001the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you [Music] here in accordance with the terms of the sunshine law adequate notice this meeting was posted in all school buildings the administration building the borough clerk's office police headquarters public library four newspapers and tapped into on january 7 2021. please be advised there is no smoking on school grounds inside or out at any time please sign up for all electronic devices and pursuant to district policy zero one six seven each statement made by participants shall be limited to three minutes duration and no participant may speak more than once at the same topic uh superintendents report document please thank you mr chapman [Music] last night southlandville high
002school chorus and bands held their holiday concert it was absolutely wonderful that means that this is my favorite board meeting of the entire year tonight our south plainfield jazz band and chorus will be performing our jazz band under the direction of mr bill howard and our course under the direction of dr donna craigler will be performing this evening and i can't wait whenever you're ready thank you thank you thank you very much [Music] so [Music] is while people sing songs [Music] [Applause] don't [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is a song entitled throw open your shutters we did it last night at uh our concert yesterday and it's kind of like a little festive madrigal so it's fun [Music] bring your browser [Music] celebrated [Music] [Applause] dog [Applause] join us and dancing rejoice rejoice [Applause] bring your
003best [Applause] freeze [Music] [Applause] do you want to stand here i'd rather sit down choose a chair without children bigger [Music] i'm sure you will all recognize this tune and i encourage you all to sing along with us [Music] is [Music] i wanna wish you a merry christmas i wanna wish you a merry christmas i wanna wish you a merry christmas from the bottom of my heart [Music] i want to wish you a merry christmas i wanna wish you a merry christmas from the bottom of my heart i wish you a merry christmas i wanna wish you a merry christmas i wanna wish you a merry christmas on the bottom of my heart [Music] [Applause] okay oh yeah one more time [Music] making spirits cry what fun it is [Music] [Applause] jingle bells jingle bells
004a day or two ago i thought i'd take a ride and soon his family cries [Music] oh [Applause] jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way oh what fun it is [Music] and [Applause] bells jingle bells [Applause] yes so this is our last song uh thank you guys so much uh mr howa my favorite polly is going to be coming in with the jazz band very shortly so thank you so much for allowing us to perform for you guys tonight we always love it and uh here's the chamber part [Music] we wish you a merry christmas we wish you a merry christmas we wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year good tidings to you wherever you are good tidings for christmas and a happy new year we wish you a merry christmas
005we wish you a merry christmas we wish you a merry christmas [Music] [Applause] we'll be at the elementary schools this coming week and we'll be doing a little caroling around the hallways here on thursday as well so we're all alone we're waiting on this director oh on tiger tv excellent love it thank you thank you guys so much great job and now for the jazz brand all right uh [Music] all right [Music] so hello good evening everybody uh [Music] oh [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] what are we doing first um [Applause] [Music] oh my gosh what [Music] i love [Music] so let's just stand where you are [Music] okay i swear we've done this before like just last night um [Music] one two one two one two so [Music] so [Music] john you're going to
006um um kale evans on tinder sacks and colin campos on trombone all right here we go [Music] one two one [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] every step of the everybody [Music] everybody [Applause] [Music] better watch out now [Music] [Applause] okay one last two three room like gospel john it's always going to feature catherine leno on uh [Music] hey oh [Music] so [Music] um [Music] my [Music] bye [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] thank you so much great job we have such talented students here in our school district we have a number of holiday concerts that are going on in our district and if you have uh the opportunity please go and see them in person and if not there'll be some highlights on tiger tv so you
007can tune into tv and that and take a look uh remember our holiday i'm sorry remember our winter sports season begins this friday december 17th with our home opener our girls basketball jv begins at 4 o'clock and varsity at 5 30 right here in the high school our games will also be uh streaming on our youtube channel as well we had a very successful vaccine clinic yesterday held at the middle school over 300 students participated in the first cobit vaccine shot for the second shot scheduled for january 4th we are working on opening up more appointments for first vaccinations on the 4th as well so any additional student who would like to participate in the vaccination clinic they will be able to we will have information on that being sent out shortly presently we have
00888 of our faculty and staff fully vaccinated the numbers vary with the amount of students who are vaccinated in our school with the lowest number of vaccinated students being in the elementary school but that's uh that's understandable since they were only approved with that age level a few weeks ago we will continue to notify parents and guardians of the cases that affect their that affects their child and the students that need to uh quarantine in our schools i've been asked a number of times as to whether or not we will be closing for uh days following the break unfortunately at this time i do not have the authority to make that decision that decision has to come directly from the governor's office and as of right now he has not made that decision we have
