Plainfield Board of Education Loses $400,000

I was notified today that the Plainfield School District had to send back $400,000 in State aid. No one in the district has called my office to share this information with me. This is not the first time that the City of Plainfield had to send money back to Trenton because of a lack of communication with my office.

I want to share with you how embarrassing this is to the City. Economically, this is a time when we are fighting to bring money in to offset tax increases, monies the City deserves, yet the school district is plagued with dismal financial management. As a councilperson at City Hall, Adrian Mapp and his team had to send back half a million dollars in State aid because of poor financial management, and now he and his supporters at the School Board are sending back $400,000 in State aid. When everyone across the State is crying out for State aid, Plainfield is sending State aid back. I believe the public deserves an answer to “How did this happen?” and “Why was this not brought to the public’s attention?”

Adrian Mapp and his team have a resounding reputation for poor management skills. Take for another example, the $3million in which the School Board mismanaged a few years back. The Board accumulated over $3million in unearned salaries, and tried to hide it. These monies should have been returned to the State. This behavior was borderline criminal. I was able to bring resolve to this issue in working closely with the State to remedy any criminal allegations. For some reason, Adrian Mapp and his team are bent on trying to embarrass me, rather than trying to work with me to resolve problems and foster solutions.

At a meeting I held Friday, the City Committee was told by a representative from the State that there is money available for economic studies that the Council is currently discussing. Rather than council members Cory Storch and Adrian Mapp reaching out for this aid, they are asking the City to spend $65,000 for this study. The last study that Adrian and Cory supported cost the City $40,000, and was filled with errors and misleading information. If we had followed their study, today the downtown area would be blocks and blocks of empty lots.

It is time now that we begin to discuss problems that City is facing, as well as solutions. In some of our schools, parents are saying their children are not getting enough lunchtime meals, books, and other materials, but yet in still, we can send $400,000 back to the State.