okay I'm going to call the meeting to order because we should always tell our our presenters that they can leave No last week was our last day So I'm going to call the meeting to order our
policeman Wait All right Let me first get the I we do have a quorum I think or don't we do we have a qual yet all right So we'll wait on the minutes We don't have a qual yet All right So I'm pleased to have as a
presenter tonight plumber and his sidekick is Rainia Asava Randy Randy I don't know Welcome Um Darren is the supervisor of equity
and inclusion and I know that Pete's been involved with that a little bit also So I'm going to have him make a presentation and then we'll have questions in this Okay
So uh first I want to start by thanking you all for your time Uh I know you got a full agenda and you know lives that you're coming from We got a thousand things waiting for us to do Um I want to thank Pete for always being a liazison to the human relations and introduction
to our diversity and awareness committee and colleague Ra for joining me tonight Um just wanted to talk about a couple things as it relates to what we're doing in the district right now how it relates to my role and the role of our
colleagues throughout the district Uh so first uh I'll we'll talk about really getting to the instructional core right uh we believe everybody like even this right all the way down to the classroom we should be learning with and from each
other in the classroom Our content should reflect that our classroom space our buildings Um so that's one of the things we work on with our our staff through our equity leaders Um our climate and culture Um as we continue to build out capacity with restorative
practices uh a way of building relationships and community but also dealing with the conflict and tension when it comes up Um and then we'll wrap up with talking about our diversity night festival coming up on Friday May 2nd Uh which is a culmination of a lot
of the things that we work on throughout the year to celebrate our our different cultures and languages traditions throughout our throughout our community Um so first I wanted to have Ra talk about her role as equator and how that
taps into the you know instructional core across the across the district Thank you Mr Norman Thank you everyone for having us tonight So my name is Rana Saba and I currently teach fourth grade math at Carne Road School and uh in addition to my teaching role I am an
equity leader Teacher equity leader So I've been sorry I don't mean Dr Ron I got to get it right I got to get Yes I recently defended my dissertation Dr Karaji knows that Um and
I'm officially a doctor Thank you Um so in addition to my teaching role thank you Uh I serve as an equity leader in the district and uh I have been collaborating with Mr Plamer and other teacher equity leaders in all the buildings in the district for about four
probably five years now to guide and support teachers throughout all the content areas in really uh making their classrooms inclusive equitable and culturally responsive to meet the needs of all the learners So my main
responsibility along with the other teacher equity leaders and Mr Tower has been to facilitate professional development sessions where we provide teachers with resources that actually guide them um in seeing the importance of validating their students cultural
identities and then using that knowledge to um build and bridge the connection between home and school A lot of our students you know come from different cultures and when they come to our schools we really expect them to follow like mainstream cultural norms s such as
sit down you know raise your hand when you're talking Unfortunately these we cannot like you know impose on our students anymore because they come from different backgrounds where these norms are different So when we learn about our students when we validate and affirm
their cultural identities then we are able to bridge that gap between home and school And why do we do that we do that because we want our students to feel that they belong in our classrooms We want them to feel like they are valued seen they're heard We want them to feel
like they are participants in the learning environment They add value to our learning environment and they and our I think our ultimate goal is to not only make them feel like they belong um but more importantly to help them
achieve and be successful in school and outside school as well Thank you Thank you for that And just to build some uh more context to that um it's been I guess
a five or six year span where we've had districtwide equity training building um teacher advocacy with being culturally responsive We shifted to content area specific equity leaders to continue
supporting and coaching our teachers Um when we first did a baseline with teachers providing their self-efficacy with all right I can identify what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher um and these are the outcomes I expect in the
classroom Uh when we first started our training that self-efficacy was about 34% uh we did a midpoint uh baseline that rose to 57% and now we're in the process of doing that baseline again
this year Um and from what we've seen you know it's over 75 you know 80% So over the course of you know five or six years raising the self-efficacy of our educators across the district Um and it's a it's an ongoing challenge It's
the ongoing um effort to build capacity because our classrooms are becoming even more and more diverse So we find that important Um just like said um students being able to participate see
themselves in content see themselves in the classroom um increases motivation increases engagement and overall increases academic achievement over time So the second piece um we really wanted to touch on was the climate and culture
efforts with uh building out our capacity with restorative practices So restorative practices is alliance of building relationships and community Um it's originally from a indigenous practices all over the world Um it's
been packaged to bring into first it went into uh juvenile justice systems but now it's in educational systems Um and it's really about a proactive approach about building relationships in community in the classroom throughout our schools throughout our district um
but also having an explicit practice to deal with tension and conflict when it comes up so that uh both parties understand their part in it and can also be part of the resolution process Um a lot of
