Former Coaches: South Plainfield BOE Member Used Position to Support Personal Agenda

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ - Last month, the school district made headlines when Donald Panzarella, New Jersey’s winningest softball coach, announced his resignation as head of South Plainfield’s varsity team. In a statement issued through his attorney, Panzarella cited ‘undue stress’ and an ‘environment of no accountability’ caused by ‘too many personal and individual parent agendas,’ including that of a ‘parent of a player who is a board of education member.’

As of press time, the district has yet to issue a formal statement regarding Panzarella’s allegations or resignation and, at a South Plainfield Board of Education (SPBOE) meeting July 17, two members of the school district community came out to voice their support of the coach and frustration with the situation.

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Megan Winters, a former South Plainfield student and district teacher, alleged that, in 2016, SPBOE member Doug Chapman called upon other sitting members to vote against her appointment to lead the middle school softball team. She stated that Chapman and fellow SPBOE member Bill Seesselberg opposed her appointment on the grounds that ‘the board president’s daughter shouldn’t be a coach;’ Winters’ mother is Debbie Boyle.

Winters went on to state that ‘Chapman recently made another decision that will affect the South Plainfield High School Softball Program forever.’ She said that the ‘pressure he put on’ Panzarella and now former Athletic Director Tammy Zurka ‘leading up to their resignation is the latest case in how he uses his position on the board to intimidate coaches and school personnel.’

According to Winters, Chapman once told board member Debbie Boyle that his ‘pinky finger knows more about finance than she did.’

“Well, Coach Panzeralla’s pinky finger knows more about softball and his team members than you do, yet you still use your position to carry out your personal agenda, which created a toxic environment for the entire softball program…” she said.

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Winters also referenced Chapman’s quote in a TAPinto South Plainfield article in which he stated ‘the role of a BOE member is to make sure the schools are well run, not to try to run the schools. I know that the administration currently running our district is far more qualified to run a school district than I am… During my time as president, other board members were prevented from micromanaging or overstepping their legal boundaries…’

“It is clear that you think you hold yourself to a higher standard, but I would say your actions tell a different story,” Winters said.

Additionally, she went to state that Chapman used his ‘influence to support [his] own private agenda’ and that by ‘bypassing the chain of commands and criticizing and questioning district administration’ he violated the very same section of the Code of Ethics for School Board Members that he and other members of the BOE accused her mother of violating a few years ago.

“I am wondering, Mr. Chapman, since you are so well-versed in ethics violations, did you not commit one? You have done far worse; you caused a beloved athletic director to resign and the winningest coach to retire,” Winters said.

Georgeann Larsen, a resident and former SPHS coach, also took the podium.

“In a town with such a rich history of high school athletics, it is a disgrace to these athletes that the board of education and administration has allowed politics to play such a dominant role,” Larsen said.

“Coaches are being forced to be near figureheads… They are not only being told who should be on the team but who should be getting playing time. What’s next? Do they want to call the plays in a football game or tell the pitcher what pitch to throw? You, the board, and the administration, hired the coach to give the athletes a chance to improve their skills and win,” Larsen said.

She went on to add that ‘hinder[ing] their ability to coach by pushing your own individual agenda … [is] actually hurting the athletes.’ “I can guarantee you that 99 percent of them do not care about your agendas,” Larsen said.

According to Larsen, ‘quality coaches’ are being turned down because only district employees are being hired to lead school teams. She went on to note that state champion wrestlers, all-star and college level cheerleaders, and semi-pro football players, all who graduated from SPHS, have been denied coaching positions.

“The experience level that these athletes had was second to none, and they were South Plainfield graduates that wanted to give back,” Larsen said. “The best candidate should be given the position; the individual agendas of the board and administration put aside. This narrow-mindedness needs to stop as the only ones getting hurt are the high school athletes…”

Speaking from personal experiences, Larsen expressed that, in recent years, if one athlete on a team of 20 has an issue, the BOE and administration criticize rather than back the coaching staff.

“I guess it depends if that athlete is a friend or a relative of someone on the board or administration,” she said.

While board members and administrators will not comment publicly on personnel or student matters, SPBOE member Bill Seesselberg stated that the comments on Facebook, along with a letter to the editor and article in the town’s print newspaper as well as stories run by other media outlets, do not tell the full story.

“Just putting stuff out there, without knowing all the facts, asking the personnel involved, and just taking one person’s statements and feelings and blowing it all out of proportion is not helpful,” he said, noting that comments on social media just ‘fuel the flames.’ “...Research, ask questions, and maybe you will find out that one person’s diatribe is not the whole story.”

SPBOE Vice President Tom Cassio echoed his fellow board member’s comments.

“You do not have all the facts, and we cannot give you all those facts; we would violate personnel [rights] and student’s rights,” Cassio said. “It is easy to critique from the outside. … but some of you have elected us to do the right thing, and we try to do the best we can… I can tell you that what has been said in the public is not 100-percent correct…”

Chapman did not address any of the allegations made against him but defended his responsibility as both a parent and a member of the BOE.

“Board of education members have a responsibility to report things to the administration. I can only imagine if something happened to another child and it wasn't reported to the administration what the reaction would be,” he said, adding, “A child of a board of education member does not lose their rights.”

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