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Parent alleges repeated bullying and conflict in reporting as board approves personnel, calendar and finance items
Summary
A parent, Victoria Santos, told the Vineland Board of Education that her child's experience and another parent's son's repeated assaults were not adequately documented or addressed, and she called for separation of the anti-bullying coordinator role from principal management; the board then approved routine personnel, calendar and finance motions with several recorded recusals and a small number of dissenting votes on specific calendar items.
A Vineland parent told the Board of Education that the district's handling of bullying reports has failed some families and urged structural changes to anti‑bullying reporting.
"Our children suffer," said Victoria Santos, a local parent who described withdrawing her daughter from district schools because of bullying and recounted another parent's son at Wallace Middle School with multiple alleged physical assaults and incidents dating to an appeal to the anti‑bullying coordinator on Feb. 17, 2025. Santos said some incidents were not documented and that the existing structure creates a conflict of interest because the district's anti‑bullying coordinator, Ishmael Bermudez, also oversees the principals who receive those reports.
"I am calling for separation of the anti-bullying coordinator role from administrative management of principals to eliminate this conflict of interest," Santos said during the public-comment period.
The board acknowledged the comment period and proceeded to routine business. The board approved personnel items 1.1 and 1.2 by roll-call vote. It considered procedures and operations items 2.1–2.8, including adding two inclement-weather make-up days to the calendar and using June 2 as a professional‑development day (the district noted June 2 is a New Jersey primary‑election day and that students will not be present while staff attend PD). During the roll call on 2.1–2.8, Mr. Fiocchi recorded a 'no' vote on item 2.3 and Mr. Holmes recorded a 'no' vote on item 2.7; otherwise items passed.
The board then approved finance items 4.1–4.16; Mr. Harris recused himself from item 4.3. When approving the January 2026 bills, Mr. Harris again recused himself from vendor numbers 1074 and 1333 and the motion to approve the bills carried.
The transcript shows board members thanked CTE staff and school visitors later in the meeting and adjourned after routine remarks.
The transcript does not provide further documentation about follow-up steps on the bullying allegations; the parent said she would follow up by email to the board.
