check one two check check one two for e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e I just everybody we're going to start the meeting please stand flag
slope listen for your speech flag the United States of America to the stands indivisible roll call please president shei here vice president Patel here miss
white here miss Pang here Mr Romano here miss anena Patel Mr Lugo here Mr ronac Patel here Mr
ero you have a quorum thank you open your statement in accordance with the open public public meetings act 1975 c231 Sunshine Law the Edison Township Board of Education has caused notice of the of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted on the board of education
administrative offices copies of these notices were sent to the home News Tribune and the Star Ledger thank you uh as most of you know that uh we started the uh strategic plan about a year ago um a little bit over a year ago
and uh it's it's a a work in progress and today we going to have a a presentation of part of the five pillars of the Strategic plan is Portrait of uh of a graduate so who uh is going to present we have I'd like to introduce Mr
Rick Cohen and Mr Brian McGrath Round Round of Applause you can appla so good evening uh I would like to thank Dr Al delli our superintendent Port president Mr shei and the entire board
of education for the opportunity to be here this evening to share with you all of the work that has been done in relation to the portrait of a graduate uh as Mr shei just said uh approximately a year ago the uh District engaged in
this process of really reflecting on the work that we're doing and coming up with a strategic plan so this evening uh before we honor all these amazing students we're going to take just a few minutes and share with you where we currently
are so a quick look back between last year and where we are now uh an amazing group of people have come together to make this work a reality uh we started with an action team last late winter
into spring uh that group assembled and the purpose of that work really was to collaborate uh on the right on the slides you'll see uh we have a a list of the steps that that we have engaged in and I'd ask you
to to kind of go to those last four um the process that you're about to hear about tonight is iterative it began a year ago and it will continue in perpetude there is no end to the process
process of refining what must be present in the education of every single graduate here in Edison what has historically differentiated Edison Public Schools is our ability to provide students with the
academic skills the content knowledge and the ability to become engaged and productive citizens the work that you're going to hear about tonight not only honors but builds upon that
Legacy I'm going to ask everybody here and everybody at home to engage in a little thought experiment if you will on the screen there are these silhouettes of graduates the folks in this room the Educators that come to
this great School District every day the parents the students uh we we have a common shared goal and that is to put all of these amazing students and all of the others that come to our school district in a position of success but
sometimes we talk about school systems and much is lost uh we forget sometimes that behind every decision uh every step are human being means so the portrait of
a graduate is not a singular outcome the portrait of a graduate is the result of the school district listening and responding and coming together around what it is that students need so I'd ask everybody to just look at those
Silhouettes and think about your own children your grandchildren the students in your classroom nieces nephews those who you are responsible for educating or taking care
of when you think about those children they're is no singular outcome there is no way that any person could come to this microphone and provide you with all of the ingredients of
success it requires the district to be fluid and to constantly change and to set a path that is aled with what our students need Mr cullin is going to come up in a moment and he's going to talk to you
about the six elements that have come out of the collaborative process the listening process and the hard work that's been done to this point when you thought about the children the young adults the students
that we are all responsible for uh I would be willing to bet that these six characteristics came to mind those elements that regardless of your career path regardless of your
educational aspiration um must be present so if I leave you with anything I hope it is this um the portrait of a graduate is complex just like your family just like what
each one of those children who you are responsible for um for the outcomes that they want and for the path that they're going to take so again this work it is iterative and tonight is really just a celebration and a sharing of where we
are right now and Mr Cen is now going to come to the mic and talk to you about these elements and uh I'll come back to to close it out so Mr col good evening uh I got to bring the mic down a little bit um more vertically challenged than Mr
McGrath thank thank Bor Dr Arelli uh thank everybody for being here is an honor I'm really excited to talk about the great work that's going on in Edison around portrait of a graduate for our students I want you to kind of look at these as pieces of a puzzle these six characteristics um and each of these
pieces or each of these characteristics are both core vital academic skills for success in the classroom while there are also core and vital social and emotional learning competencies which are key to success in the classroom and outside the classroom and what we're really aiming
to do here is to engage all of our students in deeper learning of these characteristics and also for them to become masters of putting all these pieces of the puzzle together so they can navigate and contribute to our
diverse and interconnected schools classrooms and Community oh I went the wrong direction you told me down and I went up thank you all right uh real quick so we're going to go over the goals we want to talk a little bit about the accomplishments and
what's coming next of these goals the text in the slides going to be up on the website and there's also great evidence of the work being done that I'll mention or it's on the text of the slides on our platform so I'm going to let that do a lot of the heavy work uh what I really want to talk about is some of the
highlights of each of these goals and some of the work that we're really excited about that's accomplished and what's to come so for goal one and communication of Edison po we've engaged students uh to give us some great ideas about how can we communicate best to your peers as
well as to the younger students they've given us some great ideas already and we're going to use that to engage them in part of the communication to take ownership of these characteristics to model those and we want to next get them involved in using some some of the talents the artistic talents that we
have here in this room and in this district for our students to be able to express these characteristics and what it means to us and our community for goal number two when our a lot of work to embed these portrait of a graduate characteristics into our
curriculum and instruction across the board um we're super excited about the creation of Edison's own Innovation process in building this Innovation process that all students can use to become innovators and create great
Solutions and contribute innovative ideas and solutions to problems in our community and in society um we are now have a tool that can be used in every content area as well as in Social and emotional context for for every student
to become a critical thinker and problem solving in any context uh and so we're really looking forward to embedding this into our curriculum and instruction across our coursework so all of our students become masterful innovators and inquirers I do want to give a shout out
to miss Kate galman and a partnership with our pillar and the wellness pillar who talked about embedding executive functioning they are this this one process has the cell competencies the critical thinking problem solving skills the characteristics as well as the executive function skills that everybody
needs to be successful in school especially in the workplace uh next for us will be to engage students voice in the pathways that we want to create theem that are coming in the next 5 years to the district which I'm really excited I'll talk about at the end of this
presentation is some really cool academies that we want to bring in oh I'm hitting the laser right there we go all right so really interesting thing happened when we started talk to our students about the portrait of a graduate characteristics last spring we had representatives from both the high
schools and we asked what are you experiencing from these characteristics in your in your in your life as a student and we heard them Rave about the ways in which they're applying these in so many ways already when it comes to their extracurricular activities so
we're really proud to to offer an amazing array of extracurricular activities and we're really glad to hear that we're challenging students to be Navigators and contributors uh of a diverse interconnected World outside the classroom after
school however what we want to do next is we want to build off the successes that the students are sharing that they're having in extracurricular activities where they be real critical thinkers and problem solvers and contributors to their Community but we want to bring that into the classroom so
that our curriculum then then is empowering students in the classroom in their day-to-day experiences with curriculum to be real world problem solvers and innovators and contributors to the classroom and Beyond
and so the idea is that just like if this was an example of what you might see at an extracurricular activity where kids are given they have the tools they have the different six characteristics or the pieces of that puzzle and they are working hard together to put them
together to do to be these contributors and Navigators of society the goal is to build off what we see as successful here and then build set up so that we can use those extracurricular great experiences to create
aies here in our school for our students to be able to be engaged during the school day in these types of activities that we're able to challenge them to demonstrate all the portrait of a graduate so I'm going to talk about those acmis again in a minute that's a big teaser sorry about all that but goal
four the key in order to be able to build these acmis in our classrooms is to know what our students already do well and what we can due to embed into the curriculum to prepare them for all six characteristics of the POG uh in order to do that we've created an
assessment tool in partnership with newella and formative and they've customized with us and our design a an assessment tool that will show us where our students are strong with our Poe and where there's areas that we can help provide more support through curriculum
and instruction or programs and last week newella had a big Retreat out in California for their company an employee there was open mic to the president of the company and employee went up to them and said what are you most proud of in your work in 2024 and he said the
Innovative work we're doing in Edison to create assessment to really measure the different characteristics of students and their success and then our our fifth goal student voice we couldn't be more proud of the contributions that our students are making in terms of you know what is
it that's valued here what is it that's working here what is it that we need here um and so we've engaged them in talking first about emotional intelligence they've demonstrated so much emotional intelligence in talking about emotional intelligence they're very self-aware theyve shown a lot of
great strategies for self-management and next we're going to be talking to them about reading the room and social awareness as well but then we want to take that Beyond and we want to meet with more and more students we had a we had meeting with a bunch of students in December we're going to meet with more in February
and we want to start talking about as well what are those Pathways and theseis that would really challenge you and that would really interest you and engage you in Civics and and ethical decisionmaking and um
Innovation so uh really excited to announce some of these things these programs that are coming based on student voice based on the committee from uh you know the the portrait of a graduate and in collaboration with the pathways uh
committee with uh Miss bind Gomez and Miss Nicole Halpin uh in terms of new courses that we're really excited that we want to use to engage students in deeper learning uh of the portrait of a graduate we're going to be able to offer AP Human Geography AP cyber security and
AP Psychology and then looking forward to the future we want to be able to bring in build Somey where students like The STEM Academy at Edison High which we're very proud of have other career Pathways
where they can explore here in high school get really engaged not only in doing real world things in the classroom but real world things outside the classroom get them engaged in internships bringing in experts from the field into the classroom uh so we're
looking to build uh Pathways for andies for computer science and Robotics um we already have a great engineering program here in Edison High we want to add on to that to build more of a steam kind ofies across the district including like
