here for the budget. >> John, we're working on the budget, right? Um guess not. All right. So
Michelle, so what I'm saying is we're here, everybody's asking about the budget. We're getting answers at the end. And it's like I feel like we're going to be here forever. Everybody's going to ask about the budget. When's the budget coming? We're not getting it hopefully till Sunday night to read
over. We're going to not hang out with our family, read the budget on Sunday. Monday, go to work, try to read it at night, then come in Tuesday again here. And hopefully we can, you know, kind of go through it. But
my question is why is everything going so so slow? Like if we ask a question about budget and we get an answer, I think a lot of these people would be pleased. We're here and a lot of people are going to ask questions about budget and uh you know
all all these things 12% 6% now it's going down. No one knew about it. the website. I mean, I don't know who runs the website, but we need somebody better. Like, the the website literally I'm looking at it like, dang, 12%. What What
is this going to do for me? The website told me what it's going to do for me. It said, hey, if you live in Edison, you have a $186,000 house. $186,000. Another question, where did that number come from? What is 186,000? It's not the
average. It's not the median. It's not the last house sold. You guys picked a number. You guys said, "Hey, $186,000 is a good number to use to tell these people what the budget's going to do if it goes up 12% on a $186,000
house. No one has a $186,000 house. It's going to go up $2 a day." Val, you know who cares that it's going up $2 a day? No one. Cuz no one has a $186,000
house. Give me a budget. Let us look it over. You're telling me Sunday night I'm going to get a budget? John. John looks like he knows what he's doing. A little older, cool, old school guy. Got a Dell computer. You know, we know he's not
young, but come on. 177 pages. You're typing in numbers. You know what the budget is already? You can't fill it in. It's Thursday. What are you doing tomorrow? We can't do it tomorrow. We came here. I came here missing the
NFL draft to to get a budget. And I'm here waiting and everyone's asking questions about the budget and we're writing these questions down. Half these there was a whole line of people here. They all left. They don't got time. They're not even going to hear the answer. They got to go on the website, which we obviously
talked about is terrible. $186,000. Come on. Disrespect. I I feel like that was disrespectful to like our faces. Like, hey, this is what it's going to No. Like, give us real numbers, man. That's I mean, this is basic stuff. Regardless, everybody left. Like, a lot of people
left. You guys are Everybody's got to use the bathroom. You can't even give us answers till the end. I'm not going to wait till the end. I'm going to go online. There's a YouTube live stream. Hopefully, it works and I'll I'll get my answers. But like, what if you don't answer my question? What if you don't
answer that the $186,000 number we came up with because we wanted to fool you guys? You know, you're not going to say that or you're you're going to skip over it. Then on my YouTube, while I'm trying to watch the NFL draft on one screen, I'm going to watch this YouTube stream on the other screen.
Two volumes. I don't know how I'm going to do it. I'm going to try to look for my question, but there's been a hundred questions asked about the budget. I don't know if you're going to go through them in order or you're just going to go through one and be like, "Hey, we're done." Um, but like the none of this makes sense, you know? None of this
makes sense by design. >> I know it's by everybody knows it's by design. It shouldn't be easy. You want to make it hard for us. Okay. Next. I want to know what happened from, you know, this is, you know, off your website, so you know, who knows? 2022 to
now the budget stay the same. How many teachers did we lose? How many we gain? How many programs did we add? I I don't know the answer. I'm going to know at the end. So, who knows? We we
added a lot of stuff. Um, and uh, you know, on the website it says these are the things we're going to lose, but if the budget was good for last year, prices went up. Pencils
are more expensive, but you know, it it doesn't go up $30 million. On your website, it says 9 million was the difference, right? The state aid and whatever whatever it says 9 million on your website. Then the numbers come up and it's, you know, do some math. It's
almost $30 million. Thank you. Hopefully we get answers. Thank you. Hello, this is Anita Arnant uh Edison Glen Terrace, Edison, New Jersey. through the board president to the
entire board. First of all, I would like to thank Dr. Alderelli for uh his immense patience in all this process. Thank you so much. And uh board president Vishal
as Nimsh rightly put 12 to 6% is kind of a happy thing. I we'll tone down our criticism a little bit because from 12 to 6 board president I'm going to open it with a very different note
industry today Meta lays off about 8,000 people. Microsoft is laying people off. Starbucks is laying people off. The media industry is laying people off. 900
to,000 jobs are lost per day. Uh I just want to let the people uh uh we as residents have elected all of you on the board when you knocked on our door
for votes. You had our confidence. You represent us. Today's economy is not doing good. We have huge inflation. A $100 grocery today I'm paying $125.
