Failed Superintendent Vote Prompts Special Meeting In Toms River

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Regional Board of Education has scheduled a special meeting for June 30, the final date the district has to appoint someone to run the school district.

The special meeting, set for 6:30 p.m. at Toms River High School South, comes after the board failed to appoint a new superintendent at a heated meeting Wednesday night that was the latest chapter in a public controversy that has been going on for more than six weeks.

The board could not muster enough votes to approve either James Ricotta, assistant superintendent in the district now, or James Altobello, director of secondary education in the Hamilton Township Schools in Mercer County to become the next permanent superintendent of the district. Interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella’s contract ends June 30 and he is returning to his position as executive director of school relations at Ocean County College.

Ricotta, who was nominated by Michele Williams, received yes votes from Williams, Anna Polozzo, Alex Mizenko and Jennifer Howe, with Lisa Contessa, Ashley Palmiere and Kevin Kidney voting no. Altobello, who was nominated by Kidney, received yes votes from Kidney, Contessa and Palmiere, with no votes from Williams, Polozzo, Mizenko and Howe.

Five yes votes were needed to approve, and two board members — board president Joseph Nardini and Kathy Eagan — had to abstain because they have family members who work in the district.

The search process began in October, after David Healy announced his retirement. That process included six listening sessions with parents, staff and the community, where the overwhelming majority of the comments urged the school board to hire someone from within the district.

Ricotta has spent his more than 35-year career in the Toms River schools, starting as a teacher and working his way up to assistant superintendent.

Altobello has been the director of secondary education for the Hamilton schools since February 2019. Before that he was principal at Navesink Elementary School in Middletown from May 2012 to January 2019; vice principal at Bolger Middle School in Keansburg from August 2008 to May 2012, according to his Linked In profile and Keansburg documents online; and began his career in the Brick Township Schools, where he was a teacher at Lake Riviera Middle School before being promoted to assistant principal in 2006, according to a CentralJersey.com report at the time.

Members of the public accused Contessa, Palmiere and Kidney of voting based on outside influences, an allegation that surfaced in late April when Eagan said Councilman Dan Rodrick had called her and was trying to pressure board members on how they would vote. Rodrick is a teacher in Middletown.

Contessa and Palmiere have been accused of taking orders from Rodrick on how to vote on various items, including their no votes on the school budget in April, which includes an increase in the property tax levy as mandated by the state under S2. Contessa also voted no Wednesday on raises for the central administration and on the memorandum of agreement on a contract reached between the board and the district's administrators union, which represents principals, assistant principals and other administrative staff, citing the tax increase, and abstained on the MOA for the contract with the teachers union. Palmiere abstained on both memorandums of agreement.

Contessa, Palmiere and Kidney all denied the accusation of being influenced again Wednesday night, saying they support Altobello because they believe he is the best candidate for the job — statements that drew jeers from some sitting in the audience.

Palmiere went on the offensive, saying she had been blindsided by Williams’ motion to name Ricotta and calling it a set-up, after several audience members spoke in out in support of Ricotta.

“More than 14,000 residents of this town did not elect me to be blindsided and waver under pressure,” she said before voting against Ricotta.

Christopher Raimann, a former Toms River board member, called the proceedings a disgrace.

“I don’t care how many votes you got, the people in this town, we don’t support what you are doing,” he said. "All we want is a permanent superintendent and if you weren't paying attention last fall … we want a Toms River person."

“I suggest you start actually voting your conscience instead of listening to other people, because you don't represent me, I don't know who you represent here,” he said, pointing to the people in the cafetorium stands at Toms River South. “If you don't want to represent us, step down and find somebody else.”

Palmiere responded: “Mr. Raimann or anyone else standing at the microphone calling out a board member and yelling at us, trying to intimidate us, that's what is shameful. … You will not intimidate myself, Miss Contessa or Mr. Kidney. We are proud board members and proud of the work we do up here.”

“As much as I appreciate every person in this room and your opinions, you're not the only people in this district and other people have other opinions and I have heard from them as well,” Palmiere said.

“I don’t care how many votes you got, you represent this town, and the fact of the matter is you have now shown your political agenda and your political aspirations,” said former board president Rob Onofrietti. “You are not listening to the people who voted you in.”

“You have failed us,” said resident Dana DeLuca. “You have failed these children for your allegiance to a councilman.”

DeLuca said she will be pursuing a recall petition against “board members who claim to have the best interests of the children and community at hand and yet they simply refuse to do what this community has asked of them.”

“We keep getting blamed for voting a particular way,” Contessa said. “If the community wanted specifically internal candidates I don't understand why we opened the process to include external candidates. … It's not our fault that we felt another candidate presented better qualities and skills.”

Public employment laws require job openings, whether they are state or local governments or public school districts, to be advertised publicly; it’s common practice for school boards to interview out-of-district candidates even when they have internal candidates they plan to hire.

Palmiere also attacked the move to nominate Ricotta for the superintendent’s post, claiming the district had prepared a new advertisement for the post and distributed it to the board by email.

Patch obtained a copy of the email through an Open Public Records Act request. The email, dated June 10 and addressed to Palmiere, with copies to Nardini and Polozzo along with Gialanella and business administrator William Doering, included copies of the October ads placed in the Asbury Park Press and Star-Ledger for the initial search, and nothing about a new ad.

Palmiere, who was texting throughout the meeting despite a request from Nardini that all board members put their phones on airplane mode for the duration of the meeting, also blamed the board for not getting a new superintendent hired before she and Contessa joined the board in January.

The search process was slowed by cases of the coronavirus among board members that led to interview postponements because of quarantines.

Contessa, Palmiere and Rodrick have repeatedly denied claims that he is influencing votes, with Rodrick insisting his only interaction with them was providing them with lawn signs during their campaign for school board.

Rodrick also provided lawn signs for Kidney during the 2019 school board campaign. But in an audio recording of a telephone message Rodrick left in 2019 for another person, Rodrick identifies himself and states he ran Kidney's campaign, and says he wants to ask the person a couple of questions. The recording was provided to Patch by the recipient of the phone message.

Eagan said Rodrick called her after the search was narrowed to Altobello and Ricotta — neither of whose names were mentioned during the April 27 school board meeting when she made the accusation. She said he knew their names, even though their names had not been made public by the search committee, and told her that it would be in that board member’s best interest to vote for Altobello.

Rodrick deflected the accusation by saying he had spoken with Eagan on multiple occasions.

The superintendent search and interviews were being conducted in executive sessions that Eagan was not part of because she has to abstain; she has four family members who work for the district. Information provided to the board in executive sessions is not to be shared publicly until there is no longer a need to keep it private, according to school board ethics rules.

Palmiere countered Eagan’s accusations in April by sending an email to the Toms River Township Councilwith text messages showing Eagan’s support for Toms River South principal Michael Citta — text messages that were sent after the search was narrowed to Altobello and Ricotta. It set off a fiery argument between Rodrick and Council President Kevin Geoghegan at the April 27 meeting.

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