Special-Ed Director is Dismissed

By BRIAN ABERBACK, STAFF WRITER

TEANECK The Board of Education dismissed the school district’s director of special services, bucking the recommendation of the superintendent.

The board voted 4-4 with one abstention on the reappointment of Anthony Calandrillo for the 2007-08 school year. An affirmative vote is needed for reappointment.

Schools Superintendent John Czeterko supported Calandrillo’s appointment. He declined to comment on Friday, saying he could not discuss personnel issues. School board President Henry Pruitt also declined to comment.

Calandrillo would say only that he felt the motives behind the vote this week were “questionable.”

Calandrillo is paid $125,000 to oversee programming for the district’s 700 special-needs students and would have been up for tenure in March. Had the board rehired him, it would have had to rule on his tenure by the end of this year.

Pruitt, Ardie Walser, Margot Fisher and Gervonn Rice voted against Calandrillo. Trustees Judith McKay, Margaret Angeli, Jack Aaker and Dr. David Diuguid supported him. Sebastian Rodriguez abstained.

Aaker characterized the decision as a “rush to judgment” that would discourage administrators from coming to the district.

Fisher said she made an informed decision. “There’s been a lot of concern about this issue in the community,” Fisher said.

Though school officials would not discuss the reasons behind Calandrillo’s firing, some parents have questioned his management style. A new program known as the Bryant Initiative came under especially heavy criticism.

The program groups pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students at the Bryant School by ability rather than age and mainstreams some special-needs students.

E-mail: aberback@northjersey.com

(c) 2007 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.