NEWBURGH – Suspended Newburgh Schools Superintendent Roberto Padilla has been negotiating with the school board for months about his exit strategy following investigator findings that he violated federal law by sexually harassing female subordinates in the district.
There are apparently insufficient votes on the board to fire him outright, so he has been negotiating in hopes of securing a sweetheart deal.
The board has been meeting before closed doors for weeks and those efforts may come to a conclusion beneficial to Padilla while hitting the cash strapped taxpayer in the pocketbook.
Sources tell Mid-Hudson News the board may place him on an ‘administrative leave of absence” at full pay and benefits for the three remaining years of his contract. At the current rate, his package amounts to $354,853 per year.
All of those wheelings and dealings have been done in secrecy with nothing discussed at public school board meetings. In fact, the only concrete evidence that Padilla is the high-ranking official in question has been the appointment of an interim superintendent and one unredacted statement in an investigator’s report in an otherwise highly redacted document.
