No wonder the school board president shoved his hand into a wall last month.
A fulminating controversy at the Hoboken Board of Education over who should replace Board Secretary/Business Administrator Anthony Curko became even more controversial at Tuesday night’s board meeting – because Curko showed up and said he wasn’t even leaving.
Curko, a 27-year district veteran who has held the board secretary position since 1987, said that when he went on medical leave on March 9, he always intended to come back, despite rumors that he would use up his paid days off and retire.
This was a surprise to some board members who already had been fighting over the fact that former long-time Board President David Anthony was hired part-time to take on some of Curko’s duties for $39,500 per year. Additionally, two assistant board business administrators were hired at a meeting last month – former school board member John Pope as assistant business administrator for $95,000 per year, and Tammy Zucca as assistant business administrator for $110,000. Zucca ultimately ended up taking a job elsewhere.
Curko had been serving in both positions – board secretary and business administrator – for one salary. Thursday morning, Curko declined to speculate how they could have replaced him without him intending to leave.
“You’d have to ask the people who did it,” he said.
Yes, let’s
Well, who could be responsible?
It wasn’t Board President Carmelo Garcia (who also works as the city’s director of human services). Garcia was so perturbed by the circumstances surrounding hiring longtime board member David Anthony that during a conversation about that prospect in City Hall last month, he slammed his hand into a wall and broke it (the hand, not the wall).
Garcia said last week that he would not comment on the details of the dispute, but sources said he didn’t like the idea of a board member taking a paid position.
Garcia would only say that the incident was “regarding just me fighting for the children. I want the agenda to be about the children. That’s why I’ve been so passionate.”
David Anthony said, “We had a united board 12 months ago, and now we don’t. That’s not a bad thing. Sometimes, out of conflict comes resolutions that both parties didn’t see.”
Anthony also declined to comment on the nature of the argument, but said that after he had a conversation with Garcia, he left the room, and it was around that time that Garcia fractured his hand.
On the Curko matter, Garcia said, “All I can answer is that I want to get this issue resolved and determine that who is the board secretary. We know it’s Mr. Curko at this point; he’s the returning secretary. He does have tenure. We’re getting a legal opinion on what the options are to bring closure to the issue.”
Anthony said that after Curko went on medical leave in March, the district’s facilities director, Tim Calligy, began filling his shoes, but found doing double and triple duty too taxing.
The position was advertised, and Anthony, with his years of unpaid board expertise, applied.
“These are like growing pains,” Anthony said. “As [board member] Frank Raia said during the meeting, at times it looks painful, but in the long run, I think people are going to be satisfied with the way things are going. And it is painful. Mr. Curko has the right to resign, and the right not to resign. How and where that came from is something that will be resolved.”
Board member Theresa Burns said that each April, at the board’s reorganization meeting, the board has to approve a board secretary. This year, they approved Calligy as acting secretary. After Calligy relinquished that role, the position opened up.
“We got notification from Mr. Gagliardi in the beginning of the year that Mr. Curko was going on leave,” Burns said. “Any actions that have been taken have been based on that knowledge. The only communication we have as a board is that [Curko] was given a leave of absence. The [other] information has been conflicting.”
Burns said that officially, they were only told that Curko was on a leave of absence, but the suggestion that he would be retiring “was said often.”
Curko said last week that he had been doing some work for the board even while he was out on leave. Burns said she was not aware of that.
Mayor: Yeah, it’d be nice if superintendent left
Meanwhile, the board brouhaha appears to be a smaller issue compared to the controversial change taking place at the top.
At a Board of Education meeting at the end of August, Superintendent of Schools Patrick Gagliardi’s retirement was announced after six years at the helm.
The retirement will be officially effective two years from now, but some want it to happen sooner. However, this could be costly. Last year, the board approved Gagliardi’s contract extension through 2009. To buy out his entire contract early could cost the district more than $750,000.
Thursday, Mayor David Roberts said that he wants to make it clear that the board should avoid such an expensive buyout if it can. But he also won’t shed tears if Gagliardi leaves.
“I do support the superintendent leaving sooner than later,” Roberts said. “I would like to have a person of [former Board President and acclaimed St. Peter’s Prep Principal] Jack Raslowski’s caliber taking over the district to make it the best it can be. I do not support expensive buyouts. [Raslowski] is a smart Harvard graduate, but tough. I like that idea.”
Roberts, of course, does not control the Board of Education, but involvement (or interference, depending whose political side you’re on) in the city’s education system has been common for Hoboken’s mayors.
For many years, there has been a tug-of-war between Hoboken parents who believe the urban school district is not improving quickly enough for their kids to attend high school here, and district supporters who point out many positive programs such as the “interbaccalaureate” honors program at Hoboken High School.
Some believe critics of the district are elitist and fail to see the positive changes. State test scores have improved, but in the high school, the SAT scores remain below par.
While he was a councilman in 1995, Roberts held the first statewide conference on parent-founded “charter schools,” and the district now has two of them.
Theresa Burns said last week that Roberts’ opinion is not a surprise.
“The mayor has wanted Mr. Gagliardi to leave since he first came into office,” Burns said. “That won’t force us to accelerate it if it’s not right for the district. They’ve never had a good working relationship.” Caren Lissner can be reached at editorial@hudsonreporter.com.