Source: http://articles.philly.com/1986-03-30/news/26081252_1_student-council-school-board-board-members
By Nicole Brodeur, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: March 30, 1986Unlike most students at Delran High School, Sean Conaway and Leo Mahon are not relaxing much over their Easter break. Instead, they are planning their campaigns for school board.
Conaway and Mahon, both 18 and seniors at the high school, decided last month to run for two seats on the nine-member board in the April 15 election.
Conaway is running against four others, including incumbent Morris Burton, for one of three three-year terms. He was president of the student council until a few weeks ago, when he resigned to spend more time on his campaign.
Mahon is running against two others, including incumbent Walter G. Bowyer, for a single one-year unexpired term on the board. He is currently student council treasurer.
"The school board members don't seem to like it," Conaway said of his and Mahon's candidacies. "I guess because we know what goes on in this school."
"We have a different view of the school than the board members," Mahon said. "I haven't really seen any of the board members walking through the hallways."
The two students decided to run almost out of frustration; ideas that they brought to the student council twice were squelched by school officials, and they didn't understand why.
One idea was to reduce the cost of the senior prom for their classmates by selling soda after school. The money raised, they said, was to have been put into the senior-class funds and used to pay for the prom. Instead, they said, the council's advisers decided to spend the money on Spirit Week decorations.
"It was used to buy toilet paper to stuff chicken wire," Conaway joked.
The other idea involved installing a soda machine in the school for student use. They said that after the school board turned it down, a soda machine was installed in the yearbook office.
It was after such incidents that the pair decided to become part of the decision-making process.
Both said that since announcing their candidacies Feb. 20, they had been frustrated with the process of running for office. Conaway said getting the New Jersey School Board Association to validate the signatures on his nominating petitions had been especially frustrating. He said that he had received little notice about a recent hearing by the association concerning the signatures. After missing the meeting, he said, he was given 15 days to meet with the association for approval of the signatures.
"I'm still wondering if it's going to be worth it," he said yesterday, standing in a sweat suit in the high school weight room. A design that had been shaved into his short, brown hair is just growing in. "It's only been one month, and I'm really being hassled. But I don't want to say that."
School principal David Lamborne said he supported the students' right to campaign, which he said was "a great lesson in American democracy, actually, in American politics. They feel they have something to contribute, so I give them credit and encouragement."
Lamborne said that, to some people, the students' candidacies might be controversial because for the next three months they were still "clients" of the school system. He said others argued that 18-year-olds could not have the experience or the insight to serve on a township board.
"I don't think age in itself is the sole determinant of being able to make good decisions," Lamborne said. "Let them submit their credentials and their goals and their ideas, and let the public decide. I hate to see people sell them short, to criticize them, because they're trying."
Mahon has spent the last month familiarizing himself with the school budget. He said that his father, Gene, was excited for him and that friends were helping to spread his name around the township.
"I'm just trying to get into people's minds," said Mahon, who likes to lift weights and read the classics.
Mahon's goals are to improve the learning atmosphere for the district's students and to increase communication among the school district leaders, the community and the students.
"There's a big wall right now," Mahon said.
Conaway said he would like to find ways for the community to better benefit from school district facilities. He said, for example, that the high school's audio-visual equipment could be used to broadcast school board meetings over cable television and that, for a small fee, the school could open the gym to residents in summer.
Conaway, who works part time at Sears, Roebuck & Co. and is a member of the school track team, plans to attend Widener University in Chester in the fall, where he will major in business management and law. If he wins a three-year term, he said, he will commute and attend all school board meetings.
Mahon has applied to and is waiting for responses from Monmouth College and Glassboro and Montclair State Colleges. He said he would like to major in history and communications.
"I don't see any problem getting to school board meetings," he said. ''Unless my car breaks down."
A Crowded Field Of Candidates Includes Teachers And Students
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1986-04-06/news/26080154_1_student-council-school-board-board-seatsBy Nicole Brodeur, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: April 06, 1986It is the most crowded ballot voters have seen in years, and the list of candidates for three full terms and a one-year term on the Delran Township school board spans the educational community and goes beyond.
Among the candidates: the principal of a neighboring township's middle school; three teachers of various grades and subjects; two high school students seeking parts in the district's decision-making; a two-term school board member, and a self-employed personnel-insurance consultant.
No controversies have drawn the candidates together. The current board last month approved a $10.06 million budget for 1986-87 that, although 9 percent larger than last year's, would raise school taxes by less than 1 percent.
The budget, which will receive a vote at the same time the board seats are decided, would increase the tax rate by three cents, to $1.75 per $100 of assessed value from $1.72. A resident with a home assessed at $50,000 would pay $875 next year, up $15 from this year's $860.
Despite the district's controlled fiscal outlook, the campaign trail has been anything but smooth.
Things got interesting the day nominating petitions were filed and Delran High School students Sean Conaway and Leo Mahon, both 18, announced their candidacies.
Conaway left his post as student council president to manage his campaign for a three-year term on the school board, his duties as a member of the high school track team and his part-time job at Sears, Roebuck & Co. Mahon, who does not work, is student council treasurer and one of three people seeking to fill a one-year, unexpired term on the board.
Conaway said he would like to develop better ways for the community to benefit from the district's facilities. He said that the high school's audio- visual equipment could be used to broadcast school board meetings over cable television and that, for a small fee, the school could open the gym to residents in summer.
Mahon said he would like to improve the learning atmosphere for the students and to increase communication among the district's leaders, the community and the students.
In the contest for the three three-year seats, the lone incumbent is Morris Burton, 46, an employee of the Social Security Administration in Philadelphia who is seeking his third term. Burton called the race "semi-tough" but said there were no "glaring or outstanding issues in the forefront."
Burton said he would like to continue the progress the school district had made, such as the rise in the scores of student basic-skills aptitude tests, as well as keep the district sound fiscally.
In addition to Conaway, Burton is being challenged by Kathleen "Bunny" Brown Hewko, 35, a remedial-reading teacher at Willingboro High School; Michael R. Mastill, 43, a personnel-insurance consultant, and Michael Pilenza, 36, a teacher and the director of athletics at Moorestown High School.
Brown Hewko said that she would like to become involved in the township and that, through her years as a teacher, she had developed a sense of administrative responsibility, including the hiring of teachers and working with the new, state-mandated high school proficiency test.
She said she would like to see more open communication in township education, financial responsibility and "building pride and spirit in what we have here in Delran."
Mastill, who filled a one-year, unexpired term on the board from 1983 to 1984, said he would like to increase the quality of education and develop and administer management fiscal programs. He said he would serve as an impartial board member and make decisions "in the best interests of the students and residents."
Pilenza said he would like to become active in the community. As a teacher, he said, he could "put some expertise" on the school board. His candidacy has been endorsed by the Delran Teachers' Association.
"It works to the township's advantage to have people on the board who are teachers. Teachers are a resource to which the other board members could rely on," he said. "Not to have that . . . I can't understand the logic."
In addition to Mahon, the one-year seat is being sought by incumbent Walter Bowyer, 42, principal of the Ridgeway Middle School in Edgewater Park, and Mark J. Kaye, 36, a special-education teacher in Bristol Township, Pa.
Bowyer said he would seek to improve communication and remove whatever animosity developed during last year's teacher-salary negotiations. He said he decided to run again when he realized that no other board members, except for Burton, were seeking another term.
"I'm concerned with the turnover," he said. "I'd like to keep some continuity and experience on the board."
Kaye said that, as a resident, he felt "some responsibility to volunteer my service to the township." With his 14 years of experience in education, he said, he could best serve the school board.
Kaye said that he believed that "an educational system is the most important aspect of any community" and that he would try to see the Delran system continue to operate "as well as it has."
A Look At The Candidates And The Budgets
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1986-04-06/news/26077749_1_three-three-year-terms-unexpired-one-year-term-board-memberInformation for this story was reported by Inquirer staff writers Charlie Frush, David Iams, Daniel LeDuc, Susan Levine and S.A. Paolantonio and Inquirer correspondents Nicole Brodeur and Nancy Phillips
Posted: April 06, 1986Following are summaries of the school board candidates and budgets on the ballot on Tuesday, April 15 in the Burlington County municipalities covered by Neighbors.
BEVERLY CITY
No election.
BURLINGTON CITY
No election.
BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP
Three candidates are seeking three three-year terms. They are:
Edward Amato, 45, of 5 Rose Lane, a two-term board member and a steamfitter for Local 420 of Philadelphia.
Harry McConnell, 40, of 1400 Tanner Ave., president of the board and a member for two terms, a journeyman construction electrician for IBEW Local 269.
Stanley A. Silver, 49, of 12 Cynwyd Drive, a one-term board member and a quality-control foreman for U.S. Pipe in Burlington.
There is one candidate for an unexpired one-year term on the board. He is:
Joseph Sabatino, 39, of 402 Cedar Drive, vice president of the American Multi-Cinema theater chain in Mount Laurel, who was appointed to the board in September.
Voters will cast ballots on the 1986-87 budget of $4,876,764, which is is up slightly from the $4,776,100 current budget. School officials would not estimate the amount of increase in the school tax. The current tax is $1.42 per $100 of assessed property value.
CINNAMINSON
Four candidates are seeking three three-year terms. They are:
Marcella "Jeanne" NewKirk, 46, of 701 Barberry Drive, a part-time aide in the Mount Laurel school system who is completing her first term on the board.
Dennis V. Strauss, 39, of 221 Locust Lane, a chiropractor who ran unsuccessfully for the board last year.
Mary Burt, 52, of 802 Randolph Ave., an interviewer for the New Jersey State Employment Service who is completing her first term on the board.
John R. Hill, 47, of 102 Purnell Ave., a former science teacher at Cinnaminson Middle School and co-owner of a small chain of women's shoe stores in Philadelphia.
There is a candidate for an unexpired two-year term. She is:
Susan Markowitz, 35, of 2214 Branch Pike, a teacher in the Philadelphia School District who is making her first run for the board.
Voters in Cinnaminson are being asked to approve a 17-cent tax increase to help finance a total budget of $12.2 million. The tax increase would bring the rate to $1.98 per $100 of assessed property value.
DELANCO
Four candidates, including three incumbents, are running for three three- year terms. They are:
Cecelia Van Emburgh, 34, of 632 Pennsylvania Ave., a homemaker and the newcomer in the race.
Margaret Libby, 37, of 223 Fenimore Lane, an aide in the Westampton School library who is finishing her first term.
June Karp, 37, of 419 Richard Ave., a state employee who has served on the board for six years.
Robert A. Wurzburg, 36, of 303 Hazel Ave., a salesman for Bell Atlantic who has served four one-year terms in the last decade.
Voters also will be asked to approve a $2,269,143 budget that includes an 8.2 percent school tax increase, from $1.84 to $1.99 per $100 of assessed property value.
DELRAN
Five candidates, including an incumbent, are running for three three-year terms. They are:
Kathleen "Bunny" Brown Hewko, 35, of Tenby Chase, a remedial-reading teacher at Willingboro High School.
Morris R. Burton, 46, of Hunter's Glen Apartments, an incumbent board member and an employee with the Social Security Administration in Philadelphia.
