CJSR files OPRA request with East Brunswick Board of Education on Steinfeld’s departure

With no response from East Brunswick school officials for comment on the recent departure of Bears’ football coach Andy Steinfeld – who was not retained after five years as head coach and some two decades involved with the program, including as a player and assistant – Central Jersey Sports Radio has filed an Open Public Records Act request with the East Brunswick school district for more information related to the decision.

While all Steinfeld’s assistants were approved at the July Board of Education meeting, Steinfeld’s reappointment – all high school coaches must be reappointed annually in New Jersey – the board tabled a vote on Steinfeld himself, and he was requested to interview before a committee.

That committee was comprised of seven members, according to Steinfeld, and included four members of the administration, plus three “community members,” at least one of which is connected to a local youth football program unaffiliated with East Brunswick schools.

Steinfeld says during his interview, those community members “bashed” his program, including a decision last year to allow seventh-graders onto the East Brunswick district’s middle school team.  Steinfeld says those community members complained that the decision was cutting into participation in their youth football programs.

Steinfeld says he was told by Athletic Director Frank Malta he still likely had enough votes for approval and would be recommended for hiring, but something changed, and Malta – who the coach credits for supporting him throughout the entire process – eventually informed him he would no vote was be held and that he was being let go.

Offensive coordinator and Steinfeld’s “right-hand man” Matt Pazinko – who like Steinfeld, played for and coached with longtime EB head coach Marcus Borden, now a high school football analyst with Central Jersey Sports Radio – has been named interim head coach for the year.

CJSR’s OPRA request asks for emails and communications involving district officials, the entire Board of Education, Steinfeld, Pazinko, and community members on the committee believed to be influential in the decision to not retain Steinfeld. Those community members are not being named by Central Jersey Sports Radio, since their identities have not yet been made public by the district or Board of Education.

That is the main crux of the OPRA request: that a committee put together to re-interview the coach after five season on the job – which is not standard practice – was not publicized or revealed to the public. In addition, the Board of Education did not officially vote on whether to retain Steinfeld. Rather, the lack of a vote simply means he was not reappointed.

The OPRA request seeks to identify why the committee was created, who sat on the committee, how the Board of Education was influenced, and why the Board chose not to conduct an on-the-record vote as to his appointment; instead, it simply let his appointment as head football coach lapse..

The timing of the move was also controversial, coming just two weeks before the start of pre-season practice, which begins all across New Jersey next Monday, August 12th. Typically, coaches not being retained are informed shortly after the season, in December of January, and new coaches are hired by the first month or two of the New Year.

According to the New Jersey Open Public Records Act, the East Brunswick School district has seven business days – starting the day after the request is received – to provide the requested documentation or deny the request – either actively, or by not responding – though it may ask for an extension.

In that instance, the district would need to respond either way by Monday, August 19th.

UPDATE: The East Brunswick Board of Education has informed Central Jersey Sports Radio it would need additional time – three weeks – to fulfill our request, due to the “voluminous” nature of documentation requested, including more than a dozen individuals over a more than eight month period dating back to December 1, 2023. The extension sets a new deadline of September 9th.