Assistant Superintendent for Business Michael San Angelo, who testified Tuesday in the trial of former facilities director Steven Raucci, will retire at the end of the school year.
The Board of Education will act on the retirement at its study session tonight at 7 p.m. at Mont Pleasant Middle School. The resignation is effective June 5. San Angelo’s salary in 2008-09 was $155,167 and he will receive $15,598 for unused sick time. A calculation of his pension was not immediately available.
His contract is due to expire on June 30. His contract was not extended at a board meeting last June, unlike several other top administrators, including Superintendent Eric Ely and School Attorney Shari Greenleaf.
Board member Jeff Janiszewski said at the time that San Angelo was the direct supervisor of Raucci, who faces a 26-count indictment on arson and terrorism charges for allegedly planting explosive devices and vandalizing property of people he had disputes with.
San Angelo came to the district in January 2001 after serving four years as district business administrator in the Oswego School District.
In a statement, Ely praised San Angelo’s service as the “chief business official and financial expert.”
“His leadership in these areas has enabled the district to move from a $10 million deficit to a position of financial stability and surplus. This will certainly help us during the current fiscal crisis,” Ely said. “In addition, under his leadership the district’s bond rating has been upgraded from junk bond status to its present status of Baa1 according to Moody’s. His expertise will be very difficult to replace.”
However, San Angelo was criticized in a comptroller’s audit last year for allowing Raucci to collect about $50,000 in undocumented overtime. Also, the audit said San Angelo did not sign off on 11 of the 14 payrolls audited.
The Board of Education last week adopted a plan to correct the problems — as required by the comptroller. Employees must now document the reason for working overtime and the board last July appointed a new employee benefits manager with the responsibility for overseeing payroll.
San Angelo’s pending departure is just the latest in a series of highprofile exits for the school district. Human Resources Director Michael Stricos, who started the same month as San Angelo, will work his last day on March 19. Replacing him is Christina Mahoney, senior human resources manager for Time Warner Cable, who starts March 22.
Stricos was reportedly close to Raucci, even giving him a gift of a framed photograph of Marlon Brando from “The Godfather” movie, according to former custodian Ronald Kriss’ harassment lawsuit against the district.
Categories: Uncategorized