Michael R. Mastill, 43, of 21 Ridgewood Ave., a personnel insurance consultant.
Sean Conaway, 18, of 21 Stecher Ave., a Delran High School student.
Michael Pilenza, 36, of 141 Coopers Kill Rd., a teacher at Moorestown High School.
Three candidates, including an incumbent, are running for a one-year unexpired term. They are:
Leo Mahon, 18, of 6 Navy Drive, a student at Delran High School.
Walter G. Bowyer, 42, of 109 Red Stone Ridge, an incumbent board member and principal of Ridgeway Middle School in Edgewater Park.
Mark J. Kaye, 36, of 106 Shelly Lane, a teacher at Bristol Township High School in Bristol Township, Pa.
Voters will decide on a $10.06 million school budget, almost 9 percent more than last year's, which would raise local school taxes by 3 cents, to $1.75 per $100 of assessed property value.
EASTAMPTON
Three candidates are running for two three-year terms. They are:
George M. Dick, 43, of 7 Cambridge Court, a computer-systems-training representative.
Irene Anderson, 39, of 19 Meadow Lane, an incumbent and a teacher at the Githens Center for the Physically Handicapped in Mount Holly.
Rosalynn Ericson, 39, of 8 Berwick Court, an incumbent and a Moorestown High School biology teacher.
One candidate is running for a one-year unexpired term. She is:
Cheryl E. Wolozyn, 38, of 16 Nottingham Way.
Voters also will consider $801,140 to be raised by taxes for a current- expenses budget and debt service, about $40,000 more than this year's budget. Because of a reassessment, the rate actually would drop to 92.7 cents per $100 of assessed property value from last year's $1.759, even though many homeowners might pay more in taxes.
EDGEWATER PARK
Three candidates are running for three three-year terms. They are:
Joseph A. Fiore, 36, of Cooper Valley Village, a psychologist for the Camden City Board of Education who also has a Philadelphia practice and who is completing his first term.
James M. Clark of 1006 VanRossum Ave., an incumbent board member who could not be reached for comment.
Helen H. Palmer, 37 of 405 South Arthur Drive, a volunteer trainer in the Magowan Elementary School's computer introductory program and a first-time candidate.
Edgewater Park voters will be asked to approve a $2,385,678 budget that would increase taxes 13.2 cents per $100 of assessed property value over last year's rate of $1.228.
HAINESPORT
Three candidates are running for the three three-year terms. They are:
Robert W. Myers, 43, of 15 Lumberton Rd., vice president of Hill International, a Willingboro construction consulting firm, and an incumbent board member.
Carole Clark, 43, of 2406 Fostertown Rd., a homemaker and the incumbent school board president.
John Bradley, 33, of Fostertown Road, a construction engineer making his first run for the board.
Hainesport Township residents would be subject to a tax increase of 5 cents per $100 of assessed property value under the proposed $1.5 million budget. The budget would raise the tax rate to $1.18 per $100 of assessed valuation.
LENAPE REGIONAL
Two candidates are running for a three-year term to represent Tabernacle Township in the district. They are:
Bruce W. Haines, 42, a blueberry farmer, truck driver and incumbent board member.
Mary Ross, 43, a secretary for the Westville Township school board in Gloucester County.
Running unopposed for the three-year seat on the board to represent Evesham Township is:
Joseph A. Murray Jr., 53, a retired data center manager.
The Lenape Regional School District will submit a $28.4 million budget to voters, an increase of 11.8 percent over last year's spending plan. The budget, which was adopted by the board March 18, calls for nearly $15 million to be raised from property taxes, an increase of 9 percent.
Property tax rates are estimated according to enrollment and vary depending on the sending district. Homeowners in Shamong and Evesham Townships and Medford Lakes would have slight decreases in their property taxes, while those in Medford, Southampton, Tabernacle and Mount Laurel Townships would have slight increases.
The new township tax rates are: Shamong, down 5.2 cents to 49.1 cents per $100 of assessed property value; Evesham, down 4.1 cents to 62.9 cents; Medford Lakes, down 0.4 cents to 63.8 cents; Medford Township, up 6 cents to 95.7 cents; Southampton, up 3.7 cents to 44.9 cents; Tabernacle, up 3.1 cents to 52.5 cents, and Mount Laurel, up 1.7 cents to 73.6 cents.
LUMBERTON
Five candidates are running for three three-year terms. They are:
Edward J. Merkel, 68, of 86 Lexington Ave., an incumbent board member and a retired personal-property-management consultant.
Samuel J. Podietz, 45, of 31 Rockland Terrace, an incumbent board member and a manager for Mr. Goodbuys in Philadelphia.
Barbara L. Williams, 42, of 85 Beechnut Court, a speech pathologist making her first run for the board.
Robert M. White, 37, of 6 Williams Court, an accountant making his first run for the board.
Louis P. Abbott, 39, of Eayrestown Road, an antiques shop owner making his first run for the board.
The current-expenses budget to be raised by local taxes is $942,214.
Because of increased state aid and appropriation from a previous surplus, the tax rate will decrease 9 cents, to $1.08 per $100 of assessed property value.
MEDFORD
There are four candidates for three three-year terms. They are:
Claude Doak, 39, of 28 Tallowood Drive, the executive director of the Western Burlington County Regional Council of Special Education who is making his first run for the board.
David B. Bell, 47, of 349 Tavistock Drive, a school administrator in Riverton and an incumbent board member.
Kenneth S. Domzalski, 36, of 12 Normandy Drive, a lawyer practicing in Burlington City making a first run for the board.
Carol Dann, 41, of 19 Wakefield Drive, the president of an adult-education consulting firm who is also a first-time candidate.
The proposed current-expense budget for 1986-87 is $11,023,036, an increase of $1.01 million. Voters are being asked to decide on a tax hike of 6 cents, which would make the tax rate $1.50 per $100 of assessed property value.
MEDFORD LAKES
There is one candidate for a three-year term:
Robert Johnson, 35, of 176 Algonquin Trail, a curriculum supervisor for the Bordentown Regional School District making his first bid for the school board.
Voters will decide on a current-expense budget of $2,150,996, an increase of $119,429, which would require a tax increase of 12 cents to 86 cents for each $100 of assessed property value.
MOUNT HOLLY
Elizabeth K. Fine, 43, of 126 Front St., an incumbent and a paralegal for a Mount Holly lawyer.
William A. Monk, 23, of 3 Winding Way, a college student and the challenger in the race.
Robert C. Silcox, 40, of 240 High St., the owner of a commercial real estate development firm, Terra Associates, and incumbent board president.
Voters will decide on a proposed school board budget of $1,713,690, up $85,000 from the current budget, that calls for a 3.4 cent increase in the tax of $1.481 per $100 of assessed property value.
NEW HANOVER
There are three candidates, all incumbents, running for three three-year terms. They are:
Susan Malloy of 11 Buntingbridge Road, Cookstown, who could not be reached for comment.
Laurance Lownds, 54, of 22 Main St., Wrightstown, a contract administrator for the Army who has served three terms on the board.
Karen Roscoe, 35, of Wrightstown, a senior adjuster for New Jersey National Bank who has served one term on the board.
Voters also will be asked to approve a $516,126 budget that Superintendent James Nash said is not expected to affect school tax rates in either New Hanover or Wrightstown.
NORTHERN BURLINGTON REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
Three candidates from two of the district's four sending municipalities are running unopposed.
In North Hanover Township, two incumbents are seeking two three-year terms. They are:
Joseph B. Ceremsak, 51, of Orr Road, Allentown, a teacher at Rancocas Valley Regional High School who is seeking a second term.
J. Matthew Cronin, 41, of Wrightstown, a teacher at Peter Muschal Elementary School in Bordentown who is seeking a second term.
In Springfield Township, one candidate is seeking an unexpired two-year term:
Jean Bayley, 40, of Island Road, Jobstown, co-owner of a sporting goods store who is seeking a second term.
The school board has nine members - three from Springfield Township, two from North Hanover Township, two from Mansfield Township and two from Chesterfield Township.
Voters also will be asked to approve a $7,663,917 budget that is not expected to affect school tax rates, which vary in each of the district's sending towns according to enrollment.
PALMYRA
Five candidates are running for for three three-year terms. They are:
Howard Crowley, 38, of 830 Morgan Ave., general manager of a body-shop supply warehouse who is making his first run for the board.
Joseph DiTaranto, 72, of 607 Lincoln Ave., an incumbent and retired auto- body shop owner.
Patricia Marotta, 41, of 621 Washington Ave., a receptionist seeking a third term.
Elsie Kidd, 47, of 518 Race St., a secretary seeking her second term.
Sherry Piergross, of Filbert and Charles Streets, a challenger who refused to release biographical information.
Voters will be asked to approve a $5,476,378 budget that would add seven cents to the current tax rate of $1.269 per $100 of assessed value.
PEMBERTON BOROUGH
Three candidates are running for two three-year terms. They are:
Mary Ann Davis, 39, of 18 Reynolds St., an incumbent and a marketing representative for Haddonfield Title.
Rowan S. Mosher, 30, of 22 Mary St., a civil-service furniture repairman and the challenger.
William J. Lamb, 39, of 50 Hanover St., an incumbent and the operator of a local dental lab.
There is one candidate for an unexpired two-year term. She is:
Elizabeth Broderick, 35, of 27 Mary St., a registered nurse.
There are two candidates for a one-year term. They are:
Sandra J. Bauer, 47, of 58 Hanover St., a homemaker and the incumbent.
James P. Chapman, 39, the plant operations manager for Sherwatt Wire Cloth Co. who is making his first run for the board.
Voters also will be asked to approve $333,838 to be raised through local taxation with a rate increase of 3.3 cents on the current $1.475 per $100 of assessed property value.
PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP
Six candidates, including two incumbents, are running for three three-year terms. They are:
Catharine "Kelly" Groothoff, 52, of 9 Carpenter Lane, Browns Mills, a paralegal in the Burlington County Public Defender's Office.
Earl R. Humphries, 52, of 764 Lakehurst Rd., Browns Mills, an incumbent and a heating, plumbing and air-conditioning contractor.
Jerry R. Jerome, 37, of 28 Johnson Court, a caterer.
Randolph Mac Thacher, 38, of 104 New Lisbon Rd., New Lisbon, an industrial consultant.
Helen A. Fort, 65, of 529 Browns Mills Rd., a retired teacher.
Shirley Owens, 32, of 335 Hanover Blvd., Browns Mills, an incumbent board member and a retired civil service employee.
Voters will be asked to approve a $28.1 million budget that would increase the property tax rate by 5 cents over the current rate of $1.53 per $100 of assessed value.
RANCOCAS VALLEY REGIONAL
Three incumbent candidates are running from three sending districts for three three-year terms. They are:
Jane A. Davenport, 50, of 24 Stonegate Drive, a radiological technologist seeking her first full term after filling an unexpired term since last July; she seeks to represent Eastampton.
William I. Lynch, 50, a vice president of Midlantic National Bank, Cherry Hill who is seeking his sixth full term as Hainesport's representative.
Laird Poinsett, 38, of 15 Moore St., Lumberton, a supervisor of internal audit for the Holman Organization, Pennsauken who is seeking his first full term, although he has been a member of the board since August 1983, when he was appointed to complete an unexpired term.
