Secaucus Mayor Gets Involved In Fight Over Suspended HS Principal

SECAUCUS, NJ — The decision to suspend the Secaucus High School principal has upset many in town, and is now evolving into a fight between Mayor Mike Gonnelli and the Secaucus school district, most notably the Board of Education and its attorney, Steve Fogerty.

Gonnelli said on Tuesday night that he has filed OPRA requests to reveal the amount of money the Secaucus Board of Education is paying Fogerty in legal fees to handle the rapidly escalating legal battle with suspended high school principal Dr. Robert Berckes.

Gonnelli's OPRA requests come after news Tuesday that Berckes said he intends to file a $5 million lawsuit against superintendent Jennifer Montensano and the Secaucus Board of Education. Berckes contends Montesano and the Board unjustly suspended him for the way he handled a disciplinary incident with a student in April.

"What has it cost you to do this? I want to know what their attorney fees are. How high did they go? I know they went up; I was told they have doubled since this incident," said Gonnelli on Tuesday evening.

"I have the most respect for Jen, I think she does a great job. But unfortunately I think somebody gave her bad advice in this case," Gonnelli added. He declined to say who. "I really don't know who. But somebody gave her bad advice."

Gonnelli has long asked the nine-member Secaucus Board of Ed. to resolve the Berckes issue. He has been suspended, with his full salary, since April. The school year is almost over. Berckes said he has been humiliated by the district, and his career maligned.

"This is personal with me," said Gonnelli. "The Board of Ed. gets their money from us, the taxpayers. There has been no tax increase for the schools in the past few years, and we (the town) do a lot of things for the Board of Ed. — new buses, etc. There are so many things that we do for the Board of Ed. that you would think that me asking for them to make a decision on this, that it would have happened. But 10, 11, 12 weeks have passed and it hasn't happened."

Board of Ed. member Louis Giele agrees with Gonnelli.

"I really believe we are wasting taxpayers' money," Giele Patch Tuesday evening. He has previously called the suspensions "unnecessary" and said the entire handling of the matter has tarnished the Secaucus school district's reputation.

The initial incident occurred back in April: A student at Secaucus High School was caught with a small folding knife. Berckes said he was notified by Assistant Principal Jeffrey Case that a small amount of marijuana had also been found in the student's shoe.

Berckes said he and Case showed Secaucus schools superintendent Jennifer Montesano the bag and she asked what they planned to do with the drug. Berckes said he told Montesano he would give it to the Secaucus High school resource officer, who said it should be flushed down the toilet.

Berckes said he and the officer did that, and at the time Montesano had no objection.

Within the next few days, however, she suspended both Berckes and Case for that decision, and they have remained suspended ever since. The vice principal, Case, has since quit the Secaucus school district.

Gonnelli defended Berckes.

"If Dr. Bob is telling the truth about what he did, it is quite honestly, what he did is not something that would cause him to lose their job," Gonnelli said.

"It's troubling to me that this state of affairs has escalated to such a point," fellow board member Sharon Dellaface told NJ.com. "As high school principal, Dr. Berckes has consistently made our students his first priority. Under his leadership, our high school has flourished by achieving landmark strides in several areas of education."

The police officer has been assigned away from the high school and was reprimanded by the department for the decision to flush the marijuana, Patch has been told.

Montesano and all nine members of the school board were named in the lawsuit.

Many of these issues will be discussed at the next Secaucus Board of Ed. meeting, this Thursday night, June 28. It starts at 7 p.m.