Hackensack school board votes — twice — to affirm controversial decision not to retain 3 high school administratorsLast updated: Friday May 11, 2012, 12:59 AM
BY REBECCA D. O'BRIEN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
HACKENSACK — The school board voted for a second and third time late Thursday night to dismantle the administration at Hackensack High School, near the end of a raucous meeting at which dozens of parents, students and teachers condemned the trustees for the move.
MARKO GEORGIEV/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
School security officials called the walkout the largest in 25 years. 
MARKO GEORGIEV/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Students began to pour from their classes at 1:10 p.m. The crowd of several hundred had demanded answers from four board members who blocked the renewal of contracts for Principal James Montesano and two vice principals, Patricia Aquino-Lozano and Celso King, in a surprise move on Tuesday.
One by one, audience members rose on Thursday to express concern over the state of the district and admiration for school administrators. Some denounced board members by name, while others expressed a wish for reconciliation. Students support had been evident earlier in the day, when nearly the entire student body walked out of classes for a rally on the football field in support of their administrators, whom many described Thursday night as “part of the family.”
“You trustees aren’t in the school, these kids are,” said Donna Denicola, to standing applause. “And they adore their administrators.”
The conflict started during a school board meeting Tuesday.
Superintendent Joseph Abate said he had given the board a list of a dozen employees whose contracts he recommended that the board not renew. They included teachers, custodians, paraprofessionals and a certified director. Those recommendations, based on what Abate said were “accountability issues,” were uncontested and were expected to be smoothly endorsed in a routine vote, he said.
Instead, four trustees — Rhonda Bembry, Clarissa Gilliam Gardner, Carol Martinez and Kevon Larkins — said the three administrators’ contracts also would not be renewed.
With board member Mark Stein abstaining, the 10-member board did not have the six votes required to keep the administrators’ names on the renewal list.
Toward the end of a lengthy board meeting on Tuesday, the trustees took up the matter for a second and third time, each with the same 5-4 result, with Stein abstaining.
“I have lost sleep over issues I’ve made here,” Martinez said before Thursday’s vote. “I’ve cried over decisions.”
She added: “Because I believe you deserve the best, better than you get here, my answer remains no.”
Montesano, a former vice principal, had a starting salary of $156,518 and Aquino-Lozano, a former social studies teacher, started as a vice principal at $142,884. King’s starting salary was $142,884.
Earlier Thursday night, the divide on the board was evident. Trustees who supported the administrators largely stayed quiet as questions were directed to the four who did not support renewing their contracts.
Early in the meeting, Board President Veronica Bolcik McKenna said the vote was not related to the budget. “I don’t know why fellow trustees voted the way they did, but the budget passed in April had ample funding for all the positions.”
The board attorney said the trustees are not obligated to explain their votes, and in fact are legally prohibited from doing so when personnel matters are in question. But that did not keep the meeting from devolving into an argument over the state of the district and the strained relationship between the board and the school.
Hackensack High School has four vice-principal positions, an arrangement that Bembry said she has never supported. She pointed to the school’s low-C average as evidence of failure.
“Before I spend money on a model that doesn’t give a return, I’m going to look at the data behind it,” Bembry said, as the crowd grew increasingly restless. “I need people to be productive, efficient and academically focused. I don’t want the GPA of Hackensack High School to be a C.”
Her response was greeted with loud boos, inviting the increasingly combative crowd to face off against the board. At 7:30, school security moved the growing crowd to the gym while the board met in closed session.
When the meeting reconvened after 8 p.m., more parents and students accused board members of acting out of political and personal interests rather than out of concern for the students.
Mayor Jorge Meneses openly criticized the board, particularly Martinez, whom he said he had once supported. “How can you vote on something you don’t know anything about?” he said. “How can you presume to know better than the superintendent?”
As board members began to interrupt him, Meneses nearly shouted: “Let me speak now. Then you can say whatever you want. I feel we are under attack.” The audience responded with loud applause. A Hispanic student group waved signs at the back of the room.
The Police Department increased its presence in the room as the mood became increasingly combative and board members grew agitated. Several times, board members and speakers shouted at each other, as McKenna banged her gavel.
“I have been ashamed of this board for the past two years,” said Cori Carroll, a special education coordinator at the school whose children are students there. “The racial war that has gone down in this school system has made me question whether this is where I want to send my children. We are trying to raise human beings.”
In an interview, she said the racial tension, the worst she’d seen in 16 years at the school, had “nothing to do with the students,” and was entirely the administration’s fault.
Aquino-Lozano is Latina, and 29 percent of the students speak Spanish at home, according to the state Department of Education. Race and ethnicity have been lightening rods in previous decisions to hire and fire administrators, with vocal parent groups arguing that the school’s staff should reflect the diversity of the student body.
Evan Dopf, a field representative with the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, said the board might have broken the law in discussing the administrators at Tuesday’s meeting without first informing them.
McKenna, who listened quietly through much of the meeting, said the administrators’ names never came up at Tuesday’s meeting.
“There was no discussion at the meeting,” McKenna said. “It was during voting that we learned the feelings of the board.”
Apart from Bembry’s early reference to grades, little was revealed about board members’ motivation for voting against retaining the administrators.
Other speakers faulted the board’s use of grades and test scores as measures of success, testifying to the good work going on at the school. They urged the board to support the students, faculty and administrators. Many students rose to share personal stories of how the three administrators had helped them.
“For all the people who get up here talking about agendas, that’s not what it’s about,” said one father of two, taking a conciliatory tone. “Too often, our school gets in the newspaper for the wrong reasons. This is a bad reason.”
Email: obrien@northjersey.com
