Board Swears In Two New Members, Re-Elects Ginsburg as President, Substantiates a Bullying Complaint
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The Glen Ridge Board of Education opened 2022 with its annual reorganization meeting on January 5, held in the Glen Ridge High School Media Center and streamed live on YouTube. David Campbell and Kristin O'Neil were sworn in as newly elected board members after topping the November 2 school election with 1,817 and 2,052 votes respectively; Anthony Bonnett was also elected, with 1,920 votes, but was not present to be sworn in. The board then unanimously re-elected Elisabeth Ginsburg as president, elected Michael de Leeuw — who was not at the meeting — as 1st Vice President, and elected Campbell as 2nd Vice President. Accepting the gavel again, Ginsburg told the room that "every time I hear that oath I get a chill down my spine."
Among the administrative items the board approved as a block, it accepted the superintendent's recommendation on two Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying investigations, finding that one complaint (Report 21-22 RAS#3) was substantiated and a second (RAS#4) was not. The board also accepted, with regret, the resignation of substitute Nicole Kapushy from Linden Avenue School, effective January 9.
Much of the meeting concerned the district's ongoing response to COVID-19. Superintendent Phillips reported that the December break had been "busier than what we would have anticipated," with the district fielding new Department of Health and Department of Education memos on quarantine guidance, recommendations for high-risk areas, and an introduction to a "test the state" program still under review. He thanked school nurses and administrators for the "excessive amount of time" they put in over the break, noted a significant number of students and staff had contracted COVID during that period, and said the district was watching whether returning quarantined individuals would outpace new cases. Decisions on the instructional model going forward, he said, would weigh not just teacher and administrator availability but custodial staffing needed to clear buildings safely and keep boiler systems running through the winter; families were to be notified of the following week's plan by the end of the week. President Ginsburg added that state CDC and health department guidance had been revised twice in quick succession, causing confusion districtwide, and that the governor, in his first COVID press conference of the year, had described a "COVID tsunami" sweeping the state and asked that the mask mandate be extended past its January 11 sunset date, a decision left to the Legislature. Both public-comment periods drew no speakers.
In other business, the board approved the second reading of a new COVID-19 healthcare-settings safety plan policy and a revised sexual-harassment-of-students policy, appointed Jocelyn Gottlieb as the district's delegate to the New Jersey School Boards Association with Ginsburg as alternate, and approved conference funding for counselor Heather Kobylinski's grief-counseling certification training ($249.93) and teacher David Majewski's attendance at the 2022 National Council for History Education conference ($215). Fifteen further items of routine annual business, including vendor and insurance renewals, were approved without discussion. The board closed with a brief executive session on personnel and legal matters from 7:24 to 7:40 p.m. and adjourned at 7:41 p.m. with no further public business.
Action items
- Substantiated one Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying complaint (Report 21-22 RAS#3); found a second complaint (RAS#4) not substantiated.
- Accepted, with regret, the resignation of substitute Nicole Kapushy from Linden Avenue School, effective January 9.
- Approved a new COVID-19 healthcare-settings safety plan policy and a revised sexual-harassment-of-students policy.
- Appointed Jocelyn Gottlieb as NJSBA delegate and Elisabeth Ginsburg as alternate for the year.
- Approved conference funding for Heather Kobylinski ($249.93) and David Majewski ($215).