Sergio Bichao

@sbichao

PERTH AMBOY – School-board members weren't kidding when they said they wanted the superintendent gone.

The Board of Education was so bent on booting former Superintendent Janine Walker Caffrey from her post that they had their insurance carrier pay her and her attorney $184,000 to leave her home in this city and never come back.

The settlement agreement also may spare members of the Board of Education from prosecution by the state School Ethics Commission. Caffrey agreed to not testify voluntarily in any of the nearly dozen ethics complaints that have been filed against school officials in this district, one of the state's poorest.

UPDATE: Activist: Don't let Perth Amboy BOE pay hush money

The settlement was in addition to the $175,000 salary, and other benefits, that Caffrey received even though she spent large swaths of her tenure not working, but instead fighting three separate suspensions placed on her by the school board.

READ THE AGREEMENT: Scroll to the end of the story.

The settlement agreement and the existence of at least 13 ethics complaints filed by Caffrey and others in this district were made public this week by Libertarian Party activist John Paff, a Franklin resident who often posts government documents on his website.

Caffrey was hired in 2011 as a reformer. But the school leader soon rubbed the highly political school board the wrong way. Personality and policy clashes resulted in numerous ethics complaints and hearings before administrative law judges.

One complaint — filed by Caffrey in 2012 against school-board members Samuel Lebreault, Obdulia Gonzalez, Israel Varela and Milady Tejeda — accused them of libeling her in political literature and newspapers published by Democratic Party operative Jamed Devine.

Of the 13 complaints, seven remain active.

Caffrey's contract expired June 30, but she had not been working all year. In November, an administrative law judge declined to reverse the board's decision to place her on administrative leave.

The settlement agreement, which pays Caffrey's attorney, Alan Schoor, $62,967 in fees, prohibits both sides from talking about each other in books, interviews, blog posts or social media. Caffrey must pay the district $10,000 every time she violates this agreement.

Caffrey also agreed to not sue the district or board members.

In perhaps one of the most unusual clauses in a settlement agreement, both sides agree on the compensation based on the fact that Caffrey "has already moved out of the City of Perth Amboy and does not intend on returning."

The settlement agreement was signed June 13.

Staff Writer Sergio Bichao: 908-243-6615; sbichao@mycentraljersey.com