Brilliant Futility?

Community members made their voices heard, pleaded their case and were able to convince the BOE to table a motion that would have provided the Ft Lee School District with some continuity through another transitional leadership period. Brilliantly futile! What does it get the School District? Postponement? Instability?

A very small group of citizens from the south end of town appealed to the BOE to have a motion tabled to appoint an acting superintendent; albeit with much false, missing, and/or misleading information. I disagree with the manipulation of personal information to skew fact, attempt to publicly humiliate, to insight hysteria and create a mob mentality. And perhaps laying a ground work for their own candidate? The BOE allowed excessive use of time, grandstanding and then bought right into it. The arguments of this small group were successful in undermining efforts of the board to appoint an interim/acting superintendent. The case against Mr. Engravalle, after all the inflammatory, personal, misused and incomplete information is spewed about, is that he is young. Yet his success at such young age is a credit to his character, don’t we want that here, in Fort Lee? Unto itself, his career success speaks to his ability, work ethic and commitment to education. But this group is more interested in judgment of personal decisions and exploitation of newspaper articles, not fact.

Now what everyone is speaking about is what that small group did; who they are and what role they played. And what the motivation for this really is! Who do they want in? I want to take it a step further and talk about what the BOE did and then how Mr. Engravalle reacted.

The BOE permitted the grandstanding and excessive use of time by this group. That has to stop. This is not a one issue meeting, nor does a small group represent more than who is present at the meeting. Please ,do not speculate that there is more support behind the argument not appoint Engravalle as interim Superintendent, he has tremendous support in the community! The school district needs continuity right now, not continued divisiveness, and falling victim to bullish behavior. Several of you fell victim to the hysteria poised by this very eloquent orator, and permitted yourselves to be swayed, even if it was just in appeasement. This was evident by the behavior and conversations outside the library after the meeting.

Now let’s talk about Mr. Engravalle’s behavior during the meeting. Most of you reading this who were not at the meeting are anticipating something outrageous and salacious right about now, aren’t you? Well, not here. Mr. Engravalle conducted himself with the strength of character and dignity I have come to expect from him. He endured, and the following is only a small list of what went on; verbatim readings of an old newspaper article, which was incorrect, and entirely inflammatory,  the bomb of  personal financial matters that were used to humiliate and disparage his character, then the BOE members moved to table the motion to approve him as acting Superintendent. However, he was never rude, or defensive. He explained himself where needed and endured a situation that was by all means meant to unhinge him. This ability to remain professional under this type of situation, this type of personal attack, just proves that he can handle the stresses and duties of being a superintendent.

So, I too will call on the BOE to do what they were elected to do: manage the larger scale picture of education in this town. Take care of the immediate need of appointing the acting/interim Superintendent. Mr. Engravalle has the credentials, experience and can easily transition into the role. Then, take a breath, you can research who the best candidate would be for the position, although I doubt you will find another better than who is in your own house right now. It would also be an incredible opportunity to scour the employment market for a qualified assistant superintendent that represents the diversity of culture in Ft Lee. Ethnic diversity may be well received by the whole Fort Lee community!