architecture we want to build businessmy Allied Health uh Pathways and a lot more to be determined um but you know and already talking with the pathways committee there's endless opportunities to to build off our our Auto workshop and do automotive technology and
Hospitality where students can leave these acmis with certifications that they can use to go out and navigate and contribute uh our diverse and interconnected workplaces and Society thank you um to put a Capstone on our
presentation um there's a a famous quote that education is not about filling a pale it's about lighting a fire and the work that we're engaging in simply hopes to understand our students to position
our school district in a in a manner that lights that fire I couldn't have asked for a better transition um over the last few weeks uh Mrs Daniels and myself have worked uh to put together some of the slides she worked on the graphics um but all of the graphics sort
of pale in comparison to the backdrop that I have for this presentation uh if the students who are here tonight to be recognized could just stand for a brief moment as we transition out don't be shy it's okay for as many
students for as many students as there are here tonight and for the other 18,23 that I saw in Genesis today um this work is for you there are different
aspirations different definitions of success and certainly different outcomes among you and all of the students here in our district and this is truly what a portrait of a graduate is about so tonight we will honor you for your
athletic uh accomplishments for your academ academic accomplishments for your leadership skills for your musical Endeavors and this work uh hopes to build upon those and so many other
skills that you have so hats off to you thank you Mr Cen and thank you to all of you for allowing us to do this and I'll now turn it over to Mr shei and we'll begin thank you thank you uh Mr Cohen and Mr grats
for your presentation we're expecting some more down the road all right so uh you know today's meeting is one of those very exciting uh meeting throughout the whole year um today we recognize the
achievements of all these students and that's what presented the portrait of students this is example of some of those students that uh we try to develop so uh um next up Dr already introduce Mr
White all right thank you so much board president shei uh ladies and gentlemen one of the uh the best board meetings of the month uh because this is really U you know where the rubber meets the road in relationship to what we do as educators um School leaders uh in a community right we are here to share in our
successes uh and the path that got us there just like the presentation before us so without any further hesitation to kick off student recognition night we have Mr Tom white yeah see good evening
everyone my name is Tom white I'm supervisor of Visual and Performing Arts I'd like to take the time to welcome you all to our January board of ed student recognition night I want to take the time to uh thank the Board of Education Dr Al delli
and and the principles who donated their time tonight to go speak um and we look forward to talking about really what's great about our district and we're going to honor all the academic and athletic accomplishments from The Fall season we usually do two of these a year so fall
is getting covered right now and when we do this again in June that's when we're going to talk a little bit more about the winter and uh spring accomplishments so without further Ado let's get this underway uh first I would like to introduce principal of Thomas Jefferson
Middle School Miss Antonette [Applause] emden good evening I'd like to thank Dr Al delli and the Edison board of education for providing an opportunity
to recognize student excellence beyond the classroom students please stand when you hear your name under the direction of Miss Holly rebovich and Miss Mona Patel I'd like to recognize Prav prasana for placing third in the science B Regional
competition under the direction of head coach Miss fatini culis I'd like to recognize the students of Thomas Jefferson Middle School's girls soccer team for winning this year's Edison Township middle school soccer tournament students please stand when you hear your name Molina Allah
jaboin Mia Blanchett Manor berky Gana espanol Alexandra Fernandez Hernandez lyana
gimon senva goind deraj nikila Gua Mala ilahana Amana KET Raha kibet Lakshmi
koganti Ma Lee Alexa Ooa Perez Delany Pelican Jada Peterson Emily pragal Loa who also set a
School record for 61 career career goals zoi Ramirez incar deija sakori akara v caputi aaya velak caputi congratulations to all students
and advisers recognized tonight it is my honor to introduce the principal of Herbert hoofer Middle School Mr McGrath [Applause] again I'd like to thank Dr Alder relli
Mr shei and the entire board for the opportunity to honor our amazing students uh I would like to begin by recognizing the students on our boys soccer team for winning first place in Edison Middle School boys soccer
tournament I'll start by thanking Mr Joe Thor uh the amazing coach that put all the work into getting them here so Mr Thor gentlemen when you hear your name if you could please stand we'll start with Mr Noah Andrade Michael
Aran Anthony aala abdell Kion periona Alex dor Benjamin D Silva advi duetti Joseph
Fernandez Benjamin Ferrera frees Smiler Gonzalez Campos verun kraga aen Kunal [Applause] Ian Miller Johan Anto
Johnson Kevin adago Ila Petro petrovich Michael Randazzo Thiago Vieira Lewis Bravo Bala Round of Applause gentlemen
congratulations I'd also like to congratulate and recognize those participants who placed silver medal in the FCCLA fall competition under the tutelage of Mrs Joanna D Francesco when
you hear your name please rise sandis Rasheed pavna manikandan and Fu Jazelle ranin congratulations I would now like to welcome Mrs Jo Dr Joanie Valentine to the [Applause]
podium hi everyone thank you for having us here tonight it's always a pleasure to represent the John Adams Middle School students they are jamazing as you know know I'd like to start by recognizing the coach of the cross country team Mr Doug pisaro he tells me
every season I'm going going to come back one more time because we just keep winning so we have to keep that attitude and keep that going congratulations to the following students who are first place 2024 GMC Middle School girls varsity
cross country Anvi auua Anika Anand k balakumar rashika barula Savana kacho krisha shandara Isabelle Durk assara Durk liia
gaban sanvi hazra annaya Manar Nisa Mishra sanvi perik Mithra Rami Akida cumar akara Shankar sanetti saradi arav
vashi anva Vora congratulations to all of those students and again congratulations to Mr Doug pasaro and the cross cross country third place 2024 GMC Middle School boys varsity cross country students aan dagra
Jacob George jar gwani Rohan kakar saic landi vihan leandi prian Manar AI Mishra Vidant patil vishi pran Ayan
Salan sahaj sha Ved sahra am shavasan anai tomar samtha vacan and sumed vne congratulations to all of our student athletes next I'd like to congratulate
Miss Susan SEO and Miss L Lauren Lopez the advisers of FCCLA we have several students being recognized tonight none of whom can be here they're busy uh working toward their next set of accomplishments but congratulations to all of the students
who accomplished at the FCCLA leadership conference this fall we're very proud of you continue to be jamazing at this time I would like to introduce Miss uh Dr lak from Edison High School
[Applause] good evening I am honored to be recognizing our outstanding students and all the accomplishments they have achieved so far this year here at the home of the Eagles our accolades begin
with our FCCLA students led by adviser Miss Megan Reeves as you hear your name please stand up for what's the buzz Third Place Silver medal harim soil in passion for fashion gold medal
Haley kevi second place gold medal Fatima Aliva first place gold medal kaln sadra Lopez imuna majar and mihak
Patel and first place gold medal Duvy Patel and Ana jowala for financing your future silver medal Ashi tamboli Ria paic Kaaya Patel prag abaa and daa
[Applause] Majid first place gold medal ishan Jai Yushi compella Kavin malavia for cupcake challenge silver medal stuti sha Karishma coli gory
Chandra Hassen and Jessica vavina raava Kumar gold medal ail Bravo and Anna santiso Gonzalez for cultural food Fusion silver medal jenie cyprien and ashin [Music] Gordon for career search first place
gold medal hini vaji mahita deor rakanda and Akira C first Circle time bronze medal Lovin Levan for Community counts gold medal rucha deshmuk anaise Dantes Tom seal
mman nurit Boer sarves premkumar and rishikesh vesara and finally for battle of the budget gold medal stuti Shaw and fisa Amed as you can tell our FCCLA has been
busy this year our Flex teams have also enjoyed great success this year and I'm going to ask our athletes to stand as I say their names receiving all-white division in girls volleyball led by coach Jason Worland we have Cheyenne
singer SAA balamur and AA a Sayed receiving all GMC team beam and First Team all state recognition and gynastics led by coach Leanne Salvatore is Emily hque receiving all GMC Team all red
division recognition and girls soccer led by coach kin melli are Kaden araven and Isabella Charles in boys soccer led by coach Steve Rubin Rec receiving recognition for allwhite division and all state coaches association are a pair of
talented s siblings George cus and Emanuel cus with George also making the all GMC team receiving all Division National silver division and big Central conference in football led by coach Matt yasco are
Shan Garland Justin boslett and Dedrick Harvey and finally our awardwinning bands led by Mr Mark Dina Colo Mr Derek dilman and Mr Michael O has several areas of recognition in making the cjmea
All Region for p percussion Ensemble we have Albert bagati for band we have Charles cursing Sophia wo Christopher ched Albert bagati and Juan MOA Herrera and for orchestra we have Sophia
woo and Juan MOA Herrera congratulations Eagles you make us proud next will be Dr Kim principal at the home of the Hawks JP [Applause]
Stevens good evening I'm very proud to um be here tonight um thank you so much to the board and Dr Al delli for this opportunity to recognize some amazing student athletes musicians artists um
and all around just amazing students so I have a pretty long list here and I have been practicing the name so let's get started we're going to start with our athletic department um led by coach Mick Mullen we are going to recognize from boy soccer all GNC conference
Tanish chathan also from boy soccer the all-white division tenise chathan isan Manu abishek narii led by coach Weber we're going to recognize from girls volleyball the all
red division all conference Sophia Wong Amy Han led by coach jaldo we have girls soccer allwhite division Jasline Chen Sophia chisari n haot Kristen
Whitney and from the all GMC conference jasine Chen led by Miss uh coach rido we have cross country all red division sahill nambar SAR Nar Arya Sinha sanisha pra
Kula and from all GMC conference Toni Anam maraju led by Coach George we're recognizing from our football team making Patriot all gold division first team Lamar Rayford Kadir Johnson and
Maris Webb [Applause] led by our directors um Mr Lee and Miss mcroy we're going to turn our attention to choir these are all the students who made the cjmea regions in treble choir
we have ad advika an Anand Anushka Bala Marcy dangerville Trisha juliari suara Joi Akira kilson Amba Kumar maika
mudati Magna Ravin ranika vedula also in the J cjmea regions mix choir we have simron Argy smuth Arun
Shia bansal sanvi chukar suar jadav meup core Amani coner Anaya mahara niik Malu Dro
mandani Mii nup Pati Victor aun Yi aditia parik Adria Paul Mano Singh viika sasin Arya [Music]
toyan and from Orchestra led by Mr uh Dr Verity and Mr Lee we have oh no this is sorry it's mixed up but cjmea region Orchestra we have Leilani gup paage Wong
Prav morti yant balaguru Sami n aana sha schlo Kumar kingshuk Malik Maya Shukla
Chef also from Orchestra all Eastern Orchestra we have Howard Shu and now in choire led by um directors Mr Lee and Miss McElroy we have NF all Eastern Sab Honor Choir
Shel bti pru Sarah Doo also the nme all Eastern treble Choir The Honor Choir advika Anand we have acda all National Grade
11th and 12th grade sabt Honor Choir Serena bati pru we have the acda all national grades 8 through 10th ssaa Honor Choir Trisha
hakari and finishing up we have from choir acda all National Grade grades 10 through uh 7 through 10 10 our base Honor Choir Dro mandani and Shia
bonsal okay and now we have led by our band directors Mr zazali Mr Hendrickson and Miss feral we have all the students who met cjmea region band we have Devon
Shaw veran papat Justin NE sjin Kim yuin Amala arasu sahil Kar karney Dev Zari tassin afro simron tangri shus
theum Mali sidarth vya Raina sherali Christopher Juan Johan chrishan Taran vaka pav Vali pav Bolero s CA
shavasan Rishi dugi mupa tan sha a ainash rajak isan Nadar shre saal Arnav Lang manav
chetti Nicholas ALC Mahir tadari Adat karney dth puur mayab prit core binit that that was Brin we're done with
the uh band we can give them all a round of applause all right and our last category is FCCLA we have a lot of winners I know they've put so much time and effort into this so led by um their advisers Miss
DEA miss zoranski and miss olenek so first place gold medal perfect score caregiver carel Shelly Dash and aan massud first place gold medal membership matters mayhaw Patel and ni
Raina first place gold medal tune in to FCCLA public health and safety Manch Gupta first place gold medal what's the buzz dristy bonati and anelie
Sinha second place gold medal FCCLA chapter Spotlight Jenna tropman duy Patel Sonia tar second place gold medal interior design challenge event CIA Patel joota
