History
With baby boomers filling the school beyond capacity, the Ramsey Public School District informed its sending districts of Franklin Lakes and Wyckoff in 1954 that it would no longer accept students from those two communities at Ramsey High School beyond the 1956-57 school year. [9] Oakland, which sent its students to Pompton Lakes High School, joined the other two districts in pursuing a joint regional high school. [10]
After Ramsey High School issued an ultimatum to their sending communities, the creation of a regional high school was approved in 1954 by Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff (often called the FLOW district for the initial letters in the names of the three communities) by a margin of 1,060 to 51. [11] The name "Ramapo Regional High School District" was chosen for the district in February 1954 when the inaugural board of education was sworn in. [12]
By a nearly 3-1 margin, voters approved a February 1955 referendum that would cover the bulk of the $2.2 million (equivalent to $23.9 million in 2023) required for the 50-acre (20 ha) site and the construction of the school building. [13] A steel strike, bad weather and other construction obstacles delayed the opening of the new school building, forcing Ramapo High School to start the 1956-57 school year with evening sessions held at Eastern Christian High School in North Haledon, with the school day running from 2:45 to 7:00 PM. [14] Constructed with a capacity for 1,080 students, the new almost-finished Ramapo High School building in Franklin Lakes opened in January 1957 with an enrollment of 655. [15] [16]
In the years after Ramapo High School opened, district enrollment rose from 650 to more than 2,000, ultimately requiring the school to operate with double sessions. Constructed at a cost of $3 million (equivalent to $29.5 million in 2023), Indian Hills High School in Oakland opened in September 1964 serving 575 students in grades 9-11 from Oakland and portions of Franklin Lakes. [17]
In 1999, the district allowed students from Franklin Lakes to choose which high school to attend, ending the policy under which students in the eastern half of Franklin Lakes were required to attend Ramapo High School while those in the borough's western half were assigned to Indian Hills High School. Oakland students were generally assigned to Indian Hills while Wyckoff residents could select which school to attend. [18]
Board of education
Overview
The district's board of education, comprised of nine members, sets policy and oversees the fiscal and educational operation of the district through its administration. As a Type II school district, the board's trustees are elected directly by voters to serve three-year terms of office on a staggered basis, with three seats up for election each year held (since 2012) as part of the November general election. The board appoints a superintendent to oversee the district's day-to-day operations and a business administrator to supervise the business functions of the district. [29] [30] Seats on the board are allocated based on the population of the constituent municipalities, with four seats allocated to Wyckoff, three to Oakland and two to Franklin Lakes. [31]
As of 2024, members of the Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education are President Kim Ansh, Vice President Marianna Emmolo, Tom Bogdansky, Brian DeLaite, Melissa Kiel, Helen Koulikourdis, Aaron Lorenz, Doreen Mariani, and Audrey Souders. [32]
2014
In 2014, Board member Debra Strauss of Franklin Lakes resigned effective February 24 while members Elizabeth Pierce of Oakland as well as Isabelle Lanini and Lynn Budd of Wyckoff each resigned effective April 23. [33] Local media linked the four sudden resignations to the Board's "disputed" search for a permanent superintendent to succeed Lauren Schoen (who had transferred to a position in Mahwah the prior year), which, in May 2014, culminated in district curriculum director Beverly MacKay being chosen for the role; The Record, as evidence, highlighted how the Board was set to interview the final four superintendent candidates (including MacKay) the same week that the latter three resignations were announced. [34] In April 2014, Lisa Sciancalepore was appointed to the vacant Franklin Lakes seat, and, in May, Teresa Kilday filled the Oakland seat while Tom Madigan (who had previously served on the board for 12 years) and David Becker were appointed to the Wyckoff positions. [35]
