It is past time for the ongoing limbo of Lawrence School Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy to end. But outgoing Mayor Michael Sullivan's call to offer him a buyout is premature.
Laboy has been on indefinite suspension since late June, under the cloud of a criminal probe by the Essex County District Attorney's office into alleged financial wrongdoing. Other scandals coming from his office have gone on longer than that.
It was early last April when local police reported that Laboy's special assistant, Mark Rivera, and safety consultant Harry Maldonado had collected personal information on hundreds of people using an enhanced version of Lexis Nexis computer software.
Virtually all the people who were targets of those searches had no connection with the stated purpose of the software, which was to help find the families of students who stopped coming to school.
Yet, five months after the investigation began, there is no word on its progress. Five months after the School Committee suspended Laboy, he is still being paid his $200,00 salary, first through administrative leave and then since August with accrued vacation.
Now, with about six weeks to go in his final term, Sullivan said this week he would not vote to fire Laboy. "Not with the information that's available right now — absolutely not," he told reporter Mark Vogler.
Instead he favors a buyout, saying he agrees with other School Committee members that it would be in the city's best interests for Laboy to leave before Mayor-elect William Lantigua takes office.
It would have been in the best interests of the city for Laboy to be gone last spring and a new superintendent in place by now, or at least a search process well under way.
But the city's best interests don't necessarily coincide with Lantigua taking office, especially if a buyout is not warranted. School and city officials ought to be putting pressure on the DA's office to finish its investigation. It would be a travesty for them to negotiate a buyout with Laboy and then have an indictment returned weeks later that would provide sufficient grounds to fire him.
The Lawrence schools, one of the worst-performing districts in the state, has gone without leadership for far too long. Laboy needs to go. But city officials should not rush to give him a pile of taxpayer money until they know they have no other choice.
