Brick Schools' Transportation Department Managers Not Renewed; Sangiovanni Plans Ethics Charges

Come Wednesday, the Brick Township School District’s transportation department will be without its top three employees -- transportation manager Joseph Sangiovanni, assistant manager Tracey Nardiello and district services manager Lynelle Batzel.

Sangiovanni’s name was not on the list of unaffiliated employees that interim Superintendent Richard Caldes submitted to the Brick Board of Education for approval at last Thursday’s school board meeting.

Sangiovanni, by email, placed the blame for that at the feet of the Board of Education, specifically former board member John Talty and Board President Sharon Cantillo, and said he intends to file ethics charges against both.

“The reward for cooperating with the prosecutor’s office and telling the taxpayers the truth is getting fired from the BOE of Brick Township,” Sangiovanni said in the emailed statement. “There are laws that protect employees from retaliation for speaking to the authorities regarding illegal activities in the workplace. As we know by now this BOE has no regard for following the law. I cooperated with the Prosecutors office regarding Dr. Uszenki and the President of our BOE as a result I’m out of work.”

“I’ve had eight years of great annual reviews and I’ve never been written up regarding my performance,” Sangiovanni wrote. “Suddenly I’ve been used as a scapegoat for the layoff plan that the BOE told me to put together even though I told them it wouldn’t work. This was the method used to retaliate against me for speaking to the prosecutor’s office regarding illegal activity at the BOE.”

Cantillo and Talty both say Sangiovanni’s claims of ethics violations are baseless and are sparked by his anger over his contract not being renewed. Both said that decision was made by Caldes, who did not include Sangiovanni on a list of nonaffiliated employees whose contracts were to be renewed.

The layoff plan -- submitted to the state Civil Service Commission about two weeks ago -- would result in 24 full-time driver positions being cut, the board and residents were told at a special meeting June 15. An original plan to cut 31 drivers that was part of the 2015-16 school budget approved by the school board April 30 was reduced, Caldes said, after he and other administrators began looking closely at the plan. Caldes also said at the June 15 meeting that it was possible the number could be reduced further, though he made no promises.

Nardiello and Batzel both were on the list for renewal of their contracts, with raises for both. But in the wake of the furor over the layoff plan and commentary at board meetings that the issues of late student pickups, missing buses and more, members of the public complained last week about the renewals for the two and the raises.

Caldes explained the two were on the list to have their contracts renewed because until a full review of the management of the Transportation Department is completed, he needed people in place to run the department. He added that the contracts for both Nardiello and Batzel included clauses that would have allowed the district to terminate them with 30 days’ notice, if the full review determined they had not been doing their jobs adequately or were responsible for the issues within the department.

That apparently wasn’t enough to satisfy either the public or the board, as board members Frank Pannucci Jr., Michael Conti and Susan Suter voted not to renew the contracts, while John Barton abstained from voting on the issue. Cantillo and Karyn Cusanelli voted in favor of renewing them.

Sangiovanni, who has been out on medical leave, has said the layoff plan and the original number of 31 drivers was the result of demands from school board members, a claim board members have said both publicly and privately is not true. Sangiovanni also said it is part of the basis for statements from an outside transportation consultant that board members interfere too much in the running of the transportation department.

That also is why, he said, he plans to file ethics charges against Cantillo and Talty.

“Against Mrs. Cantillo for micromanaging the district and improper dealings with vendors,” Sangiovanni said. “Against Mr. Talty for telling me that my contract wasn’t being renewed while he was still a board member and represented to me that he had the votes to make it happen.”

Cantillo said Sangiovanni’s claim that his contract was not renewed as retaliation for talking to the prosecutor’s office was baseless.

“How would I know he had talked to the prosecutor’s office?” she said, when reached by phone on Monday. “They (the prosecutor’s office) brought me down in my capacity as board president. I had no knowledge of who they were bringing in.”

Cantillo also said the decision not to renew Sangiovanni’s contract was not the board’s, but was that of Caldes.

“I didn’t know he was losing his job until the agenda went out,” she said, adding that she didn’t know Caldes had sent a letter to Sangiovanni informing him of the termination until Caldes said at the board meeting that it had been sent.

“Dr. Caldes is not required to check with me before he performs his duties,” she said, adding that Sangiovanni, who served on the Board of Education in the mid-1990s, should understand the roles that board members have.

“Many people do not understand that the school board does not do the hiring,” Cantillo said. The board only has the opportunity to act on the people presented to it by the superintendent. “Mr. Sangiovanni has that unique information and experience because he was a board member.”

“There was not a decision for the board to make (on Sangiovanni’s contract) because there nothing to vote on,” she said.

“If I was micromanaging, say how I did it,” she said, adding that the claim of improper dealings with vendors made no sense and without details she couldn’t even begin to respond to what he was claiming.

Talty, reached at home Monday afternoon, said Sangiovanni’s claim that Talty threatened his job is false.

“What I did is what I’ve done with other people who were having an issue with their (job) performance,” Talty said. “I gave him a heads up.”

Talty said he told Sangiovanni that the issue of absenteeism -- which Talty said got worse after contract negotiations started -- was putting his job in jeopardy. And he said the conversation with Sangiovanni was meant to be just between the two of them.

“You talk to someone in confidence to give them a heads up, you don’t expect it to be used against you,” he said. “I don’t know if I had four votes or not. I never asked anyone.”

He said the only time there was a reference to votes was in 2012, when, Talty said, Sangiovanni failed to show up for work for 11 days during the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. He said Sangiovanni was called before the human resources committee in that situation, and Talty said he pointed out to the transportation manager that the board could vote to let him go based on his failure to show up for work during that time.

“ ‘What would you do if a bus driver didn’t show up for 11 days?’ “ Talty said Sangiovanni was asked. “ ’What makes you better than them?’ “

That confrontation was the beginning of the issues with Sangiovanni, Talty said, but “I was not trying to get him terminated. A number of bard members were growing frustrated with things not improving.”

“I don’t know if I had four votes or not. I never asked anyone,” Talty said. “I hadn’t even made up my mind.”

And regardless, he said, he was no longer on the board when Caldes made the decision to not renew Sangiovanni’s contract, so he could not possibly have had a role in the decision.

If Sangiovanni follows through on his threat to file ethics charges, the ones who will suffer are the town’s taxpayers, who will be stuck with the legal bills, Talty said. “They will have to pay thousands of dollars to represent me,” he said.

Note: An earlier version of this article said John Barton voted not to renew the contracts. It has been updated to reflect that he abstained from voting on the Human Resources item that included them.

(Brick Board of Education President Sharon Cantillo listens to a speaker at the May 28 school board meeting. Richard Caldes, the interim superintendent, is to her right. Credit: Karen Wall)