Five months after being placed on administrative leave, short-lived Wantagh Superintendent Phil D'Angelo is no longer employed by the school district.
Michael Cucci, president of the Wantagh school board, announced Thursday night that the district has accepted D'Angelo's resignation. D'Angelo was placed on leave by the Wantagh Board of Education on Sept. 14, less than three months into his role as superintendent. He landed a new superintendent job with the Millbrook Central School District in Westchester County that began on Jan. 1.
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"Mr. D'Angelo is no longer an employee of the Wantagh School District," said Cucci in a statement during Thursday night's board of education meeting. "The board will now engage the process of discussing the appointment of a new superintendent of schools."
Cucci said for legal reasons he could not disclose whether D'Angelo was still receiving compensation from the district. At the Dec. 13 school board meeting, Cucci said the district was continuing to pay D'Angelo's salary on top of Acting Superintendent Maureen Goldberg. At last month's board meeting, Cucci assured the community that both parties were working with their attorneys to sever the contractual relationship.
People who are not, themselves, professional educational leaders should not act as professional educational leaders, but instead should submit themselves with alacrity to following good, solid, professional educational leadership. Otherwise, let the music play on!
Typically resignation means separation from payroll - So either i didnt drink enough coffee this AM and read this wrong or this is a rather mystifying statement by the board that leaves wantagh with a resigned Sup but still many unanswered questions primarily why they were in the situation to begin with and more importantly are they STILL paying salaries to two people, one doing the job the other no longer employed. IF this person was" wrongly" put on leave due to differences of opinon etc., then the Wantagh board should admit to the taxpayers "we goofed" and resign enmass. This not only depletes monies and diverts funds away from the students it harms and undermines the reputation, effectiveness and integrity of the district itself. Somewhere along the line the question should be raised has the board violated their fiduciary responsibiltly to the community by their actions in this whole debacle.
Wondering if Chris or anyone else can elaborate on how these budget line items actually work?
'Building Projects' for $120K 'New K-12 Texts' for $122K 'NON-AIDABLE COMP EQUIP DISTWIDE' for $80K 'Workers Comp' for $75K and then some major budget deductions to Health Insurance and 'Interest on TANS' totaling over $410K in negative adjustments...which seem to help 'balance' the budget but whats it all really mean?
In my opinion, had the matter languished in legal process, the cost to the district would have exceeded the cost of the eventual settlement several times over. While no one should be happy about this episode, it is now concluded, and in the best manner for all concerned. That means it is over, and the parties have signed-off on it.
"While no one should be happy about this episode, it is now concluded, and in the best manner for all concerned. That means it is over, and the parties have signed-off on it" Chris until the taxpayers of Wantagh get a clear explaination of WHAT exactly transpired and why they are paying. You cant sweep 10% of over a million dollars plus legal fees plus salary, benefits and pension for 3 months, recruiting fee;s etc under a rug and not notice its there. Seems like there are LOTS of lumps being swept under Wantaghs rug right now..How long before you all begin to question WHY?
Two. D'Angelo was placed on leave with pay by the District, who then hired an investigator. More than a year elapsed, and the investigator filed his report with the District. Three. In the latter phase of the District's investigation, Mr. D'Angelo was hired by another school district as their Superintendent, and for a period D'Angelo was collecting salary from two districts, while Wantagh was paying two superintendent salaries. Wantagh was obliged to pay D'Angelo as a matter of due process and the presumption of his innocence of whatever the underling issue or allegation may have been which triggered his being suspended and investigated. Four. Two month's of negotiations ensued between the District and D'Angelo which resulted in a structured settlement being reached between the parties. This settlement resulted in D'Angelo being remunerated for submitting his resignation, ending his employment relationship with Wantagh, and defining and reducing Wantagh's potential liability to D'Angelo. This settlement came on the heels of a lengthy professional investigation, and followed D'Angelo's being hired in another district for the same job. We will never know the details of the original issue. Let's move on.
While moving on, it is probably best to imagine good things happening in our school district.
1- why did Wantagh need to hire a PI to investigate D'Angelo 2- how much was this PI paid and how and who hired him/she 3- why was this PI on the clock for one year 4- what was the conflict/crime etc what caused this contract with DAngelo to be voided? As Wantagh tax payers, we are entitled to know what happened... As for Wantagh being obligated to pay DAneglo during due process this should have stopped immediately once he started getting paid by another school district. Accepting this matter as concluded is rediculous without knowing full weel what went wrong as for it not to happen again.
Your question presumes that she had applied for the position; it is not clear that she ever did.
First, I would take serious exception with the characterization of the lineup of administrators who have passed through our district as being "losers", or, as "one loser after another". I don't have to recite the litany of names of the Superintendents, or the Assistant Superintendent, Middle School Principal, and Athletic Director who have come and gone in very recent and rapid succession, or, the saga of the coaches. In the case of recruiting Phil D'Angelo, the district engaged the preeminent Superintendent Search firm in the state, and the position was marketed and candidates sourced totally professionally. The Board of Education, or most of them, had gone up to Mr. D'Angelo's home district and did their own due diligenence prior to his starting at Wantagh. I could not think of anything that was not done which should have or could have been done but may have been overlooked or omitted in the hiring of Mr. D'Angelo. His contract was posted for all to see, and it was typical of Superintendent contracts, especially those given to any person hired away from his home district. D'Anglo was fully into his job, and had launched a "Declining Enrollment & Full-day Kindergarten Committee" with broad community participation by the time he left. To me, his departure was stunning.