Supporters of at least two school employees who were not granted tenure are expected to express their displeasure to township Board of Education members at a meeting Thursday.
Last month, the board voted against granting tenure to principal Allison McConnell, as well as math teacher and former head football coach Patrick Dowling.
Board of Education members are prohibited by law from divulging personnel information, such as the reasoning behind denying tenure to an employee, to the press.
Board President Sharon Kight said those employees who were denied tenure would have the opportunity to appeal the decision.
McConnell has nine years of teaching experience, according to public records, and would have earned $121,847 during the 2012-13 school year. She already holds tenure as a vice principal.
Dowling, who has taught and coached in a number of school districts over the past 25 years, would have made $84,578 per year if granted tenure.
Dowling was hired in Brick after the retirement of long time head football coach Warren Wolf, who would later express his displeasure over Dowling's hiring and run for a seat on the Board of Education. Dowling was not recommended to continue as coach following the 2010 football season, though he remained employed as a teacher in the district.
Supporters of the two employees have promised to voice their displeasure over the non-tenure vote at a meeting of the board which will be held Thursday. The vote has spurred separate online petitions in support of the pair, with the Dowling petition having reached about 800 signatures and the McConnell petition having reached about 100.
The agenda for Thursday's board meeting includes a motion to "approve employment for the 2012-2013 school year" pending a board Human Resources Committee meeting that was scheduled for May 14. No details were given on what employees, if any, would be included in that motion.
The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Brick Township High School auditorium.
If you already have tenure in another position in the same district, you simply have to go back to the former position (not fired from the district). In the case of Mr Dowling, he had no other tenured position in the district so, in affect, he was fired.
Mr Dowling is a great teacher, a good man and a great father and did not deserve this back-stabbing by our BOE.
I would like to hear from a BOE member who can give me real reasons for this travesty they are perpetuating.
A teacher that looks like they are just taking a free ride may be so good that they make the job look easy and then you think that their is nothing to it. Try it for a week (just try to substitute for a week) and then tell me teachers are buying time.
You hit it right on the head... This is all about 'getting him', getting rid of the coach that Mr Wolf didn't want.
person's job. A few years ago when my child was in Drum Point a wonderful principal was transferred for no reason. Sometimes these things happen and we don't know the reasons behind them but its a disgrace when parents are using and posting such language towards board members. That's not the way to go about saving someone's job. It makes it look like you are the bullies. Think before you react.
1. the school board 2. the superintendent and administrators 3. the parents. The school board routinely makes arbitrary decisions- nepotism, favoritism and corruption are rampant. Often, school-board members' relatives occupy teacher positions and are easily re-hired,at the expense of other better-qualified teachers. School board decisions are often made in secrecy. Administrators are pressurized by school-board members, and they in turn pressurize teachers. The administrators often hire teachers and fire them before tenure because this is much cheaper and the law gives them a lot of leeway to do this. In other words, this is a form of modern-day exploitation. Parents are another special interest group. They apply pressure on the teachers thru' administrators and even the Board to give their children better grades. It appears that these days every parent thinks his/her child is college material, even if the student does no work. The kids look at this situation, and see no reason to put in any work, since they will get good grades anyway. So you see, the teacher is in a very tight bind. The only way to protect the teachers' interest is to have the tenure law in place. Unfortunately, the ultimate long-term losers in this are the children who are the Nation's future.
Teachers are making a great amount of money for a 9 month time plus they have lots of vacation days off. WoW what a nice job!