Brick School Board Suspends Superintendent

The Brick Township Board of Education has suspended Superintendent Walter Uszenski, according to board attorney Jack Sahradnik.

Sahradnik issued the following statement:

“Yesterday, the Board of Education became aware of the arrest of the District’s Superintendent by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. The Board is awaiting further information concerning the nature of these charges.

“Last night, the Board met in an emergency meeting and suspended the District’s Superintendent pending disposition of the criminal charges and appointed Dr. Richard Caldes as Interim-Superintendent to ensure the continued thorough and efficient education of the District’s students,” he said.

“The Board will fully cooperate with the Prosecutor’s Office as this matter continues. However, because this is ongoing criminal and employment matter, the Board is unable to comment further at this time.”

By law, the suspension is with pay until such time as an individual is indicted, Sahradnik said.

Uszenski, who is in the third year of a four-year contract, is paid a base salary of $175,000.

Uszenski, his daughter, Jacqueline Halsey, and Andrew Morgan, the district’s former interim director of special services, were arrested Thursday and charged with official misconduct and theft by deception for their roles in a scheme devised to provide Halsey’s child with educational services at public expense to which the child was not legally entitled, Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato said.

The scheme amounted to full-time, district-funded day care for Uszenski’s grandchild worth about $40,000, the prosecutor’s office said.

Morgan, whose wife, Lorraine Morgan, is the district’s academic officer, was hired in March 2013 by the Brick Board of Education, at the request and recommendation of Uszenski, to conduct an “audit” of the Brick schools special services section. Uszenski and Morgan knew each other and had worked together before 2013.

The prosecutor’s office alleges Morgan submitted false information in his application for employment with the Brick Board of Education, when he failed to include a 1990 drug conviction on the application. Morgan resigned from his position on Dec. 31, 2013. He received in excess of $60,000 in compensation from the Brick Board of Education between March 1 and Dec. 31, 2013, Della Fave said.

Uszenski and Morgan both are free on $100,000 bail each and had to surrender their passports as a condition of bail, the prosecutor’s office said.

RELATED STORIES:

• Brick Schools Superintendent, Two Others Arrested, Charged In Day-Care Scheme
• Prosecutor: Ex-Brick School Administrator Failed To Reveal 1990 Drug Conviction
• ANALYSIS: What’s Next For Brick Schools After Superintendent’s Arrest?

This is a developing story. Come back to Patch for updates.