Camden's School Board Remains Appointed, Not Elected, After Court Ruling

By David Madden

CAMDEN, N.J. (CBS) -- A South Jersey judge has thrown cold water on an effort to allow residents of Camden to vote on members of the city's school board.

Superior Court Judge Michael Kassel ruled in favor of the Board of Education, taken over by the state in 2013, finding that the argument that voters have been disenfranchised is a myth.

"Here the state intervened with the school board because of the quality of education and the issues," school board attorney William Tambussi told KYW Newsradio. "Now by law governance cannot be returned locally until those educational issues are resolved."

Those seeking a return to local control cite a 2010 law that gave Mayor Dana Redd the power to appoint school board members with a requirement that voters revisit the issue in 2014. That never happened. Attorney Flavio Komuves, representing concerned residents,  would beg to differ.

"We're even more disturbed and disappointed that the school board's decision to take away the democratic rights of residents was done in the first place," attorney Flavio Komuves, representing concerned citizens, countered, "and we're going to continue our struggle on a lot of different fronts."

One of those fronts would be a possible appeal of this decision.