times as adults you know we we can take conflict from young people right and they don't build their muscle to deal with those conflicts themselves You know think about two young people arguing over a toy
right and one snatches the toy We say that was wrong You shouldn't have done that Give it back Say sorry Right when they have the capability of doing that themselves you know and you know as students progress through their
educational career many of those same examples happen when they're in middle school and high school Um and one of the best skills we can we can build um or think one of the best things we can communicate to our young people is that
we're all part of the same community We're all in relationship with each other And when there is tension and conflict because tension and conflict are inevitable we are all working together We have an explicit practice to deal with that tension that conflict um you
know over time Uh we've seen some dramatic decreases um especially at our middle school in terms of to overall discipline incidents overall suspensions which is at the heart of um you know again getting to that instructional core more young people are in classrooms the
more young people feel safe and seen in those classrooms and they know they have an explicit practice to deal with conflict and issues Um you know home mind is a learning mind We take that approach with our restorative practices Um but
overall I want to say we've seen over 60% decrease in discipline incidents and over 70% decrease in overall suspensions um because there are a critical mass of people who are collaborating who are
trained in restorative practices in that in that environment And as we build out our capacity right now we have 16 or 17 trainers across the district from high school middle school elementary Um we're continue to grow that capacity So as we
have continue to have more critical masses of people that are trained together in those environments climate and culture um and those specific uh data points with discipline we look for that to decrease as well Um because with it's you know it's part
of who we are right we want our young people to know they're in a safe supported community so that they can get to the the heart of learning and academic achievement to support what you know whatever they're going to do in their lives Um so I'll pause and process on those
two elements of our equity leaders or restorative practices um for questions before I you know transition into talking about our diversity night festival I have a question Um you mentioned measuring like how uh the teachers and
educators like you know their self-efficacy over time if you measured the students sort of like how you know either what the feeling of belonging is in the student community or their perspective on the you know the training that you provide Is there any sort of measure of how that's changing for
students yes So for the past 3 years we used uh a measure panorama uh it's a survey measure used widely across the state and what we've seen as a 6% increase which is just talking to different districts
and different folks to see that amount of uh increase in student belonging over a 3-year period is uh is a feat Um we've switch now switched to um New Jersey
school climate improvement platform short for NJ Sky Um and they have a different measurement So this year would be our baseline in that Um so it's a four-point scale and I think our student belonging measure was like
2.89 So not bad but also still room to grow So we'll use that as our baseline starting off and we'll measure that as we go forward And do you have the capacity to look at like what that number looks like for different populations of students like different students so Panorama had that
measure So we can see a national average and a uh local average NJ Sky doesn't have that measure but I think we can you know reach out to the administrators and and get a rough estimate Um but by all intents and purposes just from talking
to them through different PDs um they've even said you know this is midground right this is average for most places Um but you know here in Franklin we don't want to be average right we want to strive for um our students really feeling like they they they have a sense
of belonging in any space that Thank you so much And and your numbers are pretty impressive 60 70% So I have two part questions actually One is what is the role of parents how do you collaborate with parents because
definitely after the school the home and and society comes and plays and parents play a very key role Yes And the second one what are the main challenges that left for you to kind of move ahead
so parents are well my student my my young people right my kids are in the district um so I have like a dual mindset a lot of times when I'm role but we really feel like the the partnership with parents is
uh just such a key element um so one thing I've done in my role is develop a family and parent equity advisory so we've been meeting three times a year and what I've done is taken a lot of the parent responses from our family
engagement surveys from Panorama from NJ Sky and brought that brought that data to the family and parent equity advisories and right when you talk to people in person right rather than a
survey survey gives you like a direction to go in talking to the people right gives you the what right they will give you the examples of how that's showing up for them Um and we really were able to pair down a lot of our family
engagement barriers when you have right from families coming in to examples like when you're doing a family engagement event at a school have something for everybody Um it's it's really a lot of the feedback that helped shape our diversity night program right we got
something for young people we got some food for the dads right we've got some community vendors and resources student staff performances So when somebody comes to um a family engagement event there's something for everybody Um so
families don't have to pick and choose right who goes to what Um so that was you know some of the feedback that came from the family and parent uh equity advisories um and challenges is always time competing
commitments and funding right there's only a certain amount of time to get everything done So you got to prioritize and say "All right we we'll do this first We'll get some feedback from it and we'll move to the next piece and build on it." um competing commitments
