The superintendent of a New Jersey school district has been arrested for repeatedly defecating on a neighboring school's property, police said.
Thomas Tramaglini, the superintendent of the Kenilworth School District, was taken into custody early Tuesday while he was running on the Holmdel High School track, according to the Holmdel Township Police Department.
Sgt. Theodore Sigismondi said Tramaglini, 42, was charged with lewdness, littering and defecating in public.
“Holmdel High staff and coaches were finding human feces, on or near the area of the High School track/football field on a daily basis,” according to the police statement.
Sigismondi would not elaborate on the methods they used to identify Tramaglini or on any possible motives.
The school's staff began monitoring the area and identified Tramaglini, who resides only several miles away from the school, as the person leaving feces on the property.
“It’s definitely something that if I was the coach I would be concerned about, and [the coaches] definitely are too,” a member of the Holmdel High School track team told ABC station WABC.
ABC News was unable to reach Tramaglini for comment. Calls to his attorney were not immediately returned.
His next court appearance is scheduled for May 30.
Tramaglini requested and was granted a paid leave of absence from the Kenilworth School District, where he was “unanimously appointed” to be the superintendent in December 2015, according to the district’s website.
The Board of Education’s president at the time of the appointment described Tramaglini as someone with “a commitment to student achievement, while achieving superior standards of academic excellence,” in a 2015 announcement to the district.
While police continue to investigate, Brian Luciani, the director of academics, will handle the duties of superintendent to ensure that the district continues “its responsibilities without interruption,” according to a statement released by the Kenilworth Board of Education.
William Loughran, principal of Holmdel High School, where the human waste was found, had no comment on the incident.
The two school districts are about 30 miles apart.