When we started collating our top pieces of 2021, one tiny but important school district jumped out: Asbury Park. As regular readers know, NJ Ed Report has closely followed this 1,700-student district because in 2018 Gov. Phil Murphy selected then-Asbury Park superintendent Lamont Repollet as his Education Commissioner; presumably, Repollet reflects Murphy’s educational values.

These investigations were so alarming that we continue to cover Asbury Park Public Schools DIstrict. There, highly-placed sources are eager to speak about the district leadership’s failure to serve its mostly low-income Latino students and a corrupt, nepotistic culture. These “values” have now infected the State Department of Education, although Repollet himself is now president of Kean University, where he has hired his hand-picked successor superintendent at Asbury Park, Sancha Gray, as his “Senior V.P. for Entrepreneurial Education Initiatives”  and his chief of staff at the Education Department, Kellie LeDet, as his “Special Assistant for Government Affairs.” (Here’s the organization chart.)

It’s worth noting that the State Department of Education placed a State Monitor in Asbury Park a decade ago, with taxpayers footing her annual $171,000 salary. Nothing’s changed. It won’t until the Governor’s Office demands educational justice for students. Maybe 2022 will be the year. Asbury Park parents, teachers, and students live in hope.

Here are the top 10 posts in 2021 for Asbury Park:

1. “BREAKING: Asbury Park Principal, a Hero to the Community, Resigns From the District He Called a ‘Crime Syndicate’”

2. “I’ll Wheel You a Principal If You Deal Me a Job: Live Tonight from Asbury Park“

3. “Asbury Park Principal Speaks Out: This District “Benefits Only Those With Ties to This Organized Crime Syndicate”

4. “BREAKING: Asbury Park Schools District on Complete Lock-Down After Principal’s Tweet”

5. “Asbury Park Teachers Speak Out: ‘This Place Is a Shitshow’“

6. “Breaking: Sources Reveal Asbury Park’s Superintendent Selection Charade“

7. “Asbury Update: A ‘Whistleblower’ Gets Suspended and the School Board Plays Charades“

8. “BREAKING: Asbury Park District’s First Day Classified as a ‘Shitshow’”

9. “BREAKING: Asbury Park Superintendent Sancha Gray Resigns“

10. “ANALYSIS: Trail of Corruption Left by Murphy’s Former Education Commissioner in Asbury Park”