State Auditor General Jack Wagner took issue last week with Peters Township School District's separation agreement with its superintendent, saying such agreements are a "waste of taxpayer dollars."

The school board recently approved an agreement with Superintendent Timm Mackley, releasing him from the last two years of his four-year contract. He will receive a full salary and retain his title until he gets another job or until July, whichever comes sooner, plus a $123,573 cash payout.

His duties have been taken over by former West Mifflin Superintendent Joseph Dimperio, who will serve on a temporary basis at $500 a day until a replacement is found.

But, while most parents seemed satisfied with the separation agreement, Mr. Wagner criticized the expenditure of public funds for a private agreement.

He said there should not have been a confidentiality agreement with Dr. Mackley. "The public has a right to know what happened," Mr. Wagner said.

In previous audits of the Mt. Lebanon and Derry Township school districts, Mr. Wagner was critical of the secretive nature of their early buyout agreements, advising school districts to avoid confidentiality agreements and long-term contracts with new superintendents.

Mt. Lebanon and Derry Township, which paid out a total of about $626,000 for early termination agreements within the past several years, lacked certain provisions in their contracts, such as performance expectations, termination procedures and other safeguards that would have insulated taxpayers.

In Peters, district solicitor Jack Cambest said the board considered the plight of Mt. Lebanon when ironing out a contract with Dr. Mackley and included provisions for periodic performance reviews and a termination agreement that addressed multiple scenarios.

"They had a much tighter agreement than most districts," said Mr. Cambest, who said that if Dr. Mackley had terminated his employment with the district, he would have been forced to pay a fee for a new superintendent search.

Mr. Cambest also contended that the separation agreement was not secretive and listed the reason for the separation as a mutual desire for Dr. Mackley, 57, to rejoin his family in his hometown of Groveport, Ohio, where he can seek other employment and spend time with his son during his senior year of high school.

According to Mr. Wagner, that's not good enough.

The board, he said, should have noticed red flags when the superintendent did not move his family from Ohio into the Peters area. "We will never know the particulars of this confidentiality agreement," he said.

Mr. Wagner reiterated his call for the General Assembly to craft legislation that would address what is becoming an ever-increasing trend among school districts.

In November 2006, Pittsburgh Public Schools paid $213,000 in a similar private agreement with a deputy superintendent.

"The bottom line is, this is public money," Mr. Wagner said. "There should be sunshine, there should be transparency where there is public money."

Meeting Monday, the school approved Dr. Dimperio's appointment 8-1, with board member Dr. Mark Buzzatto dissenting, saying he didn't agree with the decision to move Dr. Mackley out of the district right away. Dr. Buzzatto said he believes Dr. Mackley wanted to wait until June to leave, and waiting to hire Dimperio then would have saved taxpayer funds.

Also at the meeting, resident Cathy Lydic called for Dr. Buzzatto's resignation, citing his involvement with a company called Education Consulting Initiative which offers superintendent searches and assessments, and a program to assist in superintendent/board relationships.

Dr. Buzzatto's resume on the ECI Web site lists him as performing education consulting work with GSS, a related consulting firm, since 2006. The resume also details his work as a school director for Chartiers Valley School District from 1986 to 1990, then Peters, where he has been a school board member since 1999. He highlights his work helping to negotiate a union contract, chairing a superintendent search team that hired the "optimal" candidate, and his role on the school board when the district won several high-profile awards.

Mr. Buzzatto said ECI was formed last fall and has no connection to, nor does it plan to do business with, the Peters school district. He said he knows of no ethical conflict and an inquiry to the state Ethics Commission went unanswered.

Mrs. Lydic said she felt a board member should not be profiting from or advertising his position with the school board until he's out of office.