RIH BOE Faces Backlash Over Leadership Decisions

Tonight's Special RIH BOE meeting was scheduled last week, after 5 members of the Board voted to rescind the contract of incoming Superintendent Ronald Tarchichi, a few days before the contract was set to start on July 1. The topic of tonight's meeting was advertised only as "Personnel".

Bellow is the 3 minute statement I made to the Board before they entered tonight's closed door session:

I’m here tonight to express my very deep concerns about what this Board is doing to this district.

It started last year under Judy Sullivan, when a majority took over and fired our district’s long standing and highly respected attorney, then proceeded to drive out the Business Administrator, the newly hired attorney, the Superintendent and the Curriculum Director. In addition to these they defunded student mental health initiatives, overturned “Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying” recommendations, and drove up district expenses while removing transparency.

This year the majority led by Kim Ansh hired an expensive consulting firm to hire a new Superintendent and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars restructuring the Subject Supervisors, appointing two ‘assistant curriculum directors, approving a new Curriculum Designer and approving a consulting contract for Curriculum Research. Not to mention the Board’s spending of $35,000 on a public relations firm to attempt to make the district look good in the midst of self-inflicted chaos. There has been a flurry of teacher resignations and retirements, excessive spending, all while the district can’t even offer a full range of classes to the students at Indian Hills.

Now you've rescinded the contract of the incoming Superintendent, when the ink was barely dry on the contract. I have to suspect that will result in a costly financial settlement to the FLOW taxpayers. No one is going to come to this district after what the five of you did to Dr. Tarchichi. Who would negotiate a contract with this Board after what the five of you did?

An Interim Superintendent is THE ONLY responsible choice for this district right now. We need an experienced leader.

Dr. Quackenbush is currently Acting Superintendent, even though NO CONTRACT was ever approved by this Board.

Dr. Quackenbush has never been a building principal or superintendent, and from a review of LinkedIn it is unclear if she has ever held a tenured leadership position in any of the districts she worked in. She does not have the experience to lead our district out of the mess that you have caused, she doesn’t even meet the criteria that this board had discussed publicly or set for its search for a new Superintendent. From what I can see, the primary outcome of her 4 months in our district has been a huge outpouring of taxpayer money to add layers of administration and staff to help her do the job she is being paid for.

As a concerned member of the public, and one with 12 years of experience as a member of the Franklin Lakes Board of Education, I strongly urge you prioritize stability and effective leadership by hiring a highly experienced interim superintendent to stabilize our district. A well-managed interim period will create a stable foundation, that will hopefully help to attract a large pool of permanent candidates who can lead us forward in a more conducive environment. I urge you to do the right thing for the taxpayers, staff, and students in this district, and commence an immediate search for an experienced Interim Superintendent. I urge you to do this unanimously and I urge you to follow processes that are discussed transparently in public and that are set by unanimous agreement.

I requested that my statement be included in the record of the meeting: