Glen Ridge BOE lauds college acceptances, upbraids parent

• The Glen Ridge BOE at its May 22 meeting talked college acceptance and public comment on bullying.

A school district takes pride in students who have been accepted to colleges.

The Glen Ridge Board of Education, at its May 22 meeting, brought up the college selections of the 143 students graduating this year from Glen Ridge High School.

Glen Ridge Schools Superintendent Dirk Phillips commended the students who have been accepted so far to the college of their choice.

Phillips referred to copies of a list, made available to the public at the meeting, which show the various colleges that two-thirds of Glen Ridge seniors will be attending. The list, as of May 19, shows in-state colleges such as Rutgers University, Montclair State University and New Jersey Institute of Technology, as well as schools that Phillips said he couldn’t recall accepting Glen Ridge students before, such as Rice University and Stanford University.

Philips also said that the college process has been starting much earlier for seniors, and that the school district has done a good job of preparing students and parents for higher education. He also expressed joy about the acceptances.

“I love this time of year for the seniors. AP’s are over, they got their college choice made, and it just really becomes a big celebration,” Phillips said.

During the meeting, resident Cherry Provost inquired if the district can publicize the college selections in media outlets. Phillips said he can send this information to local newspapers and other news outlets.

Student matters

Resident Siobhan McDermott wanted to bring up an alleged bullying incident in the district. 

BOE President Betsy Ginsberg said that a student matter cannot be brought up in a public session.

McDermott said she would not give names, but Ginsberg said the matter could still not be brought up.

A few minutes later, another resident, Greta Sawa, a regular presence at BOE meetings, said she has brought up at board meetings bullying problems in the district related to her child. 

Sawa then said that any comments made about bullying in the district should be made in public. 

Sawa mentioned the name of the principal at Ridgewood Avenue School, where she claimed bullying incidents that were not investigated. Ginsberg banged her gavel and told Sawa that individual faculty or individual students could not be discussed in public and would have to be addressed directly to the superintendent.

Hiring matters

Resident Tiffany Pratt spoke about the district’s hiring practices and broadening its search for educators to work in the district. Pratt noted that the South Orange-Maplewood School District recently held a diversity job fair, and that there are minority recruiting job sites that lists candidates for school districts.

Phillips said a job fair usually happens in a larger school district that has more openings, as opposed to Glen Ridge where there are a small amount of openings. However, there can be other ways that Glen Ridge can seek a diverse group of candidates, he said. 

Avoiding conflict 

BOE President Betsy Ginsberg said that, in future meetings, she will recuse herself from votes on matters pertaining to the law firm of Sciarrillo Cornell, which serves as the legal counsel for the Glen Ridge BOE, or the Garden State Coalition of Schools.

Ginsberg said this was because she has received a small amount of compensation during the past few years from Sciarrillo Cornell for writing a monthly article about school board matters, which she has made known in state-mandated financial disclosure forms.

Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com