009there's there's so many different rumors about exactly how many cases are uh active in our schools at the moment so i just wanted to clarify that for the public as of this afternoon the numbers that are uh positive cases here in the south mainfield school district we have 27 positive cases of covid that's for students and faculty 27 positive cases and 151 quarantined students and faculty and staff combined so they are numbers i know you're hearing numbers that are 2 250 300 that is incorrect so as of this afternoon we have 27 positive cases of students and faculty and staff and uh quarantined uh student uh students and staff people thank you dr lisha and those uh those numbers are pretty pretty good compared to surrounding districts in other areas less than one percent so
010that's pretty good uh moving along any agenda additions or deletions see not any public comments on any agenda items only [Music] let's see [Music] thank you mr chapman um first i wanted to congratulate and thank the high school musicians that performed tonight both from the coral and the jazz bands and what you saw tonight was after years of practice and uh it started out in the elementary schools and i had the opportunity to see franklin schools come to the other night and to see how the kids start in the music program both singing and instrumental and end up as talented as this and tomorrow night's the middle school program which is some more students on the progress to excellent musical abilities um don't miss it as you can that i said though i wonder all
011of our condolences to the family and friends of john risch who was a big supporter of the music and arts programs in the school uh he executed the celtic high school boosters of musical arts and other musical activities so other than that thank you thank you thank you [Music] i just want to echo what was just as a birthday but these musicians were just fantastic i thought that they did a great job and just want i congratulate them i thought that get out of here and play takes a lot of courage to get out from any kind of crowd big or small and and they were really very very good so let's congratulate that and say thank you [Music] all right and i'll also um you know say the same thing that they were fantastic
012i really enjoyed it that's a great treat uh at this point in time we're going to go into executive session for probably about 20 minutes or so for to discuss attorney-client privilege and personnel uh action will be taken [Music] mr both yes is it royal yes yes this is miller yeah mr bernice yes mr sesselberg mr cassio yes mr trap yes mr both here this is boyle mr faranillo here mr ginockis here this is miller here mr panisi here mr sesselberg here mr cassio yeah mr chad here i want to pick up um in the public discussion is something we had going on this committee as a whole was the handling of the press talks and a great recommendation came in for how to handle um the um uh acknowledgement of the people who said
013we were going to do that for and it actually came from mr wiggins idea i think it's a great idea our press box has three rooms so um it was uh an idea that i think is a great idea we'll throw after uh you guys out here tonight to uh uh decide to we'll give uh dedicate one of each of the three rooms to one of the to each of the three people that we said we're going to do it for so any discussion on that sounds good you have a support yes i've had my notes to ask in the new year that we need to continue that that vote was five four to name the press box um there were different ideas and um there was one letter that was received that was anonymous
014we since when do we accept anonymous letters from people but anyway yes i think we need to continue and uh move on in the new year yeah what do you mean what do i mean what do you mean by continue and move on into the new year oh to name the press box oh right well we'll take care of that tonight i'm i'm good with doing that doug and if you need a motion i'll be glad to make a motion to put it on the agenda well we'll do that you know when we open up the next one oh okay i just thought okay very good yep uh i'm good with that i'd like to recommend if we're going to do that um that the booth that mr cochran announces adam is the one that's
015named under his name oh sure i think that would be a given i think everybody would feel that same point i'm sorry i appreciate that tommy suggested that we made that make sure that the middle booth where mr cochran announces from is the one that's dedicated in his name renaming of the administration building to leonard tobias i was just wondering what the plans are for the black and ceremonies i have gotten some calls from people who want to be there we are expecting the plaque to be shipped out on the 23rd and once we receive it i will discuss with dr richak and we will set up a a day for a ceremony and a dedication thank you yes mr giannakis yes mrs miller yes mr felicity yes mr sesame yes cassia yes this is
016chad yes um second all in favor [Music] in just one second [Music] right [Music] okay we're gonna move right into the um public meeting here and we're going to go to agenda editions or deletions and i would like to make a motion to have it added to the agenda we'll put it after um finance we'll call it uh public relations and it'll be a motion to approve the name of the press box located at joe's field as follows left section for my english middle section for uh bill cochran and the right section for the past present and future student athletes to south africa don't move second all paranella yes mr giannakis yes mr miller yeah mr panisi yes mr susselberg mr cassio yes mr chad yes uh comments from the public on any of tonight's
017proposed resolutions mr both yes this is boyle yes mr farah yeah mr giannakis yes mr miller yeah mr panisi yes mr sesselberg yeah mr cassio yes mr chad yes moving along superintendent report exactly thank you mr chairman ms moleska do you have the presentation of the hiv self-assessment thank you thank you um every year district administration along with um school uh anti-bullying specialists review their procedures to ensure that we're in compliance with state regulations this is called the hib self-assessment there are categories under which we needed to grade ourselves i'm going to read the categories and then the scores for each of the schools the first category are effective in programs and approaches or initiatives within the school that's a maximum of 15 points the next how effectively we train on the floor to bed
