Superintendent's Contract Up For Public Discussion At Wayne School Board Meeting

WAYNE, NJ — A public hearing on Wayne Schools Superintendent Mark Toback's employment contract will coincide with Board of Education action on the contract, the board said.

Dr. Toback's contract runs until June 30, 2024 according to past board documents, and the board intends to alter or amend it at its next meeting. The public hearing and meeting are Thursday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Public comment period on Toback's contract was scheduled at meetings on Dec. 1 and on Dec 15 but those meetings were both canceled; one for lack of quorum and one for the weather.

Now that the board has reorganized with its two new members (and one returning member), the item will appear again March 16. Toback's first year as superintendent was 2014-15.

Members of the public are invited to submit or make public comments regarding the proposed changes; any details of the contract and the other items on the agenda were not posted to the board's website as of Friday at 4 p.m.

Toback said the board opted to push any decision on his contract to the new year, not wanting to make a major decision when it was considered a "lame duck" and three members were set to leave.

"At that point, it was very close to a new board being seated in early January, so the BOE opted to push the process into the new year and with the new board," he told Patch.

Barbara Rigoglioso and Ryan Battershill, who both ran on the "Children First" ticket, got the most votes last November in the board of education election.

Matthew Giordano, who served on the board previously, also joined the remaining members: President Donald Pavlak Jr., Vice President Haralampos Prassakos, Sean Duffy, Michael Fattal, Catherine Kazan, and Iveta Wentink.

The Board of Education posted a notice about the upcoming meeting on March 6. State law requires public notice 10 days before a school board renegotiates, extends, amends, or alters the employment of a school superintendent, assistant superintendent, or school business administrator.