What’s going on in Montclair? More specifically, why is Mayor Sean Spiller, who also happens to be president of the New Jersey Education Association, summoning his underlings to a meeting about the 2023-2024 Montclair school district budget?

That’s the mystery unveiled today by a local paper that delves into the machinations of a prospective meeting among Town Council members and district officials concerning a $5.5 million budget hole, which has led to lay-offs of 22 teachers and 34 paraprofessionals.

Here’s the timeline:

Back in May, a meeting was scheduled for Monday, June 12th to discuss ongoing budget problems. Attendees were to be Montclair Public Schools Superintendent Jonathan Ponds, Mayor Spiller, Fourth Ward Councilor David Cummings, and Councilor-at-Large Peter Yacobellis. The district was hoping the Council would redirect some cash from the town to the district garnered from PILOT agreements (“payments in lieu of taxes”) from favored developers. At the last minute  David Cantor, executive director of communications for Montclair Public Schools, notified Council that the district was postponing the meeting.

Why? Because officials there had gotten hold of emails from Spiller about the meeting that copied NJEA officials.

From Montclair Local:

“According to emails obtained by Baristanet/Montclair Local, when Spiller reached out on May 26 to set up an initial meeting with Ponds, he copied NJEA deputy executive director Denise Graff Policastro, NJEA field representative Michael Kaminski, and Gregory Yordy, NJEA associate director, research and economic services. He also attached a memo with questions from Montclair’s financial consultant, Robert Benecke of Benecke Economics, as well as a memo with financial questions about Montclair from NJEA’s research division. 

The Benecke document questions an increase in administrative salaries as well as why an anticipated surplus is not being used. The NJEA document questions the accuracy of salary numbers used in the budgeting process and health care costs in the 2023-24 budget. Neither document explores any municipal funding that might be available to the district.“

In other emails concerning the pending June 12th meeting, Spiller continued to copy NJEA officials while omitting the Council’s chief financial officer, Padmaja Rao, who has filed a whistleblower lawsuit charging a hostile working environment for women, which in turn led to residents demanding Spiller’s resignation.

Then another wrinkle: Councilor-at-Large Bob Russo wanted to attend the meeting with the district. But adding another council member would require the meeting be held publicly, according to the NJ Open Public Meetings Act. Montclair resident Chrissie Thomas sent an email to Ponds, Spiller, Cummings, and Yacobellis, stating that Spiller’s “potential conflict as NJEA president” called for the meeting to indeed be open to the public, as well as Russo.

Emails went back and forth between Spiller and district officials. Montclair district communications director Cantor wrote in one,

“I should reiterate that we very much want to meet. Part of what’s unclear to us is related to the fact that several NJEA officials were copied on your message asking the superintendent for a meeting, along with an NJEA memo questioning the district’s budget decisions.”

Spiller’s response was to double down on the inclusion of NJEA officials at a meeting about the local school district’s budget., surely a concern outside of the union’s purview. Then he added two more name to the list of people being copied: Acting Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan and State Senator Nia Gill, who represents Montclair. Cantor responded that these gratuitous additions to recipients of the email makes “the nature of the meeting…even less clear to us..”

Unsurprisingly, yesterday the meeting was cancelled. It should be quite a scene at tonight’s Town Council meeting.

Historical Note: the mayor of Montclair used to appoint school board members and a “Board of Estimates” approved the district budget. In 2016 an Essex County Superior Judge ruled that Spiller’s dual role—then-secretary of NJEA and Board of Estimates member— was a conflict of interest. More recently, in 2021, voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum making school board members elected, not appointed, like 97% of New Jersey’s other school districts, disabling Spiller from appointing NJEA-friendly buddies to the town’s school board.