School board fires 2 employees, reasons for termination unknown
The ax has
HAMILTON » dropped.
Two Hamilton Township School District employees have been fired for undisclosed reasons.
Educational assistant Jessica Linder has been terminated effective Jan. 23, and special education teacher Robin Goldberg will be removed effective March 18, according to information obtained by The Trentonian via an Open Public Records Act request.
Linder’s employment began Nov. 1, 2019, as a personal care assistant at Langtree Elementary. Her employment contract stipulated a prorated annual salary of approximately $24,000. The contract was supposed to run through June 30, but district Superintendent
Scott Rocco recommended her sudden ouster, and the Board of Education approved the personnel decision last month.
Goldberg’s employment began Sept. 1, 2018, as a special education math teacher at the Hamilton Educational Program. Armed with a master’s degree in special education from The College of New Jersey, it is unclear why Goldberg is being terminated mid-contract as opposed to being non-renewed.
Goldberg, who previously worked as a substitute teacher in the Freehold Borough School District, was scheduled to earn approximately $53,000 in the 201920 schoolyear that formally ends June 30. This employment contract, however, will end months early thanks to the Hamilton school board removing Goldberg effective March 18 upon the superintendent’s recommendation last month.
Non-tenured school employees like Linder and Goldberg have limited employee protections compared with tenured staff members. Also, a board of education may terminate non-tenured staff members without providing a written statement of reasons and without providing a socalled Donaldson hearing.
Less severe than termination, a superintendent of schools may recommend the non-renewal of an employee’s annual contract, but superintendents may move for early termination if the employee had engaged in conduct unbecoming a public employee, neglect of duty, insubordination, or any other cause for dismissal.
Under state law, a school district employee whose employment contract is not renewed shall have the right to a written statement of reasons for nonrenewal and the right to an informal appearance before the school board. The purpose of the appearance shall be to permit the staff member to convince the members of the board to offer reemployment.
“A board of education shall appoint, transfer or remove a certificated or noncertificated officer or employee only upon the recommendation of the chief school administrator and by a recorded roll call majority vote of the full membership of the board,” state law says. “The board shall not withhold its approval for arbitrary and capricious reasons.”
At Rocco’s recommendation, the Hamilton Township Board of Education voted Jan. 22 to remove Linder and Goldberg from employment. Termination decisions like these sometimes come at a cost.
“A board may be responsible to pay contractual damages to the employee for terminating a new contract — usually 30 or 60 days’ advance notice of termination is required by contract,” the New Jersey School Boards Association says in a 2017 information document published online.