After months of debate, Ramapo Indian Hills board takes step on superintendent search
OAKLAND — The Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education finally agreed on Thursday to solicit bids from search companies to begin the process of hiring a new school superintendent.
It took three months and two motions to reach that decision.
At Thursday night's school board meeting, school trustee Marianna Emmolo reintroduced her Oct. 30 motion to hire Illinois-based Hazard Young Attea Associates to search for a superintendent to succeed Rui Dionisio. He announced on Aug. 15 that he would be leaving in November to take the same position at the Fair Lawn school district.
Emmolo repeated her argument that the firm had done the previous search for Ramapo Indian Hills that led to Dionosio's hiring. Hazard Young has offered a discounted fee based on work it has done for the district, she said.
The board was running behind if it wants a new superintendent in place by the start of the next school year, Emmolo warned.
Her motion echoed one Board President Judith Sullivan wanted to propose at a special session Aug. 24. However, the meeting failed to produce a quorum and no action was taken.
Attempts to revive the motion failed at both the Aug. 28 and Sept. 11 board meetings, thanks largely to the opposition of Trustee Thomas Bogdansky. He argued that area superintendents had advised him that the deeply divided board should immediately hire an interim superintendent and "calm down" before proceeding with a search for a permanent replacement.
The board subsequently approved the hiring of James Baker as interim superintendent in October. Thursday was his first public meeting after joining the district.
On Thursday, Trustee Helen Koulikourdis repeated objections raised by some board members that the proper procedure would be to issue a general request for a proposal, or RFP, from all interested firms, then select one to conduct the search.
"We may end up with Hazard Young, but the process should be done correctly," Koulikourdis said.
Superintendent leaves: Fair Lawn hires Ramapo Indian Hills superintendent to lead its school district
The two-high-school district serves 2,096 students in grades 9-12 from Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff.
Emmolo's motion to hire the firm failed 4-5, with board members Bogdansky, Koulikourdis, Brian DeLaite, Aaron Lorenz and Vivian King voting against it.
Bogdansky then proposed a motion calling for the board to issue the RFP, with responses due by Dec. 31. That would mean newly sworn trustees taking office in January would participate in choosing a search firm and the selection of the superintendent, rather than splitting the process between the current and future board.
That motion passed 8-0-1 with yes votes from board Vice President Kim Ansh, Doreen Mariani, Bogdansky, DeLaite, Koulikourdis, Lorenz, Emmolo and Sullivan. King abstained without explanation.
The New Jersey School Boards Association also conducts superintendent searches. A spokeswoman confirmed Friday that school boards "typically want a new superintendent in place by July 1 so that the new chief school administrator can be in place over the summer and prepare for the September start of school."
However, district circumstances do not always allow such a schedule.
Former Ramapo Indian Hills Superintendent Beverly Mackay gave 10 months' notice in October 2019 that she planned to retire in August 2020. But in part due to the COVID pandemic, the district did not hire Hazard Young to conduct a search until March 2021, seven months after she left. Dionisio was hired five months later in August 2021 and joined the district that November.
Fair Lawn took just four months to hire Dionisio in August after its superintendent, Nicholas Norcia, announced in April that he would leave to take charge of the Morris Hills Regional District.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Ramapo Indian Hills school board finally starts superintendent search
