Secaucus Superintendent Now Aims To Fire High School Principal

SECAUCUS, NJ — The saga plaguing the Secaucus school district all spring and summer long has taken a turn for the worse: Secaucus superintendent Jennifer Montesano is now making moves to officially fire former high school principal Dr. Robert Berckes, sources told The Jersey Journal.

Montesano, who is only in her second year as Secaucus superintendent, has recommended the town Board of Education bring tenure charges against Dr. Berckes. Tenure charges are the most serious of charges that can be brought against a tenured public school employee, and they can result in one losing their job.

What happens next? The Secaucus Board of Ed. now has to hold a special meeting to vote on whether to drop the tenure charges recommended by Montesano, or forward them to the state commissioner of the Department of Education. From there, the state education commissioner decides if the matter is forwarded to an arbitrator, who would ultimately decide on the case, the Jersey Journal reported.

The next regular meeting of the Secaucus Board of Ed. is this Thursday night, July 26. They will not be voting on Montesano's recommendation to fire him this week; that meeting will be sometime in August. It will likely not be open to the public and media.

Dr. Bob has been the Secaucus High School principal for the past eight years. Montesano put him on a paid leave this spring, after she said he improperly handled an incident where a student was found with drugs.

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 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 has said publicly that 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. Montesano even called in the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office to investigate their actions, but the county prosecutor declined to press charges or even launch a formal investigation.

The vice principal, Case, has since quit the Secaucus school district.

But Dr. Berckes, a longtime Secaucus resident who also runs a chiropractic office on Flanagan Way, said he intends to file a $5 million wrongful termination lawsuit against Montesano and the Secaucus Board of Education.

Back in April, the Secaucus Board of Education approved her request to suspend them both.

Then, at a jam-packed Board of Ed meeting in late June, Montesano moved around all the principals in the district, transferring Dr. Berckes to be the principal of Clarendon elementary. However, Danielle Garzon, Supervisor of Elementary Schools and Testing, was named acting principal of Clarendon School effective July 1, 2018.

Clarendon school principal Steven Viggiani was moved over to run the high school. Board members Louis Giele, Sharon Dellafave and Kathleen McFarlane were the three Board members who voted against transferring the principals.

Berckes and Montesano are paid by Secaucus taxpayers: Montesano makes a reported $169,689 as Secaucus' superintendent; Dr. Berckes, who is still a full-time paid employee, makes about $120,000 as high school principal.

Ongoing Patch reporting of the saga:

Suspended Secaucus High Principal Sues District For $5 Million

Secaucus BOE Approves Principal Shakeup