018approved hidden policy maximum score is at nine [Music] other staff instruction and training programs so that would be anyone who's contracted in the trainings that we provide for them which we do or verify with vendors that they do maximum score is 15 curriculum and instruction on hip and related information and skills how we address that through lessons and other video programs in the district staffing for hip personnel i'm sorry maximum score for 2009 school level reporting procedures maximum score is a six kid investigative procedures maximum score of 12 and then also overall reporting with a maximum score of six so the total score available is 78 and i'm just going to read each school's self-assessment score once these are certified they'll also be posted on the district of sick the high school had a score
019of 70. the middle school had a score of 70 grand school the score of 74. franklin school franklin school 76 kennedy school 72 driving school 70 and roosevelt school 76 these scores are used to evaluate the effectiveness of our programming so we look at these ongoing throughout the course of the year in time for our next exhaust system thank you thank you this is the last meeting of 2021 and this marks the transition into the new year for all of us and a change here on the board vice president tom casio would like to say a few words in recognition of board president doug chapman for his service for the past six years serving as a board member you know our friendship is one thing that this is boy related i'll tell you a couple
020of things that i came to mind uh over the last four years five years i've gone for it we navigated the pandemic last few years as a child's president together we were getting through this we proposed a referendum the town trusted us to get this done they awarded us the money we got projects done under budget and on time we gave back a million dollars to the burden to the borough of taxpayer money so other things mr chapman and his negotiating team have negotiated multiple contracts over the last few years in record time it's never done in this district that's kudos to their their professionalism uh cooperation and uh knowledge of what they were involved i couldn't believe often due to conflicts mr chapman and his staff are amazing what they did and kudos [Music]
021this past year we got a our insurance uh proposal it's going to be an increase of two million dollars we're going to come up with two million dollars we've got the griff staff you know being on the good services we're going to mr chapman his expertise and finance says why don't we look into doing self-funded self-funding insurance in this district alex and and his crew uh morocco and our broker looked into it said it's an option of this uh districts are doing it we put a plan in place as of today we are five months into into the fiscal year starts july first uh we are six hundred thousand dollars on our budget we object to one point two million dollars on the budget plan of the year these are things that people don't know
022on the outside that they don't see behind the scenes and with mr chapman's guidance and the rest of us on the board here these are important aspects that we like to i want you to know what his involvement was uh food service a few years back were guaranteed from our food service companies thirty forty thousand dollars a year guarantee mr chapman comes in i remember city meeting because that's unacceptable we negotiate 150 dollar guarantee that year this uh subsequent years last two years difference provider we've gathered it down to this hundred thousand dollars each year they came in and tried to go shake we wouldn't budge dogs your knowledge is beyond what anybody can expect up here and it will be missed you know um i've learned a lot i know a lot of songs
023would have um we all appear to bring a distinct trait somewhat to the board and it's refreshing because we don't have finance expertise we don't have superintendent expertise you know we have a lawyer we we have you know a food service guy we have you know all these different aspects we're bringing to the table make us whole and make us what we are we're moving in the right direction we're gonna miss you doug devon no offense a lot to learn we're gonna bring in don't worry about it yeah all right it's gonna be crazy but we got it all right doug my friend [Applause] okay so uh moving along oh are you done mr chapman what can i say other than thank you for all that you have done for the students and residents of
024south mainfield i don't think anyone in this town or in the district knows the amount of time and effort you put into your position here on the board your dedication to always do what was best for the students always do what was honest and fair always keep the taxpayers in mind for every financial decision and we have all benefited from your service as a board member for me as superintendent you have been a wonderful colleague ally and confidant but over the years you have grown to be a dear friend thank you for helping me grow into a better leader and a better person thank you [Applause] all right um three uh under the this is all part of of the student curriculum correct uh the revised strategic plan is that part of this or is
025that separate okay i'm upstairing on that i have tried ten times to get into that i keep taking screenshots i cannot get in i got in on a laptop but because of the length of it i had to go back and look at my tablet which i still couldn't get into okay did anybody else hold that okay anybody problem try okay all right miss paul did you not go to the uh va's office and look at it yourself no i looked at the whole strategic plan right well that was encompassing pages and pages and i said i would go back and look at the um the revised section on my tablet which i could not do yes you're correct it was not my laptop and would have taken multiple multiple hours to look through the