akulu second place gold medal Illustrated talk issue that impact children development and education critica manani Niha nudi third place gold medal caregiver carel Sophia Gollum Sonia karney Kaa
Patel third place gold medal Battle of the budget Sai rishita Kona and janavi Singh gold medal food Fascination malav sha gold medal Illustrated talk personal Family Matters Kingo Malik Dro
amagon gold medal Battle of the budget sidar gar om single hea shabas gold metal Illustrated talk issues that impact food and nutrition apara hini yed
laali gold medal creative stitches manvi adapala gold medal financing your future pranika curri svi B panu Marti gold medal Circle time Gia
suiri Raja Ramesh gold medal abson education Kieran jumar minaki gasan gold medal saying yes to
FCS janani kanakaraj Nia Alum molu ABA ABA Tomi First Place Silver medal what's the buzz Isha sidiki drani chakraborti silver medal career search
SRI Krishna V Vish Cara sahana Bala Balaji Kumar silver medal creative stitches Charlie's oif silver medal financing your future
nhha changman pan changm math Ana shett silver medal t-shirt Expressions anvita singhal Avada bade Shivali Su silver medal career search fika
kothamasu Ana sha bronze medal cupcake challenge Ria Karan Emma Desa and our last category bronze medal Community counts Prav Rak Kota and PR
pranav kotar let's give them all all these amazing students another round of applause they've worked incredibly hard okay was one student omitted from uh my sheet and I would be remiss if I did not recognize him he was a critical part of
the boy soccer team at Hoover an apology to his family who came out on this cold night so Michael pesi if you could stand and we'll give you a round of applause that you so well deserve congratulations thank you and I'll turn it over to Mr White
all right how about one more rousing round of applause for all of our students who received the recognition tonight and thank you again to everyone for braving the elements tonight and I had a very indepth conversation with my personal assistant her name is Alexa and she told me and under good authority
that it's under 20 degrees outside and it's probably going to fall to the single digits tonight so great job guys finding your way here in such rough condition so give yourselves a round of applause for [Applause] that and this concludes our recognition
night ceremony congratulations to all of our students being recognized this evening and I would like to return the meeting to our Board of Education president Mr Jerry shei to begin tonight's business thank you again thank you thank you thank you thank you everyone and I thank everyone for coming
on a cold night like this and uh when you go home tonight please thank your parents all right they're your Bankers they're your chauffeur all right tomorrow morning when you go to school thank you thank all the advisor the
coaches for what they have done to put you here okay now we're going to have a 5 minute recess and we're going to resume our normal agenda thank you very very much have a good [Applause] night
e e e e e e e e e e
e e than foreign speech we're going to resw M meeting uh coming up it's a b president's report um I don't have a lot to say but I just want to congratulate our students again
and uh thank all the parents uh you know the family members and uh the advisers and coaches for all uh you have done uh the uh we just had a very cold uh
night uh this past weekend and I think overall that uh our um you know grounds crew did a good a decent job U cleaning up the Snows uh there are probably still a couple spots here and there uh in the parking lot or or um you know in the
sidewalks if the uh uh principals or the you know the the building leadership is see something that needs to be additional work needs to be done please uh let Mr kibas know so we're going to go and uh um make it better right so uh
superintendent report great thank you so much uh Mr shei uh members of the Board of Education l ladies and gentlemen uh pleasure to be here this evening uh it is extremely cold out right now um and uh you know it uh just a a reminder of
of how cold January can actually be and looking for warmer weather coming up this weekend so um I I have a just a couple brief comments um tonight as you can see on the resolution on the agenda is we're not only recognizing our students uh but we're also recognizing the volunteers that are up on the stage
currently it is board recognition uh night we are celebrating this month um in honor of the Edison Township Public Schools Board of Education we honor our current members of the board of ed for their exceptional dedication their Vision their tireless work ethic
um without compensation right except for the great things that we do for the community um but most importantly their commitment for shaping the future of the uh for the students and staff here in in Edison Township um through your selfless Public Service uh each member has worked
in the best interest of our students advocating for educational Excellence um the board's leadership exemplifies the true meaning of public service and we are so proud to stand with them in support of our community's most valuable resource and that's our
children I would be remiss if I did not mention that the work that we have and the work product that we have presented here today is not only the work of this board but previous boards also that have established a legacy and have done a great job in moving forward um and
providing continuity so that um our students are the beneficiary so I know I speak for um all members of our organization in the community we thank each and every one of you for your service it is an absolute pleasure to work alongside of you each and every day
and I truly mean that and I thank you great and and just a couple a couple more highlights too um uh you know just some some accolades you know as we're celebrating Student Success uh Mr zazali reached out to me uh over the weekend I think a couple of us were copying on
that email too we're happy to announce we have 22 of our band students that were accepted to the New Jersey All State band uh these students have the honor and privilege of performing at the uh NJ PAC on Sunday February 23rd at 3M
congratulations to them congratulations to Mr zazali keeping that program um uh in the utmost uh you know with the utmost reputation that it that it's preceded so it's it's great um congratulations um I had the opportunity to get out and see some winter sports
last week too I've got a couple coming up we had I was actually at the um uh the cross town games for uh girls basketball Varsity great game between uh Edison High and JP Stevens uh and then we went to the uh home of the Eagles for the uh boys varsity game um which was
also a good game great to see school spirit in there and and although uh they're competing against each other we still are one Edison and um it was great to see everybody in the audience at that time a lot of camaraderie lot of lot of laughs and uh great sportsmanship exhibited by both sides um I another
piece for the Board of Education um as you're aware uh We've initiated a superintendent advisory Council uh we had overwhelming number of students Supply um and uh it was tough to kind of uh siphon through uh the many great
applications that they've done resumés interviews the whole nine yard statements um so we accepted everybody in this first year we actually have a total of 55 students from both schools uh I'll be meeting with them on the 27th on multiple topics just to Echo what Mr Cohen had said before in relationship to
the port or The Graduate um we want to hear their voice in relationship to their overall academic experience here right anything from academic rigor to um you know uh what they like to eat uh as well as uh the access they have to
extracurricular uh and co-curricular activities I think it's going to be um an excellent exercise it'll provide me with information right my day-to-day um you know is usually not with students you know I try to get into the schools as much as I possibly can but um this
will actually give me a little bit of insight into uh what's going on and it's students it's their high school students um and they range from grades 9 through 12 on both high schools so I'm really looking forward to that um uh next week we are off on Wednesday um I would like to wish everybody a happy uh Lunar New
Year for those that are celebrating it and upcoming events between now and the next Board of Education meeting we do have parent University um signups I think are currently out right now we sent out advertisements and I believe February 12th is in the works perfect
we'll be sending those out in the works but it will be um a correspondence be on the lookout for that um it it's sure to be a great partnership between a school and the community and without any further uh Ado I will turn it back over to board president she thank you Dr hard
ready uh now we have our student council representative so we're going to go with uh Edison High first Derek dudak hey everyone uh as uh as everyone's getting
sailed back in from winter break uh we're starting to pick things up around the school uh in a few weeks we're looking to have a Valentine's Day themed Battle of the classes event which will include people matching up and being quizzed on how much they know each other and around them we might have a spear
week and if we don't have it that week we'll definitely have it leading up to our next event and that event coming up exactly a month from today is our annual dodgeball for charity event on February 21st we'll have music blasting in the big gym as teams of 69 players compete
in a tournament wearing costumes ranging from LeBron jerseys to ballerina outfits and we also have a Minecraft build battle coming up a white elephant event and our Band program is is hosting a tricky tray
event and now looking at now looking at our Sports our boys basketball team has already matched their win total from last season they're now seven- Six coming off of a seven and 17 season with a huge turnaround being led by seniors dedri Harvey Jonah Norris and cir McKay
as well as Junior drj SAR bu the bowling team unfortunately just took a lost to Oldbridge today in a game that I just got back from however the team has a record on the season of 12 three going undefeated so far in the white division uh and clinching the
division title last week uh tomorrow's the boys bowling team second last regular season game and it'll be against JP Stevens as the Southside looks to go for a season sweep uh the girls bowling team is 8 and5 despite a roster of mostly underclassman and the wrestling team is
s- six including some blowout wins over St Thomas North planfield and piscatway so lots of sport success going around this winter and plenty of fun to look forward to as we get through these cold months to start the year that's it thank
you so I'm not going to put you on a spot um you know I hope Dr AR is going to get it from the student uh uh advisory as well is uh I heard Mr Ross implemented new cell phone policy in
Edison High right so I I hope that we can hear some feedback you know from our students and uh you don't have to answer my question right right now I left my business card to you so feel free to reach out okay okay got it I will thank you very
much all right now we have uh JP Stevens uh the president of SII buyam good evening everyone my name is Soni buyam and I'm one of the co-presidents of the student council at JP Stevens High School so as we enter
the second half of the school year back from winter break students are back in full swing with classes clubs and a variety of events which I'm excited to share with you tonight to kick off the New Year JP hosted a model un conference on January 4th where students showcased their diplomatic and debating skills
while engaging with global issues looking ahead we are excited for several upcoming events the student council will be hosting its JPS Family Feud on January 31st where grads will face off in a fun Family Feud Style game night and I'll be dressing up as Steve Harvey
so you won't want to miss it and I know you guys all want to come and I'm glad to share that it's free for everyone to enter at 3:00 at um JY Stevens January 31st and I hope to see you guys there furthermore on January 24th the Key Club
will be hosting their winter dinner and on January 28th the Chinese Culture Club will celebrate Lunar New Year with a spectacular exhibition this includes a performance of the traditional Dragon Dance complete with a large intricate dragon costume which you will not want
to miss in terms of sports our boys bowling holds an impressive 10 to3 record and our girls bowling team is dominating with an incredible 11 to1 record for the season and both of both of these teams deserve recognition for all their hard work and accomplishments
and as always it's an honor to represent JP and share all the amazing achievements thank you thank you I also left a business card for you as well thank and uh there's a new bathroom policy in JP I
want to hear feedback from you again not going to put you on a spot so uh feel free to reach out all right thank you very much so you guys are more than welcome to stay but if you want to go home and uh you know get your homework
done feel free all right thank you very much all right so so we're going to go through our uh regular agenda so you have the uh the packet in front of you uh so we open up for public comments for Resolutions only public comments for
Resolutions only anyone oh sitting in the front no you can sit in the front you can save a couple seconds Beth taly 15 Midwood Avenue um first of all under finance and Facilities I just
have a question if you can clarify there's an approval of RFP 259 for certified virtual instruction to proximity learning exactly what is that and also on the page prior to that where we have
