Schools

RIH Names New Superintendent Amid Three Board of Ed Resignations

Current Curriculum Director will serve as Superintendent. Meanwhile, the Board is looking to fill three vacancies.

Over the course of about a week, Ramapo Indian Hills has named a new Superintendent and said goodbye to three more Board of Education members who resigned apparently amidst the superintendent selection process.

According to a NorthJersey.com report, RIH announced this week that current Curriculum Director Beverly MacKay will be the district’s next permanent Superintendent.

The top spot in the district has been open since Lauren Schoen left for a job in Mahwah last year. MacKay served in the role for several months last summer, and Interim Superintendent Ernie Palestis has been serving since September.

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The details of MacKay’s contract have not been released, as they are pending approval from the county, the report said. However, a state salary cap will prevent her salary from being any higher than $157,500 plus 15-percent bonuses.

Also this week, Ramapo Indian Hills Administration released a call to fill three vacant Board of Education seats. About two months after the resignation of Franklin Lakes Trustee Debra Strauss, three other board members announced their immediate resignations, effective April 23.

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According to district officials, RIH is looking to appoint residents to replace Wyckoff trustees Lynn Budd and Isabelle Lanini, and Oakland Trustee Elizabeth Pierce, who all resigned prior to the end of their terms.

Palestis declined to comment on the resignations. According to NorthJersey.com, they all came the week that the Board was slated to interview the final four candidates for the Superintendent job, of which MacKay was one.

At its meeting this week, the Board appointed Lisa Sciancalepore, a former Board of Ed member in the Franklin Lakes K-8 district, to replace Strauss. It has 65 days to appoint replacements for Budd, Lanini, and Pierce, district officials said.

The personnel changes all come after an apparently disputed Superintendent search. Last year, the Board of Ed announced it would conduct its own search without hiring a search firm. However, in February, it announced it would instead hire a firm to conduct the search.

Some members of the three communities the district serves have voiced concerns about the unrest on the BOE.

"It is a giant concern for us," Rob Francin, the president of the Wyckoff K-8 Board of Education told Patch.

The resignations and apparent unrest at the Board level, "take the focus off of educating our kids, and puts in to to Board politics, and that's not where it should be."

Wyckoff and Oakland residents interested in filling the open Board seats should Interested community members should submit a letter of interest and any other pertinent information to Frank C. Ceurvels, Business Administrator/Board Secretary, Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District Board of Education, 131 Yawpo

Avenue, Oakland, by Thursday, May 15. Letters of interest will be reviewed by the Board of Education, and candidates will be interviewed by the Board of Education on Tuesday, May 20, officials said. 


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