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Schools

BOE Evaluating Policy on Nepotism

The board will explore possible updates to its current policy on hiring relatives of district employees.

The Board of Education, citing patterns across the country of nepotism in school hiring, discussed updates Monday night to its policy on hiring relatives of current district employees.

“We have a large number of teaching positions that will be available,” Board President Yusang Park said, “and I think now is a good time for us to study the policy to make sure: Do we have the right policy in place? Is it strong enough to keep the integrity of the system in place?”

The current policy on nepotism, which the district adopts as a precondition for obtaining state aid, bars the hiring of immediate and extended family members—including in-laws—of the superintendent and members of the board of education. The policy can be circumvented only with the approval of the county superintendent of schools.

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School administrators are generally prohibited from supervising family members, but some on the board, including Holly Morell, said Monday night that the district should explore policy changes on hiring relatives of other BOE employees—not just those on the board.

Morell, chair of the board’s personnel committee, and Peter Suh, its policy committee chair, will lead the study of the district’s policy and report back to the board.

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Board member David Sarnoff suggested that preventing nepotism in the district’s hiring might best be served by establishing a more active program to recruit new teachers.

 “Recruiting the best candidate for just about any position requires you to do something more than just post a job on the Internet,” Sarnoff said. “We want to find the person who’s not looking for that position. We want to find the most highly qualified person.”

“That requires great effort,” he continued. “Establishing relationships with the chairs of education departments of the top 20 universities up and down the East Coast. Really searching to find the best person.”

Sarnoff also expressed concerns that in an updated policy, qualified candidates could be disqualified due to their roots in the Fort Lee school system.

“We graduate a lot of kids,” Park agreed. “And we should be able to vouch for them. If you have two equally qualified candidates, and one happens to be the one that went through the local system, and we know what they’re made of, and we know they have a vested interest, that should be a big plus for them.”

Park said that the key in updating the policy would be striking the right balance. “I think as long as we have a legitimate, transparent system in place, we will be able to achieve that.”

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