$800-a-day interim superintendent hired to lead Ramapo Indian Hills school district

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 on Nov. 12 to join the Fair Lawn district as superintendent. 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. The four were board President Judith Sullivan, Vice President Kim Ansh and trustees Marianna Emmolo and Doreen Mariani.

However, the group 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 on his first day on the job. The next public board meeting is therefore Nov. 30.

The interim search was authorized Aug. 28, after the Aug. 15 announcement by the Fair Lawn Board of Education that it was hiring Dionisio to head its 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, saying his talks with other schools 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 recently included serving as superintendent of the five-school, 2,018-student pre-K-12 Middlesex Public School District from 2004 to 2013. Since then he has served as interim math supervisor in the North Brunswick district and interim superintendent of the East Windsor Regional School District and Roselle Public Schools.

He is currently on the faculty at Thomas Edison State University in Trenton. He holds a bachelor's degree in arts and sciences, a master's in special education/psychology, and a doctorate in administration, social psychology and educational theory from Rutgers.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: James Baker hired at $800 a day to lead Ramapo Indian Hills schools