Murphy names new chief of SDA after CEO steps down
TRENTON >> Construction of the new Trenton Central High School is now being overseen by a temporary fill-in.
Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday named Manuel “Manny” Da Silva as acting CEO of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority, giving SDA a highly qualified leader following months of turmoil.
Former SDA boss Lizette Delgado-Polanco abruptly resigned earlier this week amid allegations she promoted a culture of nepotism and cronyism at the authority. At least 48 new employees were hired at the SDA in 2018. Twelve of these individuals were hired on or before Delgado-Polanco assumed the CEO chair Aug. 6, 2018, and five additional employees were hired in 2019, public documents show.
Da Silva is a professional engineer and veteran SDA employee with extensive experience in capital project management. His employment with SDA began in 2010 as a senior program officer and he was named vice president of construction operations in 2017 before being named acting CEO.
“The SDA funds and manages the construction, modernization, and renovation of school facilities all across New Jersey,” Murphy said Friday in a press statement. “I’m proud to support this critical work by recommending Manuel Da Silva as acting SDA CEO, helping New Jersey students and educators benefit from world-class educational facilities.”
Da Silva, a Monmouth County resident, is ready to lead following Delgado-Polanco’s sudden departure.
“I am thrilled to be recommended by Governor Murphy to serve the SDA as acting CEO,” he said Friday in a press statement. “Providing the best possible educational facilities to the students of New Jersey is a responsibility I take very seriously. I look forward to taking on this challenge and leveraging my experience in construction and organizational management to support our children.”
Hiring controversy
Delgado-Polanco passionately defended herself when she spoke at the March 6 SDA Board of Directors meeting.
“I hired a team that I knew had a proven experience
working with communities,” she said in public comments, noting her team had “a proven track record at doing what they were hired to do.”
“In closing, I am confident of the decisions I’ve made in my first six months as SDA CEO,” she added, according to the March 6 meeting minutes, “because I feel they were the right decisions to benefit the most vulnerable children in our state.”
Workforce decisions at SDA concerning reorganization, terminations, promotions and salary increases “were made with the assistance and the input” of highlevel SDA officials, including Manny Da Silva and other vice presidents, Delgado-Polanco said last month.
Da Silva at the March 6 board meeting took responsibility for his actions and involvement, stating he knew new SDA hires were brought in but that he did not know that he participated in the direct hiring of some of the folks, meeting minutes show.
At the subsequent April 3 board meeting, several members of the public came out to express support for DelgadoPolanco.
Mark Broach, pastor of the Trenton Deliverance Center, said Delgado-Polanco attended a recent pastors meeting and said “the passion and energy that she showed gives a reason to hope again — not only for the pastors but also for the people that they serve.”
Broach said the old Trenton Central High School “had issues of sewage running into the cafeteria and the kids that attended the high school were so used to it that it didn’t affect them whatsoever.”
He also said there are schools “that remain in as bad or worse condition than TCHS” but that “there is hope with the leadership of Ms. Lizette and the crew that’s around her,” meeting minutes show.
Former Trenton councilman Manny Segura also spoke at the April 3 meeting in support of DelgadoPolanco. He has known Delgado-Polanco for 25 years, making him well-familiar with her contributions in politics and community service.
Segura ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Trenton in 2010, losing to Tony Mack. Delgado-Polanco supported Segura’s failed mayoral campaign, according to the former at-large councilman, who applauded Delgado-Polanco “for visiting the schools, which no one else ever did, in order to see what is happening.”
SDA finances and manages school construction projects like the new TCHS, a $155.4 million undertaking expected to open in September. Delgado-Polanco visited the TCHS construction grounds last summer after Murphy appointed her as SDA’s CEO.
Former SDA employee Sameer Shah, who worked at the authority for 16 years before getting terminated in 2018, addressed Delgado-Polanco at the April 3 board meeting and told her “it’s time to step up and take action” if she wanted to survive as the authority’s CEO. In the end, the former CEO fell on her own sword, choosing to step down in the throes of crisis. “This is a resignation that needed to happen,” Democratic State Senate President Steve Sweeney said Wednesday in a press statement. “The problems at the SDA were serious and the accounts of operational failures seemed to mount each week. There is no doubt that the SDA had become severely harmed in its ability to perform its work and any confidence in its capacity to recover under current management was all but lost.” With Acting CEO Manny Da Silva at the helm, it appears he has the preliminary support of SDA’s Board of Directors while Gov. Murphy searches for a more permanent leader. “I am confident Manny has the construction experience and the right temperament to guide the SDA through this period of transition,” SDA Board Chairman Robert Nixon said Friday in a press statement. “Manny is well regarded by the board and I look forward to their approval of him becoming interim CEO.” SDA’s leadership change is not expected to delay the anticipated opening of the new TCHS in September. “The TCHS project has advanced to the point where we believe that the SDA should be able to deliver the building to the Trenton District in June as scheduled,” Dr. Fred McDowell, superintendent of Trenton Public Schools, said Thursday in a text message to The Trentonian. “Will keep you posted if new information comes in once we meet with the new CEO.”