uh you know from the district level to school level to right classroom level we all have 100 things to do waiting for us So to be able to build coherence through all of those levels so that the wind is
on everybody's back rather than at different times moving at different paces Um it's always a challenge and then you know funding especially this year with you know impending budget cuts right you really have to be laser focused on what you
want to do um that coherence works because if everybody's focused on few of the main things right keep the main thing the main thing then you can still continue tell us what the goal is for this coming year and what are those main things that
you're mentioning so for me it's continuity especially with our equity leaders um it's a neverending journey we give us some examples because you are speaking a little kind of in general terms I like to get
some examples of the things that we did in a classrooms and in school and this is what we did This is how we parents got involved and this is the results of that and so give us some something that we at least I guess if that's okay with you So I would like to go back to the
parents part because I know that all teachers at least at the elementary level focus on building strong relationships with parents So just like we uh give students surveys to learn more about you know uh for example what they like as in not is what is your
favorite food or holiday yes those are important but also do you like to work in groups how do you like your teacher to give you feedback you know we dig a little bit deep to know our students better We also send a survey home for the parents to complete and this is when building those strong relationships
really starts and teachers you know are in constant communication I know at the elementary level with parents uh if a problem arises if something good needs to be you know communicated at home we definitely focus not only on the negatives we do focus on the positive because we believe of course that
parents are part of this partnership and they need to be involved in everything So as far as classroom examples I can talk about math because I teach math And when we first started you know the equity training I was teaching literacy And at that time I thought you know
whatever we were learning was really easy to implement in literacy When I switched to teaching math you know everybody thinks math is what do you think math is all about numbers and operations right right wrong black white I thought oh math is like you know math
and culturally responsive teaching are like they don't meet and boy I was wrong because um using that knowledge for example that we give like the survey that we give students using that knowledge on the survey for example if I know that my student celebrates a
certain way or you know focuses on something with the family or so now I use that knowledge for example to create a word problem that we solve in the math classroom And that really uh shows students like they'll be like oh this is me or so again this you know we're
working on their sense of belonging sense of agency and what I have seen and what other teachers have seen also not only the levels of engagement and um you know feeling supported feeling like you
are being valued I think our test scores also speak for that Um I know that ever since I started implementing culturally responsive teaching along with my co-teer who teaches literacy our scores have really spiked Uh we feel it We see it every day I know you asked about like
what do we do with the students we see that every day We hear it all the time And I don't think that's like nothing not everything is measurable But you know seeing them being engaged wanting to come to school oh math is very interesting now all of a sudden math is interesting Oh I belong in the math
classroom I see myself as an active like learner in my classroom right as an active do oh I can do math now right i think that really matters and I think seeing that in their achievement um and in our test scores uh speaks volumes I
hope I I hope I answered your example So math is my favorite and I know that I've been encouraging I've been encouraging other math teachers I know I did a couple PBS also to really show them the value of including culturally responsive pedagogy in their math classrooms and um
I I found a lot of different ways that other teachers have shared with me So now that that kind of became my focus when I became an equity leader focused on math is to show other math teachers that yes you can make your math classroom which is all about numbers and equations culturally responsive So your
students feel like they are or they belong and they are active learners and participants So one thing that I have done I I also teach math I used to teach at the college as well So in in the little kids what I always done had
different names from different countries in the math problem like John and Ali or or somebody Indian name and so forth So everybody can hear different names They become familiar Oh yeah John and Ellie are friends for example Okay So that
also is so we still use that Yes But we also focus on the context Correct So the scenario is that scenario uh familiar to students or is it not familiar to students for example there was a problem about saris the other day So some people did not know what sari is So here we go We're watching a movie now about sorry
What does sorry mean what is something that you wear in your culture to celebrate something so we use those word problems as like windows or mirrors to also you know help students see the diversity and appreciate the diversity that exists in our community
By the way if you don't know I think we have 55 languages spoken in our schools if I That's amazing One of the most diverse places in Jersey which is second most the second most diverse Jersey City That's right I saw that the other day
But it's that's why it's so uh critical right it's critical that we are able to have content have folks that have capacity that coach and support other folks that can help create those mirrors
and windows and slide glass doors right and to seeing themselves in the future Um and it's and it's ongoing right it's ongoing Can I ask you mentioned that you know the children now you know like to come
to class etc Um so are there any metrics if it has affected attendance or it has not affected attendance it's just that you're seeing more enthusiasm about being in the class So at the elementary level I don't think attendance is really
