POINT PLEASANT BEACH A crowd of nearly 100 residents many decked out in Garnet Gull red and white and carrying signs of support for embattled Antrim School Principal Tom O Hara lined up outside of the G. Harold Antrim elementary School here, prior to Wednesday evening s special board of education meeting.
Supporters of the board s decision last month not to re-hire Mr. O Hara though not as great in number or as vocal as the principal s backers were also in attendance Wednesday night, eager to voice their opinions.
However, to their dismay, those on both sides of the issue never had the chance to address their elected officials Wednesday night, as the board of education declined to allow its constituents to speak about Mr.
O Hara, or anything else.
The agenda given out at Wednesday night s meeting did not contain a public comments portion, though an agenda posted on the district s web site earlier in the day did list a public participation period.
Despite the lack of an official public comments portion of the meeting, one resident pleaded with the board to allow at least some of those gathered in the media center on both sides of the issue the opportunity to address the board.
Former mayor Jack Pasola asked Board of Education President Eileen Laterza directly if she would use her power to allow the public to be heard.
The board president referred the question to Board of Education Attorney Frank Campbell, who said the proper time to discuss Mr. O Hara s situation would be next Tuesday during the principal s Donaldson Hearing.
Mr. Pasola thanked the attorney for his opinion, but again turned to Ms. Laterza and asked her to allow the public to speak.
We are requesting that the board president use her power to make an exception and give some of us the opportunity to speak, Mr. Pasola said.
Mr.
Pasola added that he understood the board could not address certain issues or hear from everyone in the room, but could perhaps hear a limited number of people.
Ms. Laterza said she appreciated the request but respectfully declined to honor it.
She reiterated the public will be permitted to speak at Tuesday s hearing.
After the board adjourned the public portion of the meeting and went to the board of education building next door to convene in executive session, a large majority of the audience in attendance at Wednesday night s meeting both supporters of Mr. O Hara and the board of education remained in the library, disappointed by the board s refusal to hear their voices.
In more than 20 years of serving as an elected official, I have never experienced anything like this, Mr. Pasola said following the meeting. I have never seen a board that isn t willing to listen to the people who elected them.
It is an absolute disgrace, Mr. Pasola added.
Antrim Parent Vanessa Rudd said she came to Wednesday night s meeting to have her voice heard.
I am upset they wouldn t listen to us, Ms. Rudd said. The entire board should be stripped of their jobs, they are all cowards.
We need a strong leader, Mrs. Laterza is a coward, she added.
Jennifer Dearborn also said she felt the board should have listened to those in attendance.
It shows a complete lack of respect for us, she said. They should have let some of us be heard. We voted them in and they can t let us speak, well, actions speak louder than words.
I came to speak out in support of our principal, I love this man, she continued. The kids know they can always go to him, he is a principal for the children.
Marian Henderson has a child in the Antrim School and was in attendance Wednesday night to speak out in favor of the board s decision not to re-hire Mr.
O Hara.
I feel he is a nice guy, but the real problem is that he can t control the bullying issue, Ms. Henderson said.
I just think, unfortunately, this issue has created a divide among the community and it didn t have to happen.
Ms. Henderson added she believes Mr.
O Hara could have put a stop to some of the protests that have taken place on school grounds in the weeks following the board s decision.
I think some of his solutions are inadequate, Ms. Henderson said.
Antrim parent Amanda Allgor, who is also in favor of the board s decision, had a prepared statement she wanted to read into the record Wednesday night.
Ms. Allgor said her daughter has told her that at least one teacher has gone around the classroom, asking students to talk aloud about the buzz going around school.
This is a form of bullying and has no educational value, Ms. Allgor wrote in her statement.
She also believes that Mr.
O Hara could stop the protest actions occurring on school grounds, if he chose to do so.
Apparently, Mr. O Hara is willing to suspend school policy when it suits his personal agenda, she wrote.
It seems to me a principal should be able to stand on his own record rather than pander to parents and students to do his bidding.
Glenn Kreiger, who has a child at the Antrim School, said he thought the board s decision to not allow the public to speak was condescending.
Three abstentions, they are hiding behind Robert s Rules and now they are not giving the public the chance to speak, Mr.
Kreiger said. Most of these people were elected unopposed and I think now the town will buck up a little bit and not let that happen again.
We have to work to get people up there that support our kids, Mr.
Kreiger added. I feel they need to listen to the public, when they don t, it makes it look like they have an alternative agenda.
Nancy Balunis said she was upset about the board s decision not to re-hire Mr.
O Hara mainly because it will result in her fourth-grade daughter having three different principals in her brief time at Antrim.
