Ex-Employer Wants $65,000 From New Milford Schools Chief

By ASHLEY KINDERGAN, STAFF WRITER

The Stanhope school district will demand that former Schools Superintendent Nicholas P. Brown, who currently holds the same title in New Milford, pay back more than $65,000 in sick and vacation time received when he resigned from the Sussex County district.

The district told an audience of some 50 residents about its plan Wednesday night during a review of how it is going to correct financial missteps documented in a June report from the Office of Fiscal Accountability and Compliance within the state Board of Education.

The audit suggested that the district seek repayment, saying that Brown’s payout was not approved by the Department of Education commissioner and was based on a contract that had never been approved by the district’s Board of Education.

“The Stanhope school district will make a demand for repayment and as necessary pursue litigation including a claim for attorney’s fees from the former superintendent,” said the new schools superintendent, Art DiBenedetto.

The report documented several instances of financial mismanagement and possible fraud in the Stanhope school district between 2005 and 2007, when Brown was school superintendent.

Brown has refused to comment on the report in the past.

His first contract, valid for three years, was approved by the board when he was hired in 2005. Another four-year contract dated May 2007 was never approved, but was signed by board President Linda Parisi, the report said.

Board members said they did not remember discussing or voting on the new contract. Therefore, the provisions for sick and vacation pay in it are not valid, and the board can seek restitution, said its attorney, Stephen Edelstein.

The Stanhope board decided not to appeal the findings in the report, except to ask to be excused from paying back more than $1.04 million to the state and to taxpayers for mismanaged funds. The district’s total budget is $5.8 million.

The audit alleges that the district overspent by $144,000 on capital projects approved by voter referendum without reporting the over-expenditures to the county superintendent, as is required by state law.

The Board of Education leased a Linden Avenue public school building to a private school after voters approved issuing bonds to renovate the building. State grants also funded the project. Neither voters nor the state approved the new use for the building, the report said.

The report originally recommended that the district should refund the nearly $900,000 spent on the building to voters and to the state.

The report also said the change in use could constitute fraud.

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E-mail: kindergan@northjersey.com

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