A crowd of more than 100—comprised largely of South Mountain School and Annex parents—gathered at Monday evening's Board of Education meeting to protest Principal Thomas Gibbons's exclusion from a list of non-tenured staff to be reinstated in the 2009-2010 school year.

Gibbons is in his third year in the district and would automatically become a tenured employee if he remained beyond this year. He wrote a letter widely circulated in e-mail chains last Friday, explaining his employment status and urging parents—some of whom started mobilizing over the weekend with petitions—to attend Monday's meeting.

About 25 parents urged the Board to retain Gibbons during two rounds of public comment sessions—starting around 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. respectively—and many statements met with rounds of applause from the assembled crowd packed into seats, lining the walls, and spilling out into the hallway during the first session, when the audience was larger. Many of the commenters focused on Gibbons's responsiveness to their concerns.

"He literally transformed the spirit and the energy and the confidence of the parents in the community," said Wendy Sachs, whose son started kindergarten when Gibbons took over.

"If you have a very easy child, you don't even appreciate what a good principal he is," joked Barbara Levy, mother of three South Mountain students, who explained that Gibbons had reassured her earlier this year when she was summoned to his office after her son had a tantrum in class.

"He made a plan with the kindergarten teacher, and he followed through on it all year," she said.

Other speakers raised concerns over the transparency of the process and the fact that the reasons for Gibbons's impending dismissal have not been made public.

"If there is little or no information on true or perceived performance deficiencies, how are we to elevate our performance?" said Wendy Miller, another South Mountain parent.

In his opening comments, Board President Mark Gleason emphasized that the Board's role is to approve the list—171 names long this year—of non-tenured employees whom Superintendent Brian Osborne is recommending for renewal. Staff members not tapped for reappointment have the recourse of applying to the district for a written explanation and, subsequently, requiring a hearing before the Board—either in public or executive session—to make the case for reinstatement.

If requested, a hearing would likely take place before June 30.

"We do not have the power to take names off the list or put names on the list," said Gleason, who emphasized that the superintendent, his staff and the Board are barred from speaking about personnel matters by state law.

Three other non-tenured staff members who weren't recommended for reappointment also made the case for their retention: Holly Scalera and Rob Galgano of South Orange Middle School and Jennifer Fletcher of Columbia High School.

"The atmosphere in my school just seemed tense and hostile [this year]," said Galgano, an eighth grade teacher who said his job was posted on NJ.com prior to his official notification that his contract wouldn't be renewed.