'Scorched Earth:' New Brick School Board Begins Ouster Of Superintendent, Professionals

BRICK, NJ -- The ink was barely dry on the oaths of office when the new members of the Brick Township Board of Education made it clear who is running the show now.

Within minutes of electing John Lamela as the new board president at the board’s reorganization meeting Thursday night, the new board members pushed through an agenda addendum putting on notice all of the district’s outside professionals -- from architects to attorneys -- that they are terminating their contracts.

In addition, they announced an immediate search for a new superintendent of schools.

Lamela, Victoria Pakala and Stephanie Wohlrab were the top vote-getters in the school board election in the fall, filling the seats vacated by Michael Conti, Frank Pannucci Jr. and Susan Suter, whose terms expired and who all chose not to seek re-election.

Conti and Pannucci ran on the Republican ticket for Township Council and were defeated; Suter stepped down because, she said, she felt she had served her time and it was time for new blood.

Also elected in November was George White, to fill the one year remaining on the term of John Talty, who resigned last April due to health issues. Talty later tried to return to the board, setting off a chain of events that led to Dr. Vito Gagliardi Sr. being named to fill the seat through the end of December.

Conti and Suter were present at the start of Thursday night’s meeting, sitting on the dais until Lamela and Pakala were sworn in, but neither Pannucci nor Gagliardi attended.

The Brick Township Democratic Club made its presence felt, with Councilman Jim Fozman and newly elected Councilwoman Lisa Crate in attendance, receiving a welcome from board member John Barton, who is entering the second year of his term.

“I look forward to working with the council in the future,” Barton said.

Also in the audience was Dan Rosa, a former member of the board and former business partner of Lamela. Rosa moved from the back of the auditorium to the front row after Lamela was selected as president, sitting directly across from board member Sharon Cantillo. When Cantillo -- who, as the outgoing president, offered guidance to Lamela as he ran the meeting for the first time -- slipped and didn’t refer to Lamela as president, less than 10 minutes after he was chosen, Rosa growled from his seat, ”You should refer to him as president now.”

Rosa continued to stare at Cantillo for the remainder of the meeting but said nothing more. Rosa was elected to the board in April 2005 and defeated in the April 2008 election.

The move to terminate professional contracts came on the heels of a motion by Pakala to amend the board meeting dates, changing the scheduled Jan. 28 meeting to next Thursday, Jan. 14, and adding a meeting Feb. 4. When board members Sharon Cantillo and Karyn Cusanelli questioned the need for the change, Pakala was evasive, saying the new board members wanted to get to work quickly and had some things they wanted to accomplish right away.

Moments later, those things became apparent when Pakala introduced an amendment to the agenda that included six more items.

The additional items included:

• Appointing attorney Nick Montenegro to a 45-day contract as the board attorney;
• Issuing a 30-day termination notice to all the professionals, from the attorneys to bond counsel to insurance brokers to architects and engineers;
• Seeking RFPs (request for proposal, similar to a bid) for all of the professional positions, to be opened Feb. 1;
• Commencing a search for a new superintendent of schools;
• Having Montenegro get a status update on the criminal proceedings against suspended Superintendent Walter Uszenski and researching what the board can do to terminate his contract;
• Getting a status report on all pending litigation against the district.

Cantillo and Cusanelli -- who were not advised ahead of time about the list -- questioned the moves and abstained on almost every vote, with the exception of the move to appoint Montenegro for 45 days, where Cantillo voted in favor while Cusanelli abstained.

Both questioned why the list wasn’t shared with all of the board members ahead of time, and Lamela blamed it on a misunderstanding with interim Superintendent Richard Caldes: ”I gave it to him Monday and I thought he would hand it out,” Lamela said. “He told me I should introduce it as an addition to the agenda, but I thought he would share it with everyone.”

Cusanelli questioned whether terminating all the professionals’ contracts would put the district in danger of litigation, and Pakala said she was of the understanding that all of the professionals’ contracts included a 30-day termination clause.

“Mine does not,” Jack Sahradnik, the current Board of Education attorney, said. But he refused to offer an opinion on the potential impact of the moves.

“I never want to give an opinion from the dais without researching the issue first,” he said.

Cusanelli urged the board to table the move on the professionals until the meeting next Thursday, so the board could research and be sure there aren’t legal and financial ramifications to terminating the contracts.

“There there are things in progress with these professionals,” Cusanelli said, referring to several ongoing facilities projects that are in the design process with architects. “I’m concerned about this scorched earth approach.”

Montenegro, who was in the audience, stood up and said he was certain the other contracts included the termination clauses.

Lamela said that any projects that are in process will continue to be handled by the professionals who started them.

“We’re not taking anything away,” he said.

“We ran as the Clean Slate team,” Lamela said. “These are the foundations and building blocks on which we ran as a team.”

Cusanelli’s motion to table the items until next Thursday was defeated.

The move to find out whether the district can terminate Uszenski -- who has been suspended since his May arrest and suspended without pay since late September, when he was indicted -- also stirred questions, not only about whether it would put the board at legal and financial risk, but also ethics questions surrounding the eligibility of board members to vote or participate in any discussions about the superintendent’s job.

The School Ethics Commission has tightened its definition of what constitutes a conflict when it comes to relatives of board members, so much so that Cantillo found herself in conflict on personnel votes because her niece works in the district. The rules surrounding a superintendent search are even more restrictive, the board was told in August during a board retreat.

Lamela said he did not believe that any of the new members had those conflicts.

“We have the top guy in the district led out in handcuffs and we’re paying him,” Lamela said. “I think it’s fair and reasonable to ask that.”

After the meeting, Lamela said the terminations doesn’t mean the terminated professionals are completely out.

“The same people are welcome to apply,” he said, and the board will select the best offer.

The search for a superintendent will be conducted in-house, he said, and there is no timeline.

“We just want to go out and look,” he said, because Caldes’ appointment to fill in as interim superintendent after Uszenski’s arrest “was as if you said, ‘Tag, you’re it,’ “ Lamela said.

“I want to make sure Dr. Caldes is the best,” he said.

And the board wants to keep it in house because ”outside firms often overlook resumes from right here in the Shore Conference,” Lamela said.

The board’s plan is to interview the candidates and seek input on the questions from teachers, staff and the community, then rank the candidates.

In the end, Lamela said, the board wants to be able to defend its choice, good or bad.

”It could be Dr. Caldes, and he’s welcome to apply,” but the new members want to fully vet a candidate.

As the meeting drew to a close, Lamela urged the board to be polite and professional and said he would require the same of members of the public who get up to address the school board, and that he would be limiting speakers to 3 to 5 minutes.

“Let’s really focus on the issues we have before us,” he said. “Let’s focus on our kids, our budget, our faciilites and let’s get this done right.”

“I look forward to being harmonious,” he said.