'Everything Is On The Table:' 2020-21 Grim For Brick Schools

BRICK, NJ — As the Brick Township Board of Education approved the naming of an acting superintendent on Tuesday night, attention was focused on the future of the district, and not just on who will become its next superintendent.

Sean Cranston, the district's human resources director, was named acting superintendent starting Aug. 1, taking over for Gerard Dalton, who resigned after one year of a four-year contract to return to the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District, where he will be a building principal.

But the meeting turned into a testy exchange over what one resident insisted is inaction in the face of a plan by the state to reduce the Brick schools’ funding by $25 million.

Victor Fanelli, who attends most meetings of the school board and Brick Township Council and regularly excoriates both over taxes, demanded to know what the board’s plans are to deal with the cuts imposed under S2, the law pushed by state Senate President Stephen Sweeney that is cutting so-called “adjustment aid” to nearly 200 districts on the premise that their residents are not paying their fair share of the property tax burden for their schools.

S2 includes a provision requiring districts that are under adequacy — meaning they are not spending what the state Department of Education says is necessary for a thorough and efficient education — to increase their property tax levy by the full 2 percent to increase their spending. Brick is more than $10 million under adequacy, business administrator James Edwards has said.

Brick absorbed a $2.7 million aid cut for the 2019-20 school year that included staffing and program cuts. But for this school year, it wasn’t forced to the extremes that some other districts were faced with, such as closing schools.

"You didn't make big cuts," Fanelli said during the exchange with board president Stephanie Wohlrab, and asked when Brick is going to make the kinds of cuts other districts have made.

The depth of the anticipated aid cut for 2020-21, which is at least $5 million for Brick, means "everything is on the table," Wohlrab said. Fees for sports and activities, eliminating activities and closing schools all are options Brick will have to consider, she said.

"We are looking at things that none of us as a community, as parents, as board members, as educators are excited about," she said. But making those decisions is something that has to be done thoughtfully and deliberately, she said.

Fanelli responded with an annoyed tone, saying the school district was "not doing anything" to respond to the coming cuts.

"You're talking about looking and I'm talking about doing," he said. "You're losing the money now."

Wohlrab pushed back, saying the district has to keep the students at the forefront of its decision-making.

"There are children involved here, Mr. Fanelli," she said. "You’re talking about kids as if they are just numbers. They're not. They’re children and they matter and their education matters."

"I’m sorry if it’s not fast enough for you," she said, referring to cuts, "but I think it’s very important that its done properly. Because it’s not just a number, it’s not just a dollar sign that’s sitting in those seats every day. They’re children."

"We are the people that pay for that, we are the stockholders in the company," Fanelli interjected.

"And before you there were other grandparents and other people who paid for other people’s children," Wohlrab said. "That’s the way the system works."

Fanelli has been demanding the school board cut the budget for years, citing the district’s falling enrollment. But Dalton, in his final Brick school board meeting, said Fanelli’s statement overlooks the fact that at the district’s peak enrollment, which exceeded 10,000 students, there were elementary school classes with 35 or more students per classroom. The current elementary school classes have about 25 students per class.

Wohlrab noted the district’s special needs student enrollment has changed as well, and those classes include much smaller numbers of kids.

"We need to make sure that these options work for us in Brick. Just because it's working someplace else does not mean it's working here," Wohlrab said.

"You haven’t done anything," Fanelli insisted.

Cranston was chosen from among 11 or 12 district staffers who hold the school administrator certification needed to serve as a superintendent, Wohlrab said. Cranston, who has a provisional certification, was chosen because he was part of the administrative team that made a number of decisions about staffing and programs for the 2019-2020 school year. He also understands the human resources aspect of hiring a new superintendent, she said. Additionally, the board did not want to pull a principal away from one of the district's schools for part of the year, she said.

"He is someone who was part of the planning for this upcoming year," Wolhrab said, and that will allow the district to take care of its day-to-day work of educating students while a new superintendent is sought.

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