Board Vote Puts Anti-Bullying Position on Hold

A resolution that would create a state-mandated district anti-bullying coordinator had only two board members voting in favor of it—meaning the district has not created the position.

During the vote, Thuy Anh Le and Board President Steven Paget had the only votes in favor of creating the position. Meanwhile, board members Dana Boguzewski, Greg Gillette, Judy Haas, Jennifer Haley, Thomas Kinst voted against creating the position, and Chris Pulsifer and Marc Rosenberg abstained from the vote.

The position is a part-time position, rather than a full-time one, according to the district’s job description. It would handle many of the provisions stated in the state’s new anti-bullying law.

The district position also handles each individual school anti-bullying specialists—an additional responsibility that has existing staff investigating bullying reports.

The action taken by the school will be based on the school’s code of conduct as well as the incident nature and severity, according to Assistant Superintendent for Personnel Scott Rocco.

“The district anti-bullying specialist is the resource for the schools’ anti-bullying specialist and the school safety teams,” he said. “It’s also the individual who we’ve designed in this job description to not only reactively respond to alleged bullying but to be proactive.  .  .It’s the individual who is going to develop programs, protocols, procedures, who is going to train our students, our staff and our community about the right way to treat each other within school.”

The coordinator also compiles and reviews the anti-bullying incident reports, submits them to the superintendent and prepares the reports for the board of education, Rocco said.

While most of the focus is on student-to-student bullying, the policy focuses on a broader range of incidents, he added. The policy coves anyone who works within the school or volunteers at a school as well.

For board members, concerns on the position creation focused on position duties and experience requirements, and whether existing staff can cover the position duties.

“I’d like to know why the job description requires substitute teaching certification as opposed to a full certification,” Judy Haas said. “If this person is going to be speaking to parents and coordinating with administrators to train people, I would think a certified person would be valuable in that position.”

Haas also cited neighboring district’s use of existing staff to fill the position.

“Other districts are using guidance counselors,” she said. “One of our neighboring districts is using its personnel director. One of the neighboring districts is using vice principals.  .  .  Just because this law came into place, doesn’t mean we need to hire up before we even know what the requirements are. I am taking comparable districts surrounding us in Somerset County .  .  .and viewing their conservative attitude for it.”

None of the existing job titles have a certification requirement that aligned with the coordinator’s job description, Rocco said. In addition, the district is looking for someone who can train or provide the anti-bullying services, which does not necessarily require a teaching certification.

For another board member, Marc Rosenberg, existing staff members already cover the coordinator’s duties—making him wonder why the district does not use those staff members to handle the coordinator duties.

“What seems to me in our high school, middle school and intermediate school is that harassment, intimidation and bullying falls within their responsibility, that they are already in place, that they are already supposed to deal with that,” Rosenberg said. “So I don’t understand, except that this is mandated by the state, why this position is necessary.”

“It seems to me that this person is going to have far less contact with students than the vice principals would,” he added. “The vice principals are really the front line and the guidance counselors. . .If we have to have it, why can’t it be someone who is already doing it, for the most part.”