FL FL flag of the United States of America and to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Mr Bo here Mr Chapman here Mr parella here Mr gak here Mrs Miller here Mr Pender here Mr cleberg here Mr Casio Mr P here in accordance to the terms of law adequate notice of this meeting was posted in all school buildings the administration building B Clerks Office Public Library three newspapers and tap into on January 8 2024 please be advised there is no smoking on school grounds inside or outside at any time please silence all electronic devices pursuant to District policy number 0167 each statement made by a participant shall be limited to 3 minutes duration and no participant may speak one once in the same time thank you um moving on superintendance report I'm over at the okay a little bit different but I'm present from over here this evening we have good okay there we go this evening we have several wonderful presentations it's a great night to the South cenfield School District and a great night to be a student student in our district our first presentation is for an amazing student athlete in our high school Ava alar alaran she is a junior taking College Prep courses and who has been on the honor role for the past 3 years with all that Eva still found the time to dedicate to dedicate herself to the South cville wrestling program AA began her journey in the fifth grade AA and her friend Jade decided to quit karate they both decided to join wrestling and the fire was ignited over the years AA continued in the program and in 2022 Ava joined our high school wrestling program wrestling at the 132 lb weight class AA was GMC runnerup North Regional two runner up and she played six in the njsiaa state tournament great showing for her first year in high school in 2023 AA wrestled at the 13226 weight class and took the GMC championship and was the North Region 2 runnerup this year AA continued her winning streak wrestling at 126 and she was the GMC Champion North 2 region uh champion and the 126 weight class champion in the njsiaa state championship is the first ever female state champion in South cfi's wrestling [Applause] history what an amazing accomplishment for Eva for her family and for all of us here in a South Playfield family the Board of Education would like to present Eva with a plaque commemorating her wonderful accomplishments I'm going to ask Eva to step forward I'm ask to come on [Applause] up Eva this plaque is presented to you for the 2023 2024 njsi AA wrestling state championship girls 126 lb weight class first female state champion in schoolt history Ava ala Morano South planfield High School South planfield New Jersey presented to you by the south planfield Board of Education you are [Applause] amazing now you have another honor I'm going to ask Senator Patrick di please come on up to the voting I got a question why is cleberg St bigger than everybody else's um first of all you know it's rare that you can actually see a word defined in front of you that is the definition of love and pride when when you were called up your mom and dad literally bursted deceives and and your whole family is here that that is that and I'm sure you would agree with me but that is what makes you what you are to support of those that love you the most and I can tell you being in Trenton and I'm sure many of you here know this when you mention the term or the word south or words South PL for where you're from nine out of 10 times the reaction you get is oh South Playfield my God a great wrestling program it goes back to the Dark Ages Joey Lemo when I was in school before we had LS and we used to come horse and carriages Etc so so you are part of a grand grand tradition and I have here for you today you a resolution unanimously passed by the Senate and the general assembly of the state of New Jersey no little thing and signed by the president and speaker of the general assembly I won't read the whole thing but I just want to read a little bit of it because you deserve it whereas the Senate and general assembly of the state of New Jersey are pleased to acknowledge Eva Al Al Morano and doesn't ala means hi so do that say something right there knew where you were coming from an admired resident of the Garden State who has earned distinction in wrestling and gred a claim as a state championship uh whereas she has demonstrated her extraordinary abilities and dedication on the road to the State title where she clinched in North Region number two tournament championship and whereas she has secured a sterling reputation as a tireless worker in the wrestling room and she joins in this sanction growing Sport and whereas New Jersey young people who set their goals high who Preserve in the pursuit of those goals and who reach their desired milestones and meet their objectives stand as an example of inspiration it is therefore allog together fitting and right for the members of this legislature to pause in their deliberations to recognize Eva for as a young woman of exceptional promise and boundless determination now therefore this legislature congratulates her and pays tribute to her Merit meritorious achievement [Applause] congratulations [Applause] congrat we are proud St no stay for a little bit more I'm going to ask AA uh coaches to come on up Mr Johnson Mr N I think they have a few things to [Music] say she absolutely hates this uh Steve Johnston head wrestling coach in South lanefield um just the word proud doesn't describe or can't even come close to how I feel about Eva winning the 126 P State title this year a lot of you probably don't know but there was a little bit of time there where we weren't sure if Eva was going to even be able to complete this season she was dealing