Brick Schools Need To Focus On Educating Kids, Interim Superintendent Says

For the last six months, the Brick Township School District has been in somewhat of a triage mode, moving from crisis to crisis, conflict to conflict, in the wake of the arrest of Superintendent Walter Uszenski and heightened tensions surrounding the school board election.

At the center of the storm has been Richard Caldes, who was appointed the interim superintendent in the wake of Uszenski’s May 7 arrest. In the days and weeks since, Caldes has been faced with a steady stream of conflict -- from bus driver issues to a social media threat that turned out to be unfounded, as well as the very visible conflict among the members of the Board of Education.

Last month, Caldes signaled his frustration with the continual unrest and urged the board and the public at large to turn its attention to the job of educating the students of Brick Township.

The board meets tonight, Thursday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m. at Brick Township High School.

“We have to do what is best for the kids,” Caldes said. “If we can’t do that then we’re failing at what our mission is.”

The arrest of Uszenski -- as well as Andrew Morgan, the district’s former interim director of public services -- set off a chain of conflicts, including a fight over the attempt by board member John Talty to rescind his resignation of his board seat. The additional charge against Morgan from the prosecutor’s office saying he had lied about past criminal convictions when he failed to report a 1990 conviction for heroin and cocaine dealing on his job application with the district.

The two, along with Uszenski’s daughter, Jacqueline Halsey, and Morgan’s wife Lorraine, the district’s former academic officer, all were indicted in late September.

But it is the unreported drug conviction of Morgan that has led to severe criticism of the board, in particular Board President Sharon Cantillo, over the hiring of Morgan. An investigator for the state Department of Education said a background check completed on Morgan said he was cleared to work in a school district and that the district was never told of the conviction.

The hiring still became a flashpoint during the elections for both the school board and the council, as board members were blasted over the hiring -- despite the fact that the board’s only role is to approve or reject hires selected by the superintendent -- a role Board Attorney Jack Sahradnik has underscored several times.

Those issues -- and several ongoing conflicts among board members -- led to a seven-minute speech by Caldes last month, where he said the focus on educating the students has been lost.

“I could be totally out of turn and be a short-timer up here,” Caldes said, “but the bottom line in reality if this is what we’re going to do to make Brick Township a great town for kids to go to school in and parents to be proud of.

“That’s what we’ve got to focus on going forward and put all the other garbage behind,” Caldes said, “and let’s get back to what it’s about, kids.”

Caldes, who was initially responding to a question from a resident about work being done to the schools, said the work that’s been done -- new windows and air conditioning -- is nice but it’s not the only thing that needs to be done.

“At last meeting ... we didn’t talk about one thing about providing kids a thorough and efficient education,” he said. “We talked about everything else but educating kids.

“We get caught up in this, that, and everything, and you know what, the ship’s going by what we should be doing, and that’s focusing on kids. If I’m not speaking out of turn -- hopefully I’m not -- if we are going to make our district good and we want to make our town good and we want keep people living here, we need to have good schools. Everyone gets up and talks about real estate. I dont care what town you’re in, if you don’t have good schools you’re not going to have good real estate and everyone’s going to bail out. Young people aren’t going to move into a town where you don’t have good schools. ... We’ve gotta be talking about what’s important, and that’s what’s going on in the classrooms.

“Like I said, I could be totally out of turn and be a short-timer up here, but the bottom line in reality if this is what we’re going to do to make Brick Township a great town for kids to go to school in and parents to be proud of that’s what we gotta focus on going forward, and put all the other garbage behind and let’s get back to what it’s about, kids. ... When I was growing up in this town, everyone wanted to come to Bricktown,” Caldes said. “It was one of the fastest growing communities because everybody loved it. We had a great school system. We did have a model special ed program so parents did come here because we met their needs,” he said.

“This is not to say that we are not a great town right now,” Caldes said. “We need to bring us back to the kids. That’s what it’s all about.”

The board sat silently through the speech. How it was received -- and what impact it might have going forward -- is uncertain.

There are just two board meetings left, including Thursday night’s meeting, with the current board makeup of Cantillo, John Barton, Karyn Cusanelli, Susan Suter, Michael Conti, Frank Pannucci Jr. and Dr. Vito Gagliardi Sr.

Come January, Cantillo, Barton and Cusanelli will be joined by newcomers Victoria Pakala, who was vocally critical of the board over the Morgan issue; Stephanie Wohlrab, and John Lamela, who are replacing Suter, Conti and Pannucci. George White, who beat Talty in the election to fill the final year of Talty’s term, will replace Gagliardi, who was appointed to fill the seat through Dec. 31 and whose presence on the board has been a thorn in the side of many over the last five months.

“I hope we can move on at some point when all this other garbage is over and get back to the kid business,” Caldes said.