SRHS teachers vote no confidence in superintendent Board notes school is held in high regard throughout the state

SRHS teachers vote no confidence in superintendent
Board notes school is held in high regard throughout the state

In the midst of controversy over proposed staff changes, teachers at Shore Regional High School have taken a vote of "no confidence" in Leonard G. Schnappauf, superintendent/principal of the school.

Linda Conway, president of the Shore Regional Education Association, the teachers union at the high school, announced the vote by members at a meeting of the Shore Regional High School Board of Education on May 23 in a statement excoriating Schnappauf for a litany of alleged shortcomings.

Diane Merla, president of the Board of Education, just as strongly defended Schnappauf, noting the high school has been consistently rated one of the best in the county and the state.

Schnappauf chose not to comment on the situation.

The SREA vote also comes in the midst of contract negotiations between the union and the board.

"As far as we are concerned, contract negotiations are a completely different issue," Conway said later.

Only moments before Conway spoke, the board of education had made official the personnel decisions it had indicated at its agenda workshop meeting two days earlier that it was going to make. They included keeping music teacher Kevin Pryor and art teacher Diana Giatropoulos on full-time status, with the addition of two courses to each of their schedules. Schnappauf had proposed cutting back both of those positions to three-fifths part-time status. Both are tenured teachers, and the earlier plan to reduce their jobs to part-time positions had plunged the school into turmoil.

But the board also approved nonrenewal of the contracts of six teachers and one part-time support staffer, all of whom are nontenured.

The job of one nontenured teacher is being reduced from a full-time position to three-fifths part-time status, and one nontenured, part-time support staffer’s job is being reduced from four-fifths to one-fifth.

One tenured staffer’s job also is being reduced to a part-time position.

Conway said after the meeting that the vote on "no confidence" drew 52 yes votes and two nos among the 67 teachers and secretaries who are members of the union. The rest of the members either were absent or abstained when the vote was taken on April 25, she said.

About 35 members of the union stood silently at their seats in the school auditorium, where the board meeting was held, as Conway read her statement. She said the union’s reasons for the vote were Schnappauf’s lack of leadership, his conduct unbecoming a professional educator, his inability to work cooperatively with staff and students and his lack of educational foresight.

Conway said the vote was not a "spur-of-the-moment decision" based on the cutbacks.

"Many attempts have been made over the years to work cooperatively and congenially with the superintendent in order to resolve issues and address concerns for the betterment of the school," she told the board. "We have met with nothing but staunch resistance and relentless retaliation for our efforts…When the morale of this school has declined so badly and our students’ futures jeopardized, we must take a stand."

Conway said the credibility of faculty had been undermined by such comments by Schnappauf as, "Teachers are amoral and lack integrity," which she said was made in the hallway in the presence of students and staff.

She also accused him of outbursts of temper and obscene language to and about staff and of age discrimination for saying teachers 55 and over should get out. She also noted that certified staff members were cut and replaced with alternate route personnel.

Conway said the events of the past month had created chaos in the school district.

"Not only did he upset students, staff and community, but he put the passing of future budgets in severe jeopardy because he has destroyed the public trust by making these cuts after the budget was passed," she charged.

Merla responded that she was amazed the union would have a vote of "no confidence" in Schnappauf.

"I know I speak for the Board of Education in saying we have nothing but laudatory comments for him," she said. "Mr. Schnappauf has led this district in an exemplary manner over the past years."

During his tenure, she noted, New Jersey Monthly magazine has named Shore Regional High School one of the top 75 high schools in the state and sixth best in Monmouth County in 1996, third best in the county in 2000. She also said the number of students going on to post-secondary school programs has risen from about 80 percent to 96 percent, and the number of credits required for graduation has been raised to 130.

"He has overseen the completion of the renovation of the science room, the upgrade of the computer lab, the renovation of the running track, additional elements to the high ropes course, the new telephone system and interactive TV for classrooms and the new computer system in special education," she said. "His leadership is exemplified in the Completion of Strategic Plan and Accreditation by Middle States via the Accreditation for Growth Process."

Through the accreditation process, Merla said, course offerings were reviewed and new, higher-level courses were added. She said the Middle States report cited the "valued" input of students.

She quoted from the report, "As a result, the students have a psychological ownership of their school. The parents spoke with pride about their involvement and how they feel included. The staff members clearly understand the process, and they indicated that their colleagues were either involved or at least fully informed."

"These outstanding accomplishments at Shore Regional attest to the leadership of Mr. Schnappauf as superintendent and have been accomplished because of that leadership," Merla concluded. "This board of education has and will continue to raise the bar for our students."

Conway said after the meeting that the SREA had a motion before it last spring for a vote of "no confidence," but the motion was tabled. At that time, she said, the leadership spoke to Schnappauf to make him aware of what was upsetting the members and to give him an opportunity to "change his demeanor." The cutbacks he proposed this spring were the "last straw," she said.

"It was a yearlong process and had been building up over many years," she said of the vote.

Before Conway and Merla spoke at the meeting, two members of the public addressed the board on the personnel issue.

Frances Hall of Oceanport said she was "very glad" that the art and music programs were being kept intact at the high school with the retention of Pryor and Giatropoulos on a full-time basis.

Pat Thoma of Oceanport, the mother of a freshman at the high school, similarly thanked the board for upholding the music and art departments.

"I look forward to next year and the reinvigoration of these programs," she said.