In the November 2014 election, Lisa Sciancalepore was elected (with 865 votes) to the remaining one year of what had been Debra Strauss' term; Teresa Kilday was elected (with 912) to a new three-year term; board vice president Sadie Quinlan of Oakland was re-elected (with 1,136); Jane Castor was elected (also with 1,136) to a one-year unexpired term representing Oakland; Tom Madigan was elected (with 2,012) to the remaining two years of what had been Isabelle Lanini's term; and David Becker was elected (with 1,976) to a new three-year term. [36] Every candidate for the regional board of education ran unopposed in 2014. [37]
2015
In the November 2015 election, Lisa Sciancalepore of Franklin Lakes was elected (with 651 votes) to her first full term on the board, Jane Castor was re-elected (with 1,178) to her third term representing Oakland, and Kenneth Porro of Wyckoff was re-elected (with 1,631) to his second term on the body. All three candidates ran unopposed. [38] [39]
2016
In January 2016, board member Tom Madigan resigned upon his being appointed to replace Dave Connolly on Wyckoff's township committee; Christine Becker (who was also considered for the committee position) was appointed to serve for the remainder of Madigan's term, which was set to expire in December 2016. [40] [41]
In the November 2016 election, Christine Becker (with 2,592 votes) was elected to her first full term on the regional board of education and president Thomas Bunting (with 2,849) was re-elected to his third; both ran without competition and to represent Wyckoff. Meanwhile, incumbent John Butto of Franklin Lakes (with 1,492 votes) was elected to his second full term, defeating June-2016-Ramapo-High-School-graduate Thomas Rukaj (who earned 852). [40] [42] [43]
2017
In the November 2017 election, board member David Becker (with 2,262 votes) was re-elected to his second three-year term representing Wyckoff. [44] Sadie Quinlan and Teresa Kilday's Oakland seats were also up for re-election, but they decided not to run and no candidates filed to replace them — therefore the positions were to be filled by whichever individuals received the most write-in votes. [45] Quinlan and Kilday earned the most write-in votes, and they were both sworn into new terms (along with Becker) in January 2018. [46]
2018
In January 2018, 20-year-old Seton Hall University student Thomas Rukaj was appointed to represent Franklin Lakes on the Board for the remaining one year of what had been member Lisa Sciancalapore's term until she resigned. [47]
In the November 2018 election, Franklin Lakes board representative Thomas Rukaj (with 1,309 votes) was re-elected to his first full three-year term, Filomena LaForgia (with 1,924) was elected to the Oakland seat that had been opened by Jane Castor deciding against seeking re-election, and John Kinney (with 3,627) was elected to the Wyckoff seat that had been Kenneth Porro's. [48] All three races were uncontested. [49]
2019
In the November 2019 election, John Carolan (with 1,527 votes) and Robert Fortunato (with 1,298) defeated Marc Schaeffer (who earned 1,052 votes) and Frances Nelson (who earned 939), replacing Christine Becker and Thomas Bunting (who decided against running for re-election) to represent Wyckoff on the regional board of education. In Franklin Lakes, John Butto (with 766 votes) was re-elected to his third three-year term while, in Oakland, Judith Sullivan (with 1,029) was elected to her first full term; both the Franklin Lakes and Oakland races were uncontested, though 331 write-in votes were cast in opposition to Sullivan. [50] [51]
2021
In the November 2021 election, a number of board candidates endorsed each other across municipal and school-district borders, forming an unprecedented coalition of parents’-rights-oriented "take back" candidates running for the regional as well as various local school boards; newcomers Marianna Emmolo of Wyckoff and Kim Ansh of Franklin lakes in addition to incumbent board president Filomena LaForgia of Oakland campaigned with this focus in the regional board of education elections. [52] In November 2021, Wyckoff challenger Emmolo (with 2,124 votes) defeated incumbent John Kinney (who earned 1,983), Franklin Lakes incumbent Helen Koulikourdis (with 1,530 votes) defeated challenger Ansh (who earned 1,503), and Oakland challenger — a dean at Ramapo College — Aaron Lorenz (with 1,620 votes) defeated incumbent LaForgia (who earned 1,427). [53] Leading up to election day, LaForgia had been, "...the most vocal of the anti-mask-mandate candidates, at first refusing to wear a mask at meetings and receiving a no-confidence vote from the faculty in response," while Ansh campaigned on, "...medical freedom, transparency, parental rights and...[banning] Critical Race Theory...from school curriculum"; [54] meanwhile, fake brochures decorated with, "...symbols for LGBT...Rights [and] a Black Lives Matter clenched fist," were circulated (and thereafter condemned by both targeted candidates), which claimed Lorenz wanted to, "...[make] America 'less white,' '[abolish] the police,' and...'reprogram our youth to accept and promote racial and gender diversity,'" and stated that Koulikourdis advocated for, "...mandated vaccines for all students and faculty; implementing diversity, equity and inclusion curriculum; and promoting an 'LGBTQ atmosphere'". [55]
