School Board Reinstates Judy Burrell as Head Track Coach

Judy Burrell, a long time Hoboken teacher, was reappointed in a 5-4 vote in Tuesday night's school board meeting to be the district's head track and field coach, but not without a heated discussion between the board members.

The stipend for the outdoor track position is $5,335 and for the indoor track position is $4,114. The coaching positions are for the remainder of the 2012-2013 school year.

Burrell—after many years of being coach—wasn't given the position last June when her stipend was removed from the agenda. The board never publicly discussed the reasons behind the measure.

Burrell, who is tenured, also serves the district as a special education teacher and has worked for the district for the past 25 years.

At Tuesday's meeting, Burrell declined to comment.

The Kids First majority members—Leon Gold, Theresa Minutillo, Rose Marie Markle, Ruth McAllister and Irene Sobolov—voted to reinstate Burrell, while the four minority members—Carmelo Garcia, Frances Rhodes Kearns, Maureen Sullivan and Peter Biancamano—voted no.

The vote followed a lengthy closed session in which the issue was discussed.

"I am really disappointed right now," said Garcia. "We know what we discussed upstairs, we know how people behaved. I think we all had a consensus: we’d repost (the position for head coach)."

Garcia continued that during the public portion, "Ms. Markle stormed out" and proceeded to "yell" at the superintendent.

said she was "disturbed" by her fellow board members.

"Knowing what you know, and you all vote 'yes,'" Sullivan said, "disturbes me to no end."