001[Music] please one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all when i ask everybody real quick thank you please mr both here mrs boyle yes mr baranella mr giannakis here mrs miller mr peddler here mr susselberg mr cassio yeah mr panisi here in accordance with the term the sunshine law adequate notice of this meeting was posted in all school buildings the administration building the borough clerk's office police headquarters public library four newspapers and tacked into on january 6 2022 please be advised there is no smoking on school grounds inside or outside at any time police silence all electronic devices and pursue it to district policy zero one six seven each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes duration and no participant may speak on speak more than once on
002the same topic thank you alex um have superhead this report please i believe we're going to start with the auditory court mr nancy yes we have mr switcher mr swisher from southern clinton to present the auto report thank uh poison is yours [Music] um we're here with the spear 21 board uh first like to thank uh dr lee jack and alex roger helped with the oil thank you very much a lot of fun everybody's very helpful so we appreciate that uh usually we're doing this in november december uh the third year in a row now uh the state of new jersey has been the link will be giving us their account reports uh they hire a separate accountable form uh firm to come up with that global numbers that has to be ordered by the
003summer accounting firm and for the third year in a row they were going to get this report so instead of doing this in november december right here in march uh that being said you still have to know required to accept full vote report this evening you have two reports in front of you uh the annual company has a financial report and also the orders management report uh the annual comprehensive financial report is basically providing statements uh we get the financial information from alex's business office and we can file the audit and we have an opinion on the financial statements uh this year we have an unmodified opinion on financial statements which basically they clean opinion uh which is that we believe that your money statements are free with fear on this statement so that's the
004best opinion that you can get on your financial statements um you also have the orders managed report uh this is a separate report the state department of education requires partners to do for all school districts in new jersey they have specific areas like your student activities or payroll accounts uh your aca and we haven't been planning the recommendations of their current audit blog planning reputation and faculty reports um have have your report once again there are no findings and no recommendations i believe that's the third year in a row so kudos to the visuals on that um financially uh once again on financial sound financial south angel ground i'm just going to go through your uh your surpluses uh your your year-end conferences or uh six hundred thousand dollars your capital reserve end of the
005year five point five million dollars your maintenance reserve is 2.6 million dollars your unemployment reserve was 713 000 your unassigned fund balance was three point one million dollars and your assigned fund balance but i was two point three million dollars that two point three million dollars was used in this figure's budget uh to help offset taxes uh so once again the to this is good finance there any specific questions on any other reports yes i have my question um on each project you wrote down the label fees on page 73 under note 8 you have litigation did you clarify um what that actually means it says no litigation pending litigation in a letter from the board's attorney asked whether there any material financial out there that we think is going to affect the district uh
006material financial statements yeah i'm just gonna let our attorney actually answer that some graduate information all this means is uh if there's any pending litigation that would materially affect the district's finances and if there's a certain amount that the auditor requests that we look at to say whether it exceeds this i forget the exact amount but it would be significant litigation there's nothing okay thanks any other questions okay all right thank you very much thank you very much thank you [Music] um yeah i'd like to uh thank you very much for coming and i also want to thank the administration everybody involved the sort of report is very good and thank you all for participating um good news and progress in our schools thank you thanks so much i'm going to ask for a few
007of our invited guests to join at the podium mr mosque if you would mind and then we have a couple of our students amaya rose ransom and ray pascal and we did invite uh jeretta strayhorn but unfortunately she wasn't feeling well this evening [Music] can we actually have hope to uh to show a clip from uh from the presentation that i i'm going to speak a little bit about but unfortunately not from our our audio there's an issue with the audio from the um from the presentation itself so i'm just going to uh to go right into it but if you have the opportunity please go onto our facebook page and watch the entire the entire presentation is fantastic so last month the executive county superintendent kyle anderson graciously invited me to speak at the
008middlesex county prosecutor office anti-bias task force held at middlesex county college and discussed the south plainfield peace committee initiative and the progress we have made in the district since its inception in late 2020 unfortunately i already had committed to another event i asked assistant superintendent mary mileska to attend the presentation in my absent absence with no hesitation miss moleska is passionate about creating a student-centered equity focused school district we also included one of our wonderful counselors ms joretta strayhorn and two of our amazing students ray pascal and amaya rose ransom again you can find the entire presentation on our facebook page going to ask our two celebrities to uh just share their experience what it was like to be part of the presentation that was live streamed too i can't even tell you how many
009people were watching at that moment and then tell us a little bit about your experience with the peace committee [Music] um this is ray pascal freshman at south plainfield high school good evening everyone so first of all being a part of the peace committee over the virtual year last year i did i was involved with one meeting i was invited by miss bullet miss pinelli at the middle school and it was amazing she introduced me to it and just the overall idea of it immediately sucked me in and to be involved with it again this year was amazing i just love the idea of being able to be a part of such like so many opportunities for school especially being a freshman these upcoming years it only adds more to it but being at that