2022
Board member Vivian Yudin King was questioned over her role in approving purchases by the school district of appliances from her family business, Yudin's Appliances, which she worked for while serving on the Board; in 2022, the Yudins sued four politically-involved district parents (who were later cleared of wrongdoing in State Superior Court) for defamation over this continuous criticism. Franklin Lakes Borough Council candidate Joel Ansh, one of the individuals sued, used the lawsuit in his campaign, creating a website and distributing materials that, "accus[ed] the Yudins of attempting to suppress their First Amendment rights to free speech". [56]
In 2022, president John Carolan and member Robert Fortunato decided not to run for re-election to additional terms representing Wyckoff on the regional board of education. In the November election, a slate of Tom Bogdansky (with 3,203 votes) and Doreen Mariani (with 3,009) defeated the team of Brian DeLaite (who earned 2,475 votes) and Edward Seavers (who earned 2,365) to replace Carolan and Fortunato. [57] The two campaigns raised disagreements on issues including COVID-19 policies and curriculum implementation. [58] [59] [60] In Franklin Lakes, meanwhile, Kim Ansh (with 1,911 votes) defeated incumbent Maria Underfer (who earned 1,676) for a seat on the regional board; [61] Ansh's campaign associated itself with Bogdansky's candidacy as well as his and Mariani's ideology. [62]
Mirroring national trends, [63] both the 2021 [64] and 2022 [65] regional school board elections were markedly divisive and partisan. Following the 2022 election, a parents' rights bloc of Board members, made up of Judith Sullivan, Marianna Emmolo, Tom Bogdansky, Doreen Mariani, and Kim Ansh and focused in part on "...handling the implementation of [the] state’s mandates regarding health/physical education and diversity, equity, and inclusion," [66] held a five-seat majority on the nine-seat body. [67]
In November 2022, Brian DeLaite (who was recently defeated in a race for a different seat on the body) was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Board following James Setteducato's resignation in September. [68]
2023
At the January 2023 reorganization meeting, the Board's parents' rights bloc selected a president (Judith Sullivan) and vice president (Kim Ansh) from among themselves and (with five-to-four votes) issued a number of controversial motions [69] [70]
In February 2023, after the Board ended the relationship with its longtime attorney (Fogarty and Hara), Adam Weiss of Busch Law Group was hired to represent the district. In May 2023, Weiss resigned from the role, citing how the board, "...weaponiz[ed] our legal advice in attacks against each other," as there was, "...a marked degradation in the level of civility, trust and respect...[making] it particularly difficult to guide...the board". [71]
From April 2023 to October 2023, the Ramapo Indian Hills business administrator, superintendent, and curriculum director left their positions to fill similar roles in other districts [72] [73] [74]
In July 2023, Kim Ansh, Judith Sullivan, Marianna Emmolo, and Doreen Mariani rejected three mental health programs recommendations, which would have renewed a contract for school-based counseling and made new agreements to train and certify school district personnel as well as establish online access to treatment providers for students and staff. [75] In August 2023, the Board held a special meeting where members reversed course and near-unanimously accepted the recommendations. [76]
In August 2023, the Board approved curriculum for the 2023-2024 school year by an 8-1 vote, with only Ansh voting no. During the meeting, Bogdansky asked about The 1619 Project and critical race theory; Ansh, meanwhile, criticized materials' references to same-sex relationships and gender ideology as well as how she perceived the materials as overemphasizing the academic contributions of individuals from certain minority groups, claiming, "Residents and parents want their children to be taught how to think, not what to think," and suggesting that the Board should be focusing on improving test scores and graduation readiness. [77]
