PARSIPPANY — The Parsippany school district has again defied the Christie administration over Superintendent LeRoy Seitz’s contract, an act that could bring operations in the district to a halt. The district delivered its proposed budget to the executive superintendent yesterday, but voters may not be able to consider it unless the district rescinds a contract granting Seitz a salary...
Gov. Chris Christie has demanded the Parsippany school district rescind the salary increase it gave School Superintendent LeRoy Seitz, who is pictured in a June photo.PARSIPPANY — The Parsippany school district has again defied the Christie administration over Superintendent LeRoy Seitz’s contract, an act that could bring operations in the district to a halt.
The district delivered its proposed budget to the executive superintendent yesterday, but voters may not be able to consider it unless the district rescinds a contract granting Seitz a salary exceeding a state cap.
Michael Drewniak, spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie, reiterated yesterday the township school budget would not be signed by Morris County Executive Superintendent Kathleen Serafino.
The board voted in November to raise Seitz’s pay from $212,020 to $216,040 and included a 2 percent raise for each of the next four years. The salary cap that took effect last month would limit his pay to $175,000.
The impasse could keep voters from having their say on the budget. If Serafino does not approve the spending plan, there is no way to set a tax levy and put the budget to a public vote, said Paul Tractenberg, founding director of the Institute on Education Law and Policy at Rutgers-Newark.
"Without her signature, it is not a legally valid budget," Tractenberg said. "It would seem a bit like overkill, though."
Serafino’s powers are broad, and she could choose to approve an amended budget and red-line Seitz’s salary, several attorneys said.
That would allow a budget to be put before voters, but what would happen if the school board continued to pay Seitz after the amended budget was approved?
"It could go either way," said Brenda Liss, an education and employment attorney with the Morristown law firm Riker Danzig.
"If the board chose to issue paychecks," she said, "the commissioner could order them to rescind the contract (again), and as an enforcement mechanism, I guess it could order the board to pay to the Department of Education the difference between the pay cap and the superintendent’s salary."
Liss wasn’t sure if such an order would hold up in court.
Serafino’s statement was in a letter released to the media Friday, but Seitz said the letter was never received by the school board or the district administration.
"We can’t respond to something we don’t have," he said. "As far as how it plays out, I really don’t know. This is uncharted territory."
It is hard for anyone to know because the situation is unprecedented, said Mike Yaple, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association.
Anthony Mancuso, board president, said Serafino verbally approved the contract before the cap took effect. The validity of the contract is being litigated.
The Department of Education is also being sued by superintendents Jim O’Neill in Chatham and Rene Rovtar in Long Hill, who are challenging the department’s role in delaying review of their contracts.
But Parsippany is unique because it has begun paying Seitz under his new contract, which has been repeatedly criticized. Christie has called Seitz "the poster boy for all that’s wrong with the public school system."
Serafino’s letter marks the fourth time she has demanded Parsippany rescind the contract, and the fourth time her directive has been ignored.
Now, the matter is back in her hands. Serafino must decide what to do in the next four weeks so the language of the budget can be submitted to the county clerk to be placed on a ballot.
"She understand as everyone does that there is a time line here," Seitz said. "Those time lines need to be met and we’re hopeful she will give us an answer as soon as possible."
Previous coverage:
• Parsippany school board again refuses to rescind superintendent's contract
• Parsippany school board continues to defy superintendent pay cap
• N.J. superintendents group sues to block Gov. Christie's planned salary cap
• N.J. voters support Gov. Christie decision to cap pay for school superintendents, poll says