NJ Education Report

The Record reports today on the lawsuit pressed by the New Jersey Association of School Administrators against the Department of Education.

After the negative media generated by the case of the Keansburg superintendent (see this post) who retired with a whopping package of about $740,000, the State Legislature passed a bill limiting sick-day buyouts to $15,000. The DOE wrote the regulations, which NJASA claims are “vague and unconstitutional.”

The Record piece lists a variety of pending buyouts in Bergen and Passaic counties: for example, the superintendent of Bergen County Special Services, Robert Aloia, is due $190,206, Business Administrator Andrew Nemec will get a check for $116,000, and the principal of Passaic County Technical Institute, Joseph DiGise, will fetch $85,602. The plaintiff in the case, Lyndhurst Superintendent Joseph Abate, reportedly will garner $168,106 in accrued sick days and vacation time.

One of the co-sponsors of the bill, Assemblywoman Connie Wagner of Paramus, said,

Sick time is to be used when you are sick; it should not be used as a savings account. It’s time to protect the taxpayer … boards of education have to take more responsibility.

Fair enough. And how hard could it be anyway to attach lucid and logical regulations to a reasonable bill? Not so fast:

The new state regulations have generated a fair amount of confusion among administrators, some of whom are unclear about how much time is still eligible for cashout. Even state officials provided differing interpretations following the rules change.

Here we go again. Some egregious lack of oversight flashes in the phosphorescence of local districts, state legislators howl, and the DOE screws up. Said Richard Bozza, Executive Director of NJASA,

It’s clear that the commissioner [of education Lucille Davy] has exceeded her authority.

It’s a numbingly familiar pattern as New Jersey struggles with the lack of professional oversight engendered by home rule, the growing scarcity of superintendents (who’d want this job anyway?), and an incompetent DOE. The sequelae will be equally predictable: whatever the result of the lawsuit, the flawed regulations will end up back with the DOE for another stab at what should be a streamlined process, Lucille Davy will lose yet more credibility, and New Jersey will be no further along in resolving profound problems in our educational system.