TOMS RIVER – Facing an impasse, the Toms River Board of Education voted to extend the contract with interim superintendent Thomas Gialanella for one month, but will likely have another interim that will last until 2022.
Former Superintendent David Healy retired in 2020. The board brought on Gialanella to helm the district. He was working at Ocean County College but took a leave of absence. He reported that he was allowed to take another month away in order to lead Toms River until another interim can be chosen who can stay for a longer period of time.
The candidate that board members had in mind was out of the country so they could not be chosen right away. That person was not publicly named.
Gialanella had served as an interim in Toms River before Healy. He had also been an interim in Brick and the full time superintendent in Jackson.
Politics
The reason for an interim superintendent is that there is disagreement on who should be a permanent superintendent.
There have been accusations that three of the board members are being influenced politically in their choices. Specifically, Kevin Kidney, Ashley Palmiere and Lisa Contessa are accused of being pushed by Toms River Councilman Daniel Rodrick to vote for James Altobello as superintendent.
These three board members want Altobello and the other six want assistant Superintendent James Ricotta. The problem is that two of those six have to abstain. It’s 3-4. Therefore, there was no way to reach a majority vote of five.
They tried to have a vote in mid-June but they couldn’t reach a consensus. Therefore, they had to have an emergency board meeting on June 30, the day that Gialanella’s contract expired.
Graham Commesso, who was at one time married to Ashley Palmiere, said that there were meetings at his home last year with Rodrick, Contessa, Rodrick’s running mate Justin Lamb, Republican leader Geri Ambrosio, and former county GOP leader George Gilmore. Gilmore had stepped down from leadership after being caught failing to pay income taxes, but he was pardoned by President Trump and by all accounts still has influence in the region.
These people, according to Commesso, were choosing a superintendent they could “control,” and Altobello was named.
Palmiere denied that these meetings happened and said the story was the result of a personal issue between her and her ex.
Rodrick has said publicly that he did not influence the board members.
Another name they discussed was Central Regional Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides. Reached for this article, he said “I did apply for the Toms River Superintendent position. I was looking forward to the challenge of a larger district. I was interviewed through Zoom and then received a rejection letter three weeks later. The Board seemed very nice and it was an enjoyable process. As a Superintendent the Board Members are your boss and you have to work together to provide for the students, teachers and taxpayers.”
Interim Superintendent
As Board President Joseph Nardini said, “If we could count to five, this would be all over.” Nardini has to recuse himself from voting because he has family that works for the school district.
Board member Anna Polozzo brought people to speed on how it took this long. In October, the board started the process. There were 17 applications (only two from within the district). The process was delayed due to some members having COVID-19. When the 2020 election brought in new members, the board decided to hold the process until the new members were seated so that they could take part. By April, they were down to two candidates, one internal and one external.
Normally, the names of the applicants would not be made public but in the age of social media it became known that the internal candidate was assistant superintendent James Ricotta. The candidate from out of district was James Altobello.
Polozzo again made the motion for Ricotta to be the superintendent for three years, which she said was the minimum amount of time that the contract could be. Her motion was seconded by Michele Williams.
Board member Jennifer Howe, who was calling in to the meeting, said there hadn’t been any discussion about this vote, despite the fact that this same vote was done a few weeks earlier. She said if any of the three (Palmiere, Contessa and Kidney) change their vote, she’d be the fifth.
Polozzo later shared a letter she wrote to all board members on June 21, nine days before, which urged a vote for Ricotta to be superintendent. And, his replacement as assistant superintendent would be current High School South Principal Michael Citta.
Ultimately, Howe voted against Ricotta because she said there should have been more discussion beforehand. Kidney, Contessa, and Palmiere voted no.
Nardini and Kathleen Eagan abstained.
Therefore, since there was no vote for a superintendent, the board voted to allow Business Administrator William Doering to take over the district’s finances.
Contessa made a motion to put the New Jersey School Boards Association in charge of the superintendent search but that got shot down.
Gialanella was approved to have another 30 days as interim while a more long-term interim was chosen.
Board Attorney Stephan Leone was ordered to investigate the issue of political influence on the superintendent search. He is retiring and the job will be passed to another attorney in his firm that was at the meeting.
Leone said after the meeting that this is an ethics investigation, not a criminal one.
He also said that it would be a rush to get a full-time superintendent in place by January 1, 2022.
Public Anger
There were about 60 members of the public at the meeting, held in the cafeteria of High School South. In the corner of the room, the words “Specifics and Details” were written on a white board, left over from a class.
Some members of the public came out to support Ricotta. Some came to defend themselves. Some came to question why this is taking up time when the board should be united against a bigger threat – losing state aid.
Former Board member Dan Leonard – who is no stranger to controversy himself over charges of putting inappropriate things on his Facebook – played voice mails Daniel Rodrick made to him. In the voice mail, you can hear Rodrick talking about running Board Member Kevin Kidney’s campaign. Leonard was the one who publicized the meetings that allegedly took place at Palmiere’s home.
Upon Leonard’s questioning, Kidney admitted that Rodrick did run his campaign.
Resident John Meehan said that Ricotta has spent his whole career here. He lives in this district. He has “skin in this game. He’s not someone looking to up his pension before he’s done. He’s one of us.”
Resident Robert Tormollan said none of his five children are in school anymore but he was angry about the political influence upon certain board members.
“Vote for Toms River. Vote for the kids in Toms River. If you don’t want to do that, get out. Just get out,” he said.
“I’m tired of hearing from board members ‘I’m getting picked on.’ You get what you deserve,” he said. He also told certain members to put their cell phones away so the public knows that they are not getting cues from someone. He also noted that Altobello’s wife works in the same district as one of the current board members.
Former Board member Robert Onofrietti Jr. said he was embarrassed that the county superintendent had to write a letter to them in order to get their affairs in order. He questioned why the board members would vote for Altobello, who has no experience as an assistant superintendent, over Ricotta, who is an assistant superintendent in Toms River.
Palmiere said during the meeting that she is not beholden to Rodrick. She had also said that she had met with Nardini when she wanted to run as well. Nardini nodded in agreement as she was saying this.
“I wasn’t backed by any puppetmaster. I was backed by Mr. Nardini,” she said.
Geri Ambrosio said she had went to Nardini’s house in March when trying to determine who could run for an Assembly seat. She said that she didn’t go to influence him. However, she accused Nardini of trying to influence Contessa and Palmiere. Nardini shouted out “absolutely not” – that this did not happen.
Rachel Remelgado, who ran in 2020 but lost, said that the politics is distracting people from dealing with state aid loss and the pandemic.
“All Democrats are not radical liberals that want critical race theory and masks. All members of the GOP are not racists and science deniers,” she said. It’s time to put the partisan rhetoric aside and work for a better school system.
