BOE civility questioned at meeting.
By: Lea Kahn
A handful of audience members Jan. 12 called on school board member Bill Michaelson to resign from his seat on the Lawrence Township Board of Education, though he said he has no plans to step down.
Mr. Michaelson said he "owes it to the people" who voted for him to continue to serve on the school board.
Other audience members called for a return to civility at school board meetings and noted that the community has become a divided one.
The calls for Mr. Michaelson’s resignation were based on a criminal charge of theft of identity, filed against him in August 2004.
Mr. Michaelson, who offered a not-guilty plea when he was arraigned in August, was accepted into the state Superior Court’s Pre-Trial Intervention program in December. It is offered to first-time offenders involved in non-violent crimes.
As part of the PTI agreement, Mr. Michaelson is required to perform 50 hours of community service and also undergo one year of supervision by a probation officer. He has been assessed $125 in penalties, payable to the Victims of Crime Compensation Board and the Safe Streets Program.
But that was not enough for several audience members, at least one of whom challenged Mr. Michaelson’s integrity and fitness to serve on the school board.
Jerry Weisberg of West Long Drive said he read Mr. Michaelson’s explanation of his actions in The Lawrence Ledger (in a Dec. 16 letter to the editor) but he found it hard to conceive that Mr. Michaelson could receive probation for his offense.
Dr. Weisberg told the school board members that they are "role models" for the community, and Mr. Michaelson’s actions were a "complete embarrassment" for Lawrence Township. Mr. Michaelson should resign, he said.
Kelly Benson of Stonicker Drive, who is married to school board president Philip Benson, queried Mr. Michaelson on his computer technology skills, noting that he is well versed in the field. She questioned how he could have made a mistake and inadvertently signed up for the e-bulletin.
Mr. Michaelson responded that he made an innocent and absent-minded mistake when he received notice of the e-bulletin. It was one of those absent-minded mistakes that everyone makes at one time or another, he said.
Mr. Michaelson was charged with the offense for allegedly obtaining an Internet e-bulletin by impersonating Schools Superintendent Max Riley. He arranged for Educational Research Services to send its e-bulletin to his e-mail address on Feb. 16, 2004, while he was a candidate for school board in the April school elections.
In his letter to the editor in December, he wrote, "After reading the newsletter, I decided to see if I might be able to receive it regularly. At the bottom of the e-mail, I found a link to update subscriber information. I clicked on it. The link took me to a page showing the e-mail address of a member of the administrative support staff at LTPS, not Dr. Riley. I replaced that e-mail with mine and clicked ‘save.’
"I realized that instead of adding myself to the subscription list, I probably had replaced someone. I immediately changed the e-mail back to the original address and clicked save. The entire sequence of events took less than two minutes."
Upon successful completion of PTI, the charge against him will be dismissed and there will be no record of the offense, according to Casey DeBlasio, a spokeswoman for the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.
Michael Canavan of Pine Knoll Drive said that he was approaching the school board "reluctantly" and asked for Mr. Michalson’s resignation. Mr. Canavan is a former school board candidate.
Mr. Canavan agreed with Dr. Weisberg’s assertion that Mr. Michaelson is an embarrassment to the school board. Seeking Mr. Michaelson’s resignation is not out of line, he said, adding that the school board member’s actions reflect on his character.
At the same time, Mr. Canavan noted the rise in incivility at school board meetings. The meetings have turned into an "us versus them" affair. He encouraged the school board and the community to have an increased level of respect for each other.
Joyce Copleman of Titus Avenue and Andrea Pennington of White Pine Circle decried the divisiveness within the community to the point that people won’t talk to each other.
Ms. Copleman said that people she used to greet when she saw them on the street won’t talk to her now. The situation has become "really ugly" and it is time to get back on track, she said, adding that the divisiveness has made her sad.
Ms. Pennington said she does not want to attend school board meetings because of the stress level. If you talk to one person, someone else won’t talk to you, she said.
"I try my hardest to believe that no one is here if they don’t want do something positive for the children," she said. "We need to think about what we are doing and how we treat each other. We are stabbing ourselves in the back."
"We have become so war-like," Ms. Pennington said. "I don’t believe anyone came here to fight. If they did, please go home and watch TV."

