Pearls of Wisdom

The Oscar for Best Picture went to “Argo”, a semi-documentary about a hostage situation in Iran.   Perhaps, there should be an Oscar for Ugliest picture for the “Hostage Situation in Fort Lee”.  

Since May 2012, there has been NO superintendent of schools in Fort Lee. The situation was sad; now it is tragic, for the kids, for the community, even for Steven Engravalle!  How did this all occur? What really happened to bring us to such a sorry state of affairs? 

First, let’s paint a portrait of the BOE meeting on Monday, February 25, 2013.   

Description:

Eight Board members, sitting at a dais, blankly staring at a raucous audience ready to pounce on them, totally helpless, knowing full well that they do not have the answers to the exigent questions that will be rained on them shortly. Three recently elected BOE members, reanalyzing their motivation for running for the Board, asking themselves, why?! One BOE member absent, now for four meetings straight, predictably because he can no longer endure these frustrating BOE meetings, undoubted experiencing total burn-out. One attorney, recently engaged in January 2013, who now wishes that he had reconsidered that opportunity in Afghanistan, working for Karzai. 

Community members, frustrated and angry, unable to get any satisfactory responses at a BOE meeting for months. Citizens, concerned about the future of their children, worried that the Fort Lee School system will be declared the next Abbott district, taken over by the State of NJ for poor performance. (The positive side is much more money per pupil, go Newark!) Teachers, impatiently waiting for the BOE to negotiate a new contract with their union, with their contract due to expire at the end of April 2013.  

========================================================================== 

When Asst. Superintendent Frank Romano departed (no loss) and Dr. Raymond Bandlow, prior Fort Lee Superintendent, hired Steve Engravalle as his assistant, it began with high hopes. Mr. Engravalle promised to improve the technology level of our schools and bring us into the 21st century (or at least the 20th). While Mr. Engravalle’s demeanor came off on occasion as arrogant, I attributed it to self-confidence, giving him the benefit of the doubt. When I met with him, he was always cordial and willing to share his ideas on improving the Fort Lee school system. But, unfortunately, when Dr. Bandlow left, the roof literally caved in.

Because of Mr. Engravalle’s curt manner and sometimes sharp tongue, several community members decided he was too inexperienced and too brash to be the next Superintendent of Schools in Fort Lee. When the BOE decided to nominate him, there was fierce opposition. When the Board put on the agenda that he was to be appointed “interim” superintendent, these community members publically embarrassed him at the BOE meeting. They brought up issues from (1) his personal life, e.g. bankruptcy filing; divorce, and (2) his professional life, a harassment charge from his prior superintendent position in Hamburg, NJ. The anti-Engravalles, as I termed them at the time, had a candidate that they preferred, one of our excellent principals, Robert Kravitz.  The situation was not managed well by the Board or the community and it obviously left a very bitter taste in Mr. Engravalle’s mouth, which is now rearing its ugly head. Later, a controversial superintendent search, which resulted in appointing Mr. Engravalle to the Superintendent’s position permanently, created more community angst. Finally, an extremely generous contract, with virtually no provisions to protect the community from superintendent malfeasance, has resulted in our current “hostage crisis”.  (One has to blame the previous BOE atty. and the previous members for this horrific contract.)

I had the hopes at the time that Steven Engravalle would be able to rise above the fray and perform to high expectations. But unfortunately, it never came to fruition.  While he brought PowerSchool to our district and made improvements in curriculum and other academic areas, he made several poor decisions,which raised red flags in the community:

(1)  First and foremost, Mr. Engravalle literally threw Dr. Bandlow under the bus after his departure. That is not to say that members of the community were big fans of Dr. Bandlow, but rather that it is generally in bad taste to trash the individual that hired you.

(2)  Gov. Christie had a meeting at Fort Lee High School, where Mr. Engravalle showed strong political leanings, failing to maintain neutrality, and offended a number of citizens with his “Superman” socks.

(3)  Twitter:  Mr. Engravalle’s tweets often took strong political positions.  Many citizens felt that he was using his position in Fort Lee as a platform to espouse his views and as a springboard to a future political appointment in the State of New Jersey.  It appeared that Mr. Engravalle often spent time during the work day on tweeting, rather than on concentrating on critical Fort Lee issues. (There was a very ominous tweet in Jan. 2013, upon his return from LOA, with an equally threatening response, apparently from Keith Lockwood, an Engravalle hiree as asst. superintendent, who lasted about a month.)

(4)  Hurricane Sandy: Mr. Engravalle could not be reached and did not make maximum effort to assist our school system during the crisis.

The major crisis struck last May with the illness of Samantha, Steve’s ex-wife. In all fairness to Mr. Engravalle, the fact that she was his ex-wife does not preclude very strong feelings for her and an intense desire to assist her through this terrible tragedy, terminal illness to a very young woman with children. From a legal perspective, Mr. Engravalle had no entitlement to a paid leave of absence.  However, the BOE members were extremely sympathetic to his situation and gave him a great deal of latitude, which turned out to be a huge error in judgment.  Steve Engravalle’s dedication to his ex-wife was extremely commendable, but unfortunately, it caused him such great emotional distress that he failed to maintain his professional attitude toward his position.

In an exchange of e-mails in September 2012 where I stated “But in your absence, Sharon (Amato) should have been communicating with you and handling Superintendent responsibilities, with your guidance”, Steve stated “Respectfully, I disagree with your position that anyone should have been contacting me. Although I was in the loop a bit because I wanted to be, my only priority was my family, and my focus should have (and was) only on them. I have to ask: would you have ignored your dying spouse to care about trivial issues at work? There were no emergencies while I was caring for my wife, just the usual trivial nonsense that has nothing to do with educating children. There was nothing that couldn’t wait.”

Fort Lee was abandoned, left superintendent-less. Two months of paid leave in November and December 2012, after Samantha’s passing, failed to bring about a renewed commitment to our children. Continuous criticism of his absence and his lack of performance resulted in total alienation. Mr. Engravalle’s answer was to engage an attorney to protect his financial interests and then a complete cessation of any management of superintendent responsibilities. From mid-January to the present, Steven Engravalle has proven that his only interest is Steven Engravalle.

Like in all tragedies, there will eventually be a resolution. One thing is certain, i.e. repairing the damage to the Fort Lee community will be a long uphill battle.   

In “Argo”, the hostages are saved. If and when Fort Lee will be saved is anybody’s guess.