Mapping Out A New BOE

Mayor Adrian O. Mapp administers the oath of office to Lynn Anderson

Not only did Mayor Adrian O. Mapp swear in his April 19 winning slate of school board members at Tuesday's organization meeting, he saw his November 2015 winner become board president for the year. He was also first up during public comment to hail a new era of "synergy that has not existed for the past 30 months" and said it is extremely important that the city and the Board of Education have "a strong partnership."

Schools Superintendent Anna Belin-Pyles, Board President Emily Morgan

Mapp named no names, but just days after the November election of his candidate Emily Morgan, the board voted without advance notice to move the school board elections back to April. Board President Wilma Campbell, then in her twelfth year on the board, was up for re-election. Her husband John had just won a seat on the board, which was dominated by other Campbell proteges. The hasty change meant instead of having until the end of July to file for a November school board election, any challengers had to file by by Feb. 29 and put together campaigns on short notice.

(Enmity between the Campbells and Mapp arose in December 2013, as he was preparing to take office as mayor. John and Wilma Campbell and other relatives chided Mapp in public comment at a council meeting for not reappointing Wilma's sister as public defender. In November 2015, a planned Youth Summit fell through, with Mapp and Schools Superintendent Anna Belin-Pyles at odds over what happened. The cancellation was perceived by some as retribution for Mapp's refusal to issue a permit for Wilma Campbell's son, an independent candidate for City Council, to hold an event on the weekend before the general election.)

If there was some thought of a Campbell advantage in making the election date change, it backfired. Wilma Campbell and running mates Frederick Moore Sr. and James Plummer lost and  Mapp's slate - Carmencita Pile, Dorien Hurtt and Lynn Anderson - won.

Board Vice President Dorien Hurtt, John Campbell, Richard Wyatt

Tuesday's votes for both board president and vice president were 5-4, with Pile, Hurtt, Anderson, Morgan and Carletta Jefffers voting "yes" and John Campbell, Wyatt, David Rutherford and Terrence Bellamy voting "no."

Both school union heads - Anthony Jenkins, president of the Plainfield Administrators and Supervisors Association and Eric Jones, president of the Plainfield Education Association - expressed hope for the new board.

City Council President Cory Storch, a former school board member, congratulated the new board and asked for their collaboration in meeting the governing body's goal of meeting at various schools this year instead of always in the courtroom on Watchung Avenue. Similarly, the board held off on adopting a resolution to hold meetings in the Plainfield High School auditorium.

Carmencita Pile, David Rutherford, Lynn Anderson

"I hate being up here," Pile said, referring to brightly-lit seating on the stage while the audience was down in the dark auditorium.

The common goal, as mentioned by Storch, is to have officials and the public at eye level with each other.

The meeting concluded with the board reciting in unison the New Jersey Department of Education Code of Ethics. The new board will meet at 8 p.m. on May 10 for a work and study session in the PHS Conference Room and at 8 p.m. on May 17 for a business meeting, tentatively in the PHS auditorium.

--Bernice