OCEAN CITY — One of the three Upper Township Board of Education members chosen to represent the district on the Ocean City school board was replaced before taking her seat Wednesday, but possibly only temporarily.
Upper Township Board of Education President Michele Barbieri said that during discussions with Ocean City School District solicitor Michael Stanton on Jan. 4, the board was told Ocean City would not seat Christine Lentz for what they perceived as a conflict.
“As a courtesy and to ensure Upper Township was able to fulfill their obligation at the OCSD reorganization meeting, we sent a placeholder to represent our interests,” Barbieri said. “We have formally asked for their official position in writing prior to our next regular meeting in January. If no official response is received, Dr. Lentz will be seated as one of our three representatives on the OCBOE.”
Neither Lentz nor representatives to the Ocean City board Fran Newman and Kristie Chisholm responded to requests for comment. Board member Bill Holmes did return a message, saying only that the issue is legal in nature and that he was unable to discuss it.
Upper Township Board of Education Business Administrator Laurie Ryan confirmed the board voted Jan. 3 for Lentz, Newman and Chisholm as representatives to the Ocean City Board of Education.
“At this time, I have not received any formal communication from the Ocean City Board of Education. Our solicitors are reviewing the matter and will respond to us accordingly,” she said last week.
During the meeting, Chisholm expressed dismay at the situation and asked for an investigation and report.
“As a member of the Upper Township Board of Education, during my second and third years as I served here, I was privy to information regarding a staff member and a criminal case that the staff member was accused of in June 2015. The staff member was acquitted of all charges in October 2017.
“I was informed on my way home from work today that there was a conflict that arose in 2016 that is yet to be resolved and because of that it precluded an elected official from serving on this board. This inaction of the board to resolve the conflict in the past seven years is troublesome at best.
“I would like to request an update from the district counsel on this matter and additionally I would like to know where the district stands regarding the labor counsel and this conflict. It’s unfortunate that what can be conceived as inaction is preventing an elected official from serving.”
Lentz, then the athletic director at Ocean City High School, had been accused of accessing then Superintendent of School Kathleen Taylor’s email account during contract negotiations between the district and school administrators’ union in 2015. She was indicted in 2016 for official misconduct, computer criminal activity and theft, but in a trial in 2017 was found not guilty of all charges.
Ocean City Board of Education Business Administrator Tim Kelley said there is ongoing litigation concerning Lentz.
“She was appointed but did not come. She was not barred from taking her seat,” Kelley said, confirming there is ongoing litigation.
A call to school board solicitor Mike Stanton was not returned.
According to state statute, the Upper Township Board of Education has been granted three seats on the Ocean City Board of Education. The Board of Education shall designate their three representatives to serve on the receiving district Board of Education on an annual basis. The Ocean City Representatives will be appointed by the sending Board of Education at their annual reorganization meeting and shall serve a one year term.
Jenna Smith of Upper Township, an educator in the Galloway Township School District, spoke of the incident during the meeting.
“Last night the Upper Township Board of Education voted to send three members to serve on Ocean City Board of Education. I’m sure they believed they were the three who best represent the staff and students of both Upper Township and Ocean City. To learn that one could not be seated due to a perceived conflict is troubling. This action robs our community of our elected representation and their ability to serve the community. We ask that the board look into this action,” Smith said.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff