Brick School Board Members Not Target Of Investigation, Attorney Says

When Joseph Sangiovanni’s contract as transportation manager of the Brick Township School District was not renewed last week, he responded by accusing the Board of Education and its president, Sharon Cantillo, of retaliation.

But in claiming retaliation, Sangiovanni’s statement also implied Cantillo was under investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office in connection with the investigation into Superintendent Walter J. Uszenski. Uszenski was arrested May 6 on charges of theft by deception in what the prosecutor’s office says was a scheme that provided taxpayer-funded fulltime day care services for his grandson that the child was not entitled to receive.

“The reward for cooperating with the prosecutor’s office and telling the taxpayers the truth is getting fired from the BOE of Brick Township,” Sangiovanni said in an emailed statement. “There are laws that protect employees from retaliation for speaking to the authorities regarding illegal activities in the workplace. As we know by now this BOE has no regard for following the law. I cooperated with the Prosecutors office regarding Dr. Uszenki and the President of our BOE as a result I’m out of work.”

Jack Sahradnik, the attorney for the Brick Township Board of Education, said Thursday that he has spoken with the prosecutor’s office and has been told Cantillo is not under investigation.

“Two or three times (since Uszenki’s arrest) I have talked with the prosecutor’s office and I have been told that neither the board nor any member is the target or focus of the investigation,” Sahradnik said.

Al Della Fave, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, would not comment, citing the ongoing investigation.

“I can’t say anything until the grand jury presentment is completed,” Della Fave said.

Uszenski was suspended with pay by the board on May 7, per state law that requires he be paid, until an indictment is handed up, Sahradnik said.

Richard Caldes, the district’s educational specialist, was unanimously approved by the school board to serve as interim superintendent that night and has been running the district in the days since. Among his duties has been presenting the board with a list of unaffiliated employees whose contracts were up for renewal at the board meeting last week for the board to vote on.

Sangiovanni’s name was not included on Caldes’ list, a fact Caldes affirmed when a member of the public asked about it during the meeting, saying only that a letter had been mailed to Sangiovanni that day informing him the contract wasn’t being renewed.

Sangiovanni, who had worked for the district since May 2006, had been on medical leave since March. When a plan to lay off as many as 31 bus drivers was announced, Cantillo anda other board members said information on cuts had come from the transportation department.

Sangiovanni said the cutbacks were “shoved down my throat” at the behest of the board by Uszenski.

In responding to the nonrenewal of his contract, Sangiovanni said he was “a scapegoat for the layoff plan that the BOE told me to put together even though I told them it wouldn’t work. This was the method used to retaliate against me for speaking to the prosecutor’s office regarding illegal activity at the BOE.”

He also said he plans to file ethics charges against Cantillo, accusing her of micromanaging the district and of “improper dealings with vendors.”

Cantillo has called the claims baseless, saying she had no idea who the prosecutor’s office had spoken with during the investigation.

“How would I know he had talked to the prosecutor’s office?” she said Monday. “They (the prosecutor’s office) brought me down in my capacity as board president. I had no knowledge of who they were bringing in.”

Cantillo said she had no idea what Sangiovanni meant about improper dealings with vendors, saying she has no interaction with the district’s vendors.

She also has said the decision not to renew Sangiovanni’s contract was not the board’s, but was that of Caldes.

“I didn’t know he was losing his job until the agenda went out,” she said.

Sahradnik said he spoke with the prosecutor’s office again Wednesday, following Sangiovanni’s statements.

“As late as yesterday I was told neither the board nor any member is a target of the investigation,” Sahradnik said.

(Brick Board of Education president Sharon Cantillo speaks at the April 30 board meeting. Credit: Karen Wall)