School district seeks a few good techies

BY DANIELLE MEDINA
Correspondent

BRICK - The Brick Township Board of Education is looking for community participation in its newly established ad hoc technology committee.

The committee will be studying the district's current technology status and addressing its future needs in terms of software and hardware, board member Brian DeLuca said.

"In the budget there was money allocated to purchase new computers," DeLuca said Sept. 18. "We want to tap into the community for their expertise in obtaining the best equipment for the best money."

Committee members already include DeLuca, fellow board member Cynthia McCarthy, and their campaign manager and board President Sharon Kight's husband, Richard Kight. They will work with Superintendent Thomas L. Seidenberger and the district's Director of Information Technology Leonard Niebo.

Richard Kight is vice president of Interactive Planet, a Clifton-based IT development firm.

When asked if she thought appointing her husband to a post on the technology committee when Richard Kight was the campaign manager for every sitting board member, and before résumés had been collected from residents was a conflict of interest, Kight said she was "not even going to grace that with an answer."

DeLuca called a Bulletin reporter minutes later to say Richard Kight was not his campaign manager in last year's board race. Richard Kight may have helped his campaign, DeLuca said, but DeLuca was his own campaign manager.

A N.J. Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) document received by the commission March 9 states Richard Kight is the chairperson of Voices for the Community, a local civic association listed on ELEC as a political action committee.

DeLuca ran for election last year as part of the Voices for the Community slate that also included Cynthia McCarthy and Dr. Allen J. Atheras. He is named as a slate candidate in campaign literature produced and paid for by Voices for the Community. All three candidates won.

Interested parties with a background in technology should forward their résumés to Board President Sharon Kight, Central Administration, 101 Hendrickson Ave., Brick, NJ 08723.

- Staff writer Colleen Lutolf contributed to this report.