Board of Education · Full Meeting Recap

Everything that happened at Monroe's August 19 Board of Education meeting

The superintendent remains on paid leave while the board voted to investigate possible tenure charges against her, a new statewide cell phone ban takes effect this school year, and full-day kindergarten is officially here — everything from a nearly two-hour meeting.

Aug 19, 2026 · Compiled from the official meeting recording, published on the district's YouTube channel

A school board works a lot like a town council, but for the school district instead of the town: nine elected members (plus, in Monroe's case, one member appointed to represent neighboring Jamesburg, which sends its students to Monroe's schools) vote on policy, hire and evaluate staff, and approve how the district's money gets spent. Committees made up of a few board members meet in between the monthly public meetings and report back on what they discussed — that's why a lot of this meeting is board members reading committee summaries out loud. August 19's meeting ran nearly two hours and covered a genuinely difficult personnel dispute alongside the routine business of getting a school district ready to reopen. Here's everything that happened, biggest stories first.

1. The superintendent remains on leave, and the board voted to investigate whether to pursue her removal

Dr. Chari Chanley has worked in the Monroe school district for 23 years, rising from vice principal to superintendent. In May 2025, the board placed her on paid administrative leave — she has remained on leave, at full pay, ever since, while multiple legal proceedings play out. There's a Superior Court lawsuit she filed against the board (with a hearing that was scheduled for August 24), an administrative law hearing over the legality of her leave (scheduled for September 15), and an ethics complaint related to a former board president that she's a witness in (scheduled for October 8). At Monday's meeting, the board voted to authorize outside special counsel to investigate her conduct and draft formal tenure charges "if appropriate" — tenure charges are the formal legal process New Jersey requires before a tenured educator can be fired. Because six of the nine voting board members have a personal conflict of interest on anything involving Dr. Chanley — five are named in litigation connected to her situation, and one is married to a district teacher — the board first had to invoke something called the "doctrine of necessity," a legal mechanism that lets conflicted board members vote anyway, but only when there aren't enough non-conflicted members left to reach the votes normally required by law. That resolution passed 8–1 (one member recused), and the vote to authorize the investigation passed 6–2 with one recusal.

Dr. Chanley addressed the board directly during public comment, disputing the board's process. She said she has cooperated fully with the board's own investigation — including a four-hour interview with the board's investigator — and that nothing in that investigation, in her view, supports pursuing tenure charges. She asked the board not to take further action while the pending litigation is unresolved, and said she remains "ready, willing, and able" to return to work. Board member Eric Marozine and board member Peter Tufano both pressed board attorney Adam Weiss with pointed questions during the discussion — including who decided to hire the outside investigator, who authorized sending a confidential internal report to that investigator, and what the investigation is costing taxpayers — questions Weiss largely declined to answer in public, citing attorney-client privilege. The exchange grew heated, with Tufano moving unsuccessfully to table the vote until the litigation concludes, and a member of the public later using the public-comment period to sharply criticize the board's handling of the matter. None of the underlying legal questions — including whether any wrongdoing occurred on any side — have been resolved by a court, and this newspaper is not taking a position on them; the board separately voted, also by invoking the doctrine of necessity, to continue paying legal invoices from the law firm defending individual board members in the related litigation, while Dr. Chanley's own legal fees (which her contract entitles her to have covered) were not included on this month's bill list.

2. Starting this school year, students can't use personal cell phones from the first bell to the last

New Jersey passed a state law requiring public schools to restrict student cell phone use, and Monroe's new policy — which the board's policy committee finalized over the summer — puts that into practice. Personal phones and other internet-connected devices (smartwatches, tablets, and the like) have to stay off and put away for the entire school day, "bell to bell," with exceptions for documented medical needs or accommodations already written into a student's IEP (an Individualized Education Program, the legal plan schools create for students with disabilities). Devices are allowed on school buses and during approved before- and after-school activities, at the discretion of building administrators. Consequences escalate gradually and are spelled out by grade band: the first three violations bring a warning and a call home to parents, with later violations bringing a parent pickup and, eventually, a meeting with administrators — district officials said the policy is deliberately not being folded into the general code of conduct yet, in case the state issues further guidance and requirements change.

A current Monroe high school student, Robbie McGuire, used public comment to push back on strict enforcement, arguing that harsh punishments could push students further away from wanting to be at school, and noting that Monroe's high school doesn't offer a dedicated study hall or break period the way some other New Jersey high schools do — lunch is the only real break in the day. He said he wasn't objecting to the law itself, which the board has no power to change, but to how strictly it might be enforced. District administrators, responding to a board member's question, said elementary and middle schools haven't had significant cell phone problems and don't expect the new rule to change much there, since younger students mostly already keep devices in backpacks or lockers; the biggest practical change is in high school hallways and lunchrooms, where students previously expected to be allowed to listen to music through headphones during lunch — a use that state guidance clarified over the summer is not permitted under the new law.