I have calls from my community. I have senior citizens saying I cannot pay this. I have to make my ends meet. I have people in my district who are on social security. I have single parents. I have single moms. I have single dads.
and they have to make this budget work. Please understand that the residents should not be the solution for budget gaps. Period. These are the worrisome trends which I
really like to present to all of you. To say that a budget is going from zero to 12% is a worrisome trend on the fiscal responsibility of the board. Usually in the corporate world and again
I'm not criticizing I'm giving you the worrisome trends which the people have. We have elected you. Please understand our worrisome uh signs. Z usually there is an organic increase in taxes. 0 to 2,
2 to 4, 4 to 8, 8 to 12. To go from 0 to 12 and then suddenly come back from 12 to 6 is very worrisome. Why are we not looking at the budget at fiscal responsibility
in the beginning and why are we going through a correction phase? We do not want this trend to repeat year after year. Please please understand uh we are really worried that you go from 0 to 12
and 12 to 6. The second thing uh which I wanted to bring is uh when we elect board members there is a sense of confidence that we put in as voters but
today there's again a worrisome sign did we elect the right kind of people from 0 to 12 and then you go from 12 to 6 again I really respect a lot of people on this board and we have uh ironed out a lot of
issues in the past but I'm talking on behalf of the voters who have put their trust and confidence in you please and the third thing is can we rework strategies as harish nimish and
everybody put it which doesn't compromise on the education of a child because when families move into Edison we move for the school district and we understand that Edison the quality of
education in Edison is excellent and we have had all the kids uh uh graduating out of high school going to premier institutions. We carry your torch out to the outside world. So please can you rework the strategies whether you can do
a a reorg or cut costs um accordingly because as somebody put it I or and nobody has got a raise in our industry our salaries have an increase so if you can I'm I'm not asking for uh reducing
the salaries of teachers or anybody but can you combine positions can you do some kind of strategies so that it doesn't compromise on the education of a child. So that's the uh last thing and I always want to end with this saying from
Margaret me. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. >> It's the only thing which has ever been done. So let's all get together and get
this done. Thank you. No, you go after him. The black shirt. One of you doesn't doesn't matter. >> Yeah, >> I've been asked by 17 Sunflower Code. I'll be quick. Um the public has spoken today. Even 3 weeks ago, a lot of us
came for your town hall. Uh and we listened to you. um a lot of us listen to you and we looked at um the reasons why there's an increase in the proposed budget to 12%. And when we were looking at those reasons what was running in most of our mind is that's the exact
reason why we are facing problem in our individual household and now the the board is asking us to pay more. So we are basically cut twice. Second thing is a lot of us talked about uh 0% increase in the past three years and now moving
to 12% and coming down to 6%. How is this financially prudent? Every member of the board here or the people sitting on the D I'm sure you guys have your own business or you work in a corporate world. You have people working in you with you in your team. Will this be the
way you expect your team to work? Is this the level of transparency would you expect from your team? Is this a level of financial prudency that you would expect from your team if you are running your own business or if you are answerable to your board in your corporate world? That's the question.
The third and the most important thing is as a as an audience I'm listening here. This is my first time. We're using 19th century solution for 21st century problem. For the past three weeks uh when all this was the hot topic we had few of the board members come on social
media ask the audience not to get influenced and come to this particular session today. We were all in anticipation on the screen to expect to see what that proposed new budget is going to look like. What are the categories where the cuts have been done? Why is it been done? And what do
we get? Assurance that the budget will be on a Sunday evening. And as most of the members here have mentioned rightly so, you are responsible for us because we've put our trust in you when we voted you. If there's a requirement for us to
work with you, please let us know. And I raise my hand here in public offering my service to you free of cost because I come from an industry where I've done this for a living. I standardize, I bring in efficiency and I bring velocity to make things change happen in a faster
manner. So if you need u my name is already on the record my address is on the record I offer you my service. Last but not least this is an opportunity to build confidence. So when you ask somebody to come here spend their time you are giving your time provide answers
if not all I understand budget is not easy 372 million budget line by line it is not easy. However this is your opportunity to build confidence and what happened today is completely opposite. Now we have to wait until Sunday and go
through those line by line items and come back on Tuesday and expect that our voices will be heard. However, today was the opportunity for you to hear our voices. I hope this message goes out very loud and clear and changes can happen in the past. There's always day
one, right? So maybe this is the opportunity for the board to introspect. Hopefully you've heard our voices going forward in the next budget session whenever it happens. Let's not do the same 19th century solution for 21st century problem. Thank you.
>> He's going. >> Good evening. Sake Gohill 1725 Raspberry Court, Edison, New Jersey. Uh good evening everybody. We are basically here to look at the budget. I'm disappointed that it's not uh available for us to review. But what I like to do is, you
know, whenever you publish the budget, you know, please be mindful and give us the details like what are the mandatory and non-mandatory items, right? Put it on the budget. Let us decide what cuts we will like to go with. You
know, we are not unreasonable. We all have jobs. We understand you have jobs. We like to work with you. Our goal is same, right? Our kids education. Please work with us. Don't just randomly say, "Oh, I'm just going to cut this. I'm
going to cut that." No. Give us the details on what are your mandatory requirements. Okay? I have not heard even in the last meeting from anyone of you that this are mandatory and this are non-mandatory. I
hopefully on Tuesday we'll hear that this are mandatory we are keeping this are non-mandatory we are cutting right secondly just recently Oracle told everybody hey 30,000 jobs we need to make room for AI we would like to see
how you can use AI to cut down administration and do not touch our teachers teachers portion is not as big as administration Our kids cannot suffer because administration doesn't know how to use
AI and cut down the jobs. So please work with us. We would love to work with you. And that's all I have. Thank you. >> You go after her. No, this lady. >> Yeah. Yeah. You please. Thank you.
