Chairman backtracks on initial tally in superintendent vote

NORFOLK

The School Board actually voted 3-3 last week to hire Richard Bentley as its next superintendent and not 7-0 as the group’s chairman, Stephen Tonelson, said last week.

“I apologize for not clarifying that more specifically with our public, but I do think it’s important to re-emphasize that once the vote was taken, that Dr. Bentley does have the full support of the board,” Tonelson said Monday.

Tonelson retracted his initial depiction of the vote after The Virginian-Pilot queried members Monday about how a 7-0 vote was possible when one of the seven members, Billy Cook, was out of town during the board’s closed-door meeting June 21. Cook was on military service at the time.

Cook said Monday that he told members days before the meeting that he favored Bentley.

“I pretty much cast my vote for who I wanted prior to me leaving,” he said. Cook said he also voted via cell phone during the meeting.

But Tonelson said that Cook did not participate in that meeting by phone or electronically.

Tonelson said that, at the meeting, “The six of us ended our discussion with full support” for Bentley, who currently is associate superintendent for the Ysleta Independent School Board in El Paso, Texas.

“The board did vote in open session, 3 to 3, and with that vote, said that Dr. Bentley had our full support to come in and work with us as our new superintendent,” Tonelson said.

However, a Pilot reporter present outside of the June 21 closed meeting did not witness any public vote held regarding the hiring of a superintendent.

State law forbids school board members from participating in meetings electronically unless they have an emergency or a medical condition that prevents them from attending, said Alan Gernhardt , staff attorney for the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council.

An emergency is “something unexpected, not military service that’s already pre-arranged,” he said.

Tonelson said the board’s eventual support for Bentley gave the city the go-ahead to begin negotiating a contract with Bentley.

Bentley said Monday that he had known only that it was reported he’d been hired on a unanimous vote.

“The position has been offered to me and I’m moving forward in that process,” he said.

City Attorney Bernard Pishko told The Pilot on Monday that the board had not formally voted to hire Bentley, and that such action would occur only at the time a final contract with Bentley is presented for members’ approval at a future public meeting.

“At this point in time, Dr. Bentley is a candidate that the board has elected to negotiate with and that’s coming along very nicely,” Pishko said.

Tonelson said he did not know if the tie vote could give the other two semi-finalists grounds to dispute the board’s actions. He had no explanation on how a tie vote could be construed as favoring a specific individual.

The other semifinalists were Randy L. Bridges, the superintendent in Burlington, N.C., and Robert L. Copeland, the superintendent in Piscataway Township, N.J.

Pilot writer Harry Minium contributed to this report.

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com