Board re-interviews superintendent candidates
Members dispute meeting's compliance with Open Public Meetings Act
The Asbury Park Board of Education held a special meeting Thursday to re-interview three candidates for the district’s superintendent position.
The school board, prompted by the addition of two new members — Kenneth Saunders, Jr. and Felicia Simmons — who were appointed to fill two vacancies last month, voted to reopen the search for a new district superintendent at their Sept. 11 meeting.
Six members of the school board had narrowed their selection to one candidate. At the Thursday meeting, Saunders said he was uncomfortable with the option to vote for a single candidate.
It was originally thought that the board could not re-interview candidates without fully re-advertising the search, but that is not the case, said Board Secretary Geoffrey Hastings.
Board member Barbara Lesinski questioned whether last night’s meeting violated the state’s Open Public Meetings Act. A majority of the board, five of nine members, came to a decision to call the special meeting to re-interview the candidates, she said. Lesinski was notified of the meeting by Hastings, but was not part of the decision to hold it, she said.
“I have a really deep concern about what is happening that is involving the most important personnel action and personnel issue that this board is now undertaking,” Lesinski said. “I don’t think we should be doing this tonight but [candidates] were called and five of you had to have made that decision — it’s a violation. That is all I have to say.”
But since the five board members did not meet as a group in deciding to move forward, there was no violation of the Open Public Meetings Act, also known as the sunshine law, according to one board member.
“The sunshine law is a meeting of five people or more at one time, that never happened, so there was no violation,” said board member Felicia Simmons.
Board Attorney Kim Belin said it appeared they had not violated the law.
“The Department of Education is watching as to how we proceed,” said Board President Angela Ahbez-Anderson later in the meeting. “So I want you all to be aware of that.”
Lesinski also expressed concern that confidential information about the applicants may have been shared with others outside of the school district.
After the school board narrowed the search down to a specific candidate and began the process to conduct reference checks and a site visit, they found out someone from the Asbury Park School District, outside of the school board and search committee, had already contacted the potential candidate’s school district, which would indicate a breach of confidentiality by one of the board members, Lesinski said.
No action was taken by board members after they interviewed the three candidates, according to Carole K. Morris, the state monitor assigned to the Asbury Park School District.
“We have a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, at which time the board may make it clear to the public how they are going to proceed,” Morris said.
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