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

SECAUCUS, NJ — The Secaucus school district has been paying former superintendent Erick Alfonso his approximately $180,000 yearly salary since the school board placed him on paid leave in March.

Alfonso has not worked in Secaucus schools for the past eight months, since he was placed on leave.

This was confirmed Thursday by Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli, who said it was "totally ridiculous and a waste of taxpayer money."

On March 11 of this year, the Secaucus school board voted to place Alfonso on leave while the board investigated allegations against him. The content of these allegations has never been made public. The public may never know why he was fired: Alfonso is a school district employee and allegations against staff are rarely discussed in public.

But he has been paid ever since, said the mayor.

"And we are one week away from November ... It is my job to look out for the best interests of the people of Secaucus, and how this has been handled was not in their best interest," said the mayor Thursday. "I am very upset with how we are spending taxpayer money. We have been spending taxpayer money foolishly. This has been a waste of taxpayer dollars."

Since March, Patch has called Alfonso multiple times. He never returns our calls.

Secaucus athletic director Charlie Voorhees has been acting superintendent; he will do so until December. Voorhees agreed to be paid the difference of the athletic director and superintendent salaries.

Gonnelli called it "a stipend," and expressed Thursday that he was grateful to Voorhees for doing the superintendent's job without being paid a superintendent's salary.

Gonnelli also said Thursday: "This is not the first time this Board has done this."

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.

As Patch reported at the time, Berckes was paid his $124,000 salary for an entire year — while not working — after he had a falling-out with the Board of Education.

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.

Gonnelli also said the decisions made by the Secaucus school board in the past few years are what prompted him to publicly endorse candidates in this year's school board race. Secaucus Mayor Endorses Lyons, Geller, Howard For School Board (One of the candidates he endorsed, Melissa Howard, was on the board that voted to place Alfonso on paid leave, but she does not vote on district personnel.)

"I am very disappointed in the Board of Education members. And not just this Board, but the previous Boards before them. They and all the previous Board just aren't getting it right," Gonnelli said in March. "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 is very upsetting to me."

Board president Kelli D'Addetta said the Secaucus school district has not yet advertised for a permanent superintendent.

Reminder: Secaucus School Board Forum 7 P.M. Thursday At High School PAC

Early voting starts Saturday at the Rec Center.