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At a special meeting held Monday, members of the Asbury Park Board of Education passed a resolution to have a draft employment contract sent to the executive county superintendent for district superintendent candidate Gregory Allen, according to a spokesperson for the district. Allen’s appointment is still under review by the state.

The motion passed 6-2, according to an email from Chanta L.  Jackson, communications coordinator for the district. Board members Arva M. Council, Christian Hall, Nicolle D. Harris, Kenneth Saunders, Jr., Felicia Simmons and Qzeena Taylor voted yes. Board President Angela Ahbez-Anderson and board member Barbara Lesinski voted no. Board Vice-President Geneva Smallwood was not in attendance at the meeting.

Members of the school board passed a motion to appoint Allen as the district superintendent of schools for a 5-year contract pending background and reference checks at an Oct. 22 special meeting. The motion passed 6-3. No salary recommendation was made at the time.

Allen’s initial appointment was immediately taken under review by state monitor, Carol K. Morris. At the time, Morris said she could not let approval pass on a candidate who had “not been vetted and whose references had not been checked.”

Responsibilities of the state monitor include oversight of all district staffing, which affords Morris the ability to hire, promote, and terminate employees. By taking the vote under advisement, the matter is passed to the state Department of Education in Trenton. The state department is expected to inform the board at a later date whether Allen’s appointment will pass to the county superintendent, who has the final say on all superintendent appointments.

The initial appointment remains under review, according to Rich Vespucci, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education’s Office.

Even so, members of the board pushed through the Monday vote to propose a contract for Allen at the special meeting. Morris, who could not attend the meeting, sent a letter to Ahbez-Anderson, Board Secretary Geoffrey Hastings and Roberta S. Beauford Elford Rawls-Dill, a human resources manager for the district, prior to the meeting. Jackson provided a copy of the letter to the Sun, which explains her duty to be present at all board meetings and states that any action taken by the board of education at the Nov. 4, 2013 special meeting is subject to her review upon her return.

The provisions of Allen’s proposed employment contract are confidential, as the employment contract is still in draft form, Jackson said in a subsequent email.

If the appointment and contract are OK’d by the state, it will pass to the executive county superintendent before it returns to the Asbury Park school board for final approval and appointment, she stated in the email.

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