UPDATED: Connolly leaves SCCC

Sussex County Community College (SCCC) and its former president Jon Connolly agreed to part ways, effective immediately, at the board of trustees meeting Wednesday, March 26.

“There was a mutually agreed upon separation between the Sussex County Community College board of trustees and Jon Connolly,” said interim president Cory Homer. “While I won’t comment on the specifics of the agreement, I am excited to continue to lead this amazing institution into the next chapter.”

Homer was made interim president after the board accepted Connolly’s resignation as president Jan. 17. At that same meeting, the board voted to make him a tenured biology professor.

Recent changes to the board’s membership and lingering unhappiness from some members of the campus community likely paved the way for Connolly’s departure.

The move caps a tumultuous time at the college as several employees, speaking on and off the record, accused Connolly of using intimidation tactics and questionable budgetary practices as president during the past year or so. He repeatedly denied those allegations.

Last spring, an organizational culture and climate survey of SCCC found that while most employees did not believe there was a hostile work environment on campus, there were concerns about the school’s structural leadership.

According to the separation agreement, signed March 27 by Connolly and Herbert Yardley, chairman of the board of trustees, the college will pay Connolly 52 weeks of base salary over 52 weeks on a semi-monthly basis. His base salary will be what is was on July 21, 2024 - $193,700 - while he was college president.

If Connolly take a job with compensation less than $193,700, SCCC will continue to pay him minus his new per-diem rate, to be calculated on a 260-day basis, for the rest of the 52-week period or until he leaves his new employment, whichever comes first.

SCCC also will reimburse Connolly for 100 percent of the cost of his COBRA health benefits at the single-coverage level for a maximum of six months unless he secures new health-care coverage earlier.

Both parties agreed not to disparage the other and neither admitted any wrongdoing.

Connolly could not be contacted for comment.