In September 2023, board member Aaron Lorenz introduced a motion to remove Judith Sullivan, who had confirmed she was not running for re-election in November, as president of the body. [78] [74]
In the November 2023 election, incumbent Brian DeLaite (with 2,293 votes) was elected to his first full term representing Wyckoff on the regional board of education, defeating challenger Jared Geist (who earned 2,059 votes). In Oakland, meanwhile, the team of Audrey Souders (with 2,072 votes) and Melissa Kiel (with 1,893) defeated incumbent Vivian Yudin King (who earned 1,414 votes) and her running-mate Amy Eilert (who earned 1,378); [79] board president Judith Sullivan was up for re-election alongside Yudin King, but she decided against running again. [80] In the Wyckoff race, Geist was described by media as, "...allied with 'Parents' Rights' groups," due to, for example, his campaign materials having stated, "'We're extremely committed to faith'...[and] 'I will promote transparency, support traditional academics without agendas or ideology'", [81] and, in the Oakland race, Yudin King was called "pro-public education" whereas Souders and Kiel were dubbed "parental rights candidates". Local media characterized the 2023 regional school board races as "where the action is", connected their divisiveness to a trending national "culture war", and suggested they were some of the cycle's key board races — microcosms, retrospectively, of "mixed results" statewide. [82] [83]
2024
In January 2024, the Board approved $115,200 of its 2024-2025 budget to be used for the hiring of one armed guard at each district high school — both Class III officers who have full police powers as, "...retired law enforcement officers under age 65 who had served as full-time police officers in New Jersey within three years of appointment, and who were trained as school resource officers". The budgetary inclusion passed with only member Aaron Lorenz voting no; he argued it was a "hasty decision", that, "...the data is not clear that [armed guards] makes school safer," and that their presence, "...alters the atmosphere of the school itself". [84]
Also in January 2024, district Superintendent James Baker joined a board meeting to discuss "recent concerns with some hate issues" following a drawn swastika and written Jewish slur being discovered in a bathroom at Ramapo High School — the third antisemitic bias incident documented since the start of the school year. Though local Jewish leaders and police officials confirmed that, "the incident was reported properly to law enforcement," and school district officials wrote to parents that they, "unequivocally condemn acts of hatred of all types," some residents, "...criticized the seven-day delay in the school's announcement and said, as parent Jeffrey Greene put it, [the district] 'has simply tried to sweep the incident under the rug'". [85]
In March 2024, the Board's parents' rights bloc (President Kim Ansh, Vice President Marianna Emmolo, Tom Bogdansky, Melissa Kiel, Doreen Mariani, and Audrey Souders) passed a measure to rescind the district's policy regarding transgender students, which previously allowed students who changed their gender status with the school to decide whether or not their parents should be informed of the change. The Board majority argued that the policy violated a different district statute stipulating that parents, "...shall have access to records and information pertaining to his or her unemancipated child including but not limited to medical, dental insurance, child care and educational records." Board President Kim Ansh stated that a parent's trust in educators is a "sacred bond" and, "When you are now in a situation where the school may be lying to you about your child, that trust is broken," whereas member Brian DeLaite countered that abolishing the transgender policy was meant to, "appease a certain constituency in our community at the expense of those that need the most protection," as, "If you have a great relationship with your children, they're going to share with you [while] The children who need to be protected the most are the ones who are at risk in their own homes." Board attorney Kerri Wright cautioned that the vote may not ultimately have any impact on how the district will handle transgender students, as New Jersey guidelines, "...provide very specific protections for your students and obligations for the school board and the school district to abide by them," and, "...the law does very clearly protect the rights of transgender students." [86] [87] At the following Board meeting, five RIH students and a psychologist from Glen Rock (who had patients attending district schools) spoke out against the transgender policy's abolition, claiming the risks of outing students to unsupportive parents included suicide, abuse, and being expelled from their homes. [88]
