KEARNY –
A 13-year school employee has been promoted to vice principal assigned to Kearny High School.
Paul Measso, 37, was appointed to his new job Oct. 20 at an annual salary of $128,163 (pro-rated), pending receipt of his principal certificate of eligibility from Trenton. He completed a master’s degree in education leadership at St. Peter’s College.
Measso will be filling one of two vice principal slots left vacant this school year with the retirement of Michael Barbone and the transfer of Patrick Ragnoni to Lincoln Middle School. William Gaydos, formerly science department chairman, is filling the other slot. A third vice principal John Millar is also athletic director.
Until he’s cleared to make the move, Measso will continue working as a high school guidance counselor, a job he’s performed for the last eight years.
A 1996 Kearny High graduate who earned his undergraduate degree in business administration from Montclair University in 2001, he began his career as an educator at his alma mater as a permanent substitute, teaching history, before his appointment as a teacher of business education, serving five years in that job.
When he joins his other administrative colleagues, Measso said he expects to be sharing responsibilities in the areas of student disci pline and attendance. “We’ll probably divide those up by grade level,” he added.
Measso and his wife Allison had been living in Hoboken but recently moved to Fairfield with their newly born son Aiden.
He considers the promotion “an honor, since I went to the [Kearny High] school, so I’m excited about it. I want to help make it the best school it can be.”
In another personnel development, the board adopted a policy that “recognizes the acquisition of tenure for [the position of] supervisor of plant operations following the standard applied to teaching staff members, which is a period of 3 years and 1 day of continuous employment in the position.”
This means that Robert Elsmore, who has held the No. 2 job in plant operations under Mark Bruscino for the past five years, now has tenure protection in that job.
Elsmore, a onetime Wall St. broker, was hired by the district, initially, as a maintenance employee in January 2003 and was promoted to supervisor in August 2009. He has certification as an education facility manager from Rutgers Center for Government Services. He also holds PEOSH (Public Employees Occupational Safety & Health) IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) Designated Person certification from the state Department of Health & Senior Services and has completed Integrated Pest Management Coordinator training with the state Department of Environmental Protection.
In other business, the board authorized a payment of $288,327.93 to Brockwell & Carrington of Towaco for the High School Noise Abatement Building Project, based on the recommendation of the board’s construction attorney Joseph Hocking. The board and B&C parted ways in early 2013 and the parties are in arbitration over B&C’s claim for money it says it’s owed in connection with two separate contracts related to construction work at the high school.
In September, the board retained Richard Rosenberg, a former state deputy commissioner of education, as a $650-a-day coordinator of construction affairs for the high school Noise Abatement project, as a liaison to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is partly funding the project, with the Federal Aviation Administration and state Department of Education.
The resolution appointing Rosenberg said that the P.A. and FAA have agreed to “fund the salary of this position to assist the district with administrative duties in relation to the project and the Kearny Board of Education’s contribution to the position, if any, will be capped at $30,000.”
Rosenberg’s job “will end on June 20, 2015, unless both parties agree to extend the contract.”
– Ron Leir
