It all started exactly one week before the recent and hotly contested Wayne Board of Education election.

On November 1, Board Secretary William P. Moffit issued a 30-day "PUBLIC NOTICE OF INTENT TO AMEND AND/OR ALTER SUPERINTENDENT'S CONTRACT." The Notice stated that the Board will be taking formal action on Superintendent Mark Toback's contract on at its December 1st meeting.

Nothing in the Notice said what changes were being made. Many people were confused because Dr. Toback's current contract doesn't expire for another year-and-a-half. "So, why change now?" said one parent.

A second notice was issued on November 21 informing the public that there would be a public hearing on the contract changes at the December 1 meeting. "Members of the public are invited to submit public comments regarding the proposed amendment and/or alteration of the superintendent's employment Agreement." Still, the Board did not release the details of the changes. "What are they hiding now?" stated one activist.

December 1st arrived, and the mystery deepened. In the afternoon, the Board Secretary issued another public notice that the meeting had been cancelled "due to lack of quorum." The next day, December 2, Mr. Moffit issued yet another notice. This one said that the Board would take action on the Superintendent's contract at its regular December 15 meeting. Again members of the public were "invited to submit public comments" on the proposed amendment to the contract. Again the Board failed to disclose what changes were being proposed.

"How can we offer comments to the proposed changes to Dr. Toback's contract if we haven't even seen them?" said one resident. "There seems to be a lot of secrecy going on."

Many other boards throughout the state make the proposed alterations and amendments to a superintendent's contract easily accessible to the public. In 2020 for example, the Public Notice sent out by the Nutley Board of Education stated that "the proposed addendum to the contract will be available for review on the District's website or by contacting the Board Secretary."

Other examples of similar notices can be found in North Wildwood, North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional high School, Park Ridge High School, and Pennsauken Township to name a few.

It appears so far that the "mystery" is a Wayne BOE policy choice to keep the public in the dark. It may only be a matter of time before the mystery turns into outright controversy.