010panel was terrifying to say the least but i guess being around so many people were all focused on the same idea it definitely made me feel a lot more comfortable and at ease speaking and also speaking about the school and experiences that i've had made it so much easier so between being a transgender student at the high school which is fairly new i mean that's everything new but especially over quarantine so many people have been like coming to realize themselves and coming out to their families so i feel like the school and so many students have realized like who they are and making accommodations based on that and including gender-neutral bathrooms like use of language in classrooms and use of language about the students like everyone together is becoming better but at the panel sorry
011um what else i think you summed it up very well you mentioned about um teachers asking for your pronouns which is something different with our school district yes not only has everyone actually been growing in that sense but this the teachers without like recommendation or without like rules being in place every teacher that i've had this year has asked every student for their preferred name preferred pronouns and such and they've also asked about boundaries with parents if they're out to their parents if their parents are supportive so that they know how to address them in any way that won't possibly put them at risk or make them feel uncomfortable which just shows like how everyone has as people have been growing rather than just as teachers and students so as ray has said uh the
012peace community as well but since i've you know been at the panel and everything they have just brought a lot of opportunities as speaking out to like the board of education and just showing how far the school has grown so i use the calming room and i think that was a great addition to the school um some people especially me don't like talking to parents friends or just don't like talking to about their emotions at all so when they're having a rough day like going to a guy going to guidance might not be the best option so having a calming room is just a nice way to just kind of be and be with yourself but not being a part of the room and feel like you're obligated to talk to someone you can just
013kind of have the soothing music and just be in a dark space and just go through your emotions as you please and they give you 15 minutes and if you have some more they will give you that time which is very like it makes me feel like okay they're understanding what i'm going through and they're letting me go through the process as i please so i really appreciate that i think that was a great addition to the school and then the subject and the words that have been used in the school have really like grown because people used to just say whatever they felt and they used to say the n-word swearing a lot of other stories and they thought that was just a normal thing to do and i think they have grown a
014lot from that before because like that was really bad and now they've grown to learn that that's not a good thing to do and they need to change and they need to learn that that that subject and those word languages are very derogatory and they have harmful meanings that are not okay in the same age they need to understand that so i think that's really nice and i think having the two students here tonight shows the concrete things that the peace committee and equity initiatives can do for our students so even though we as administrators and teachers go through culturally responsive professional development or healing center trauma-informed approach all of these things that we talk about it really comes down to what are the concrete things that are happening for our students and so i
015appreciate both of you being here to highlight that so thank you dr chancey thank you students of iros and ray are escorted here by their parents so thank you thank you for supporting your your children we appreciate that but i wanted to take this a step further um i asked the presenters to join us here this evening to give us their perspective and to begin their part uh to begin their part of the peace committee as well as their experiences through the prosecutor's office i wanted to first thank miss maleska ms strayhorn ray and amaya rose for the wonderful job that you did in representing our district and the uh peace committee you truly did an outstanding job providing important information about the work the peace committee has been doing in our district your presence
016on the committee along with all of the members of the committee is invaluable i received a phone call that evening the evening of the presentation from mr anderson the executive county superintendent who pulled over on the side of the road in the middle of a foreign rainstorm to tell me how exceptional all of you were during that presentation and to let me know how proud he was to serve on the peace committee as one of the founding members he also asked that we present this committee and information to the members of the middlesex county curriculum roundtable so that other districts can begin the process of developing a peace committee in their district as a safe place to have the difficult conversations in order for growth and change to begin as miss moleska and strayhorn wright
017and amanda rose are aware they're scheduled to speak at the next curriculum roundtable you started something with your presentation and the momentum just keeps going miss moleska which you are not aware of and the board is not aware of either i also received a phone call a week or so after that presentation for one of our local colleges they were aware of the presentation and inquired about the peace program in the south plainfield school district i was asked if our district would consider putting together a presentation for professional development outlining how to create a peace committee within the new jersey school system so that other districts in the state might be able to use this information as a blueprint to develop a peace committee of their own and of course i said we would love
018to with you spearheading that committee this is an opportunity for the work that our students teachers and administration on the police committee will become the starting point for other districts to use as they begin to make the change in their district so again i thank all of you for your hard work because without your hard work the students and the members of the peace committee and our administration this would not be possible thank you and to the other things that happened in our district this month the students and staff uh were welcomed back with their mass optional mass optional this past monday we've had no reported issues or incidents so far students and staff have been respectful of the choices of their peers so we appreciate all of that i'll just make sure i don't
019miss anything else here i also during my uh parent meeting i was asked this question i didn't have the information at the time but i promised that i would provide it our kobe 19 numbers as of today we have three positive cases of kobit 19 and our district one is uh one staff member and one uh two students we have three uh people quarantined as of now that information is also available on our website they also asked how many numbers of students are vaccinated we have totally vaccinated 70 1784 students are totally vaccinated in our district and our staff members 496 of 579 are totally vaccinated now our next story our boys varsity basketball team congratulations to the boys varsity basketball team who play for the state sectional final last night they lost a tough
