Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • May 9, 2012 FLOW Area Board settles with former superintendent by Frank J. McMahon The Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education approved an $85,000 legal agreement with former Superintendent Paul Saxton last week to settle a lawsuit brought against the school district by Saxton in 2009. Saxton sought reimbursement for unused sick and vacation days he had accrued prior to his 2008 retirement. He also sought reimbursement for what he described as legal misrepresentation by the board attorney at the time in his 2001 contractual agreement, which he claims provided him with compensation over and above his base salary that he Levine signs with York College Indian Hills High School senior Morgan Levine has signed with York College in York, Pennsylvania to play softball. Standing: Mr. Baratta, athletic director; Coach Joe Leicht; and Mr. Evangelista, principal. Seated: Mr. Levine, Morgan Levine, and Mrs. Levine. claims the board’s attorney assured him would be pensionable, but was not. In his lawsuit, Saxton sought compensation for over $350,000 in pension money loss projected over his lifetime and about $129,000 in unused vacation days and sick days that he had accrued over his 11 year employment in the school district, plus $30,000 in a consulting fee he says he was to receive for professional services provided to the district after he retired. The school board claimed Saxton owed the district $20,000 under the terms of his contract for leaving the district before his contract expired, but that was not included in the settlement agreement. According to Frank Ceurvels, the district’s business administrator, the board had incurred a cost of $197,873 in legal fees up to the end of March 2012 to defend this lawsuit. The board’s vote to approve the settlement was unanimous, but none of the trustees commented on it other than Board President Ira Belsky, who read a prepared statement. In that statement, Belsky claims that the suggestion that this litigation evolved from a “personal vendetta against Mr. Saxton” could be nothing further from the truth, but that the litigation involved the board’s obligations to the district and its responsibility to the taxpayers. Belsky claimed Saxton was not entitled to the pension money or what he described as “compensatory time” payments for which he sued, and he criticized the past presidents of the school board for supporting Saxton’s claims in his lawsuit. Three former presidents of the regional board of education responded to Belsky’s statement. According to Belsky, since the state pension board determined Saxton was not entitled to receive approximately $350,000 for pension benefits and his appeal was dismissed by a Superior Court judge before trial, his claim lacked legal merit. “Unfortunately, this ruling did not come until many tens of thousands of dollars in legal defense costs had been expended by the district to prove this point,” Belsky (continued on page 10)