Board Attorney Embarrasses Fort Lee BOE

When is a crisis a crisis?  After Monday night’s BOE meeting, the definition of a crisis becomes when the Board attorney speaks.  Dennis McKeever, Board Attorney, was quoted in the Record on Tuesday, July 23, 2013.  In response to a question from one of the attendees, Mr. McKeever publically stated that “The board is very much aware of the fact that in the event that, no superintendent is appointed, … it is possible that the state or the county [state liaison to local districts] can come in and run the district.” Of course, to insulate himself, he added the codicil “The Board of Education wants no part of a state takeover.” No comment that I could make would be severe enough in criticizing Mr. McKeever’s choice of words.    

 At BOE meetings, difficult questions from angry citizens must be fielded by the BOE and its attorney.  It is necessary to have the ability to answer questions without anger, and to carefully select your response in order to avoid embarrassing the Board or the community. 

A community member posed a razor-edged question on Monday night.  To paraphrase, “given the circumstances that the superintendent situation is in flux, is there a possibility of an imminent State takeover of the Fort Lee school system?” The Board attorney should have been prepared for this type of attack, but clearly was caught off guard.  The “correct”answer, the only answer should have been “the BOE has the situation under control and it will be resolved quickly.   There is no reason at this time or in the future where the State of New Jersey should ever have to become involved with the Fort Lee educational system”.   And if Mr. McKeever was incapable of thinking on his feet and responding in this fashion, then there is a high probability that he is not the appropriate attorney to represent the Fort Lee BOE. 

However, the real issue is the abysmal performance by our BOE members in the 2012-2013 school year, continuing right into the 2013-2014 upcoming school year.   In defense of the Board, it is important to understand that many problems were thrust on the Board unexpectedly and the crises continued to pile up, almost beyond imagination. However, quality leadership must cope with these types of crises and this appears to be lacking.    A quick review of the major issues this past year:

(1)  The disposition of the Steven Engravalle situation.  Mr. Engravalle, superintendent of schools in 2012, created the crisis with his prolonged leave of absence for personal reasons.  This leave began in late May 2012 and extended through January 31, 2013.  Appropriate and aggressive actions were not taken to enable the Fort Lee BOE to function, so our district came to a standstill.  Virtually nothing was accomplished during that period.  This situation was finally resolved in March 2013 with a substantial financial settlement with Mr. Engravalle and his departure.

(2)  The BOE has been unable to obtain consensus from its members of the naming of a new Superintendent. Sharon Amato, previously assistant Superintendent to Mr. Engravalle, has never received a true vote of confidence from the Board.   There are members that support Sharon Amato, and there are members opposed. The public appeared to be split on Ms. Amato’s appointment, which certainly did not make this decision any easier.  Ms. Amato’s interim contract expired on June 30, 2013 and, by default, Ms. Amato reverted to the position of assistant Superintendent on that date.  There are strong rumors that Dr. John Richardson, recently hired as a consultant, was to fill the Superintendent position on a six month basis.  Apparently, that idea blew up Monday night when Dr. Richardson failed to show, no reasons given to the public. Ms. Amato was on vacation, so the BOE meeting blew up with Dr. Richardson’s absence.  

(3)  With crisis looming over the upcoming school year, Ms. Amato is on vacation. Certainly, she is entitled and, given the lack of support by the BOE members, she probably needs some recuperative time from all the stress.   But with Cheryl Balletto, Business Administrator, on leave (although Robert Brown seems to be filling in quite well), with Ms. Amato on vacation, and no one quite certain where Dr. Richardson is right now (Tahiti?), there appears to be a total vacuum in leadership at the BOE offices.   

(4)  For those totally uninformed parents in the Fort Lee community, we currently have no Fort Lee High School principal.  With the transfer of Priscilla Church, and no viable prospects, the 2013-2014 year appears to be in dire straits.   Of course, one might ask a reasonable question:  prior to transferring Ms. Church, why had the BOE not engaged a new high school principal in advance?  Just to be clear, late July and August is when principals are doing all the preparatory work for the upcoming school year.

(5)  Linda Farrell, Director of the Fort Lee High School Academy of Finance, informed many individuals in the community last September that she was retiring.  However, until Ms. Farrell remitted her formal resignation recently, no active search for a replacement was implemented. That is an inexcusable faux pas, particularly when one of the BOE members publically stated that she had been aware of Ms. Farrell’s departure.   Even since Ms. Farrell’s “formal” resignation, to the best of my knowledge, there has been no advertisement for a “Director” of the Academy of Finance.  To add insult to injury, there are rumors that no new “Director” will be engaged.   Since the Director is in charge of “expeditions to Wall Street, engaging guest speakers, and setting goals for the program, there is a well justified fear that the entire program will fall by the wayside. 

(6)  The Academy of Finance also lost two of its instructors, Mr. McCarthy and Ms. Stretz, by virtue of resignations in May 2013.   This left the department with a non-existent staff.   At a recent BOE meeting, the public was informed that two new individuals had been hired as replacements.  However, according to my information, both are starting in early September, giving them virtually no time to get acclimated or to prepare for the upcoming semester.  If that were not disturbing enough to the parents of students in the AOF, neither individual appears to have any actual experience in the real world of business. Thus, the expectations are that they will be regurgitating textbook material, rather than giving the students a realistic view of the business world.  And if there is no director of the Academy of Finance, there will be no guidance for the new instructors.

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There was an 82 page agenda for the last BOE meeting, or more descriptively BOE debacle.   That speaks “volumes” regarding what is wrong with our Board of Education, i.e. no progress.   

The Fort Lee Schools system is currently like a ship without a rudder. Without true leadership, it has no direction, wandering the Sea of Education aimlessly.   Clearly this cannot continue without resulting in unmitigated disaster.   Instead of continuing to state at meetings that things are “in process”, it is time for the BOE to tell the community the truth about what is occurring, to be forthright with actual facts, not innuendo, to assuage the angst that everyone is currently feeling.  We, as community members, need to believe in our schools and our elected Board of Education members.  At this time, there is a total lack of confidence and that is truly tragic. 

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