{"id":10933,"date":"2017-05-12T01:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T05:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=10933"},"modified":"2017-05-12T01:00:53","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T05:00:53","slug":"brick-boe-ponders-bring-back-suspended-superintendent-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2017\/05\/brick-boe-ponders-bring-back-suspended-superintendent-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick BOE Ponders: Bring Back Suspended Superintendent, Or Not?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Walter<\/a>

Walter Uszenski (File Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Board of Education members in Brick said they have thought long and hard about reinstating suspended Superintendent Walter Uszenski, but the possibility of the Ocean County Prosecutor\u2019s Office seeking a third indictment against him has kept them from considering the option.<\/p>\n

Uszenski, in February, had an indictment against him thrown out<\/a> by Superior Court Judge Patricia Roe, after it was revealed that prosecutors excluded evidence that may have exonerated him from their grand jury presentation. Uszenski is accused of providing day care services to his grandchild when the child was not eligible for them, however it came to light during court proceedings that the child previously had been eligible for such services before Uszenski was ever hired in the Brick school district.<\/p>\n

With no indictment against him, the Board of Education could legally reinstate Uszenski, as the Lacey Township board did when its former superintendent, Sandra Brower, had an indictment against her dismissed. However the Brick board has refrained from doing so because Uszenski\u2019s attorney has said in press interviews that that the prosecutor\u2019s office intends to seek another indictment. Earlier this week, Shorebeat exclusively broke the news<\/a> that Uszenski has filed paperwork stating his intention to file a $60 million lawsuit against the school district, Brick municipal government and the prosecutor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is something that is weighing heavily on our minds,\u201d school board vice president Stephanie Wohlrab said, responding to questions on the subject from members of the public Thursday night at a board meeting.<\/p>\n

Wohlrab said the board does not want to \u201cdisrupt\u201d the district by having Uszenski return, only to have another indictment handed up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen his own attorney is expecting an indictment, why would we disrupt the district like that \u2013 to bring him in and then send him out again,\u201d Wohlrab said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking for the easiest and cheapest path out of this situation,\u201d said resident Vic Fanelli. \u201cThe impression we get is that you\u2019re sitting on your hands right now, waiting to see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

George Scott, another resident, said bringing Uszenski back could prove to be the best option, given the potential litigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to have the compensatory [damage] amount reduced by having him reinstated because he has a valid contract,\u201d said Scott.<\/p>\n

Uszenski\u2019s contract runs through the 2017-18 school year. Interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella\u2019s contract runs through June 30, 2017, however he is eligible to be retained until Feb. 2018, when he reaches a two-year state-imposed deadline for interim superintendents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a difficult decision to make,\u201d Wohlrab admitted. \u201cWe don\u2019t have all the information to make the kind of decision you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Board of Education members in Brick said they have thought long and hard about reinstating suspended Superintendent Walter Uszenski, but the possibility of the Ocean County Prosecutor\u2019s Office seeking a third indictment against him has kept them from considering the option. Uszenski, in February, had an indictment against him thrown out by Superior Court Judge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[24,1281],"class_list":["post-10933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brick-schools","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-walter-uszenski"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/usz_bus.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-2Ql","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}