The Manasquan School Board on Tuesday unanimously confirmed Robert J. Mahon as acting superintendent of schools, hours after district staff were notified that former schools chief Geraldine Margin was going on administrative leave effective immediately.
Mahon, the current mayor of Avon-By-The-Sea who also served as interm superintendent of the Spring Lake Heights school district through June, will earn a state-mandated fee of $605.77 per day as acting schools chief, officials said.
The board called an emergency Tuesday meeting to push through the appointment in time for the new school year. Teachers began work earlier that day before students returned to classes today.
Mahon is a former superintendent of Ocean Township schools and has served as interm superintendent in several other districts, including Belmar and Brielle.
Mahon said on Tuesday that he was looking forward to hitting the ground running this school year.
"Being here at the beginning of the school year, I had an opportunity to talk ot the staff. I certainly have to familiarize myself very quickly with some of the issues, but I'm going to depend on the staff to bring me up to speed as quickly as possible, and then we'll move ahead," Mahon said after the meeting.
And due to his previous experience in other districts, Mahon said that filling in last-minute like this was nothing unusual for him.
"I said to the staff today, we're not in a holding pattern until the school board does something, this is a regular school year. I've started a lot of school years in a similar position, so what I intend to do, as I said, is address the issues that the district needs to address and to move forward with the district, and hopefully gain the support of the staff in making some of these things happen."
Board Attorney R. Armen McComber on Tuesday said he did not yet know the timetable for finding Margin's permanent replacement.
McComber and other board members declined to comment on any matters involving the former superintendent.
Margin was the district's superintendent since 2007, and has three years remaining on her second contract, signed in 2011.
Her base salary is $157,500 with annual merit increases of up to 14.99 percent. Upon her retirement, Margin is eligible for up to $15,000 in compensation for unused sick days.
According to another news source quoting Margaret Hom: “It [the money] would have to be found,” Ms. Hom said.
As far as Unhappy PArent--you must not live in Squan so your taxes will not be involved--our will.
What "crisis?"
If you think BOb Mahon is going to "do more"--you are wrong. First of all, by law, he can only keep the Interim tag for a set amount of months. Second, if you really think Bob will have the chance to even do anything that he wants, keep reading those comic books. This Board, after seeing their show Tuesday night-will TELL Bob what he can and cannot do. And BTW--check the records and see how many Superintendents ARE Superintendents before they come to a district. Did you know that 1 out of 3 districts in the state of NJ have Superintendents that have the "Interim" tag? Why do you think that is. Again--WHO is paying for this??The Taxpayers will!
Are you unhappy with the cost of an education at the Manasquan school district and the dollar cost for the value received? You should be. The "set amount" of months is 24, if he even becomes the interim. You saw "a show?" I doubt you were even present. "Shows" were when Smith, Brown, etc. didn't like decisions and grabbed their papers, mumbled and complained, and stormed out of meetings. A "show" was the basketball fiasco where a group of students came in and showed no respect. THOSE shows are over, these people conduct business. And by the way, the board will direct the Superintendent. Absolutely they BETTER do that because that's exactly what didn't happen with the Margin show and why we ended up in this situation in the first place. Superintendents work FOR the board. Thank the dimwits that rehired Geri Margin. You want to defend hiring a non-seasoned and inexperienced person for Superintendent when it was an obvious failure? Keep doing sh*t like that and you'll REALLY place a burden on the taxpayers.