Secaucus Paid Superintendent $183,977 For Year Of Not Working

SECAUCUS, NJ — Former Secaucus superintendent Erick Alfonso will be paid a total of $183,977 after the school board placed him on paid leave last March, according to an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request filed by Patch.

He has not worked since then, but has been paid the entire time.

"The total amount the Secaucus school district will pay Erick Alfonso from March 20, 2024 through April 21, 2025 is $183,977," said the school district March 4.

The Secaucus school board put Alfonso on paid leave last March and has been paying his $184,500-yearly salary ever since, even though he has not worked. The Secaucus school board voted March 11, 2024 to place Alfonso on paid leave, effective March 20.

The Secaucus school district will pay Alfonso his salary through April 21, at which point he will resign.

The board placed Alfonso on leave while it investigated allegations against him. The Board has never revealed what those allegations were, and neither has Alfonso, who never returns our calls.

Then, on the advice of Secaucus school district lawyer Stephen Fogarty, the Board of Education paid an additional $13,250 to an outside investigator named Peter Fallon to investigate these mysterious allegations against Alfonso. Fallon took nearly a year to do his investigation. He completed his investigation in February and submitted a report to the school district. However, Patch's OPRA request to see that report was denied, under the argument that Alfonso is entitled to privacy as a school district employee.

(Accusations against public school employees are rarely made public, unless they rise to the level of criminal charges.)

The Secaucus school district said:

"Personnel records shall not be made available for public access, except that an individual's name, title, position, salary, salary, payroll record, length of service and date of separation."

On Feb. 14, Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli said of Fallon's report:

"I haven't read it." But — "There was not enough in that report to get rid of him. They had no reason to get rid of him," said the mayor.

Gonnelli previously said the way this was handled has been "totally ridiculous and a waste of taxpayer money," and that he was "very disappointed in the Board of Education members."

Secaucus To Pay Superintendent For More Than A Year Of Not Working (Feb. 14)

Editor's note: When Patch first published this story, on Feb. 26, board lawyer Fogarty told Patch Alfonso will be paid $61,500 for that period. That is false and incorrect information. Fogarty said he released wrong information.