Two Holmdel School Board Members Found Guilty of Ethics Charges

Holmdel School Board members Ana Vander Woude and Dennis Pavlik were found guilty of ethics charges by a NJ Office of Administrative Law judge. In a strongly-worded decision, the judge found that the two violated six of the 10 elements of the Code of Ethics for school board members as defined by NJ statutes.

The proceedings started over 3 years ago with what the judge described as "a rather minor administrative matter" involving a teacher holding a second job in another district. Despite being overuled by the board as a whole (after an investigation) and advised against further action by the board attorney, Vander Woude and Pavlik involved the county prosecutor, who also told them there was nothing to pursue. They also made inflamatory public statements comparing the situation to the Penn State child rape and Brookdale financial scandals, unnecessarily alarming the Holmdel community who could not know the actual nature of the situation because school personnel matters are required to be confidential. They accused the school superintendant of criminal conspiracy, who ultimately filed the above-mentioned ethics charges in order to legally protect herself (and the school district) and her reputation. Ultimately, through their flagrant disregard of the advice of multiple parties, Vander Woude and Pavlik have exposed the Holmdel district (and taxpayers) to expensive litigation and damages.

Astonishingly, both are still on the board with Pavlik serving as vice-president and Vander Woude on the committee negotiating contracts with teachers and administrators.

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The full decision document from the Office of Administrative Law can be downloaded at: https://cutpi.com/i76

This document will eventually be available for download at the official site: http://njlaw.rutgers.edu/collections/oal/ but as of today (June 15, 2016) they are over a month behind.