Hello everyone. This is my first time attending the meeting. >> Yes, Miss Kaduri from Lynwood Road, Edison, New Jersey. Uh well, of course, New Jersey. Uh it's very very interesting and so unorthodox. Uh every
comment and kind of um very very simple questions and very difficult. Uh it's like pulling teeth asking very simple questions. Everyone is asking where's the budget? Where's the budget? In corporate world every day
we go to work $10 million budget. You are being ripped off. If you don't if you're not prepared, you walk in and then you say, "Ah, I don't have it. I'll give you Sunday night." No, you're fired.
HERE we are talking about a4 billion budget. Seriously, like Anita said, it's like can't it's just I can't put my head around this and I'm surprised. I don't know all of the
board members. I know some because I voted for you guys. It's please do this job that you agreed to do. Nobody put a gun to your head to do this job. It's who surprising to see the good
Samaritans offering free of service while they while they get char while they charge to do the work the same work at work. Some gentleman was saying I do this for a living. I can help you for free. It's unbelievable that you have so much
support, so much talent and the AI that that person stole my words. I was going to say the same thing. Where is AI? I don't want to reveal where I work because I don't need to here. But that's what we are getting ripped off every day at work. You have 400 people you're
working with without AI last year. You asked for $30 million budget. Where is the returns from the AI? Where is the return? We want return. We want you to do things more efficiently, more fast, more uh bring more value to
business and then spend less money and reduce the workforce. Where are you doing that? And why are you different? You are you are in the same ecosystem. You're no different than us
doing whatever we are doing at work. Seriously, I mean, it's so disappointing. I never been to these meetings and you guys, when I say you guys, us as a community are being talked about more than the war with Iran.
I call my family in India and they're like, "Hey, what you're somebody's mismanaging your money there. It went from 0 to 12 and now I so surprised to see it's now six." This is exactly a strategy. This is one of the strategies. If you want to bump up the budget, be
lazy, don't be efficient, just let it go and then just do some sloppy work. It will go to 6%. So what you do? You say it's going to go to 12%, all of us get panicked and then you say it came back to six. We all are happy.
>> No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not saying we are happy. The strategy the strategy is if you if if if the budgets I'm doing work every day I go to work I know what it is if I go to my manager and say we have 6% increase I need 6% workforce
he's going to say why if you can't make this happen I'll find somebody that does it and then I'm going to say okay but then if I say I need 12% increase and then in workforce or money whatever the budget is and then I'm say two days later you know I worked it out I only
need 6% increase it looks It's like I brought some efficiency. No, it was sloppiness. You should be able to work with 0% increase. >> Yes. >> Seriously. Yes. It's not 1 million, 2 million, 3 million. It is a quarter
billion dollar, guys. >> 0%. >> Go for 0%. Use AI. That gentleman freely suggested use AI. He can help. Some other guy can help. I'm not volunteering to help. I'm already having a lot of my hands are full. I cannot help. But I'm
going to not vote for you guys if you don't do this next time. >> That's it. Thank you, Tony. >> Tony. No, no, no. Sir, sir, Tony. >> Yeah. >> Only one Tony here. >> Tony. >> Yeah.
>> Tony Dasqual to Pine Street. Um so I'm I need a little clarity from I guess Shaw or the lawyer. Is this a public comment on um resolutions? What is this? What is this part?
>> We are so as we discussed earlier there are two public comment portions. >> I I know how it works. I'm asking you a question. Is this public comment or >> I'm trying to answer your question sir. I'm I just want a simple answer. Is this public comment or is this public comment
on resolutions? >> What is this? >> Okay. If this is public comment, there are no restrictions on this other than you can restrict us from only talking about school stuff. That's it. If it's
an agenda item, it's under the agenda. Public comment. Public comment. at this time you can speak about anything pertaining to the schools and if you did not put it in the agenda that this is only going to be public comment with
restrictions you can't do that you have to publish that so if I want to talk about Talmage you can't stop me from talking about Talmage because if it was an agenda public comment yes you can stop me
because that's an agenda public comment this 's regular public comment with no restrictions. So which you spoke before was incorrect. You were wrong because you're trying to stop these people from
talking about Talmage. Now are you going to kick me out of here because I'm using the word Talmage or I want to ask questions and I'm sorry but I respect Namesh but Val, you're not a hero because you're allowing this to happen. You are the president and you are
allowing this to happen. You are the president. You are responsible for all this. I've emailed you three times. You have not responded. Are you afraid to respond to me? Am I that scary? Three emails. You have not
responded to me. I don't get it. >> You should be responding to the residents when they ask a question. That's your responsibility as president. And I'm going to ask you about Talmage. We'll see what happens. But do we know
if we can build on Talmage? Do we know who owns Talage? Do we know if we have the money for it? Like do I'm going to ask these questions and I'm not getting kicked out. So I guess what the lawyer said before was wrong. Okay. So, uh, you
know, this whole thing with the the 12% and the zero and the 6%. I said this last time and I said it five years ago. And Val, you are part of this and other board members up there were part of this. You did 0% for five years. The
school was in deficit during those five years. Now we're paying 12%. So now 12% goes to six. Now you have to cut you have to cut stuff where you wouldn't have had to do it if it was 2% every
year. You are jeopardizing our children. You're jeopardizing our school system and what people might not understand. You do 6% this year. What do you think next year is going to be? Possibly 14% because you have to make up for still
everything that's happened over the past five years. irresponsible or being ignorant or just the campaigning. That's what it was for. So you can campaign 5 years ago, Mr. She who is not here, I brought this up. He
told me I was crazy. How am I crazy when five years later we're in trouble? Financially, we are in trouble and the board members are responsible for making sure
that the finances of this school district is running well. But you guys want to blame it on two gentlemen that are up there, Mr. Alderoli and Mr. Toth. But you guys are the ones that vote. You
approve it. You are the ones to say yes or no. You don't put it on them because if they know how to run the school district, which they do, they come to you and you tell them, "No, we don't want to do 12%. We want to do 6%." You
can do that. And that's what you have done. You have now said to them, you have to do 6%. So now you have to make cuts. What a possibly a 100red teachers. How is that going to help the school and the teachers? Possibly getting rid of
preschool, band instruments, playgrounds, all the good positive stuff for our students. All because of the reckless behavior of board members over the past few years.