the monthly financials and minutes um there's a whole box it says administrative file attachments it's got Billet it's got everything there but if you go on the computer to look for it it's not there so what exactly is that I
know we have the file attachments for December 17th 2024 minutes but nothing else is there so do you you know do you board members have it up there do you know exactly what it is and I can't tell you what page number
it's on because we don't have that okay that's it thank you if you can clarify those two thank you all right Dr but if I take proximity yes sure okay perfect yeah so so um as you're aware you know we're in the midst of the the largest national teacher shortage that our our
profession has ever seen and um although we pride ourselves on locating the very best talent those those very difficult spots um from a certification standpoint um World Language um high school and middle school special education teachers
that require um dual certification especially in those content areas um sometimes they're a little bit more difficult to find and so what we do is we number one exhausted through a search number two um we we put a substitute in there um
but there are uh limitations for length and duration in relationship to how long you're actually allowed to have a sub in the classroom so in in the interm what we do is we utilize what's called proximity learning and that's a virtual learning platform where it is a certified teacher in the area of
certification it's done virtually right so they could be in the state of New Jersey or they could be a certified teacher in the state of New Jersey that no longer works here but is you know living in Florida where it's currently a little bit warmer right now um and teaching World Language um we do that as
stop gaps until we find somebody that's permanent um but we have met with a lot of success with that you know there there is obviously um uh you know the the greatest benefit is having a teacher in the classroom at that time um but proximity learning is a virtual learning
platform that um we need to utilize in the event that um we're not able to find uh you know a properly certified teacher and then the the minute that we do we terminate their proximity's appointment and uh and we move forward with the very best that Edison has to offer than
you Mr to Y sure so the the section that you're seeing with the attachments so the the board has um each of those attachments are provided to them um when they get access to the agenda ordinarily two days before so they can go through
and it it mimics exactly what the resolution says the the financial reports being board secretary treasurers bills lists so on and so forth so they could review those items and if they have any questions they could reach out to Dr ell alderi or I prior to the
meeting thank you any other yes Joyce I don't know if this is time I'm going to ask about this this um AI information as long in the resolutions that's not running resolutions might is it on policy it's policy it's policy resolution oh okay okay okay good cuz I
wanted to know because see I know that from being involved in State education that we're having a great literacy problem everybody's think they're super smart but everybody's regurgitating in just saying stuff a lot of stuff that people are not using critical thinking
so I'm quite asking a lot about it because I think a I hinders the ability for you to critically think and I don't know if if the teacher you know you know I mean you
don't really know if the kid can really write if they can do something on their own because I know with AI you can like put three three lines in and they can construct the whole paragraph and everything for you so I just like to
know what extent do we want the edit students to use a lot of AI on their assignments because when we send people from Edison to different colleges in school we brag about how well educated our kids are I
don't want them to get there to first day of college and the lady said clear off your desk here's your assignment and because you've been using AI so much you failed assignment they collect up the papers then when you do your assignment and you hand in the AI assign
the teacher calls you up and say this is how you really write you know that's just me I don't think that AI should be used in such a a large quantity within our school and I I don't think it should
be really used at all at the elementary level until we bring up the literacy within the state of New Jersey because we're like one of the top education people and it's okay for me to regurgitate what you said to me
and I can get a pluses on every test but how is it with my critical um reading skills how is it with my critical writing skills it just bothers me because I'm with literacy thank
you thank you Dr Ry Jer thank you so much uh yeah I listen I couldn't agree with you more right um but uh so in in this policy right now obviously Strauss Esme is um is the um the organiz ation that um crafts policies sample policies
for a board of education review there was actually a list of about 15 different indicators on this policy I think we narrowed it down to about nine of them that uh we were comfortable with in relationship to the policy um and it just provides guidelines in not only how what the expectation for use is for
staff and students um but to create regulations based off of that right so in the absence of a policy there is no real guideline for you know how we utilize this massive artificial intelligence tool that you know is really occupying all space currently right now so just to read a couple
highlights off of these pieces right um item number two is uh the policy will create an explanation on how and when and to what extent a staff M member May pres uh permit a student to use AI in assignments um it requires uh that each
staff member authorized um uh to permit students to use AI in the classrooms they must inform the students at that time it has a procedure for the super superintendent or design um to enact these pieces to insign somebody as a coordinator for those components so this
um is really the shell of a deeper AI plan it actually mandates an AI plan too how we're going to use it to what extent um and uh you know and at the same time never to the det detriment of teaching and learning critical thinking interpersonal skills things that cannot
be replaced by AI thank you drani yes hi Matt revak ETA president I just have a follow-up question with the proximity learning um I'm assuming this is being done and because we can't get a teacher
during the normal school hours um and you know meaning that there's nobody to do a point two for example um is it any issue because I know we've done this before like you have let's say for example a psychology class that there's one section at Edison High
we have five as you know we did LA last year work on Virtual learning which I know we're both against we prefer in person yes but I always like to see it go I think our people in District when possible are always do the best job so I do want to you know verify that this is
really a last alternative that we can have someone in house do it great yep the one example that uh Mr revnak just did site is 100% accurate it is a last resort for um all aspects Point tws um the
opportunity for our own staff in some way shape or form to transfer between schools things along those lines it has always been a last resort absolutely okay yes Mrs C Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle
uh I have a question as a followup to what Joyce brought up on the AI and as reading the policy um it sounded like there would be a coordinator established to make a foundation for the use of AI
would that be another position or somebody within the district would be given an additional with a stipend or it would just fall in their job that's my first question
you want me to say my second question any other questions okay um the other policy regarding the board members use of social networks uh this is going to be a a hot year coming up with a mayoral contest and a Governor's contest
and I know in the past sometimes uh we neglect to remember that we're board members even if you stand there and say 20 times I'm speaking for my own personal uh uh voice well you lose kind
of your personal Voice once you take your seat up there so they don't really pay ATT pay attention to the fact that Jenny is Jenny white that Jenny is not Jenny the board of me uh Board of Ed member so I think uh each and every one
of you needs to be extra careful especially this year uh with the politics that are going on I was a little um put off the night of um the uh rorg that uh a gentleman that's
running for governor uh came to uh install uh a board member when he's running for governor and he's not even from our district so it bothers me that we're Stepping Over The Line uh without
even endorsing uh so I'm just warning each and every one of you to be careful especially this year because Edison has its own politic problem I don't want it to get worse in this building or wherever the Board of Ed meeting is held
thank you I'll come back for other stuff thank you Eddie yeah great yeah to uh to answer your question Miss Conway yes so um we are looking at actually all of those options to be honest with you we don't believe that it's going to be an add to staff we think that it could be added responsibilities in the form of um
a stiped position but um a little bit of restructuring within a couple of the Departments we believe that we can have an AI coordinator um uh within the existing staff that we currently have okay any other comments on resolutions yes
Sue Susan Campion H Chi for court um just a quick question on the support staff uh the use of personal cellular telephones the last paragraph it says in the event the support staff member has an emergency requiring immediate
attention that requires and then everything is crossed out what's it supposed to say any other questions that's it okay Dr out already yep let me just bring that one up okay just give us a second to bring it up which policy number is
that 44322 4322 perfect 4322 I can't bring it up hang on one second it's the last um paragraph there's some bolded I guess new language but then like it leaves off half the
sentence at the end because everything else is is crossed out yeah so it should it's in Reverse an electronic Comm that that the stuff that's in bold actually supplants that in the bo yes so the the electronic communication by support staff member on a non-school related Personnel matter using a personal cell phone or other personal Communications
devices shall not be made while the support staff member is performing assigned uh District responsibilities in the event that a support staff member has an emergency requiring immediate attention that requires such a communication while performing assigned duties I'm not sure why that's that's
crossed out it should okay thank you yep okay uh Brian good evening everybody Brian Rivera Edison New Jersey one thing I noticed being this far is I can't even see you so I I think I'm aging where I
need some glasses so bear with me um reading this and and talking to you individuals but I do have a few questions regarding the resolutions um it's been years since I've seen what the public actually sees on the agenda versus what a Boe member sees on
agendas so my question is the following is the bills list privileged information because I tried looking for the bills list today and I couldn't see where we allocated funds to so I end up getting a copy of it because I asked for
it um if the public does not have access to this um I ask myself why the public is not provided with this information the bills list tells the public how their money is being spent and to whom um does the board agree with it I hope you do agree with it um in my eyes
that's true transparency um don't you all think that the public should know how every cent is spent here so my question is in the future are we going to post the bills list so every person in the audience could see how every nickel penny is
spent uh second question because I was able to access it and get access to that document I saw that there was 26 entries for legal uh bills payable to igino and Taylor for roughly about $45,000 um what were these costs for and
how much of those costs were related to policy 5756 from this firm um I actually had a conversation with Mr marrow last week and I let him know that the district and speaking to Central Administration we spent over $20,000 on that policy just for research so I
wanted to publicly known that we did our homework and thank you for bringing it up um number three I also saw there was nine entries for DMR for a total of $223,000 uh there was a charge by them
as per descrip description was labeled um the es espa for 25,7 $732 um what was the scope of that project why are we paying them that $225,000 and then finally I also saw a bill from Mass
masonry the bill was for retaining wall for James and Maro for about $41,000 um my question is is that part of the the bid for the concrete service um I asked because I do not remember seeing uh the retaining wall uh building on that bid package so I was wondering
if it needed to be bided out so those are my four questions thank you thank you so let me answer the first question the bill list it's not privileged information I don't know why it's not published we don't there nothing to hide nothing to hide okay as
far as the other three uh questions I'm going to let uh uh Eddie and uh John answer those but remember those were the expenses occurred when you were on the board go ahead yeah like I like I was going to say Mr
