BY MICHAEL GARTLAND – The Record
A former trustee with the Bergen County Technical School District said Friday she did not learn about her removal from the board this week until reading about it in The Record on Thursday.
Angela Taylor, a Teaneck social studies teacher and mother of three, said that after five years of serving the district she felt she deserved prior notice of her removal. She said County Executive Dennis McNerney and James Carroll, the county’s freeholder chairman, should have called her before making the move.
“It’s the backroom politics again,” Taylor said. “I don’t play that game.”
Taylor’s removal at Wednesday night’s freeholder meeting comes amid a dispute between the technical school board and Superintendent Robert Aloia, who has weathered considerable criticism since April for excessive spending in the district.
As a board member, Taylor approved much of the district’s spending, including Aloia’s compensation package, travel to China and the purchase of two electron microscopes.
Taylor justified the spending by pointing out that the technical district is considered by many to be one of the best in the state.
“If you’re the superintendent with the No. 1 school, then why wouldn’t you get the best package?” she said. “You take care of the person.”
Aloia, who also served as superintendent for the county’s Special Services District, was removed from that post a month ago. McNerney, both school boards and the union leaders representing teachers in both districts have called for Aloia’s resignation. A state Department of Education investigation into both districts’ finances is under way.
The problems in the districts have spilled into the local political arena. Two Democratic incumbents, Julie O’Brien and Vernon Walton, lost in their November re-election bids for freeholder seats. Their Republican challengers, Robert Hermansen and John Driscoll, repeatedly cited the Bergen Tech revelations during the campaign.
The county executive and freeholders are responsible for filling posts on the Technical and Special Services districts’ school boards, as well as allocating millions of dollars to both districts.
McNerney recommended Demarest Borough Council President William Connelly to replace Taylor as a board member. The freeholders approved that recommendation Wednesday.
Carroll, the mayor of Demarest and freeholder chairman, did not attend the meeting and did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
“The Administration sends a ‘thank you’ letter out to all appointed board members whose term of service has expired,” said Brian Hague, a spokesman for McNerney. “Phone calls are rarely, if ever, placed to the individuals.”
Freeholder David Ganz said Taylor should have been notified before he and the rest of the freeholder board voted on her replacement.
“It was wrong,” he said. “As a matter of common courtesy and decency, it’s not supposed to happen that way. I apologize for it, even though the freeholders weren’t involved in it or responsible for it.”
Bergen County Schools Superintendent Aaron Graham, an ex-officio member of the technical school board, said he also didn’t have any knowledge of Taylor’s replacement until he read about it in the newspaper.
“I would like to know why she didn’t get notice,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, she was a good serving board member.”
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