with a a pretty uh pretty big issue in her shoulder and you know with with the right training and and some patience uh she was able to go out there and accomplish a goal that when she stepped in here uh day one in SE in September of her freshman year and then November when she first stepped on the mat that we all believed uh she would uh accomplish um you know again we are over the moon with with how the season went um and we are excited very excited to have her back for one more year uh going into her senior year and uh you just super proud of you and uh you know excited for for the future thank you [Applause] one moment if um if aa's parents would please stand up we all in our mind you know we raise our family we think we raised Champions you raised a champion great job we can just take a couple minutes because I know everybody wants a picture so if we could just stop for a couple minutes so we can do some pictures okay this is a second time presenting to the board GI is the president of the class of 2024 a member of the National Honor Society and the Italian Honor Society the model un and a student athlete playing both for the varsity field hockey and lacrosse team and her hands were frozen coming in here because she's just coming from TR hello everyone turn your mic hello everyone and welcome to the South tfield War meeting my my name is GI Ravi and I'll be representing the students at sou Playfield high school and I would like to thank um the superintendent Dr tany for having me here today to start I would like to recognize Eva Alam Morano who's won the state championship in Atlantic City she was also nominated for my Central Jersey wrestler of the year as she is currently sitting at third place voting concludes Friday March 22nd at noon so make sure to vote for her you go to my central jersey.com of the year vote and next I would like to recognize the students who were nominated for the playing Field's rotary student of the month the breakfast was held on Tuesday February 27th at the Park Avenue Diner and assistant principal Mrs Kuru attended with the following students for December the rotary students were Nina D Simone and Chris Ridley for January the students were David rapley and Aiden English and for February the students were Sophia Hassan and netha suram and now the drama club presents on Friday Saturday and Sunday the drama club's performance of Freaky Friday the play is being held in the High School auditorium and actually going on right now is a dress rehearsal for the staff of the school so please come out and support the students this weekend as tickets cost $10 next I would like to talk about the model un trip the students in the model un Club will be attending the conference this weekend in Washington DC at Washington University and they leave tomorrow morning and return on Monday afternoon and now today is also band day for the students as band day is an opportunity for elementary through high school students to collaborate and to play music together and this idea is to let the younger students know what they will be capable of if they continue playing in the South Playfield band and this is part of Music in our school's month which begin which began with the district Festival that was held on March 7th and last week in the high school the NJ GPA for testing for juniors was also held and this testing ran very smoothly alt together and this week holds makeup testing for any students who missed a day of testing last week and additionally spring Sports have started up and there's the annual lacrosse apparel fundraiser so make sure to support the girls across team as there are posters in the building with a QR code to order order and now on to spring break spring break will start on Friday March 29th for the students and the staff and we will resume school on Monday April 8th and additionally there's going to be an eclipse happening on April 8th When we arrive back at school and now on April 11th the High School counseling department will host the career day for students during the day as different career professionals from the community will speak on behalf of students and more details will be provided as the date approaches and additionally the college fair will be held that evening from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and lastly I wanted to give a recap of the winter sports that just ended I wanted to recognize the girls competition cheer team who placed third overall for states and the boys basketball team who had a good run throughout their season as they ended with a 218 record in their overall season and a 122 record in the GMC white Division and to conclude I want to thank everyone for me to be here tonight and speak to all of you about the exciting things that are happening at South Playfield high school thank you John fantastic thank you um we have one more presentation this evening I'm G to ask Mr whan to come on up to the podium we will have a presentation this evening on the storm drain challenge Mr uh whan is going to introduce the uh wonderful white our uh stem teacher at the middle school and our fabulous students thank you uh we're always excited to come to the Board of Education meetings and uh show off what our students are doing at the Middle School uh we invited our uh Miss White and some of the students from her 8th grade uh stem class uh to show you a little bit of problem solving and some real world experiences that they go through uh this is just one of the projects they do many projects during their their semester uh that they go through the the uh stem class so I'm going to ask Miss White to introduce the students and they're going to give you a a short overview and then actually ask some some of