The amount to be raised by taxes for Rancocas Valley Regional High School is the same as last year - $3,849,013. The effect on the tax rate varies in each of the five sending school districts.
Because the state apportions each community's share of the budget according to pupils sent and equalized valuation, the tax rates differ but are presumed equal. Revaluation changed the tax base in Eastampton and Lumberton, and so their rates change drastically. Eastampton's new school tax rate for support of the high school is 59 cents per $100 of assessed value; it was $1.15 last year. Lumberton's rate is now 62 cents; it was 92 cents last year.
For the other municipalities, Hainesport's rises from 65 cents to 68 cents, Mount Holly's remains at $1.11 and Westampton's decreases from 64 cents to 56 cents.
RIVERSIDE
Seven candidates - three incumbents and four challengers - are running for three three-year terms. They are:
Bernadette Cislo, 34, of 11 Henry St., a homemaker.
Nancy Buonomo A. Jones, 35, of 506 Greenwood Ave., the manager of a doctor's office in Mount Laurel.
James A. Renshaw Sr., 52, of 124 Spring Garden St., a maintenance man for Quality Foods and an incumbent board member.
Frank W. Reale Jr., 54, of 222 Kossuth St., a self-employed plumbing contractor and an incumbent.
Craig G. Robinson, 38, of 646 Taylor St., an industrial engineer.
Charlotte M. Tice, 26, of 333 Filmore St., a homemaker.
Mary Stanton of 135 Cleveland Ave., an incumbent who could not be reached for comment.
Riverside residents are being asked to pass a $4.85 million budget for 1986-87, an increase of $421,068. The new budget represents a 9-cent tax increase, putting the tax rate at $1.90 per $100 of assessed value.
RIVERTON
Leonard R. Christopher Jr., 38, of 700 Thomas Ave., a district manager for Automatic Data Processing and an incumbent board member.
Russell J. Cook, 51, of 718 Main St., a program manager for RCA, who is seeking his first term.
Dora Myers, 38, of 220 Linden Ave., the current board president.
Two candidates are running for one unexpired one-year term. They are:
Florence M. Bentzel, 35, of 602 Elm Terrace, a pharmacist who was appointed to the board in May.
Paul Papenberg, 35, of 205 Main St., a teacher in the Mount Laurel School District seeking his first term.
Voters will be asked to approve a total budget of $1,640,976, of which $980,763 is to be raised by taxes. The capital-expenses portion of the budget totals $15,000, of which $9,860 is to be raised by taxes.
The budget will require a 6.5-cent tax increase over the current rate of $2.11 per $100 of assessed property value.
SHAMONG
Two candidates are running for two three-year vacancies. They are:
A. Lois Graham, 58, of 385 Stokes Rd., the incumbent board president and a real estate agent.
James L. Skaggs Jr., 39, of 8 Burr Trail, the general manager of a local medical wholesale supply firm making his first run for the board.
Voters will decide on a current-expense budget of $4,248,085.50, an increase of $255,014.75 or about 6 percent. The spending package includes a 6 cent tax increase, to $1.45 per $100 of assessed property value.
SOUTHAMPTON
Four candidates, three of them incumbents, are seeking three three-year terms. They are:
Harry C. Irion 3d, 47, of Lenni-Lenape Trail, an engineering manager at RCA and the current board president.
Gertrude C. Bodnar, 41, of Adams Lane, a homemaker, who is completing her sixth year on the board.
Samuel P. Alloway 3d, 33, of 8 Willoughby Lane, a real estate agent and sod farmer, who has served on the school board and who is a member of the Southampton zoning board.
Helen D. Bauer of 39 Falcon Drive, an incumbent who did not respond to attempts to reach her by telephone or letter.
Voters will consider a current-expense budget of $2.11 million, which will be raised by taxes. The capital-expenses portion of the budget is $26,438. The overall budget totals $2.33 million.
Board secretary Virginia Lafferty said taxes were expected to rise, but she could not estimate by how much. A revaluation of property is being conducted and will determine the new tax rate. The current rate is 72 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
SPRINGFIELD
Seven candidates - three incumbents and four newcomers - are vying for three three-year terms. They are:
Harry Hutchinson, 35, of 432 Highland Rd., Jobstown, a groundskeeper at The Lawrenceville School.
Dorothea Beetel, 44, of Gilbert Road in Jacksonville, a registered nurse and an incumbent who is seeking a third term.
Carol Tenner, 38, of Bordentown, a teacher.
Leonard J. Bowers, 57, of Springfield-Meetinghouse Road, Jobstown, a retired purchasing agent for the state Department of Defense.
Lois Dixon, 42, of Mount Pleasant Road, Columbus, a homemaker and an incumbent seeking her second term.
Ronald J. Bennett, 48, of Jacksonville Road, Burlington, a former teacher who is seeking his third term.
Carol Yankosky, 36, of Juliustown Road, Columbus, a teacher.
Springfield Township voters also will be asked to approve a $1,111,052 budget that is not expected to affect the school tax rate of 74.6 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
TABERNACLE
Three incumbents are running for three three-year terms. They are:
Mary M. Ross of 19 Oakshade Road, secretary for the Westville School District in Gloucester County.
Linda Pfeffer, 37, of 6 Vale Drive, a homemaker.
James R. Leusner, 40, of 21 Sandra Lane, a senior customer representative for Prime Computer in Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
Running unoppposed for a one-year unexpired term is:
Janice Smith of 166 Flyatt Rd., a first-time candidate.
Voters will be deciding on a $4.8 million school budget, a 9.6 percent increase over the current budget. The proposal calls for a tax hike of 1.4 cents to $1.05 per $100 of assessed property value.
WESTAMPTON
Five candidates are seeking three three-year terms. They are:
William P. Morrow, 69, of Burrs Road, the incumbent board president and a retired engineer.
Richard Haines, 39, of Irick Road, vice president of a security company.
Leonard Caplan, 63, of 5 Bloomfield Drive, an RCA administrator and an incumbent board member.
Richard Manzari, 36, of 9 Berkshire Rd., a marketing manager.
Constance Churchill, 44, of 21 Bloomfield Drive, a Burlington County College administrator.
The current-expenses budget to be raised by local taxes is $1,153,032. Voters also will decide on a $17,203 capital-outlay budget to be raised through taxes. The tax rate would remain at 0.992 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
WILLINGBORO
There are 11 candidates for four seats.
Eight candidates are running for three three-year terms. They are:
Vernon Johnson, 43, of 16 Niagara Lane, principal procedure analyst at Trenton State Prison.
William Shaw, 44, of 33 Edgeley Lane, a self-employed building contractor.
Linda Good, 35, of 48 Normandy Lane, an incumbent and a homemaker.
David Schnaars, 42, of 37 Pond Lane, a computer-marketing manager.
Margaret Davis, 48, of 270 Club House Drive, an incumbent and a homemaker.
Roy B. Paige, 56, of 42 Twig Lane, an incumbent and a self-employed safety- clothing supplier.
Nathaniel B. Jamison, 38, of 2 Tucker Court, a telephone company systems analyst.
Joseph W. Oliver, 55, of 255 Club House Drive, a teacher.
Three candidates are vying for the one unexpired one-year term. They are:
Hill Pressley Jr., 39, of 23 Gloria Lane, a chemist.
Patricia Dawley, 39, of 251 Northampton Drive, an economic development authority official.
Anna M. Nemeth, 41, of 536 Charleston Rd., an Eastampton Township construction clerk and zoning officer.
Of the $36.9 million current-expenses budget, the portion that voters will be asked to support through taxes is $11,940,382. If passed, it would mean a 2 cent tax increase to $1.62 per $100 of assessed property value.
WOODLAND
An incumbent board member is unopposed for election to a three-year term. He is:
John Stevenson, 54, of Chatsworth, a hydraulic mechanic at McGuire Air Force Base.
Voters will be asked to approve a current-expenses budget of $1,017,552, of which $494,772 would be raised by taxes. The capital-expenditures budget proposed is $19,900, of which $13,858 would be raised by taxes.
Officials say they do not expect a tax increase with the proposed budget. And they said the current rate of $1.52 per $100 of assessed property value might go down.
Burlco Voters Decide On School Taxes, Board Members
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1987-04-08/news/26191723_1_levy-tax-rate-school-taxesContributing to this article were Inquirer staff writer Daniel Le Duc and correspondents Connie O'Kane, Dawn Capewell, Michael Franolich and Kenneth Glick
Posted: April 08, 1987The following are unofficial results of the school board elections yesterday in Burlington County.
BASS RIVER
Voters approved, 47-8, a tax levy to support $747,986 in current expenses.
The budget called for the tax rate to decrease from 95 cents to 92 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Board member Woodley Shuff, the lone candidate for the school board this year, ran unopposed for a three-year term and was elected with 51 votes.
BORDENTOWN REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
Voters rejected, 390-306, a tax levy to support $9,078,333 in current expenses and rejected, 389-306, to support a levy to support $69,000 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the tax rate to increase in Bordentown City from $2.22 to $2.55 per $100 of assessed valuation and to increase in Bordentown Township from $1.65 to $1.72.
City residents re-elected board President John Wehrman to another three- year term with 204 votes in an unopposed race. Township voters elected incumbent Phyllis Wall, 211 votes, and newcomer William Cashman, 202. Also running was incumbent Lyne Knapp, 180 votes.
BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP
Voters rejected, 242-203, a tax levy to support $5,359,806 in current expenses and rejected, 232-193, a levy to support $31,222 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from $1.43 to $1.48 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Five candidates were running for three three-year terms on the board. Elected were newcomers Walter Holloway Jr., 273 votes; David J. Edwards, 243, and James J. Harris, 231. Defeated were incumbents Joan A. Gilbert, 218 votes, and Joseph Sabatino, 229.
CHESTERFIELD
Voters approved, 176-44, a tax levy to support $1,079,813 in current expenses and approved, 181-36, a levy to support $3,000 in capital outlay.
Also approved, 175-43, was a transfer of $50,000 from current expenses to capital outlay to buy modular trailers to be used as office space.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from 88.4 cents to 88.6 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Three candidates were running for two three-year terms. Elected were incumbent John Nichols, 169 votes, and newcomer Frank Perro Jr., 139. Also running was Richard Wagner, 84 votes.
CINNAMINSON
Voters approved, 759-623, a tax levy to support $7,890,469 in current expenses.
The budget called for the tax rate to increase from $1.94 to $2.07 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Voters also approved, 796-554, a $700,000 bond issue for asbestos removal, improvements in facilities for the handicapped and additional maintenance to all four schools.
Four candidates were running for three three-year terms. Elected were incumbents Richard Taylor, 960 votes; Richared Keevey, 876, and William Fenton, 831. Also running was Don Rinear, 565 votes.
No petitions were filed for an unexpired one-year term, but write-in candidate Sally Cariedo received 405 votes, leading write-in candidate Joan Atwood, who had 226.
DELANCO
Voters approved 96-48 a tax levy to support $2,503,288 in current expenses.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from $2.00 to $2.11 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Three candidates were running unopposed for three three-year terms. Elected were newcomer James Layman, 126 votes, and incumbents Ronald Brooks, 122, and Robert Wurzburg, 119.
