BOARD FIGHT
Councilman and TEA again call for the ouster of School Board President and Schools Superintendent >>
TRENTON >> Shouting a go-to refrain of “move, Fred, get out the way,” members of the Trenton Education Association and a city councilman demanded the removal of Superintendent Fred McDowell following last week’s security guard fiasco that left district schools without guards.
TEA president Twanda Taylor also called on Gene Bouie to step down as president of the Board of Education.
Faulting him for “making a dope out of this district,” Taylor demanded McDowell apologize to the community for what the teachers union feels has been his lack of leadership, highlighted by a security guard walkout Friday stemming from an ongoing contract dispute that has landed the district and its past and present security firms in court.
“It is time for this district to be liberated. Clean it up,” shouted Taylor, who was joined by dozens of members filling up the first two rows of seats during a contentious standing-room-only meeting Monday night.
The TEA has its sights on McDowell since his request, rubberstamped by the board, for nearly $25,000 in merit pay, despite what the teachers union contends is his poor performance.
“This district is imploding, and all of you up their know it,” TEA grievance chair Janice Williams said.
At-large councilman Jerell Blakeley, calling the security guards “victims” who are “caught in the middle of B.S. between two companies,” joined Taylor in calling on McDowell to resign his sixfigure post as school chief.
Blakeley said he planned to pen a non-binding resolution to that effect, but ultimately the board has the final say-so on whether McDowell stays.
“I think you’re a good person, but I don’t think you’re good for this school district,” said Blakeley, the council’s liaison to board. “This is not the best we can do. This drama is something that is untenable, is unacceptable.”
McDowell, looking to drown out the heat in the room, swigged from a bottle of water earlier in the meeting but otherwise hardly reacted to the relentless attacks.
The mayor, enraged residents, and other security guards came out in force to support the employees of Patriot Security Group, the firm that was awarded a $2.5 million by the BOE in August.
One resident called the security guards “role models” who regularly interact with students.
Patriot Security Group was tapped to replace Motivated Security Services, which had provided security at district schools since 2015.
But the district suffered a district-wide security lapse Friday following a walkout by Patriot Security guards who feared they wouldn’t be paid because the firm didn’t have enough funds to make payroll.
Motivated Security Services and Patriot Security Group have been locked in litigation since the former brought a lawsuit accusing a former employee of gaining insider information that gave Patriot an unfair advantage in the bidding process.
The security guard fiasco required Trenton Police to be dispatched to schools as last-second fill-ins.
The board, which entered in to closed executive session around 9 p.m., was expected to vote after the private discussion session to rescind Patriot Security Group’s contract, but that vote didn’t take place before the newspaper’s deadline.
The board also pulled a resolution that would have allowed the district to avoid rebidding the contract and award it to the second-place finisher of the four security firms that put in proposals.
Board counsel James Rolle Jr. said the board is currently negotiating a settlement that would allow Motivated Security Group, which TEA officials claim finished third, to leapfrog the second-place finisher for the contract.
Urging they rehire security guards as district employees rather than re-awarding the contract to another outside security firm, TEA officials worried awarding the contract to Motivated Security Services could carry more legal consequences for the district, which is already caught in a tug-of-war between the two companies.
The dispute between the two firms stems over allegations that a former employee, Gary Slodowski, also a co-owner at Patriot, sabotaged the bidding process.
While having an ownership interest in Patriot, Slodowski prepared and submitted a bid to the city BOE on behalf of Motivated Security Services for the district’s $2.5 million contract.
Motivated’s attorneys, who put notified of the allegations against Slodowski prior to its Aug. 27 vote, contend that Slodowski’s actions are criminal in nature and nullified the bid.
Rolle has said the board went ahead with the vote because it didn’t have proof of Motivated’s claims, which were contained in a lawsuit filed Aug. 30.
A judge granted a temporary injunction that effectively froze the contract, allowing the district only to pay out a portion, roughly $300,000 of it, to enable Patriot to make pay.
A consent order that expired last week allowed Patriot to remain in place as the security provider, but that is all but guaranteed to change.
McDowell credited roughly 70 percent of Patriot’s security guards, many of them Trenton residents, for still showing up to work despite the ongoing contract dispute.
Many people didn’t want to hear from McDowell after he skipped out on a meeting with city leaders at City Hall to address the security guard crisis. Several members of the public, including Blakeley, seized on the suggestion that McDowell had been missing in action because he was on vacation in Paris.
The Trentonian was unable to speak with McDowell to confirm or dispute the suggestion.
Earlier in the night, Mayor Reed Gusciora, flanked by board members Marge Caldwell-Wilson and Blakeley, implored the district to ensure Patriot security guards are paid for showing up to work last week despite the ongoing contract spat playing out in court.
“They’re collateral damage to the contract,” he said. “They should not be penalized.”
The board planned to vote to end Patriot’s contract, effective Nov. 19. And it planned to vote to shell out $25,000 to pay for additional Trenton Police officers who are being stationed at district schools to fill the security guard gap.
That amount was only for Trenton Police to provide security through Nov. 30, according to the agenda.
But the board’s late actions weren’t enough for Jonette Smart, the president of the Trenton branch of the NAACP, who called on the mayor to disband the BOE.
She claimed Bouie’s friendship with McDowell has clouded decisions he’s made as board president.
“Where is the accountability?” she said. “How many times does it take to get change in this district?”