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School nurse urges Hopatcong board to renew contract at nonrenewal hearing, cites staffing and safety concerns
Summary
At a Donaldson hearing before the Hopatcong Borough School District board, a school nurse facing nonrenewal defended seven years of service, described program improvements and a medical emergency she said exposed staffing gaps, and asked the board to follow district policy on notification and review her evaluations.
A school nurse who requested a Donaldson hearing before the Hopatcong Borough School District Board of Education defended her seven‑year record and urged the board to renew her contract, saying procedural errors and staffing decisions have put students at risk.
The nurse told the board she learned of the decision not to renew her contract by reading board minutes rather than by personal notice and said another employee who was not renewed was told in person days earlier. She asked the board to follow the district's notification procedures and said she was prepared to present documentation supporting her performance.
"I more than do my job," the nurse said, listing program changes she said she implemented: bringing the district into compliance on immunization audits, creating a nursing web page with required vaccine and scoliosis‑screening exemption information, starting remote Dexcom blood‑sugar monitoring for students with type 1 diabetes, and piloting a certified therapy‑dog program. She also described leading nursing efforts during the COVID response and organizing multiple fundraisers to support colleagues and families.
She recounted a medical emergency she said stemmed from staffing and coverage practices. According to her account, a student experienced a seizure and later had a pulse oximeter reading of 66; she said she administered Valtoco and argued another nurse stationed at a different school could not have reached the student within the three minutes required for that medication. "There's no way another nurse from another school can come within those 3 minutes," she said, offering the incident as evidence that nursing assignments should be driven by medical acuity.
The nurse said she had been rated "highly effective" in summative evaluations and provided the board with evaluation documents and other records to review. She also criticized actions by a colleague who was promoted to head nurse, alleging that the colleague did not perform required duties or advocate for medically vulnerable students.
Board members asked the speaker to confine remarks to the written statement of reasons provided for the hearing. After the petitioner finished, the board closed the public portion of the hearing, moved into executive session for about 10–15 minutes and said the nurse would receive a written determination within three days.
The hearing was procedural under Donaldson rules for contract nonrenewals: the petitioner was not under oath, there was no cross‑examination, and the board emphasized that the session was informal and that the written record would guide the board's determination.
