By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Hillsborough school board president Thomas Kinst was critical Monday night of fellow board member Steven Cohen’s published letter on the high school athletics program last week.
At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Kinst said Mr. Cohen’s letter was not authorized by the board and did not reflect its view of the administration and the school athletics program.
The president said the board is “fully supportive” of the district’s athletic programs “and the professionals responsible for administration of those programs.”
The letter to the editor was headlined “School board member Cohen urges public to express views on athletics.”
In an accompanying article Mr. Cohen said he had tried to respond to people’s comments to him by prodding the administration to review practices within the athletic department. He encouraged people to bring their feelings directly to the board at public meetings.
Mr. Kinst said the letter “reflects this board member’s personal opinions that are critical of the district’s school athletics program and those responsible for its administration.”
The headline on the letter, its contents and an accompanying article “regrettably. . . can be interpreted as suggesting that the opinions expressed may represent the opinions of the board, or that the opinions expressed by this board member were authorized by the board. Neither is the case,” said Mr. Kinst.
“To be clear, the board has not expressed, and did not authorize any board member to express, an opinion that is in any way critical of the district’s school athletics program or those responsible for its administration,” Mr. Kinst said. “To the contrary, all public statements by the board have been fully supportive of the district’s athletic programs at all levels of athletic competition.”
Mr. Kinst said Mr. Cohen had the right to make public statements, but they “must be made in the role of a citizen, not board member.” Mr. Kinst said board members are required to make clear that public comments are written in the role of citizen and not written on behalf of the board. He said the writer must identify himself or herself as board member and expressly indicate a letter was neither authorized by, nor written on behalf of, the board.
The text of the letter is on page 4A of today’s paper.
“I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to dispel any such false impression,” Mr. Kinst said.
Mr. Cohen arrived late for the meeting and did not hear Mr. Kinst’s remarks directly.
Superintendent Jorden Schiff offered statistics and facts to show his “full-throated support of the athletic program” of 66 teams and 82 coaches at the high school and 11 teams and 17 coaches at middle school.
He said in the years 2003-16 that Raider teams had won 71 conference championships and had 67 county and 30 state championship teams and 22 individual or relay championships.
He noted that Athletic Director Michael Fanizzi had been given the Directors of Athletics Association of New Jersey sectional award of merit this year.
There was only one speaker from the public in the comment period. Resident Augie Palumbo said “something has drastically gone wrong in the athletics department” and needs to be adjusted.
