Morris County executive county superintendent said she would not approve any budget unless the Parsippany board rescinds the superintendent's contract, which exceeds Christie's pay cap
Parsippany-Troy Hills Superintendent LeRoy Seitz is being paid a salary higher than the superintendent pay cap. PARSIPPANY — The Christie administration delivered an ultimatum today to the Parsippany-Troy Hills Board of Education: rescind Superintendent LeRoy Seitz’s contract or the state will not approve the school district’s budget.
In a one-paragraph letter to district Business Administrator Marlene Wendolowski, Morris County Executive County Superintendent Kathleen Serafino, acting on behalf of the administration, said she would not approve any budget so long as Seitz’s contract remains in place.
"The letter means that, unless the contract is rescinded, there will be no school budget approved for Parsippany by the Executive County Superintendent," said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie. "It will remain unapproved until the Board rescinds the contract for Mr. Seitz."
The battle over Seitz’s contract began in November, when Christie announced he was imposing a cap on superintendents’ salaries based on the size of their districts. The cap took effect Feb. 7.
But on Nov. 9, the Parsippany-Troy Hills school board approved a five-year contract for Seitz with an average annual salary of $225,064 — a figure that exceeds by just over $50,000 the $175,000 cap for a district Parsippany’s size.
Christie denounced the board’s action during a subsequent town hall meeting, calling Seitz "the new poster boy for all that’s wrong with the public school system" and saying his new contract is "the definition of greed and arrogance."
Soon after the governor made his comments, Serafino ordered the school board to rescind the contract. But it has refused to yield, arguing Serafino already approved it. The board also filed suit against the state and then-acting Education Commissioner Rochelle Hendricks, demanding that Seitz’ contract stand.
In a document attached to the suit Seitz says the county and state education officials did not question the legality of the contract before the school board’s Nov. 9 vote.
"The Parsippany School Board cannot be allowed to simply disregard the law," Drewniak said today. "In doing so, members of the board who oppose rescinding the contract are setting a poor example for students and adding unnecessarily to the burden of taxpayers in their municipality."
Parsippany-Troy Hills board President Anthony Mancuso said he had not yet seen a copy of Serafino’s letter, but questioned why she would ask the board to break the law by breaching an employment contract.
"I don’t understand why the county superintendent would ask us to do something that’s illegal," Mancuso said. "She knows we are in litigation over this, so why would they try to strong arm us into doing something illegal that would put our district at risk."
Mancuso said it’s "sad" that Serafino has threatened to no approve the district’s budget if the board fails to bow to her demands. This, he says, would "jeopardize the students of Parsippany."
Earlier this week, Christie said that if the district did not rescind Seitz’s contract, it would risk losing state aid.
By Matt Friedman and Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger