Tuckahoe School District Still Has Not Released Details Surrounding Superintendent's Resignation

Tuckahoe School District officials still have not released the financial terms surrounding the abrupt resignation of Superintendent Dean Lucera more than a week after announcing his departure.

The School Board announced on March 7 that it had reached a settlement with Mr. Lucera, who had just signed a three-year contract the previous September. Mr. Lucera, who was making $185,000 in the first year of his contract, took a voluntary paid leave of absence in December, about two weeks after authorities arrested him for damaging the door of his fiancée’s Westhampton home during an argument, though he eventually began working from his Manorville home, according to district officials.

Board of Education Chairman Dr. Daniel Crough has declined to say how much Mr. Lucera, whose last official day of employment was Friday, March 11, will be compensated by the district as per the settlement. Mr. Lucera utilized a combination of sick and vacation days to cover his extended paid leave of absence prior to resuming work for the district at some point this year. School officials have also refused to say when he resumed working for the district prior to his last day.

Dr. Crough has directed both The Press and district taxpayers to submit a Freedom of Information Law request if they want to know that information. The Press filed a FOIL request on Tuesday, March 8, asking for the following information: the financial terms of the settlement surrounding the resignation; the agreed-upon terms of the resignation, both contractual and non-contractual; the stipulations of Mr. Lucera leaving his post within the first year of his three-year contract; and Mr. Lucera’s total compensation for both the 2015 and 2016 calendar years. The request also asks when Mr. Lucera resumed working following his paid leave of absence that began in early December, including the date he started working from home, and the date of his decision to resign.

As of Wednesday, The Press had received only a confirmation of receipt from the district on its FOIL request, asking that the newspaper allow 20 business days to process and retrieve the request from the day it was submitted, and to decide whether or not to provide the information.

District Clerk Linda Springer said earlier this week that the request had been forwarded to the district’s legal counsel, Hauppauge-based Ingerman Smith, LLP, for review.

On Tuesday, Dr. Crough said that district residents were instructed to submit FOIL requests for the financial details because “personnel matters have specific legal protections best navigated by counsel. I am sure we will comply with the FOIL request,” he added.

Robert Freeman, executive director of the State Committee for Open Government, said the terms of the settlement are part of the public record, and that the information that The Press requested should be easy for district officials to locate. “It should not take as much as 20 business days,” he said. “The records are clearly public, and exist. It’s not a situation where somebody has to go into archives and attempt to locate it. This should be easy.

“It seems to me that a school district should engage in what I’ve come to call ‘The Spike Lee Principle’: Do The Right Thing,” he continued. “And the right thing, it seems to me, is to fess up and say, ‘This is the agreement.’”

Mr. Lucera began working as superintendent on October 19, 2015. He was arrested on November 21 and charged with third-degree criminal mischief, a felony, and second-degree harassment, a violation, after an incident involving a woman, later described as his fiancée, during which he damaged a door at her Westhampton home. In January, the felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor, based on the actual cost of repairs.

Early last month, Mr. Lucera’s case was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, meaning that the charges will be dismissed in February 2017 if he does not “come into contact with law enforcement” again, and if he completes Structured Help Anti-Violence Reeducation Program, or SHARP, a 32-week domestic violence educational program run by The Retreat in East Hampton. He must have completed the program by his next court appearance on September 14.