In today’s (Fri., May 8) Daily Gazette, the president of the Schenectady school board, Jeff Janiszewski, protests that he had nothing to do with his wife getting a nice job with the school district without having to take a Civil Service test.

Why, his wife had already worked seven years for the district as “paraprofessional,” or teacher’s aide, when the job of “behavior intervention specialist” was created in 2004, and what’s more, he wasn’t even on the board when she was hired.

Well, no, not when she was first hired as lowly teacher’s aide, but he was very much on the board, as president, when the new more lucrative job was created for her, which is the whole point.

He came back onto the board after a long hiatus in July 2004, and the next month the board created that “behavior intervention specialist” gig for her.

She had been making about $12 an hour as a teacher’s aide. Last year in her new gig she made more than $44,000.

Alas, the Civil Service Commission never approved the new job, because the school district did not submit paperwork that the commission required, so Mrs. Janiszewski was able to avoid taking a competitive exam for the job, which she has now held for close to five years even though officially it did not exist until I started making inquiries last month and the school district suddenly got inspired to file the necessary papers.

Did her husband, as board president, know that the required paperwork had not been submitted? I certainly don’t know.

But was he aware that she had not taken an exam? Please permit me my suspicions on that score.