Board of Ed. dismisses Superintendent Toth Administrator placed on paid leave until contract expires in 2010 BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer The Edison Board of Education narrowly voted to place Superintendent Carol Toth on paid administrative leave until her contract expires in 2010. The vote took place late during the Nov. 19 board meeting. Director of Personnel John DiMuzio will serve as acting superintendent in the meantime. No word from the board has been forthcoming as to who will replace DiMuzio as personnel director. The overall vote was 4-3, with two abstentions. According to board President David Dickinson, the four yes votes on the resolution to place Toth on leave came from board Vice President Joe Romano, members Rosemary Meade and Raymond Koperwhats, and Dickinson himself. The three no votes came from board members Deborah Anes, Joe Shannon and Susan Scerbo. Board members William H. Van Pelt and Carmelo F. Vaticano abstained. According to Allison McCarthy, a parent who attended the meeting, the board voted to pass the resolution to dismiss Toth late that night after members had returned from executive session. Dickinson said he did not believe it would be appropriate to comment on the resolution at this time. Romano said, in so many words, that "poor communications" was the reason the board felt it was necessary to relieve Toth of her duties. Scerbo, while not commenting specifically on the reasons behind the dismissal, said she was against the resolution because it would result in a massive financial burden on the taxpayer. "I was opposed to this. It will cost the taxpayer close to $600,000 until 2010, so I am adamantly opposed. Ms. Toth cared about the kids," said Scerbo. As of April 2006, when the former superintendent signed a renewed employment contract, Toth's salary is $173,000 annually. She will continue to collect this salary from the district until her contract expires in 2010. Toth, an Edison resident, has worked in the district for more than three decades, having started as a teacher at Thomas Jefferson Middle School immediately after college. Over the years, she held teaching and administrative positions at various schools throughout the township before being appointed acting superintendent in 2004 and then superintendent in 2005. McCarthy, who is also the president of the PTA at Martin Luther King Elementary School, said that a grassroots parents organization is going to be formed in response to the superintendent being placed on paid leave. McCarthy said that she and other parents feel that the board's almost literally 11th-hour decision to dismiss Toth was fiscally irresponsible. "I personally am outraged that the board would make this decision and spend our tax dollars this way. … It's ridiculous to have her sitting at home on vacation for two and a half years on the tax dollar of Edison residents," said Mc- Carthy. She also derided the board for citing poor communications as a reason for the action, saying that parents have had poor communications with the board members themselves on several occasions. She said the board gave parents no cause for why Toth was dismissed. She brought up poor communications regarding a now-defunct cell tower proposal for MLK School as an example, as well as a student redistricting two years ago. "My issues with the communications was not with the administration but for the elected board themselves," said Mc- Carthy. She went on to say that the grassroots parents organization, which is not yet named, will file a complaint with the state education commissioner as well as circulate a petition to reverse the board's decision and get Toth reinstated. Kathryn Forsynth, director of public information with the state Department of Education, said that placing Toth on paid leave until 2010 was "very unusual," and that assistant commissioner Bill King is trying to obtain more information on the matter. Forsynth said a state law passed last year mandates that the education commissioner review financial settlements resulting when a district dismisses its superintendent. The question that Forsynth said the department would like to determine is whether placing someone on paid administrative leave for that long counts as a settlement that would need to be reviewed. "Putting someone on administrative leave for two and a half years is extremely unusual. … The assistant commissioner, Bill King, is trying to get more information on the entire situation, [as well as] the county superintendent, so it's very unusual, yes. The commissioner does have to review any kind of settlement, but whether it counts as that is the question," said Forsynth. Former superintendent Toth and acting superintendent DiMuzio did not return calls by press time.