DELRAN
Voters approved, 215-136, a tax levy to support $10,183,899 in current expenses and approved, 221-128, a levy to support $44,000 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from $1.75 to $1.79 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Four candidates were running for three three-year terms. Elected were former board member Dorothy Oppmann, 266 votes, and incumbents Mark Kaye, 250, and Madeline Horchak, 215. Also running was incumbent Ginger Mankowski, 204 votes.
EASTAMPTON
Voters approved, 55-29, a tax levy to support $1,844,567 in current expenses.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from 96 cents to $1.16 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Voters also approved, 55-29, a ballot question to increase the number of members on the Board of Education from five to seven.
No candidates filed petitions for the one three-year term open on the school board. But a write-in candidate, Ralph Rosario, received 15 votes, besting four other write-ins.
EDGEWATER PARK
Voters approved, 196-176, a tax levy to support $5,982,012 in current expenses.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from $1.37 to $1.49 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Seven candidates were seeking three three-year seats. Elected were incumbent Richard Slagle, 240 votes; newcomer Janet McConnell, 222, and incumbent Charles Robinson, 187. Also running were incumbent Lloyd Weaver, 101 votes; Karen Braciszewski, 100; Andrea James, 171, and James Palmierei, 157.
EVESHAM
Voters approved, 1,040 to 278, a tax levy to support $6.6 million in current expenses and approved, 1,017 to 277, a tax levy to support $85,000 in capital outlay.
Voters also approved, 1,024 to 253 a bond issue of $13.39 million for school construction and renovations.
The budget called for the local tax rate to rise one cent, to 96 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Five candidates were vying for three three-year terms on the board. Elected were newcomer Agnes Trione, 880, and incumbents W. Arthur Lewis, 683, and Ronald Pomilio, 620. Also running were newcomer Thomas L. Cramer, 564 votes, and Helen Earp, 494.
FIELDSBORO
Voters approved, 9-2, a tax levy to support $528,271 in current expenses.
The budget called for the tax rate to increase from $1.69 to $2.11 per $100 of assessed valuation.
No candidates filed to run for a three-year term on the five-member board. However, board President Pauline Glenn ran a write-in campaign and received eight votes.
FLORENCE
Voters approved, 386-238, a tax levy to support $6,074,027 in current expenses and approved, 372-243, a levy to support $78,528 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the tax rate to decrease by a half-cent from the current rate of $1.20 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Seven candidates were vying for three three-year terms, and an eighth candidate was running unopposed for a two-year term.
Elected were incumbents Christine Puken, 455 votes; John Harkins, 333, and newcomer Joseph B. Meszaros Jr., 320. Also running were newcomers Dolores Kostrub Murphy, 286 votes; John C. Brown Jr., 252; Paul C. Ostrander, 153, and William E. Berry, 136.
Newcomer John Gola was elected to the two-year term with 318 votes.
HAINESPORT
Voters approved, 57-38 a tax levy to support $1,642,211 in current expenses.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from $1.21 to $1.32 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Three incumbents were running unopposed for three three-year terms. Elected were R. Kevin Murphy, 88 votes; Dianne McKay, 84, and Erika Bittle, 82.
Patricia Milich, 81 votes, was running unopposed for a one-year unexpired term.
LENAPE REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
Voters approved, 2,422 to 978, a tax levy of $14.7 million for current expenses and approved, 2,338 to 1,037 a levy of $275,584 for capital outlay.
The budget called for the following changes in school tax rates:
In Evesham, a drop from 62.7 cents to 60.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation; in Medford, an increase from 95.1 cents to 98.5 cents; in Medford Lakes, a drop from 63.6 cents to 60.6 cents; in Mount Laurel, because of a revaluation, a drop from 39.4 cents to 32.4 cents; in Shamong, a drop from 48.2 cents to 43.8 cents; in Southampton, a drop from 44.2 cents to 37.9 cents, and in Tabernacle, an increase from 52.4 cents to 53.9 cents.
From Mount Laurel, board President Nancy Jones, 302 votes, was unopposed for a three-year term.
From Evesham, incumbent Earl Siegman, 699 votes, was unopposed for a three- year term.
From Southampton, William Krzan, 242 votes, was unopposed for a three-year term.
And from Medford, incumbent Ronald Gassert, 398 votes, was unopposed for a three-year term.
LUMBERTON
Voters approved, 113-47, a tax levy to support $2,180,912 in current expenses and approved, 113-45, a levy to support $80,000 for capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from 73 cents to 86 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Four candidates were running for two three-year terms, and two were seeking to fill an unexpired one-year term. Elected to the full terms were newcomers Edward T. Colgan Jr., 124 votes, and Lois Hepler, 115. Also running were incumbents Patricia S. Budd, 96 votes, and Paul H. Delany, 91.
Elected to the unexpired term was incumbent Crystal R. Sada, 94 votes. Also running was newcomer Robyn D. Earl, 56 votes.
MANSFIELD
Voters approved, 143-122, a tax levy to support $1,219,238 in current expenses and approved, 139-119, a levy to support $5,000 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the tax rate to increase from 75 cents to 79.6 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Three incumbents were running unopposed for three three-year terms. Elected were James Humble, 215 votes; John Winzinger Jr., 196, and Robert Sapp, 182.
MAPLE SHADE
Voters approved, 543-261, a tax levy of $5.4 million for current expenses and approved, 514-279, a levy of $106,623 for capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from $1.55 to $1.62 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Three candidates were running unopposed for three three-year terms. Elected were Charles Kauffman, 608 votes; Robert Moseley, 567, and James Shoemaker, 542.
Running unopposed for a one-year unexpired term was Palmira "Pam" Fox, who received 575 votes.
MEDFORD
Voters approved, 405-130, a tax levy to support $11,047,151 in current expenses and approved, 393-141, a levy to support $125,000 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from $1.50 to $1.58 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Four candidates were running for three three-year terms. Elected were incumbent Rita A. Baker, 463 votes; former board member Sanford Schneider, 387, and incumbent Stephen D. Blum, 285. Also running was incumbent Sean J. Morrow, 230 votes.
MEDFORD LAKES
Voters approved, 231-151, a tax levy to support $1,248,644 in current expenses and approved, 223-155, a levy to support $4,627 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from 86 cents to 97 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Four newcomers were running for two three-year seats. Elected were Margaret Tursi, 235 votes, and Mark MacGrann, 183. Also running were Fred Luttrell, 156 votes, and Edward Marzi, 149.
MOORESTOWN
Voters approved, 498-334, a tax levy of $10.99 million for current expenses.
The budget called for the local tax rate to rise from $1.52 to $1.591 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Five candidates were seeking three three-year terms on the school board. Elected were incumbents Charles W. Klein, 543 votes, and Eugene Coppola, 510, and newcomer Sally Campolucci, 448. Also running were Patricia Forbes White, 441 votes, and Kathryn Campbell, 351.
MOUNT HOLLY
Voters rejected 243-184, a tax levy to support $6,529,573 in current expenses.
The budget called for the local tax rate to be $1.09 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Only one candidate was running for a three-year term. Incumbent Charles A. Ruch received 351 votes.
MOUNT LAUREL
Voters approved, 380-159, a tax levy of $8.2 million for current expenses, and approved, 364-165, a tax levy of $594,918 for capital outlay.
The budget called for local taxes to drop slightly. Because of a property revaluation, the tax rate was to drop from $1.481 to 73 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Five candidates were seeking three three-year terms on the school board. Elected were incumbent Margaret Haynes, 534 votes, and newcomers Walter Keiss, 418, and Ronald F. Frey, 394. Also running were incumbent Louis Schiliro, 158 votes, and newcomer Kathleen Zielinski, 146.
NEW HANOVER
Voters approved, 24-4, a tax levy to support $1,542,175 in current expenses and approved, 24-4, a levy to support $16,000 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to remain the same in the two communities in the district. In New Hanover, the rate was to stay at $1.47 per $100 of assessed valuation. In Wrightstown, it was to remain at $1.39.
Three incumbents were running unopposed for three school board seats. Elected were Eileen Bromell, Melvin Edwards and Thomas S. King Jr., each with 30 votes.
NORTHERN BURLINGTON REGIONAL
Voters approved, 424-202, a tax levy to support $7,918,085 in current expenses and approved, 423-198, a levy to support $47,000 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from 83 cents to 84 cents per $100 of assessed valuation in Chesterfield, from 79 cents to 81 cents in Mansfield, from 58 cents to 68 cents in North Hanover and from $1.04 to $1.21 in Springfield.
Six candidates were running for three three-year terms. Running unopposed from Springfield was William P. Gangel Jr., 103 votes. In Chesterfield, Marilyn Russo, 204 votes, defeatedGeorge T. Hepbron, 25. In Mansfield, James E. Major, 170 votes, defeated Carl J. Klotz Jr., 66, and Walter Dimitruk Jr., 23.
NORTH HANOVER
Voters approved, 39-4, a tax levy to support $5,935,177 in current expenses.
School officials said they expected the tax rate to remain the same, about 53 cents per $100 of assessed value.
Two incumbents were running unopposed for two three-year terms. Edward R. Drechsel Jr. and William C. Sullivan Sr. each received 46 votes.
PALMYRA
Voters approved, 323-215, a tax levy to support $5,563.027 in current expenses and approved, 319-217, a levy to support $110,000 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from $1.34 to $1.53 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Three candidates were running unopposed for three three-year terms. Elected were incumbent Newton Wosak, 398 votes, and newcomers N. Nicholas Hendershot, 376, and Sherry Piergross, 228.
PEMBERTON BOROUGH
Voters approved 74-17, a tax levy to support $970,521 in current expenses.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from $1.51 to $1.59 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Three candidates were running unopposed for three three-year terms. Elected were newcomer Catherine Wilson, 60 votes, and incumbents Sandra J. Bauer, 53, and Deborah Emmons, 49.
PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP
Voters approved, 366-322, a tax levy to support $29,842,953 in current expenses and approved, 355-328, a levy to support $683,000 for capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from $1.59 to $1.71 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Six candidates were running for three three-year terms.
Elected were newcomers Earl R. Humphries, 393 votes, and Daniel M. Kearns, 361, and incumbent Frank A. Hinchcliffe, 358. Also running were incumbent Juanita Roland, 354 votes; newcomer James C. Vance Jr., 320, and incumbent Sharon L. Chapin, 265.
RANCOCAS VALLEY REGIONAL
Voters approved, 484-406, a tax levy to support $9,225,732 for current expenses.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from 62 cents to 65 cents per $100 of assessed valuation in Lumberton, from 68 cents to 77 cents in Hainesport and from 59 cents to 59.5 cents in Eastampton. It called for the tax rate to decrease from $1.11 to 57 cents in Mount Holly, because of a property revaluation, and from 56 cents to 54 cents in Westampton.
Three candidates were running unopposed for three three-year terms. Elected were newcomer David T. Perinchief, 350 votes, and incumbents Jeanne Brenner, 317, and Brooke Tidswell 3d, 308.
RIVERSIDE
Voters rejected, 266-198, a tax levy to support $5,259,746 in current expenses and rejected, 265-190, a levy to support $25,000 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from $1.91 to $2.05 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Four candidates were running for three three-year terms. Elected were incumbents Eleanor Ruehmling, 346 votes; Donald J. Chadwick, 331, and Nelson Hawkins, 277. Also running was Sister Elizabeth Anne Darch, 250 votes.
RIVERTON
Voters approved, 187-83, a tax levy to support $1,757,923 in current expenses and approved, 197-74, to support a levy of $12,000 in capital outlay.
Because the borough recently underwent a revaluation, school officials were unable to provide information on what the tax rate would be.
Six candidates were running for three three-year terms. Elected were incumbents Patrick Gallagher, 198 votes, and Suzanne M. Cairns, 177, and newcomer John Montemurro, 168. Also running were incumbent Janice Renn, 131 votes, and newcomers Robert Stelling, 71, and Michael Reath, 43.
In the race for a two-year term, Pat Kenney Smith, 176 votes, defeated Beth Lippincott, 84 votes.
Elected to a one-year term was Phyllis Rodgers, 180 votes. Also running was Arthur H. Jones, 85 votes.
SHAMONG
Voters approved, 231-194, a tax levy to support $1,610,586 in current expenses and approved, 226-195, a levy to support $100,000 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to decrease from $1.45 to $1.41 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Three candidates were running for two three-year terms. Elected were newcomers Robert Young, 381 votes, and Ann Wisnewski, 376. Also running was incumbent Robert Kinzel, 175 votes.
SOUTHAMPTON
Voters approved, 221-96, a tax levy of $2,449,825 in current expenses.
The budget called for the local tax rate to decrease from 76 cents to 74 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Five candidates were running for three three-year terms. Elected were newcomer Hunter Taylor Jr., 234 votes; incumbent Donald F. Hunt, 213, and newcomer Wiliam G. Shorman 180. Also running were incumbent George A. McCourt, 162 votes, and newcomer Salvatore Faso Jr., 85.
Running unopposed for a two-year term was Vicki Tubertini, who received 250 votes.
SPRINGFIELD
Voters approved, 79-23, a tax levy to support $1,092,845 in current expenses.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from 74 cents to 84 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Four candidates were running for three three-year terms. Elected were incumbents Wendy R. Brunt, 87 votes, and John T. Lynch, 75, and newcomer Carol Yankosky, 75. Also running was Melvin T. Leeds, 67 votes.
Elected to a two-year term was Janet L. Bowen, 95 votes. Elected to a one- year term was George J. Powell, 95 votes.
TABERNACLE
Voters approved, 198-64, a tax levy to support $4,558,273 in current expenses and approved, 198-63, a levy to support $20,000 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to decrease one-tenth of a cent, to $1.052 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Four candidates were running for three three-year terms. Elected were incumbents Neva R. Moore, 193 votes; Janis Wills Smith, 178, and Robert F. Hughes, 167. Also running was John Van Gorder, 163 votes.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
Voters approved, 69-6, a tax levy to support $737,923 in current expenses and approved, 67-3, a levy to support $4,400 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the tax rate to remain at $2.35 per $100 assessed valuation.
Two incumbents were running unopposed for two three-year terms. Elected were Marie Heffley, 76 votes, and Daniel Walters, 74.
WESTAMPTON
Voters approved, 109-25, a tax levy to support $2,425,309 in current expenses.
The budget called for the local tax rate to decrease from 97.8 cents to 97.7 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
Five candidates were running for three three-year terms. Elected were incumbent John W. Lee Jr., 101 votes; newcomer Carol Lynch, 95, and incumbent Jerry Faul, 79. Also running were Victoria Vavricka and Michael Adams, each of whom received 76 votes.
Running unopposed for a one-year term was Barbara Derhofer, who received 111 votes.
WILLINGBORO
Voters approved, 1,069-880, a tax levy to support $39,651,441 in current expenses.
The budget called for the local tax rate to decrease from $1.57 to $1.35 per $100 of assessed valuation. Because of a recent property revaluation, however, some tax bills will rise.
Nine candidates were running for three three-year terms. Elected were former board member Margaret Reynolds, 1,016 votes; incumbent Maucie Miller, 990, and newcomer Gerard G. Whittle, 950.
Also running were William Whitehurst, 717 votes; Robert Rodriguez, 699; Charles S. Abrams, 651; Darlene S. Simon, 478; Bernard G. Sharrow, 463, and William Shaw, 364. A write-in candidate, Gary Chehames, received 577 votes.
WOODLAND
Voters approved, 75-4, a tax levy to support $1,099,805 in current expenses and approved, 72-7, a levy to support $9,000 in capital outlay.
The budget called for the local tax rate to increase from $1.44 to $1.46 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Two incumbents were unopposed for two three-year terms. Elected were Mark G. Alloway, 78 votes, and Christa Karycinski, 76. Running unopposed for an unexpired one-year term was George H. Adams, who received 82 votes.
Sat Scores Win Official's Praise
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151018031610/http://articles.philly.com/1987-06-14/news/26181289_1_verbal-scores-math-scores-practicesBy Gary Sternberg, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: June 14, 1987Representatives of the Delran School District recently were commended, with 11 other districts, by State Education Commissioner Saul Cooperman for improved Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores.
"The district can feel very proud," said Ronald Napoli, the Delran Board of Education president, at a meeting Monday night. Napoli said he was pleased that the district was successful with its academics as well as its athletics.
Donald Lucas, the district's director of curriculum, said that from 1983-84 to 1984-85, the last year for which the scores are available, the district's mean verbal scores increased from 402 to 441, while its mean math scores went from 456 to 472.
In other business at the meeting, the board approved a contract extension with Princeton Food Management for the next school year for a tentative amount of $337,680, about a 6 percent increase over the current one-year contract. Napoli said the district had not been satisifed with the previous food services.
"Compared to past years, our complaint level has been virtually nonexistent," he said.
The board also decided to build a new field hockey field at the Delran High School. The old field will be used for football practices, and the old football practice field will be used by the girls' lacrosse team.
In addition, the high school girls' softball field will be improved so it can be used for home games. Currently, the field is suitable only for practices.
The cost of the entire contsruction and renovation work was estimated at $14,000.
Parade Will Cap Spirit Week
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1987-10-18/news/26214176_1_spirit-week-new-roof-paradeBy Gary Sternberg, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: October 18, 1987A parade through Delran Saturday will cap Spirit Week at Delran High School.
Throughout this week, each grade at the high school will work on preparing a float. The floats will be judged at the Tenby Chase Swim Club on Saturday morning. About 10:45 a.m., the parade will begin to the high school on Hartford Road for a planned 11:45 a.m. presentation at the football field.
Also during the week, there will be wall-painting, home-room door judging and a pep rally, it was announced at the Delaran School Board's meeting Monday night.
Also during the meeting, the board decided to purchase a graphic arts camera for $10,074. The camera, a Kodak "Image Maker" used for offset printing, will be used by graphic arts classes. The lone bid for providing the camera was accepted from Graphic Systems Inc. of Pennsauken.
In other business, it was announced that installation of a new roof on the Chester Avenue Middle School was near completion. The roof surfacing has already been installed and only trimming work remains, which should be finished within a few weeks. The $474,000 roofing project is being performed by Aulffo Roofing of Vineland.
Asbestos To Be Removed In Summer
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160103230442/http://articles.philly.com/1990-03-21/news/25900826_1_asbestos-removal-school-board-board-plansBy Joseph N. DiStefano, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: March 21, 1990The Delran school board voted last week to spend $23,000 for asbestos removal at the middle school, choosing Archway Contracting Co. as low bidder over two competitors.
Work is scheduled to start after the end of classes in June. The board agreed to defer asbestos removal at Delran High School.
In other business, the board passed a resolution against a proposed shopping center between Conrow and Bridgeboro Roads near Millbridge School. Members cited traffic hazards and proximity to both Millbridge and the high school.
"We want to see kids after school either on school grounds or at home," said board President Robert Napoli. He called potential mall hangouts "an unattractive alternative." Board Vice President Robert Mull said new stores could worsen heavy traffic volume in the area, and board member Bunny Hewko pointed out that the proposed center's developer had also built the Mill Run Center on Route 130, which is more than half vacant.
"There's too much building and traffic on Route 130," said Hewko. "We've had enough."
Delran resident Helen Scherer announced the formation of an organization, Delran Students Abroad, which will try to raise money for Stephen Broadbent, a Delran High School junior who won a national competition to study biology in the Soviet Union for three weeks this summer. The organization's membership also includes Napoli and several township elected officials, said Scherer.
The board plans to hold a special meeting on April 5 at the high school to discuss the proposed 1990 school budget.
Six In Running For Three Seats On Delran Board
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1990-04-15/news/25916952_1_school-board-board-veteran-landressBy Joseph N. DiStefano, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: April 15, 1990Six candidates - two of them incumbents - are running for three seats on the Delran school board.
In contrast to heatedly contested races in nearby Willingboro and Hainesport, both incumbents and challengers voiced confidence in current board leadership. The district operates middle and high schools as well as three neighborhood primary schools.
John Bellis, 65, of Haines Mill Road, seeks to return to the school board on which he served from 1964 to 1977. A retired Delran school attendance officer, Bellis has two children who graduated from township schools. He said his prime objective is to improve teacher selection and teaching materials.
Thomas F. Dresser, 42, of Forge Road, a political newcomer, is vice president of Landress Corp., a Cinnaminson-based computer center. Dresser said the major issue facing the board was containing cost increases while improving school standards. He is supported by board member Dorothy Oppmann, who is up for re-election and who is his subordinate at Landress.
Robert Gaven, 41, of Norman Avenue, also a first-time candidate, is a Delran Township road supervisor, part-time real estate salesman, owner of a home-renovation company and a volunteer firefighter for nine years. Gaven said he wants to maintain functional training and extracurricular activities in the face of threatened budget cuts.
"They're why a lot of kids come to school," he said. "Learning isn't secondary, but if you have basic education you can go out and find a job, which is what we should lean more to."
Harry Gutelius, 44, of Kevin Road, is a seven-year school board veteran and the principal of George Washington High School in Northeast Philadelphia. Gutelius is chairman of the board's facilities planning committee. Both of his children attend township schools.
Gutelius emphasized his work in helping to prepare seven budgets, all of which were approved by township voters. He is campaigning jointly with Gaven and Helen Scherer.
Oppmann, 43, of Penn Drive, is a nine-year board veteran and former president. A services manager at Landress, she has been undefeated in three previous board elections. One of her children is a senior at Delran High School and another is a recent graduate.
Oppmann said her priority is "to see that the top-shelf quality of education stays in Delran."
Scherer, 39, of Waterford Drive, is a first-time board candidate. She has served as vice president of the elementary schools' PTA and is a volunteer and room mother at Millbridge School, which her son attends. Scherer is the founder of Delran Students Abroad, which is raising money to send a high school junior to the Soviet Union this summer.
In addition to selecting new board members, voters will be asked to consider a proposed $6.8 million tax levy for current expenses. The proposal, part of a $14.77 million budget, would raise the property tax rate by 27 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, to $2.25. That means the owner of a home assessed at $60,000, the township average, would pay $1,350 in taxes, a $162 increase.
