Tension Mounts at BOE Meeting; Union Chief to Resign
Jan 20th, 2012 | By Carl Dispoto | Category: On tap, SchoolsThursday evening’s Board of Education meeting at Hube Street school was filled with tension from the outset and concluded when most of the audience walked out: the latest chapter in the contentious relationship between the Secaucus Education Association and superintendent Cynthia Randina.
After Randina addressed the audience with a report highlighting the success and progress of the school district, SEA president Robert Anderson criticized the board for doing little to heed the union’s complaints following its June vote of no confidence in the superintendent. He also informed the board of the SEA’s recent vote of no confidence in Randina, drawing applause from some in the crowd.
Anderson accused Randina of a “lack of leadership” that led to mistrust between the board and the SEA and offered to present the union’s complaints in a confidential forum. He then announced his intention to resign as president of the SEA and run for a seat on the board, provided the election takes place in April and is not pushed back to November.
After further complains were lodged by other union members, several board members issued statements. Randina was defended and even presented with an award, leading to an awkward scene that included the board clapping while the hostile audience laughed.
As the board continued its defense of Randina, trustee Salvatore Manente referenced an incident in which Anderson was allegedly reprimanded as a teacher. Such “write-ups” are confidential and the public disclosure of such information prompted many in attendance – most of whom were teachers and union members – to walk out.
The next board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 16.
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Anderson has my vote!
Sadly, when adults cannot be respectful, professional and ethical, students suffer. Time that will now be spend in arguing, defending, posturing, etc., will be time not spend on increasing academic achievement.
And for a Board member to share confidential teacher information is clearly a violations of ethics. I hope Mr. Anderson is preparing a complaint to be filed with DOE.
Awful, just awful….and wow, how many witnesses were there?
There were at least 120 people that saw this debacle…The board president was out of line…Randina created such mistrust and divisiveness…She has to be let go and not have her contract renewed..
Either that…or she needs to very politely announce she has no intention of wanting to renew her contract when it expires..
[...] following is a letter to the editor from Secaucus Board of Education president Sal Manente Sr. following Thursday night’s contentious BOE [...]
All was fine before Randina came on board. She should step up and resign asap. This will begin the healing process.
Secaucus Board of Education is a bunch of yes people. They need to stand up for the kids. We need fresh people in the system. To many people milking the system. We have a computer guy in the grammar school that does nothing. Teachers can not get things or they need to fill out paper work to get a plug put back in. Come on people. We need to wake up. At the higher grades we still have the security guard that makes over 100 thousand dollar a year but teachers only one class. This is just a mess. Teacher see it every day. We have many good teachers here that care. But only a few that are just doing the minimal. They need to go.
9 times out of 10 it is an end user problem with computers….that is, the plug isn’t in or it’s something physically fixable on the user’s end.:)
When I was at a help desk, that’s how it was, anyway.:)
The board members keep talking about the budget being cut but they can’t explain how they award most professional contracts without bidding them and the two contracts that they do bid the health insurance they award to the broker from Ron Smith’s school district at 400,000 more then a local Secaucus bidder and a food vendor also from Smith’s district and they still find 92.000 to creat a new head janitor and all the board members vote yes to everything this is a least a million dollars that could have been spent on the kids.
I have been a tax payer and an employee of the Secaucus board of education for over 12 years. Gone are the days when all was enjoyable to report to work and truly enjoy your job and the company of your coemployees. A very close coemployee had to leave employment at the board due to medical conditions which were caused by the lack of leadership and cover ups by the present administrators, and incompetent board members. I attended the meeting, and this is another example of BOE members who really do not care about the students, or the employees that work so hard. Their only need is to take care of their own friends financially and get rid of the conscience, employees who stand up for their rights, the welfare of the students and the good of the Town of Secaucus and the Taxpayers. Bob you have done a tremendous job as union President, and I am proud to be a member of the SEA. I would love to sign my name but I know Princess Randina (who by the way is not a DR.), would probaly send me for a psychiatric evaluation as she has done in the past to remove hard working employees, who have been employeed long before she has. Why do all her friends and Board office employees get new titles, such as Administrative Assistants??? I’m sure that will come with a hefty pay raise. And why does the New Supervisor of Buildings and Grounds need an Administrative assistant? I cannot believe that a person from another town can get a job in the Secaucus Board Of Ed., before competent Secaucus residents. A $90,000+ job and now he needs an administrative assistant? Three schools a pre school and a board office. Maybe our BOE should look into salaries of towns that have 7 or 8 schools and see what their employees are paid to do without an administrative assistant. Greg Lentini did it with no help and he did an excellent job. So keep giving away the money we so work so hard for. It will truly catch up with the BOE. I cannot wait to campaign door to door for BOB ANDERSEN, and next to me will be Mayor Mike Gonnelli, who I’m sure is in favor of getting RID of RANDINA, one way or another. BRING BACK GUS SCERBO. We all miss him and truly had a great district in the era of Gus, not a vindictive, bunch of salary hounds like the present administration. Hey Cindy maybe Union City will take you, thats where your roots are. I am SO DISGUSTED WITH ALL OF YOU !!!!!!!
Thank you disgusted taxpayer for saying what so many of us have been too scared to say. Maybe each of us should start posting incidents that have happened over the last 3 years so the parents and taxpayers will know what’s been going on like the purchasing of things never used costing thousands of dollars.
Agree…the super hired a young girl who was the friend of the person who runs the special services for the district. The young girl was in charge of the pre school children. The young girl was an aspiring actress who was taking a considerable amount of days off from her preschool job. Eventually they canned her, but it was later learned that the young girl was a go-go dancer at clubs inNJ. One of the many questionable hiring decisions we have seen in this district inthe last three years..
You could try one last chance at mediation, but you are just delaying the inevitable. The solution to all of this is very simple! You just need buy out the contract already and get in someone new. You will actually be saving a lot of money and trouble by doing this.
I will take the other side of the coin and say that it sounds like the S.E.A. guy is just simply a big blow hard. He sounds like the real problem to me. Can’t we all just get along? Take Mayor Mike up on his offer to referee a two party coffee break. Talk Not Yell.
Stepping Stone…Flip back to the other side of the coin ….Anderson has tried to reason with Randina, but she will not listen the voice of reason…He has tried very patiently to sit down with her and tell her the teachers grievances but refuses to come up with any resolution other than to form another of her many committees which gets very little accomplished. The eight grade has 160 students possibly entering the high school next academic year. Do you think she’ll post for more teaching positions to accommodate the courses beign offered and the classes beign ormed or do you think there wiil be another director appointed??
Golden Rule, my son is a teacher (not Secaucus) and I get the picture. Yes more underpaid teachers, fewer overpaid directors. But just sit down together with Mike and put an end to this endless bickering. As for next year’s crop of freshmen, some enter and some graduate. Find an acceptable class size and go from there. Everyone is hurting the students with all this infighting and it is embarrassing to the good town of Secaucus. Mike made the offer to referee, take him up on it. Let’s get it done!
The graduating class of 2010 I beleive had more than 160 ….they too were one of the largest classes and they never accommadated for their size. Are these unusual class sizeds(one time thing) or are the classes getting larger.
Reading the comments above and on other posts I hear many mention ‘the teachers grievances.’
Is it correct that no official grievances have been brought?
I own a small business with union employees and while some may dislike me and disagree with the way I run my business, they do not have the right to fire me. What is thier right is to bring formal charges against me, in the form of a grievance, so that both parties must address the issue. Then, if we could not resolve the issue, we would go to arbitration. But, they can only bring these charges if I am in violation of our contract, not because they don’t like me. Forgive me my ignorance, but is the BOA or the superintendant violating the contract?