POLL: Do You Approve of the Job the Fort Lee BOE is Doing?

Have you ever wondered what the ’s approval rating is? After attending Monday’s regular business meeting, Patch decided to at least try and find out. Hey, the do it for Congress!

Since the same 10-20 people tend to show up at BOE meeting’s and ask questions or make comments, it’s hard to gauge what the prevailing sentiment is in the community overall.

Formerly “Acting” Superintendent Steven Engravalle’s contract was approved Monday via a walk-in resolution, making him an “Interim” Superintendent in the process. But that was overshadowed to some extent by often-heated discussion and debate about when—if at all—a search for a permanent superintendent would be conducted and where the search process currently stands.

Some members of the public openly criticized the board for what they saw as a lack of transparency, a lack progress on the issue of a permanent replacement for Raymond Bandlow and even how the board conducts meetings.

Below is a smattering of actual comments heard at Monday’s meeting at the library:

Note: These comments were chosen precisely because they were critical—harsh at times—and meant in no way to reflect the opinions of Patch or everyone who attended the meeting. They also don't include BOE response, but are rather intended to convey what seemed like the general atmosphere at Monday's meeting.

“You have made promises in this room that a search would be conducted and that there would be an open application process. The longer this goes on, the more anger there will be out here, the more people that are going to shoot questions at the board. Whereas if the process is made a little more expeditious here, I think we’ll have a little less unhappiness … this negativity that permeates this board is not a positive thing for this board, and it’s not a positive thing for this community.”

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“The bigger problem here is the vagueness, the grayness of where you guys are with this whole process. Just make it happen. If you’re going to put [Engravalle] through, then do it. If you’re going to do an outside search firm … then do it.”

****

“I’m very concerned about the behavior of some of the people on the board when discussing things with the public—the rolling of the eyes; the attitude. We’re here to ask questions. People get defensive from the public when you get defensive … your interaction with the public just makes them more angry, and you have this referendum coming. You want support for it; we want to support you, but you make the public angry, and it’s not going to go that way.”

****

“Ideally when you’re talking to search firms for a senior position, you take into account the amount of time you’re losing, and in this case, certainly public perception, with how fast you’re going to make a decision. And you’ve got a referendum just a couple of weeks away. You’ve got public perception sitting in this room.”

****

“It seems there is a lack of transparency, so to speak … if you’re selecting a superintendent, for instance, I don’t understand why there is even a question to hire or not hire a search firm. And I don’t think that I’ve gotten a clear answer.”

****

“You want to talk out of both sides of your mouth, pick one and stick with it.”

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Again, the same people often attend BOE meetings, and comments such as these may therefore not be reflective of how the rest of the community feels. But that’s what we want to find out: what you think (whether or not you were at the meeting, and whether or not you made a comment)?

Do you approve of the job the BOE is doing overall? How about with regard to the process of identifying a permanent superintendent? Take our (very unscientific) polls below, and/or use the comments section to elaborate.