020game in double overtime to colonia 52 56-52 but what an amazing game they played our boys played a great game we are so proud of them and an amazing season overall congratulations to the entire team for a great season and to their head coach mr greco to the assistant coach mr connell and mr fabinha i also wanted to make mention of something else i noticed while i was at the game last night the game was completely sold out standing room only the stands were packed shoulder to shoulder the sportsmanship of both the south plainfield students parents and fans as well as the colonial students parents and fans fans were what was wonderful so respectful the entire game that game was a nail biter ups and downs you were hanging on the edge of your seat
021if you were lucky enough to have one i didn't have one as i was leaving colonia high school i was stopped by the colonial high school administration along with a number of woodbridge police officers to let me know how wonderful our students and staff were while the game was going on they wanted to complement our students for their sportsmanship but they wanted to complement our staff for helping to organize the students as they entered the building and left the building i just wanted to say thank you to our students and our staff for once again showing the world what southwind built is made of great job that's it that's it that was good all around thank you thank you uh very much for showing up uh you know i know that you were asked to
022speak as soon as you walked in and didn't know you were doing it and you the job you guys did makes it and i'm just very happy uh very happy uh what i heard tonight and i'm sure the board is too we're proud of everything that all the students and staff are doing for this for this town in this school district thank you um moving on agenda editions or deletions okay public comments on agenda items only very good finance can i have an emotional no can i finish my thickness please yes mrs miller yes mr pender yes mr sesselberg yes mr cassio yes mr pencey yes public comments on any item hey seeing the board member comments yeah um thank you it's good to be back in this room again and then seeing everybody's smiling
023faces or smiling faces um i also wanted to congratulate the basketball team for their run to the finish it was a great year and hopefully they'll do it again next year i also want to commend alex and his staff and for all the good work on the audit three years in a row with no recommendations is a notable achievement i also wanted to commend everybody who participated in the all-district music festival last week having performed in the first one fifty more years ago it was good to see that the uh the tradition has continued and um the program's still there and it's it still gets a lot of support from the town so it was a notable achievement by the staff and especially the students thank you sure sorry uh i also want to just
024thank alex and marat and their staff for job well done um on the um our finances this past year which resulted in no look at findings or recommendations as we were complying in all financial aspects of the audit so thank you to all also i just want to say the lent of ice rededication ceremony was held last friday night it was a wonderful tribute to a man who dedicated his life to our south painful school district for 30 years serving 19 years as superintendent it was a wonderful beautiful ceremony everybody there i think his family were so overwhelmed and grateful for everything that um that we did for this man um i also just want to thank miss maliska and strayhorn and ray and amira rose for a job well done on the bias task
025force it's really easy to get up here and speak you you students did a wonderful job tonight you really were very articulate you did a great job and we're very excited that you are going to be heading or greatly involved in you know putting together a blueprint for this peace committee to perhaps be you know put through to other school districts in the state so you should be very proud of yourselves i actually want to echo everything sharon just said um agree 100 on all of it but i also want to add congrats to the basketball team and also i want to congratulate the competition chair team fourth consecutive year that their regular season was undefeated and after three years of winning the state title they came in second this year barely barely by about
026one point uh they came in second place but great job to them and the coach actually took home the coaches recognition award so congratulations to her as well great job for that team once you know just keep going i hope they keep it up i'm sorry what is the coach's name that would be jamie g r okay yes um thank you to our auditors and our staff on the report also thank you to ms moleska and ray and amaya rose for your presentation tonight and the inclusion that needs to happen in our school districts across the state so thank you very much for that and continued growth awesome job to the directors and students and our embassy j buchanan the district music festival was a wonderful event um congratulations to our south painfield high school
027boys basketball team and a great job doing the state competitions and our coach john greco and mr mcconnell and the entire team uh the ceremony and at the renaming of the admin building was a beautiful tribute to a principal teacher superintendent um beloved leader thank you to the speakers and also um thank you to janice tobias um for mentioning tony masaro's name along with the other speakers tony was a teacher a principal and assistant superintendent in this district for multiple years while he was not afforded the opportunity to speak he was mentioned so thank you for that presentation uh the family was more than grateful thank you anyone will remember comments i just want to chime in about the peace committee um the peace committee is doing incredible things as we can see and the
028the world is a better place with the peace committee as you can see the proof is there with um middlesex county superintendent reaching out saying how how we're setting up the precedent for other schools around the county to start working on a peace committee such as that and i want to say i want to say thank you to miss moleska miss schreiborn amaya rose ransom ray pascal you all are doing incredible things keep up the hard work and don't ever stop thank you so much thank you any of the board member comments okay sing none we have to vote executive so resolve pursuant to republican act that board meets a closed session at this time discuss confidential matters pertaining to personnel and returning calling privilege and i have a motion second second all in favor
029and there will be action taken when mr both here mrs boyle yes mr varanelle matt here mr giannakis here this is miller here mr pender here mr cesselberg yeah mr cassio here mr penici here motion to move the attempt approval so move second discussion local mr both yes mr boyle yes mr varunello yes mr ginakas yes mrs yes mr pender yes mr sesselberg yes mr cassidy yes mr macy yes gonna have a motion to journey so move attacking paul favor aye aye opposed stay here