By KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
WOODBRIDGE — Teaching certificates for a former Avenel Street School 4 & 5 principal, who was one of the educators named in the Woodbridge School District cheating scandal in 2012, have been suspended for six months by the New Jersey Department of Education State Board of Examiners.
Dara Kurlander had submitted a proposal to the board to agree to a six-month suspension of her certificates after her teaching certification matter was transmitted to the Office of Administrative Law for a hearing. The board approved her proposal at a meeting on Jan. 19.
She did not admit or concede to the truth of the allegations in the Order to Show Cause to revoke her teaching certificates, according to the order.
Kurlander resigned from the Woodbridge Township School District last year.
The Board of Education had approved a separation agreement between the board and Kurlander, which was effective Dec. 31, 2016.
Kurlander had been serving as supervisor of intervention and referral services, ESL and bilingual programs.
She holds a Teacher of the Handicapped certificate, which was issued in November 1996, a Teacher of Elementary School Certificate of Eligibility With Advanced Standing issued in March 1997, a Teacher of Elementary School Certificate issued in April 2003, a Principal Certificate of Eligibility issued in January 2004, a Supervisor Certificate issued in February 2004 and a Principal Certificate issued in February 2013.
In 2012, Kurlander was one of five district employees who were accused in an August 2012 report by the state Department of Education’s Office of Fiscal Accountability and Compliance (OFAC) of interfering with the NJ ASK tests at Ross Street School No. 11 and Avenel Street School No. 4 & 5.
The board conducted its own investigation and determined in August 2013 that all allegations concerning Kurlander, who was the former principal at Avenel Street School, were inconclusive and had appointed her to the supervisory role in August 2013.