While the candidates campaign, current board members have met repeatedly to weigh building-and-grounds cuts against the property tax increase to fill a $1.2 million gap left by lower-than-expected 1990 state funding.
Ronald Napoli, the board president, said the state's shortfall violates a 1976 commitment to "full funding" of school districts. "Everyone has recognized that local property tax is the worst way to fund education," said Napoli. "We've been told Gov. Florio's new tax proposal will address this in the future . . . but until we see it we'll have to remain skeptical."
Napoli and administrator Ralph C. Clifford said board members agreed to continue basic building maintenance, but cuts are planned in grounds maintenance and equipment purchases. The board also considered but rejected staff and benefit cuts, and added a writing program to bolster academics.
Delran Schools Add 3 Special-ed Teachers
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1990-09-30/news/25879265_1_special-education-costs-special-education-special-ed-teachersBy Joseph N. DiStefano, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: September 30, 1990At the start of a tight budget year, Delran schools have hired three new special-education teachers to work with more than 100 special-education students who moved into the district over the summer - more than double the 46 who graduated, joined mainstream classes or moved out.
"It's a real influx," said Stanley Halpern, the system's director of special education. "We had been stable for the previous six or seven years."
The surge is costly. While most of the district's 320 special-education students go to Delran schools or other public schools, 31 are shipped to private schools, where tuition runs as high as $20,000 a year, more than three times the $6,300 annual cost to educate the average Delran student. Also, special-education classes are typically smaller, requiring more staff per student - though Halpern said many special-ed teachers were recent graduates who earned less than the district average.
The increase was expected by school board members. Superintendent Bernard D. Shapiro had announced enrollment increases during summer board meetings. Board finance chairman Robert Sheeran warned in July that the writing and freshman-sports programs were in danger because of the increased special- education costs.
The board decided to keep half the writing program and most freshman sports. Chairman Ron Napoli said the cuts could not be directly attributed to the rise in special-education obligations, but rather to a reduction in state aid and the Township Council's $69,000 cut in board expenditures after a proposed school budget was rejected by voters in April.
The state typically reimburses districts for most of the extra cost of special-education students - but payments are based on the previous year's enrollment. "We're educating 320 students with a subsidy for 260. . . . We're paying for the extra kids," Halpern said.
Halpern credited the township's affordable housing and liberal state classification standards for the increase.
Francis Pinkowski, an education planner with the state Department of Education, confirmed the number of students in self-contained, in-school special-education classes in New Jersey had risen steadily and dramatically - from 37,000 to 60,000 during the 1980s. "That doesn't even (include) the kids in mainstream, resource room, and supplemental service programs," he said.
State special-education director Jeffrey Osowski said the numbers might be leveling off. He attributed much of the increase to Carter administration mandates to provide perceptually impaired children with special programs.
Other observers said those measures reflected a groundswell of support for expanded special education. "My impression is, one of the strongest groups in the country is the parents of the handicapped. They are vocal and really supportive of the program," Pinkowski said.
Jeff Reuter, child study supervisor at the Burlington County school superintendent's office, said social conditions contributed to the increase. ''The process of identifying students has become more refined . . . but there's also environmental factors, everything from medical technology, which has contributed to a higher survival rate for . . . babies . . . to drugs, where crack babies are coming into the system gradually."
"It's part of the national problem of poverty," Halpern said. "We're solving social ills by classifying the kids for special education."
Sheeran and other board members wondered whether students were drawn to Delran from poorer parts of the state. Halpern said turnover was high for all students. A study of 155 eighth graders last year showed 48 - almost one-third - had entered the district since fifth grade; almost as many apparently left.
"People are so transient," Sheeran said. "Any mother who wants the best for her children, even if she comes from a poor neighborhood and doesn't have many resources, she's going to look for inexpensive housing in a nice neighborhood like Maple Shade, Beverly," or affordable sections of towns like Delran, where more than a quarter of special-education students live in the extensive, well-kept Hunter's Glen Apartments.
Halpern said he did not think increased special-education costs could be borne by small districts indefinitely. "Beverly and Hainesport have a terrific administrative load because their schools are so small," he said. ''Consolidation would be the cheapest way."
Delran High Stiffens Its Academic Requirements
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1990-11-18/news/25929665_1_exam-exemption-board-members-school-boardBy Bob Goetz, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: November 18, 1990Anthony DeJoseph, the student council president at Delran High School, stood up at Monday's school board meeting and told the board members why he thinks that seniors with straight A's in a course should be allowed to skip the final exam.
"I don't see why we can't be exempt if we worked so hard all year to get an A," he said amid scattered applause from 80 people.
Exam exemption for seniors is a policy that some teachers have followed for years at Delran. It's a policy that now will change.
On Monday, the Delran school board adopted a series of measures, recommended by a nine-member task force, aimed at stiffening academic requirements in the school system. The only recommendation not adopted was the continuation of the exam exemption policy for seniors.
"I think (the requirements) will help the community improve the quality of its academic programs," said Bernard Shapiro, the school's superintendent.
The board approved the following recommendations:
* Essay questions must appear on every exam, but not carry more than 25 percent of exam weight.
* Each mid-term and final exam will continue to be worth 10 percent of the final grade, but the board will consider raising their value to 16 2/3 percent in the future.
* No exams will be given in physical education classes.
Shapiro originally said he wanted the final exams to carry 16 2/3 percent of the final grade, but he "reluctantly" backed off after the board members promised to study how the policy is applied in other school districts.
Pat Cahn, a past president of the PTA who served on the task force, said that the stiffer requirements were part of a continuing effort by the Delran school system to improve its academics.
"We always made the headlines with sports programs," Cahn said. "But we want to give the students a firm education."
Cahn added that improvements have been made recently and the results are beginning to show.
One improvement, according to Shapiro, is an added emphasis on developing students' writing skills. The requirement that essay questions appear on all exams, for instance, complements an intensive writing program started in the Delran school system two years ago.
The changes adopted Monday night also will bring a greater reliance on standardized tests in the school system.
Under the new testing policies, a teacher will administer the same test to all students in a particular grade and ability level. The system will allow the school to determine how effectively its students are learning, Cahn said.
"An exam is a very good way to judge your program," said board member Harry Gutelius, adding that allowing seniors to be exempt from exams would hinder the school's efforts to raise its academic standards.
Parents Push For More Buses
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1990-12-02/news/25921949_1_school-board-bus-car-poolBy Bob Goetz, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: December 02, 1990On most afternoons when school is in session, Suzanne Brooks climbs into her van and travels to the Delran schools to pick up two of her three children, usually collecting five others in her car pool. Often, she picks up more.
Even though Brooks is one of five families participating in the car pool, she is the only parent in the group who has time to drive children home after school. The rest of the parents, like Louise Puglise, are at work.
It's an arrangement that Brooks and Puglise say would not be necessary if the school system better responded to the changing work habits of Delran's families and increased the number of children eligible for busing.
"The days of June Cleaver are over," said Puglise, a single mother of three who works for an advertising agency in Philadelphia. "Today, one of four or one of three families in Delran are single-parent homes."
To pressure school officials for a response, Brooks and Puglise presented the school board a 444-signature petition at its last meeting asking the school district to increase busing. Their requests are for a bus to drive children home after their afternoon activities and for the board to lower eligibility requirements for children to qualify for busing.
State regulations require the Delran system to provide busing for every elementary and middle school student who lives more than two miles from school, and for every high school student more than 2 1/2 miles away.
Brooks and Puglise would like busing for children who live 1 1/2 miles away.
The school board said that since the meeting, it had identified some inefficiencies in bus routes that might allow for a bus following after-school activities.
But officials say that their biggest obstacle to providing more busing is in finding more money - a difficult proposition in a township that voted down last year's proposed school board budget because of its highertaxes. "We've tried to get a (bus following after-school activities) for the last few years," said school board member Kathleen "Bunny" Hewko. "Then we got our budget defeated."
The Delran schools meet state requirements for busing and exceed the state regulations for children who must cross dangerous roads such as U.S. 130, Hartford Road or Creek Road on their way to school. The school board buses parochial school students in the same way.
"Only about 18 percent of the kids we bus are required under state guidelines," said Joseph Picogna, business administrator for the school board. "The local public is picking up the tab for 82 percent of the transportation."
Picogna said that the board did not have enough money in its current budget to provide busing for children living more than 1 1/2 miles from school, but that it might be able to streamline morning routes to allow a bus to take children home following after-school activities.
For instance, six buses are now needed to serve Delran High School in the morning, but officials are trying to consolidate the routes to four.
The board must work with a restriction in the drivers' contract that permits no more than 3 1/2 hours of actual driving time in a day per driver. To provide additional service would require more money, either in overtime or by hiring more drivers - money that Picogna said the schools did not have this year.
Puglise, however, said that the dangers presented by Delran's increasingly crowded roads were another reason for added busing. "There are no more country roads," she said. "We're looking at secondary highways."
Both Puglise and Brooks credit the board for responding to their requests, even if they say they are doubtful that anything will change this year. "In the past, people have come in and made their request on a singular level," Brooks said.
"This is the first time the community has come together and said that this is a strain on us."
Nine School Board Candidates Pursuing Four Seats In Delran
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150925130424/http://articles.philly.com/1991-04-28/news/25781330_1_board-members-board-for-seven-years-school-boardBy Ovetta Wiggins, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: April 28, 1991Nine candidates, seven of them newcomers, are running for four seats on the Delran school board in Tuesday's election.
While the majority of the candidates praise the current administration, four newcomers - Barbara Gallagher, Dorothy (Sue) Johnson Robins, Edward Schweikert and Margaret Schweikert - said they were concerned about what they called the district's mismanagement.
Gallagher, an 18-year resident of Delran, is employed as a financial administrator. The mother of two children, Gallagher said she would like to see better management in the district and programs implemented that put academics before sports.
Ethel Duda, 39, has been a resident of Delran for eight years and is the mother of four. She is employed as a personal computer operator for Public Service Electric & Gas Co. in Bordentown and has been an active member in the PTA, serving as a second vice president of the St. Casimir's PTA for one year.
Kenneth R. Michener has lived in the township for eight years. He is a volunteer for the township's Recreation Activities Committee and works as a systems analyst with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. Michener, 40, said he thought he could bring fresh ideas and new vitality to "an already effective board."
Robert R. Mull, 47, has been a member of the board for seven years and a resident of Delran for 15 years. He is vice president of the board and is a vice president of purchasing and research development for Woodward-Wanger, a wholesale plumbing supply company in Philadelphia.
Ronald J. Napoli has been a member of the board for nine years and a resident of Delran for 13 years. Napoli, 43, works as a director in the finance department of Conrail in Philadelphia.
"It's important that experienced board members remain on the board to ensure that tomorrow's children receive the quality of education that today's children have received," Napoli said.
Robins has been a resident of Delran since 1982. She is an owner and corporate secretary of a warehouse distribution company in Hainesport. Robins is a volunteer at the library and a former member of the Curriculum Advisory Committee, a group set up by School Superintendent Bernard Shapiro.
