Reader blasts 'horrendous' recent school board vote

Ihave read many of the news articles about coach Dowling, the new head football coach at Brick Township High School and the animosity directed at the members of the Brick School board for confirming Superintendent Hrycenko's hiring of him. This issue has dominated the Brick community for weeks, yet I believe that the citizens of Brick are angry and frustrated at school board members for the wrong reason.

There is no question about the legacy that Warren Wolf has left on the community of Brick. Coach Wolf is a beacon of integrity for all who have played and coached under him throughout his glorious and successful career.

Coach Dowling has been hired and many citizens of Brick have expressed a tidal wave of displeasure with the current school board members. One writer recently urged voters next year to purge the current school board by exhorting: "It doesn't matter who they vote for. Just get them out to vote." You are wrong, sir, it does matter who is voted in.

Vote? The town of Brick has a horrendous history of voter turnout not for school board elections, but for passing the school budget. The April 2009 election saw the school budget fail by less than 50 votes. A little more than 2,000 "yes" voters showed up in a town that probably has 10,000 parents with children in our school system. Brick citizens should feel shamed for their apathy and neglect.

Shame on you, Board of Education members! You did not do your job in effectively promoting the need for the 2009 school budget to be passed. This is what Brick residents should be furious about, not about the hiring of a football coach. How can Brick residents sleep at night knowing that a muchneeded financial budget that is essential to educate our children was defeated again?

It was estimated that if the school budget had passed, it would have only caused a $56-a-year increase in property taxes. Skip one dinner out with your family and the $56 would have been easily absorbed. The school board members should have been pounding the pavement, knocking on the doors of parents of Brick school children motivating them to vote "yes." The board members should have stuffed every mailbox in Brick with a flier explaining that the school budget would only cost residents an extra $56. The board members should have visited every classroom in every school in Brick explaining to our children the necessity and advantages of a passing school budget. (I explained this to my 5-yearold daughter when I took her into the voting booth.) These are the reasons why the school board members should be ousted.

Warren Wolf, the town of Brick needs you now. We need you on the Board of Education. We need you to contact every former player that you have ever coached, and we need them walking the streets of Brick every April urging the residents of Brick to vote "yes!" We need you leading rallies at the football field waging a fight much larger than a football game. We need every person that you have influenced and mentored to place banners, fliers, and posters in every business in Brick supporting the budget for our schools. We need to send a message to the "no" voting residents of Brick: support our schools or get out!

Coach Wolf, your work is not done. You have made Brick High School football an elite and proud program. You and every parent in Brick must strive to make the Brick school system as recognized as Point Pleasant Beach, Rumson-Fairhaven and Holmdel. If we don't care about the quality of education our children receive, the town of Brick will start to resemble towns like Lakewood and Neptune.
Vince Tesi
Brick