In the November 2024 election, incumbent Marianna Emmolo is running for re-election to her second full term representing Wyckoff on the regional board of education (challenged by John Kinney, who she overtook the position from in the 2021 election), incumbent Helen Koulikourdis is running for re-election to her second full term representing Franklin Lakes (challenged by Caryn Nash), and incumbent Aaron Lorenz is running for re-election to his second full term representing Oakland (challenged by Joseph Valeni); Kinney, Koulikourdis, and Lorenz are all running under shared slogan "Supporting Our Students." [89]
2024 superintendent search
In May 2024, the Board held a special meeting over the Memorial Day break during which they unanimously approved a five-year, $1.9 million contract for Dr. Ronnie Tarchichi to, starting July 1, serve as the Ramapo Indian Hills superintendent, setting his base salary at $280,000 and his fifth-year salary at $393,786; Tarchichi had previously led the Pennsauken school district. A separate 7-0-2 vote (board members Audrey Souders and Melissa Kiel abstained) resulted in the sudden, unexplained termination of interim superintendent James Baker's contact, which was set to expire in July. Later in the meeting, members voted 5-4 (with Tom Bogdansky, Brian DeLaite, Aaron Lorenz and Helen Koulikourdis voting "no") to appoint the district's director of curriculum, Dr. Melissa Quackenbush, to act as interim superintendent until Tarchichi's tenure began; Quackenbush had just been hired by Ramapo Indian Hills in February 2024 following a stint as a single-subject curriculum supervisor with Paramus public schools. [90] [91]
In the final days of June 2024, the Board held another special meeting where its members voted 5-0-3 (Bogdansky, Koulikourdis, Lorenz abstained while DeLaite was absent) to rescind the contract offered to Tarchichi the month prior; the three members who abstained all agreed that "[They] do not have enough information to make a sound decision." Media reported that, between his May appointment and his contract being rescinded in June, Tarchichi and the Board had discussed him continuing to work in some capacity with his former district to ease the latter's transition — but there were no public conclusions to these talks and the Board provided no official explanation for the termination. In a subsequent vote, the Board voted 5-3 (with Bogdansky, Koulikourdis, and Lorenz voting "no") to extend Acting Superintendent Quackenbush's contract by 60 days; members then swapped positions so that a motion to begin searching for an interim superintendent failed 3-5 (with Kim Ansh, Marianna Emmolo, Melissa Kiel, Doreen Mariani, and Audrey Souders voting against it). [92]
After inexplicably rescinding Tarchichi's contract in late June, the Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education held a follow-up special meeting on July 1, the day Tarchichi was set to begin his tenure; the meeting was only open to the public for 20 minutes before the Board went into a closed session to discuss "personnel," after which members did not publicly reconvene. The Board did not explain why Tarchichi's contract was rescinded, nor did they announce further plans other than Acting Superintendent Quackenbush remaining at the district's helm. At the meeting, former Oakland representative Vivian Yudin King criticized the Board for having, "...opened up the district to a huge lawsuit," claiming: "You guys are running the schools and you are running it into the ground," whereas other local education leaders questioned Quackenbush's qualifications, saying, for example: "She does not have the experience to lead our district out of the mess that [the Board has] caused." [93] [94]
