Improper Reorganizations May Jeopardize Board of Ed Decisions
Spring is the time of renewal for boards of education. After the annual school election—this year, April 27—boards of education are required to organize or, as some characterize it, reorganize.
What is the legal significance of organizing properly? School boards that fail to follow the proper procedures and act in the “lame duck” period between the school election date and the organization meeting date when the successor board is constituted may find that their attempted actions are voided. The Commissioner of Education addressed this issue in Nowak v. Bd. of Educ. of Manville, 1976 S.L.D. 43. In Nowak, the Commissioner distinguished between “routine” board actions, such as purchase orders or approving the use of facilities, or matters that could not wait, such as filling of vacancies, and matters that needed to be decided by the new board. The Commissioner voided a board's decisions to appoint bus drivers, and appoint and award salary adjustments to administrators ... before the successor board's organization meeting. In doing so, the Commissioner emphasized that in New Jersey “a board of education is a noncontinuous body. ” Id.
Organization Deadlines
N.J.S.A. 18A:10-3 requires boards of education to organize annually at a regular meeting, and at that organizational meeting, new members assume their office. Type I districts are to organize not later than 8:00 p.m. on May 16 or on the following day, if the 16 is a Sunday. Type II districts are required to organize on any day of the first or second week following the annual school election. In the event these time periods cannot be satisfied, then the statute requires that a meeting be held within three days of the first attempt. N.J.S.A. 18A:10-3.
Board Secretary and President Pro Tempore
Based on the statutory scheme, the board secretary is the little-realized but necessary constant in the reorganization formula. It is the board secretary who is statutorily required to give notice of the first regular meeting, as well as all regular and special meetings of the board, record the minutes of the meeting and report on the results of any annual or special school election. N.J.S.A. 18A:10-4 and 18A:17-7.
Boards of education are required to employ a secretary or assign the secretary's title and duties to its school business administrator as per N.J.S.A. 18A:16-1. Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:17-5, each board secretary must be appointed by the board by a recorded role call majority vote of its full membership for a term not to expire later than June 30th of the calendar year “next succeeding that in which the board shall have been organized.” The board secretary is to continue to serve after the expiration of her/his term until a successor is qualified and appointed. N.J.S.A. 18A:17-7.
By-laws may authorize different procedures for the organizational meeting, as addressed hereafter, but it is the board secretary who usually takes the gavel and assumes the “chair” to begin the annual meeting to “re”-organize. The board secretary, having the sole power to notice for the meeting, is often also empowered by a board of education's bylaws to be the official who calls the meeting to order until a new president assumes the chair. In lieu of the board secretary initially chairing the annual meeting, a policy or unwritten practice may also allow for the board to appoint a chairman “pro tempore,” or temporary chairperson, for such purposes.
Oaths of Office
The board secretary or temporary chairperson, following the call to order, flag salute, the statement of the manner of notification of the meeting and a report of the election results, is first obligated, pursuant to N.J.S. 18A:17-11, to administer oaths in relation to “school matters of [his/her] district.” The statutory chapter governing members of the board of education and which lists the qualifications of board members, also requires that each member of a board of education shall, before entering upon the duties of his or her office, take and subscribe to oaths required by law.
The first oath to be taken is an oath that the new board member acknowledges that he/she possesses the qualifications of membership prescribed by law, which includes that she/he is not disqualified as a voter pursuant to N.J.S.A. 19:4-1, and that she or he will faithfully discharge the duties of the office. The second oath is an oath required by N.J.S.A. 41:1-3 and 41:1-1.
The oaths themselves are prescribed and have been recommended by at least one distributed format to read as follows:
I, __________ , do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the Governments established in the United States and this State, under the authority of the people. So help me God.*
I, __________ , do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education and that I will faithfully, impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability. So help me God.*
* No individual shall be required to swear or affirm that part of the oaths which states “So help me God.”
The oath is orally administered and the written oath format is also executed (signed) by the board member, witnessed and filed with the clerk of the municipality in the case of a Type I school district or, in all other districts, with the secretary of the board of education of the school district. See, N.J.S.A. 18A:12-2.1.
