Judge orders Teaneck school board to correct 'deficiencies' from meetings

TEANECK — A judge has ordered the township's school board to correct procedural "deficiencies" from its December and January meetings where members voted to remove the high school's principal.

The board responded that it will comply at its Aug. 21 meeting.

The July 18 order by Bergen County Superior Court Judge Carol Catuogno is in response to a verified complaint filed by former Councilman Keith Kaplan in January. Kaplan charged the district with a variety of irregularities leading up to the controversial vote to remove Pedro Valdes III, principal since July 1, 2020, of the 1,271-student, 109-teacher high school, from his job.

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Valdes was removed from the high school to a "principal on assignment" post and later relocated to be the principal of the district's 27-student two-teacher preschool.

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Catuogno ruled the district "failed to comply with the mandates of the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act" and ordered the district to "cure the deficiencies" of its Dec. 21, 2023 and Jan. 3, meetings within 70 days. She also ordered the district to "strictly adhere to all the mandates of the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act" moving forward.

The Sunshine Law, also known as the Open Public Meetings Act or OPMA, gives the public the right to witness and be present during meetings held by public bodies.

The two-page order does not list the specific "deficiencies" to be corrected. According to Kaplan's complaint, they included:

• Deficient special public meeting notice;
• Notice submitted to one newspaper, two required;
• Agenda not posted within hours of meeting;
• The agenda only listed "personnel" as a topic, not the specific employee or proposed change;
• Board members departed from agenda order at the meeting;
• Walk-in motion presented for staffing changes not listed in agenda;
• Motion made to reduce public comment from 3 minutes to 2 minutes;
• The meeting was held by remote broadcast only, with no in-person attendance;
• The request for public discussion was ignored, and comment by Valdes was cut off.

Kaplan charged that the district rushed through the staffing change in December before three new board members took office in January. However, Catuogno dismissed three of the five counts charging irregularities at other meetings on Jan. 4, 2023 and Nov. 15, 2023, and a request to invalidate Valdes' transfer.

"We are content with the judge’s ruling," board attorney Stephen Edelstein said Thursday. "Three of the five counts were dismissed outright, and, as to the other two, Mr. Kaplan did not get what he was asking for. He wanted the court to void the actions taken at two specific meetings, but the court refused to do so. Instead, it gave the board 70 days to pass a resolution ratifying the prior actions. We anticipate that this resolution will be on the agenda at the meeting of Aug. 21," Edelstein said.

During the special meeting on Dec. 21, 2023, School Superintendent Andre Spencer stated a change in staff leadership was needed to oversee seniors whose math and English scores indicated they were in danger of not graduating. Spencer brought in Whittier Elementary School Principal Piero LoGiudice to fill the seat.

The board attempted to correct the deficiencies of its December meeting at its reorganization session on Jan. 3, however, Business Administrator and Secretary Haqquisha Taylor announced at the beginning of that meeting that it had not been properly noticed either.

In a separate complaint filed on May 31 by Valdes with the Public Employment Relations Commission, he charged his removal was the result of ongoing disagreements with Spencer, who joined the district in January 2022. Most notably, the two clashed on how to handle a controversial Nov. 29, 2023 pro-Palestinian walkout by a group of high school students protesting Israel's reaction to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas armed attack in Gaza.

As a result of that protest and the objections of the township's Jewish community, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights opened a Title VI Shared Ancestry Investigation on the district in January.

Defending the board against the Kaplan complaint has cost the district $16,304 in legal fees, according to invoices filed by the Weiner Law Group to the district from January through June. The judge ordered the district to reimburse Kaplan $400.

Kaplan, a clerk with a New York City law firm, served on the township council from 2016 to 2022, but was defeated for a new term by a Rise4Teaneck slate in a nine-candidate race for four seats. He has since maintained a "Teaneck Today" commentary about the township on Facebook, but denies he is interested in a seat on the council or school board.

"I'm getting zero out of this other than that the right thing is happening," Kaplan said Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Judge orders Teaneck school board to correct 'deficiencies' from meetings