026entire strategic plan i just needed the upgrade how many pages was that [Music] what the upgraded sessions were bolded there wasn't there weren't many upgraded areas the only thing that was added that was new that was cumbersome was not a section for the strategic plant it was an excel sheet that is actually uh noted in the friday packet as something that would be uploaded on the website as a forum for the public so that they could uh follow along with the timeline and just notice what we what we had accomplished and where we are moving forward it's not part of the plan the other portions are just bolded sections of the strategic plan um just noted on certain pages yes we saw the folded areas but didn't realize that the bolded areas were the separate
027pieces we thought it was all rolled into one into the entire strategic plan any other discussion negative mr faranella yes mr ginockers yes mrs miller yes mr panisi yes mr cesselberg yeah mr cassio yes mr chat yes dad this is miller mr panisi yes mr cesselberg yeah mr cassio yes mr chapman yes moving on first of all second any discussion mr mr yeah i just uh wanted this opportunity to uh congratulate mr dale on his uh next uh life i i've known mr deal for i don't know how long uh um 30 some years because he actually before he became a teacher he used to do the fundraising and i was an advisor in vanello and that's where i got to know him and over the years you know you know he was a coach
028a teacher an administrator and uh i just want to wish him the the very best uh you know in his next next part of his life that's all okay and perception ms paul yes i want to thank um mr gill for all his years of service um to the school district for all his outstanding contributions as a leader a mentor to his staff and to the children of this district i commend him and you will be missed by multitudes of people also um congratulations to mr jill and mr parisi on the franklin school concert the other evening it was amazing to watch what these young children have learned so thanks to that any other discussion mr both yes mrs boyle um abstain on page nine number one at the top is that under number 12
029letter e yeah yes correct thank you uh mr farinello yes mr ginock yes mrs miller yeah mr fennessy yes mr susselberg yeah mr cassio yes mr chad yes moving on to finance second [Applause] mr bo yes mrs boyle i'm standing on the attorney's bills list with anything to do with myself mr farah miller yeah mr giannakis yes mrs miller yes mr panicky yes mr sesselberg yes mr casio yes mr chad yes uh moving along public relations mr yes mr cassio yes mr chat mr cesselberg sorry yes mr castillo yes mr chap yes any public comments on any thank you doug for your leadership through normal times the determining times of the past two years you've helped us achieve great things that made our district stronger and steady and going forward the students staff have the
030same leadership and full of the resources that they need to move forward and uh on that uh merry christmas happy holidays to all and uh see you next to year uh this is bill um i just wanted to congratulate the high school jazz band chamber choir i think they did a spectacular job tonight and i am glad to noreen i think this is one of my favorite of all time meetings when we had this meeting and and the high school students performed for us they're also talented um i also just want to congratulate bob deal on his retirement and wish him a lot of good luck joy happiness and health in his retirement and thank him for all the years of service for the students of southwest i've known him not as long as peo
031has but for about 19 years now so um and i know he always has um the children um in mind when he makes any of his decisions and he's really helped many many of our students um throughout the year so he will be missed and i do wish him lots of work in his retirement and um i want to wish everybody happy holidays and happy healthy new year and hopefully things will be a little bit better than they were the past two years and uh just want to um you know congratulate you on all you've done in your uh six years on the board signed the easy job that we do up here we don't get paid for it people don't realize the decisions we have to make and not make and you know you're
032kind of you know blank if you do like if you don't um unfortunately but that's the way it is up here so it's not an easy job that we have so congratulations on your priorities here thank you this is you knox pretty much and i know what everybody else said congratulations to mr deal [Music] and this year those cheering competitions thank you for always coming from um doug you know i've said it for you will be greatly missed up top here you bring tremendous leadership and unbelievable financial knowledge to this board the amount of money that you have saved us and the amount of new procedures and things that you've put into or helped put into place just incredible and i know a lot of people don't see it and don't know it but the
033things that you've been able to accomplish are just really incredible and and offset i think you've made us all better board members thank you for that and you've done a great job up there so thank you will be greatly missed and i look forward to seeing you back here next year hopefully happy safe healthy holidays to everybody we're gonna be celebrate enjoy it happy new year thank you yeah um a great show tonight with the the car i mean i i really enjoy the jazz band uh this time they did a fantastic fantastic job um and and and doug you know i'm not going the same thing you know i've worked with you i guess it's been four years and um they now people don't don't realize the the the amount of money you save
