By Jennifer Amato
Staff Writer
SOUTH BRUNSWICK – Barely audible above a mix of happy yells and the banging of a gavel was the announcement that South Brunswick Schools Superintendent Jerry Jellig has been placed on administrative leave.
The South Brunswick Board of Education unanimously voted Richard Chromey, director of Human Resources, to replace Jellig, effective May 9; member Barry Nathanson was not in attendance at the meeting held Monday night, May 9.
However, board President Stephen Parker said the board would not comment further due to this being a personnel issue, and said that any grievances filed against Jellig would be discussed between the school board and the union.
“We are part of a bigger movement to protect the integrity of the South Brunswick school district,” John Lolli, president of the South Brunswick Education Association, said after the vote. “Together we will renew South Brunswick to all it has always been: excellence.”
“South Brunswick is one of the beacons of Middlesex County and this part of the state,” said Marie Blistan, vice president of the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA). “I commend you [the board] for listening and working with our association members.”
Jellig was not present Mondaynight at the meeting.
South Brunswick High School (SBHS) senior Julianna Franco also stood before the packed auditorium at Crossroads Middle School North – with hundreds more people waiting in the hallways – to laud the school board for its actions.
“I think South Brunswick has a great education system,” she said. “I want to be a future educator myself, so I’m really happy we have taken the necessary actions to see we all have a voice. … To see all this unity throughout the community and throughout the district is really overjoying.”
For two hours prior to the public school board meeting, the Board of Education met in closed session. In the meantime, more than 400 educators from South Brunswick and the surrounding area came out to protest Jellig on May 9, chanting and waving to cars passing by Crossroads North as motorists honked their horns and waved back in support of the school district.
Lolli cited a number of grievances against Jellig since around November 2014; Jellig began as superintendent in June 2014. He mentioned the reprimanding of two members by Jellig, intimidation in the workplace, a loss of contractual time from parent-teacher conferences, questionable hiring practices, a quid pro quo promotional process, inappropriate and unprofessional administrative conduct as well as unfair labor practices for anti-union animus.
“Fear and retribution have permeated throughout the district,” he said. “[Morale] is at an all-time low.”
Lolli, who is also a law and economics teacher at SBHS, represents 748 certificated staff members, including teachers, paraprofessionals, secretaries, nurses, guidance counselors, librarians and athletic trainers. About 250 members of his union were joined by parents and students, as well as associations from East Brunswick, Monroe, Sayreville and Ewing Township, to name a few.
“I definitely think the people are here because they can sense change,” Lolli said during the protest. “I feel their presence supporting me in asking the board to do its job tonight.”
Members of the NJEA were also in attendance to support South Brunswick.
“This is a true showing of the staff and the community coming together in the district about what is not right in their school district. What is not right in South Brunswick is the superintendent not doing his job for the last 18 months,” NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer said. “He’s fallen down on the job. … It’s a matter of accountability, integrity and doing thing right thing and ethical thing.”
Contact Jennifer Amato at [email protected].