That's what we're dealing with here. We're not dealing with anything else but that. So, I'm sorry, but Val, you are not a hero. You need to think about what you're doing here because you're playing games,
and that's what this is all about. It's a game to you guys. Nothing but a game. Thank you. Yep. Mr. Ross, you go after him. Mr. Can you go? Sorry.
>> All right. Good evening, everybody. Um, apologize. It's been a few months since I been able to get up here and talk about what's great about Edison High. And, you know, I'm not a numbers guy. It's It's not for me to say any of that type of stuff. The only thing I know is that the NFL draft starts at 8 and
there's eight minutes for each one. The Giants don't go on the clock until 8:32. So, we'll keep those numbers right. So, that's that one. Oh, I apologize. I'm Mr. Ross. from the principal of Edison High School. How you doing tonight? >> That's okay. It's been a while. I forgot the
proceeds. I apologize, but I just wanted to sit there and, you know, my concept is, you know, what's great about Edison High School and we always worry about things like the money and the parental rights. But the great thing about Edison is that all our parents have the rights to send their kids to probably the best public school system in the state of New
Jersey, which is one of the best states that's out there. And that's something that I think is, you know, the best right of all that we have. And for me, I don't get to speak at the next meeting because all of our um honors and awards system starts to really kick in. Next Tuesday when you guys are going to be over there in JP Stevens, we're going to
be having the National Honor Society inductions where we see those students who meet those four pillars, character, leadership, service. Those are the things that make the difference. Those are those students that are going to be recognized for leadership within their community. Then we go to the dance
ensemble. If you want to see our teacher of the year lead some of the best. Normally we go to Middle Sex College, but we don't always see it. But if you come out next Friday night, you'll just see what the programs are and you see how the investment that people make in education pays off in students and how
it enliven them. And it's and it's a great night. I guarantee it's good. If you ask uh you say my name at the door, you get half price off. The next week we have the orchestra concert. We're going to have the band concert. We're going to have the powderpuff football. JP is doing a great job setting up with their
flag football, but down here we still do it the old school way. The year after that, we're going to have I mean, the week after that, we're going to have the choir concert. And this year, we managed to do our senior awards night, not on a board night, so the board members can come on out. We're going to do it before the May board meeting on May 18th. We're
going to be here, and you're going to see the great super class of 2026. all of the people, all of the schools they're going to from John Hopkins to MIT to West Point and you're going to see them get their awards. You're going to see the announcement of the valadictorian and the saludiatoran. That's going to be on May 18th. And in
May 19th, we're going to be back in this auditorium for the honors for the governor's educator of the year where we're going to have all of those great teachers because in the end, whether we're talking about money or numbers or cuts, in the end, it's people that makes the difference. It's people from the administrative professionals, from the
custodians, from the security staff, our teachers, our par profofessionals, our administrators, our central office people. That's the thing that makes a difference in the end. And we have that on May 19th. I want everybody to come out and see that positivity and see where, you know, education is expensive, but New Jerseyy's got the best education
in the country and it's because of how seriously we take it. So, I want everybody to come out and see all of that. And I'm just happy because I'm all about taking the wins. And you know all the wins for me is when my students go across that stage and move on to the rest of their life whether it's HVAC whether it's work whether it's the the
servicemies and and for me when they move across there I know that we've done all we can to help them put in all that effort. So I appreciate everybody's passion for education and we'll see you guys on May 1st back here for the dance collective and thanks everybody for the good wishes
while I was out but I appreciate you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I'm Rahu Prasad. I live in 21 Tamarak Road, Edison, New Jersey. Um I'm going to state six facts. Each fact followed by a question. That is just to make you
think about how we feel about it. The facts are coming from two three sources. So hopefully it is right. You can question that. But still my questions remain valid as far as the tax h I concerned. First question, inflation already taxed
families $1,700 plus last year. This is a fact. It is based on some number crunching by AI. My question to you is how many more grocery trips should my family skip to cover the second tax hike?
So that's my first question. Second question is, second fact is child care costs rose 32% since 2019 but the family credits did not raise even a bit. My question to you is which
parent should quit their job because we can't afford care and higher taxes? Third fact, flat deduction during inflation is equal to automatic tax hike for large families. My question to you
is how many kids are too many before you start punishing us at the tax time. Fourth fact, revenue about inflation, revenue above inflation plus population growth is itself a over taxation. My
question is when the city collects extra, why are we the ones to hold when why are we the ones told to tighten our belts? Why can't you adjust within your budget? Fifth fact I have is since 2020 wages
lagged inflation by 5% for median families. This is a fact especially for New Jersey. My question is what do you tell a family choosing between a rent or a mortgage and your tax bills this month?
