Willingboro resident accuses Willingboro business administrator candidate of fiscal mismanagement during Roselle board meeting

Nicole Nicholas, a resident of Willingboro Township, told the Roselle Public School District board during public comment that Dr. Steven Lewis, identified in her remarks as a Willingboro business administrator candidate on the board’s agenda, presided over “a documented systemic failure of financial stewardship.”

Nicholas said the district she described relied on frequent off‑cycle checks to pay payroll and vendors, citing figures she said ranged “from a low of $787,000 per month to an astonishing high of $7.8 million in a single month.” She alleged those payments were often late, that bond‑referendum projects were rushed and delayed, and that contractors and programs suffered because of the financial practices she described.

“Under his leadership in our district, we've had off‑cycle checks which were entirely bypassed by the public eye and standard board meeting agendas,” Nicholas said. She also told the Roselle board she had filed a $20 million notice of tort claim against the official she named and petitioned the New Jersey Department of Education’s Office of Fiscal Accountability and Compliance to investigate and consider sending a state monitor.

Nicholas further alleged that, while still employed as Willingboro’s business administrator, Dr. Lewis controlled the district’s request‑for‑proposal process and that a contract was later awarded to a private business she identified as S. Lewis Consulting. “There was no RFP publicly posted on our district's website…this was self‑dealing and at best blatant nepotism,” she said. She added that the contract’s full value, duration and scope were not disclosed to her or the public, and that the first off‑cycle payment to S. Lewis Consulting appeared on Jan. 2 — the first business day after Dr. Lewis’s last official day with the district.

Nicholas also said she found photographs of Twin Hill Elementary students on Dr. Lewis’s personal business website and that parents had not given permission for those images to be used for private marketing.

Charerelle Hugley, another parent, spoke in support of Nicholas and said families with children on individualized education plans had been affected; Hugley identified herself as one of the families preparing a class‑action suit named by Nicholas.

The board did not take public comment responses from the district or from Dr. Steven Lewis during the meeting. After public comment ended, the board moved to votes on personnel items. The meeting record shows the board approved superintendent personnel recommendations overall but that personnel item 2.4 did not pass.

The allegations raised during public comment were not litigated or verified during the meeting and remain contested claims. Nicholas said she is willing to provide the board with supporting documentation; she also said she has sought state review. The board did not announce any immediate investigatory steps during the meeting.

The matter was raised before a scheduled personnel vote; the board proceeded with the agenda after public comment. The district’s written agenda lists a business‑administrator appointment; the meeting record does not show an explicit named vote on Dr. Steven Lewis during the portions of the transcript that were provided to this report.

The board is scheduled to follow normal personnel and procurement processes; Superintendent Dr. Fisher (speaker in the meeting) said staff would follow up on requests for additional documentation for agenda items where appropriate.

Ending: The public‑comment portion closed at 8:51 p.m.; the board proceeded with votes and other agenda business and adjourned later in the evening.