The Verona Board of Education has been found to have wrongfully denied Judith A. DiNapoli a secretarial position in the district after her job as assistant business administrator was eliminated on March 1, 2011.
An administrative law judge issued a summary judgement in favor of DiNapoli on April 23, and the Commissioner of Eduction affirmed that decision June 7, and ordered that if any non-tenured secretarial positions come open in Verona, DiNapoli must be offered those positions. The full text of the decision is here.
John Quattrocchi, the BOE president, said that board does not comment on personnel matters and that Verona does not now have any untenured secretarial staff. The BOE eliminated a non-tenured administrative assistant position at its May 22 meeting.
DiNapoli had worked for Verona schools for 35 years, largely in secretarial positions. On July 1, 2009, under former Verona Superintendent Charles A. Sampson, she accepted a promotion to the position of assistant business administrator, a job that Sampson later eliminated.
First of all, why did they lay off Mrs. Torchia,the secretary at Brookdale and eliminate the secretary jobs? Economic needs??!! The timeline of events in this story raises a red flag for me. My trust and confidence in this BOE has declined over the past few months. I find their actions extremely questionable with regards to this womans employment – especially since she previously filed a complaint that she was retaliated and discriminated against by this BOE and Mr. Sampson. Just my opinion.