LACEY – In one month the township Board of Education has had two aborted live meetings, one virtual session and now one hybrid gathering but debates over mask wearing and conduct by Board members has made each one a verbal battleground.
It began with the Board’s reorganization meeting which was to be held live at the Lacey High School lecture hall but that lasted around two minutes when Board members called for it to be nixed when incoming Board member Salvatore Armato, members of his family and several audience members, refused to put on COVID-19 protective masks per Governor Phil Murphy’s executive order mandate.
Armato was to be sworn in during that meeting but that didn’t happen until a virtual session where he joined Harold “Skip” Peters who was also sworn in for a new three-year-term on the panel. Board member Frank Palino filed criminal charges on Armato and several others who went unmasked at the first session and he was appointed as board president at the virtual session.
On January 20, another live meeting was scheduled at the Lacey Middle School auditorium. That session lasted around five minutes as Armato again refused to wear a mask and the majority of attendees in the audience also went mask less. With that meeting dismissed, a hybrid session was held on January 24 that had Armato attend virtually along with anyone who did not wish to wear a mask while the rest of the Board met along with professional staff at the middle school. Former Board member Regina Discenza was an attendee and all present were wearing masks.
Following the first attempt at a reorganization meeting, resident Kristin Niel launched an online petition on change.org calling for Palino’s removal from office.
Armato said he felt members of the Board were trying to prevent him from taking office but members Kim Klaus, Linda Downing and Palino said that was not true. Palino did vow that he would file charges toward anyone he could identify who came to a live meeting refusing to wear a mask.
Armato said in reviewing the January 12 virtual meeting, “I was amazed at all my so-called colleagues who welcomed me to the Board. They knew they filed charges against me at the county Prosecutor’s Office filed by one of our own. Charges that could land me in prison for six months. They tried to deflect this by trying to find out where I got the idea about a conspiracy.”
“Let me jog the memory of one Board member, Kim Klaus. It was the morning of October 16 that you and I spoke at the high school. I asked you why are you discussing having me removed from the Board if I should continue not wearing a mask. Mind you I wasn’t even elected yet,” Armato said.
“You gave me the long answer about policy. I smiled and I walked away. The fact I have charges filed against me and haven’t been assigned to any committees, I ask the Board and the public does that sound like a welcome wagon to you? My beliefs are my beliefs. They just happened to align with many people in this town and not those of my fellow Board members,” he said.
Klaus disagreed with Armato’s account of their conversation. “Sal, we need to start over and you need to listen to the conversation that was had in policy and when I did see you on the field, I told you exactly what was said in policy so I don’t know why now you are twisting it.”
She said during a policy committee meeting that she and Discenza were discussing, “what would happen if you came to meeting and were not masked. I said we do have a policy because of another Board member who missed three meetings and you would be voted off the Board.”
“End of story that was it,” Klaus added. “We talked for a half a second about a policy that we had and I’ve been encouraging you to read the policy. From that private meeting got to you something twisted and that is not what happened. I did reach out to you and you didn’t even return my call.”
Palino explained he had not assigned Armato to any of the Board sub-committees due to his refusal to wear a mask as committee sessions were held within school buildings and like BOE meetings would fall contrary to the executive order.
“As to this whole mask mandate thing, we are following the law,” Palino said. He advised those opposed to the mask mandate to reach out to their legislators and voice their opposition. “Stand at their door and scream and yell at them the same as you do to us. That is how things are going to get changed not by standing before the Board of Education and telling us how we are taking away your civil liberties.
“We aren’t taking away anything. This has to do with people higher than our pay grade and we don’t get paid anything for this. What I see here is a group of parents that tell us we are taking away civil liberties and harming their children and doing this and doing that and we need to move this (the BOE meeting) off site because we don’t want to wear a mask,” Palino said.
During the meeting Armato and several parents who also attended virtually, called for the Board to meet at a location where mask wearing could be optional.
Palino responded to that idea saying, “why is it that those of us that wear a mask have to have your beliefs imposed upon us and change what we are doing because you don’t want to follow? You want us to believe what you believe but we don’t always believe what you believe and that is okay that we agree to disagree.”
“Don’t tell us to resign because we aren’t doing the right thing. No, maybe you aren’t doing the right thing,” Palino added. “You aren’t following the law. Let’s talk about the charges. These charges I placed against certain individuals and Mr. Armato is one, is by me, citizen Frank Palino. It has nothing to do with this Board of Education. I am not spending Board or taxpayer money to go through these charges. This is on my dime and on my time.”
Vice Board President Edward Scanlon agreed with Palino that were the state to allow districts to make their own rules on masks, that Lacey’s Board would probably vote to make it optional. “When the mask mandate is lifted, I would never vote to continue requiring the masks.”
“We are standing tall, sticking together, following the mandate. We are going by the science. We as a community need to stop focusing on masks,” Board member Donna McAvoy said.
In addressing Armato, Palino said he called him requesting he wear a mask for the greater good “you said, the greater good of what? I can’t believe you said that as a Board member. The greater good of the children of the school. Obviously, you are a selfish individual.”
Palino described Armato being at the board office “and to benefit him he put a mask on and paraded around the board office.”
“Liar,” Armato responded.
“You are hypocrite Mr. Armato. You care nothing for no one but yourself,” Palino added.
