Ramapo Indian Hills school board chooses superintendent candidate, doesn't reveal name

OAKLAND — The Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education voted 5-4 to submit a draft contract for a third superintendent candidate to the Bergen County Office of Education for review.

The regular session vote followed the May 28 hiring and June 27 rescinding of a $1.9 million, five-year contract for Ronnie Tarchichi. A second candidate was under consideration by the board while in executive session at special meetings on July 1 and July 11, but it was never acted on. Details of the third contract were not made public.

The names of the second and third candidates have not been released by the board.

Board Vice President Marianna Emmolo called the search a "perfect process" with "numerous" candidates who were "very qualified." However, at Monday night's meeting, two trustees declared the third candidate "unqualified" for the post, and three protested they were not part of contract discussions for the third candidate.

"Why has the process we used for both candidates one and two changed for candidate three?" asked Trustee Tom Bogdansky. "This lack of consultation not only undermines the principles of transparency and accountability, but also diminishes the legitimacy of the decisions made."

Trustees Aaron Lorenz and Helen Koulikourdis agreed, declaring the third candidate "unqualified." Koulikourdis protested that Board President Kim Ansh had violated the Open Public Meetings Act regulations by consulting board members about the contract by telephone.

"We were not part of the negotiations, we were not part of this contract," Koulikourdis said. "It's an OPMA violation, board of ed 101. If you call more than five people, that's a meeting."

Ansh countered that "board members can say whatever you want in public, we went through the process, the person is highly qualified."

"There have been conversations with the full board," Ansh said. "There were five members of the board who delayed our hiring a search firm. The same board members are trying again to delay the process, and that's not what's best for the district."

Five trustees voted in favor of submitting the third contract draft: Ansh, Emmolo, Melissa Kiel, Doreen Mariani and Audrey Souders. Four members voted against: Bogdansky, Koulikourdis, Lorenz and Brian DeLaite.

In the opening moments of the school board meeting on Monday, Ansh announced there were new county regulations about superintendent contracts requiring two public votes: one authorizing the submission of a draft contract, and one authorizing the specific agreement with the named candidate. She said that was the procedure used for the board's first candidate vote on the Tarchichi contract.

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Ansh said the board voted in February to conduct a confidential search. However, Emmolo charged the process was being jeopardized by information leaks to the community.

"There's a narrative being built here for a reason, that there have been flaws in the process," Emmolo said. "But I'm here to tell you that there were not, and that the process is not broken. The decision is not hasty. We put a lot of time and effort into this search, and I think that whoever we choose is going to be a great leader."

An already complex meeting was further complicated by charges from audience members that acting Superintendent Melissa Quackenbush had inserted herself in the superintendent search process, specifically seeking to have herself named assistant superintendent.

Former Franklin Lakes grade school Trustee Margaret Bennett said at the meeting that she received documents indicating previous interim Superintendent James Baker, as well as Tarchichi, had refused Quackenbush's request.

The document in question, Bennett said, shows that Tarchichi informed Quackenbush "that she should have waited to make changes to the supervisor structure and that he intended to undo much of the top-heavy structure that she created."

The district and the board have made no public statement as to why Tarchichi's contract was rescinded four days before he was due to start work on July 1.

DeLaite said he intended to email the executive county superintendent on Tuesday to share his concerns "with any possibility of the assistant superintendent position being created that would, in my opinion, be counter to the economic and academic needs of our districts."

The majority of the board defended Quackenbush.

"I just I wanted to take a moment to thank Dr. Quackenbush for all of her hard work that she has put into the district in her short time here as the head of the education and personnel committee," said Souders. "I can attest to the fact of how much time, how much she loves what she does, how much she is trying to improve our district. And I think that everything she does is directed toward that goal of improving our students and our district's reputation."

Representatives of the Illinois-based Hazard Young Attea Associates search firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its role in facilitating a search process that has so far resulted in three candidates being considered.

The board's next meeting, including proposed curriculum changes, is Aug. 25.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Ramapo Indian Hills school board chooses superintendent candidate, doesn't reveal name