you to come up and try the challenge that they they performed inside the class this [Applause] white thank you for allowing us to be here tonight my kids were so excited to show you what they've been doing in class and um I'm going to let them do the rest of the talking but I do want to introduce them uh her student is Mariah kopen GI Fernandez hean ketti HBY stals and Georgia slon so I'm going to let them take it away thank you again we did some really great projects this year in our stud class all of our projects that we worked on involved some aspect of science math engineering or technology they were great for us to see how these skills could be applied into the real world one of our favorite projects was the storm drain challenge for this engineering project we pretended that we took in Uber to the airport for an international trip when we arrived at the airport our Uber driver popped open the trunk to allow us to get our luggage as we were reaching to to get our suitcase we dropped our backpack which was not seared up within a split second the contents of the backpack went down the storm train we then thought oh no what are we going to do we need these items for our trip and we a short time before we board the plane our challenge was design and device out of recycles found in nearby trash can at the airport to retrieve our personal items while still making on time to check in for our flight we use our knowledge of the engineering design process which is a series of steps that Engineers follow when they solve problems we researched what storm JS are used for and looked at some examples then we determined what personal items fell in the drink this led us to think about what was most valuable and important to retrieve before having to board our FL We examined what material we had to work with and did some brainstorming to decide how they could be used to make a prototype of a grabbing device next we buil a device and tried it out since we only had half an hour before we need to check into to board the plane we had to work quickly as we tested the device and made improvements to it here are the stor bra with the person items I fell out of the back cell phone house and car keys FBO hand sanitizer wallet with cash debit cards and credit cards as well as airports instead of us demonstrating how we solve the problem we would like a few Board of editation members to volunteer to act as an engineer and create a new device to retrieve some of these items [Music] so we're going to take the things that we would find in a recyclable vent use something you cannot oper I need to use these materials and I have to get all the object well as many as you can you only have a half [Music] hour I oh wow what it wet one wallet are brains braining right now my brain is like think like the most basic things what do you use you come help me sorry M I never getting this stuff back [Music] the just saying if anyone's one of oh sign this whatp the airport somebody needs a straw of gum like got a oh to get under I'm food what do you say I lost my 472 is boarding are time is ticking sorry done you lost everything and your fork put a fork that's it Sharon's not going on the trip no pressure but my students were able to get all the items out something he cloes you know you got to think outside of the box not within the outside of the box see that awesome oh there we go that count I'd like to add just a comment you have can I get it like right there in reach or no it has to come all the way out but in real life you would be able to put fingers in that little and when it got close to do you want to touch water you're going to touch it anyway when it when it cuts when it he touches the glass you can air dry it there's no good anymore sunglasses anybody get anything eles [Applause] minutes how are you I'm all right I'm all right how are you that's why I'm cheater right the key we got paper put l on the tape now okay but tap helps I as for tape earlier oh [Music] really you found we found these things in a garbage can allegedly sung you got the keys we make two whoever got it got somebody now we have to have a time set of this one whole [Music] piece I'm going so we searched a couple more recycling B now we're cooking never mind that's a problem all right I'm committing defeat get if anybody wants to take a box home and practice tonight yeah that's what I'd love to do like to do that but I think you guys want to get back to your meeting yeah we do all right right thanks thank you I want to get back to good job everyone iuck in the airport forever I know right you think I was that smart you I could got passp yeah you can get on the flight on the flight get it out yet you rip it that's what I as long as you can grab it from the outside e you got the he did but I did thank you and he got his money too so now bu new pH L I killed it in operation as a kid I'm just telling you guys I had the funny bone down we're going to let you take that box home [Music] all right thank you guys smile uh thank you um I hope everybody enjoyed trying that and to me it's when we come these really show what we're doing in our school lot different um now than when we were in school with the kids are are are achieving and what they're doing what they're learning so thank you very much thank you Mr and I just want to point out that um over the past few years we've been doing presentations from each of the schools and um this was Mr wh's last present as our Middle School principal did anybody get anything out of thees great job but dog got the pass got tap oh okay you sticking the great mention mention about the uh the eclipse that's happening on April 8th just so uh everybody knows we are providing um NASA approved um glasses