Schools

UPDATE: Brower's Employment May Be Discussed at Special BOE Monday Meeting

Superintendent has been suspended since her indictment in 2013

The Lacey Township Board of Education will hold a meeting Monday that will likely center around the employment status of suspended school district superintendent Sandra Brower.

Brower, 46, was hired to lead the Lacey school district in Nov. 2011, but was suspended without pay in June 2013 after she was indicted by a Monmouth County grand jury for failing to immediately report a teacher's possible sexual assault of a 4-year-old special needs student while she was Wall Township's assistant superintendent.  But in January, all charges were dropped against Brower, leaving the status of her employment contract with Lacey - which does not end until July 1, 2016 - in limbo.

Vanessa Clark, an assistant superintendent, has been serving as acting superintendent since Brower was suspended.

Monday's meeting of the Board of Education includes "personnel matters" as the only item listed on its agenda, though it is widely surmised that the Brower contract will be the primary, if not the only, matter discussed.

At the time Brower was suspended, Arthur Stein, the board's attorney, told Patch that since Brower had not pleaded guilty to, or been convicted of any crime, the board did not have the power to appoint a new superintendent. Stein said at the time that, in the case Brower was cleared of any wrongdoing, she would have the right to return to the Lacey district.

In July, the board took the preemptive step of declining to renew Brower's contract despite the three years that remained before it ended.

Brower's tenure in Lacey was tumultuous while she served as superintendent, between the indictment, a wrongful termination lawsuit filed against her by former Wall employees, as well as a less-than-stellar relationship with the community and the press.

The meeting Monday has been scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Lacey Township High School lecture hall.


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