Brick School Board Set To Name New Superintendent Thursday

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township Board of Education is set to name a new superintendent when the board meets Thursday night.

The entry on the school board agenda for Thursday's meeting does not give the name of the person to be hired, which is no surprise.

The hiring will conclude a four-month search that began in October when the board posted an advertisement searching for a superintendent to take over the district in July 2018, a move that initially came as a surprise because the district had promoted longtime administrator Dennis Filippone to the acting superintendent position last spring.

Filippone, a Brick Township High School graduate who has worked for the district for more than 40 years, took on the role of acting superintendent to help the district avoid having another mid-year change at the head of the district. The district had been dealing with change repeatedly since Superintendent Walter Uszenski was arrested on May 7, 2015 on charges of official misconduct in connection with special education services provided to his grandson.

Richard Caldes, currently principal at Brick Memorial High School, was named interim superintendent by the school board at the time, but in January 2016 he was replaced by Thomas Gialanella, a former Brick Township teacher and administrator who left the district several years ago and served as superintendent of the Jackson Township schools until he retired in 2013. Under state law, retired superintendents can serve school districts in temporary consultant roles for a maximum of two years. His consulting role as superintendent would have run out in January, had the district not made the change.

The search has been handled internally, by members of the school board and the administration, including Filippone. Board members John Lamela, who is a principal in the Jackson school district, and Melita Gagliardi, who is a teacher in Jackson, both recused themselves from the search to avoid potential conflicts.

That action may not be sufficient avoid the rancor that has plagued board meetings for most of the last four years. The arrest of Uszenski, along with former interim special services director Andrew Morgan, inflamed simmering conflict in the board and with the public, as residents questioned why Morgan — who had a 1989 drug conviction on his record — had been hired in the first place. Morgan and his wife, former academic officer Lorraine Morgan, both were indicted, as was Uszenski's daughter, Jacqueline Halsey in what Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato said was what amounted to taxpayer-funded child care for Halsey's son.

Ocean County Judge Patricia B. Roe threw out the charges against Uszenski and his daughter in February 2017, along with most of the charges against Andrew Morgan, saying the prosecutor who presented the case to the grand jury excluded evidence that Uszenski's grandson was, in fact, in need of the special services. All three were indicted a second time in June 2017.

Though Uszenski's contract expires June 30 and he has been notified it will not be renewed, the issue will continue to linger in the background until the criminal case is resolved, because he and his daughter have filed a tort claim, notifying the district of their intent to sue if the charges get dropped.

The conflict accelerated with the election of John Lamela, Stephanie Wohlrab and Victoria Pakala to the board and the subsequent replacement of nearly all of the district's professionals, and friction between the three and now-former board members, including Larry Reid, Karyn Cusanelli and Walter Campbell, has been unrelenting. It's safe to expect that regardless of who is hired to be the superintendent, the person will be scrutinized.

Whoever is revealed Thursday night as the new superintendent, whose contract will begin July 1, that person will be the 10th person to serve in the position since 2000:

• Philip Nicastro served from 2000-2002;
• Thomas L. Seidenberger was hired and left in 2007;
• Melindo Persi was named as interim superintendent then fired less than a year later, setting off a lawsuit;
• Mary Ann Ceres then was appointed as interim, and served until the start of the 2009 school year;
• Walter Hrycenko, promoted in 2009, reverted to an administrative role when his contract as superintendent was not renewed;
• Uszenski, hired in 2012;
• Caldes, named interim in May 2015; reverted to principal at Brick Memorial High School in January 2016;
• Gialanella, brought in as interim in January 2016;
• Filippone, who has said he does not want the position permanently.

Filippone has said the goal has been to hire someone who will be in place for some time and provide some stability to the district, and that he will help with the transition.

Ever since the election of John Lamela, Stephanie Wohlrab and Victoria Pakala and the subsequent replacement of nearly all of the district's professionals, the conflict between the three and now-former board members, including Larry Reid, Karyn Cusanelli and Walter Campbell, has been unrelenting. It's safe to expect that regardless of who is hired to be the superintendent, the person will be scrutinized.

Photo via Brick Township school board video