Corzine moves to trim Public school chief's $740K retirement deal

The Star-Ledger reports:

Gov. Jon Corzine has directed his Education Commissioner to seek a court order to sharply reduce the $740,000 in severance pay the outgoing superintendent of Keansburg schools is slated to collect.

"This extraordinary payment is an outrageous abuse of the state's publicly funded school system at a time when schools are struggling to make the best use of every dime they have," Corzine said in a statement announcing the legal action.

He has directed Education Commissioner Lucille Davy to seek an injunction in Superior Court blocking payments of $556,000, arguing they are counter to good public policy.

Corzine's action is an attempt to derail a severance package that was awarded to Keansburg superintendent Barbara Trzeszkowski in a 2003 contract. Trzeszkowski, 60, was scheduled to retire June 30 and begin collecting the severance benefits in July.

The package includes $184,586 for 235.5 unused sick days and 20 vacation days, and another $556,290 in severance pay calculated by multiplying her monthly salary by the number of years she has worked in Keansburg. The severance amount is what Corzine wants to block.

The payments come on top of the standard retirement pay -- estimated at about $115,000 a year -- Trzeszkowski has earned over a 38-year career in the school district.

Trzeszkowski, who is on vacation this week, did not return messages left with her assistant on Tuesday and today.

Keansburg, a Monmouth County school district of about 1,800 students, is one of 31 so-called Abbott school districts that is entitled to millions of dollars in special state aid under the long-running Abbott v. Burke school funding lawsuit. This year the district is scheduled to receive $28.9 million in state aid, about 81 percent of its total school budget.

Trzeszkowski's severance package is scheduled to be paid out over five years. Its value exceeds the $566,000 in additional school aid that Keansburg is scheduled to collect this year under Corzine's enhanced school aid formula.

The retirement deal sparked outrage among lawmakers in Trenton this week. Senate Majority Leader Stephen M. Sweeney (D-Gloucester) today proposed a resolution to call on the Department of Education to investigate it and to report back on whether reforms adopted by the Legislature last year will ensure such payouts are never be approved again.

"This taxpayer rip-off reminds those of us in the Legislature that what we don't know can and will hurt taxpayers," Senator Sweeney said. "Someone has to step forward and explain who recommended to that inept school board that such a contract was acceptable."

They sure are special.