034but what they don't realize is by saving that money we're able to give it back to the students and not only taxpayers but also the students and the buildings and everything so it wasn't just about saving the money was able to relocate reallocate that money to things that affected the students and made it well and and you know and and you are in financing that part i mean and your leadership and you listen you know some people don't think you listen but you absolutely do and i appreciate you know when you do call on us for our whatever expertise we have you know to get information from us and uh you're truly going to be missed here and um i i learned a lot from from you on the finance end even though i was
035a superintendent it's still you know i still left it up to my ba but i it was really tremendous and uh you know i i look forward to uh just saying uh have a have a good short vacation thanks peter the other board member comments this is what yes um teacher mentor for modern u.n congratulations on placing second at the rutgers competition you have always been there for the students always supporting them and great job also the grand school tuskegee airmen presentation was so informative it was great hold the dario thank you for always being available to provide musical accompaniments in our various concerts for our students and thank you always for your support throughout the state of new jersey and in south plainfield it's been very hard to hire and keep substitutes we discussed
036this in legislation last week many districts are paying 250 per day i think that this is a critical issues where teachers are covering other classes and so hopefully there will be a bill coming out on ways to be able to have additional substitute teachers also i attended a convention today at a conference it was on diversity equity and inclusion excellent presentation very informative on ways for school districts to apply these three issues also thank you to the um the jazz band and the chamber choir for coming to our board meeting as you do every year to sing to play and you are so talented it was you did a beautiful job with your math son um condolences to the roche family he was very involved in music boosters um taken way too young thoughts and
037prayers to your family and to all the other people that in town that have since passed um happy new year and make things be on a brighter note and hopefully 22 will bring a lot of interesting i just want to take a moment uh first of all to say thank you very much doug and it's pleasure to work with you um you're a gentleman you're a scholar and you care and you put that you put those together and that's a winning combination and i i think uh we've all said that in different ways here but i want to say it's it's that important to say in my mind so thank you for that and um i look forward to working with you on many other projects in the future so thanks so much for that
038opportunity and i want to just say this in the spirit of the holidays here i think it's whenever possible to recognize how important teachers are and i think teachers need fuel like they've never needed it before in this time teachers principles and probably the best thing that we can all do is when we see a teacher talk to a teacher say thank you and appreciate their work for what it is because it's that important it affects the world in many ways it affects our community and right now i think the best gift that we give to everyone that we need who teaches is to say thank you and we support you and with that i'm going to say happy holidays to my colleagues over here and everyone in the community thanks thank you mr hill
039uh that's my turn so um my last meeting and um it's been nothing but an honor to be able to serve on this uh on this board i've learned something from every single one of you up here in this board together we've accomplished so many great things i was sitting back and i was reflecting a little bit over the weekend and you know six years it goes by like an eye but when you go back and you think about it like it's a really long period of time and the amount of things that together we've accomplished in this school district over the last six years are astronomical this this board and all the you know the members of previous boards we should all be so darn proud you know when you go back and look
040six years ago at this district we could keep central administration we had a revolving door of superintendents now we've got a world-class superintendent leading the district with good stability excellent leadership and just a tenacity to make sure that south plainfield is the best school district that it can possibly be and nori thank you so much for doing that okay um the financial situation in the school um needed serious improvement six years ago we go back now and look at it this school district has never been more financially sound than it's that it's ever been as far as i'm aware and uh yeah i did have some ideas along the way um but i got to give a lot of credit to mr d'amato uh jim held a man i for those of you who don't
041know he was the interim business administrator at dr lushak broughton man he's smart and he taught me so much so much stuff and when we would get down we would have some conversations i remember one of the conversations we had about uh doing the structuring and financing for the referendum tommy i'm pretty sure you're in that meeting right and it was fun right jim and i were having you know conversations going back and forth and i was talking about dead dead issuance and underwriting and all that stuff and we got done with the media thomas i got no idea what the two of you guys just said that sounded pretty good right and uh he taught me so much about uh bond issuing for uh for school districts and for municipalities and everything else that
042he taught me you know along the way i can't i can't thank jim enough and i've said it to him personally you know i want to say you know here too to everybody as well mary has taught me so much about curriculum mayor i really appreciate everything um taking my telephone calls you know spending time explaining something to me i really really you know appreciate that um amy thanks for everything that you've done always there to help me i got questions stupid questions where do i sign what do i do he always had the answers and uh made it easy for me to drop stuff off at my house rather than making me go into the administration building you could probably count on one hand how many times i was in the administration building if
