Holmdel Resoundingly Voted NO to BOE President Terence Wall

EDITORIAL OPINION

While still “unofficial,” the November election results after all ballots were counted showed that Kimberly Tuccillo, Raymond Kim, and Dr. Surekha Collur were the winners for Holmdel BOE by a large margin.

Kim Tuccillo and Raymond Kim, each received more than 4,000 votes, 1,000+ more votes than incumbent BOE President Terence Wall.  Dr. Collur received 3,995 votes, just shy of 4,000.

Despite the clear mandate, Wall decided to hijack the November 13, 2024 BOE meeting and used it to peddle false theories and continue his harassment and intimidation of Holmdel citizens.

BOE meetings are limited to official school district matters.  It has no say over elections or BOE candidates and is not a platform to discuss their opinions on BOE candidates or campaigns.

In a thin-veiled pretext to propose a non-binding candidates’ pledge for which he spent less than 1 minute with no specifics, Wall then spent 15 minutes airing his perceived personal grievances.  By airing his grievances, he violates the Code of Ethics that every school board member swears to uphold.  His “opening it up for discussion” among other BOE members does not change the fact that this was unethical.

Later on, during the public comment session where speakers are limited to three minutes, Wall allowed his wife to speak for about 10 minutes, repeating and amplifying his attacks on Holmdel citizens.

Unfortunately, BOE Vice President Chris Dimare added fuel to the fire by characterizing certain Facebook posts about Wall as baseless attacks and that people should not have to live through that experience.

Holmdel residents should ask Mr. Dimare two questions.   The first question is what was said or written about Wall that was not true.

Is it the two public whistleblower lawsuits with explicit details on Wall’s harassment and intimidation? Or the fact that one of them was settled for $850,000 earlier this year?

The second question is where was Mr. Dimare’s outrage when Wall attacked and relentlessly harassed four BOE candidates and private Holmdel citizens?

Instead of the disingenuous charade for a pledge, how about asking the one individual who has a history of 20+ years of harassment and intimidation to stop?

Wall’s grievances seem to center around a website, saveholmdelstudents.org, which lists incidents in the public domain reflecting Wall’s highly questionable behavior and judgment.  Perhaps this is the real reason for Wall’s unacceptable attacks on Holmdel BOE candidates and private citizens.

The public has a right to know and make up its own mind.  Therefore, Better Holmdel will create a page on its website that will contain links to these incidents mentioned in saveholmdelstudents.org in the event that this website is taken down.

Even after the election results clearly show that Holmdel residents decisively voted for Tuccillo, Collur and Kim, Wall still can’t handle the truth and blames everyone else except his own bad behavior.

Fortunately for the town and our students, Holmdel residents are not fools.  The election results sent a loud and clear message to the BOE – focus on Holmdel schools, not drama or politics.