That's it. These are my questions. And last point I still want to keep in the agenda and ask is Tomage Road. I heard from multiple conversations that there is a $19.5 million you can save this year and the following years through
this stormage road deal if it is cut off. Can you please get rid of them? My understanding is that if you just remove that one thing, if you remove just that one thing, tax can go from 6% to 3%. We want to see
zero, but this one thing will get you all the way through. Thank you. >> Thank you. you you want to address that 19 million thing >> the uh the 19 million in outlay >> so if you're speaking to the 19.5
million that's allocated uh in the fiscal year 27 for capital outlay those are for capital leases on loans that were taken against properties that the board of eds owns in order to do construction so think of that as like a
home equity loan right like a heliloc on your house or a second mortgage. If we default on that, no good. So, we have to pay it. It can't there's it's like it's really bad if we don't. >> And and the question is if
>> Yeah. How much property? So, $9.9 million. Um we we actually uh used capital reserve, right? So, if the board chooses to vote and terminate the contract, we will lose our deposit. will get back 8.5 million that goes back into
capital reserve which can only be used for capital projects. So think about um doing things like roofs or uh a small building addition. You can't use it to pay a capital lease. Anything of that $19.5 million because those are
classified as current expenses. So you can't use capital reserve for that. Thanks. >> The deposit is what? $500,000. >> Correct. >> That would be lost, wasted, >> gone. >> Thank you. Next. So, so John, can I ask a question? So, that even if we get the $9 million, $8.5 million because we're
going to lose half a million dollar deposit, >> would that impact any tax like the the gentleman said, it's going to cut another 3%. Is that true? >> The capital anything that comes out of capital reserve, it's not part of your operating budget. It's not part it's just what it is. It's a legally
restricted reserve. funds held in that reserve are aligned for projects in your long range facilities plans because schools much like municipalities are supposed to, you know, obviously keep up um with with building infrastructure um mechanical all of that stuff. That's
what that reserve is for. So that money was acquired over years when there were surpluses um but but no, if if that money there's no impact. Uh if we terminate the deal, it goes back into reserve. It doesn't help your taxes one bit. It it because it can't be used for
current expenses. Remember, your general fund, your operating fund is what's for current expenses, right? A short-term lease like the board took on multiple properties, right? Those are five years or less account. It's it's not a board policy. It's not it's not an
administrative policy. That's it's an accounting practice, right? That's promogulated in New Jersey uh administrative code, law, gap, modified GAP, all of those. That's what we have to file or follow, I should say, say. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Next. >> Thank you. >> I'm sorry. >> I'm just answering.
>> Excuse. Excuse me, sir. I'm sorry. You had your You only get one chance to speak. Thank you. >> Yeah. Yes. Yes. >> But that's a problem question. She asked a question, >> please. Only person recognized speaks on the dis. Thank you. >> I I'm good. >> Yes. Yes. Go ahead.
>> Um, my name is Christine Keefe. I have been a Spanish teacher at John P. Stevens High School since 2001. You have heard many's perspectives tonight. I have literally spent more than half of my life working with the children of the Edison School District. So, I wanted to share mine. I decided to
get up and speak tonight as watching the conversations surrounding the budget unfold has made me very concerned about our schools. A significant reduction of the budget increase from nearly 12% to 6% will be felt across the district. Staff morale is suffering. Uncertainty
is in the air. I watched that town hall meeting on April 16th. and I was not reassured. I was dismayed when questions came up about cutting teacher salaries. Thank you, Dr. Alderelli, for your response to that question. But I wish people understood how much unpaid work the teachers are putting in. Just one
example, high school teachers by contract must arrive at school by 7:30 a.m. But if you come to JP Stevens on any day at 6:30 a.m. and take a look at the parking lot and see how many teachers are there, you might be surprised. One of our BPs has been
acknowledging staff who arrive exceptionally early, in particular those with the earliest arrival times to school. The staff member with the earliest arrival time is around 6:00 a.m. That person does not get compensated for being there so early. And while I admittedly do not get there
that early, that's really early. I am certain that those there at 6 a.m. are doing work like grading, lesson planning, college letters of recommendation, etc. Um, at the meeting that I watched from April 16th, Dr. Alderelli also explained what a proposed budget 11.7% increase would mean. And at
one point he put an approximate monetary cost on every additional 2% reduction. If I'm got my numbers correct, it was around 4.7 million. So you multiply that by three for a 6% reduction. That's a little over 14 million. I know I'm not a math teacher, but I can do that basic
math. Um, a cut of that amount will have an impact on the the state of our buildings. At JP, we're lucky we have that beautiful new seawing, but things like that won't continue to happen if we make these kind of cuts. I've been around a long time and I was here when the 2010 cuts took place and I watched
many colleagues lose their jobs, especially as Spanish teachers. They were hit especially hard because they cut the elementary Spanish program. Class sizes got bigger, especially in my department. This had a negative impact on students. Teachers and support staff are the ones with the most direct contact with students on a day-to-day
basic basis. Drastic cuts to these roles will directly impact student learning and outcomes for all students, those with special education services and students enrolled in honors and AP courses. I have taught classes of 34. Learning is negatively affected when classes are that large. Many of our
classrooms don't even accommodate that many students comfortably. I have been here, as I said earlier, for 25 years. So, I am what many may term a late career teacher. Um, I work with dozens of teachers and support staff at this stage in their careers with less working
years ahead of us than behind us. I also work with fabulous novice teachers and the beauty of having different staff of varying ages and experiences that we all learn from each other. Our students are best served when they learn from teachers of all different experience levels. Are we willing to sacrifice some of the bright novice staff members we
currently have to reduce costs in some way with the most direct impact on students? If this choice is made, it will be to the detriment of our students and who will be here to replace the late career folks like me when we retire. Whatever decisions are made in regard to the cuts, I hope the attention is paid
to some of the higher paying roles over $200,000 a year. That's the salary of approximately three novice teachers or even more support staff. Please think about the potentially overcrowded classrooms, the learning outcomes that will take a hatchet will be hit take a hatchet to our teachers and our support
staff. Please consider the state of our buildings, things like the lack of air conditioning. Because I can tell you, if you haven't been in some hot classrooms, learning objectives are not met when students are in classrooms that can reach temperatures close to 90 degrees in an upstairs sunfacing room or when there are mice around. I know that's an
unfortunate situation, but it does happen. Um, please keep in mind the safety of our members and of the school community and this should be at the forefront of these decision decisions. Um, cuts like things to things like athletics or the arts take away from the best part of the day for many students.