This revolving door is not acceptable, she said. I was very happy with Mr.
O Hara as our principal.
Ms. Balunis said she was not surprised that the board of education refused to hear from the public Wednesday night.
I am upset, two of the board members ran unopposed, she added, referring to April s election. This makes it clear, more people need to be involved.
Mike Palisi, whose father was a longtime principal at the Antrim School, has had three children go through the school while Mr.
O Hara was the principal and said the atmosphere he provided for them was the greatest experience.
Tom is what our kids need, he is a phenomenal educator, Mr. Palisi said.
He is a man of character and the kids leave this school with character and knowing who they are.
Tom is what Point Beach is all about, he added.
Mr.
Palisi said he believes all the members of the board of education are good people and he will put trust in them to make the right decision.
Maybe they did not have all the information before, he said.
After the board had adjourned the public portion of this week s meeting in the library, Mr.
O Hara and his representative were slated to meet with board members in a closed-door executive session, which the board traditionally has held in an adjacent classroom. However, when Mr. O Hara went to the designated classroom on Wednesday night, he found it empty, and walked through the library on his way to the board of education building, where the executive session was held this week.
As Mr. O Hara walked through the throngs of his supporters, he received a roaring round of applause from those still gathered in the media center, some of whom rose to their feet to greet the principal.
On Thursday morning, Mr.
O Hara said he has been encouraged by the support he has been receiving from the community.
I am really overwhelmed, he said. I am eternally grateful to these people.
I don t know what I could ever do to repay them.
Ultimately, the board will make a final determination on its decision not to rehire Mr. O Hara at his Donaldson Hearing, which is scheduled for next Tuesday, May 22 at 6:30 p.
m. at Antrim.
On Thursday, Mr.
O Hara confirmed that he will waive his right to privacy and ask the board to conduct his appeal hearing in public.
Tuesday night s hearing will be the next step in what has been a tough couple of weeks for the local board of education.
Since deciding not to rehire the principal in late April, the board has been the target of public complaints regarding its decision and has seen numerous scathing letters to the editor appear in local newspapers.
In response to a story that appeared in this newspaper last week, the board of education submitted a letter to the editor, stating the personnel file referenced in that story was not complete.
She [Ms. Laterza] determined that the single document which succinctly states the reasons for the board s action refusing to renew the contract with Tom O Hara had been removed from the file prior to being delivered to [The Ocean Star reporter] Mr.
McGinn, the letter reads.
The Ocean Star obtained a complete copy of Mr. O Hara s personnel file shortly after the board decided not to rehire him.
The official personnel file received by the newspaper was the board saw when deliberating the principal s future. The board, in its letter, was referencing a document that summarized the reasons Mr. O Hara was not rehired.
That document, which was not in the personnel file, was not a contributing factor in the board s decision to fire Mr. O Hara and, in fact, did not exist until after that decision was made, according to Mr. Campbell.
What s at the heart of all this is the very thing we re not permitted to talk about and that s Tom O Hara s evaluation by the superintendent, the board wrote in a letter to the editor that appeared in the May 4 issue of The Ocean Star, and was signed by all five members of the board who voted not to rehire the principal.
Yes, the superintendent recommended that we offer a tenure contract but that does not speak to the content of his evaluation, which is the most important factor when considering tenure, the letter reads.
That evaluation was a part of the file obtained by the newspaper.
The newspaper offered members of the board of education the opportunity to go through the file with a reporter, prior to the appearance of any news article referencing it. However, the board members who were contacted declined the offer, citing Mr. O Hara s privacy as a reason to not address the file.
Mrs. Laterza came in to The Ocean Star office last Friday, the day the article was published, to see the file.
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Seeing the light #x2192; Posted: Tuesday, May. 22 at 10:11 AM
22 at 09:25 AM
9% of dedicated and hard working individuals do not get "tenure" in their jobs, people should know what they are signing up for not just today but for years to come - maybe that weighs on the BOE
The superintendant's official evaluation gives no grounds for firing Mr. O'Hara. Did this mysterious piece of paper show up in Mr.
O'Hara's file after the fact in an attempt to justify a mistake???
There is a bad guy(guys) here and it is not Mr. O'Hara!
19 at 12:32 AM
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Why doesn't O'Hara offer to keep working at Antrium without tenure like the rest of us do in the real world? Maybe the BOE is factoring the whole tenure into its decision. Little Mary or Johnny will be long from Antrium while PPB is still obligated this person.
Ask your husband, what type of commitment he gets for doing an excellent job all his life? By the way, can the moms of the bully kids please use some their O'hara time and energy to address their kids and focus on getting a good evaluation themselves as parents.