Nicholas S. Rotunda has returned to his job as principal of Palisades Park (N.J.) High School after being suspended for six days with pay for allowing a movie featuring nudity to be filmed on his campus.
Mr. Rotunda maintained that he did not realize that Upfront Films’ “Senior Week” would include scenes with partially undressed women when he allowed it to be shot at the school in 1987.
The Palisades Park school board tried to make him a scapegoat by disciplining him after the film became an issue in district elections, Mr. Rotunda claimed. Students and parents rallied behind him, however, and ousted some of the incumbent board members in the April 4 balloting, he said.
But Janette Zuckerman, the former6president of the board, said voters were reacting to the movie, not the suspension, when they removed her from office.
After three years of conflict, the superintendent and all five school-board members of the Malvern, Ark., district have agreed to resign at the end of next month.
The mass resignations will eliminate the divisiveness that has characterized the board’s decisionmaking, said Superintendent William Hunt.
The acrimonious relationship between the board and Mr. Hunt came to a head this spring when the superintendent, who has held his post for 34 years, asked to have his current contract extended by a year.
After the board voted 3 to 2 to deny his request, Mr. Hunt responded by offering his resignation and calling on board members to follow suit. They did so this month.