Ras you have some pretty uh detailed questions in regards to the bills list right so you know with those type of questions I advise you you have my office phone number call me and I can discuss with you them in detail um because they you know they they are some
detailed questions so I have no problem answering them call me anytime or if you'd like you could uh submit an Oprah request and and I can answer them that way as well is it easier just to send no no back and force please you it's easier you can send a a uh question to Dr hus
and we're going to follow up on that because that's a practice last year so let's follow the practice right any other public comments on resolutions other comments on resolutions see none can I have a motion to close public comments motion second
okay Mr romano and V Patel all in favor I okay all right so let's go through the uh the agenda items here uh can I have a motion to approve Personnel agenda motion to approve Personnel
agenda ladies first I'm sorry gen I apologize sh I stepped to the rear no problem you got to look all right uh Please Mr ronic
Patel yes Mr Lugo yes Miss anen Patel yes Mr Romano yes Miss Pang
yes Miss White yes vice president Patel yes president shei yes motion carries now can I have a motion to approve Administration curriculum and instructions and people special services I'm looking at the ladies oh
okay sh I have to say Okay do I have a second Joey could have a second take all right Mr Ron oh wait wait wait uh we um sorry I forgot that we need a table this policy um 4322 that the issue that uh Su
brought up uh so we're going to table that uh do do I need a motion to table that we have a we have a motion in a second currently to approve so after we do that then you take and you do that as a as a table so we vote on we vote I can do it
after okay all right so all right roll call sorry Mr ronic Patel yes Mr Lugo yes Miss Ana Patel yes Mr Romano
yes Miss Pang yes Miss White yes vice president Patel yes president shei yes so now I have a motion to table the policy
4322 motion okay Joe second okay all right Rollo please just the table the policy 4322 uh this is Mr ronic Patel yes Mr Lugo
yes Miss Anda Patel yes Mr Romano uh yes Miss Pang yes Miss White yes vice president Patel yes president sh yes motion carries right now let's
have a motion to approve finance and Ron and you me we need to abstain from the meeting minutes December motion okay Joe you want again second okay all right Mr ronic Patel abin on the meting
minutes so you can approve the all the other stuff okay yes everything except meting minutes if that's what you want okay everything except the meeting M noted Mr
Lugo yes Miss Ana Patel yes Mr Romano yes Miss Pang yes Miss White yes vice president Patel yes president shei yes on everything except the meeting minutes
noted motion carries all right thank you so uh since it's very cold outside there I'm going to switch the order uh let's open up for public comments so uh anyone public who wants to make a comment it's your
time all right Anthony Anthony Mara 5 kto Court here speak about policy 5756 the lgbtt Q agenda is wrong it has always been wrong the truth will have its day one it
will have its day you can't deny truth you can't suppress it time and time again it will have its day and in fact we have a new sheriff in town his name is President Trump he's already issued an executive order declaring that there
are only two genders I sure hope that trickles down to the Edison Board of Ed that agenda the lgbtq agenda is doing serious harm to our children their children and they're making life-altering
decisions and all we do is say well it's your choice really they're taking hormone blockers they're having surgery altering the reproductive organs and all we do is say well it's your choice
really my gosh it's destroying our society because when our children get destroyed our society gets destroyed the suicide rate amongst transgender students is notably higher everyone knows it even they know it the
documentation on that is undeniable body well we gave first it was your choice second we were afraid of losing funds really so that's what it boils down to we'd rather have the money not care what
happens to our children where when tonight we we apped all these students but we don't care what happens to a person to a student's lifelong biology his life he or she won't be able to reproduce in usual way because of money
because of funding come on you think that student won't have a regret how many years down the road I made a huge mistake but I can't reverse it why didn't I why wasn't I educated of
the consequences that's a question the board has to seriously consider there are people who go to war many wars unfortunately in our world World War II World War I and
soldiers Die For What what is believed to be righteous courses they die don't we have the courage to stand up for our students you're not you're not as to to die you're asked to make a
righteous decision do the right thing and abolish this policy people die in Wars all you're being asked to do is to revoke a policy that's killing our children and of course we can't tell Mom
and Dad that Johnny or Mary are going to change their genders no because policy 5756 says there's no affirmative Duty for any School District staff member to notify students parent of the student's gender identity or expression in other words
keep mom and dad in the dark I've said this before but it Bears repeating do you want to be kept in the dark your son or daughter says I'm going to change my gender I'm telling someone at school and that's that person at school who's told
says I can't tell Mom and Dad because of this policy come on if you wouldn't want that why are you doing it to parents in Edison hypocrisy fifth commit of course then we
have we have the fifth commit honor your father and mother do you feel honored as a father or mother when you're kept in the dark do you if you don't why are you doing it to other parents in Edison hypocrisy abolish this policy then of
course we have boys competing competing with girls come on that would have been a joke in my day now we have to fight to keep it fight to keep girls Sports straight and honest my gosh then of course we have guys using
girls bathrooms that that's an embarrassment frankly you should be ashamed of yourself so allowing that to happen some would say well what are we going to replace it with a common sense policy educate the student who says I'm
going to change my gender about the consequences increase suicide doing serious probably permanent harm to reproductive organs there's nothing in the law against discrimination that says we have to have
this policy it's not needed abolish this policy and do the town vettis in a favor thank you thank you very much anybody else yes Joyce a question for you guys are we uh teaching Civics in
school did Civics come back yet it came back because see when I went to school here in Edison we had Civics we had uh metrics all the stuff these kids need to succeed dur over the years this stuff has been leaving the school
and another thing I like to I say and you know you guys probably get upset too what I get upset said is when I see all this disinformation about what goes on in the classroom I've been in a school system for over 40 years and these people tell me what's happening in the classroom I'm
like I've been in there for all them years that that's not true that not really what's happening and another thing I was talking about with people they say oh you don't know CRT CRT that's something that's taught at a Harvard Law School but you know that's what I'm talking about that's what
people are talking about like she said picking back and offer not bringing politics into the school and not allowing other people I don't care if they're Mayors counil I don't care who they are don't have them come to school spreading disinformation because I don't think
it's fair to the parents nor is it fair to the children I think we should um that's why I screened about literacy because I'm me tell you something there's a lot of adults whether you know it or not or who are unable to process
information properly are are you know and so they get disillusioned by different things so when they hear different things they tell it to and you said well that's not the sentence I said you didn't process it or comprehend it
correctly and you know that's the only thing that really bothers me a lot and last but not least cursive or script whatever you call it because I want our students to be able to read historical documents are are are we doing that in
elementary school now or so the kids can like sign I know the checks come in the mail now I know but sometimes you may have to sign something you know that's really important so right third grade we're making sure we're doing in the third
grade came back okay good good a lot of stuff I worry about it because I'm glad it's coming back because then now we're back to full education again thank you so much hey thank you Dr already you want to try yes Civic alive and well in in Edison Township it's embedded not
only in our um uh our dedicated classes for history at the high school level in the Middle School level but um also taught all throughout even in the beginning of kindergarten right when we're when we're being self-aware and we and we uh we talk about um what it's like to be a good citizen and a good
friend and and all of those pieces so um at the elementary level subbly embedded and then as you get into the upper grades third through um High School you you get a you get a full dose of civics okay I think that's all right
anybody else yes Mrs con no matter how old you are you learn something new each day Elizabeth Conway 20 Neward Circle I heard that uh the bill list can be given out to the public now my question is uh when would we get
it so if we would we wouldn't get it until the Action meeting which is a Tuesday when would we get it so this way if we had questions we could contact you or email you any questions we
had and if it's a combined meeting and we wouldn't get it until uh a Tuesday or a Thursday whenever you decide to have a combined meeting how much in advance would we get to look at the bills because uh when was on the board I took
it very seriously and sometimes they there could have been nine or 11 pages of bills and I was very adamant about looking at each and every one of them and Jerry can attest to that but uh so when would we be able to see these bills
and question any of them how much time in um would we get to review them is my first question um the second question uh is I haven't seen on the agenda or a
presentation uh for our monthly update on the construction going on at the various schools in the township uh I do see a bill list where you're paying for stuff but it's really not telling us what's going on what's the status of JP
Stevens what are they up to is there any problems going on that have to be fixed what's going on at you say John Marshall or any other school or jmi what's going on with this because they're large sums of money and I'd like to keep track of
the construction going on in school that we dearly need and uh finally my other item is uh I don't see committee meetings um the minutes of the committee meetings for January I know you had the
reorg at the beginning of the month and I saw that the uh you got your assignments for the various uh committees but uh it is the 21st of January so since the reorg are you telling me you didn't
have a meeting of the various committees that we could find out what's going on with those and I did see that um out of the nine board members three of the board members are chairs of two
committees and two board members are chairs of one committee but the rest one two 3 four five that means the other four are not chairs of any committees now in the past you um as a board member
you decided what you would like and you put in for it but I don't know how evenly spread out these um committees are because you don't want to overload anyone in particular but at the same time uh each board member should have
some kind of responsibility for something that they have some kind of interest in and that's it so that's the three things okay Bill list John right so ordinarily with the you know with the preparation of the bills
list we like to get it to the board uh within 48 Hours of the meeting so they can answer question you know if they if they're going through it and they have questions they could reach out to myself or Dr Al delli prior to taking action on the bills list at at a meeting such as tonight um um before that uh it you know
it to make it available it's it's just in draft format it's it's not an actual bill list document because no action has been taken on it yet um if the public would like a copy like for instance yourself uh I could Supply the the bill s you to tomorrow I can give you the
whole thing if you have questions on it you can email me a question or you know I'll pick up the phone and call me and I'll answer any question on that um since I've gotten here this has been and I've been here about two and a half years now this has been the practice that's in place I didn't create this
format this has just been what I've inherited okay yeah y yep so I think the um updates on uh uh facilities and infrastructure um go hand inhand with committee meetings to be honest with you
too so we do have a facilities meeting set up for the 27th of of this month um which uh is going to prove to be be a long one there's a lot to talk about during that time frame and then there'll be an update on facilities infrastructure from the chair uh Mr V Patel um on all ongoing projects um we
have our Architects currently providing us with project status updates um all of which will be made available to the board members at first and then um we'll be um stated to the public uh in the upcoming meeting in February and uh I think we actually have a couple
