Superintendent Honored as County's Top Educator as Board Presses for Sharper Bullying Data

Superintendent Dirk Phillips was feted again at the October 3 Glen Ridge Board of Education meeting, with board president Elisabeth Ginsburg reporting that Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo and several of his aides had traveled to Glen Ridge to personally present Phillips with a proclamation honoring his selection as Essex County Superintendent of the Year.

The board accepted, with regret, the resignations of two Glen Ridge High School coaches: field hockey coach Victoria Ramirez and assistant field hockey coach Hannah Legotte, both effective September 27.

Much of the meeting centered on the district's state-mandated anti-bullying self-assessment, presented by Mr. DeWitt, who walked the board through the eight "core elements" — covering HIB programs, staff training, suicide-prevention instruction, reporting procedures and more — that each school grades itself on for a possible total score of 78. DeWitt said the district's scores have held steady in the mid-70s for years, with the state expected to certify the district's grade by October 31. Board members pushed back on what the numbers actually show: one asked why certain elements dipped by a point in some schools, while others, including Gottlieb, pressed DeWitt on whether the self-assessment tracks the actual effectiveness of anti-bullying programs on student behavior or merely measures staff training and program inputs. DeWitt acknowledged the tool is self-scored by each building administrator and said the district also relies on trends in confirmed incidents and parent programming to judge what's working.

Public comment on the topic was pointed. Resident MaryEllen Cusumano said the self-assessment results looked strong but were "mathematically immaterial" given how little they change year to year, and asked how many programs the district runs, who runs them, and how many students are actually affected by anti-bullying efforts — a question board members said would be answered in a forthcoming school safety data report. Resident Charlie Breslin, who said he has attended board meetings for about ten years, argued the district should create a specific program to help bullying victims learn to cope, saying that teaching students those skills wouldn't just help "kids get through school" but "help adults get through life," and that the district should communicate more with the parents of both victims and children accused of bullying. Resident Angela Coble asked whether the district polls students and parents on how well its anti-bullying efforts are working; Ginsburg said the board was considering exactly that kind of survey tool.

The board also read into the record two pieces of correspondence from Coble concerning a proposed Essex County School Boards Association resolution on book banning and the district's policy on transgender students. Ginsburg reread the resolution's text, which urges local officials, administrators and librarians to resist banning books and does not itself change Glen Ridge policy; she noted the district's Policy 5756 on transgender students and Policy 5512 on harassment, intimidation and bullying are both posted on the district website. During second public comment, Cusumano pressed further on what "book banning" would actually mean in practice and asked about the process for changing board policy, while Breslin urged the board to use new student representative David Kelly's position to gather more feedback directly from students rather than just reporting on school events.

Board members spent a lengthy session drafting three annual goals: pursuing a national "School of Character" recognition and revisiting past culture and equity audits; building a shared resource repository and onboarding handbook for board members, including a possible Google Drive of professional-development materials; and creating new avenues for community feedback, including a possible mid-year public forum where residents could tell the board what it could do better.

In other business, the board accepted a $3,000 donation from the Glen Ridge Educational Foundation for the district's Smart Executive Function Program, approved bills and claims totaling $769,207.93, and approved submitting a state grant application for up to $76,000 through the New Jersey Learning Acceleration Program's High-Impact Tutoring initiative, targeted at third- and fourth-graders.

Action items

• Accepted the resignations of field hockey coach Victoria Ramirez and assistant coach Hannah Legotte, both effective September 27
• Approved second reading of a revised Sick Leave policy (1642.01) and a new School Threat Assessment Team policy (2419)
• Approved submission of the FY24 High-Impact Tutoring Competitive Grant application, with award funds of up to $76,000
• Accepted a $3,000 donation from the Glen Ridge Educational Foundation for the Smart Executive Function Program
• Approved bills and claims totaling $769,207.93 and an open purchase order report of $702,480.94

Watch key moments

• 36:43 — Board members grill presenter Mr. DeWitt on whether the state's self-assessment tool measures actual program effectiveness or just staff-training inputs.
• 44:04 — Resident MaryEllen Cusumano calls the anti-bullying self-assessment results "mathematically immaterial" and demands real numbers on how many students the programs actually reach.
• 46:38 — Longtime meeting attendee Charlie Breslin makes a personal appeal for a coping program for bullying victims, arguing it would help "adults get through life," not just kids get through school.