for all of our students in the district to make sure everybody's going to be okay you're buying them at home it's iso1 12312 D2 approved so that's two that's the one you have to get that's what we have so we're good no we get the dash so also uh a couple of other things are happening in our district want to make sure the public is aware that we are going to have a preschool information uh session on March 28th at 6 p.m. it is a zoom so uh everybody is uh encouraged to attend that has U that has a a student who's ready to go into preschool if the preschool meeting will be taped but if you want the opportunity to ask a question directly from me or anybody who's on the meeting with me you have to attend that meeting you must um go on to our website and uh and log in you must register to be a part of the meeting so that is happening again on March 28th at 6 p.m. a zoom meeting a reminder to our families some of our families will be receiving phone calls from our guidance Department please review your outstanding lunch balances if you need help to complete a free uh breakfast lunch application please let the district know and we will be more than happy to help you we have another uh topic that I'd like to talk about uh and inform the public uh it it's in regards to transportation and our budget overall many of the members of the public are aware that our school district lost 3.5 million in state funding for the upcoming 2024 2025 school year that means that once the governor announced the budget numbers last month the administration and the board members needed to review all existing accounts and reallocate funding remove projects in order to uh present a balanced budget or delay other projects the task was not easy as the cost to run the district continues to rise so that we can provide our students with the best possible education and Facilities conducive to an effective learning environment as a result many projects slated for the 2024 2025 school year have either been postponed or scaled down to be fiscally to fiscally manageable level the Board of Education was adamant to inform the administration that we were to keep the class sizes low and ensure the students were going to feel little impact due to the reduction in state funding we have generated such a budget for the upcoming school year there is one change that will affect a small portion of the South cleanville School age students in the district we currently have enrolled in our school district 3,681 students in addition to 45 other students that also belong to our district that are currently enrolled in out of district schools that we are responsible for their tuition and also Transportation uh resulting in a total of 3,726 students over the years the student population has grown and the demand for transportation has increased along with the cost for both the IND District Operations for transportation and the out of District transportation contracts although we had hoped to hold off on enacting uh the change until 2025 school year this funding loss has fast-tracked the change and will become effective for September 2024 what I'm saying is all students in grades prek through 8 will only receive Transportation if they are over 2 miles from their home to the school that they are attending based on the district's Transportation tracking system this change is based on current student enrollment and will affect under 200 students I realize this will be a hardship for some of our South plfo families however the district cannot continue the courtesy busing mileage totals and will be utilizing the state uh regulated total for the grades mentioned that we know changes to Grant Middle School and High School thank you thank you being honor executive session Sol purum to overp act that the board meets in post session at this time discuss confidential matters pertaining to student matters personnel and attorney be the further resolve that the matters discussed in Clos session shall be made public as soon as need confidentiality no longer exists have a motion to Second favor um we're we're just working off one agenda this evening um so if if that's the case I just want to jump in and say GI a great job again tonight uh part believe you could do a better job than you did last time you did a much better even better job tonight so thank you very much for for coming out and informing us on what's going on in schools and you did a great job thank you yes I guess since we're having this format when we have U students coming here whever we probably should have a short period just for board member comments just on presentations and those students before we exact so that's what we'll have do from now on but again you know you make it uh make it hard for me to follow follow you but it seems like it was a great job again again and congratulations good all right it's already done okay so we're going to go to Executive session at this time I was expected 30 minutes on we have a agenda addition we do have one addition that Joe is going to read the agenda yeah this will be added as 10 D under Student Activities be D Student Activities The resc this is for the residency hearing and it will read uh whereas a residency hearing was held this evening in executive session for student number 2022 0832 which the parent Guardian did not attend displaying a priz of their right to do so and where as based on the results of the hearing the board finds that the student is not downed in South planfield and is not entitled to attend school in the district the have resolve the board he by disenroll student 2022 0832 and assesses tuition for the students period of eligible attendance and directs the superintendent to notify the family of the decision