Edward Schweikert, 50, is an assistant manager for Acme Markets in Philadelphia. He and his wife, Margaret, have lived in Delran for 12 years. Schweikert said he had to "be on the inside to see where the money is going because you ask questions and you don't get answers."
James R. Hatzold and Margaret Schweikert, two newcomers, are vying for one two-year unexpired term on the board.
Hatzold, 47, has been a resident of Delran for 15 years and has served on the township's Recreation Advisory Committe for the past 11 years. Hatzold, a general supervisor for Amtrack in Philadelphia, has coached football and baseball for the Delran Athletic Association for 15 years. He is married and has four sons.
"I've been involved in community service work and I'd like to take that one step further," Hatzold said. "I'd like to see an even balance of education, athletics and other after-school activities."
Margaret Schweikert, 43, a homemaker, said her attendance at board meetings had left her feeling that Delran residents had not been "getting their money's worth."
"I'd like to see more money going into the classroom," Schweikert said. ''This January we bought a five-ton dump truck, while teachers are complaining about using 13-year-old books. What's more important, books or a dump truck?"
Township residents will also be voting on a $17.7 million budget that would require $7.35 million to be raised by taxes. The budget, 9.4 percent over the current year, includes a waiver of the state spending cap for $70,000 to cover increased costs in special education.
The proposed budget also includes an estimated $300,000 reduction in personnel. Some of the cuts, to be made effective July 1, would include an art teacher at the high school, a third-grade teacher at Millbridge Elementary School and two physical education teachers between the high school and elementary school.
As a result of property revaluations in the township, the school tax rate is expected to drop from $2.26 per $100 of assessed value to $1.14. But the average tax bill would go up.
In 1990-91, the owner of a property assessed at $59,000, last year's township average, paid $1,328 in school taxes. If the budget is approved, the owner of a property assessed at $130,000, the new township average, will pay $1,482, or $154 more.
8 Janitors Face Layoffs In Delran
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151222143441/http://articles.philly.com/1991-06-30/news/25786145_1_janitors-school-board-plans-board-membersBy Gordon Mayer, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: June 30, 1991The Delran school board plans to eliminate 12 janitorial positions and replace them with more than 20 employees of a private janitorial firm next year.
To do so, the board will lay off eight janitors, some with as much as five years' experience in Delran, effective tomorrow when their union contract expires.
"I'm surprised," said Harry Smith, a five-year janitor who is one of the eight to lose their jobs. He said he would not seek a position with Andy's Janitorial Services, the contracted firm, although the board had promised to recommend that the firm rehire all eight janitors. "I'd be getting less (money and benefits)" working for Andy's, said Smith, 46, of Delran, who plans to look for another job.
Staff custodians make about $6.44 an hour. They move up the pay scale one step for each year worked for six years, then receive increases off the pay scale. Andy's will pay its employees $5 to $7 an hour, according to company owner Andy Shapiro.
Shapiro said "more than 20" janitors, plus four supervisors, would replace the 12 positions. Of the 12, two were retiring workers, one had resigned to take another job, and one position was open, according to Bill Blatchley, Delran school district's director of buildings and grounds.
The $300,300 contract could save the district, which spends $400,000 a year on maintenance, as much as $100,000, board members said, mostly in benefits.
The contract, which took a year to prepare, covers salaries and supplies, according to Blatchley, who added that the school holds a 100 percent performance bond that would refund all the money the board paid Andy's if the board is dissatisfied with the company's performance.
An inch-thick book specifying how to clean the schools in case disagreements arise between the district and Andy's is part of the contract.
The district continues to be responsible for two of the five buildings in the district, Aronson Bell and Cambridge, as well as the transportation garage, Blatchley said. Andy's will clean the three largest buildings, the high school, middle school and Millbridge School.
Many teachers are unhappy with the decision to lay off the custodians, who were members of the Delran Education Association. The board has the right to cut union members' positions and subcontract services if it can prove the layoffs are for financial reasons, said Marge Gessman, Delran Education Association president.
Gessman said Andy's had a history of hiring "transients" who would not feel the same responsibility to the school as the staffers. She also worried that teachers and janitors would not share the same relationship they had as fellow district employees, or be able to communicate as easily.
Teacher-contract Talks May Be Harbinger Of Trouble
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150912220955/http://articles.philly.com/1991-07-21/news/25783675_1_teacher-contract-talks-school-year-teacher-contractsBy Nancy Phillips, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: July 21, 1991The start of school is weeks away, but teacher-contract talks in New Jersey are showing signs of trouble.
Nearly 250 contracts remain unsettled in public school districts statewide - about twice the average for this time of year. And in many cases, talks have stalled as school officials grapple with uncertain economic times and a complicated new school-finance law.
While it's too early to predict whether the new school year will bring a spate of teacher strikes, negotiators on both sides say the outlook is not good.
"The negotiations are extremely difficult this year," said Jim Geiger, a Camden County representative of the New Jersey Education Association. "This is very difficult bargaining."
Negotiations have broken off in more than half of the 22 districts in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties that do not have contract agreements for the next school year. Mediators have stepped in, but union leaders and school officials say the mood has grown tense.
"There's no question it's going to be difficult," said Phyllis Dillman, president of the teachers' union in the Lenape Regional School District in Burlington County, where negotiations reached an impasse in May.
Dillman said school officials had offered the teachers pay raises of 5 percent - lower than previous raises and an offer that the union considered unacceptable.
School officials said the union had sought a double-digit pay raise that the district could not afford. Hence, the standoff.
In scores of districts across the state, the story is the same. After a decade-long push to boost teacher salaries by offering generous pay hikes, school officials have begun pressing for lower settlements. Not surprisingly, they are meeting with resistance.
"It's a new era," said K. Kiki Konstantinos, superintendent of the Lenape district, where talks were under way with help from a state mediator last week. "Things have to be done differently."
Under the state's new school-finance law, districts face strict limits on the annual growth of spending in the next school year - about 8 percent in most cases. They also face pressure from taxpayers pinched by recession and the new taxes enacted by the Florio administration.
Add to that loud criticism from Senate President John A. Lynch and Majority Leader Daniel J. Dalton, who have chastised school districts for granting teachers "runaway salaries." And the result is hard bargaining that has held up negotiations in many districts.
"Things are very slow," said Kathy McQuarrie, spokeswoman for the NJEA. ''We don't have many settlements yet."
Moreover, the settlements that have been reached show a trend toward smaller pay raises. Teacher contracts settled in the last six months included salary increases that averaged 8.2 percent for the next school year, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association. That's down from an average pay raise of 9 percent in settlements reached last year and 9.7 percent in 1985.
"We're definitely seeing a downward trend," said Joe Flannery, spokesman for the school boards association.
"It's inching down," agreed McQuarrie of the NJEA.
Although slight, the drop is significant because it is the first sign of a retreat from the salary increases of the last decade. New Jersey's teacher salaries have more than doubled since 1981 - from an average of $17,161 to $38,790 last year.
Much of that growth was fueled by a strong economy and the education reform efforts of former Gov. Thomas H. Kean and Education Commissioner Saul Cooperman. Now, the call is for belt-tightening.
Gov. Florio has called on school districts to "inject some discipline into the bargaining process." Toward that end, the state has said wealthy districts must begin paying part of the cost of teacher pension and Social Security payments in two years. And it has imposed caps on annual budget growth, forcing all districts to make tough choices about where to spend limited dollars.
"With these budget caps, money is a problem for a lot of districts," said Flannery. "Boards just cannot continue to pay these (big) increases. I think you're going to start to see settlements down in the 5 to 6 percent range this year."
While a handful of districts in North Jersey have settled multi-year contracts with annual raises as low as 5.5 percent, union leaders say such settlements are less likely in South Jersey, where salaries are lower and in some cases lag behind the state average.
In the Lenape district, a teacher with 14 years of experience earned $36,649 last year - below the state average and less than the average in districts of comparable wealth, union officials say.
"We know what the economic constraints are," said Dillman, the union president. "But we're hoping for something a little more reasonable" than 5 percent.
School officials, on the other hand, say they must balance the teachers' financial interests against decisions about program cuts or impose a tax hike.
"The people out there, a lot of them aren't working," said Konstantinos, the school superintendent. "If they are, they're not getting near an 8 or 9 percent increase. And if we're talking about a tax increase (to pay for higher salaries), they don't want to hear it."
In addition to the Lenape district, contract negotiations are under way in the Burlington County school districts of Bass River, Bordentown, Burlington Township, Cinnaminson, Delran, Lumberton, Mansfield and Willingboro.
In Camden County, the Barrington, Collingswood, Gloucester Township, Haddon Township, Haddonfield, Lawnside, Magnolia, Oaklyn and Woodlynne school districts have yet to resolve teacher contracts.
And in Gloucester County, contract talks continued in Elk, Logan, National Park and Southern Gloucester County Regional school districts.
Tentative Pact In Delran
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1991-09-26/news/25803559_1_tentative-agreement-tentative-pact-school-boardBy Gordon Mayer, Special to The Inquirer
Posted: September 26, 1991Delran teachers unanimously approved a tentative agreement yesterday calling for a pay increase of about 7 percent in each of the next two years.
School board members will vote on the agreement Oct. 21.
Board member Harry Gutelius said the agreement with the 260 members of the Delran Education Association was similar to one reached in Cinnaminson Sept. 10.
Although he would not provide details of the agreement, Gutelius said that, unlike Cinnaminson, the Delran school board had not sought co-payment of medical benefits.
Teachers plan another membership meeting to ratify the contract early next month, said DEA President Marge Gessman. She said 239 members attended yesterday's meeting.
A board negotiating team and DEA leaders met with a state mediator until 6 a.m. yesterday. It was the fourth meeting between board and DEA negotiators since the teachers' contract expired June 30. Bus drivers, custodians, aides and teachers had been working without a contract.
Gutelius called the agreement fair to both sides. "The salary increase was low enough that we could pay it and high enough that they could live with it."
Delran Exploring Subcontracting Out Its School Nurses
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1992-01-30/news/26035827_1_school-nurses-district-nurse-familiar-careBy Sonia R. Lelii, SPECIAL TO THE INQUIRER
Posted: January 30, 1992In an unprecedented request to the state, the Delran School District is exploring the possibility of replacing its school nurses, who are district employees, with nurses from the private sector.
Last week, the Delran Board of Education voted, 8-1, to resubmit a November request to the state Department of Education for a legal opinion on privatizing health services. The district currently employs three full-time and two part-time state-certified school nurses.
"We don't even know if there are advantages," said Superintendent Carl Johnson. "We are looking at getting comparable services at less expense. The (final) decision might be . . . it is not worth it. But I'm not going to do all that research until I find out it's permissible."
It could take up to a year for the district to get an answer, said Maureen Keller, acting director for the Bureau of Controversies and Disputes for the Department of Education.
"This issue in regards to school nursing has never been raised before," said Keller. "It's . . . the first time anyone has litigated the issue, and it's going to take an interpretation of law."
She said that there was no blanket prohibition on subcontracting services, but that of two such queries in 12 years, the Department of Education has denied one - a proposal to privatize speech therapists.
School district attorney John Barbour said, "The state wanted to know if they (the district) were really interested. They don't want to take the time if we are asking for the sake of asking. We've written back stating yes, the board will consider it, if it's legal."
