On February 28, the Edison Board of Education (BOE) held a public meeting at Edison High School. To commemorate Black History Month, this meeting featured students and teachers delivering presentations displaying black art, culture, and excellence. In addition to this, the BOE addressed renovations to classrooms within JP Stevens, citizen concerns, and opened the floor to student representatives.

The meeting began with Xiaohan “Shannon” Peng adjourning to a confidential session for interview superintendent search firms. An hour later, the main agenda was resumed. This began by preceding into presentations. Edison High School Principal Charlie Ross was in attendance and proudly celebrated the successful attendance of a thousand students at their African American history month assembly.  This event was organized by the hard-working and dedicated members of the Black Student Union. Principal Ross introduced senior Jade Boateng, current president of Edison High’s Black Student Union, who discussed the successes of this year’s Black History Month Assembly. Her presentation covered how Black art was expressed through paintings of historical leaders, dance performances, poems displaying powerful voices, and even a hair show to display the power of black hairstyles. 

Next on the agenda was the discussion about the new classroom additions to JP. The main issues they hoped to address were congested traffic, overcrowding within classrooms, and lack of exit routes. Currently, JP only has one main entrance, which leads to increased late arrivals and traffic jams. The DMR Architects have proposed utilizing the right side of the building (the choir door) to orient the building in a way that would minimize the amount of parking one would lose on the site.

In addition to this, a plan to reorient the tennis courts was proposed. It called for the expansion of the pathways into a street and its connection to New Dover Road. Next, a new wing was proposed that would potentially be the tallest element on the existing site and would also allow for the establishment of an orchestra auditorium.

The meeting then featured a representative from Edison High School and Student Council Vice President senior Dev Doshi, who delivered overviews of current events in their respective schools. Then seniors Vivian Lee and Hritika Shah delivered a passionate speech advocating for the reinstatement of the Safety Ambassador Program in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and providing high schoolers with the opportunity to be safety ambassadors. These ambassadors would visit Edison’s elementary schools and provide presentations for first graders on safety issues for both traffic and pedestrians. The BOE took these requests into consideration and promised further discussion. The superintendent expressed his thanks for such active members of the community and their dedication toward the welfare of the community. 

GradeScout was the next topic of discussion. Junior Troy Gunawardene, the co-founder of the website and non-profit, presented a speech regarding the details of the application, its impact, and reasons for its unblocking from school devices. This well-utilized platform was blocked from school devices due to district security concerns. He presented a reasonable argument filled with petitions and statistics to have the website unblocked. The BOE acknowledged this and ensured further discussion. The meeting then transitioned to discuss committee reports. The discussion began with Athletics Committee Head Mr. Vishal Patel, who introduced the establishment of middle school volleyball and a co-ed cricket team in both high schools.

Overall, this BOE meeting addressed a variety of issues and presented a platform for students to become more involved. Goals have been set, and the BOE hopes to continue to involve and support the community by working towards achieving them.