Judge recommends trustees rejoin board
State education commissioner has 45 days to make decision
BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer

The two disputed members of the Red Bank Charter School Board of Trustees may be one step closer to rejoining the board.

Judge Solomon Metzger, an administrative law judge, sent a recommendation last week to reinstate Vincent Crapelli and Darryl Hughes as members of the board.

State Commissioner of Education William L. Librera will have 45 days from the date of Metzger’s recommendation, which was filed on March 1, to make a final decision regarding the fate of the two men.

If Librera does not make a decision, Metzger’s ruling will then become final, which would allow the two men to retake their seats on the board.

In response to Metzger’s decision, some parents have taken action, circulating a petition around the school community, which they plan to send to Librera.

Jeffrey MacPherson, a parent of a Red Bank Charter School (RBCS) student, said at the board meeting last week that he believes in the board’s decision to remove the two men from the board.

“In the six months that they sat as board members, in spite of no formal vote, they have criticized every aspect of our school and tried to undermine our administration, our teachers and our board members,” the petition claims. “It’s clear that these individuals do not share the RBCS philosophy.”

Crapelli and Hughes had their seats on the board come into question in November 2004, when it was found that an official vote was never held when the two men joined the board in May of that same year.

The two men, who were brought to the board by a search committee, of which board president Michael Stasi was a member, were welcomed by the board as members, but not by a vote.

According to Stasi, the by-laws of the school required that a vote be taken.

Stasi said previously that this was simply an oversight by the board, but at a Dec. 8 meeting, Crapelli and Hughes failed to be elected by the other trustees.

Metzger’s decision comes from a petition made by board member Barbara O’Hern on behalf of Crapelli and Hughes.

O’Hern, Hughes and Crapelli, along with board members Ellen Herman and Josephine Lee, asked Stasi for reports of the school’s finances, because they were worried about the debt the school had incurred.

According to a letter from Malachi J. Kenney, of the law firm Kenney, Gross, Kovats, Campbell and Pruchnik, Maple Avenue, who is representing the five trustees in the financial aspect of the dispute, the trustees claim that Crapelli and Hughes were removed from the board as a way of keeping financial truths about the school hidden.

According to the statement from Kenney, “It is impossible to escape the conclusion that the attempt to remove Mr. Crapelli and Mr. Hughes was not for technical reasons, but because their votes helped form a majority to pass a series of resolutions, namely (1) to appoint a special committee to review the school’s financial condition, (2) to appoint a special counsel to assist the committee, and (3) to request the assistance of the Department of Education in resolving the financial problems of the school.”

Metzger’s recommendation is that the two men return to sit on the board as trustees, because he sees no evidence of dissent on behalf of Crapelli and Hughes.

“I am persuaded that the board acted hastily and that it was arbitrary to simply excuse these men from further service,” Metzger’s decision states.

O’Hern, Herman and Lee also requested that Librera conduct an investigation into the financial status of the school.