Secaucus Principal Paid Salary For Entire Year, Will Then Resign

SECAUCUS, NJ — Even though he hasn't worked at all during the 2018/2019 school year, embattled former Secaucus High School principal Dr. Robert Berckes will be paid his entire $124,000 salary through the end of June.

This is according to a separation agreement reached in December, made between him and the Secaucus school board. A copy of that agreement was obtained by Patch in an Open Public Records Act request.

This is fall-out from an incident that originated last April, when a student at Secaucus high school was found with a small amount of marijuana and a pocket knife. The superintendent of the Secaucus school district, Jennifer Montesano, took issue with the way Berckes, assistant principal Jefferey Case and the school resource officer handled the matter. They flushed the drugs down the toilet and the student was given a brief suspension.

Montesano suspended Berckes and Case that day. She even asked the Hudson County Prosecutor's office to investigate the incident, which said it "found no criminality."

Case has since quit the district. Montesano then recommended to the Secaucus Board of Education that Berckes be brought up on a violation of tenure before the state Department of Education. Tenure charges are the most serious of charges that can be brought against a New Jersey public school employee, and they can result in one losing their job.

Berckes, in response, said he was going to sue the Secaucus school district for $5 million for wrongful termination and for smearing his name. He has long maintained that Montesano's firing of him was political and because she disliked him.

Berckes has not worked in the district since last April, when Montesano suspended him.

Dr. Berckes and the Board have now decided to reach a mutual agreement where he would be paid his entire salary of $124,861 for the entire 2018/2019 school year, and he would then resign from the district on June 30, 2019. He was also paid his full salary all last spring, starting from when he stopped working in April.

Berckes will not be paid for his 177.5 days of unused time off — accrued sick leave (129 days), vacation time (22 days), personal days (5) and banked personal days (22). Those 177 days count as being used during his extended leave of absence.

After the BOE suspended him, Berckes filed his own ethics complaint with the state, alleging that a parent overheard the president of the Board of Ed., Jack McStowe, telling a teacher: "We got Dr. Bob. I didn't like him anyway."

McStowe told Patch he never said that.

"The allegations are false and have no merit to them," McStowe told Patch. "Anybody can say what they want."

Montesano's battle against Berckes cost the district roughly $80,000 in attorney’s fees, according to NJ.com, all paid for by the Secaucus school district (taxpayers).

Berckes is a longtime Secaucus resident who also runs a chiropractic office on Flanagan Way.

"No comment, no comment," said Mayor Mike Gonnelli when asked by Patch Friday. "It's just a shame this all couldn't have been settled a long time ago."