Even some of his closest staff members didn’t know that Schools Superintendent Jack Raslowsky was planning to take a job at a Manhattan Jesuit high school until the news broke on Wednesday, just a day after Raslowsky railed against adversarial board members for a lack of cooperation, communication, and partnership at a board meeting.
Tuesday night, the board decided not to renew contracts for Chief Information Officer David Bailey and Maintenance and HVAC repairman Onofrio “Alfred” Mezzina, whose positions are among 10 that are exempt from collective bargaining agreements and will expire on July 1.
Six other contracts were pulled off the agenda for the second consecutive meeting, including deals for Assistant to the Superintendent Dr. Anthony Petrosino, Assistant Business Administrator Paul Stabile, and Theater Director Paula Ohaus.
The board has scheduled a special meeting for June 30 to address these other contracts.
New beginning
Raslowsky said in a brief conversation on Wednesday that Xavier High School in Lower Manhattan had sought him as their new president. He said his resignation is effective Aug. 31, although a press release for the Jesuit high school said he will start on July 1.
Raslowsky became superintendent more than two years ago and was given an opportunity to put his top personnel in place, but now the board is beginning to dismantle the team he set up.
He’ll be the first layman to serve as president of Xavier High School in the Flatiron District.
A former principal of another Jesuit high school, St. Peter’s Preparatory School in Jersey City, Raslowsky was also the provincial assistant for Education and Lay Formation of the New York Province Society of Jesus, or Jesuits.
Many district employees were surprised by the exit. Board member Theresa Minutillo said Wednesday that the board was never told about it in advance, and that the summer months may not be enough time to have a new, permanent superintendent in place by the coming school year. The board might need to appoint an interim superintendent while a long-term search continues over the next year, she said.
Minutillo said the New Jersey School Boards Association could provide a list of retired or non-renewed ex-superintendents that may be able to fill the gap, and that group may help search for a permanent head of the district.
Delayed for missing information
The board’s new lawyer, Vito Gagliardi, sat next to Board Attorney Joseph Morano at the meeting and made clear that he is no relation to former Schools Superintendent Patrick Gagliardi. The new lawyer was hired last month and favored by the new board majority, who wanted him to specifically review some contracts they were concerned about.
Tuesday night, board member Carmelo Garcia asked why some contracts had been removed from the agenda and not others. “There are appointments there that directly affect students,” he said.
Minutillo said the Governance Committee and Gagliardi found some information missing while reviewing 20 administrative contracts.
Some contracts, she said, were problematic; they either were “unlawful,” contained “unlawful provisions,” or were “ambiguous or disadvantageous to the board.”
Morano said the contracts are “generally lawful” and that some changes to laws in recent years may have caused problems with certain clauses, for instance, those specifying allowances for sick and vacation days.
Morano said the check-over of contracts by Gagliardi and the board’s Governance Committee – Minutillo and new board members Maureen Sullivan and Ruth McAllister – was “like a little bit of an audit.”
Minutillo said some job descriptions need to be reworked, and other certifications and forms needed to be updated in personnel files.
Raslowsky said some follow-up work is needed but that nothing substantial was missing.
Sullivan said some contracts signed in recent years were “not illegal, [but] unlawful” because, according to Gagliardi, only superintendents can be given multi-year contracts.
Flu update
Raslowsky said that the H1N1 “swine” flu rumors were flying out of control last week.
One parent, he said, rapidly spread word that a student had the illness. No cases of H1N1 “swine” flu have been found in the schools, he said, although 4 to 6 percent of students are showing some symptoms of Influenza A – regular flu, not “swine” flu – which is not an unusually high number.
Absentee rates are slightly higher, he said, and the district is in constant communication with the city, county, and state health departments.
Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.