RIVERHEAD, N.Y. – Laurie Downs isn’t afraid to tell it like it is.

The Riverhead resident and one-time school board candidate made that abundantly clear at a recent board meeting, where she chastised district leaders for an absurd buyout for former assistant superintendent Joe Ogeka.

“We have 50 percent of our students on free or reduced lunch. We have the lowest median (income) of any township on Long Island and you people are giving away $376,000 to a man that every time his name came up it had something horrific attached to it,” Down said Tuesday, according to Riverheadlocal.com.

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Down told board members she was “absolutely outraged” the board “misled and deceived the public” when it announced Ogeka’s retirement in 2013, because he actually received more than twice his regular salary for an additional year under an agreement the board approved in 2012.

The assistant superintendent, a 30-year employee in the district, retired last June, but received $376,340 for the current school year, which included an early retirement incentive that paid him for an extra year, Riverheadlocal reports.

Ogeka’s base pay was $183,632.64, but he also received cash for unused sick and vacation days and other benefits. The Empire Center for Public Policy published data that shows Ogeka was the highest paid school employee in New York State last year.

Downs contends the expensive buyout is especially offensive to taxpayers because of Ogeka’s controversial history in the district, and demanded the resignations of board members who approved his retirement deal in 2012.

According to Riverhead local:

(Ogeka) was granted tenure as an administrator subsequent to a DWI conviction, and subsequently, (as) an associate principal at Riverhead High School in 2000, made the decision to leave in police custody an 18-year-old Riverhead High School student arrested on drug charges during a high school field trip to Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. The student, Rob Pace, was subsequently released by a judge. He committed suicide by jumping onto the LIRR train tracks later that night.

“You all should be gone. Nobody read that agreement or understood it,” Downs told board members.

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There was more.

“I would have rather him sit here … and play Candy Crush until he retired. What you did was wrong,” Downs continued. “You sure as heck did give him an incentive, didn’t you? He walked out of here smiling like the cat that ate the canary.”

Downs last year ran for the school board in a five way race for three seats, but came in fourth, the news site reports.

Nearly everyone who commented on the story online applauded Downs’ zeal in highlighting the egregious retirement package.

“Kudos to you Laurie for giving it to them in their faces!!!” Jamesport resident Dawn Szot posted to Facebook, a comment that earned her nine likes.

Four people also liked Glen Montrowl’s post – “This buyout made national headlines, and made Riverhead a laughingstock.”

“You go girl … this is mega-outrage,” Celia Marszal Iannelli posted.

“Amen,” Jean Hudson added.