Englewood School Board Cuts Athletic Director

The Englewood Public School District Board of Education voted Thursday not to renew the contract of Yvonne Sheard, who has served as athletic director since 2009.

Sheard’s job was among several cut, adjusted or reclassified at the school board’s regular meeting and came in spite of an from Bergen County’s Big North Conference calling on Superintendent Donald Carlisle not to let her go and calling her role a “vital necessity” in a district like Englewood.

“The superintendent has assured us that the duties required will be distributed to the appropriate people and will be overseen by appropriate folks who are certified to do so,” said school board president Stephen Brown. “The programs related to athletics will not change materially, although those who supervise [them] unfortunately will.”

With five votes needed to dismiss Sheard and two board members not in attendance at a special meeting on Aug. 16, Carlisle, who recommended Sheard’s contract not be renewed, to cut her position then, but he did Thursday.

Carlisle said the AD’s duties will now be divided among various administrators “with the proper certification.”

“We’ll be doing this by committee,” Carlisle said. “We’ll have a number of people who will be doing that service. Some will be looking at the academics; some will be looking at the day-to-day of dealing with referees. It’s pretty much lined out but not every detail.”

The BOE also voted Thursday to transfer high school guidance counselor Mara Nusspickel to the middle school, although after a 45-minute recess, the board decided to make her transfer effective Nov. 15 instead of immediately. Until then, Nusspickel will divide her time between the high school and the middle school.

The board voted down a resolution that would have made another high school guidance counselor, Nicole Cartwright, a middle school Science teacher, a decision that drew applause from a contingent of students who spoke at the meeting in support of several guidance counselors whose jobs were in jeopardy.

Anita Shemish, co-president of the Englewood Teachers Association, said that if the board intended to transfer the guidance counselors, it should have had a transitional plan in place in June to “soften the impact” on students and “to give adults the courtesy of being able to look for another job, or to prepare to perform at their best in another position.”

“To decimate the high school guidance department through layoffs and transfers seven days before returning to school is wrong,” Shemish said. “To protect the students who will be effected and to respect the counselors as employees, this process could and should have been handled differently.”

Carlisle has urged the board to let Sheard and others go, moves some school officials believe could help close a $4 million projected shortfall in the budget.

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