This week the Asbury Park Press published a story on the Asbury Park Board of Education’s decision to put Superintendent Rashawn Adams on administrative leave. The headline was a tad misleading: “Why Is Asbury School Board Keeping Secrets About Suspended Superintendent?”

In fact, sources say there are multiple reasons for the Board’s decision to put Adams on administrative leave and replace him, at least temporarily, with Interim Superintendent Mark Gerbino. The Board’s reasons may or may not include a new “Civil Action Summons” pressed by Director of Student Services Kristie Howard-Morris (Docket # MON-L-662-24). A civil action summons  is a court document issued by a court when a plaintiff has initiated a civil lawsuit against a defendant. Howard-Morris (the plaintiff) is charging Adams and others (the defendants) with “discrimination, harassment, and a hostile work environment, based on the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.”

More broadly, this summons puts Adams and assorted others—high school principal Bridget O’Neill, HR director LaShawn Gibson, and the Asbury Park Board of Education itself—in legal jeopardy. In addition, there is a potential fiscal risk because Howard-Morris is asking for “compensatory damages, consequential damages, damages for emotional distress, punitive damages, attorney’s fees and costs and any and all other relief that the Court deems to be equitable and proper.”

What is the her gripe?

Howard-Morris, a longtime educator and administrator, says Adams discriminates against employees who are over 40 years old. She says she has been subjected to a series of retaliatory actions and a hostile work environment “which has worsened over time with regard to the interaction with and reporting to Adams.”

Howard-Morris was put on administrative leave in January 2024—this means she gets paid but can’t report to work—and she regards this as another retaliatory action by Adams.

From the summons:

• Plaintiff has been subjected to conditions which are in violation of the Asbury Park Board of Education’s policy which prohibits discrimination, harassment, and hostile work environment which is based on the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.

• “In the period of time since he became Superintendent, Adams has managed to create an environment which is riddled with harassing actions and the environment has been rendered hostile.”

• “Plaintiff is now being subjected to retaliation for having reported the actions of Adams to the Monmouth County Superintendent of Schools, Mr. [Lester] Richens.”

• Adams made statements to the Asbury Park Board of Education members “about Plaintiff having engaged in forgery, fraud and fiscal misappropriation.”

• “The hostility in the workplace initiated by Adams has continued unabated and other employees similarly situated as Plaintiff would believe that the work environment was hostile and abusive.”

One example described in the summons:

On Monday, April 3, 2023, Adams told Howard-Morris he was going to eliminate her position as Director of Student Service; she would now, he told her, be the district Athletic Director, a position that had previously been held by Mark Gerbino until Adams put him on administrative leave. In order to accept this position (for which she had no background) her working hours would substantially change because she’d have to be at all athletic games. Adams gave her two days to make the decision.

She declined.

Indeed, at the school board meeting later that month,Adams told the Board to eliminate the position of Director of Student Services. The Board voted “no.” (Really, of all the unnecessary administrators in the district, you need someone in charge of special services.) But the State Fiscal Monitor at the time, Carol Morris, overruled the Board’s decision. When Howard-Morris told Adams she would exercise her “bumping rights”—she has tenure so she could replace an administrator without as much time served–he rescinded the elimination of her position; from all appearances, he was betting that she would resign rather than be Athletic Director but she called his bluff. The next school year he put her on administrative leave.

See? It’s complicated. Board members are not permitted to comment on personnel matters and ongoing litigation. So does that mean they are they “keeping secrets” from the community regarding Adams’ current status? Not so much.