THE JOHANNA WRIGHT SHOW PART TWO: WRIGHT SHOOTS BACK

School Board Member Johanna Wright said she does not plan to stop her practice of voting against many items on the board agendas and blocking action with in-depth questions, saying “I think discussion is healthy, and I never mean to be contentious in my discussions.”

But her efforts have aggravated both board members and some residents, while earning her praise among others who say her contrarian approach is needed.

“This is my duty to make sure the children who come through now get the best education they can.”

We wrote about Wright’s last board meeting in which she objected to the change in district health coverage, despite a $600,000 savings, and claimed a requested reduction in teacher evaluations was wrong.

“When I’m questioning things I’m not trying to be rude or bring anyone down," she said. "I am just getting to the facts and we should all want the facts.”

After our previous story, Wright requested a chance to respond and explain herself. In a lengthy interview with Maplewoodian.com, she stood by her efforts and said she seeks to question board actions because she considers many of the moves incorrect.

She also said that as a former South Orange Maplewood Education Association member and the parent of a district teacher (her daughter, Jazmine, teaches 8^th grade science at South Orange Middle School) she is barred from voting on many items. She did not indicate what percentage of votes she has had to miss, but said she cannot be involved in teachers union negotiations or vote on the recently forged new contract.

She also said she was not allowed to be involved in the negotiations that went into hiring new Superintendent John Ramos or vote on his hiring.

“They tell me, ‘you can’t vote for this,’ and I go, ‘okay’ and they’ll just skip me or whatever,” Wright said. “It is usually the board attorney (Philip Stern) along with the superintendent, which would have been Mr. Memoli and then (Business Administrator) Cheryl Schneider, the three of them would come to me and tell me what I could or couldn’t do.”

We reached out to district officials asking why and when Wright is asked to abstain, but have yet to hear back.

Wright, who said she would like the board to expand to two meetings per month instead of one so that more issues can be handled before it gets late, said she often votes against the entire consent “action items” agenda because it is such a broad vote.

“When you consider that the board president puts everything in one slate for one vote for our board you either have to vote for everything or nothing,” she said. “I sometimes have a very difficult time getting a second to even sever something for discussion. It’s a fait accompli when you get down to that part. 

There may be some items in there that I don’t agree with, and so I vote the way I do and I don’t mean to be contentious, but I don’t really like being lied to.”

That opposition occurred at the last meeting when Wright delayed a vote on the new Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield health care plan, claiming she had researched a cheaper deal with Integrity Health Insurance.

“It’s a huge, huge budget item,” she said. “I had done a lot of homework in terms of the health insurance.”

But several board members objected to her complaints, which ended in an approval vote with her as the lone opposition.

“We could have saved over a million dollars, not $600,000, that was not even stated by looking at another plan,” she said. “It was recommended by the board consultant that we go with Horizon in a private plan, I hadn’t seen the plan at all yet. The whole process wasn’t done the way I would have done.”

On the teacher evaluations, she claimed, “if we’re not doing well and the state mandates that you do three evaluations, why are we now not wanting to go in and do as much as you can in evaluating staff. Everybody gets to a point where they become stagnant. There may be something that I may have done for years that may be out of date.” 

That objection also fell flat as the board approved the request for fewer evaluations for tenured teachers. Assistant Superintendent James Memoli had said the request was aimed at allowing more time to focus on troubled teachers rather than those that continue to perform well.

Known as “Mama Wright” to many students, Wright was at SOMS from 1981 to 2012, teaching health education, physical education and science, while also coaching girls basketball and cheerleading. She was elected to the school board in 2013 and immediately made an impact with her brash style and demands for information. But when reading board acknowledgements at the start of each meeting, no one is more enthusiastic and congratulatory toward students and teachers who receive the notice.

“I’ve served on many boards and this one is certainly unique,” she said. “I’m a coach, I’m used to team building. I wasn’t just a coach, I’m a winning coach, I’m a hall of fame coach. I know how to team build, but people have to be willing to want to have that team. I came on the board with enthusiasm to work together and get things done.”

Asked about the work of Superintendent Ramos after the first month, she said, “I didn’t vet him. I don’t know. I reserve judgment on everybody. It was a wonderful school opening this year and it was the first time in many years that I can remember looking at the staff and their faces and being perplexed and happy at the same time that this is the first time when everybody was together for the first day.”

She said she does not mean to come off rude or in way that might offend, but adds, “If I‘m talking about something you can best believe it is important. I’m sure there maybe was another way I could have brought something up, but I have always looked through everything thoroughly.”

“I want people to hold me accountable,” she said, noting she plans to run again next year. “I’m going to run until this district is back where it needs to be.”