Schools

Interim Super Applauds Students for Speaking Out, Responds to Critics

Steven Engravalle said he was at a meeting in the Washington, D.C. area Monday that had been planned for a long time, but that he's proud of the Fort Lee students who spoke out at the school board meeting in support of their teachers.

Fort Lee’s interim superintendent said Wednesday he wasn’t at the Fort Lee Board of Education meeting earlier this week because he was one of two superintendents from New Jersey invited to an executive briefing in Virginia with “a leading online provider of virtual education.”

Steven Engravalle, who reached out to Patch after the fallout from at which dozens of people, including many students, spoke out in support of two teachers whose contracts recently were not renewed, said that while he’s sorry he wasn’t able to be there for the BOE meeting, he did get the message.

“My only regret is that the students that were there, if for one second, they felt that I wasn’t listening, that makes me sad,” Engravalle said. “And I want to reiterate to them, and to anyone else, that I’m absolutely always listening. And just because I don’t agree doesn’t mean I didn’t hear what you’re saying.”

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Engravalle said, in fact, that he was proud of the students who got up to speak, noting, “I expected nothing less; we have terrific kids, and that’s what’s kept our district performing at a high level.”

He applauded them for “having that courage” to “speak their minds.”

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“Right now, I’m trying to figure out a way where I can get them to have my ear,” Engravalle continued. “I certainly regret not being there to make them feel heard.”

But he also said that if he had it to do over again, he wouldn’t change a thing.

He said the agenda for the meeting was “very light,” and he called Sharon Amato, who was in attendance at the auditorium Monday, “very capable.”

“If that were a regular meeting any other day, it would have been the same outcome—meaning I would have attended the meeting I was at,” Engravalle said.

The meeting he was at was with K12 in Herndon, Virginia—a meeting he described as “very important.”

“We’re looking to fully expand some of our course offerings and also provide support for some of our students who may need some mediation and intervention as we look to bring blended learning models and virtual learning models into our schools as we move forward into the 21st century,” Engravalle said, describing the K12 meeting. “The conversation hinged upon where K12 is as far as the education market and how they can support the things that we’re doing here and help us expand in a fiscally responsible manner our programs and offerings for our students within the constraints of our space issues and our budgetary issues.”

Speaking Wednesday, Engravalle also sought to set the record straight on the issue of non-renewals.

“You don’t recommend a non-renewal,” he said. “I have to recommend a renewal, so by not recommending people, they’re automatically non-renewed, and there’s a process.”

He said the Rice process prevents him from saying anything about seventh grade Language Arts teacher Christina Martelo, seventh grade Science teacher Ian Zellman or any other employee unless they’ve received a Rice notice and agreed to have that discussion take place either in public or in private.

“It’s their prerogative, and there were no Rice notices for that night,” he said, adding, “All of that took place at the April 16 meeting, when all non-tenured teachers were Riced.”

“Any conversations that needed to be had took place in executive session,” Engravalle added. “No one invoked their right to have any discussions in public.”

He went on to call the students’ actions Monday a “part of the democratic process.”

“If anyone chooses to act differently, that’s their prerogative; perhaps some people need to take that lesson from the students,” Engravalle said. “They set a great example, and hopefully everyone who attends those meetings, whether on a regular basis or once in a blue moon, takes the lesson that it’s okay to speak your mind, and it’s okay to disagree as long as we’re respectful and professional.”

Engravalle invited anyone who wants to speak with him directly to call, email or make an appointment.


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