Today, you heard about that earlier. JP Stevens is inducting several very accomplished indivi individuals into their hall of honor. I want to extend my congratulations to them and their many extraordinary accomplishments. Several of whom were my students because I, like I said, I've been here a while. I hope to continue providing the best for all
of our current and future students. The shirt I'm currently wearing says to which means we're all in this together and I chose intentionally to wear this shirt tonight. As an educator, I want what's best for our students. As you consider this proposed budget and what these cuts might mean, I respectfully
ask that you keep all stakeholders in mind, including the students and staff and taxpayers of Edison. Thank you. >> Thank you. Nice. Yes, >> Pansancy Mur to Hedrick Drive Edison. My
It's not a question, it's a comment that I just heard like in the beginning of the meeting uh Mr. Toad said that there are going to be at least four things that you have the list or the line items that you're going to cut. I could be wrong and if I am missing something, please include that. One was the field,
the sports field that will that need some TLC. We will just keep them aside. band program and just to let everybody know our band program in J in both the schools are highly highly decorated both school kids bring us pride and joy from
the trophies at both state and national levels but we decided to not give them the instrument second I think the prek which is not mandatory so you thought it's okay to put aside and the fourth thing I think I'm missing and on top of that all the elected officials who are
present here said yes to table the motion of want deal that you want which is I don't know what that deal is but you want to put that still on your agenda later on and cut all these programs think one more time what you're
doing think because this want and need I used to explain it to my 2-year-old son when we used to go to the store that what you want and what do you need I don't think I need to explain that to you guys thank Thank you, Max.
Yes. Matt Revnack, ETA president. I come to say something I wish I didn't have to come and say, and that is I told you so. I've been coming to this podium for the last five years saying it's a mistake going to 0% for five years. It
will come back to haunt us. I also was an integral part 15 years ago when we went through this under Governor Christie and a town council that cut an additional 6.5 million from our budget and saw a what what originally was 374 staff on the chopping blocks being
privatized etc etc programs being cut. I hope to never relive that. Unfortunately, we're here again. And it is all about that. However, I'm not here to harp on the past. We can't undo it. It's done. But what I want to
do is talk about not have to come back up here in a couple years and say, "I told you so." Again, I think you're making a huge mistake again cutting down to 6%. You've already heard some of the people in the audience heard already about some of the programs that will have to be
cut. Prices go up, budget goes, budget increase goes down. You lost 2.7 million in the last two years in state aid and you will continue to lose that until we get to the local fair share. Are you still willing to keep losing
money from the state? That's one of the questions you have to look and answer because that 2.7 million is gone and like we always talk about with revenue increases, that's compounding as well. So something to think about.
I work directly with Mr. Toth, M Dr. Alderelli and his team. I've heard a lot of people say about transparency and cutting things. We've discussed these things even at 12%. We've talked about that some staff may
have to or combined, let's not call it cut, that it would hopefully be done through attrition, retirees, things like that. and certain things need to be looked at. I know that they've looked at central administration, for example, and programs
over the years. I always said he was thrifty, but Mr. Shei a number of times, hey, I'm going out and reducing that contract and getting them to like lower it by 2% or whatever. All right? So, it's not that the administration has not been doing their due diligence.
I don't recall the public coming out each of the last five years and saying, "You know what? Maybe we should raise the 2%." In fact, I recall them coming out when one year was zero and they wanted a cut. And Mr. Tuls explained to it, you can't
cut the budget. You can flatline it at zero, but you can't cut it. That's the law. So, everybody's up in arms. And listen, I get it. I'm a taxpayer as well. We all are. It sucks to go up 12%.
