A Bergen County Superior Court judge has found the Teaneck Board of Education repeatedly violated the state’s Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), including at a December meeting during which it transferred the high school principal.

The July 18 ruling, issued by Judge Carol Novey Catuogno, cast doubt on the 5-3 vote to transfer Pedro Valdes to “district-wide principal on assignment,” retaining his current salary. She gave the board 70 days, until September 26, to hold a vote, or the action would be deemed invalid because it violates state law. Valdes would be replaced by Whittier Elementary School Principal Piero LoGiudice.

The board gave as its reasoning low performance on senior math and English scores in the school. However, Keith Kaplan, a local gadfly and former Teaneck council member who brought the legal proceeding, said issues with Valdes stemmed from a difference of opinion between him and School Superintendent Dr. Andre Spencer leading up to a November walkout from the high school by pro-Palestinian students that was widely viewed in the Jewish community as being antisemitic.

Kaplan, who brought the case without legal representation, noted the last test scores hadn’t varied much from previous years.

“The superintendent said he wanted the students to exercise their full First Amendment rights and the principal said he needed to have an environment where kids have room to learn,” said Kaplan, with Valdes holding that any student who left during the school day would be docked for an absence and that the protestors chanting such statements as “from the River to the Sea” on school grounds made other students feel unsafe.

That triggered a standoff between the two, which resulted in Valdes asserting his control over the high school and sending notice that any walkouts would be an unexcused absence, which Kaplan said seemed to be “a breaking point” between the two.

Valdes has claimed his transfer “reeked of retaliation” and has a pending complaint with the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission.

Kaplan said after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel by Hamas he spoke with Spencer for about an hour, offering advice on how to tactfully handle the volatile situation and pointing out how detrimental the walkout would be. However, none of the advice was taken, according to Kaplan, and a “very poorly worded” letter was sent out on Oct. 11, which only referenced “the latest incidents in the cycle of violence in the Middle East” and the “unfortunate situation in the Middle East,” but never the attack.

When Jewish parents and students came to complain about antisemitism at the Oct. 18 board meeting they were cut off and told their comments were inappropriate. Kaplan said he himself was cut off while others speaking about other subjects were allowed to speak.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) called out the board’s “unconstitutional restriction of public comments,” and offered to work with them, but Kaplan said the board has not yet responded. The district is also under investigation for a Title VI violation by the Office of Civil Rights of the federal Department of Education.

The Dec. 21 vote to transfer Valdes was done at a special meeting that was not listed on the board calendar prepared at the beginning of each year that lists monthly meetings.

Additionally, three new Jewish members had been elected to the board in November, but would not be seated until January.

“I could see no reason the meeting had to be held Dec. 21,” said Kaplan. “The superintendent wanted Valdes gone and in 13 days he knew he wouldn’t have the majority when the new members were seated.”

The meeting was held on Zoom, when other meetings had been in person, and the notice for it gave no indication why it was being held and stated only one word—“personnel.” Moreover, speakers were limited to two minutes each, rather than the usual three, ostensibly because there were 275 people on the Zoom and they wanted to give everyone a chance to be heard. Most of those on the Zoom spoke in favor of Valdes, who Kaplan said enjoys broad community support.

Under state law, public employees must be informed if their employment is to be discussed at a meeting and given the option of whether they would like the session to be closed or open to the public. After the notice was sent to Valdes, he requested a public hearing. Kaplan said Valdes was among those cut off at the two-minute mark.

“A lot of people contacted me after the meeting so I began to look into how they noticed the meeting,” Kaplan explained, adding that although OPMA, better known as the Sunshine Law, requires notice to appear in two publications, yet it was only placed in the Bergen Record and without the required agenda.

He brought the matter to the attention of the board and district officials and asked them to revote the matter, making the request a second time at the regular Jan. 3 meeting, which also wasn’t properly noticed. He filed his complaint with the court the next day. The board revoted the matter on Jan. 17, but since the three new members were not around for any previous discussions of the matter, they abstained and Valdes’ transfer was approved 6-0. That meeting was also noticed improperly and therefore couldn’t cure the deficiencies from the prior meetings.

After some investigation, a similar pattern of disregard for the law became apparent to Kaplan.

In her ruling, Catuogno ordered the board to revote several of its meetings and issued an injunction ordering it to fully comply with the OPMA.

“Judge Catuogno also agreed that because the statute requires the annual meeting list to be noticed by January 10 and they didn’t do that, the exception for boards not to need to notice each agenda separately, which applies if you notice your annual meeting list in accordance with the rules wouldn’t apply,” said Kaplan. “Therefore, for the entirety of 2024, they must notice every single agenda in the papers, in addition to the meeting notice.”

But, he added, “I have little faith any of this will be accomplished. But here’s hoping…”

Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly and daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.