As soon as word got out about a special meeting at Bloomfield BOE this week, speculation was raging about who might face the firing squad. Bloomfield Life reports the BOE, finding legal problems with two high profile employee contracts, has voted to rescind one, revise the other.
Stephen Edelstein, the board's new attorney, said Marie Cirasella, the assistant superintendent, should not have been granted a two-year contract in March. Boards of education do not have the authority to sign assistant superintendents for more than one year, he said.With regard to the contract for Frank Digesere, the superintendent, Edelstein said there were two "subtle" problems. The contract, approved in April, had been revised by Tom Dowd, the county superintendent, after the board approved it, yet it was not re-approved by the BOE after the revisions, Edelstein said.
Cirasella's contract has been revised to last one year. Digesere will now re-negotiate a new contract with the current BOE.
Edelstein also cited Gonzales vs the Elizabeth Board of Education.
Gonzales tells us the board "may not forestall the rights and obligations of [its] successor by making an appointment where the term of the appointee will not take effect until after the expiration of the term of the appointing [body]." The court reaffirmed the notion that a "board of education is a noncontinuous body whose authority is limited to its own official life"