Brookfield Schools Superintendent Tony Bivona was fired from his job Thursday night.
In a unanimous 6-0 vote _ one member recused himself from the proceedings _ the Board of Education voted to terminate Bivona’s contract that was not scheduled to expire until June 2016. His annual salary is $228,000.
The 62-year-old educator has been fighting to keep his seven-year position since May when the board placed him on administrative leave. His contract allowed for a hearing before the board acting as an impartial hearing panel.
The board determined that Bivona was responsible for the financial mismanagement of the district highlighted by an auditor’s report last year. That report determined that in two prior budget years the district overspent its budget by $1.2 million, a violation of both state law and the town charter.
Bivona blamed the improper accounting and unauthorized expenditures to cover extra expenses from one year into the next on the former business manager Art Colley, who resigned his position in February amid the auditor’s revelations of the serious financial errors. Bivona stated he immediately implemented correctgive action to correct the mistakes, and last year’s budget actually finished with a slight surplus.
The board still deemed that Bivona was the district’s leader, and was accountable for what occurred on his watch.