Toms River Mayor Dan Rodrick's Lawsuit Against Middletown BOE Moves Forward, Next Court Date Is March 10

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — On Jan. 30, a Monmouth County Superior Court judge denied a request from the Middletown school district to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the district and the Middletown school board by Toms River Mayor Dan Rodrick. The next court date for this lawsuit is March 10.

Patch reported on the lawsuit when Rodrick first filed it in November:

Rodrick says the Middletown school board engaged in a political attack against him because he eliminated patronage jobs and waste once he was elected to mayor in Toms River.

Rodrick has worked as a teacher in the Middletown school district since 2002; he was most recently a science teacher at Thorne Middle School.

He won the Toms River mayoral election in 2023, and took office in January 2024.

In December 2024, the Middletown school board voted to bring tenure charges against him, on the recommendation of superintendent Jessica Alfone. The Middletown school district put him on an indefinite paid leave that same month.

Here is the Middletown school district's tenure complaint against Rodrick: https://www.scribd.com/documen...

The charges, signed by Alfone, accuse Rodrick of conducting business for Toms River while he was in the classroom at Thorne Middle School and was supposed to be teaching. Students reported Rodrick was on his cellphone during class time.

The district says he also failed to attend faculty meetings and the district said it received complaints from parents about him.

The Middletown school district's investigation was prompted by numerous complaints from students in Rodrick's Hands-on Construction Lab, a course for sixth graders. Five students requested transfers out of the class, according to the charges.

But Rodrick says the tenure charges were payback because he immediately fired Art Gallagher, who was a confidential aide to former Toms River Mayor Maurice "Mo" Hill. Gallagher was a paid campaign consultant who worked on Frank Capone and Jacqueline Tobacco's BOE campaigns when they ran for re-election to Middletown school board.

Gallagher was also sued in the lawsuit.

"After being sworn in as Mayor of Toms River in January 2024, Dan Rodrick quickly took steps to end political patronage and terminate wasteful contracts, including immediately firing defendant Art Gallagher, a campaign consultant for Middletown school officials Frank Capone and Jaqueline Tobacco," read Rodrick's lawsuit. "Defendants Art Gallagher and his political clients and partisans, Frank Capone and Jaqueline Tobacco, as well as others, retaliated against Dan Rodrick by influencing the Middletown Township Board of Education to pursue bogus disciplinary and tenure charges against him seeking his termination."

Rodrick said he had been consistently rated "highly effective" as a teacher for years before the tenure charges were brought against him.

In the past, Capone and Tobacco have not commented when Patch asked them about being sued by Rodrick.

Rodrick's tenure charges have not been resolved. However, he has since been hired as an assistant principal in the Irvington school district. Middletown schools notified him they saw that as his resignation from the district.

Read Rodrick's lawsuit here: Toms River Mayor Sues Middletown Schools, 2 Others Over Tenure Charges (November 2025)

Tenure Charges Filed Against Toms River Mayor By Middletown Schools (Feb. 2025)