Parent voices anger to Voorhees BOE at June 15 meeting over attempts to receive HIB report
A significant portion of the public comment section of the June 15 Voorhees Township School District Board of Education meeting was dedicated to one parent’s attempts to get information on the investigation of a Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying incident she said took place against her child.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, parent Cynthia Kahn described how in May, she called her child’s school to report a HIB incident that happened to her child around the end of March.
Kahn said she believed state HIB guidelines required an investigation of the incident, with the findings brought before the board at the next May meeting after Kahn reported the incident, which Kahn said did not happen.
Kahn also described having a meeting with Superintendent Raymond Brosel Jr. and Assistant Superintendent of Business Frank DeBerardinis, but believed the incident was being “swept under the carpet” and it was “absolutely disgusting.”
With a report on the findings of a potential HIB incident on the June 15 meeting’s agenda for approval from the board, Kahn said she believed the law required the district to release the findings to her.
Who can I expect to be giving me a copy of this, because your attorney said not to call the school because it’s supposed to go through him? So maybe someone can address up there when can I expect a written copy of the findings of the HIB?” Kahn asked.
Board President Richard Nelson informed Kahn that as she had hired an attorney to deal with the matter, she and her attorney would have to go through BOE solicitor Howard Mendelson and not the board regarding the situation.
Kahn said the district was ignoring phone calls and emails from her and her lawyer, which Mendelson denied.
“We are in fact talking with each other,” Mendelson said. “If he has represented to you that I am not talking to him, that is not in fact true.”
Mendelson said the public BOE meeting was not the appropriate venue for the discussion, suggested she was reading the law incorrectly, and several times suggested she speak with her lawyer.
In other news:
• Board member Rich Wojdon spoke regarding a Milestone Award he received from the New Jersey School Boards Association for having served 30 years on the Voorhees Township Board of Education.
Wojdon said while the award does mean “something,” it was all the educators before him and in the district who meant “everything.”
“You are what make the system,” Wojdon said. “All we have to do is vote ‘yes, we want that person here,’ and seeing all of you stand here, I know we made a heck of a lot of right decisions.”
• Jeanne DelColle of Stockton University’s teacher preparation department presented the district with the university’s gratitude for allowing Stockton teacher candidates to mentor with Voorhees teachers.
DelColle also thanked the district for doing so while simultaneously dealing with several education reforms in the past several years, such as evaluation changes, Common Core State Standards and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers testing.
• Retiring Eastern Regional High School chemistry teacher Michael Harrison spoke before the board about concerns that some students weren’t entering high school with a framework in mathematics skills necessary for science classes.
One suggestion Harrison offered was to find a way for Eastern and Voorhees teachers to meet and share feedback.
• The next meeting of the Voorhees Township BOE is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 26 at the district administration building.