scheduled before the next board meeting so we have two facilities meetings uh ready to go before uh our next caucus I just uh um to add on to it the committee was released on January 10th
Al today is the 21st actually it's only 7 days old okay so committees are being uh uh planned and we have a very aggressive agenda he be very happy to see the details of these uh committee
meeting minutes unlike before okay for certain months you know there was nothing and for this one this year you're going to see a lot so just give us some time to get things together and um you know when you
you you know when you have Finance facility committee you need vendors coming in you need some other people to come in you need to organize it so it takes a little time so uh it's only literally six six days right so any other public comments
yes Beth Beth chalky 15 Midwood Avenue um I have a couple of questions a little bit all over the place going with um the facilities and the finance for that with all the construction that we've been doing in the district over the past few
years yes we definitely do need it who is over seeing it all because after watching the meeting last week and hearing that plumbing wasn't put up into JP Stevens into those new rooms I'm not sure if that's true or not but so we have like Foreman or somebody who is
overseeing the construction that's going on we're building gyms at school I don't see storage in those gyms I don't see offices for the teachers there so how functional and usable is that space cuz if we're spending a lot of money on this
stuff which we are we should be doing it the right way even if it costs us more upfront now so that we can use it to its full capacity another question I have is it's getting that time a year when it's going to be enrollment time for like um
kindergarten preschool and all of that coming up probably within it's usually around February that it begins I know a couple months ago I wasn't here at the meeting I know um Miss Conway brought up about the Grant and I know we didn't get it all we might have gotten something from
it as a public do we know how much we got received for the grant how much it's costing the taxpayers now for this preschool program as well as the busing and what's going to happen moving forward because we know
times are tight economically I can see around us the school districts cutting funding not getting full funding we have gotten full funding but there's probably not much more coming in and with the aggressive um building and so forth that we have to do on our
schools and the preschool how you know where's that money coming from and how much is it costing us as a taxpayer and that's the kind of stuff we used to get and be able to see in our minutes and agendas when it came to bills and costs
but we don't see it anymore and as a taxpayer lifelong tax um resident here and I'm you know a bunch of the people have been here a long time too I think that since you know things are getting tight financially it would be in best
interest for you guys to let the public know where the money's going specifically so that when you have to possibly go out for a referendum or you know Bond it is transparent where we've been putting the money where we need to put it instead of like a guessing game
thank you yeah you want to take it yeah great thank you Miss talki um I do think we're putting the money where we need to put put it and it's in the um it's it's in it's in the prek students that uh are residents here in Edison Township um so
um it's uh a cost per pupil it's actually less than the cost per pupil um currently right now that we have um to educate uh students in grades K through five um it's in equivalent with the uh State rate um I think it's somewhere in the ballpark of $1,800 a student um I I
will tell you there is no bigger bang for your buck every piece of research states that investing in a child's preschool education shows exponential growth all the way through high school there is no more there was n no greater research that shows investing in
preschool provides your biggest bang for your buck in all aspects in everything that the portrait of The Graduate talked about today academic rigor social and emotional learning all of those pieces it's the same reason why we invested in um kindergarten as well full day
kindergarten right research shows that full day kindergarten reaps benefits as well um listen it's unfortunate that we didn't meet the criteria for the grant um we did talk about this with um the previous Board of Education and I informed this one it was my recommendation to move forward on that I
am so glad that this board supported it um we are doing it with no Financial impact to the taxpayer the budget is currently the budget um and we still had you know listen we had to tighten some belts and things that I wanted to move forward and I pulled back uh reluctantly
because um every time I go to Mr to he usually says yes to me there's a few times that he's been saying no lately and as a result I've had to kind of pick and choose as to um what I wanted to prioritize and um I think the previous board prioritized prek education I'm
confident we're going to get this next year I have a different approach in relationship to that um that we're going to talk about at the prek committee level as well as Finance also um but I I totally understand your question as as a taxpayer currently taxes will not go up in relationship to that and we're
investing that money um in uh in our students uh that go here in Edison Township I think project managers me yeah you want to do that one yeah so real quick so with all the construction projects that are ongoing throughout the district um
the smaller ones your Architect by contract is not only responsible for the design they're also responsible for construction Administration through closeout so they're they're the rep making sure that everything is built appropriately and that we're we're getting what we what we paid for in bid
specs on the large projects not only is the architect um fulfilling that role you also have a construction manager which is uh a third party an outside firm Who's acting as the owner's rep also who's there day in and day out and
that's mandated by law thanks yeah so uh I just want to tag on to this because both you mentioned Finance facility we have prescheduled 14 meetings this year already 14 from
January through December 14 meetings so there are about there are our months more than one meeting this is all prescheduled okay we add more meetings so please rest assure the meeting is going to happen it's going to happen
every single month and every single month there will be a meeting summary thank you who's next uh the lady in yellow you you you raise your hand multiple times yes you come I'd like to First congratulate um
president shei and our new board member and thank all of the board members for your outstanding job and for your service um my name is Geral maglio from the Dolores Turco Foundation uh we're from Neptune but our mission is to protect children from abuse neglect and
exploitation um and we don't discriminate against anyone you've heard this for any reason uh in the past I've talked about some of the uh transgender the legal medical social ramifications but today I'd like like to talk about principles over policies beginning with
the topic of Love uh the source of all love is God there can be no love without God and when he's removed from the equation nothing is left but false attempts to gratify the census the opposite of love is not hate but to use
another person for one's own satisfaction marriage is the ideal context for sexual relationship and sexual education and the best cont context to raise children the M vast majority of parents and teens agree and
this is supported by laws and um also professionals and government agencies that stress abstinence but that's not what we're teaching in schools instead we teach them sex for pleasure and as long as they don't become pregnant anything goes we teach them anal oral
and contraception and children that children are a burden at all to be avoided at all costs but contraception doesn't protect the hearts and it doesn't protect them from STDs and then we wonder why they're sick mentally physically and emotionally we're puzzled
by the STD epidemic with 20 new cases every year and half are between the ages of 15 and 24 we question why they're depressed suicidal and some turn to drugs uh and escapes and drop out of
school but the solution to all these problems there is one and it's rooted in God's design for love research shows that if teens graduate from high school get a job get married and then have children there's only 2% chance they'll end up in poverty and this is known as
the success sequence research also shows that married couples are the happiest healthiest most prosperous and have the best sex lives they're compelling reasons to return to the true meaning of love these kids want love those of us
that have known true love no it means sacrifice but the rewards are Beyond any uh momentary gratification instead there's a push to commodify the body where it becomes a product for sale sex without love leads
to every kind of misery porn diseases rape sex trafficking to name a few where 50% of the victims are children and the average age of Entry is 12 most of these involve harm to women and children porn
is not not harmless it teaches men to treat women as objects instead of human beings created in the image and likeness of God it teaches boys that when girls say no they really mean yes and it gives them permission to rape and sexually assault girls sadly one in four girls
and one in seven boys are sexually assaulted before they're even 18 today there's an agenda to replace the spirit of love and life of with technology and materialism there's a connection between the transgender
ideology and transhumanism Tech wants to replace the genuine love twisting the sexuality of human being created by God's design to love and to be loved consummated in a union between a man and a woman that's ordained as marriage and
God wishes to have this intimate relationship with each of us this is the optimal standard for sex education and as part of a poverty um prevention program our foundation brought these anal standards to baringer high school in nework which has one of the lowest
graduation rates in the state and one of the highest poverty teen pregnancies STDs and violence as a direct result of that program 100 students were accepted into college and 58 maintained a 3.0 or above average um I just wanted to point
out that being from management I realize that the buck stops here and I'm not here to give you problems but here to provide Solutions and to make education great again if you want best performance from your students you have to give them
the best standards in education you have amazing students here and if you give them Excellence they will rise to the occasion but if you dumb them down that's exactly what will happen in contrast technology we have a
technology society that replaces love with sexual gratification transgender is a technological response to a heart problem a heart is broken and needs repair and we offer that child mutilation and sterilization instead and
lead them to believe that that will replace the longing in their hearts but the more that opens the door to transhumanism replacing love with dependency on technology the more we get used to technology replacing human interaction the more we become dependent
upon Tech and more isolated from love of others and love of God and become less human in our interactions and capable of accepting atrocities like the mutilation of children and trafficking uh I see my time is almost over so I just wanted to
say uh in conclusion that um transgenderism sterilizes the body just as transhumanism sterilizes the mind and opens it up to a power greater than oneself you can choose God as your fire power or technology and I urge you to
choose God because it will bring uh um bless and will bless you and your families abundantly and bring success to all your endeavors and thank you again for the opportunity to address this board thank
you sue in the back Su Campion CH for court um I just wanted um to let the seniors at both high schools and um their parents probably more specifically um I serve as the chairperson for the
scholarship committee for the ETA um the applications are at both high schools with the guidance counselors please make sure that you um get them there are three scholarships given out at each high school every year one for a future
teacher one for um a future nurse and um then a general one and uh last year I know at one of the schools um it was a lot of last minute and help from Dr aldarelli to get the word out to the kids directly um and then we did have a
lot of students fill them out they're due the end of April because Edison High's um awards ceremony is a little bit earlier than JP's and um we have to pick winners so please make sure you visit the guidance counselors and get
copies of the scholarship applications thanks thank you so Dr already you know it's a great point that um can we have the guidance department or you know um School administration send emails to the
seniors tell them to you know go apply because we have many many different scholarships and uh so uh you know anything helps especially nowadays if we can remind them tell them to come in and get these applications get it going
instead of uh you know missing out on the opportunities lots of money involved and you know just don't forget it absolutely Mr chair thank you Anthony thank you s for for bringing that
up uh Anthony Damon 25 Wy um first I'd like to say uh give a uh shout out to the kindergarten class over there James Monroe um the little one came home the other day uh praising uh uh talking
about Dr King and uh that's uh that's extremely important um and uh I was glad to see so she was uh she was uh couldn't couldn't get the words out of her mouth fast enough to tell us about him so that's that's terrific I just wanted to pay that
along um also uh quick shout out to the portrait of The Graduate I can tell you this from personal experience I uh Megan was on the uh was one of those uh individuals on the uh on that um uh portrait of The Graduate and uh they she
she took it very extremely seriously I know they all did so uh they they put a lot of work in and it sounds like uh it turned out to be a good thing so um good job babe um um let's see what else oh let me get
to this um you know what speaking of the uh kindergarten um and and I guess the district didn't get their uh the funding for it I I just want to make uh everyone aware that uh and maybe this is to help going forward
to the superintendent that you know the mayor uh of Edison had brought on uh as the township attorney the assembly speaker Law Firm Craig Coughlin the assembly speaker his Law Firm represents the our
Township the mayor has a direct line of communication to the assembly speaker the fact that you have to now cut areas to make it work and I understand you're not going to raise tax that's terrific but the fact that that has to be done is unacceptable to me and I'm telling you
someone who's worked at previous administration you need it you got to you're going to have to lead them to water here but that could be done the mayor and the past has taken credit for a lot of hard work that previous Sports have put in including Mr shei I know Shannon was on a board uh if I forget everybody com Miss Conway you on the
board laid the foundation to get funding and he took the credit for it all right spite the football and uh and and you know it's when he's got to put some work in he's nowhere to be found and I that's those are my words and uh you know the fact and it's the same constituents that
he that he's we're all we're all from we're all in Edison here so um again he has direct line of communication to the assembly speaker and who can make that happen who could fix that pretty quickly I would think so um it's it's just uh
it's remarkable but uh that we have to cut it in other areas because we didn't get that um I also want to give a shout you know who was uh councilman brusher was on the school board too and I know he helped with that big time so I wanted to say that as well um he's he he's passionate
about that as well um the cursive Mrs Joyce you took the uh stole my thunder there on the cursive uh I actually was going to discuss that tonight crazy um but and it's funny too because I I bring up I write in my notes
the Constitution and how many uh how many students entering Middle School let's say that are leaving Elementary could read the Constitution read it uh it's a hard document to read on its own and and and in full cursive it it it you
know it's difficult so and and and uh as Megan was bringing up to me she you know the the cursive it it does something it's it's helpful in a lot of different ways the way you have to think about writing and and so on and so forth so I guess is it
in the curriculum and if so um is it is it teacher to teacher because I from what I understand I think and I could be wrong you know let's say they learn it in second grade in third grade they don't have to necessarily that if teacher doesn't want to use it they don't need to use it and to me that's
just um you know it just seems to me uh uh um you know it might might defeat the purpose sense just keep it going I think it's important for them to sign their names going forward signing a check or whatever it may be if there's still going to be checks around but um for
those purposes I think it's important um especially to read it be nice you know um that that that would be that would be nice um let me see what else um I I just a quick question on this I just happened to be looking I just saw it the um on on
on the on the pamphlet there's for outed District um are there are these all the students total that are out of District or no right oh just changes okay all right I should probably should have R and
uh no no no it's fine no it's fine um all right that answers my question that that's that's all thank you appreciate it okay you want to address the cursive uh third grade curs it's so funny this really resonates with me personally because
um much like like at work at home I also provide lists of things to do for the people that I live with so might I know you might find this funny but but the staff in the back does not um but I um list of things to do like like when it
was snowing out the other day I pinned a Post-It on the door for my son who's there and I yes and I wrote shovel the driveway salt it and um you know take out the garbage and it was incursive and
none of it was done they didn't come to andison school and and I can't listen I can't prove it but my oldest son who is a senior in high school said Dad I can't read cursive you got to write it in in
regular print if you want me if you want me to do it um you know the next day I wrote it in regular print and he still didn't do any of the things that I assigned to him so he's got there has to be obviously some monetary value with but we do we do teach it in in third grade we reinforce Miss Gomer would be able to shed a little bit light on the
reinforcement grades in relationship to that um listen to somebody that writes exclusively in cursive I I do understand what you're saying um you know tough to change with the times unfortunately um you know it's alive in Edison I can tell you that it's definitely taught um but
students as they get older too will either choose to write in it um a lot of St stuff is done electronically now too but I get it listen signing a check um you know signing any type of document a certificate or anything along those lines it's definitely a worthwhile skill in my opinion thank
you any anybody else yes Carol Carol podowski 39 and Jonathan Drive um I know what it's like to sit up there and it's not a comforting place to be because everyone's looking at you and telling you what's wrong and why they're
not happy but I just wanted to tell you that tonight all of you and especially what went on here tonight has made me very happy because all those students who made all those Great
accomplishments were recognized one by one by name in the presence of their parents in many cases which is just wonderful I know that there different
skills there are different areas that they all have succeeded in but it's the success not that it's music or that it's football or that it's e ccla who knows
what that is right but um that does cover a lot of areas and um it just was like a culmination of seeing what all the things you do every day and all of us do parents at at home help with the
children to learn and to do what the teachers are teaching them despite the state regulations despite the financial hardships that allows them them to take pride in something they've learned and
performed and done and be recognized for it from their school and most of the ones or many of the ones were not high school students so they're not used to the big flashing lights and brightly colored chairs
permanently embedded in the uh floor but this is a really special thing for all those students and I want you to know that at my house all those signed documents are still there I don't know if any of us could find them but they are still there because they make a
difference in these children's lives and you make a difference in their lives by sitting here and clapping and listening to each one of them so to me tonight was a gift thank you thank you uh yes you you're right the fcca
cover a lot of areas one of the one I found is a cupcake challenge I don't know what it is is was really interesting so Matt I think you moving up you ready Mr Rivera and I were debating who's going
last Mr she okay Mr she yeah if you don't mind please yeah we're looking for bus drivers never mind thank you okay Matt rev neck ETA president so two things actually number one to jump on S campon
scholarship we also have our volleyball tournament coming up the staff volleyball tournament on February 20th at JP Stevens and that's a major fundraiser we have throughout our buildings for three local charities so if you're doing nothing You' like to contribute or whatever please come out
and join us that night second thing I want to bring up and I was waiting for a board member discussion because I figured it would come up at that point I don't do social media but I do have people report to me when things are out on social media of importance and the issue I want to bring
up and talk a little bit about is the heating issues in the schools all right I know it's been about social media my phone and email's been blowing up for the last couple weeks from staff members Etc throughout the buildings I personally have been
visiting buildings to see what's going on and I do want to assure people out there my members but also the parents out there that the gentlemen sitting in front of you are doing everything possibly can to fix the situation Dr Al delli Dr hus and myself
and Mr Campion in the back met this afternoon it was a topic of discussion I've already talked also to Mr to and especially I want to give a Kudos out there to Mr kib Boss and his assistant Mr Murphy I was actually with Mr kib
Boss last week when he was on the phone speaker phone so I can also be part of conversation with the uh the vendor the heating company they're doing everything in their power to try to get this rectified all right now I know you know
I'm not making excuses for anyone I know it's not easy to tell the teacher or the students that are going into a classroom and it's 58 degrees in the room especially when you have cold temperatures like we're talking about tonight and tomorrow but it's not from lack of
effort it's not going on deaf ears I've been in constant contact with these gentlemen you know I've talked to Mr kib Boss even on the weekend that time about these types of issues Dr Al delli and I've texted at times about them so I do want to let the people out there my
members our teachers our staff at the schools the students in the schools that it's not going on De fears no one is ignoring the situation these are old buildings they're old systems Parts sometimes are very difficult to come by
and you know when Mr kib Boss has been informed of these things he jumps right on it he's asking the company in Fr in my presence please get someone out there like immediately and within an hour there's been people showing at the building to try to remedy the situation you know we talk about putting
air conditioning in the schools that would probably be needed maybe the month of September and may possibly May and June but heating is something that has to go on from like October till April depending on the weather conditions so you know again for my
members our teachers our staff as well as the parents and students out there when you're in a room you know for the most part other than certain areas the students are there for 40 minutes and the I'm using a high school as an example the teachers are there for five
times 42 minutes sometimes six if they have a point2 in the same room so we get what you're saying we I definitely sympathize with you hey I know I took a couple of my uh board members out we went to Applebees and it was freezing and Apple bees as we were sitting having
dinner tonight in fact we wanted to come to Edis in high school because we knew it would be warmer than Applebees was so we get it the administration gets it Mr kib Boss and his crew get it everybody's trying their darn us to get this fixed and believe me I'm sure the company gets
it they have other contracts as well they don't need to spend 24 hours a day in Edison but they are doing what they can do to get things remedied as well so I personally appreciate everything you guys are doing I'm hoping we can get all these things fixed and taken care of sooner rather
than later especially with let's face it we're in January only we got another couple very cold months I'm sure coming up and um hopefully these things will be fixed thank you thank you actually that's one of my
questions that uh for Dr ERI to provide an update since you started why you provide an update as to the heating issues in the uh in the school district yeah yeah so so um and thank you so much uh Mr revnak for for that piece um yeah
we're um Mr cbus as well as Mr Murphy myself and Mr to uh and Miss bet we meet um uh weekly at the beginning of every week to talk about um you know various issues in relationship to you know maintenance uh snowplow the amount of uh
work orders that are going on heating has been a a very top you know a big topic of that conversation especially in a couple of the classrooms that we're aware of right now um so I I can I can assure you this um you know if staff members notify their building principal it goes to uh Mr cabus and he's on the
scene quickly I mean much like what Mr Reva just said weekends week you know weekdays at all hours um will and Scott are available um we know of a couple and listen if it's if it's a broken coil right which I believe it's in a couple classrooms over at JP Stevens um and
maybe at at Hoover too I might be getting that wrong um I don't have the list in front of me uh broken coil you know requires getting that part and then installing it so the minute that the part gets here we make sure that somebody's on the scene so depending upon that turnaround time you know it
could be anywhere for a couple days to a week unfortunately um but in in that in the event listen building principles are also creative if there is an extra space that they can move um a staff member for at least a period or two um a vacancy I
