ASBURY PARK Increasingly powerless because of deep divisions and a state that controls essential decisions, the city school board is engaged in a fierce internal battle over what little control it does have.
For the second time in a week since president Remond Palmer was forced off the board because of a long ago cocaine conviction, members opposed to Palmer walked out of a meeting Tuesday night before the opposition could appoint a new member to preserve that Palmer majority. As it now stands, the 9-member board has two vacancies and the seven sitting members split four to three. The current fight is over filling the vacant seat that had been held by city Police Sgt. Connie Breech who resigned in June. If the three members opposed to the Palmer majority can get that seat, it brings the power struggle back to four against four to fill the last seat vacated by Palmer. Last week, two members in the minority left before the meeting so there was not a quorum and the majority could not appoint Qzeena Taylor, a Union Avenue resident who had never attended a board meeting but was told by Palmer to attend the meeting. This week, the meeting got underway but as the majority led by vice president Geneva Smallwood once again attempted to appoint Taylor to the board, the state fiscal monitor Lester Richens working in the district said the board had lost its opportunity to appoint Taylor because 65 days has passed since Breech resigned. Now, under law, the appointment is in the hands of the executive county superintendent, Richens said. Alan Schnirman, the board attorney whom Palmer brought on to fight the majority's causes this past spring, urged the board members to go ahead and make the appointment. Otherwise, they could lose that right, he said. "The law is what the law is but it is always open to interpretation,'' Schnirman said. As the board majority started to make the appointment, the three opponents Gregory Hopson, Gregory Brewington and Sheila Brazile all opponents to the majority, left the meeting and the meeting was over. Mark 1503 Emory ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: asburypark-dig...@yahoogroups.com asburypark-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: asburypark-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/