Lisa Freschi, president of the Verona Board of Education, announced at Tuesday’s meeting that the BOE will be voting on a new contract for Superintendent Dr. Rui Dionisio at its next meeting on February 11. The BOE had been scheduled to vote on the contract at its December 10 meeting, but Dr. Dionisio withdrew it from consideration. The contract that will be up for a vote in February is the same as the contract that was to have been voted on in December.
Dr. Dionisio’s current contract, which dates from 2017, states the BOE would renegotiate it if New Jersey ended the cap on superintendent salaries and the cap was ended last July. Freschi said that when Board met in executive session on September 10, 2019, its members had unanimously decided to negotiate a new five-year contract with Dr. Dionisio. In addition to Freschi, the BOE at that time included Glenn Elliott, Jim Day, Tim Alworth and Pam Priscoe. Elliott, who had been part of the negotiation team, was defeated in last November’s election by Sara Drappi.
Freschi noted that Dr. Dionisio has been a rare point of stability in the superintendent’s job: Prior to his hiring in August 2014, Verona had had six superintendents in 16 years. Dionisio has rolled out a series of improvements to Verona’s curriculum and schools, including the so-called house model at H.B. Whitehorne Middle School that put the school under the direction of two, co-equal principals, as well as a variety of new communication tools to reach both parents and the community at large. He has also engaged the community in school improvement with a variety of advisory and action committees, including a committee on mental health and suicide prevention whose work led to the passage of a $550,000 ballot question to fund mental health services in all six Verona schools. Freschi noted that Dr. Dionisio has been invited to speak to the national conference of AASA, the School Superintendents Association, next month on the importance of mental health education in public schools.
Dr. Dionisio has also improved buildings and grounds at Verona’s six schools. He oversaw the implementation of the 2014 referendum that had been passed under the previous superintendent, the renovation of the fitness center at Verona High School, and also developed the $27 million referendum that voters overwhelmingly approved last November. Dionisio said at Tuesday’s meeting that he has been meeting with the district’s architects on refining that plan and that bid documents will be going out in February.
Freschi said that Dr. Dionisio’s work on the school budgets has boosted Verona’s reserve accounts over the past two years from $100,000 to more than $700,000, and in 2019 he was able to restore 95% of the items cut from the 2018 school budget. Dr. Dionisio has led several cost-saving initiatives for the district. He has been serving as the acting facilities director, which has saved the district $220,000 so far, Freschi said. Working with Frank Mauriello, Verona’s director of special education, he implemented programs at the middle school and high school that have kept more special ed students in-district, saving Verona from costly out-of-district placements. For the current school year, Freschi said, Dr. Dionisio has negotiated a reduction in the cost of the school physician that will produce an $18,000 savings.
Under his current contract, Dr. Dionisio’s salary was $205,000, including merit bonuses. The contract to be voted on in February, which eliminates merit bonuses, specifies a base salary of $219,540, plus a $3,000 stipend because he has his doctorate and a second $5,000 stipend to serve as the district’s director of facilities. (If Verona were to hire full-time director of facilities, the cost would be at least $140,000.) The first year total for the new contract would be $227,540. The base pay increases to $223,931 in 2020-2021, to $228,409 in 2021-2022, to $232,978 in 2022-2023 and $237,637 for the final year of the contract, 2023-2024.
During Dr. Dionisio’s tenure, Freschi noted that the quality of education in Verona has been recognized at the county, state and national level. “Verona has become a leader in public education,” Freschi told the BOE, “one which other districts look to and model. We want to maintain this standard.”
“Our staff, faculty, and administrators, deserve the stability and standard of excellence that they’ve experienced,” she added.
You can listen to Freschi’s remarks in the meeting video below, which also includes a presentation to the marching band, cheer squad and football team, as well as a presentation on a strategy to invest the money to be borrowed for the referendum during construction to save taxpayers money. The February 11 meeting will be held in the Learning Commons at Verona High School, at 7 p.m. and it is open to the public.