3. Full-day kindergarten has officially arrived, with enrollment running higher than expected at one school

Monroe is opening this school year with full-day kindergarten at all of its elementary schools for the first time, a change district leaders had been planning for months — board president DiPane noted the district managed to fund it despite losing an expected $400,000 in state aid. Enrollment came in close to projections at two schools, but Mill Lake Elementary is opening with 94 full-day kindergarten students, well above the roughly 60 half-day kindergarteners the school had last year, prompting the district to open an additional kindergarten class there. Barkley Brook Elementary's enrollment also grew from last year and landed close to expectations. Each school will run five full-day kindergarten sections, with class sizes averaging around 18 students.

Acting Superintendent Dr. Adam Layman said the district won't have a full picture of what's driving the jump at Mill Lake specifically — whether it's families moving into that part of town, more kindergarten-age children generally, or families choosing the district's program over private alternatives — until enrollment settles further into the fall. Board members had no objections to the rollout and the item did not require a vote; it was presented as an informational update ahead of the school year, which begins with new-staff orientation the following Monday.

Also from Wednesday's meeting

Building projects are largely on schedule, and a youth pingpong group is helping pay for a parking lot

The board's buildings and grounds committee reported that construction tied to the district's Energy Savings Improvement Program — new boilers, chillers, and HVAC units, plus solar installations going up at multiple schools — is substantially complete, with only a "punch list" of smaller items left; residents may notice roof and field work still underway at the middle school and elsewhere as crews finish up. Separately, at Applegarth School, a state grant-funded renovation project removed an old underground heating-oil tank with no sign of contamination, among other completed work. And in a smaller but notable item, a local youth table-tennis group that uses Barkley Brook School offered to donate $10,000 toward repaving the school's rear parking lot, with the district covering the remaining $3,680 of the roughly $13,680 total cost.

The district sold eight old school buses for $221,610, and is already thinking about next year's budget

The finance committee reported the district sold eight retired buses at auction for a combined $221,610. Officials also gave an early look at the 2027–2028 budget process, which is projected to run on its usual calendar — a board discussion of overall budget philosophy in September, enrollment and staffing reviews in the fall, state aid figures released in February, and a public budget hearing next April — and flagged that rising employee health care costs are a growing concern nationally for school districts, with Monroe now exploring whether it could qualify for a lower-cost state-run insurance pool after previously having too poor a claims history to qualify.

The curriculum committee reviewed 18 new or updated courses, from kindergarten art to Italian 3

District curriculum supervisors walked the committee through 18 curriculum documents spanning nearly every grade level, including kindergarten art and general music, elementary physical education, middle school instrumental music, and a range of high school electives such as digital photography, ceramics and sculpture, sports injury care and prevention, and honors Italian 3 — part of the routine, ongoing process by which the district updates what's actually being taught in each course.

A parent advocacy group raised concerns about how the district serves students with disabilities

Betty Sabrito, representing Monroe's Special Education Parent Advisory Group (a parent committee New Jersey requires every district to have), used public comment to argue that the district isn't consistently meeting its legal obligations to students with IEPs — who make up close to half of Monroe's student population, she said — and that some staff placements don't adequately account for students' disabilities. She named several staff members she said were doing strong work with classified students, while arguing that standard should be consistent across the district rather than the exception. No board member or administrator responded substantively to the specific claims during the meeting; district officials did not present data at the meeting to confirm or dispute the compliance concerns raised.

Graduation is booked again at a Trenton arena — for about $6,000 more than last year

The district is again holding this year's high school graduation at the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, at a base rate of $18,500 (up from $16,500 last year), plus a new $6,000 parking and security fee the venue's owner is charging for the first time. Officials said the arena remains the most cost-effective option that can seat the roughly 650 to 680 graduates and their families each year — smaller regional venues can't fit the crowd, and a venue the district considered two years ago quoted roughly $42,000. Several board members suggested exploring cheaper local alternatives or splitting the ceremony into two sessions for future years, and administrators agreed to look into it, but said it's too late to change plans for this year's ceremony given how far in advance these events are booked.

A new athletic director, two retirements, and a reminder about civility

The board welcomed a current Monroe teacher into the newly created role of athletic director, with Dr. Layman noting the district has ambitious plans for its athletics program over the next several years. Two longtime staff members were also recognized for their upcoming retirements. And board president DiPane closed her remarks by encouraging members to set aside recent disagreements and continue working together, referencing a civility resolution the board adopted and noting positive feedback from the county school boards association.

This story was compiled from the full closed-caption transcript of the August 19, 2026 Monroe Township Board of Education meeting, posted to the district's official YouTube channel — the most recent board meeting posted as of this writing. It is condensed and rewritten in plain language; nothing is added that wasn't said at the meeting. Several names in the source video's automated captions were unclear or misspelled and have been corrected here against the district's published board and administration rosters where possible. Matters involving pending litigation are described based only on what was stated at the public meeting; no court or other legal body has ruled on the underlying disputes, and Monroe in Focus is not taking a position on them. Monroe in Focus is an independent project, not affiliated with Monroe Township Public Schools or Monroe Township government — see the About page for more on how stories like this one are put together, and verify anything you plan to rely on against the official recording or the district's own minutes.