a problem Yeah It's school attendance overall Um and right the informal feedback that teachers observe and then right the academ academic achievement that shows up as a result Yes But yeah no we you know attendance is not a
problem Students are excited to come to school every day and any occasions that do any training with the parents i know you had some family engagement sessions but so that they can sort of acquire some skills so that what
you're training with your kids in school is supported in the home environment That's a great question and something we wanted to build out to once we have enough capacity um the opportunity to to participate in like parentmies that have
happened at some of the elementary schools I just provide a an opportunity kind of dip toes in and you know what we're building now Um but definitely having you know community conversations um opportunities throughout the year to
engage with parents on particular strategies we definitely want to build into into trying to the human relations committee I know obviously because we came Sorry I had uh I'm sorry
I didn't invoke you sir Oh good to see you Yeah we're a little short staffed at the agency Oh not the agency but uh in my my the community relations bureau We're a little short We got two guys out uh hurt So we're we're moving to shape Call on
you quickly And then the last piece I really just wanted to talk about um something Pete Pete's been helping us out with on our diversity awareness committee committee is our diversity night festival happening next Friday May 2nd Um this is our third year Um it's a
well attended community um event Um we have student and staff performances So students from elementary to high school perform staff members that want to participate When we leave from the performances we have different breakouts So in the
cafeteria we call what uh what we have called the taste of Franklin So different uh caterers restaurants we have many different uh cuisines cultural cuisines across the community You know folks get to taste test different uh different elements We have games around
the world in the gymnasium Uh we invite a lot of different community vendors and resources Um this year we're adding a different element um with our PBIS showcase will always be also be there and we've connected with the Franklin
Township Cultural Out Arts Council Arts Council and they're going to do uh like cultural line dancing you know on the stage for folks that want to participate We'll have some crafts um from different cultural backgrounds in the hallway So it's a really great night for many folks
across the community to connect learn with and from each other celebrate our young people and really have a you know real good feelood night That's wonderful The flyer you have flyer right that is it up at the website of the township here Now it is Mary shared it Um but I
can also share it with you share it with the community That would be great Anybody else there was something else No that was that was it for me Any any other questions anybody else i'll just add you know just observing as a representative
for the human relations commission and attending uh the meetings thing U the committee has met monthly uh every two weeks and really has put together a great program What what's a uh what is a great thing is is that um and a lot of communities don't have this there's a
great partnership that uh Darren has created through his department there the equity and diversity along with the mayor and the council So I think that's very important A lot of times you have separate entities You have the schools doing something and you have the township doing something and there's not
that communication but I think that that gap with that uh new department that was established at the U ministry levels really created a better communication for everyone to be a part of it And of course Darren's uh created more and more of the municipality um committees The
cultural arts is going to be involved this year We were involved last year and I were at the table which we got a good response from And the more and more that happens more and more you know the community comes it is a community event just not a school district event And so I think that's one you know I think a
positive thing that comes about in regards to that whole program So and uh you know the it grow has grown The first year was huge The last year continued and this year is even better Absolutely massive We have definitely consistent attendance across the board Um we try
and keep it free right looking for donations for food So if anybody has any connections for food that's one of the biggest things Um so over the next week want to solidify that But everything else is in a good place Um and come on
out if you're free I'm sure I think Mr Rosenthal said he wanted to be one of the cooks if he That's right Anybody else before we come on thank you Thank you always Yes Hang around if you
want I will We'll do I'll send it to you tomorrow Okay Nice meeting you tonight Good to see you All right Okay Thank you Have a good night Before we go on uh
I need a motion to okay the uh March 26 minutes Motion I second I mean make a motion Okay Um and happy to uh uh announce that
we have Captain Captain Brown here today We usually we usually have uh couple of the other officers and I understand that he's a little short-handed So I'm going to call Captain Brown for his I'll take the
promotion Detective Brown I mean you can write a letter to the directors on that Yes Yeah So hello for everyone again Mayweather So uh I want to just want to you know
again say thank you for accepting me into the meeting late Um as as you all know we always do it as much as we can and we try not to say no to anything So especially in in our division that's what we do right um so thank you Uh for
those of you who don't know me I'm Detective Bobby Brown uh Franklin resident for my whole life and now I'm doing this uh with community relations So for me it's it's a it's a cool experience I've done all the other
billets inside the police department Um I was in the street crimes unit when we had that I was in the detective bureau for the four years previous to this And now I'm doing this uh the community stuff and it's really near and dear to my heart Um you know we for those of you
