A special meeting of the North Shore School Board was held on Tuesday, Nov. 13 to discuss the superintendent's contract. Hundreds of community residents attended the meeting held in the high school cafeteria, as did all of the board of education members and Superintendent Robert Root.

Immediately after the meeting was called to order, Trustee Palermo made a motion to rescind the notice of nonrenewal of the superintendent's contract that had been voted on at an October board meeting. The motion was seconded by Trustee Brennan but before the vote was taken, Trustee Pombar asked to make a statement.

Over the last two weeks, Mr. Pombar, who had voted not to renew Dr. Root's contract, has taken "a hard look" at all the comments made by the community both at the recent board meetings and in the letters and calls he has personally received. He believes that it is "vital to separate the real issues from the emotions." He looked at the effect a change in leadership might have on the district at this time as well as the effect on the current supporting team of administrators, teachers and staff. He stated that the board had debated these and other issues in a fair and democratic manner and that he felt that he must do "the right thing" for the entire community and not represent any single area. Trustee Murphy then made a statement urging the board to work toward a compromise that will heal the community rather than shatter it.

President of the Board Montesano then challenged the legitimacy of the motion made by Ms. Palermo, declaring it was the same motion that had been defeated at a board meeting on Oct. 15. Trustee Brennan then made a motion for the board to appeal Mr. Montesano's challenge and that motion was seconded and passed by a vote of 4 to 3 with Trustees Palermo, Brennan, Murphy and Pombar voting to appeal. That cleared the way for the vote to be taken on the motion to rescind the notice of nonrenewal of Dr. Root's contract. The vote passed 4 to 3 with Trustees Palermo, Brennan, Murphy and Pombar voting to rescind. This allows for an automatic rollover of the superintendent's contract until June of 2003.

After a lengthy standing ovation by the audience, Dr. Root read a prepared statement dealing with inaccuracies that had been stated at the open meeting on Nov. 5. He regretted the lateness of the letter to the community announcing the meeting with the board on Nov. 5. Despite the best intentions of all involved, the letter arrived after the meeting, due to delays at Central office and at the post office. He also disagreed with the claim that there was a serious problem of duplicate services in the special ed department and insisted that the particulars of these charges be made clear. He felt that the statement made by Dr. Silverstein at the Oct. 15 meeting was misunderstood by some members of the board. He also stated that all the information available on potential staff is given to the board in an identical format and is never edited.

According to Dr. Root, outside tutoring of high school students at North Shore was no greater than in other districts but he will look into comparative districts. He stated that honors had not been eliminated in the Middle School as claimed at the Nov. 5 meeting, and to answer questions concerning the "lack of curriculum" at North Shore, the Nov. 19 board meeting will include a presentation on consistency in the three elementary schools. Dr. Root insisted that he meets with school principals weekly and works with them individually whenever necessary. Although his style has been called "too polite" he believes that he has always been direct and honest in dealing with staff issues.

The public was then given a chance to comment and 12 residents came to the microphone to speak. Most applauded the board's decision to rescind the non-renewal of Dr. Root's contract and many personally thanked Trustee Pombar for "courageously" changing his vote. Others hoped that the district could now move forward and work to unite the divided community.

The president of the Special Education Parent Teacher Association urged all the board members to attend the next SEPTA meeting on Nov. 29 to work together on the many issues facing special education students in this district. Finally former board member and President Robert MacMahon hoped the board would continue to "focus on teaching and learning" and that the Mission Statement of the North Shore schools be the guide for all of the board's actions.

After the public comments, Dr. Root made a final statement. He called the last two weeks "an uncommon time" in which our "ideas and beliefs of what our school's leadership should be like" were tested. That our disagreements remained "civil and respectful" even in the midst of great emotion, was a triumph for this district. According to Dr. Root, "the bonds of mutual respect we have for one another are strong enough to keep our focus on the issues." He believes that this has been a healthy dialogue with "a common purpose," "to help our children learn."

The next scheduled board of ed meeting is on Nov. 19 at the Glenwood Landing School.