No Word From State on BOE Lawsuit Over Seitz Contract

The Parsippany Board of Education has denied a request by the state Attorney General's Office to extend a 10-day deadline to respond to its Seitz, Board President Anthony Mancuso said.

"Now they have to ask the appellate division for an extension,'' he said Thursday night.

Last month, the board filed a lawsuit against the state after County Superintendent Kathleen Serafino ordered them to rescind the five-year contract for Seitz that exceeds Gov. Chris Christie's proposed salary cap of $175,000 for school administrators in districts the size of Parsippany.

The board claims she approved the contract via e-mails,  but Serafino never signed it and denies that it's official. Her order came after Christie publicly denounced Seitz for "greed'' and "arrogance.''

The controversial contract would raise Seitz's salary from $212,000 to $216,000 this year and $234,000 by 2015.

At Thursday night's BOE meeting, board member Robert Crawford made a motion to rescind the contract for the third time in the last month.

Mancuso denied the motion, saying the board had already made a decision and there was no need to repeat a vote.

Two board members abstained from voting last week before the state's deadline had elapsed to file a response to the district's lawsuit.

But the week before, the board voted 4-4 to rescind the contract after some members expressed fears that Parsippany could lose state aid for refusing to rescind the contract.

At Thursday night's meeting, Crawford said that board members who abstained last week seemed to be waiting for a response from the state. Since there was no response, it was unfair to deny a motion to vote on the contract, he said.

Board member Michael Strumolo has said he abstained because he was awaiting word from the state. Board member Louis Valori also abstained.

After Strumolo made a motion to vote on the contract and Mancuso ruled him "out of order,'' Crawford made his motion. He said he was planning on waiting until BOE member Frank Calabria, who had briefly stepped out of the meeting, returned but decided to make the motion anyway.

Calabria has voted in favor of the contract, so if the board had voted in his absence, the contract vote potentially could have resulted in a majority in favor of rescinding.

When Mancuso blocked Crawford's motion, there were loud boos from members of the public.

Board attorney Mike Tabakin said Mancuso had the right to deny the motion under Robert's Rules of Order.

"That's what the power of being a board president is (about), whether it's right, wrong or a different is a different story,'' Tabakin said.