But what's the alternative? Cuts. Plain and simple. There's no way to do it. And even with 12% there were things that were going to be cut. You know, the local person in the audience doesn't realize that in October, November every
year, staff is told budget freezes. We're very picky now on what you can get. And by the way, it's known the average teacher pays puts out about $700 out of their own pocket every year for supplies that they don't get that they need for
their classroom to make the education of the students enhanced. That's a known fact. So we have a decision to make. Are we going to keep cutting but cutting cutting cutting cutting? The taxpayer has saved money over the
last five years because they haven't paid taxes in five years in the school part of it. And yes, it hurts with the price of everything going up. My bills, I like the one person that said a $100 grocery bill is now 125. You're absolutely
right. That's all of us. But we do have one of the top school systems in the state of New Jersey here. I've always said we're the fifth largest. And back when they have them, we're the first non-abbott district.
I don't want to become that. I'm here 38 years. In fact, I just found out I'm the third in seniority in the entire district. I've given most of my life here. I spend more time here in Edison. I don't live in Edison. Quite honestly, when I was looking when I was married, I couldn't
afford to live in Edison. But we all pay taxes. I don't have children in a school district either. where I live. My children are 32 and 28. And you know what? When it comes to vote on something where I live, it's a yes. There's a lot of things in my taxes I
don't necessarily take advantage of or need at this point, but I pay it because it's for the betterment of society. It's betterment of people. It's better my my children's schools. and will also keep my property value up because when the
school system is weak, your property values go down. The 186,000 is not a madeup number. Go check with the city. That's Edison. They haven't re-evaluated the property values in probably 25 years. That's what it comes down to. So,
it's not a bogus number. And I know I'm short on time, but many people in this audience got up about corporate and you know, etc., etc. We are not corporate. We are education. We don't have a commodity. We develop people. The
dividends on us is that we hopefully develop productive members of society that stay out of prisons. And as was mentioned before, our kids attend some of the best colleges and universities in the country. They go on and become some of the best professionals out there.
And I know because I've been here 38 years and I bragged about it for 38 years. I don't want to see that diminished. I'm out of time. Thank you. Oh, one other thing, Dr. Alderelli, you stole my thing because you mentioned about I usually go teacher appreciation week and nurses, but again, thank you to
all the teachers and nurses out there for all you do for our district. >> Thank you, Max. Okay. I don't see >> motion to close portion. >> I second. >> All in favor? >> Thank you.
>> Wrap it up. >> Meeting is that journ. >> Motion tojourn. >> Oh, yeah. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> To adjourn. How about board member comments? >> Oh, sorry. Yeah. Sorry. Board board member comments. Go for it, Chris. >> I think we have a motion on the floor. What do I do about that last? >> Withraw. Just withdraw motion.
>> Withdraw the motion. Done. >> I'll draw motion to adjurnn. >> Thank you, sir. >> Chris, sorry. No, it's it's it's okay. Thank you, board president. So, with this being tabled, this mo the motion that we had to with the motion that was drafted to get out of the deal the
townage property and it was tabled. Will this be brought back on Tuesday or No, >> my it is not on the agenda. So, it it cannot be brought back on Tuesday. >> I was going to say, yeah, correct. It's not on Tuesday's agenda. Um my understanding is that it may be uh
reviewed further at the May meeting if I'm not mistaken. >> But that though Okay. So it's going to come back it could possibly come back during the May meeting but that time the budget's already voted on a gun. Correct. >> So again my understanding is that the matter that was tabled um I can't get
into all the discussions that were had during closed session as are confidential. I don't believe you were at all the close session. I'll be happy to talk with you offline um so that we can maintain confidentiality uh regarding the board's uh decision of whether to engage in a contract or not.
Um again, this is a board meeting held in public. It's not a public meeting and there are certain items that the board members are bound by confidentiality when it comes to contract negotiations, attorney client privilege, etc. So, I'll be happy to talk to you after the meeting about some of the details. >> Okay. Uh Dr. Alderelli, I got a question
for you. Um, we went from 12 to six and with a 12% increase in the budget, we were still looking at approximately $5.9 million in cuts. Correct? At 12%. >> For staffing or for
>> just overall just in general. Yes. >> Okay. Now, going down to six, we're we're bringing that number now close to 20%. Is that correct? Correct. >> Okay. Is any of that 20% is any capital projects affected by this? next year >> if if we come down to 6%.
>> Yes. >> Yeah. We're not we're planning there's some projects that were you know if we went to 12% that we would have done uh >> I think it was >> two playgrounds. There was the uh jams I think it's parking lot renovation the JP
access road and there was one other one that's escaping off the top of my head along with it's it's not cutting the middle school program. The middle school band programs have not had new instruments since 1976. >> Oh, okay. I'm talking about capital projects. >> Yeah. Yeah. Some of those are some of
those are capital projects, Chris, and capital equipment because the price of a saxophone is considered a capital asset. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, we're cutting that. >> Yeah. >> But yet, we just table the resolution not to cancel our contract for $9 million.
>> Wait, what universe does that even make sense? Again, >> I I really want to know that because we're telling everybody we have to cut, but yet there's a piece of land we have no idea what we're going to do with it. There's been nothing proposed with
return on investment for this land at all. I haven't seen anything and I've been asking now for 2 years and there's hasn't been and that's why I was no vote last year is because no one knew what the what the he had to do with this property. You know, I'm sorry, public. I'm
frustrated because we got this $9 million headache that's lingering out there, but yet I'm hearing from our administrator right now that we're cutting capital projects, but yet we still have $9 million of capital uh liability out there that we're not reclaiming.
