Impact of Unused Sick Time Unclear at Toms River Regional Schools

The push to reform could also impact the budget of the Toms River Regional Schools District, but how much the district budgets in unused sick time payouts is unclear.

The amount of unused sick time accumulated by employees of the district was not available as of this time.

Tammi Millar, the district’s communications coordinator, said she did not know how the district handles budgeting for unused leave, if at all. She declined to answer any further questions on the topic.

"We're really not going to comment on this until after the governor makes his decision,” Millar said.

The situation at the Toms River Regional School District is less clear than at the township, where Township Administrator Paul Shives said municipal employees' total unused sick time equals . Multiple messages for Superintendent of Schools Frank Roselli and Business Administrator William J. Doering for this story went unreturned.

Although the current school figures are not available, years ago, the district caught the state’s attention when it came to payouts for unused leave.

In 1998, a study by the New Jersey Commission of Investigation suggested that at the time, the Toms River School District had practices that led to excessive payouts to retiring employees, including pre-retirement salary padding. Point Pleasant and Vineland received similar criticism. Toms River was one of six school districts studied.

According to the report, in 1991 the district created a “Sick Leave Reduction Incentive Plan” to encourage the retirement of long time employees. Under the plan, up to 150 unused days would be paid at double the rate of pay.

“Normally, retirement incentive programs remain in effect for a period no longer than a year or two,” the Commission wrote. “In Toms River, however, the offer of double pay for cashing in accumulated sick leave continued for six years, through June 30, 1997.”

Between 1991 and 1997, the district ended up paying out a total of $8.5 million to retiring employees.

In March 2006, the district again appeared in a report by the Commission when a new report noted that between 1999 and 2004, seven school administrators cashed out for a total of $850,000 in unused leave. It was the second highest total among the seven districts specifically cited in the report.

The most recent such report by the Commission, issued in December 2009, however, makes no mention of the Toms River school district.

Right now, the district is fighting at least one payout for unused leave: A payout former Schools Superintendent Michael Ritacco claims is owed to him. In a lawsuit filed in Ritacco says he is owed $15,000 in unused sick time, as well as nearly $50,000 for unused vacation time between 2008 and 2010.

Ritacco resigned last year after the FBI arrested him on charges of bribery. He has been indicted on 27 counts and goes to trial on April 3.