043it wasn't a committee meeting i didn't think i belonged there um so i didn't go uh alex thanks man you worked so hard you uh uh i'll let everybody know you know the audit's done there's no findings again no findings again when i came on board the first audit 13 deficiencies 13 deficiencies in the order never saw such a thing all right now we have zero great job man thank you uh and morocco as well you know i know marat does a great job over there too tom wiggins man you got the school district looking great six years ago it did not look visible okay and now we've got you you know somebody we can turn to anytime pick up the phone it's you know and it could be something silly you know it could
044save maureen hey noreen you know there's a loop missing off the basketball and that behind you know behind kennedy's school uh i'll tell tom and tom thompson right over you [Music] it shows and it's really greatly appreciated um thank you teresa uh noreen's uh secretary is uh is aces you know i call teresa it's funny you know teresa my phone ring with just school number and i was always buster when uh when i would answer the phone she goes the boss wants to know if you're available i said well then you know what i'm going to tell you teresa hang up call my office the direct line let my secretary answer the phone and then you guys can hook the two of us up together if noreen has to have you if you give me
045a call he's in chuckle about it but uh teresa's awesome uh and everybody else in the central you know administration don't the risk you run when you start naming people is that you're going to leave somebody out and i don't you know i don't want to leave anybody out but you know everybody there does a uh does a fantastic fantastic job and really really appreciate it um the teachers you know it was funny for some reason or another when i first got on the board somebody and i know who it is uh started a room around a teacher is a chaplain doesn't like the teachers i was like oh really that's interesting and uh you know and then they would start rumors maybe say lies about other things as well and ryan is saying that
046my grandmother told me once she said you know people are going to start to make stuff up about you as soon as you start to figure out the truth about them they're going to panic it starts as soon as you start to figure out the truth about them they're going to make a lot make up lies about you so which is terrible my level of respect and appreciation uh for these teachers in this district has never been anything but uh stellar and um i think that was pretty much proven in our negotiations with our last contract we got we got it done two days never done that before two minutes and that's only because we completely appreciate everything that did teachers do and wanted to show them the respect that my opinion they they deserved
047so that's why we did that principles same thing two meetings new contract five year contract with the principals uh was awesome so that was uh you know that's something that i'm very proud of as well the other thing i want to say to all our board members up here and to you know the public if anybody watches this video aside from you guys here is that we're all up here we might not like each other okay but everybody up here is up here for one purpose only and that's to get our kids in this district the best quality education this board is always together on things that we vote on and we and we decide what we want to do it's not like other rewards that we say we all have the same common goal
048and one thing that annoys me sometimes is each year election time when you uh this year we had four people out of how many people are in this town anybody know how many 25 000 people in this town four of us wanted to be on the board of education four yeah they'll turn around and they'll criticize us and they'll you know they'll throw stones and you know say and say with the same things they want to say but the reality of the situation four of us wanted to be on the board and three of us were already on board right devon you're 20 years old right am i correct man do i respect you do you want to get involved and you want to get up here you know you did a great job you
049got out there hustle i told you this already you know that sent you messages you know in person um congratulations you know you got you got a lot to learn you know and you're going to be put in a tough spot you're going to have to people are going to expect you to do things that you're not going to be able to do be prepared okay that's that's you know that's just my advice to you i know you're going to do a great job i've told you that and i really firmly believe that and congratulations on winning the election um so you know what is what is the future hold people have asked me you're going to run again i'm going to tell you right now i honestly have no idea um i do believe
050in civic obligations for uh for your community before i came here for 10 years i was an advocate for children in a foster care system for the rights of foster care system i served as the president of court appointed special advocates of union county for uh four years prior to coming here i was a sworn in advocate and so is my wife for 10 years we did that then i came here prior to that did a lot of stuff with um handicapped children used to help kids with down syndrome and cerebral palsy exercise and work out and that was probably the most rewarding thing i've ever done in my life so i don't know we'll see you know we'll see what happens what's you know what's next but thank you for the opportunity to be
051here for six years i hope i made you proud i tried really hard i did uh did the best i could and i appreciate in a different way each and every one of you up here because you've definitely helped me and you've made me a better person so uh thank you very much [Applause] can i get emotional move all in favor anybody opposed in your turn