Brick School Board Enters New Year Facing Vexing Issues

BRICK, NJ — When the Brick Township Board of Education meets on Thursday for its annual reorganization meeting, it will be starting a year with some extremely diffcult challenges.

The reorganization meeting, at 7 p.m. at the district's Professional Development Center, will have incumbent board members Stephanie Wohlrab and Victoria Pakala sworn in, along with newcomer Nicole Siebert, who was elected to the seat that has been held by John Lamela for the last three years. Lamela did not seek re-election. Related: Siebert, Pakala, Wohlrab Win Brick School Board Race

The agenda for the reorganization meeting is short, including just the swearing-ins, the election of the board president and vice president, and approval of policies, as they prepare to continue working on two important issues facing the district: teacher contracts and the cuts to state aid.

The previous teachers contract expired June 30, 2018, and since school started, teachers have been pushing to get a new one in place. At the same time, the district has been grappling with the next round of cuts coming to its state aid as a result of S2, the law pushed by state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, that strips millions in so-called "adjustment aid" from more than 100 school districts, including Brick.

Brick had $1.9 million in state aid taken away for the 2018-19 school year, and an appeal to the state Department of Education for emergency funding was denied. Another $2.7 million is to be cut in 2019-2020, under the formula, which would cut 8 percent of the aid for that school year. In 2020-21, it will be a 10 percent aid cut, followed by 14 percent, 18 percent, 21 percent and 24 percent the following years. Cumulatively Brick stands to lose more than $42 million in state aid.

In 2018-19, the district eliminated 31 teacher's aides and did not fill 18 teaching positions when it formed the budget. After the aid cut was announced, the district canceled plans to hire six teachers and fill two administrative positions. 2018-19 budget that received approval in May. A number of requests for staff and curriculum programs aimed at improving reading and math scores were rejected.

District officials have not said how it will absorb a $2.7 million aid cut, though obvious answers are staff cuts and program cuts.

In the meantime, the board has requested a mediator for contract negotiations, declaring talks were at an impasse.

At the December board meeting, teachers demonstrated their displeasure by dressing in black and attending the meeting's early portion, where Brick Memorial's band was honored. However, they got up and walked out en masse as the board turned to the business portion of the meeting. (If you missed the Brick Memorial band performance, it starts about 30 minutes into the video from the board meeting, which began with a closed session.)

A handful remained, long enough for one express displeasure over the comments of Vic Fanelli, a resident who attends most of the meetings and who pushes the board to make cuts in spending. Fanelli urged the board to take into consideration the state aid cut before agreeing to a contract containing pay raises, prompting the teacher's comment about how long he was permitted to speak.

Though some meetings drag well past 10 p.m. in part due to public comment, the December meeting ended before 9 p.m. The coming meetings may not be so short-lived.

Image via YouTube