When Gerard Dalton accepted his 4-year, $766,000.00 contract to fill the role of Superintendent of Schools for the Brick Township Board of Education in 2018, I started to get hope. What I did not expect was a letter with the words ” It is with heavy heart that I have come to the decision to pursue a different path in my career, that of principal once again. ” to appear on the Brick School’s website at the end of his first school year, when he has technically not even been in the job for a full calendar year.

Superintendent Dalton may not have had much time to right the helm at Brick Schools, but I felt like he was on the right track. Starting with working towards Kristen A. Hanson’s (Director of Special Services, Brick Schools) goal of bringing the Autism Program back to Brick Schools, and followed with a series of workshops for parents of special needs children.

It’s fair to say that Brick has had a lot of changes in leadership, so what I’m hearing from the staff, the administration and the Board of Education is a sense of stability is needed to move forward, I’m coming from a strong district, and I will bring stability to the district.”

Gerald Dalton – Phone Interview (JerseyShoreOnline)

Like Superintendent Dalton stated when he took the job, Brick needs stability of Leadership to move forward. The district was faced with an enormous state funding cut that is going to result in 48 lost jobs, and larger class sizes, and no one at the helm to help them pass continued state regulations.

Sources have stated that both Susan McNamara (Director of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Brick Schools) and Dennis Filippone (former acting superintendent, Brick Schools) have been tapped as possible interim replacements however no questions have been answered as of yet when this decision will be made. State law requires schools to perpetually have a chief administrator in place.