the staff of the Ridgewood Blog
Saddle River NJ, six weeks after the New Jersey Department of Education’s State Board of Examiners suspended her credentials for one year, School Superintendent Gina Cinotti announced her retirement from the Saddle River School District on Wednesday.
In response to Cinotti’s departure, Richard Freedman, who serves as Ridgewood’s interim assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction, and assessment, was appointed as the interim superintendent for the 126-student preschool-to-grade-five district. Freedman began his new role on Wednesday, with a daily rate of $825, a contract that will run through June 30, 2025.
During a special school board meeting, Board President Emily Kaufman expressed gratitude for Cinotti’s service and noted that the board would soon discuss plans for finding her successor. Board attorney Matthew Giacobbe suggested that the district might wait until the typical “season” for superintendent searches in January and February to begin the hiring process. This timing aligns with the 90-day notice typically required for school executives transitioning to new positions, ensuring their availability by August for the start of the new school year.
The suspension of Cinotti’s credentials stemmed from a six-year investigation initiated by charges filed by her previous employer, the Netcong School District, in May 2018. Cinotti left Netcong in June 2018 to join the Saddle River School District as superintendent.
During the meeting, a resident questioned why the district had hired Cinotti given her ongoing dispute with the Netcong School District. Giacobbe responded by characterizing the matter as a “private issue” that did not involve the Saddle River district. He also emphasized that Cinotti’s appointment as superintendent had been reviewed and approved by the commissioner of education, affirming the district’s right to hire her.
In July, Kaufman had announced that the New Jersey education commissioner had temporarily held Cinotti’s suspension in abeyance pending a review of her application for a stay, allowing her to remain in her position while the appeal was under consideration. Giacobbe did not comment on the status of the commissioner’s ruling but confirmed that the appeal process was ongoing.
As part of her retirement, Cinotti is entitled to receive $31,000 for unused vacation and sick days. No additional payouts are involved.
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She’s cute…I would have kept her….
Creepy weirdo behavior.
Sucking the chrome off a trailer hitch? Some gal’s gotta do it.
She’ll get a pension I’m sure. Why would anyone hire her to begin with? Unless they were desperate and there was no one else
See the first comment.
Giacobbe is also RBOE attorney
I am a Saddle River parent and have been following the Saddle River Superintendent debacle! I sincerely believe that public education in this corrupt state has become a shit show.
On one hand, you have school administrators making huge salaries and on the other hand you also have over paid teachers who refuse to work for their handsome salary & benefit packages. All this while the taxpayers freight the bill.
Here are some behind the scenes facts about the Saddle River “Cinotti” fiasco:
• The Board of Examiners has 14 voting seats but only 6 seats are currently filled. Therefore, the Board of Examiners cannot even make any rulings – they do NOT have a quorum.
• The “current” Board of Examiners (6 seats) has 2 members that have a vested interests in the Saddle River District School System. There is a direct conflict of interest – they should NOT even have voted on matters pertaining to Saddle River. Research Lisa Kilgallen and Dayna Desiderio Orlak. – This was a personal vendetta to oust Cinotti.
• I have direct knowledge that Cinotti was unpopular with the Teachers Union. Some of this unpopularity stems from COVID mandates – the lazy teachers did not want to come to school and Cinotti forced them to safely TEACH the children IN PERSON.
• There are a lot of other “issues” with Cinotti and the Board of Examiners but it mostly was a sanctioned witch hunt.
I hope you will at least examine the possibility of ulterior motives to oust Cinotti. I assure you the above facts are TRUE!
Could you at least make an unbiased inquiry?
This was a total witch hunt stemming from the teachers not wanting to work during covid.