OAKLAND — A divided Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education has approved the hiring of consultant James C. Baker as interim superintendent for the two high-school district starting Nov. 13 by a 5-4 vote.
Also approved at the Oct. 16 meeting were five transitional consulting days with the district between Oct. 17 and Nov. 13 to acquaint Baker with board members, staff and administration before the departure of current Superintendent Rui Dionisio Nov. 12 to join the Fair Lawn district as supeirntendent. Baker’s salary will be $800 per day.
Four members of the parents’ rights faction gave no explanation for excluding the two motions to hire Baker and provide transitional meetings from their approval of a consent agenda, including Board President Judith Sullivan. Vice President Kim Ansh, Trustees Marianna Emmolo and Doreen Mariani.
However, the group had introduced a motion earlier in the meeting to conduct a “request for quote” to find an agent who would undertake a search for Dionisio’s permanent replacement.
The Oct. 16 vote also resulted another split decision to cancel the board’s Nov. 13 meeting on the premise that Baker could not participate in the four-day advance-assembling deadline for the meeting’s agenda or participate constructively at a meeting his first day on the job. The next public board meeting is therefore Nov. 30.
The interim search was authorized Aug. 28 following the Aug. 15 announcement by the Fair Lawn Board of Education that they were hiring Dionisio to head their 5,384-student nine-building district. Sullivan attempted to call a special meeting Aug. 24 seeking approval to immediately begin a search for a permanent replacement, but failed to produce a quorum.
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On Aug. 28, Trustee Aaron Lorenz moved to table proposals to hire an internal employee as acting superintendent and to immediately search for a permanent replacement. Instead, Trustee Thomas Bogdansky broke a tie vote on a third proposal to hire an interim, stating his talks with other school superintendents indicated the district should first hire an interim, then search for a permanent replacement at a more leisurely pace.
Lorenz and Bogdansky were joined by Trustees Vivian King, Brian DeLaite and Helen Koulikourdis in approving the interim search.
Baker’s 44 years in education most recently included superintendent of the five-school, 2,018-student PreK-Grade 12 Middlesex Public School District from 2004 to 2013. Since then he has served as interim math supervisor at North Brunswick Public Schools, and interim superintendent at East Windsor Regional School District, and Roselle Public Schools.
He is currently on the faculty at Thomas Edison State College in Trenton. He holds a bachelor’s degree in arts and sciences, a master’sin special education/psychology, and a doctorate in adminstration, social psychology and educational theory from Rutgers.
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