Randolph school administrator who clashed with residents is leaving for Bergen district
Randolph Township Schools Business Administrator Stephen Frost, who has clashed with critical residents during his tenure at the Morris County district, has accepted a similar position in Tenafly for the next school year.
An employment agreement with the Tenafly Board of Education calls for Frost to assume his duties there as business administrator and board secretary beginning May 1. Frost declined to comment on his move Thursday, citing confidentiality restrictions on personnel matters. Randolph Superintendent Jennifer Fano did not respond to an email inquiry.
Tenafly Superintendent Michael Ben-David welcomed Frost to the district at a meeting of the school board in Bergen County on Monday. "We are excited about what Stephen brings to Tenafly, both in the way of education and work experience," he said.
Frost, who holds a law degree from Wake Forest University, joined the Randolph district as an assistant business administrator in 2019, taking over as administrator in 2022 with an annual salary of $185,000, district records show.
Salary information for his new contract with Tenafly was unavailable.
'Pain, chaos, and dysfunction'
During his tenure in Randolph, Frost became the target of some residents' groups opposed to Fano's administration. They criticized what they saw as overspending and accused Frost specifically of "creating a hostile environment across the district."
"We looked at everything holistically," one resident, Eliza Schleifstein, told the Randolph board at a meeting last February. "We asked questions, lots of them. We met with experts and people well-versed in school district operations and policies. The frequent response? WTF?"
After numerous confrontations at board meetings, Frost addressed his critics with a public statement in October, pushing back against what he labeled as "a small group of residents in our township [who] have and continue to create pain, chaos, and dysfunction in an attempt to undermine the very important work we do every day."
Frost defends work in Randolph
"The treatment I, our administration, our teachers and our support staff have been subjected to has often been so deplorable that it has made the working conditions for many intolerable," Frost said. "The abuse we receive extends far beyond anyone’s professional qualifications and is often deeply personal."
Frost defended the Fano administration, saying that in recent years it had successfully weathered difficult financial issues, state aid cuts and a pandemic. He accepted that "some people won't like me," but took exception to the "several years" of personal attacks.
"In email and other forms of communication I have received numerous attacks where the topic is about where I live, where I vacation, who I live with, and other details of my personal life which are completely inappropriate," Frost said. "The amount of vitriol the district receives is overwhelming."
How the districts compare
The Tenafly district, serving about 3,545 students, consists of four elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. The Randolph district also has four elementary schools, a middle school and a high school, serving 4,220 students.
The Randolph district found itself embroiled in a national controversy over "woke" and "cancel culture" activities in 2021 when it angered residents, Italian Americans and others by replacing "Columbus Day" on its school calendar with "Indigenous People's Day."
A subsequent vote to eliminate all holiday names on its calendar caused further outrage before it finally reversed course and reset the calendar to its original language.
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com
Twitter: @wwesthoven
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Morris school official who clashed with critics leaving for Tenafly
