Amid protests, Englewood school board walks out before taking up outsourcing proposal
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
BY REBECCA BAKER
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
The members of the Englewood school board, faced with a loud and, at times, angry protest over a plan to outsource nearly 100 jobs, abruptly stood up and walked out of a public meeting Thursday night just as they were poised to cast a vote approving the measure.
Englewood teaching assistant Sharon Vanterpool tells members of the school board Thursday night that on Election Day she will remember their decision to explore outsourcing.
About 150 district employees and their supporters had assembled in the cafeteria at the Dr. John Grieco Elementary School, united in their opposition to the outsourcing plan. As the crowd grew angrier and more animated, the board members abruptly got up and walked into a back room, leaving the audience dumbfounded.
The board members had not voted to go into executive session. Rather, they appeared to be on the verge of voting to hire two private staffing companies — Delta T. Group North Jersey Inc. and Mission One Educational Staffing — to replace the employees, including 24 secretaries and 66 full-time teaching assistants, when they walked out at 9:35 p.m.
The move came hours after the Englewood teachers union rejected an offer to avoid the outsourcing plan in exchange for agreeing to $1.5 million in concessions. The board members had yet to emerge as of midnight.