The Board next convened at a special meeting on July 11, during which "minority" members Brian DeLaite, Helen Koulikourdis, and Aaron Lorenz were joined by Tom Bogdansky in proposing that the body "pause the current [superintendent] search immediately" and begin a new search after hiring a second interim superintendent who would, officially, succeed James Baker in the role; the four members claimed that: "...continuing the search with the current applicant pool poses significant risks to our schools and the community...[as] We have grave concerns about the thoroughness and accuracy of the information provided by each candidate." Board president Kim Ansh dismissed these criticisms while vice president Marianna Emmolo argued the proposal was a "political" ploy to delay the process and "see who's on the board next year." The proposal was ultimately defeated and the Board ended the meeting with a three-and-a-half hour closed session that yielded no action. [95]
At the next board meeting, on July 22, two new superintendent candidates were discussed but not named. The unnamed third candidate became, in particular, a point of contention: five Board members (Ansh, Emmolo, Melissa Kiel, Doreen Mariani and Audrey Souders) voted to submit the third candidate's contract to the Bergen County Office of Education for approval, while Bogdansky, Koulikourdis, Lorenz and DeLaite voted against the submission. Bogdansky questioned: "Why has the process we used for both candidates one and two changed for candidate three?" asserting that the, "...lack of consultation not only undermines the principles of transparency and accountability, but also diminishes the legitimacy of the decisions made"; Lorenz and Koulikourdis declared the third candidate "unqualified"; and Koulikourdis, individually, claimed that President Ansh had violated the Open Public Meetings Act by privately calling more than five involved persons to discuss the candidacy. Ansh, meanwhile, asserted that: "...board members can say whatever you want in public, we went through the process, the person is highly qualified," and Emmolo posited that: "There's a narrative being built here for a reason," and the search was "a perfect process" with "very qualified" candidates. Later in the meeting, audience member Margaret Bennett, a former Franklin Lakes grade school board representative, claimed that Acting Superintendent Quackenbush had "...inserted herself in the superintendent search process, specifically seeking to have herself named assistant superintendent," suggesting she had evidence that former Interim Superintendent Baker and Tarchichi, during his short time contracted, had denied Quackenbush's requests — specifically claiming that Tarachichi advised Quackenbush to "...have waited to make changes to the supervisor structure," and that, "...he intended to undo much of the top-heavy structure that she created." Board member Brian DeLaite responded to these claims by planning to email the executive county superintendent to express concerns, "...with any possibility of the assistant superintendent position being created that would, in [his] opinion, be counter to the economic and academic needs of our districts," whereas Souders defended Quackenbush, pointing to: "...how much time [she has committed], how much she loves what she does, how much she is trying to improve our district. And I think that everything she does is directed toward that goal of improving our students and our district's reputation." [96]
On August 7, the Board held a special meeting during which they revealed that the (previously unnamed) third candidate for the superintendent position was Shauna DeMarco, who had been the superintendent of Tenafly schools from July 2018 to December 2022 and, before that, was a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, and, finally, superintendent at Lyndhurst public schools. The Board voted 5-4 to approve DeMarco's contract, which stipulated that she enter a $1.4 million, four-year agreement with Ramapo Indian Hills, starting on August 14, 2024, and ending in June 2028; the four members who previously called DeMarco "unqualified" (DeLaite, Koulikourdis, Lorenz, and Bogdansky) voted against her hiring, but they were outnumbered by Ansh, Emmolo, Mariani, Souders, and Kiel who approved the contract. The "no" votes decried the meeting having taken place during the week "...between the end of summer activities and the beginning of fall sports practices when many families traditionally take their vacations," (with Koulikourdis saying: "We should not even be here...There has been a reckless disregard for the process,") whereas Mariani countered: "The full board of nine should have been involved, and if some chose not to be as involved as they should have been, that's on them." Once DeMarco was hired, in August 2024, she became the district's first permanent superintendent since Rui Dionisio resigned a year earlier. [97] [98] [99]