and their appeal rate that will be D okay no can just it's you don't have to do a motion to add it it's just added okay just all right very good is there any other additions or deletions see none public comments on agenda items only okay no comments um can I have a motion to approve prior coordinates move second discussion Mr both yes Mr jaav yes Mr barel yes Mr J yes Mrs Miller Mr pther yes Mr cleberg abstain Mr P yes can I have a motion on curriculum a through D move second discussion roll call please Mr Mo yes Mr chav yes Mr car yes Mr janak yes Mrs Miller yes Mr Pender yes Mr cleberg yes Mr P yes moving on policy and move second discussion roll call please Mr Bo yes Mr Chapman yes Mr barel yes Mr Janus yes Mrs Miller yes Mr ped yes Mr yes Mr yes Personnel I have a motion for a through D so move second discussion R call please this vote abstain on d101 that is my spouse Mr Chapman yes Mr yes Mr gakis yes Mr Miller yes Mr Bender yes Mr cleberg yes Mr F yes and do I have a motion on finance 8 through Z so move second discussion Please Mr V yes Mr Chapman yes Mr barel yes Mr yes Mr Miller yes Mr feder yes Mr cber yes Mr yes other comments on any item okay nothing okay board member comments thank you um first I wanted to commend Alex and Dr tany and the business office and the staff for putting this budget together under the constrictions that we got from our friends in Trenton um and uh by having his little impact on the students and the educational opportunities we have and I just wanted to let you know that it's appreciated the work you put in and uh hopefully some of it will come back but um you did a good job on that also Al I attended the district music festival and even though I haven't been to all 55 of them I wasn't the first one and it was great to see all the uh student performers and the good crowd and uh the way it was organized with the people coming in and out it was it was it was a fabulous night and just to see the size of the orchestras up there it was just amazing and um keeping with the Arts of Freaky Friday is being done by the high school this Friday Saturday and Sunday um kids have put in a lot of time time on it and um they're having a good time and they worked really hard so I I invite everybody to come see that as the superintendent uh representative on the library board I just wanted to U announce that due to a result of a survey that they did for the uh um strategic plan for the next few years one of the things that the community wanted was extended hours so the South Lille library now has um more extended hours during the week a full day on Saturday and half day on Sunday now so um they do that's not just for the regular books and stuff they do a lot of great programs there so that was due to a response to the community and um congratulations to all the sports achievements AA and um everybody else the the teams for the great winter sports team they have and let's do it again this spring thank you thank you Shar I just want to commend uh gaan again for her information to us on the high school these kids always do a great job they really do and wonderful job by our middle school students that was really a lot of fun and congratulations to Eva um who won the states um what a tremendous accomplishment for her and we're very proud of her achievement and just good match to all the winter sports athletes and the coaches I wanted to say uh congratulations and welcome to the district uh Russell King uh as the newest uh assistant principal at our High School uh where we're lucky to have you uh congratulations to Eva for being the first female state champion in school history and wrestling that's incredible I think about adversity and grit and Coach Johnson was saying that she was injured during the season so just being able to persevere and come through and come out on top that's a testament to her coaches and the dedication that she puts in uh great job to Giana I know she left but always awesome hearing about what's taking place in our schools in the High School uh awesome work to our Middle School uh and in the engagement tonight and what they're doing over in the middle school and then good luck to all of our spring athletes and I know between now and our next meeting we're going on break so everyone have a safe holiday break whatever holiday you practice are just the time off um everyone be safe and healthy take care I just want to Echo what everybody said congratulations to uh Eva on a tremendous accomplishment and to the two to um to the middle school as well on uh their Ingenuity because apparently that was a real life situation and they actually fished all that stuff out so that was that was pretty great uh Ingenuity on you on your and congratulations to our new hire and to our promotion promotion promotion Mr Gan congrats and Mr King King Mr King I'm so sorry I had to go back the B I'm getting old I don't remember like I used Mr King congratulations guys and uh I know you'll do a great job in your roles and I would absolutely be remiss to leave somebody have tonight so Mr wiggin thank you for all the hard work you do every day in our district if you're watching you're foring not the call yeah I know you are I'm working on it I'm working on it um I want to make a couple comments about uh a few different things first of all I think it's extremely irresponsible of the governor to cut our budget the way that he cut it you got out he Grand standed about this tremendous increase in uh uh Public Funding $900 million or something of that nature and to turn around and cut our district and5 million while you see some of the other districts getting $25 million $50 million it's flat out irresponsible um you are causing uh harm to the people in our