Mid’twn BOE reorganizes

MIDDLETOWN — After swearing in new members, the township Board of Education got to work on setting the finances for the district’s 2011-12 school year at its May 4 reorganization meeting.

It was the first time the board met since voters approved the $124 million budget in the April 27 election by a slim margin of 125 votes.

Joan Minnuies, in her 10th year on the board, was elected as its president. Chris Aveta was unanimously elected vice president.

“I’m really looking forward to getting to work with the board and opening lines of communication so we actually accomplish a lot of things,” Minnuies said. “We want to listen to the voters and try to move the district forward.”

The board was quick in making the district’s professional service appointments — unlike last year’s meeting, which saw an attempt to table the whole process.

Board member Vincent Brand pointed out that newly elected board members Bob Banta, Leonora Caminiti, John Macrae and Gerald Wexelberg were already briefed on the appointments and their costs.

“We had an opportunity to brief the board on these appointments and give them some time to absorb what we’re doing,” he said. “I’d like to think that what we did this year will continue on into the future.”

All professional service contracts on the meeting’s agenda came in without increasing rates from last year, including Christopher Parton, the board attorney present at the meeting.

The board had already decided to put the insurance broker of record appointment up for bid before the reorganization meeting so that some cost savings could be realized.

“That was a big issue during the election and the budget process,” Aveta said. Five of the seven responses the board received were half the current cost, which Aveta said could save the district roughly $150,000.

“As we look forward, we’ll be looking at all our professional service appointments year by year to make sure we’re not only getting the best price, but the best value,” he said.

The board held its regular voting meeting after the reorganization, and a few members of the public expressed concerns about the proposed Four Ponds development in the Lincroft section at the former Avaya office site, under review by the Planning Board the same night. The plan calls for 342 residential units, some of which would satisfy state Council on Affordable Housing regulations.

The plan estimates that 80 elementary schoolchildren would enter Lincroft schools, but resident Susan Dzugan estimated it would be a lot higher.

“We know Lincroft Elementary School is already bursting at the seams, as many of our elementary schools are,” she said. “I imagine the only solution that’s going to happen is redistricting, and that’s something that people are not happy about.”

Interim Superintendent of Schools Thomas Pagano agreed that the board needs to take a close look at the impact the Avaya redevelopment would have on the school system.

“While we haven’t had formal discussions with the [Township Committee] about it, certainly those types of discussion need to be held,” he said.

Other parents raised concerns about the four Professional Learning Community Days on the 2011-12 school calendar, which the board mandated as delayed openings for all students.

Mike Maggipinto suggested that the board “split the difference” and name two of them as early dismissals.

“For myself and families with two working parents or single parents, delayed openings have a tendency to be a little more difficult for arranging schedules,” he said, asking the board to “seriously consider tailoring” the days for next year.

The board was scheduled to hold a special voting meeting Wednesday, May 11; its next regular voting meeting will be Wednesday, May 25, at Middletown High School North, 63 Tindall Road.