The School Ethics Commission (SEC) on March 10 issued a public advisory opinion that will restrict school board members, who have immediate family employed in the district, from participating in decisions affecting the superintendent’s employment.

In A30-05, the SEC determined that two board members who have spouses employed in their district would violate a provision of the New Jersey School Ethics Act (N.J.S.A. 18A:12-24(c)) if they participated in evaluations, personnel actions and compensation decisions involving the superintendent (as well as the spouses’ principals, and, in one case, the director of elementary education). The commission advised the board members to recuse themselves from discussion of these personnel matters.

Rationale “Regarding the superintendent, the board member would have difficulty being completely objective in acting on employment issues since the superintendent must provide a recommendation regarding the employment terms of the board member’s spouse to the board,” the SEC stated.  According to the commission, the public could reasonably expect that the board member’s objectivity and independence of judgment might be impaired in such a situation.

The decision does not mark the first time that the SEC has required a board member with a spouse working in the district to recuse himself from employment matters concerning the superintendent. However, A30-05 goes further than the earlier rulings, which addressed specific and limited factual contexts.