Secaucus To Pay Superintendent For More Than A Year Of Not Working

SECAUCUS, NJ — Here is a breaking news update on former Secaucus schools superintendent Erick Alfonso, who the school board put on paid leave last March and has been paying a $184,500-yearly salary ever since, even though he has not worked.

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

This was voted on and approved by the Secaucus school board at their meeting Thursday night, which you can watch here. The resolution about Alfonso — R1.20 — is listed in the meeting agenda here.

The Secaucus school board voted to place Alfonso on paid leave March 11, 2024, effective March 20. The board did this while it investigated allegations against him. The Board has never revealed what those allegations were, and neither has Alfonso.

But he has been paid his full salary ever since, according to salary documents obtained by Patch. Alfonso signed a three-year contract, which expires June 30, 2026. So he is leaving his contract one year early.

In addition to paying Alfonso his full salary while he has not worked for the past year, the Secaucus school district — on the advice of the board's lawyer, Stephen Fogarty —then paid $13,250 to hire a lawyer to investigate the mysterious complaints made against Alfonso.

The Secaucus Board of Education hired a lawyer named Peter Fallon, at a rate of $175 per hour, to be paid a maximum amount of $13,250, depending on the length of his investigation, which at the last point we checked had gone on for eight months.

On Friday, Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli said Fallon's report is completed and turned into the school board.

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

That report is likely not available to the public, but Patch will file an OPRA request for it (Open Public Records Act). We will also file an OPRA request to get the dollar amount Secaucus schools paid Alfonso in total.

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

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."

On Friday, he was more muted, but said:

"He got a year+ pay and now he's leaving. If they could have gotten rid of him, they would have," he said, referring to the Board. "Let's move forward."

Gonnelli said this last year:

"It's not just this Board. They and all the previous Board just aren't getting it right. This is the sixth superintendent Secaucus has had in the past seven years. And some of them we actually had to pay them when they leave. That means taxpayer dollars. This has been a waste of taxpayer dollars."

He is referring to separations the district had with former Secaucus High School principal Robert Berckes ("Dr. Bob"), and Jennifer Montesano, the superintendent before Alfonso.

• Berckes was paid his $124,000 salary for an entire year — while not working — after the school board tried to fire him over how he handled a matter where a student at Secaucus high school was found with marijuana. Berckes similarly fought the Board's attempt to void his contract and was paid for a year without working before he quit. Read that story: Secaucus Principal Paid Salary For Entire Year, Will Then Resign (2019)
• Montesano also abruptly quit under mysterious circumstances that were never made public. The Secaucus Board of Education also paid Montesano for an unknown amount of time while she was not working.

Athletic director and Patriots football coach Charlie Voorhees remains acting Secaucus superintendent.

Secaucus Superintendent Paid $180K Salary, Has Not Worked For 8 Months

Secaucus Superintendent Paid $106,500 So Far, For 8 Months Of Not Working

Secaucus BOE Pays Lawyer $13K To Investigate Allegations Against Super

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