TOMS RIVER – After several false starts, the Board of Education has announced a special meeting to choose a superintendent.
The meeting will be at the High School North Auditorium (the auditorium is closer to the intersection of Old Freehold Road and Indian Head Road, not to be confused with the arena which is on the other end of the school), 1245 Old Freehold Road, Toms River, on Wednesday, February 2. The Special Meeting will begin at 6 p.m. It will also be livestreamed from the district’s website, TRSchools.com.
The only official business on the agenda is the “approval of appointment” of a superintendent. However, there is a public comment period before this, and they tend to get long.
There is also a note on the website that the agenda is subject to change.
The superintendent position has become a bit of a political issue of late, with parents commenting on social media and at meetings with how embarrassed they are by some of their representatives.
David Healy retired from the superintendent position, with the end of 2020 as his last days. At one point, he changed his mind and wanted to stay on a few more months, but the board denied it. He originally came to the district in 2014.
Thomas Gialanella was chosen as interim superintendent by the Board of Education. Previously, he had been the superintendent for Jackson and served as an interim for Brick. He also served as interim superintendent the last time Toms River had a superintendent search.
Then, retired Jackson Superintendent Stephen Genco filled in as the interim Superintendent of Toms River Schools, and is still here today.
Two options for a permanent superintendent became known even though it was not supposed to be public. They were current assistant superintendent James Ricotta and James Altobello, director of secondary instruction for the Hamilton School District.
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 Altobello.
These three board members want Altobello and the other six want 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.
Joseph Nardini and Kathleen Eagan have to abstain because they have conflicts of interest, which usually denotes a family member working for the district.
Rodrick has said publicly that he did not influence the board members.
