In addition, both he and his son, Francis L. Frederick of Millville, were charged with conspiracy, theft by deception and falsifying time-card records to pay the younger Frederick for custodial work he allegedly had not done.
Neither man could be reached for comment yesterday.
"I'm completely shocked," Vineland school board President Anna LaTorre said yesterday. "I'd heard rumors about everybody and his brother getting indicted around here, so I didn't pay attention to rumors about him. He's always seemed to have done his job, like an honest man."
LaTorre said the school board would discuss taking action in response to the indictment within a day. She said the elder Frederick had worked his way up through the ranks of the school district over 30 years to take the assistant superintendent's post six years ago.
If convicted, he faces a prison sentence of up to 69 years and up to $460,000 in fines, and his son faces up to 18 years in prison and fines of $122,500, according to the Attorney General's Office.
A spokesman for the office said the charges are unrelated to those filed earlier this year against four other Vineland men in a scheme that involved bid-rigging and stolen school district property in exhange for drugs.