who might not know I started our Frankle Fit program the CrossFit program that we run for free out of the youth center And then from there we kind of started keep very very similar to Mr Palmer We just keep piling on right try to keep every year get keep going We've been going now
for 5 years And now you know all these other programs are are going but the only thing now is sometimes we get a little short So we're running from one thing to the next which is good problem right um so a little bit about what we have going uh coming up This week is a
busy week for us It always is Um obviously tomorrow's bring your kid to work day bring your child to work day uh townshipwide So I know the township employees as well as the police officers the rec center uh all going to be coming together tomorrow It's going to be a
very nice event uh 8 to 2 We're gonna do a nice show you know kind of show the building show what we do and uh got some food and stuff It's gonna be a nice day Saturday is another big day Um that's
our DEA uh drug turnover day So old prescriptions We've we got it up on the website It's been on our social media Um but that's Saturday from I believe it's
10:00 a.m to 2:00 Basically bring you know if you want to get rid of your old prescription medication especially the scheduled stuff right cuz that's the stuff we see go in the trash and then somehow it gets out of the trash and it's in someone else's hands and bad things happen So great way to go see
Officer Belvin Uh he'll be at headquarters on Saturday taking all that stuff in And just so we all know that stuff gets taken into evidence and it's anonymous There's no questions asked We're not counting pills We're not asking where it came from We're just It's like a gun turn in right we just
want that stuff out of the medicine cabinets If we're done using it get rid of it That's Saturday Sunday Sunday Sunday Sunday We have a tour to Franklin So uh another thing we partner with the
food bank on that starts at the high school 08 Um it's a there's a there's a number of rides some longer some shorter It's not a competition Um so spread the word about that But it's always a great turnout Weather looks great So that's
Sunday morning um from 8 to about 2:00 p.m starting at the high school and then carrying on down to Canal Road Scenic nice nice views And while two of my people will be doing that I will be at St Matias They're doing um a health and
wellness day right for their parish So myself and one of the school resource officers are going to be down there just promoting all the all the programs that we're running for our youth throughout the year Just it's you know our schools our Franklin schools get us a lot right
they get us at Pacer They get us all the time They see us all the time So this is a great opportunity for us to get in the parish make ourselves known to them and say "Hey you know you guys are a part of Franklin too It's not you know we're not in the schools as much as we are in our other elementary schools but we're here
Um we're an asset and we want to you know co-mingle you know get the St Matias kids coming to my programs We still I have a couple kids um from St Matias that do my program um Mondays and Wednesdays So that's a great opportunity
one to impact the adult community on the health and wellness cuz that's where it really comes from right you got to get mom and dad on board so that the next generation is getting the getting the good stuff right the good information just good tips how to stay healthy how
to stay well not just physically mentally all that all that stuff So bunch of vendors will be out there that day Um so that's our weekend forecast Um other than that some big things that are kind of coming up that we can use
some help always promoting Our youth academy is the registration is out for that now That's going to be in July July 14th through the 18th Um that's going to be running at the high school And what we
do there we do obviously you fellow Franklin High School guys I did it in uh my freshman year Say hom So we got your commissioners Yeah it's beautiful What's your what's your name fellas uh I'm Kadir I'm Ran
All right Nice to meet you So um you know it's a great chance We we see a lot of kids do good things after they do this academy We've had people do it multiple years We've had you know people go on to do join the military It's a great a great chance for young young
people to kind of get to know the job they think they want to do right so and I sell that to all people and we get a lot of inquiries like "Is it hard is it this?" I'm like "It's not the academy but it's not easy right?" So it's but it's a great week Um we're tough on the
kids as he could probably attest but at the same time it's fun right by the end of the week we're having a good time graduate and it's a it's a sense of accomplishment It's something I tell you know it's good to do hard things right and and so we we we really have no problem filling that up but you can
spread the word about it And that that will be about 30 uh cadets in that class That's in July Um we're already starting to plan for National Night Out right um so this will be my first year running the show with that which I'm excited
about Um like you said as a hometown guy um it's a cool chance for me to kind of like spread my wings a little bit Hopefully we get some good weather Last year it poured hard and it didn't happen So that's my biggest fear It's like plan plan plan and then nothing happens So I
go at the Baptist church It was a day when when everyone came they had records and spun it or something How did that day go at at the Baptist church Oh recently Yeah it was very recently A record thing or was like
a music thing the uh people came into the Baptist church and they had and they had some kind of criminal record that they want to take That was last year in like October Wasn't it this year oh the expungement The expungement Yeah Yeah
Yeah Oh no That was um That was Oh I know the name of the organization That's a county organization It's free Sigma Free I believe that that was the Sigma Free Commission and they hosted an expungement Um exactly Basically for
those that don't know expungement is is out there Um depends on the crime criteria if you're eligible it's drugrelated offenses or you're a juvenile Basically getting your record getting that incident off your record So there's a bunch of organizations on the
county side um that we kind of like lightly collaborate with Um I don't know how it went honestly if I'm you know but uh find out But we just had one recently Uh no I'm adding him Um you guys are
