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Members of the Asbury Park Board of Education are at odds on whether to hire a new auditor, architect and insurance broker.

At a meeting held Tuesday, the board voted 5-3 on a motion to seek bids for all three positions. Board President Geneva Smallwood and board members Nicolle D. Harris, Christian Hall, Felicia Simmons and Kenneth Saunders voted yes. Board members Angela Ahbez-Anderson, Barbara Lesinski and Corey Lowell voted no. Board member Connie Sue Breech was not present at the meeting.

Lowell and Lesinski questioned the other board members why they desire to seek bids for the services, but none of the board members chose to answer. At that point, board attorney Alan J. Schnirman explained regulations require the board to go out to bid on a regular basis for accountability purposes and it did not necessarily mean the board was dissatisfied with any particular providers.

“This board is not interested in working collectively, they are only interested in a majority and doing what they want to do whether it complies with board policy or not,” Ahbez-Anderson told the Sun, “and how does that benefit the children? Instead of leading the district they are costing the district more money.”

“I fully support having professionals who support the district, but not going out to RPF for RPF sake,” said Lowell, who previously served as business administrator for the district and now works in the same capacity for Keansburg schools. “For the next four months we are going to be discussing professionals instead of talking about programs and curriculum.”

“We’re going to see what we’re going to get and we are going to consider our options,” Smallwood told the Sun. “We’re just reviewing our options, it is a pretty normal practice.”

Before Simmons made a motion to seek the bids, Lowell read a prepared statement that outlined her frustrations with the board, citing the reasons she believes the district has experienced declining enrollment and low student achievement in recent years.

The full statement read by Lowell at the beginning of the meeting is as follows:

An open letter [with numbers] to the stakeholders present at this meeting:

805:  That’s the number of residents who believed in my ability to help lead this Board of Education to a better state.  Five individuals have already frustrated this effort in an attempt to bar my attendance at meetings.  Nevertheless, the voters who put me here will persevere.

2006:  That’s the year that this board’s president was elected to this board of education.  That’s 8 years of declining enrollment.  That’s 8 years of declining test scores.  That’s 6 acting, interim, and seated superintendents.  That’s “too many to count” central office administrators creating a turnstile through the mechanism by which this school district might improve itself, but alas, the constant turnover means constant mediocrity [and calling it mediocre is being overly kind].

$1,514,045: This is the amount this district spent on legal services from 2009-2013.  I find it unconscionable for a Board of education to vote on a contract for a new attorney – especially one in which the attorney will be on site one day per week – without any discussion as to the budget implication.  Those dollars would better be spent in the classroom impacting student achievement – not making attorneys rich.

6A:23A-9.3: These are efficiency standards by which this district will be measured and one of the reasons the State cites as to why this district still has a fiscal monitor.  Truth be told, I agree with a constituent on this board who is “hell-bent” on getting rid of the State monitor.  Each monitor (let’s count: 5 in 7 years!) has given the Board a “roadmap” on how to reduce State oversight.  This Board continues to ignore the guidance thus perpetuating the image of Asbury Park School District as a poster child for dysfunction.

When Team Vitamin C ran for seats on the Board of Education, I was asked if we could get along with other/current members of the Board.  I thought we could try, but in the first meeting, it was evident that they did not want to get along with us.  That five board members voted to change the meeting day from Wednesdays to Tuesdays [coincidentally the date that Keansburg Board of Education meets] without much discussion is all the evidence I need.  It’s obvious from your attempt to bar my attendance at these meetings that you consider me an obstacle to your agenda.  I naively thought we all wanted best for the students and residents in Asbury Park.  Sadly, I was mistaken.

Thank you.

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