Brick Schools Restructuring Administration, Superintendent Says

BRICK, NJ -- (Updated, March 18, 8:30 a.m.) The Brick Township Board of Education approved a significant restructuring of the district's personnel Thursday night.

"These are not new positions," Interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella said Friday. "These positions will be filled from within and three titles will be eliminated."

The new titles are director of special projects, director of curriculum and instruction and director of planning, research and evaluation.

The title of educational specialist, currently held by former interim superintendent Richard Caldes, will be eliminated, he said, as will the title of district testing coordinator. The third title that is eliminated will be decided after the three director positions are filled, Gialanella said.

The restructured staff would reduce the number of people reporting directly to Gialanella to just five: the three new positions, plus the director of special services, Susan Russell, and the business administrator, James Edwards.

Under the district's current structure, the superintendent directly supervises eight job titles and nearly two dozen people, including Edwards; Russell; Caldes; Megan Osborn, the district's human resources manager; the IT manager, the district testing coordinator, the academic supervisors and all the building principals.

Caldes currently supervises the district's B.E.S.T. preschool program and central registration and attendance.

Under the new chart, the director of planning, research and evaluation would supervise the B.E.S.T. program, QSAC, state testing, the high school guidance counselors, the HIB coordinator and the district's school nurses. Guidance counselors had previously been under the supervision of school principals.

The director of curriculum and instruction would supervise the principals, assistant principals, athletic directors, teachers, academic supervisors and academic coaches, bilingual programming and a new mentoring program.

The director of special projects would supervise the IT managers and staff and the human resources manager and staff.

The business administrator's responsibilities would remain unchanged, according to the new chart.

Other added categories on the chart are IDEA grants, under the director of special services; a generic grants category under the director of special projects; a mentoring program, and a staff development program. It is not clear from the chart whether those are added positions or ones that employees within the district will assume along with other duties.

The B.E.S.T. bookkeeper's position also is not listed on the new chart, but may have been folded into the B.E.S.T. staff.

The board also will be asked to approve job descriptions and advertisements for the three new titles. Proposed salary ranges were not included with the descriptions beyond the fact that they would be determined based on contracted salary scales.