BOE Members React to Background Check Bill

Correction appended.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education members said they support a state bill that would require board members to submit to criminal background checks – the same checks already required of public educators.

"I understand the need for it," board member Rob O'Connor said in a phone interview. "At the end of the day, I don't care if they want to perform a background check of me."

But board members took issue with the bill's stipulation that they foot the bill for their own background checks, a view shared by members of the Cranford Board of Education. The checks typically cost between $70 and $100.

"We're unpaid volunteers, and this is something that costs money," O'Connor said.

The New Jersey School Board Association (NJSBA), which supports the criminal background checks measure, is lobbying the legislature to shift the cost from board members to school districts. But Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education member Nancy Bauer said she disagreed with that proposal as well.

"It would be just one more added expense for the district," she said. "I'm opposed to any more unfunded mandates from the state."

Currently, the NSJBA requires board members to disclose any criminal convictions. The state's measure, introduced to the Assembly June 10, passed unanimously  June 21, but returned to the Assembly for amendments after a review by the state attorney general, would greatly strengthen that requirement if ultimately approved.

Written by Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) and Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield), and sponsored by Linda Stender (D-Scotch Plains), it would disqualify any board member convicted of a first, second, or third-degree crime, as well as any fourth-degree crime in which the victim was a minor, from holding office. It would require newly elected board members to affirm under oath that they would not be disqualified from serving on the board, and to undergo criminal background checks within 30 days of their election. Those currently holding office when the bill takes effect would also need to submit to the checks within 30 days.

Those who fail to meet the standards set in the law would be removed from office. They could also face charges of making false statements made in connection with a nominating petition, a fourth-degree crime.

When the bill was passed by the Assembly in June, its requirements and conditions for dismissal from office matched those already applied to public educators. Early this month, however, State Attorney General Paula Dow requested to see sections of the bill pertaining to second and third degree crimes. The bill is now back in the Assembly for amendments.

The NJSBA is lobbying legislators to expand the checks so that they apply to the trustees of charter schools and to all elected officials statewide. It is also urging legislators to add a requirement that all board of education candidates disclose past criminal convictions on their nominating petitions and in their annual disclosure statements, thereby creating screening process for candidates before they even enter the election.

To read about Westfield's reaction to the bill, click here. To read copies of the bill and its summary, click on the PDF thumbnails above. 

Correction: A previous version of this article misattributed Nancy Bauer's quote to Amy Winkler.