Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • March 12, 2014 FLOW Area Regional district hires superintendent search firm by Frank J. McMahon The Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education has approved a superintendent search agreement with R-Pat Solutions, LLC, a search firm that has also been hired by the Franklin Lakes and Oakland school boards to find superintendents for those K-8 districts. The contract with R-Pat Solutions is for $15,900, includ- ing an $8,900 fee and a maximum amount of $7,000 that can be spent on advertising for the position. The regional high school district conducted its own superintendent search after the previous superintendent, Lauren Schoen, resigned last year. Recently, the school board had advised that 11 applications were received. According to a reliable source, Beverly Mackay was one of the applicants. Mackay, the district’s director of curricu- lum, served in the superintendent’s post for four months last year until Ernest Palestis was hired as an interim superintendent for a one-year period from August 2013 to August 2014. The board discussed the search in the closed session prior to its regular public meeting. The trustees then unan- imously approved a resolution to hire R-Pat Solutions in order to obtain a more “robust selection of candidates,” according to Board President Thomas Bunting. Bunting said the board received applications from some high quality candidates, and the board was happy with the quality of the candidates, but not with the quantity of the applications. He added that anyone who previously applied for the position would automatically be included in the search firm’s process. During the public meeting, which was attended by members of the Ramapo Indian Hills Education Associa- tion who are currently working without a new contract, a motion was made by trustee Isabelle Lanini and seconded by trustee Lynn Budd, both Wyckoff representatives on the board, to extend the contract with Palestis until August 2015. That move surprised the members of the public who attended the meeting, several of the other board members, and Palestis. That motion led to a discussion among the board mem- bers, some of whom did not want to discuss personnel mat- ters in public, and the motion was subsequently tabled. School board seeks to fill vacancy The Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School Board of Education is seeking a Franklin Lakes resident who wishes to fill the unexpired term of Debra Strauss, who recently resigned from the board. The appointee will serve through the end of 2014. Interested community members may submit a letter of interest to Business Administrator/Board Secretary Frank C. Ceurvels at the Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District Board of Education, 131 Yawpo Avenue, Oakland, New Jersey 07436 by March 20. Letters of inter- est will be reviewed by the board and an interview sched- ule will be established. The legal requirements for the position are as follows: U.S. citizenship and a minimum of one year of residency in the school district; no interest in, any contract with, or claim against, the board; and the ability to read and write. Candidates may not hold any other elected office and must be registered to vote in the district. The board must fill the vacancy within 65 days from Feb. 24. During the public portion of the meeting, Susan Winton, who was a Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Educa- tion member from 1977 to 1983 and has been a resident of Wyckoff for 45 years, voiced her dissatisfaction with the two Wyckoff members of the board who made and sec- onded the motion to extend Palestis’ contract. She said the move was unprofessional and she objected to the board’s lack of action on hiring a new superintendent since there is a quality candidate currently in the district. She also said she was offended that the two Wyckoff board members do not reach out to members of the community to find out about the public’s concerns. During the meeting, Debbie Strauss, one of two Frank- lin Lakes representatives on the nine-member board whose term expires at the end of the 2015 school year, abruptly resigned from the board, turned in her laptop, and left the meeting. Strauss declined to explain the reason for her resigna- tion, saying she cannot reveal those reasons because they were discussed at the board’s closed session and the dis- cussions at the closed session are confidential. The board has now advertised for, and will appoint, a Franklin Lakes resident to Strauss’ seat. The appointee would serve through the end of 2014. An election for Strauss’ unexpired term, which extends through 2015, will be held as part of this November’s school board vote. The elected individual would be seated in January of 2015. Meanwhile, the search for a new superintendent will continue as the board seeks additional candidates. The search has been made more difficult because of the state’s superintendent salary cap law that was implemented in February 2011 by way of a commissioner of education regulation. That regulation bases a superintendent’s maximum (continued on page 8)