doing a wonderful job Thank you You are And I've noticed that down through the community I'm still having some problem with some of the knuckleheads that they still have some old uh bully stigmas downfield but other than that I look
forward to having a good time Thank you sir And then I I would say you know I I could plug every program we have going on right now The one thing I do want to kind of gain momentum is um I don't know if many of you even know we have launched a podcast Um everyone know
about it no You heard it all right Yeah So um I host some of the episodes We got another one coming up very soon Um so that we'll have our third one out on Friday And you know just when you talk
to you know people you talk to in town and it's a good it's a good listen on your commute to wherever you're going right it's not it's not the true crime documentary Obviously there's things that we can can't say can't you know we can't touch on everything especially if
the investigation is still active but really we want to use it as a a chance to kind of like communicate in a better way where we can just be the voice and we're not interrupted and just kind of get through our thoughts on our projects our equipment where we're spending money
So so on the last episode we had uh the director Captain Frederick's Captain Wilson and Captain Domador and they sit down and I'm kind of like the producer on that as far as I'm in the background making sure everything is good But they talk about budget you know they talk
about opioid settlement like what we're trying to do with money um or what our plans are So it's a kind of it's a new venue for us to be transparent with the town and kind of give more information out than we can or that what people would read in a post So that was kind of
a reaction to our Tuesday night talks and just kind of not feeling like we had the traffic that we wanted So in this in the podcast format you can listen to the podcast the night it drops or a week later right and it's it's always there So not only that
too And then if you play one episode and you're like "Oh listen to this other one the other one." Next thing you know you're a weekly subscriber So and it's a great medium for people of the of the next generation who do listen who take in more podcasts So we're just
constantly trying to find better ways to communicate with the town get information out there Um and that's what we plan for that podcast to be like our next episode uh we plan to feature Derek and Ally from the food bank um who are
great people great personalities Should be a fun episode but we want to shed light on the food bank Let people know hey it's there like it's not just for the extreme poverty right it's for food insecurity across the board It's there
for if you need help this month right and and to kind of bridge the gap So putting out information like that topics like that that are close to like hey you maybe you didn't know you you could do that but now now cuz you listen to that
episode it's another available resource I have one particular uh very bad problem The distinction between the police department the police communication bureau the police in terms of what
they're doing for the kid directly and the youth center which is all three are not connected to the atrisisk youth or the community center
And I have been an advocate of a atrisisk youth center and a community center And all three of those items are not yet either one of those three Either one of those either one of these and one
of those two And I'm trying to find out how one of those can meet the at risk youth center of kids over 16 and a community center
which the center in which the center is built has been moved to It sits where the anti-poverty agency used to be at took care of the kids and we're having a problem with
communications between those three units and the people in that particular ward In terms of communications there is none Um so the at risk center where is that i'm not community relations bureau Yeah
I know The the youth center that the the work that what the cops are doing Yeah All right And the youth center Well the and then you said the at risk center Is there at risk well we have none Okay So
I want to touch on that just you know it's a tough it's a tough thing right so especially at the youth center right so we have three separate entity entities and at the end of the day rules have to be followed So what happens is and this
is this is can take me down a deep road right we started all these programs to keep kids from being at risk right the problem is there there's also too a population that is following the at risk
right so if they're not coming to the youth center then how do we how do we touch them like how do we get involved right how how can we impact them right some of them don't come because there's a metal detector there now Yeah
20 cops There should be whether and but we want that and we want the youth center to be safe weapons free and we and then we also want children to be like yeah the cops are there and that's okay too and that like cuz that's ultimately that's that's the goal is for
young people of all colors shapes walks of life to go I'm going to the youth center I know there's a cop at the door I know there's three cops in there running chess with cops Franklin fit and basketball tonight There's three options where I can go learn from these people
And that's how we ultimately slowly but surely you know that's how we're trying to create the change Well the tough thing is that though is when a kid's been expelled or they've been charged with you know maybe a violent crime or possession with a
weapon ultimately yes they are now unable to attend those certain things The only the real bridge that we do have is our road to our road to success program right where officer Malcolm and Belman and Officer Reed meet with those
young men to try to pull them back in right that's really what that is is like and being honest right you can bring the horse to the water can't make them drink And we all know that right but we keep trying And that's really the same and
that and that's the same thing that goes at the school level That's the same thing that happens at all these levels Yeah The only thing is the community center is you have a a a youth center
age is 11 to 18 No 16 Oh they can be 18 at the youth center They went to 16 Yeah they can go all the way up to high school But what I'm saying is you have a kitty center You have a kid
