A.C. school board's cell-phone bills dwarf those of other districts

ATLANTIC CITY — Some school board officials and employees have talked as much as 4,500 minutes a month on their school-owned cell phones over the past three years. The excessive use has created expenses that are much higher than similarly sized school boards.

The resort's school district has been charged with more than $140,000 in cell phone expenses since 2004, about $133,000 more than the amount Egg Harbor Township's school board incurred over the same years.

Egg Harbor Township's school board, which enrolls slightly more students than Atlantic City's, has also issued only 15 cell phones to district workers, while Atlantic City's district has doled out 105 phones — 12 of them for the city's school board members alone and a total of 62 active users as of January.

School Board President RaShun Stewart ordered the 12 board-member phones be disconnected in March after he became aware of extensive use by some members, including one phone that racked up about 4,000 minutes in one month.

That member, according to records, is Stephanie Davies-Khan, a political rival of Stewart, who accumulated 3,927 minutes in December 2006. Davies-Khan attributes her high usage to a flood at her Atlantic City home at the end of November, leaving her with little other than her school board cell phone.