The Reality of the Montclair Board of Educations' Investigation: Unlawful Government Behavior’s Impact on a Community

“Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.” Thurgood Marshall

Late last night the New Jersey Department of Education announced that it will launch its own investigation into “the unauthorized release of proprietary and confidential assessments belonging to the Montclair Board of Education.” This is the best result that the MBoE could have hoped for in ending its own “investigation.”

Certainly this new twist to the debacle that the Monclair School District is becoming is no more than political protection coming from Trenton to protect Superintendent MacCormack and its attempt to install in an unfettered way in Commissioner Cerf’s hometown the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC).

Still we need to ask (“investigate”) the real intention and cost of the MBoE’s investigation on the Montclair community.

When the Law no Longer Matters

Fundamental in the education of a child toward good citizenship and community values is respect for the law. The law is there for everyone to follow and respect. It is the first guarantor of political freedoms and civil rights. When an individual or organization fails to abide by the law, it is not only criminal, it also undermines the community and society generally.

The current Montclair Board of Education (MBoE), despite its farcical lecturing of parents, teachers and townspeople on civility and respect, has behaved as though the law is made for others to follow while it itself feels no need to enforce or follow the law. Indeed its own attorney, Mark Tabakin, has helped steer it into an ever deepening nonchalance regarding what is legally correct and/or acceptable.

The recent MBoE investigation was not the beginning of the MBoE’s ignoring of the law. This started early on with the hiring of Superintendent MacCormack, the failure to provide assurances that her certification was legitimately and correctly obtained, that her residency was fully legal, and that her working procedures conformed to the law. Even when it was publicly confirmed by Superintendent MacCormack that she was not following the law, the MBoE preceded with its own ‘business as usual’, without even attempting to respond to public outrage.

The establishment of a fortress around its warlord was not the only area where the MBoE was running roughshod over the law. When one of its own members had a clear and direct conflict of interest in deciding how taxpayer money would be spent, attorney Tabakin gave the all clear and no one on the MBoE seemed to care. Even more telling is the repeated violation of the NJ Open Public Meetings Act that has turned MBoE meetings into a show ‘n tell PowerPoint goofy reporting circus. It seems that, along with the teachers, the law and accountability have been banned to the bleachers.

"The MBoE Assessment Leak Investigation"

When the very controversial (and certainly not needed) half million dollar assessments were spread over the Internet for all to see, in order to cover up Superintendent’s MacCormack’s failed responsibility as well as its own embarrassment, the MBoE launched an “investigation.” This investigation is spoken of everywhere as the “MBoE’s Assessment Leak Investigation.” But is this really what the “investigation” ever was about?

Mayor Jackson pointed his schoolmaster/preacher’s finger at all the guilty town folk that had secretly conspired to undermine Warlord MacCormack and the MBoE. MBoE President Kulwin stoically proclaimed: “We want to know who hit the send button.” (Now she proclaims, equally stoically, “"I never have said that there was hacking.") MBoE Vice-President Lombard screamed from the rooftops: “Theft!” “[This is] just as if somebody broke into our schools and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of computer equipment.” MBoE Attorney Mark Tabakin, seeing no conflict of interest (but surely lots of taxpayer dollar signs), saddled his craggy old mare, loaded his Remington scatter gun with subpoenas, and set off into the darkness to kick in the doors of every and any computer he could find (except that, of course, of the MBoE).

The highlight came at the last MBoE meeting when, after having the door slammed in its face by the Town Council because of the pure indecency of its uncivil behavior during this investigation, MBoE Member Anne Mernin (married to a corporate attorney) snarly exclaimed: “I will not even debate the legality of this investigation.” (This, holding perfectly with the values she enjoined from Ms. Kulwin: “This is not a dialogue.”)

Of course, the “MBoE investigation” never gave a hoot for the law from the very beginning. And when it was pointed out that Attorney Tabakin’s pretense about the law and his greasy-finger subpoenas were no more than hot air bellowing from a six-shooter firing blanks, still the MBoE plunged forward in the winter of its own discontent exclaiming the righteous and necessity of giving thousands and thousands and thousands of taxpayer dollars enabling Mr. Tabakin to run wild with his outlaw posse turning Montclair into his very own OK Corral.

Fortifying the MBoE

But this MBoE “investigation,” from the very get-go was never simply about assessments. In fact, the very Day-after-Halloween MBoE Resolution authorizing Mr. Tabakin’s Christmas (and New Year’s and Easter’s) bonus stated clearly that this was an investigation into a) the “unauthorized release of proprietary/confidential District tests/assessments by District staff” [Kulwin: “I never said ‘hacking.’”] and b) “other incidents of conduct contrary to the Board’s best interest.”

