I attended the Marlboro K-8 School District Board of Education meeting on March 17 to read a statement into the public record about the honored principal, Stephen Shifrinson, who is retiring after 38 years of dedicated and diligent service as an administrator with the district.
Upon arrival and as the board meeting unfolded, I witnessed what was a once destination school district in crisis.
Unanswered and not addressed at a prior meeting was the egregious affront to the Muslim community by a derogatory racist comment liked on Facebook by the board vice president, Victoria Dean.
Consequently, many people had come to voice their dissatisfaction with the superintendent’s and board’s inaction. This is the third major misstep given significant parent dissatisfaction with district communications by the superintendent over PARCC (exam) district procedures and having limited parent and teacher conferences to what he communicated as “at risk” students in a public letter.
Retiring Mr. Shifrinson was called upon by the superintendent to moderate for him a town hall to hear and respond to parent dissatisfaction with his communications on those matters. It appears new mediators will need to be found.
I witnessed an unorganized meeting with no consideration of the emerging needs of the community. People were being turned away from the board offices due to overcrowding. There were long and time-consuming presentations juxtaposed by a time-imposed public session enforced by a board attorney while the superintendent pecked away at his laptop. You can witness this on the board’s meeting video posted online.
The common aphorism is that we are known and judged by the company we keep. That is a problem with social media, as hateful comments such as Mrs. Dean’s “friend” posted should have been soundly repudiated by the superintendent, board president and Mrs. Dean, regardless if she claims it was just a mistake.
There were many people of courage and conviction who spoke articulately to this issue, including Marlboro High School students, and parents, some who supported Mrs. Dean’s character or right to free speech without understanding that she represents a student and parent body of significant diversity.
There is no room for prejudiced and hateful speech “liked” by a representative of a school board. One high school student asked, “What are you going to do?”
Under the former leadership, I believe several constructive actions would already have been put in place.
First, the March 17 board meeting should have been moved. It should have been held with advance notice at a middle school auditorium. It is a given that many community members would be in attendance. Secondly, given the gravity of this issue, and under any circumstances, the opening agenda items, though positive and of value, should have, as was common practice in the past, held to some time limit, rather than those, such as myself, who were adamantly cut off in mid-speech.
Or given the large number of people in attendance, some items such as demonstrations of a robot used in the after-school program could have been moved to the next meeting. It was well over an hour into the meeting before the public session started.
Many have called for Mrs. Dean to resign. Perhaps a petition will be forwarded to the board. Preferably, new leadership will stand forward from the community. But minimally and by now, the board president and superintendent needed to strongly and publicly in a written statement on the district website repudiate these kinds of posts Mrs. Dean “liked.”
They then needed to reach out to the Muslim community to set up some kind of educational workshops for all board members, and for middle school students. They also need to use this as a teachable moment about the perils of social media when not appropriately vetted. The board president and superintendent should also attend a separate public forum on this issue to hear continued grievances as a way in good faith to answer the young man’s cogent question, “What are you going to do about this?” Then the superintendent can explain district practices going forward, for students, parents, and expectations for board members.
This may allow some healing to begin. So would a higher calling by Mrs. Dean to resign, but if she remained, her comment about wishing she had Muslim friends would be better addressed by hearing and learning from her constituents who are Muslim.
The other egregious error by the superintendent and board was the apparent lack of consistent school district practice communicated about how to accommodate students not taking the PARCC exam. Inherent problems with PARCC aside, some kind of consistent and reasonable accommodations for these students should have been planned in advance, widely communicated among district principals, agreed upon, and set in place.
The current superintendent and board leadership are floating on a rudderless ship, and this can only portend greater obstacles or dangers ahead.
Jonathan Shutman, Ed.D., of Ocean Township, served as principal of the Marlboro Elementary School for 18 years.