Politics & Government

School Administrator's Lawsuit Moved to Appellate Court

A new court appearance will be scheduled, but could be months away.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of Superintendent Jim O'Neill and another state school administrator will be transferred to an Appellate Court, a Superior Court judge ruled Monday.

Judge Deanne Wilson, sitting in Morristown, heard arguments on the proper jurisdiction for the case, which argues the legality of imposing salary caps on school administrators.

The complaint, filed on behalf of O'Neill, Long Hill Superintendent Rene Rovtar by the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, also contents that executive county superintendents could not legally sit on school board-approved contracts until after the caps went into effect on Feb. 7.

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Under a plan for the salary caps, outlined by then-Acting Commissioner of Education Rochelle Hendricks in a memorandum dated Nov. 15, most school districts could pay their top officials no more than $175,000 per year—the same salary the governor earns.

Salary caps are set on a scale by district enrollment; smaller districts would have lower ceilings for superintendent pay. The caps would put O’Neill’s annual salary at $165,000, a pay cut of about 20 percent. He currently earns about $210,000.

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District superintendent contracts typically go to county executive superintendents for review. But in her memo, Hendricks ordered Serafino and other county executive superintendents to hold off on approving any contracts that exceed the cap—even though the cap did not take effect until Feb. 7.

Deputy Attorney General Michael C. Walters argued on behalf of the defendants—the New Jersey Department of Education, former Acting Commissioner of Education Rochelle Hendricks and her successor Chris Cerf and Morris County Executive Superintendent Kathleen Serafino—that the appellate court had jurisdiction over the case because the "final action of a state agency" (the salary caps) that the plaintiffs sought to remove.

Maria Lepore, the attorney for the plaintiffs, argued that a memorandum issued by Hendricks on Nov. 15 outlining the salary caps did not constitute a "final action," and that the caps represented "a usurpation of the power of the legislature," which states that school chiefs' salaries should be determined by the boards of education. Lepore also said that the case may require further fact-finding, which is outside the purview of the appellate courts.

Wilson found that the case should be heard in the appellate division because "the ruling should be the same for Morris County as for other counties in New Jersey." If any further fact-finding was required, Wilson said the Appellate Court could remand the case back to the chancery court.

Wilson said that in her 14 years on the bench, she had never before transferred an action to the appellate division. She said the case could be signed over as soon as Monday afternoon.

Lepore said of the decision, "we suspected this was a possibility." She also said that her arguments may change when she goes before the Appellate Court, because at the , Serafino had not taken any action on the contracts sent to her for O'Neill and Rovtar.

The Chatham Board of Education did receive a letter from Serafino dated Feb. 7, rejecting the contract on the grounds that O'Neill's salary was set above the cap.

Lepore said that unless school boards take action on school administrators' contracts one year before they expire, the contracts are "automatically renewed" under the existing laws and conditions. In O'Neill's case, this means that his contract would have been automatically renewed in June 2010, well before Hendricks released her memo outlining salary caps.

Under the contract approved by the Board of Education of the School District of the Chathams, O'Neill would remain at his current salary with annual increases of 1.95, 1.8 and 1.85 percent. He has stated in the past that he would prefer to remain in his position and would be willing to take a pay freeze.

Last Monday at the school board meeting, O'Neill announced his intention to retire at the end of his current contract. "I am disappointed that I am not retiring on the time schedule I would have chosen, and I am disappointed we do not have the opportunity to plan for a more orderly transition to a new superintendent,"O'Neill wrote in the letter to the board.

The board, however, took no action on his resignation, pending the outcome of O'Neill's lawsuit against the state Department of Education.

Neither O'Neill nor Rovtar, nor any of the defendants, were in court Monday.


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