From the beginning it was evident that Kulwin, Tabakin, & Co. had set out on a witch hunt to reinforce the bulwarks of Fortress MBoE and to find a scapegoat for the compromised attack on Montclair’s education system by Warlord MacCormack. Clearly, this MBoE investigation was only in pretense an investigation of the leaked/hacked assessments.

The real intention of this investigation, from the very beginning, was to go after innocent citizens who had provided insightful, yet unwanted, criticism of the MBoE. This unlawful investigation was never aimed at finding out the true “security breach” that occurred with the assessments, because from the start the MBoE and Tabakin knew that the outcome led to the doorstep of Superintendent MacCormack.

What Really Happened with the Assessments

Recently we have been told, not by the MBoE, but by the Town Manager that early on (probably before the MBoE’s unlawful investigation was ever launched), Network Administrator Alan Benezra and Director of Information Technology Joseph Fagliarone had already investigated the security breach and discovered a) there was no security breach in the system itself, but rather b) the assessments were placed, under Superintendent MacCormack’s responsibility, on the Districts server such that “allowed anyone to be able to access the files from the Internet.” (They were not “password protected,” as Superintendent MacCormack repeatedly claimed.)

In other words, Superintendent MacCormack had simply placed the assessments on the District website for anyone to view and download. And surely she knew this before she went home (to Connecticut? Philadelphia?) on Friday evening, October 25, because by then she had ensured that the “breach” was closed. Then, on Monday, October 28, Superintendent MacCormack claimed to the The New York Times: “She said that only “teachers and senior staff here would have password access” to the secure web portal that contains the exams.” And on Tuesday, October 28, she exclaimed indignantly to The Star Ledger “I don’t intend to be the Fort Knox for security.”

Superintendent MacCormack had to have known on Friday, October 25, that the “security breach” was nothing more than another dismal catastrophe under her command (not unlike the Glenfield gun incident earlier in the year). And it is difficult to believe that this information was not also available for the secretive MBoE meeting on Friday, November 1st (one full week later) that launched what was immediately termed by the press this “fear investigation.”

The Truth That Matters

Cowboy Tabakin and the MBoE had made clear from the very beginning, that this “investigation” (about which no one was allowed even to debate its legality), would target individuals in the “casting of a wide net.” However, because of a few brave individuals – including "jdmccab", "lennythebrave", and "assessmentgate" – this “fear investigation” was correctly characterized from the beginning for what it was. Inevitably, as someone correctly proclaimed early on, “the cover-up is worse than the crime.”

When the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) joined the fray, and pointed out in their Superior Court brief for out for all to see the depth, extent, and repeated lawlessness of this MBoE investigation, it was difficult for anyone not to feel shameful for what was happening to the community. Still this did not stop the MBoE from defying the order of a Superior Court judge in furthering its investigation. Only then did the majority of the Town Council begin to realize the enormous harm being done to the community and take action to limit the damage:

“WHEREAS, the Township Council finds that the Investigation is contributing to divisiveness and strife among the people of Montclair, is resulting in the diversion and expenditure of substantial funds, and is disrupting the otherwise productive working relationship between the Township and the BOE; and

“WHEREAS, the Township Council finds that it is in the best interest of the people of Montclair for the Township to refuse to cooperate with or assist the Investigation in any way.”

And even after that MBoE Member Mernin could still claim “I will not even debate the legality of this investigation.”

What Remains of the MBoE Investigation?

Inevitably the MBoE will “suspend” this investigation, sweep it all under the rug, and pretend that the investigation coming now from the New Jersey Department of Education, according to President Kulwin today, “will enable the Board to shift its focus back to its primary mission of governing the public schools.” (Just what has the MBoE been doing in the interlude?) There will never be a report of all that went on behind the scenes with the taxpayer dollars, and there will never be an apology or recognition of how wrong it was to behave outside the law.

However, the damage is already done. MBoE David Deutsch’s indignant tirade against the Town Council at the last MBoE meeting showed just how ridiculous and desperate the MBoE had become to find an excuse for the failure of its investigation. His more recent attack against Mr. Alan Benezra on Patch shows how low (and far) this MBoE is willing to go to preserve power at any costs. Both the five members of the Town Council and Mr. Benezra followed the law. Not only did they follow the law, but they also did what was right by the law and ethically. This no member of the MBoE seems to have even the slightest understanding of, let alone appreciation.

Those persecuted by this witch hunt of an investigation (including "jdmccab", "lennythebrave", "assessmentgate," and others known and unknown) will never be redressed or compensated. Mr. Benezra, who laid out a widely admired and trend-setting Internet system for the town and school district, one that is still flawless, seems to be the latest victim of Superintendent MacCormack’s reign of terror (not so much unlike former Glenfield Principal Charlie Miller).

Lawlessness begets lawlessness. It leads to the search for witches, the sentencing of scapegoats and the complete disrespect for community and government. To attend a MBoE meeting today is to be part of a farce, to partake in lawlessness and to undermine an entire community, beginning with the education of its children.