Brick School Board Reorganization Meeting Set For Thursday

BRICK, NJ -- The Brick Township Board of Education will hold its 2018 reorganization meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 4, at Brick Township High School.

The reorganization meeting will include the swearing in of Jessica Clayton and Maria Foster to three-year terms on the board. They were the top vote-getters in the November election, defeating incumbent board member John Barton by more than 2,000 votes each.

Sharon Cantillo, who served on the board for more than 13 years, did not seek re-election.

Clayton, who owns a preschool, and Foster, who is director of government and community affairs for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 711 of New Jersey, join a board that is searching for a new superintendent.

The contract of Walter C, Uszenski, the suspended superintendent who is under indictment, expires in June. Acting Superintendent Dennis Filippone, in an email to Patch in November, said he is not seeking the position after 40 years of serving the district.

At the December school board meeting, board member Melita Gagliardi read a statement from board president John Lamela saying he and Gagliardi would be recusing themselves from any involvement in the hiring of a new superintendent based on some of the applicants for the position. Lamela and Gagliardi both work in the Jackson Township School District -- Lamela is an assistant principal at Christa McAuliffe Middle School and Gagliardi is a special education teacher at McAuliffe.

How many applications were received for the superintendent's position was not clear. The goal is to have a person ready to take over when Uszenski's contract expires on June 30. Uszenski was formally notified by the board in September that his contract would not be renewed.

Regardless of what happens with the hiring, the board will continue to have the specter of Uszenski's lawsuit hanging over it while the case against him works its way through the court system. A previous indictment against him was thrown out by Superior Court Judge Patricia B. Roe in April 2017.

Sharon Cantillo (fourth from left) and John Barton (fourth from right) finished their terms on the Brick Board of Education in December. They will be replaced by new board members at the Jan. 4 meeting. Photo by Karen Wall, Patch staff