Election of Officers
Once the full board is seated following the qualifying oaths, then the board secretary is often the official who chairs the meeting's continuation, then orchestrates the selection of president as N.J.S.A. 18A:15-1 requires. The board is to organize at its first regular meeting by electing one of its members as president and another as vice-president. The statute thereafter prescribes that the terms of both offices will be for “one year and until the respective successors are elected and shall qualify . . .”. If there is a failure to hold the meeting or to elect a president and vice president, the Executive County Superintendent is authorized to appoint from among the members of the board a president and a vice president. See, N.J.S.A. 18A:15-1.
Board bylaws and policies may also permit somewhat different processes for the organization and officer elections. A board's particular process may be found in its written policy or could sometimes follow its long-established practices, albeit unwritten. A board's policy or practice could provide for the automatic elevation to the position of president from a vice president (or president-elect) or a president may be expected to continue in place until her/his resignation or until the adoption of a motion to conduct an election to replace the president. A method of office rotation may also be the accepted method for some boards. Regardless, a board president and vice president are legally required to be put in place at the first regular meeting of the board's year.
It is common procedure for the board secretary during this first regular meeting to call for nominations for board president from the members of the board of education then present. Some practices or policies may require not only a nomination but a second of that nomination. Most boards abide by an open process that allows for any member of the board of education to be eligible for the nomination of president. Some boards may have adopted and follow the procedures outlined by Robert's Rules of Order for selecting a president.
Once nominations are made, it is good practice for the board secretary to call for a motion to close nominations. Once that motion has been moved, seconded and affirmed by a majority of the quorum, then procedures may allow for a public roll call to determine which nominee, if more than one nominee, is selected as president by each board member.
Once the president is elected or selected, the gavel is passed to her/him from the board secretary, and the secretary's stint as chairman pro tempore is concluded. The president then takes over the chair of the meeting and a similar selection process is then followed by the president for the office of vice president. The process for nominations for the office of vice president may follow the same format.
Other Annual Functions
It is usually the case that boards of education, during their organization meetings, designate the official newspapers of the board of education, designate official meeting sites for board meetings and designate the date and time of regular meetings of the board. The precise requirements are found in the Open Public Meetings Act which requires an annual notice, at least once each year within 7 days following the annual organization or reorganization meeting, basically imposing upon the public body the obligation to establish a schedule of dates, times and locations for each of its meetings to be held during the succeeding year and the requirement that this schedule be posted in public places reserved for such announcements, mailed to the designated newspapers and filed with the appropriate county and/or municipal office. The schedule must also be available to the public in the event of a request. See, N.J.S.A. 10:4-18 and -19.
A board of education is also required by law to employ a public school accountant to make an annual audit of the school district's accounts and financial transactions. See, N.J.S.A. 18A:23-1. It is usually the case that the school auditor is retained during the organization meeting.
It is also a usual course for a board of education to then retain the services of a school board attorney. Other professionals that may be retained at the time of the Board's first regular meeting include architects, insurance brokers, insurance advisors and consultants and engineers. School physicians and investment officers are also sometimes appointed.
At the time of reorganization, boards also designate depositories of board monies and authorize specific individuals to sign for school accounts. A qualified purchasing agent may also be appointed to coincide with an authorization to increase the bid threshold and quote threshold.
The board's goals, mission statement, by-laws, policies, regulations and job descriptions may be re-affirmed and re-adopted. The curriculum, textbook selection and/or software choices may also be reapproved.
In Conclusion
The annual process of a board of education's reorganization may be thought to be a mere leftover from a more ritualistic time which has long since outlived its actual necessity, but this article's described organizing procedures still serve as the required legal foundation upon which all following actions of a board of education rest.
Material failures to adhere to our education statutes' prescriptions or a board of education's policy's described approach may create a fundamental and latent flaw which could be later taken advantage of and used to derail a desperately needed board of education action or to invalidate a time sensitive resolution.
Maintaining the continuity of a board of education by meticulously attending to the requirements of its annual reorganization is the first and perhaps one of the most important duties of the members of a board of education.