center and you got thousands of youth at risk youth more here than there So we're looking at just how you know how can that happen i mean how can we
So I mean I mean part of part of it is too is like keep the ones we have you know keep investing in the kids on that on on the good trajectory and on that path and keep them from getting off the path right so that's number one That's
right That's what really all we can do now Yeah And just the same way we built CRB coming up on 5 years now Like I said took time took it took that took time to get that building to build that unit And
now we're at the point now and like I said are we are we done no Are we close no But we're ahead of any other town around here And I will say that with 100% We get calls I get calls in my office from South Brunswick
Hillsboro all these surrounding towns How are you doing what you're doing and it and it really it's a matter of support right we have support obviously from the director She never would like before the director none of these programs would have flown Laughing laugh
in our face Right now we have the support from the township We have support from vendors and and local companies that have lended support donated things Franklin Fib was built by selling t-shirts to township residents
right so all that stuff it really comes down to It takes time to build We're we're we're headed down the right path I I you know you we do five good things We'll find one thing you and that's the creative way It's like all right now what's next what's next what's next so
we're trying we're working you know things like the My Brother's Keeper program Um we've done a like a school assembly on with a a more harder edge up about drug use to try to appeal on on a
realer scale than conventionally use Try to try to hit him in the gut to so to say right like gut punch Like this type of behavior is taking you to a place where it's not good M it's either death jail
or a combination of undesirable things So like I said it's a it's a tough thing for us because you know there's right now there's four guys in our unit Um and like I said two are out so there's you know we're pretty short but we're doing
we're doing as much as we can and trying to trying to pop out and be everywhere we can be If there's an event going on we're there So my my thing is too is if if there is something that that is is happening or a gathering something that hey you know
what I I would like to see committee relations reach out and we'll make time short comments and thank you but first of all thank you for all the detail report uh the youth academy just for everybody's
information is for ages 14 to 16 if I understand correctly and but there's Another great program that I think you have you mentioned about the opioid as part of the opioid fund There's a program this is for uh uh for 8 to 12th
grade students and up to 30 people can register if I understand from the director Yesterday we were talking about it and it is for substance uh use prevention and so the use that's and they're going to be paid This is during
the summer and they're going to be paid I forgot the name but it's one of the programs that is under the opioid fund funded program Well that I'm not I'm not uh a breast on all those cuz right now we're getting all the all the programs are coming in You have to vet out So I
just I just don't know the name Just I want to make sure that you are aware of and keep an eye on it Yeah there's a lot like you said there's a lot brewing with the opioid settlement stuff and because once that came out then we put out obviously I don't know you guys remember they had the questionnaire and
suggestion box essentially like give us ideas of what to do with this where does this money need to be you know has been right very involved with that what's the split between female and male participation in any of the programs as
far as what you're running um without without the the you know the demographics in front of me I would say it was pretty even tend to have more boys at the youth center however like my Franklin program tonight we had we
had even split I had Eva Claire Shelly and so we have five and five have five boys five girls right so we get a good balance but thing too is like that was a big thing with a lot of our
programs and that and that's the biggest difference that we what we're doing now than what we've done five six years ago was our programs would be Thursday night something with a cop and it was just that
Thursday and it was over right and so our thing was like Frankle fit was my big thing was it needs to be all year long so tonight there might be 10 people We'll be there on Wednesday and there could be 20 We'll be there on next
Monday and there might be three right but we're there for the three that show up because they could be anywhere else but they're here right so that that's the big thing is like they know that I'm going to be there on Monday and Wednesday nights to do that They know that officer Toado is going to be there
for chess on Wednesday night They know Officer Manny and and things like that are going to be there for basketball So it's kind of we want to create like longevity reoccurring relationships to the point where the we're at the point now where I've had people graduate from
my programs that are in you know like I said in the military thinking about a a career path in policing and now they they're 3 years removed from our community programs texting me on Instagram we're inquiring how to become a police officer in Franklin Like that's
really happening So often times it seems like it's a little thing but if we get you know if we get one of these kids from one of these youth programs to become a you know we have officer Solace was you know a graduate of Franklin High School did the
youth academy and now is an officer officer solace so it's happening and we're just trying to keep growing it out and just keep promoting positivity it thank you brother for your nice report we appreciate
I saw a word by the way your television screen now you guys could free chess players right I'm not I I don't I'm not on the chess I I wish I
I don't know play I need on the television screen it has the ch the the different programs oh were you walking on the television be on the television on channel 39 33 Okay To tell you that the town the things that be happening in the
