Personal Conflicts Will Limit Brick Board Members' Participation In Superintendent Evaluation, Hiring

Members of the Brick Township Board of Education who have a conflict that disqualifies them from voting on some personnel issues will also be excluded from having any roles in the firing, hiring or evaluation of the district’s superintendent, the board was told Monday night.

According to Kathy Winecoff, a representative from the New Jersey School Boards Association, the New Jersey School Ethics Commission is taking a definitive approach to the subject in its recent advisory rulings. Winecoff met with the Brick Township Board of Education Monday night at a school board retreat at the district’s administration building to go over the board’s self evaluation and address issues that have arisen in recent months.

And while the meeting touched on several subjects, Winecoff spent several minutes on the issue of how conflicted board members are impacted by their conflicts.

“Conflicted board members may not participate in a board search for a new superintendent,” Winecoff said. “You can’t even be involved in setting the criteria for a new hire. You can’t be involved in the selection of a search firm if you’re conflicted.”

Winecoff said that has been the message of several advisory opinions from the School Ethics Commission. The commission, she said, has defined conflicts as having a family member who works in the district -- and not just spouses or children, but siblings, cousins, in-laws are included, she said. Additionally, she said, anyone who has a family member working in another district is considered as having a conflict when it comes to issues such as teacher contracts, she said.

The Brick school board currently has three members -- Frank Pannucci Jr., Michael Conti and John Barton -- who all have conflicts and are forced to recuse themselves from voting on certain personnel matters. Barton’s wife and Conti’s wife both teach in the district, and Pannucci’s sister is a teacher in the district.

With the status of Superintendent Walter J. Uszenski uncertain -- he was arrested in early May and has been on a paid suspension since then -- how the board will be able to take any actions was an issue that needed to be clarified.

The board, which has been operating with just six members since the resignation of John Talty in April due to health issues, has been forced to invoke the doctrine of necessity on certain issues because there are only three members who do not have conflicts, meaning they do not have a majority of the board able to vote.

Winecoff said the School Ethics Commission, however, has ruled that if a board has three members -- or even two in some circumstances -- who do not have a conflict, they can proceed with hiring and evaluating the superintendent even though the board does not have a majority able to vote.

“Since January there have been 53 advisory opinions on board members’ service that have completely changed the playing field,” Winecoff said. “ It has nothing to do with New Jersey School Boards Association; it has nothing to do with the Brick Township Board of Education or Sharon as president. This is coming from the ethics commission.”