UPDATE: Lacey BOE To Meet Friday Night To Discuss Brower Matter

Lacey school board members will have more to say about the indictment of schools Superintendent Sandra Brower at a special meeting on Friday night,  Board President Eric J. Schubiger said this afternoon.

The meeting will get underway at 8 p.m. in the lecture hall at Lacey Township High School, he said.

"It will be open to the public," Schubiger said.

Several board members earlier this week declined to comment on the matter and referred all press inquiries to Schubiger.

"We want time to review the indictment and have a chance to meet as a board," Schubiger said yesterday. "I'm sure we will have many comments after that."

Brower, 46, of Wall Township, was indicted by a Monmouth County grand jury on Monday.

She is charged with second-degree official misconduct, third-degree hindering apprehension and fourth-degree obstruction 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.

Brower pleaded not guilty to the three charges brought against her during an appearance before Judge Francis J. Vernoia at the Monmouth County Courthouse in Freehold on Monday afternoon. No bail was set and Brower was released. She is scheduled to appear in court again at 1:30 p.m. on June 10 at 1:30 p.m.

Brower is paid a base salary of $167,500, plus 12 sick days, 22 vacation days in addition to all school holidays, and free medical and dental insurance, among other perks, according to her Lacey contract. The contract expires July 1, 2016.

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Board Attorney Arthur Stein has said that the district received reports on the matter from Brower over a period of time. He did not say when those reports began.

“There was continual information that was not very clear to us, and there was information that there was [under] an investigation,” he said.

The board knew nothing of an investigation upon Brower’s hiring, he said.

“The first information that came out was the execution of the search warrant of Habel in September of 2012. Nobody gave any indication to the Lacey Board of Education of any improper activity of anyone prior to that time,” Stein said.

Former Wall Township Superintendent James Habel’s home was raided in September 2012. Brower had worked under Habel as assistant superintendent for three years before becoming Lacey schools superintendent in November 2011.

A background check was performed on Brower prior to her hiring but an investigation would not appear in such a check, he said.

“We had no idea when the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office may have initiated an investigation,” Stein has said. “If you ask for public records, they’re confidential, so we wouldn’t be aware. It would not be disclosed. That’s exempt.”

At no point was the Lacey Township school district brought into the investigation, Stein said.

“There was no indication of activities in Lacey,” he said.

Michael Ryan, president of the Lacey Township Education Association, declined to comment.

"At this time the LTEA has no comment with regards to the current situation of Dr. Brower," Ryan said.