Brick School Board Approves Interim Special Education Director

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township Board of Education approved the hiring of an interim director of special education Thursday evening, according to the meeting agenda.

Joseph Jakubowski was approved by a 5-0 vote with one abstention Thursday night. He will start effective Dec. 5 and finish the 2016-17 school year, with a per diem rate of $550 for the 5-days-per-week position. Board President John Lamela was absent Thursday and John Barton, whose wife teaches in the district, abstained.

Susan Jurewicz, who has been the district's director of special education and is scheduled to retire as of Jan. 1, is out on leave, interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella said Thursday afternoon.

"We are recommending an interim until we find a suitable replacement for her," Gialanella said.

Jakubowski has an extensive special education background, according to his Linked In profile. The Freehold resident was director of special services in the Upper Freehold Regional School District from December 1979 to August 2004, when he retired. He has more recently served in a similar capacity in other school districts for short-term situations, including September 2011 to July 2013 in the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District; from September 2013 to July 2015 in the North Hanover Township School District, and he served a four-month stint in the Barnegat Township schools, from September 2015 to December 2015.

Between his job in the Upper Freehold district and his time in Matawan-Aberdeen, he was a consultant at the Center for Empowered Leadership and also to the state Department of Education.

His biography at the Center for Empowered Leadership, where he is listed as a senior associate and mentor, says he spent 10 years as a special education teacher and four years as a Title 1 coordinator and was the administrator for a countywide vocational/educational program for urban disadvantaged children for four years.

Jakubowski also has served as the special education representative on approximately 25 Collaborative Assessment and Planning for Achievement (CAPA) teams in New Jersey. "These teams help underachieving schools meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind," the biograpy said. He also serves as a mentor to new directors of special services, the biography said.

Jakubowski, who has a bachelor's degree in special education from Kutztown University, holds a master's degree from Temple University in teaching emotionally and socially maladjusted children.

A 2003 article in the Greater Media News publication the Examiner, Jakubowski addressed the possibilities of the Upper Freehold district keeping more of its special education students in the district rather than paying outside schools and agencies to educate them.

"While he stressed that cost should not be the first consideration in deciding to educate students in-house, (Jakubowski's) data showed that tuition costs for out-of-district students were in the range of $40,000 to $45,000 per child," the article said. "Within the district, each special education teacher might cost $60,000 per year; aides, $25,000; physical therapists, $80 per hour; occupational therapists, $55 per hour; and a speech and language specialist would cost the district $60,000 a year."

Bringing more special education students back into the district for their education is an issue the current Board of Education has raised as a goal at several meetings this year.

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