Arik Samson addresses Mr. Hyman’s record on ethics during his tenure on the BOE and calls for his and Ms. Stanley’s resignation. The OAL decision became public almost immediately after the election. Ms. Stanley is currently in the lead for one of two seats on the BOE (+106 votes) relative to a third candidate (George DeVanney) and Mr. Hyman ran unopposed for Mountainside for one of two seats. As volume is a little low; Mr. Samson provided a transcript of his remarks which we published after the video.
Transcript provided by Mr Samson:
Ms. President, I want to be clear that I am speaking to you and I have a right to reference other BOE members in my remarks to you without interruption.
I want to explicitly highlight the double standards upheld by our Mountainside representative.
When Mr. Reinstein and the rest of the Board of Education (BOE) violated educational adequacy and bidding laws, Mr. Hyman remained silent.
When Ms. Varley hired her own daughter, Mr. Hyman remained silent.
When Ms. Stanley misled the public about teachers’ pay, denied the existence of a proficiency-related report, or harassed a resident of our town, Mr. Tom Maciejewski, by taking pictures of him sitting in a café, and posted on Facebook, Mr. Hyman again remained silent.
Yet, when Ms. Akiri published an op-ed accurately countering the narrative put forth by Mr. D’Aquila and Ms. Penna about the budget, and when she referenced another outlet’s remarks on collusion, or pointed out the former Business Administrator’s pattern of poor minute-keeping, Mr. Hyman acted.
He voted to fund a 92-page investigation against Ms. Akiri—an unnecessary and taxpayer-funded attack.
It is disturbing, even disgraceful, that he and Ms. Stanley defend this taxpayer-funded political hit job as somehow virtuous.
To be clear: the ethics ruling against them is now the second affirmation by a public body that Mr. Hyman and Ms. Stanley’s actions were unethical. For a change, these ethics complaints against them are not funded by District dollars.
Even if the three remaining allegations against Ms. Akiri are upheld—three out of a sea of dismissed claims—what she did was in the name of transparency and bordering on whistle-blowing, in the face of a clearly broken and corrupt BOE administration.
In conclusion, in light of the unethical behavior of Mr. Hyman and Ms. Stanley in the unjust investigation/attack against Ms. Akiri, I call on Mr. Hyman as well as Ms. Stanley to resign from the Board, as unworthy to affect the education of our children.