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The Star-Ledger

Panel votes to bar educators' bonanzas

Cryan's measure aims to force 'the gravy train' to 'hit a brick wall'

Friday, June 13, 2008

BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL

Star-Ledger Staff

Angered by reports of severance deals that are enriching retiring school superintendents with hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer-financed bonuses, the Assembly Education Committee yesterday unanimously endorsed legislation to prohibit the deals.

"We want to end this. We're tired of it," said an exasperated Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union), sponsor of the legislation (A2975). "I hope the gravy train will hit a brick wall today."

State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy endorsed Cryan's bill and joined the chorus of critics expressing outrage over lucrative payouts to school superintendents.

"They are excessive. They are unacceptable," she said during a committee hearing on the proposed legislation. "When adults in charge walk away with money like this, they are taking money from the children in the classroom."

And Assemblyman Joseph Malone (D-Burlington) called the generous payouts criminal, and faulted school board members for approving the deals.

"We ought to give them the high school proficiency exam and ensure they aren't stupid," Malone said. "People should be going to jail."

Cryan's bill was the latest reaction to an unusual contract in which the board of education in Keansburg, a so-called special-needs community that relies on state aid for 80 percent of its budget, awarded its outgoing superintendent $740,000 in severance benefits.

That package included $184,586 in payment for unused sick and vacation days and another $556,290 in severance pay calculated at one month of pay for each of the 38 years that outgoing superintendent Barbara Trzeszkowski had worked in Keansburg.

Word of the deal prompted Davy to launch a review of every superintendent's contract in the state. The state also has filed suit seeking to void the severance pay as "unreasonable," and Keansburg has suspended payments under the deal until it can renegotiate the pact.

Meanwhile, Cryan said he was further incensed yesterday by a Hoboken severance package reported in The Star-Ledger that included almost $600,000 in severance pay for a superintendent who retired three years into a five-year contract.

That deal, with former superintendent Patrick Gagliardi, included almost $100,000 in post-retirement consulting fees and an agreement to pay the superintendent $495,146 for about 500 unused sick and vacation days.

"Enough, enough, like, enough," Cryan said after reciting the highlights of the Hoboken deal. "It's safe to say everybody's had it."

Cryan's legislation, drafted earlier this week but already slated for a vote in the full Assembly on Monday, would prohibit all severance payments except for reimbursement for unused sick and vacation days in superintendent deals.

The Legislature last year capped reimbursement for allowable sick or vacation days at $15,000 for contracts signed after last year. Cryan has suggested amending that earlier cap to make it apply to existing contracts as well.

Thomas Dunn, a retired Elizabeth superintendent who now serves as a lobbyist for the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, said his organization opposes Cryan's legislation, but is willing to work on a set of guidelines for future contracts.

Cryan's legislation so far has no counterpart in the Senate.

Dunstan McNichol may be reached at dmcnichol@starledger.com or (609) 989-0341.

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