Westwood Regional – Following allegations that a top school board official plagiarized a letter sent to district parents to praise the departing superintendent, at least two board members—Michelle Sembler and Michael Pontillo—called for the resignations of Board President Matthew Perrapato and Vice President Joseph Abou-Daoud at a tumultuous May 13 meeting.
No other regional school trustee joined them in their call for Perrapato and Abou-Daoud’s resignations, although several trustees appeared disturbed by a highlighted letter template shared by Pontillo that showed how the letter sent by Perrapato closely matched a letter found on the Internet.
Perrapato said he would not resign though he admitted he had used a letter found on the internet and only made “tweaks” to adapt it to address District Superintendent Ray Gonzalez’s accomplishments and departure. The letter was sent to parents.
Local social media featured a six-minute Zoom montage from the May 13 meeting that showed selected board members’ accusations and responses with a voiceover critical of the board’s alleged unethical behaviors. However, a Pascack Press reporter reviewing the spliced-together video footage found it slightly misleading as some commenters were clearly out of order and did not necessarily follow the back-and-forth exchanges that actually occurred.
However, the actual board discussion lasted nearly 35 minutes, beginning initially about three hours into a three-hour, 45-minute board session. The discussion ended prematurely when a motion was made by trustee Maureen Colombo to end the discussion. Her motion was approved 5–4 by board members.
Voting against stopping discussion were Pontillo, Sembler, and trustees Frank Romano and Stacey Price.
Noting she was angry, Sembler criticized Perrapato for allegedly plagiarizing a departure letter to Gonzalez, adding, “You lied to me and you lied to us.”
She further alleged that had the departure letter been signed by the whole board, “You could have taken this entire board down on an ethical violation.”
The letter was signed only by Perrapato and Abou-Daoud.
“We do not, cannot, and will not tolerate plagiarism. It’s unethical, it’s a form of theft. We do not condone it with our students and we certainly shouldn’t condone it with our board leadership. I’m angry I’m being put in this position now,” said Sembler.
When discussion was ended by a motion okayed 5–4, Pontillo voted no and commented, “Let’s go from plagiarism to censorship.”
Previously in the meeting he charged that Perrapato had plagiarized 100 percent of the superintendent’s departure letter, except for the name, gender and time of departure which he changed.
“It’s plagiarized; just apologize to the community,” urged Pontillo.
“You took ownership of this [departure letter] and it’s not yours. This is awful. How can we stand behind someone who plagiarizes this?” asked Pontillo.
Perrapato admitted he had “Googled” departure letters and tweaked the letter before sending it out. Sembler said she was “appalled” by Perrapato’s behavior.
Price said Perrapato sending out a plagiarized letter “puts all of us in a bad light.” She said when her students plagiarize in her classroom, they face “repercussions.”
“I’m not sure we can do much worse,” added Price.
Romano said the board needed to work through the allegations of a plagiarized letter and its implications.
“People have been sunk for similar or less than this,” Romano said.
Trustee Roberta Hanlon, who exchanged words with Sembler over parliamentary procedure stating that she had the floor a couple times while Sembler interrupted, said she was not “belittling” what went on, but that the board’s statement on the superintendent was sent out in advance to all board members for comment.
She said it was the board president’s role to send out statements on behalf of the board. Board attorney Rodney Hara agreed with Hanlon’s position that the board president has the power to send out statements on behalf of the board. Perrapato had sent the statement, along with previously drafted statements, to members for review in advance.
However, some members also complained that their earlier efforts to draft a statement on Gonzalez’s departure, based on earlier drafts, were summarily disregarded or ignored by Perrapato. Perrapato said he stood by what he did and wrote.
“I think that this is not productive,” said Hanlon of plagiarism accusations and demands for resignations.
She added, “No one should be stepping down about a letter that was sent.”
Trustee Andrew Gerstmayr urged Perrapato to do better.
“It shouldn’t have gone down like that; please do better. We have so much in front of us,” he said, referring to a search for a new superintendent.
Perrapato said he would not make any excuses for what occurred and to Gerstmayr’s point, he said he should do better, and would issue a statement to board members about what occurred with the letter, requesting trustees move on to another topic.
Following the vote to end discussion on alleged plagiarism, Pontillo raised the topic of hypocrisy and criticized Hanlon for her efforts to “shut this down and sweep this under the rug.”
Pontillo asked Hara to comment on whether Perrapato’s actions regarding the alleged plagiarism were appropriate. Hara told him they can have differing opinions but that Perrapato’s actions were “not violative of any legal provision or code of conduct.”
Pontillo replied he wanted a simple yes or no answer from Hara and said Hara “went on a long-winded sentence that basically justified it.”
“This was an abomination, this was awful,” added Pontillo.
Abou-Daoud said later that all trustees should “be here for the betterment of the children.” He noted that some have called on social media for teachers to be paid a half-salary due to their alleged decrease in work time during the pandemic, and said this was unacceptable.
“To those that believe that, well, you have half a brain. Yes, I said you have half a brain,” he repeated.
He said that administrators, teachers, guidance counselors, nurses, and maintenance have been working three to four times as hard during the pandemic. He called on those who made such negative comments to apologize for their comments.
He called on people to become “community uniters” and not “community dividers.” He asked the public and board to “have respect.”
Pontillo chastised Abou-Daoud for calling people names, such as half-brain. He also asked Gonzalez to assist the board over his final months here before his departure and wished him well.
Perrapato issues apology
Board President Perrapato went on to issue the following letter on May 19:
Dear Westwood Regional School Community,
First, I would like to acknowledge and take complete responsibility for the May 10 message that I sent using the words of another school district to inform you of the next steps in our search for a new superintendent.
Following the formal resignation of the superintendent which coincided with the birth of my third son, my primary intention was to get a message out to the school community as soon as possible using an announcement I found online as my template. There was no malicious intent in my action and I sincerely apologize for it. I want to reiterate that I remain fully committed to my role as a member of this board, demonstrating ethical leadership, and doing what is best for all of our children.
Next, I would like to share the latest developments regarding the search for a new superintendent as a result of action taken by the Board of Education on May 13. During the public meeting, the board approved three motions to direct the board secretary/school business administrator to:
• Request any current lists of interim superintendents from the NJ Department of Education, the NJ School Boards Association, the NJ Association of School Administrators, and the NJ Association of School Business Officials.
• Advertise as needed and appropriate.
• Formally solicit proposals for search firms who can work with the board to conduct a search for a full-time superintendent.
In addition, pursuant to Bylaw 0155, I have created co-chair positions for the Superintendent Search Steering Committee of the Board of Education for the purpose of facilitating the general work, partnering with the board secretary/school business administrator, advising on the logistical aspects of the items listed in the previous paragraph, and providing timely updates to our school community regarding the progress of the search.
The co-chairs of the ad hoc committee, who will collaborate with the other members of the Board of Education, are Ms. Roberta Hanlon and Dr. Frank Romano.
Best,
Matthew Perrapato
Westwood Regional Board of Education President