>> Just if I may, as a just as a brief point of order, I mean, technically this is board member comments, but you're really talking about not just old business, but also pending business. You could you could shut me down. >> You could shut me down if I'm out of >> line. I represent the board. I'm not trying to shut you down. I'm just trying
to, as I said, point of order. Uh maintain some order with the meeting. The issue you're discussing is technically old business because it was already tabled and it still may be potential future business. And as I mentioned, there are certain matters of attorney client privilege that you weren't present. >> Well, you know, it's not really old
business because it's our problem now. >> I said there are certain matters of attorney client privilege that would like to bring you up to speed on. That's all I'm saying, sir. Thank you. I understand what you're saying. It's old business, but it's current business because we're dealing with the headache in real time. >> I said I said and new. And I said I want to bring you up to speed because you
were not at close session. Thank you. So, can members of the public please stop interrupting the meeting? Thank you. And also, Mr. President, if I just may clarify because there were some questions I asked earlier. I don't think the the speakers wanted an answer because they interrupted me when I tried to answer. But with respect to public comment, the board of education, can can
people please stop? >> Do not disturb. Please let him continue. There were some procedural questions asked regarding public comment. The board, pursuant to your bylaws, pursuant to Robert's rules of order, has every right to adopt a order of agenda for your meetings. Um, you have two public
comment periods. You, being the Edison Township Board of Education, two public comment periods. The first is for resolution items only and the second is for general public comments. Um, when I redirected speakers earlier, we were in the public comments on resolutions only
section of the agenda. We were at that portion of the meeting, which is why people's comments about a piece of property were out of order because that was not on the agenda since it was tabled. Um, during the general public comment period, that gentleman was
correct. Speakers can speak on whatever they want um um at their peril or pleasure. Um, and I'll leave it at that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. I still have a couple more questions. >> Yeah. Go ahead, Chris. >> So, the budget was submitted at 12% to
the county. Correct. >> Correct. >> Was it accepted by the county? >> Correct. >> Okay. Now, we're going to re possibly redo it at 6% and resend it to the county. >> Yes. >> Possibly. That's that's a potential >> after board approves it. >> It Right. So, that's that's a potential
scenario, >> right? So the the draft that has now been uh after speaking with the board president, superintendent, the the the draft um reflects 6%. That has to be uh presented obviously to the board and to
the community. Uh there has to be uh a hearing public comment on it come back and there has to be uh a majority vote which approve it and then I could send it to the county. >> Okay. Is the county obligated to accept it or can they reject that? I would I
would anticipate they listen they're not obligated to but I would anticipate that uh the changes that we made they uh they will go along with >> okay but is can but is it in the realm of possibility that the county can reject another budget?
>> I mean it's very it's possible anything's possible Mr. Lugo >> what happens then? We'll put it this way. If if if you if we if the board doesn't pass uh for forget the county, if the board doesn't pass a budget in in which the county approves, let's say
that we have a budget goes to the county, they kick it back to us. We have to work changes, revote, not another hearing, but revote and it goes beyond the 14th, it goes to the county and ultimately they'll decide what the tax levy impact is, not the board of ed.
And that's that's Yes. >> But that's only if the board doesn't pass a budget. Correct. >> Correct. Beyond May 14th. >> Correct. My what I was trying to envision is is there a possibility that if the board proposes to put forward a
6% budget, can it be rejected? >> Would the if the would the county reject it? I would think no as long as we are meeting the adequacy level for education spending here in Edison. meaning that the budget we put forth provides a
thorough and efficient education because there's a formula within the budget to the edi Edison students. I would think as long as we're at or above adequacy, we would be okay. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Thank you, Mr. President. And if I may just remind board members that uh
pursuant to the code of ethics for board members um codified at NJSA 18A2-24.1 um board members essentially have three functions pursuant to law. Um hire superintendent uh set policy and number three drum roll
JT adopt the budget. That that's one of your primary responsibilities. >> You're on fire tonight. Um and so you're also measured and monitored by uh QAC quality single accountability continuum and one of the primary factors that you're graded on is governance and
finance i.e. adopting a budget. Um so um I would just you know caution or or or just you know advise board members to roll your sleeves up and try to do your your statutory and ethical responsibility to adopt a budget versus putting it off to the county. Thank you.
Okay. Anyone else? >> Shannon. >> Motion. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> What? Time out. Time out. I I I have something to say. >> With withdrawn. >> I have to withdraw again. >> No, no, no, no. You're good. >> No, go for withdrawals. >> I just I just want to say that we're all
taxpayers here as well. We We've all had children in the school system and most of us our our children are out of school. The point I'm trying to make is we we passed a preliminary budget. It wasn't tw set in stone 12%. It was a
preliminary budget that the district had to send to the county uh by the 27th of March. That was done. That's you and we did our job. We don't want to tax ourselves 2%, 10% or 15%. But like many
of you said, you have children in the school system. You you care about your your kids. H how do you take care of the kids? How do you pay for teachers and you don't raise taxes? I don't want to raise taxes, but when you get it when you get a decrease on state aid, how do
you how do you It's a tight rope. You know, we we're all in the same boat as you. We don't want to raise taxes and we don't want to see kids do without and we don't want to see uh teachers lose their jobs. So, ju just wanted to bring that point to your attention. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Anyone else before we go to the motion? Okay. >> Can I do it? >> Yes. Go for it. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Meeting adjourn. >> Good night.