The Asbury Park Press reports today that the DOE’s case against the Keansburg superintendent, who is due to receive $184,586 in unused sick days and vacation time and another $556,290 in severance pay, has been sent to State Superior Court in Monmouth.

The DOE’s case is against both former superintendent Barbara A. Trzeszkowski and the Keansburg Board of Education, and seeks to revoke the severance pay.

The Attorney General’s brief explains:

For a school board to so outrageously enrich a former superintendent through this type of “golden parachute’ at the expense of the children of Keansburg and the state’s taxpayers is not only contrary to public policy and unconscionable, it violates the fiduciary duty that the board owes the public

Fair enough. Those damn school board members should know better — after all, they are entrusted with multi-million dollar budgets, oversight of educational curricula, hiring of hundreds of teachers and administrators. Pretty high-level stuff. Now, what are the requirements for being a school board member in New Jersey?

A Board Member must:

• Be able to read and write
• Hold citizenship and one year’s residence in the school district
• Have no interest in any contract with, or claim against, the board
• Not hold office as mayor or member of the governing body of the same district.
• Be registered to vote in the district and not be disqualified as a voter under N.J.S.A. 19:4-1.

Ah, New Jersey, in all its glory and absurdity. We love our populism, our faith in the common man, our idealistic framework for representational government. Who better to ensure that a community’s values are vividly reflected in a school district than a group of resident volunteers?

It’s an ethos at the very heart of our current educational conundrum.