Ocean County superintendent said he was fired for being gay — now he’s getting $500K settlement
⚠️ A former Manchester schools superintendent will receive more than $500,000 through two separate settlements.
➡️ One payout resolves his discrimination lawsuit while another follows a state ruling on his firing.
🔴 The former superintendent claimed he was fired because he is gay, while the district said he omitted a prior DUI conviction from his job application.
A fired Ocean County schools superintendent has settled a sexual orientation discrimination lawsuit against Manchester Township Public Schools, ending his shortened term with a collective half million dollars.
John Berenato was hired by Manchester Township Schools and began a roughly five-year contract in February 2022.
By November 2023 — not even two full years in — the Board of Education voted to fire him.
Their on-record reason was that Berenato left out a DWI conviction and license suspension in 2010 from his employment application.
Discrimination lawsuit ends with a separate settlement
In his civil lawsuit, recently settled, Berenato said the real reason for his termination was that he was “openly gay and because he supported policies intended to protect LGBTQ students and comply with State Department of Education guidance.”
As first reported by open-government advocate John Paff with Transparency NJ, Manchester school board members approved a $265,000 settlement at their June 16 meeting, to be paid out by the district's liability insurer.
The motion was listed on page 18 of the agenda as “settlement agreement of civil action OCN-L-1150-24 and general release of all claims and rights against the Manchester Township Board of Education.”
This is separate from a $301,000 contract settlement being paid out to Berenato, following a state Department of Education decision in favor of Berenato’s successful challenge in Trenton.
Read More: Mt Olive ex-schools super get $645K settlement
State ruled the school board violated tenure law
The board voted to fire Berenato at a special meeting on Nov. 7, 2023 — the same day one sitting school board member lost a re-election bid, based on results reported by NJ.com.
Berenato challenged the decision through the Department of Education, and also filed his discrimination lawsuit in May 2024.
In August 2025, the state Office of Administrative Law issued its decision on the matter, ruling that the Board violated state law when it terminated Berenato without following the “Tenure Employees Hearing Law process.”
It was formally adopted by the state Commissioner of Education on Oct. 20, 2025, ordering the school board to restore Berenato to his position with all “back pay, benefits and emoluments.”
After a contract settlement was approved at a March 25 school board meeting, Berenato received that payout in three installments, roughly $75,000 in both May and June, and an outstanding $150,725 to be issued on July 15.
The district is also required to make state pension payments under Berenato’s contract to that point.
Berenato was last seen at a Manchester Township School Board meeting on Oct. 18, 2023, the month before his termination.
“Simply put, whatever its feelings may have been about the fairness to the district of petitioner’s actions, the Board had no authority to do what it did, and petitioner must prevail on his appeal herein as a matter of law,” the Office of Administrative Law said in its ruling.
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