BOE swears in new members, changes meeting days & venue
New meeting date conflicts with both newcomers work schedules
The Asbury Park Board of Education welcomed two new members with handshakes and hugs at Tuesday night’s reorganization meeting, but the warm feelings didn’t last too long.
After the board decided to change their regular meeting days, three members walked out.
In addition to changing the dates and location for regular meetings, they’ve also voted to reopen the superintendent search amidst pending litigation and selected new board attorneys — a decision which State Monitor Carol Morris immediately took under advisement.
Newcomers Connie Sue Breech, Nicolle D. Harris and Corey Lowell, who all won full three-year terms, were sworn in along with Felicia Simmons and Kenneth Saunders who won one-year unexpired terms in the November election.
Reverend Geneva Smallwood will serve as board president and Nicolle D. Harris will serve as vice president. Former board president Angela Ahbez-Anderson cast the only dissenting vote in each selection.
After Smallwood thanked Ahbez-Anderson for her continued dedication to the board and welcomed the new members, things turned sour when the board voted to change their weekly meeting times to the fourth Tuesday of each month.
Newcomers Lowell and Breech contested the change.
Lowell is the business administrator for the Keansburgh school district. The Keansburgh Board of Education has met the fourth Tuesday of each month for many years, Lowell said, adding that if the decision to select the fourth Tuesday of each month was made deliberately to try to bar her attendance, she would make arrangements with the Keansburgh board to have them switch their meeting time.
Breech, an Asbury Park Police Officer, works on Tuesday nights having changed her schedule changed to accommodate the Wednesday night meetings upon her election. She also served as a board member in the past.
Smallwood cited several prayer meetings and revivals that she and other members of the board had to skip as the reason for the shift in time, and that the board had difficulty meeting the quorum requirements for several Wednesday night meetings in the past.
It took two votes for the motion to pass. Board members Ahbez Anderson, Breech, Barbara Lesinsky and Lowell voted no. Board members Christian Hall, Kenneth Saunders, Felicia Simmons and Board President Geneva Smallwood voted yes. Vice President Nicolle Harris voted yes after first abstaining from the first vote.
“I was elected by the city to help this board of education and it saddens me that they would not work with Ms. Breech and myself to set the meeting schedule due to our work obligations,” Lowell told the Sun.
The board will meet at 7 p.m. on the Fourth Tuesday of each month in the Barack Obama building at 1300 Bangs Ave.
Ahbez-Anderson, Lowell and Lesinski walked out of the meeting shortly after the vote was taken.
SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH
The board reopened the search for a superintendent candidate with no deadline for selection.
The vote passed 6-0. Board President Geneva Smallwood, Vice President Nicolle D. Harris, and board members Breech, Hall, Simmons, Saunders voted yes.
Board attorney Robert Walker suggested the search start in a community information gathering capacity similar to the last search, as pending litigation in the matter could limit the pool of qualified candidates since the board is still wrapped up in litigation after their initial decision to appoint Gregory Allen to the post was reversed by State Monitor Carol Morris. Morris’s decision caused several residents to speak out in frustration at a later board meeting.
An appeal was filed on behalf of the Asbury Board of Education and is still pending litigation. Most recently, an administrative law judge denied an order for an expedited decision in the matter, according to court documents. The state’s commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education has 45 days to adopt, modify or reject administrative law judge Reba’s decision otherwise the decision is final.
After that, “whether we continue with the case or not is a decision left up to the board,” said William S. Donio, an attorney for the board.
If the board does choose to move forward, a formal hearing would have to take place, he said.
At Tuesday’s reorganization meeting, State Monitor Carol Morris pointed out that if the board chooses to go ahead with advertising for candidates for a new search, they will have to drop the pending litigation. The board is expected to discuss the matter at a special meeting next week.
BOARD ATTORNEYS
The board voted to change the firm that represents the district to Northern New Jersey Firm Schwartz, Simon, Edelstein & Celso, but to retain Cooper Levenson April Neidelman & Wagenheim as their labor attorneys, effective immediately. Cooper Levenson has represented the board since July 2012.
The vote passed 5-0. Board President Geneva Smallwood, Vice President Nicolle D. Harris, and board members Hall, Simmons, Saunders voted yes. Breech abstained from the vote.
“You can’t just go out and appoint for something like that,” Breech said before the vote. She recalled her previous experience selecting board attorneys included interviewing candidates and listening to presentations they made to the public. “You can’t go in there headstrong.”
Morris immediately took the vote under advisement.
Who will represent the board as legal counsel during the next meeting is up in the air, according to board attorney Robert Walker.
Several members of the board were ready to discuss hiring other district professionals but the matter was removed from the agenda before the meeting started. Board Secretary Geoff Hastings said the reason the item was removed from the agenda was due to the shift in the election calendar, which no longer mirrors the fiscal calendar and would not make sense from a fiscal governance standpoint, he said.
Board elections changed from May to November last year.
[Photo at top: From left to right, Board Administrator Geoff Hastings swears in beard members Felicia Simmons, Nicolle D. Harris, Kenneth Saunders, Corey Lowell and Connie Sue Breech.]
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