They are unlike city councils; members are bound to support state directives
OCEAN CITY — When the question was raised whether school board members were bound by law to vote for the new State Health and Physical Education Standards, it prompted an interesting response from the board solicitor about who — or what — empowers school boards.
It is not “the power of the people.”
At Thursday evening’s Ocean City Board of Education meeting, new member Robin Shaffer asked solicitor Bob Stanton about a quote that appeared in news story in the Sentinel.
The quote involved the 6-5 vote in August to approve the new standard. Shaffer asked about the line regarding the split vote that read, “That was despite the board being required to adopt the standard and the oath each member took to uphold state Department of Education directives.
Shaffer asked Stanton if it were accurate that board members were required to vote in favor of the standards.
“I agree that you all take an oath to abide by the laws and regulations of the state,” Stanton said, that if the state board “sends something like that they have to vote for it.”
Stanton said he sent a memo to the board that school boards are different than city councils, whose “power comes from the people.”
“The power from a board of education comes, when you’re all sitting as a body, from the Legislature, and all the power comes from the state board. It’s different than city council. … It’s a legislative body.
“I hear all the time you’re on the board of ed, people elected me, it’s the power of the people,” Stanton said. “Unfortunately on a board of ed, that’s not the way it works. It’s a legislative creature. Good or bad, that’s the way it is. (State statute) 18-A is what we have to abide by. 18-A makes superintendents, in this case the king, if it’s a woman, the queen, they have all the power. Everything must go through the superintendent.”
“It’s different than most public bodies,” Stanton said.
When Shaffer pressed whether it was a legal requirement for all the school board members to vote yes to adopt the standards, Kristie Chisholm, an Upper Township representative on the board, interjected that the board does not adopt standards.
“We adopt curricula to support the standards DOE (Department of Education) gives us and we must, through regulation, adopt a curricula to support those standards.”
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff