Is It Over Yet?

Dr. Gordon 2015 Graduation Ceremony

I am thoroughly disgusted with the antics of our present Superintendent and Board of Education. As late as January 25, 2019, the Superintendent and Englewood Board of Education filed tenure charges against Dr. Noel Gordon after having fired him effective June 30, 2018. Dr. Gordon has not been paid and has no medical benefits since June of 2018. Positions in which he had tenure were abolished in order to make sure that he would not be able to return. (The Positions of Assistant Principal and Director of Guidance were eliminated) Both of these abolished positions are needed in a Public School District. Compare this situation and our present organization chart to those in schools that work.

August 13, 2018 the NJ Commissioner of Education ordered the Superintendent and the Englewood Board of Education to reinstate Dr Gordon. The Superintendent had already written Dr. Gordon a letter informing him that his position as Director of Guidance had been abolished and that his employment would end as of June 30, 2018. I had no idea that they filed against the man again in January of this year. Dr. Gordon no longer works for the District, yet they filed tenure charges against him in January of 2019.  He was not an employee, so why was this vote to file anew not taken in public? What were they thinking? 

Dr. Noel Gordon in attendance

at DMHS Graduation

in 2014.

Everyone wonders why the scores are going steadily down. It follows, that when the folks in charge exhibit the characteristics for which they are charging others they wish to torture, there exists a serious problem. 

Education has not been a priority in this District since October of 2015. These people don't care about Test scores, Academic Achievement or the emotional health of students. It seems they only care about retribution and being right. Well, the train has left the station on them being "right", because they are wrong. 

Read this latest Document. Notice that the State of New Jersey has decided in favor of Dr. Gordon, again. What does it take to end the torture? How much of our tax money are we going to allow to be flushed down a black hole? 

Our School District desperately needs the suspended Personnel back at work? Our new high school Principal needs an experienced and supportive staff in order to put the school back on track to "Academic Success".

July 27, 2017 the State placed full blame for the supposed "transcript irregularities" and grading scandal on the Superintendent and the Board of Education. Read that here. Headlines at the time read, "3000+ grade changes". That was a very bad joke and terribly short sighted. In a failing school containing over 1,100 students, 3,000 grade changes is a conservative figure. This writer wants to know why there seems to be a media black out of the events in the EPSD recently. We want to know why no media source has found it peculiar that the auditor who found the irregularities actually ended up getting Dr. Noel Gordon's job. We want to know why this very important fact was not considered news worthy. Perhaps it was put in the same category of the current Board Member, who is running for re-election, who entered into a contract with the School Board on which she was serving, and proceeded to hide 96 children from the Health Department.

The tenure charges were filed after the state found that the Board and Superintendent broke the law. Read these charges that were filed wholesale against all suspended Personnel. Keep in mind that tenure charges must be filed individually. Why is it that our Superintendent, Board and Board Attorney did not know the procedure for filing tenure charges. Did they ignore the law?

Summary of Legal Requirements for Teacher Evaluation and Tenure Cases

How is it that we continue to employ persons who cannot follow directions?  When students do not follow directions, they generally end up failing the course. 

A current School Board member is running for re-election based on the QSAC Scores. (The QSAC is basically a report card for how the School Board is doing its job. (It is a School Board self assessment.) The test scores of the students are at an all time low and this Board member is using the results and congratulating herself on being able to get high QSAC scores?  What about the fact that she voted to move forward on the tenure charges each time the opportunity presented itself?

Is it more important that the Board gets high scores or that the Students get high scores that are not exaggerated or made up?

Put the suspended back to work. 

Stop wasting our tax dollars.

Stop fudging the numbers.

Stop supporting a School Board Member who has really shown conduct unbecoming. How can we take seriously any vote that Angela Midgette-David has taken in her 3 years on the School Board? How can we take seriously any action that this Board has taken?

Did this Board Member, through her actions, compromise and bully the Superintendent, the Business Administrator, the Board Attorney, the local Health Department, the Police Department, the State Health Department, Parents and other employees of the EPSD? Stop  her, since the present Board members do not seem to have the courage.

End the farce that in my humble opinion equates to Union Busting!

2014 Graduation Ceremony

Far left, Superintendent Donald Carlisle, Former Principal Peter

Elbert, Former Principal of Alternative School Joseph Bell.

It should be noted that Peter Elbert and Joseph Bell were

Co-Presidents of the Administrator's Union.

Joseph Armental 

Assistant Principal DMHS

Jamayla Scott

Nicole Cartwright
Guidance Counselor

Not pictured.

Venus Rose

Louis Sanchez

Suspended also were 2 non tenured Guidance Counselors. All suspended Personnel have filed charges against this Superintendent and Board of Education.

It is time that this came to an end. We are  paying the salaries and benefits of 2 sets of employees. It is damaging lives and compromising the operation of our entire School District.