district we had to tonight make the first step in taking away courtesy busing that we've been fortunate enough to run in our district for as long as we can remember and because of the decision that he made to cut our funding by $3.5 million we also have to back burner projects that we were doing to make our school district better and all around you know just Improvement it was irresponsible it's it's in my opinion pathetic to cut our budget like that and increase budgets of other schools at Astron astronomical amounts of money um but good job by you guys minimizing the negative impact that we're having um but I wish we weren't having a negative impact at all um I want to uh try to read my notes uh I want to congratulate the Middle School uh kids did a great job had me stumped over there um it was it was a lot of fun to do it um and congratulations to Mr will on his upcoming retirement um I also want to uh uh congratulate Eva who's obviously gone but um for for most importantly staking that flag into the ground and really making you know not only the South Playfield uh wrestling Heritage and continuing on saing it in ground for female athletes now to uh to accelerate in that sport that was uh that was tremendous uh the next thing I want to bring up is a bit of an uncomfortable thing but I'm going to bring it up is the uh the lack of the high school PTO uh I want to thank Mrs Miller for uh helping out a little bit here and looking into it um but I think it's absolutely pathetic that the high school PTO has done absolutely nothing over the last 3 years to help the students out in this school whatsoever um you couldn't reach them you can't find out who's in charge um it's just it's it's a bad situation and I really think that it needs to be corrected whether another group of people out there start a real PTO uh that PTO was basically started to make sure that certain people could stay involved and prevent other people from getting involved and their lack of doing a darn thing for the last 3 years is really rearing its ugly head right now for the lack of funding that these students have for their events and things that are so very very important to them so um I I had to say that and I had to say it publicly we've been trying to get things uh straightened out with that for months now months and months and months Mr rasca can tell you I've reached out to him to find out information couldn't come up with anything and finally Mrs Miller I appreciate you uh making contact with them and saying that they are going to do something but it's hard to believe that the same people who were in charge for the last three years are going to suddenly do something different um and I also want to go on and I want to congratulate Dr Doan and Mr King welcome to the district happy to have you and hopefully you make a great impact on the students in high school so that's it thank you Mr John yeah I want to Echo the comments of of my colleagues on the day and uh welcome to the district and and uh you're place and and you have a uh you'll make a big difference here and and we appreciate uh you coming to South planfield I I hear this information about our our groups uh our parent groups I hope that there is something that um if there it's really not a board issue in the sense that that um you know we we uh we don't run the PTO and boosters and all the but to the extent we're back together here with Co kind of on the back end if there is something that can be done that the board can assist to help our parents we thank all of you for your work and um we certainly would like to in any way we can to offer support so that whatever concerns or or uh changes have occurred and things are different um after Co with our our uh schools and our parents supports um if there are things that we can do to assist and support our parent so that we can make things even better than they were preco we'd like to do that and thank you bringing that up got your turn good who help not us Jimmy my few minutes aren't up yet let Jimmy go follow I was just going to I was just going to say we had a similar issue in our middle school PTO and it took a group of parents stepping up and I think actually creating a new PTO and just stepping in and taking over I I'm not sure how they're doing in the middle school I hav't had a student for a while but I'm certainly sure it's better than it was you know I would assume you have to do something similar in the high school I just wanted to take a moment and I I I realize that people have already um welcomed but I just wanted to congratulate Dr Gman on his uh new position as director of Elementary education we know you're going to do an uh an absolutely amazing job and we're so help happy that that you're uh taking the position and welcome Mr King um with all of your experience and knowledge that you're bringing to the high school I know you're going to be an amazing asset up there so wanted to just congratulate you both and um welcome Mr K the district any comments welcome Mr King and Dr Gman congratulations I think that your central office but no but congratulations to both of you we look forward to to what was in the future here and as everybody else said know Eva and uh right Diva what she did was amazing and uh of course our student rep was amazes all the time and uh the middle school and uh Mrs White in her stem class great job you know it it was nice and like I said next time we'll have a little board member comments while the kids are here so they can hear you know go to ex so we'll try to make that change and make a note of that so everybody have a healthy uh vacation you don't speak after me okay [Music] sorry it's unbelievable on that note okay can motion motion all favor go