EDISON – A state hearing to investigate the abrupt dismissal of Superintendent Carol Toth from the employ of the Edison school district has been delayed until at least July.
According to Randye Bloom, an official with the Office of Administrative Law (OAL), the venue in which the hearing had been scheduled to take place, the scheduled June 6 event will be moved to an as-yet-unknown date.
Bloom said that one of the attorneys who was set to argue the case was soon to go on maternity leave, thus prompting the change in date. She also said, though, that there is a settlement conference tentatively scheduled for July 16 on the matter, though, unlike the original June 6 hearing, these are held privately.
The hearing came in the wake of a lawsuit filed by an Edison parent, Maxine Lee, over the district’s decision to place Toth on paid administrative leave around last November, for which Toth would continue to draw her $173,000 yearly salary until the end of her contract in 2010, unless she finds other employment.
Board of Education representatives were unable to discuss the circumstances behind Toth’s dismissal, due to ethical and legal constraints against talking about personnel issues. Similar obstacles prevent them from talking about the recent decision to not renew the contract of Special Services Director Suzanne Hiatt, who intends to contest the matter with the board.
– Chris Gaetano