Newest Members of Galloway Community Charter School Board Must Resign, State Says

Two recently approved members of the Board of Trustees have been declared ineligible to serve by the state Department of Education because they failed to complete a required criminal background investigation.

John Hunt and Melissa Cast were on the list released Thursday, Jan. 12 by the New Jersey Department of Education of 186 school board members and charter school trustees statewide who did not complete the background exam by the Dec. 31 deadline.
 
Hunt and Cast must vacate their positions immediately, according to state Dept. of Education spokesperson Allison Kobus. Hunt and Cast were both approved to the Board of Trustees on Nov. 21, according to Galloway Community Charter School Director Deborah Nataloni.

They have yet to even serve for a scheduled meeting because the school’s Dec. 19 meeting was cancelled for lack of a quorum, and their profiles have not yet been added to the school's website. The next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 23.

“These rules were outlined with school board elections in mind,” said Nataloni, referring to the fact that school board elections take place in the spring, giving elected board members more than half the year to complete their background checks.

“I let the new members know the deadline came and went. They couldn’t change the deadline,” Nataloni said. “They’re eager and they want to serve.”

Nataloni said three positions on the board were recently vacated, and that Hunt and Cast would fill two of those vacancies. The third seat remains vacant at this time.

The process for filling those vacancies includes advertising for the positions, an interview process to take place at a board meeting, nominations and approval. Hunt and Cast were interviewed in October and approved in November.

Board members are nominated to one-year terms, and the board’s reorganization takes place in August. Otherwise, nominations are made once a seat becomes available.

“They didn’t have as much time as veteran board members,” Nataloni said. “If they were nominated on Aug. 1, they would have more time than they would on Sept. 1, Oct. 1 or Nov. 1.”

Nataloni said she expects both Hunt and Cast would complete their background checks by the end of the week. The school would then notify the state that the checks had been completed, but she wasn’t sure that would guarantee Hunt and Cast would be able to serve because she hadn’t spoken with a state representative.

Hunt, Cast and a representative of the state were not available for comment Thursday night.

“If we have the fingerprint and background check completed, I don’t think there would be a problem, but I don’t know,” Nataloni said. “If there’s a problem, we would have to accept their resignations.”

Additional school board members or charter school trustees may yet have to forfeit their positions, according to Kobus. Some board members or trustees filled out the forms improperly or failed to pay the required fee, she said in a news release.

The background checks were required by the New Jersey general assembly in legislation passed last year, to require school board members and charter school trustees to meet the same standards required of school teachers. If board members or trustees show up for meetings, they could be charged with a fourth degree crime.

New Jersey is apparently the only state to require the background examinations.