town center They got the chess programs for $176 a child That ain't our program I know but it's the Franklin Township Police I mean our recreation department You see what I mean different That's not the police department Yeah I
mean it was our private right Now you say it again You know what I'm saying you saying it's the same thing as far as we are concerned No we covered that last month Yeah that's the that's not that's not the police I can't help with that I'm not I don't care if it's
Abraham that last month The recreation department comes out of the record It says $176 per child We covered that last month Johnny I don't want to cover that Those are private program That's private things We told you that last month but I I do believe that the rec department has
uh scholarship programs It's part of the rec So um yeah they find ways you're right They find ways but it's a recreation If you're proposing that we speak to the rec department about fees that's another conversation That's okay
Thank you very much sir Okay Um couple other little things Uh you want to bring us an update on the uh brochure Pete bring us up on the Bureau I'm I'm to blame here Um I have an outline but I
don't have a printer And unfortunately I wasn't able to print anything to bring tonight Um the but I do have an outline that I'll have to just email to all of you The the only thing that I do have and unfortunately I did send it and none of you were able to print it is I do
have a PowerPoint of the Hometown Heroes program So the best I can do is is is uh bring uh send around this uh this presentation for now on You send it to me I can Yeah If you send it to me I can print it for everybody Yeah I did send
it Yeah And I'll what I'll do is I'll print them up bring them to the meeting Yeah Yeah Okay All right Um I because I sent it to the three of you You did yeah And I wanted to say that I get printed table Anything new on the flag so that is what
I'm talking about banners program That's what you're talking about Um find my phone and listen Oh yeah Yeah Yeah Um just scroll up to see the all the the slides
Um Dr Carzi um you were not here when this came up on the agenda last time because you had another meeting So we need guidance on when it's time to go to the council because we already met with Assembly Danielson's office They have
pledged their support and will contribute funds if there are any to contribute Um and of course we know that the Chamber of Commerce has also um pledged their support And I know I've had some people ask me what does that mean you know do you want us to pay for it and what we're saying is we want you
to endorse the project So um I I can send I can send Safy this presentation because you know we need to know what's needed for the banners you know what's involved etc And then um
pricing because the the the price of the banners is dependent on the size of the banner And also um we need to decide who's going to pay for the banners So in most communities as we mentioned last month the families
pay for the banner Yeah they don't But the hardware is paid for by the town because it's it's the town's uh act of placing the banner where wherever it's going to be home you know if it's in this complex the council So let's talk
Okay And I'm I'm if it means presenting to the council I'm happy to present They have a little meeting next month So you have a little time It's fantastic We'll have a meeting in I may our next meeting is on June 25th So we and Assembly Danielson's office made a very good um I
had thought that we could push this to November and get it done but um chief of staff had a very excellent idea which was since these banners are typically flown during good weather right let's launch the project in the spring so that
from you know the months of May through November the you know because if we launch it in November then it's probably just going to be up for a few weeks because towns take them down during the winter months Okay Anything else uh as as I indicated
we we we do not have a a meeting in May because of Memorial Day Our next meeting is June 25th Do we have anything else to uh report yeah I just wanted to inform everybody that tomorrow there is a
presentation start on affordable housing right if you want to learn about it because that we going to have probably we going to build another 600 or so affordable housing in our town A lot of people ask okay how can I apply for
affordable housing or what is it what are requirements tomorrow is the day Please come if you're interested I'm sure you can learn something Maybe share with others that they may be interested It's going to be here at across 6:00
right you know it's going to be across the in the chamber Um 6 6:00 tomorrow right and and yesterday the in uh the council meeting there was quite a bit discussion about the budget You know
people were saying "Oh the taxes are going to go up." Now probably everybody has received their assessment The house value is going up So is it going to be my taxes proportionally is going to go up relative to what I had last year the answer is no It's not doesn't work that
way So uh every year we have to the Franken Township assess the value depending on the market price and so forth right so for example my property went from $700,000 for example to $850 but my tax is not going to be going
proportionally In fact as far as the taxes we spent quite a bit time in the township talked about our budget and so forth Even though our expenses has gone up by about 6 12% The municipal part of the taxes we only going to be increasing about
2.65% So that's the amount just the municipal part Just remember municipal taxes is only 14% of our taxes So as a council we try to keep the the taxes as small as possible So you know and but
the school tax of course is different and we have others but what the council is responsible is we have kept it at 2.6% Thank you Alex Okay If we have nothing else I'll take a
I just want to bring up the the diversity night festival is May 2nd What time is it 6:00 So um Ed and I had did the table last year We had some materials that we gave out with conflict resolution peer mediation things like
that So five minutes I'll Yeah So if anybody wants to come over for a little bit we were there you know not we don't mind you know I mean you know we was great because we were able to meet a lot of people people May 2nd Pete May 2nd Yeah I think it's at uh that's a Friday Yeah exactly
So um we'll send the brochure out again or the flyer Thank you all I'll make a motion to adjurnn Make a motion to adjurnn