Brookfield to pay $175,000 to Bivona as part of settlement
BROOKFIELD — Fired Superintendent Anthony Bivona will get $175,000 as part of a settlement agreement with the district.
The school board’s insurance company will cover $50,000, but the district must pay for the rest, said Colette Sturm, the Board of Education chair.
She told board members recently that this money will be paid out of funds left over from last year’s budget. The board expects about $200,000 remains.
This means the settlement will not be a hit to the school’s operating budget or the town’s general fund.
The Board of Finance has approved this arrangement, Sturm said.
“I’m grateful for the collaborative effort of the Board of Finance for allowing for this solution and I know we’re all grateful to have this behind us,” she said.
Bivona’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The board and Bivona signed a confidential agreement shortly before the case was set to go to jury trial last month.
Bivona sued in 2015, a year after the district fired him for failing to properly oversee the district’s finances. During Bivona’s sevenyear tenure with the district, two staff members were accused of stealing thousands of dollars from the schools.
The district realized Art Colley, the former school finance director, had taken money from the student activity fund for his personal use, after a 2014 audit found the district had overspent its budget by more than $1 million over two years.
Bivona had maintained he did not know what Colley had done and had striven to responsibly oversee the budget.
Colley eventually pleaded guilty to larceny charges and was sentenced to three years of probation. He had to give $79,000 back to the student activity fund.
His secretary, Elizabeth Kerekes, was also charged in the scheme and entered into an accelerated rehabilitation program that required her to repay the district more than $26,000.