Pearls of Wisdom

Monday night’s BOE meeting brought to mind a poignant quote by political philosopher, Thomas Sowell:

You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that, for bureaucrats, procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.   

I cannot imagine a meeting where less could be accomplished, i.e. endless questions and no answers. The ludicrous presence of the board attorney imposing a “gag order” on the board members drove attendees to the point where there may have been serious thought about “putting an actual gag on the attorney.” Finally, after 1.5 hours of drudgery, Charlie Luppino stepped up to the plate and uttered the first and only intelligent comment from the Board during the entire evening, words to the effect that the Board was not satisfied with the search firms interviewed. 

When our previous superintendent, Dr. Raymond Bandlow, resigned, the BOE had the following options to fill the position:

(A) Appoint Steve Engravalle as “Acting Superintendent,” inform the public that he would be on probation for some period of time, i.e. three months, in order to demonstrate if he was the right person for the position. Should his job performance be exemplary during that period of time, he would then be offered the position as Superintendent. That would have been my personal preference, as it is the most logical corporate/administrative approach, i.e. to hire an assistant from within, an individual having the established credentials and experience within the system.  

(B)  Appoint Steve Engravalle as “Acting Superintendent,” inform the public that a search firm would be engaged to locate potential qualified candidates throughout the State of New Jersey. Mr. Engravalle could then be considered as one of the candidates, if that should be his choice. 

(C)  Investigate possible candidates within the Fort Lee system, individuals with the appropriate qualifications, without hiring a search firm. The Board could simply post that the position was available. Again, Mr. Engravalle could be considered against the other potentials.

The BOE members selected option (B), as there was a vociferous anti-Engravalle contingent at the Board meetings. John Bang, a sitting BOE member, had put forth a motion at a previous meeting to table the appointment of Steve Engravalle as “Acting Superintendent” to appease this group, a motion that was passed.

These individuals strongly advocated the engagement of a search firm. So, in late September, the BOE announced that this path would be taken. It is now January 2012. At Monday night’s meeting, one fact was clearly established: NO SEARCH FIRM HAS BEEN ENGAGED! Additionally, the BOE refused to give the attendees any inclination of when they could expect a firm to be engaged, or even if a search firm would ever be engaged. 

If the BOE members are convinced that Mr. Engravalle is doing an outstanding job and should be appointed permanently to fill the Superintendent position, and that the $ 20,000 or more that would be spent on a search firm is now an extraneous expense, they need to gather up the courage to make the appointment and stand their ground. However, they need to be cognizant of the fact that they made a public commitment to engage a search firm and are now reneging on that promise. That is not going to sit well with those involved citizens that rightfully believed that the BOE was acting in good faith when it avowed that a search firm would be engaged.

If the BOE members wish to save face, there is an obvious solution to this dilemma. I propose that the BOE (1) post the position to candidates within the Fort Lee school system in order to satisfy our concerned citizens that we have weighed all our options; (2) state for the record the Board evaluation of Mr. Engravalle’s performance to date,  and if appropriate, recommend that he should receive a permanent appointment; (3) state clearly that a final decision has been made that no search firm is going to be engaged at this time.