Brick School Board Meeting Again Tonight

BRICK, NJ -- When newly sworn-in Brick Township Board of Education member Victoria Pakala was asked the reason for proposing to have the school board meet seven days after the reorganization meeting, her reply to was that the new board members wanted to get right to work.

That was before the new board voted to give termination notices to all of the district’s outside professionals -- attorneys, engineers, insurance brokers and more.

There’s a full agenda for the 7 p.m. meeting, which will be held at Brick Memorial High School instead of Brick Township High School, shows a lot of expected items -- honoring fall sports teams and athletes, personnel matters, and such.

It also includes a revision of one of the actions taken last week, where requests for proposal were to be sought for most of the professionals (board attorney Jack Sahradnik was not included because his contract does not contain a clause allowing for a 30-notice of contract termination).

On Thursday night’s agenda, there are items to amend the RFP motion approved last week, and instead put the insurance brokerage services for both medical benefits and workers compensation out to competitive bidding.

John Lamela, board president, said the four new board members elected -- himself, Pakala, Stephanie Wohlrab and George White -- ran on the ”Clean Slate” team, and felt the immediate moves to rebid contracts for professional services were necessary because that was the platform the group ran on.

Lamela, in his remarks at the end of the meeting, said the goal is “to bring pride, accountability and respect back to the Brick schools.”

The next Brick Township Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Feb. 4, back at Brick Township High School, in anticipation of bids being opened in late January.