Candidates Call on BOE to Retain Curriculum Director

As the contract for curriculum director Cheryl Best neared its June 30 expiration last week, candidates for the school board called on the district to retain the outgoing administrator, who herself accused the board of playing politics with its decision to drop her from the post.

Best had scheduled a Donaldson hearing for the June 26 meeting, named for a school law decision that provides school employees the option of a public hearing on reasons for the nonrenewal of their contract.

In a statement read on her behalf by Kathie Schwartz, a candidate for the school board, Best said she opted not to go through with the hearing, believing she could not “present the facts in a way that they will be understood by those whose minds are already made up.”

The board voted five to four in April not to renew Best’s contract, at the same meeting during which it accepted the resignation of superintendent Frank Romano. Supporters of Best both before and after the vote urged the board to rethink the decision.

Candidates Vicki Holst and Schwartz, a former board president who lost her bid for reelection last November, called on the board again during the meeting to backtrack on its decision and retain Best.

“Is it really in the best interests of our children, teachers and administrators to push this extra burden on our existing staff?” Schwartz asked the board, citing ongoing state-mandated curriculum adjustments and the failure of a new curriculum director to yet emerge from the district’s search.

“We have the need, we have the budget, and we have a very strong administrator already here,” she continued. “I sincerely hope the board will reconsider keeping Cheryl Best so that we do not lose any more time in preparing our schools for the upcoming challenges.”

Romano told northjersey.com last month that he hoped to recommend a curriculum director at the June 26 meeting, and that though a committee is interviewing candidates no sitting curriculum directors had emerged from the search.

“I think the recent events in the district seem to have impacted the outcome of this search,” Romano said, according to the report, referring to a “weaker candidate pool” he believed was produced by the politics on the board.

Holst, who before the board’s vote not to renew Best’s contract presented a 198-signature petition supporting the administrator, echoed Romano’s assessment in her comments at the meeting last week, and joined Schwartz in asking the board to reconsider its April decision.

“I’m asking all of you to provide the support that our teachers deserve to get us through this time of uncertainty in our district,” she said. “Reinstate Cheryl Best and reinstate stability into this district.”

She suggested that, should the board maintain its decision not to renew Best, it consider keeping her on as a consultant until a replacement can be found.

Romano has said he would consider hiring an interim to fill the position if the right candidate does not emerge from the search, but officials have indicated the timetable for a summer appointment is still on track.

In her statement, Best listed what she said were numerous accomplishments during her tenure in Franklin Lakes, thanking supporters in the district but implying that the decision not to renew her contract was the result of district politics rather than a balanced assessment of her work.

“I am hopeful that Franklin Lakes will elect board members who demonstrate that they care more about education than about their own contrarian personal agendas,” she wrote.

Though the statement had been read and support for Best expressed by two candidates vying for seats in November, the controversy surrounding the curriculum director position is not a likely campaign issue. The three incumbents seeking reelection—Richard Koeniegsberg, James Martino, and Christine Christopoul—all voted in favor of retaining Best in April.

Board president Larry Loprete, reached Monday, declined to respond directly to Best’s statement.