UPDATE: Watchung School Board Member Working on Compliance

UPDATE: NJ.com reported Watchung school board member James Rhyner has a Jan. 20 appointment for fingerprinting, the final requirement to meet the new Department of Education background checks for school board members.

The State Department of Education has granted an extension for Board of Education members who have still not completed a background check that was mandated to be completed by the end of December.

According to Acting Commissioner Chris Cerf, board members can complete the fingerprinting requirement by Jan. 27, and remain active members of their board. If the member does not complete the requirements by Jan. 27, the ineligibility letters that were sent out this week will become effective, Cerf said.

ORIGINAL STORY: A member of the Watchung Borough school board has been declared ineligible to serve by the state Department of Education because he failed to complete a required criminal background investigation.

James Rhyner was on the list released Thursday by the New Jersey Department of Education of 186 school board members and charter school trustees statewide who did not complete the background exam by the Dec. 31 deadline. All other area school board officials met the requirements, including the Warren, Green Brook and Long Hill Township districts, and Watchung Hills Regional.
 
The school board members/charter school trustees must vacate their positions immediately, according to state Dept. of Education spokesperson Allison Kobus.

Additional school board members or charter school trustees may yet have to forfeit their positions, according to Kobus. Some board members or trustees filled out the forms improperly or failed to pay the required fee, she said in a news release.

The background checks were required by the New Jersey general assembly in legislation passed last year, to require school board members and charter school trustees to meet the same standards required of school teachers. If board members or trustees show up for meetings, they could be charged with a fourth degree crime.

New Jersey is apparently the only state to require the background examinations.