Doc Knocked Out of Principal's Office

It was likened to taking George S. Patton out of World War II before the landmark Battle of the Bulge — the notion of the Middletown Township Board of Education booting well-liked High School South Principal Anthony Shallop out of his new administrative spot and back into the classroom as a teacher.

So, at the mention of the move going up for a vote at last night’s board meeting, hundreds of Shallop-supporting parents, teachers, students and even neighboring schools’ students mobilized and prepared for war.

Armed with an arsenal of speeches, signs, cheers and jeers, an unprecedented summer board meeting crowd of roughly 200 protested outside and into the halls and auditorium of High School North waiting for their chance to fight for Dr. Shallop’s livelihood.

They call him Doc. They waited, and waited, some for six hours, for their chance to speak up for Doc at the mic and get him out of what they deemed the board’s bullseye.

Despite it all, Dr. Shallop ended up taking the bullet that seemingly everyone in the room, except seven of the nine board members, wanted him to dodge.

With the only dissenting vote on the board coming from former Board of Education President Michael Donlon, board members voted at nearly 1 a.m., after an emergency resolution to extend the meeting past midnight, to take the recommendation of Interim Superintendent and former High School South Principal Patrick Houston and remove Shallop from the principal slot.

The move was met with outright disgust by all in attendance. As people booed, shouted out, cried and rushed to console Shallop, a student took a pile of Shallop-supportive posters and slammed them down at the board’s feet. Another student lifted and carried his mother away from the foot of the dais stage, saying, “Come on mom, let’s just go. I told you it would end like this.”

The decision — made in the dead of summer, when school is out of session and board meetings are usually sparsely attended — was called a political one by board critics.

The board, after its late-April elections, recently swore in four new members and named a new president, Joan Minnuies.

Newly-elected board member Bob Banta resigned in May, just shy of a month in the spot, after attending only one meeting. Sue Griffin was sworn in last night to replace him.

Interim Superintendent Thomas Pagano, who was slated to be in the top administrator spot until January, also resigned three weeks ago, when Houston was designated to replace him.

The primary criticism from Shallop supporters was that Houston, having only served as interim superintendent for weeks, had no evaluation premise of the principal on which to base his recommendation for removal. Donlon echoed that sentiment as a preface to his dissenting vote.

Houston acknowledged that he had not evaluated Shallop in the public portion, when questioned by former board member Rosemarie Stallmeyer.

Shallop had been South’s principal for roughly two and a half years. He has been in the district for about 10.

Amidst many jeers, Minnuies and board member Vincent Brandt insisted that if the audience heard what they did in closed executive session — which they could not reveal — they may be more likely to support the decision to demote Shallop.

The comments were met with many boos and cat calls to respect and refer to the outgoing principal as Dr. Shallop — Doc.  

Patch will take you on an inside look later at the hours of waiting with supporters before the regular voting meeting was finally opened at nearly 11 p.m., after roughly three hours of waiting. There will be more photos and video as well. Stay tuned.