OAKLAND — The Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education will hold a special meeting on Monday night, the first since it rescinded the five-year $1.9 million contract for its new superintendent.
The board is expected to discuss unspecified personnel issues at the 7 p.m. meeting on the day Ronnie Tarchichi was scheduled to assume his duties as superintendent of the 2,000-student, two high-school district serving Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff.
On Monday morning, Tarchichi remained listed as superintendent on the website of the 4,828-student 10-school Pennsauken School District in Camden County where he has served since 2016.
Requests to Tarchichi and Pennsauken officials to confirm his status were not immediately returned on Monday.
The Ramapo Indian Hills school board did not explain last Thursday as it voted 5-0-3 to rescind Tarchichi's contract offer. The five trustees who voted in favor of rescinding were President Kim Ansh, Vice President Marianna Emmolo, Melissa Kiel, Doreen Mariani and Audrey Souders. Trustee Brian DeLaite was absent and Tom Bogdansky, Helen Koulikourdis and Aaron Lorenz abstained from voting.
In a separate statement on June 16, Board President Kim Ansh confirmed there had been discussion on whether Tarchichi could continue serving his former school district as a paid consultant after agreeing to join the Ramapo Indian district a month after his hiring was announced on May 28. However, the board gave no indication this was the reason that led to the contract being rescinded last week.
Superintendents typically give three months' notice when departing. Outgoing superintendent Rui Dionisio announced last August he would leave in November to assume charge of the Fair Lawn School District. However, a five-member majority of the Ramapo Indian Hills board has pressed to have someone in office by July 1 since authorizing the search in January.
It is not clear what the significance of the board attached to a July start. Previous Superintendent Beverly Mackay announced her pending August 2021 retirement in October 2019, but it took the board until March 2021 to hire the Illinois-based search firm of Hazard Young Atea Associates to find her replacement. Dionisio was hired in August 2021 and did not join the district until that November.
Hazard Young Atea Associates also handled the current search that resulted in the hiring of Tarchichi.
In a second vote last Monday, the board approved a 60-day extension of Acting Superintendent Melissa Quackenbush's contract by a 5-3 vote. A motion to initiate a search for an interim superintendent failed by a 3-5 vote.
The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at the Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education Office Conference Room at Indian Hills High School, 131 Yawpo Ave., Oakland. The meeting may also be viewed remotely on Board Livestream through the Ramapo Indian Hills board site.
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