Asbury Park superintendent blasts teachers union chief over fiscal monitor ouster

ASBURY PARK - The superintendent of the Asbury Park School District claims internal critics and political figures in Trenton are working against the best interests of the district, blasting the local teachers' union leader for what he said was the union's role in removing a fiscal monitor assigned by the state.

"Despite the positive nature of all of our actions, we have been dealing with internal resistance, much of has been led by the Asbury Park Education Association President John Napolitani," said Schools Superintendent RaShawn M. Adams. "His reach extends to numerous county and state leaders, partly because of his position as mayor of neighboring Ocean Township."

Adams made the comments at a Thursday news conference he called to "discuss the internal and external forces that are attempting to adversely affect our district's ability to create a thriving educational environment."

Napolitani fired back, telling the Asbury Park Press that he "finds it comical, and ironic that (Adams) picked the same day (for his news conference) that I’m having my mother’s viewing because she just died on Monday. She’s being buried tomorrow. If this doesn’t show you the lack of character that this individual has, then nothing will."

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The school board's office did not know the union president's mother had died until the day of the news conference, which was previously scheduled, said district spokeswoman Chanta Jackson.

At his news conference, Adams said the district conducted audits of each school building earlier this year to review teaching schedules, curriculum resources, assigned personnel, class sizes and faculty functionality.

"The results of these audits were nothing short of shocking," he said. "In some cases our teacher contact was 40%, meaning most of the teachers did not have full schedules and some did not see students until 11 a.m. despite their day beginning at 8 a.m."

The median teacher salary in the Asbury Park school district for the 2022-2023 school year was $93,885, the second-highest in Monmouth County behind Freehold Regional High School District and the 38th-highest in the state, Adams said. However, the student test scores in 2021-2022 ranked the school district dead last, 436th out of 436 in language arts and 425th out of 425 in mathematics, he said.

"That means 99% of our students are failing. Our student population is 46.5% Hispanic and 44.3% Black, and 19.5% of those speak another language other than English at home," Adams said.

He added "it all comes down to one word — accountability."

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New rules for teachers

There are 1,373 students in the district and 366 staff members, 225 of which are certified, Adams said. Teachers and counselors have certification through the state Department of Education, but not all district staff are certified.

"Shortly after taking the helm, we began taking steps to amend the district's observation system," Adams said. "We discovered that more than 70 of our 225 certificated staff had not been evaluated."

He added "this is no longer the case" and as of Dec. 21 all of the certificated staff have been evaluated with the exception of those on leave."

"Also for the first time in 12 years, staff have had their (pay raises) withheld due to lack of performance and/or poor attendance," Adams said.

The school district implemented a system to improve staff attendance, developing a tracking system for all corrective action plans, establishing discipline protocols and a virtual human resources handbook, he said.

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"As I have said in the past, we can no longer wait for osmosis to spur change. So last year we began focusing on ensuring our students could write (and) we witnessed tremendous growth for all of our students. As a result our NJGPA scores are the highest they have ever been," Adams said.

He added that there was a 41% increase in students passing the NJGPA, "which previously was only 6%."

Fiscal monitor ousted

He blamed Napolitani for the state recently removing a fiscal monitor who must sign off on district spending.

Asbury Park has had a state fiscal monitor for over two decades. In August, longtime monitor Carole Morris was removed by the state Department of Education and replaced by Robert Finger.

"During his short tenure, Finger worked well with the administration to identify ways to reduce costs, implement best practices and make tough impartial decisions. Last week Napolitani's political allies at the Department of Education and state Senate complied with his demands and removed Finger," Adams said.

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This followed the Dec. 14 meeting of the local Board of Education, when Finger overturned the board’s decision to reject a change in the job description of the school substance abuse coordinator that would have led that person to report primarily to the building principals, district spokeswoman Jackson said.

Adams claimed Napolitani has "authored countless negative articles" about the district and "shared his opinion with, or been quoted regularly, by a blogger who without fact checking aims to skew perception about the Asbury Park school district to further channel students into the charter schools.

"These same opinions have created the noise that state officials have chastised this district about," Adams continued. "(Napolitani's) current title is Alternative Learning Lab Teacher (and he) works from 7:50 a.m. to noon daily. That includes lunch, while his peers work until 2:40 p.m. His annual salary is $95,335 for 10 months. He has also told everyone, including the county superintendent, that he controls our board and has bought the votes to remove the state monitor and me."

Napolitani denied any such claims of political power.

"I have absolutely no idea what that incoherent statement even means," he responded." How could I buy votes? With the BOE? Impossible.”

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"The Asbury Park school district cannot afford to return to the days of old," Adams said. "Mr. Finger's actions were aligned with assuring the district operated properly. Now his removal is creating additional noise and threatens to return the district to an even more unstable state."

Board of Education President Carritta Cook wrote a letter to state Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan and Gov. Phil Murphy expressing her concerns about Finger's removal, requesting he remain in the position. Cook has not received a response from either the governor's office nor the Department of Education.

In August the superintendent told the Asbury Park Press that he had to "clean up a lot" in his first two years as head of the district, and that he was done waiting.

Adams, who earned a doctorate of education in educational leadership, has worked in the district since 2015, but took the helm as superintendent in mid-2021. He’s the fifth person to hold the position in the last decade and he says he has promoted "a system of accountability" after telling the district "I don't cut deals."

"In terms of fiscal accountability, we recognize that we have the highest per-pupil rate of all the surrounding districts in northern Monmouth County at $30,949. So, what have we done about it?" Adams said.

He said the district has updated its residency verifications requirements, to make sure students in the district actually live in the district.

The Asbury Park school district has three charter schools in its service area: Academy Charter, HOPE Academy and College Achieve Public Schools (CAPS). Adams said Academy and Charter have complied with residency verification, but College Achieve sent outdated information and there are discrepancies in the files.

A College Achieve spokesperson Thursday said no officials were available for comment.

It is important the district pays charter schools for students who choose those schools, Adams said.

"As you know, the money follows the student," Adams said. "In 2022-2023 school year, Asbury Park sent $11 million to charter schools while our budget was cut by $8.6 million due to the S2 bill," referring to the formula that calculates how much state aid each public school district gets.

The Asbury Park school district has been losing state funding since 2016, a cumulative loss of $26,138,837 by 2023, and an estimated cumulative loss of $36,429,860 in state funding by 2025 after nearly decade of S2 cuts.

"How can anyone lead under these circumstances?" Adams said. "Let me be clear, I believe in the teachers in this district, I believe in the administrators in this district. I am committed to supporting them. However, our current approach to teaching has not resulted in academic proficiencies for our students and our families."

Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: CDaye@gannettnj.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park NJ school superintendent blasts teachers' union chief