New school board shot the messenger

Former interim Superintendent Melindo A. Persi had a warning for the newly elected Board of Education members.

And it was a warning they will have to heed, now that the glow following last month's school board elections has worn off, replaced with financial reality.

$1.9 million. $1.9 million. $1.9 million. Persi said it over and over during the past few months, like a mathematical mantra.

It was the magic number the new board members would have to come up with in order to address a budget shortfall and keep the much-loved Primary Learning Center on Chambers Bridge Road open.

It's easy for a candidate without any previous baggage to talk about other alternatives to closing the Primary Learning Center, without actually revealing what they are.

And the new board appears to have bungled badly during its inaugural meeting on April 29.

They dumped Persi unceremoniously, after a two-hour closed session, and replaced him with former Brick school administrator Mary Ann Ceres.

They dumped him even though he probably knew more about the ins and outs of the defeated school budget than anyone else in town.

Many in town griped about the $700 a day he was paid. But that's about the going rate for school superintendents in districts the size of Brick.

Ceres will be paid $550 a day. But the $750 per week the board thinks they saved by firing Persi could well be eaten up if Persi takes some type of legal action for being ousted with so little warning.

Persi has already hired Toms River attorney Robert Shea to determine if his rights were violated when he was terminated. Shea thinks the decision to terminate Persi was made even before the new board members were sworn in.

And it will take Ceres and the three new board members time to acquaint themselves with a complicated budget and come up with some real answers about how to keep the Primary Learning Center open.

The board should have kept Persi on until November, or at least given him a little more notice. The man who routinely put in 12-hour days and worked on weekends deserved that.

The numbers don't lie. Brick's enrollment is dropping and will continue to drop. The township is almost fully developed. Something's got to give, and soon.