Roseville Community Schools

It Ain't What You Know, It's Who You Know.

Stop The Nepotism

Vote Matt Fletcher May 5, 2009

This is a complete article I found on the web when doing the research for my thesis paper. I have added some of my own comments in (parenthesis.) Please take the time to read the entire article. It sounds like he is talking about Roseville.


Building An Ethical Board, By Superintendent Robert H. Holster


"As a superintendent, I must instill and reinforce an undying commitment in every board member to act assiduously on ethical principles. My 12 years as a school leader have taught me to keep my guard up, to expect the unexpected and to address issues expeditiously — with some caution.

Too often, those who say they are stakeholders in governing public education come armed with personal agendas, rather than an ethical commitment to work for the benefit of all children. When it comes to the actions of board members — the policymakers for our school community — there is way too much gray and too little sunshine.

School board members must be at the forefront to respect the need for ethical boundaries. They must take ethical decisions and behavior seriously, removing any personal issues from their agendas in order to address student needs. After all, they set a public example for all students to learn to make ethical choices, to think critically and to believe they can make a difference through their words and actions.

Loose Cannons

One major challenge in building an ethical school community is that school personnel tend to stay forever, (like Roseville) while most board members come and go. However, some board members are re-elected repeatedly, enabling them to become loose cannons . Their political agendas grow over time and ultimately power takes precedence over any genuine commitment to put student matters. (sound familiar Joe Steenland?) Ethical considerations are lost when an elected board member commits egregious actions, public trust disappears, and a superintendent’s hands are tied until the voters decide whether to remove the trustee from office.

The formation of an ethics advisory committee to reinforce ethical standards in decision making may be one way for a school system to prevent inappropriate behavior. Members of this committee could be drawn from the community and school employee groups. Although our Board has subcommittees to address ethical issues, no framework or board policy provides a process for dealing with a potential ethics violation. Self-policing does not work (no kidding). Although New Jersey has a school ethics commission, too often these officials fall asleep at the switch, and unethical issues are overlooked or barely examined.

Board members often conveniently forget their primary role is to establish and enforce policies benefiting students, not themselves. By raising questions to the board member about his or her behavior early on, a superintendent can prevent a board ember from starting down a path to unethical acts.

Acting ethically must mean more than separating right from wrong. During every school board election, candidates give forceful presentations of right and wrong, yet the day after they’re sworn in, some become members of the “good ol’ boys club.” Board members cannot assume the role of employment counselors (They do in Roseville!). They cannot be everyone’s friend or promise jobs or contractual work. If they can’t separate personal issues from their board responsibilities, they surely shouldn’t be serving our children or our community (Well put, I wish this guy was running Roseville Schools).

Recently a member of the Passaic school board was charged with a felony and jailed for an alleged theft stemming from a job-related payroll scheme — the latest example of corruption superseding ethical commitment.

Paper Tiger

In 1992 New Jersey created the School Ethics Act to control nepotism, a growing problem in many school districts. It is a problem that would not occur if board members didn’t have hidden personal agendas concerning hiring certain individuals. When it comes to nepotism, as a superintendent I fear the possibility of requiring a DNA test to find out that we’re all related.

To control nepotism, every school district is required to adopt a policy on the subject. In addition, the school board’s lawyer is required to investigate whether potential employees have relatives working for the district (too bad Roseville doesn't do that). The mandate also requires us to ensure the district is not violating privacy laws. The law itself does not eliminate nepotism by school boards, but it does help to control it.

Even so, the State Ethics Commission is viewed as a paper tiger with a poor record of enforcement. While board members must fill out forms for the state that list potential conflicts of interest, I doubt this information is digested or applied. The state commission has no objective approach to weeding out serious ethics complaints about board members’ behavior and activities.

Until school board members are held accountable for their actions, they will ignore their oath of office (amen). Having ethical standards without enforcement and/or penalties for violations weakens the system. A district superintendent can do little about lax enforcement. Perhaps our major responsibility is to embed and enforce acceptable practices to which we can all agree.

Courage to face the truth and correct wrongdoing is the most important characteristic a superintendent brings to the job Until our school boards all recognize that the school district exists not for individual gain but for the betterment of all, public education will spin horribly away from its fundamental purpose.

Robert Holster is superintendent of the Passaic Public Schools, 101 Passaic Ave., Passaic, NJ 07055. E-mail: rholster@passaic-city.k12.nj.us