mean I I have no doubt that they be willing to accommodate those pieces too um but the one thing I can assure you is that if we're aware of it we we we definitely take care of it your concierge would be building leadership and then facility manager as well that reports directly up to uh Mr cbus so um
the ones that we're we're a couple classrooms at Edison High too that had coil issues and things along those lines um uh but as soon as it's brought to our attention you know we we work to resolve it as quickly as possible because one of the things we want to make sure is that students and staff are comfortable not
only to work but also to learn yeah there were also um concerns about the the gym in the JP yeah the Jim the Jim and JP Stevens so the auditorium is currently being worked on right now it has a a
relatively large uh right it it's blowing a little bit of cold air into there currently right now could be um you know leaking into the gym especially when it's nine degrees outside in the morning um we actually had a conversation today with Mr uh cbus too about um revisiting when our setbacks are put
right times that heating goes on in specific areas so um we're going to look to remedy that that was just um brought to my attention later this evening so uh yeah building management system y we'll address that with the building management systems okay thank you very
much anybody else Brian good evening everybody Brian Rivera Stony rad again I'm blind so I apologize um the first thing I want to say is I'm very impressed with some of the people that are in this audience
because they're picking up on some of the information that's been stated on the board like Beth Anthony you ask very good questions and I'm glad that tells me that the Public's paying attention to what's going on I promise you Eddie I
never said anything in regards to prek that's going to end up coming up and we're going to have a nice conversation because board members sitting there know exactly what occurred with prek it wasn't as C dry as as it seemed to be but eventually we'll get to those conversations but I do appreciate the
public that it just tells me the Public's paying attention so again thank you um besides that um Mr to through Eddie or whoever I I know the the agendas have to be posted 48 hours for the public
correct 4 48 by policy I believe it's 48 hours so with that said maybe that's the time the bill list could be um sent to the public so they know 48 Hours when the agenda comes out also when I was on the board there was always changes to
agendas and people got confused like I would read the agenda on a Sunday night and then on Tuesday it changed one of the practices that Dr aldarelli did was that he highlighted stuff in Red so people who read the agenda of ahead of time were able to notice that there was
a difference to to the agenda so I'm asking if that could be something that the public could um also be a part of so if they do read the agenda earlier if there is a change or something added the public is able to know about it and also address it even if it's on the bills
list as well if there's an additional charge uh just an idea uh the second thing that I wanted to talk about was uh I have my own statement that that I wanted to read so bear with me
so I'm here again to discuss about some of the stuff that I discussed last week um I'm here just to follow up on some of my concerns regarding some of the recent committee assignments that I presented last week I specifically discussed my concerns with the finance and Facilities
appointments having the right individuals on the finance and Facilities committee is essential to ensuring the efficient and responsible use of taxpayers dollars we all know that the right leadership Fosters trust promotes continuity minimizes errors ensures that every dollar utilized effectively to support the educational
goals set by the superintendent of schools it's his goals as emphasized last week the absence of appropriate leadership and expertise on this committee can lead to in efficiencies uh cost mistakes and missed opportunities to enhance in the district's learning
environments so last week I brought up three concerns the need for continuity on this committee to ensur to Ure there's informed decision- making the importance of the consistent representation to to prevent oversights such as those that occurred with JP
Stevens and there was oversights I had the conversation with the superintendent of business ministrator and Chris so obviously it happened um and the clear conflict of interest involving Vel Patel who has a history of disregarding board policies and legal advice previously attempted to
sue the district for legal fees resulting from his own actions and inactions as a board member he should not chair that committee nor should he sit on it because he has a conflict of inform interest I believe we all believe that it's a monetary conflict of
interest so it might be a question that the attorney might want to discuss um but I honestly think that's a conflict of interest if you're trying to get money from the board how could you sit on the the main committee to that is that would give you that I also have other examples I can provide for the
board members in the public if need be I respectfully ask the board to please review current assignments prior to the next board meeting I noce you said you put the next 14 meetings and stuff like that which tells me that I wasn't listened to last week so I'm urging the dist the the Board of Education to
please have this conversation I really do believe there's a conflict of interest there thank you thank you anybody else yes Ross Delany 960 newova Road Edison uh I just wanted to um
reemphasize the whole conversation about cursive and uh you know it's been talked about a lot tonight but it is part of our history we teach history I I believe I think that's still in the curriculum so
as a part of History it should fall under that curriculum as well so uh putting cursive making sure the cursive is taught extensively maybe not just one year of curriculum multiple years of cursive to make sure that our uh
students can understand documents and literature that is uh that is written in cursive so they can read it I won't beat that anymore uh that's pretty much all I wanted to say uh this
town has become uh a political nightmare with the Town Council meetings um the library board and I just started to see it a little bit tonight in the
Board of Education uh we're still getting six minutes to speak Town Council reduced it to four minutes they they have a a u decorum ordinance that they passed
uh you folks haven't uh morphed into that nightmare yet but I did see a little bit of it tonight when Mr Rivera at the end of his presentation earlier had a a short back and forth
dialogue I think it was with you Mr to where you were trying to explain to him how you can communicate whether it was email or whatever and he was basically trying I believe he was trying to ask a question as to what would be the best
course of communication and he was shut down with words that really sink in with me the words were no back and forth that wasn't back and forth that
was clarification so Mr shei as the president of this board please don't start acting like the past administration in Our Town
Council to create an embarrassing environment for the Edison Board of Education you guys are better than that so please maintain your own
decorum it's not about shutting people down it's about getting the points across and I'm not not going to take 6 minutes A lot of people that were up here didn't take 6 minutes but he still had time left and
it was merely a question of what was the best form of communication so that they can resolve the issue but you shut them down no back and forth is what you said stop it thank
you thank you any other public comments see none we uh can I have a motion to close public comments motion second second okay V show and Joe thank
you all in favor all right all right now we open up for board member comments any board member any comments can I go yes so Ed I I have some questions and comments about the AI policy plan
I know you are meeting with all the students um I would request you to instigate these questions to them CU they are the one who is using it left and right maybe they have an idea on how to use it respons responsibly and and how to not use it in appropriate manner
so and then second thing is if I would love to be part of any coordination if you need my help I mean I do that for living so would happy to chime in to graft that policy sounds good thank you okay any other board member comments
okay see I have some questions for Dr already so I have some concerns I heard some concerns from parents about students have uh multiple tests uh in a week and and they have multiple tests or assessment in a day um some of them had
like three or four Assessments in a day which is you know um not optim more so can we look into to um spread out a little bit uh not to have them concentrated on one day or one week um
that's one uh the other is um some of the assessment tests in the district um the students were not given the results of these tests so they did
not know what was wrong and uh when they went to ask the teacher the teacher say there's a policy that says we don't show the test uh to the students I I if I recall we don't have that kind of a
policy and um I hope that the the curriculum committee or whoever can look into this to make sure that the students actually see what's what's wrong so they can make the the uh they don't make have the same mistake uh next time um um this
is also you know maybe a a thing for the AI because we talked about AI uh right now with chat gbtn and a lot of the other stuff that's being used we can probably have provide a question to Ai and have ai help us generate something
the same complexity some same difficulty it's a different question uh so you know so the the the reason is because we can reuse a test but but we can generate a a totally different test different
question with a um similar complexity so um if we can look into that yeah absolutely Mr Shay um yeah in relationship to the assessments yeah obviously uh teachers work really hard to make sure that um you know students
aren't overburdened in studying for you know multiple main assessments over the course of a time they do uh coordinations with that there are times when unfortunately some of them may fall towards that um but we'll definitely look at into those um those pieces as far as the um uh the answer is not given
to the test um I'll touch base I'm assuming it's middle and this is a math test yeah for high school yes I'll touch base with Mr Cohen to see what the criteria is for those pieces um just to see if it's you know if it's an entry exam or something along those lines but I will definitely follow up with that AI
in relationship to um developing tests of the same rigor and content I think that's a a you know a tool that teachers have accessible to them um in order to um listen I mean AI assists in lesson planning and and making um letters
better right you know it's it's always good to get a a second look at those pieces but um yeah I think you brought up all good points in relationship to that thank you so um just to response to uh public comments today people mentioned a lot about the Committees um
the committee has been formed as I said it's only six days old and uh we have a lot of committee meetings has set up throughout the year and uh we have a very aggressive agenda this year so I can't wait for the committee to uh to
starting so we can you know move forward with uh uh what we try to do um so that's it that's my uh my comments can I go again yes I I'm going to start following Mr she's tradition on asking questions right so one one thing one
comment on the test is they are giving the answers but they're not showing their own exam paper right cuz if the quiz was taken two weeks before kids doesn't remember what they answered um so I think they should be shown their own exam paper so they know
where they did the mistake thank you yep I'll follow up with more detail perfect and I think one more feedback I got from some of the students at JP is the internet in the gym is not working so they said when they try to request a bathroom thing they cannot because internet is not
working uh part of the reason could be there is a multiple uh study halls happening at the same time so if if somebody can look into you know router or something the auditorium has a little bit to do with that currently right now but I I understand what you're saying yep oh the digital Hall Pass yeah yeah
so they cannot request uh I was talking to group of girls and they said they cannot request it cuz there's no internet yeah cuz I I also heard that one girl used 9 minutes and she got into some sort of a problem all right so anybody else yes jinny I
just wanted to add my congratulations to all our amazing students and their teachers and coaches and everybody who supported them for this student recognition night it's this is always such a pleasure and I would also like to
say thank you for this beautiful award that we all received that's cursive too everybody got one cursive you know and it's you know it's really really so nice not necessary because we get rewarded by
all a million little things you know and uh you know it's such a pleasure you know and honor to be up here to serve this way but thank you you know I have a special spot for this that's it so thank you
Jenny any anybody else okay see none can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting motion to adjourn meeting okay do I have a second second all right you reverse order okay all right the meeting is adjourned see you
guys uh next month thank you very much