Jacobs resigns from school board

Amid ethics charges, member quits citing health issues, By Tom Hoffman WANTAGE — Arthur Jacobs, the former president of the Board of Education for the Sussex-Wantage Regional School District who is facing ethics charges filed with the New Jersey Department of Education, has resigned from the board, citing health issues. Jacobs has served on the School Board for the past five and a half years and was board president for two of those years. He said he hasn’t been feeling well recently and decided to resign his post on Aug. 20 “since I didn’t feel I could contribute as much.” He asked that the nature of his medical condition be kept confidential. The Sussex-Wantage school board filed ethics charges against Jacobs on July 15, claiming that he violated a series of ethics policies such as forwarding information on board-related activities via e-mail to former board member Raymond Delbury. Jacobs claims his interactions with Delbury occurred while Delbury was still a member of the board. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” Jacobs said in a Sept. 3 telephone interview with The Advertiser-News. Current board president Thomas Card declined to comment on Jacobs’ resignation. He did say that the board has 60 days to fill the open seat and that the board hopes to announce a replacement at its next meeting at the Sussex Middle School on Sept. 30 at 7:30 p.m. Jacobs’ replacement would hold the position through the remainder of his term, which runs until April 2010, said Card. Proud of his service For his part, Jacobs said he was proud of a number of accomplishments achieved by the board during his tenure, including repairs made to the roofs for each of the district’s three school buildings over an 18-month period without the need for a referendum to help fund the costs. “The most important thing is that we did what we said we were going to do and that we were fiscally responsible,” said former Board of Education member Diane Snure. She served with Jacobs from 2006 until April 2009. Leaks in the roof of the Sussex Middle School became so bad at one point that buckets were used in some of the classrooms to catch the drips, said Snure. “Some people will argue that infrastructure investments don’t benefit the students,” said Snure. “But you can’t learn in any environment that’s not conducive for education,” she added.