{"id":143,"date":"2013-11-03T23:49:20","date_gmt":"2013-11-03T23:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/?p=143"},"modified":"2016-08-11T04:07:01","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T04:07:01","slug":"boe-election-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/?p=143","title":{"rendered":"BOE Election 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"d55b050fc4ebb0a00509a36d77fb935e\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Next Tuesday, November 5, 2013, is Election Day.\u00a0 While Chris Christie smothers his competition and Cory Booker feeds his oversized ego by having won a Senate seat, we have our own Fort Lee BOE election, four candidates for three positions on a nine person board. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jeffrey Weinberg, the only non-incumbent is highly likely to prevail.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ve never met Mr. Weinberg or heard him speak.\u00a0 But he has one major attribute, \u201cHE IS NOT ON THE CURRENT BOARD\u201d.\u00a0 Considering what has occurred over the past few years, that should be the only credential necessary to be elected.\u00a0<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

The biggest problem seems to be this \u201cOath of Confidentiality\u201d which transforms itself into a total lack of transparency.\u00a0\u00a0 Laws regarding \u201cRice notices\u201d prevent speaking about any public employee without giving them written notice.\u00a0 But this cloak of secrecy about every other issue has been extremely frustrating, particularly when the school system appeared to be on the verge of a state takeover in August 2013.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Incumbents:\u00a0 Yusang Park, BOE President, has been in charge since the departure of Arthur Levine in August 2012.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Charlie Luppino has been a Board member for many years and Candee Romba was elected in November 2012 to fill the vacancy left by Mr. Levine.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is impossible to ignore the fact that the district has been in utter chaos during the past year.\u00a0 Lets look at the BOE accomplishments in 2012-2013:\u00a0<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0(1) \u00a0As of August 2013, there was no Superintendent of Schools in Fort Lee.\u00a0 Fortunately, when Paul Saxton was finally engaged, probably preventing a State takeover of our schools, he had absolutely no time to prepare for the 2013-14 school year.\u00a0 Beginning in September 2013, he could not possibly have mentally prepared for the \u201chornets’ nest\u201d of problems that were left unaddressed by our current BOE.\u00a0 Mr. Saxton has been here for less than 60 days and continues to deal with the daily crisis that calls itself the Fort Lee school system.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

(2) As of August 2013, there was no high school principal.\u00a0 Priscilla Church, prior principal, had been unilaterally dismissed and transferred to the preschool program with \u201ctwo days notification\u201d in late June 2013, showing total disrespect to a dedicated professional.\u00a0 But the BOE, knowing that she was going to be transferred had \u201cNO BACKUP PLAN\u201d.\u00a0 Any private corporation would have hired a replacement to be prepared for the upcoming 2013-14 school year. But our BOE decided to go into crisis mode. When Dr. Frank Calabria was finally engaged, he was not able to assume the position until after September 1, giving him absolutely no time to acclimate and to prepare for the upcoming year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(3) On September 26, 2013, a letter outlining charges of possible misconduct was filed against a BOE member, Joseph Surace, and the Director of Buildings & Grounds, Jack DeNichilo.\u00a0 The BOE says the matter is under investigation. Dennis McKeever, Board Attorney, when asked how long the investigation would take, responded with his usual candidness, \u201cI don\u2019t think it will take a year\u201d.\u00a0 Thank you Dennis for your forthrightness! \u00a0In the opinion of at least one community member, your legal bills totaling over $ 84,000 through July 2013 are a tribute to the BOE ability to squander budget money. \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Surace has also been accused of smoking on School grounds illegally, something I have personally witnessed.\u00a0 Note: Diane Sicheri, head of the Homeowners Association, unwilling to recognize the fact that smoking is \u201cforbidden on school grounds\u201d publically announced that her husband is a smoker and she wishes the \u201csmoking police\u201d would leave these poor people alone.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jack DeNichilo has been allegedly using janitors, i.e. school personnel, and paying them overtime to set up the athletic fields for the Fort Lee Jr. Bridgemen, a recreational football league.\u00a0 Coincidentally, it has been brought to my attention that Jack appears to be treasurer of this league, i.e. a major conflict of interest.\u00a0\u00a0 Note:\u00a0 Diane Sicheri, again displaying her total lack of ability to comprehend misconduct and lack of ethics, \u00a0defended Mr. DeNichilo\u2019s actions by stating that she knew he was being misjudged because he had assisted her with the Homeowner\u2019s Candidates Night at the middle school. \u00a0The only conclusion to be drawn is that one has the right to misuse BOE funds for non-school purposes as long as you assist Diane Sicheri with her agenda.\u00a0<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

(4) In September 2012, virtually everyone in Fort Lee, apparently with the exception of the BOE members, knew that Linda Farrell, Director of the Academy of Finance, was retiring at the end of the school year. \u00a0Then when Nadege Stretz resigned in May 2013 and Brian McCarthy in June 2013, there was no Director and no teachers left in the Fort Lee High School Academy of Finance.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One of our finest programs was left floating on the high seas with no rudder, no pilot, and no crew, the Fort Lee version of the \u201cFlying Dutchman\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 And then after the smoke cleared, the Board, out of desperation, hired Brian McCarthy back for the summer to manage the AOF internship program!\u00a0 That was almost laughable.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

(5) In September 2012, virtually everyone in Fort Lee knew that Barbara Pastore, Director of the Community Service program, was retiring at the end of the school year.\u00a0 Yet on October 1, 2013, after the school year had already begun, there was no director to run the Community Service program.\u00a0 And it took members of the community to pursue this issue until the BOE finally appointed a current staff member to assume the responsibilities of this position.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

(6) Cheryl Balletto, our \u201cpermanent\u201d Business Administrator, was given a ten month leave of absence upon having a child.\u00a0\u00a0 She had accrued a large amount of sick time and vacation time to allow her to receive full pay for the majority of this LOA.\u00a0 In private business, leaves of that magnitude would probably never be granted, but for the Fort Lee BOE, it was just business as usual.\u00a0\u00a0 And if that weren\u2019t enough of a \u201cgift\u201d, Cheryl was granted a contract where she only has to work \u201c4 DAYS PER WEEK\u201d, for full salary over the next FOUR YEARS!\u00a0 Don\u2019t we all wish we had that deal?!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

(7) But it gets better! Robert Brown is hired as interim Business Administrator, because Cheryl\u2019s assistant, Ana Flores, decides she does not want to step up to fill the position (or someone decided she was not capable), costing the district major bucks.\u00a0 But then Mr. Brown resigns and another interim Business Administrator, David Rinderknecht, is hired, for $ 70 per day more than Mr. Brown was making!\u00a0\u00a0 Is this Keystone Kops Finance or what?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

(8) Our new high school gym is finally complete and ready for action.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it is now November.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t it have been nice if the project had been properly supervised and completed by school opening day in September 2013?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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It is highly probably that there are at least a dozen more examples of the BOE not performing up to reasonable expectations:\u00a0 e.g. missing chrome books: no Honors Chemistry textbooks; no Director of Guidance; the hiring of a special ed consultant who performed her duties while in Greece.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i>This lists reads like a modern edition of Ripley\u2019s \u201cBelieve it or Not\u201d.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Can one new BOE member make a difference? Who knows? The answer is that a message needs to be sent to this Board that their performance has been abysmal. Our only option is to elect Jeffrey Weinberg and hope that he brings something to the table that is not currently there, business acumen.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Kudos to \u201cPearls of Wisdom\u201d:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

On August 25, 2012, I published a blog on Judge Shira A. Sheindlin\u2019s decision regarding \u00a0\u201cstop and frisk tactics\u201d, deriding her lack of insight and obvious bias in reprimanding the NYPD.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0On Thursday, October 31, 2013, a federal appeals court threw out Judge Scheindlin\u2019s decision, and verbally berated her tactics, stating that she \u201cran afoul of the judiciary code of conduct by compromising the appearance of impartiality surrounding the litigation\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>(The judges obviously read the blog).<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b> www.nytimes.com<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/b>11-01-2013.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Keep updated. Follow on twitter:\u00a0 pearlsofwisdm14<\/b>\"d55b050fc4ebb0a00509a36d77fb935e\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Next Tuesday, November 5, 2013, is Election Day.\u00a0 While Chris Christie smothers his competition and Cory Booker feeds his oversized ego by having won a Senate seat, we have our own Fort Lee BOE election, four candidates for three positions on a nine person board. \u00a0 Jeffrey Weinberg, the only non-incumbent is highly likely to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}