"We have contracted out a substantial portion of our custodial services, so it's not a new concept in the district," said board President Ronald Napoli. In 1991, the board voted to subcontract custodial workers, thus resulting in $100,000 savings to the district.
Entry-level full-time nurses start at $23,500 in the Delran district. The highest paid of the nurses makes about $42,000.
Even the remote prospect that certified school nurses could be replaced with subcontracted personnel has district nurses and some parents concerned.
"Are you kidding? We think it is a terrible idea," said one district nurse, who requested anonymity. "Many of us have been here for years. We know the children. We know when they come in the office how to handle them. We know their situation and we know the family background.
"This could be terrible for nursing. . . . It could impact on the entire state," she added. "It's very much in the exploratory stages (but) people in the community are very upset."
Parent Linda Wengerd, whose 10-year-old son Dustin has asthma, said, "I don't know if they can privatize the nurses and still have the same familiar care that children have now."
"Our nurse, she knows my son. She's known him year after year. What if they get someone in for six months and she decides to leave? These are my questions," Wengerd said.
"Some of us worked in hospitals briefly . . . and we took a pay cut to work in schools," said Nikki Feldman, president of the Burlington County School Nurses Association. "(If it happens,) I think it's disastrous for the children of Delran. There would be no continuity in working with the children's problems. We are trained in dealing with children in a school setting, which is totally different than a hospital."
Students Are Fighting Cuts In Delran They're Petitioning For Restoration Of Language, Art, Computer Programs.
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1992-05-21/news/26013688_1_student-petition-foreign-language-student-leadersBy Josh Zimmer, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: May 21, 1992Delran middle school students are gathering petitions to oppose school board decisions that would curtail computer, art and foreign language classes.
The petition drive began shortly after the board cut $85,000 from the defeated $17.9 million school budget for 1992-93.
"We the undersigned concerned residents of Delran Township," the student petition begins, "request that the Board of Education reconsider its decision and restore the foreign language program and other educational activities, such as art, keyboard, etc. . . . We believe education should be our main priority."
The budget eliminates seventh-grade foreign language, reduces computer keyboarding classes and leaves the school with just one guidance counselor, principal Stephen Falcone said Monday. In addition, because of seniority, the art and special education teachers will be dismissed.
Another petition was circulated by a citizens group calling itself People Recognizing Education as a Priority.
As of Monday, members had collected at least 40 signatures to present to the Board of Education.
The student petition has more signatures. It was formulated by friends living in the Swedes Run area, where they have gotten about 120 signatures, sixth grader and co-author Amit Vora said Friday. She said the small association planned to show board members their petitions at the next board meeting.
"I felt we should do something to get their attention," eighth grader and co-author Andrew Konicki said.
School officials are not giving the students hope. Once adopted, a budget can be altered by transferring alotted funds, but that normally happens during an emergency only, Superintendent Carl I. Johnson said.
Students have sought ways to organize their frustration since the hearing that accompanied the board's budget ratification late last month.
Konicki spoke before a packed high school cafeteria, saying "I think languages such as Spanish should continue. We should not 'rif' (eliminate by reduction in force) some of these teachers, because they are some of the best teachers we have."
Konicki also protested that the cuts were preserving sports programs at the expense of education, an important issue in a town where residents are conditioned to sports success.
"How is kicking a soccer ball going to get me into Princeton or Harvard?" asked Konicki, who is on the soccer team.
There were the makings that night of a student sit-in, tentatively scheduled for the next week. Some of the more active students canvassed their friends and acquaintances who were also upset at the cuts. Before night's end, student leaders said that 100 students had tentatively agreed to skip at least one class.
The students feared, however, that they might face suspension. On the morning of the sit-in, May 7, those fears were strong enough to dissuade the students.
Konicki, who was increasingly cool toward the sit-in, and his friends decided to take other action by writing the petition with their parents' help. The parents of the students are proud of their children's determination.
"Me and my wife are really supporting the kids," Vasant Vora said. ''That's the only way they can get attention from board members."
School Bus Is Hit By Car In Delran No Students Were Aboard. It Was The Area's Third School-bus Accident In Three School Days.
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1992-09-23/news/26024803_1_hospitals-with-minor-injuries-area-hospitals-accidentBy Josh Zimmer, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: September 23, 1992DELRAN — A school bus traveling through Delran without students was hit from behind yesterday morning on Route 130 South, leaving the driver of a small four-door car with back sprains and a pregnant school bus driver shaken up but otherwise uninjured, police said.
The incident was the third motor-vehicle accident involving a school bus in South Jersey in three school days.
The accident on Tuesday occurred at about 8 a.m., shortly after the bus had dropped off students at Holy Cross High School. The bus, owned by National School Bus Service Inc. of Berlin, had just passed the intersection of Chester Avenue while slowing down at the Haines Mill Road jughandle, Delran Patrolman Leonard L. Mongo said.
Traffic was reduced on the three-lane southbound highway to one lane and backed up for 30 minutes to about one-half mile.
The blue Chevrolet that struck the bus was destroyed.
Its driver, Esme D. Odain, 54, of Hunters Glen Apartments in Delran, was treated at the scene by the Delran Emergency Squad. She was transported to Zurbrugg Hospital in Riverside and released a few hours later, a hospital spokesman said.
The school bus driver, Carol Sheehan, 27, of Pinoak Drive in Atco, was ''emotionally shook up," said Mongo, who advised the woman to see her physician. Norma Stevenson, operations supervisor with the company's Red Lion Division in Vincentown, said later that Sheehan was in good health.
"She's fine. We made sure she was checked (by her doctor)," Stevenson said.
Sheehan was wearing her seatbelt when the accident took place, she said. School bus drivers have been required to wear seatbelts for about 10 years, said the company safety manager, Ray Mooney. A new state law signed two weeks ago requires seat belts on all new school buses, but not buses now in service.
Stevenson said the rear bumper on the bus was dented.
The bus was on its normal route that transports students from the Lenape School District area.
On Friday, the driver of a Jeep was killed when it crashed into a bus carrying 43 children and adults, leaving 30 of them injured in Mantua.
In a less serious accident on Monday in Maple Shade, a car hit a school bus that was carrying 37 students broadside. Twelve children were treated at area hospitals with minor injuries.
Vandals Puncture 16 Radiators In Cinnaminson High School Lot The Damaged Buses Are The Largest In The District's Fleet. Repairs Will Cost $7,000.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150921225427/http://articles.philly.com/1993-01-20/news/25958928_1_buses-seat-school-buses-radiatorsBy Eric L. Smith, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: January 20, 1993CINNAMINSON — When 18-year-old Parimal Patel got up yesterday morning to go to Cinnaminson High School, it seemed like a normal day. He showered, dressed and went out to wait for his school bus.
It was an endless wait. The bus never showed up.
Monday night, vandals cut a large circular hole in the chain-link fence around the parking lot behind the high school on Riverton Road and punched holes in the radiators of 16 school buses parked there. Several grilles also were damaged.
The lot, which is secluded amid tall trees and is not patrolled, was flowing with green streams of anti-freeze when school mechanics arrived at 6 a.m.
"A couple of drivers went to check the anti-freeze thinking there was a problem with one or two buses," said Keith Fleming, one of the mechanics. ''Then we realized all the buses were leaking. Some of the radiators had 10 to 15 holes.
"They really did a good job on them," Fleming said. "Somebody wanted another day off."
The crippled buses seat 54 students each and are the largest in the fleet of 41 that the school district uses every day to transport 80 percent of its 2,080 students.
School Superintendent Timothy Wade said the district was forced to borrow buses from nearby Palmyra, Moorestown and Delran yesterday and would continue to borrow them until the Cinnaminson buses are repaired.
He said it would cost about $7,000 to repair or replace the damaged radiators and grilles.
Detective Thomas Lillagore of the Cinnaminson police said he was interviewing suspects, but wouldn't elaborate.
'Right now everybody's a suspect. But the truth will come out," he said.
Wade said he considered canceling school for the day, but decided he would rather get students to school late than not have them at all.
"I just went with my gut feeling," he said.
Wade notified parents who are volunteer "room mothers" for each class from kindergarten through sixth grade, who in turn informed other parents of the bus delays. Then he contacted a local radio station to inform grades 7 through 12.
"We spread the word that buses were running late and that if you can, get to school on your own," he said.
Despite the lack of buses, Wade said most students made it to school. The district's four schools averaged a 90 percent attendance rate yesterday.
The radio message didn't get out to everyone. Kareem Brown, a 16-year-old junior, didn't hear about the vandalism until he got to school on his own.
"I waited in the cold for half an hour before a friend came and picked me up," he said. "I thought school was closed."
Not every student was lucky enough to get a ride to school. Patel had to walk more than a mile.
"I didn't know what was going on until I got to school and talked to the principal. I was really upset," he said.
Patel said rumors were flying around the school about probable suspects. Juniors suspect seniors and vice versa, he said.
"I don't care who did it, but if they are in the school, it's a major embarrassment for the students, faculty and teachers," he said. "It gives us all a bad reputation. What type of message does that send out?"
Some seniors at Cinnaminson High said the recent cancellation of upper- class privileges such as a senior lounge and an early sign-out had left many seniors upset with the administration. But they said they doubted that was behind the vandalism.
"I don't see any reason for the seniors to take out the school buses. Most of us don't use them anyway," said Chris Swank, a 17-year-old senior.
Pat Wright, a teacher's aide at the Eleanor Rush Elementary School, has three children who go to Cinnaminson schools. She took her youngest, Brian, 10, a fourth grader at the Rush school, with her. Her older children, Megan, 16, and Devin, 15, walked to the high school.
"I found out early enough, so it didn't cause any major problems," she said. But she said that at the end of the day there was a lot of confusion as children were confronted by unfamiliar buses.
Wade said service should slowly return to normal during the course of the week. Letters were sent home to parents last night explaining what happened and teachers will be staying later than usual to help with crowd control until things are back to normal.
Delran Seeks 4% Tax Hike For Schools
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1993-03-14/news/25948709_1_cuts-programs-three-budgets-tax-hikeBy Josh Zimmer, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: March 14, 1993DELRAN — Residents would see their school taxes increase 4 percent under a $17.5 million budget introduced by the school board.
If residents approve the plan April 20, the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $130,000 would pay $1,690, an increase of $65. The tax rate would increase from $1.25 to $1.30 per $100 of assessed valuation.
The board, which has seen its last three budgets defeated, is hoping to win public support by proposing a lower tax increase this time.
The proposed budget increases spending 2.32 percent, or $395,636, and includes $191,994 more in state aid. The proposal that residents defeated last year would have raised taxes 8.9 percent, or 11 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
"We're trying to put the best budget forward for the people of Delran," board member Helen Scherer said.
The major increases are in salaries, benefits, insurance and utilities costs, Superintendent Carl I. Johnson said.
The budget, proposed March 3, neither cuts programs nor adds new ones, he said.
"I think the budget is a fiscally responsible budget, one that I feel represents the needs of the students," she said.
But Johnson warned of cuts in programs and staff if residents rejected the budget for the fourth consecutive year. An expensive contract settlement, due June 30, with the 25-member Delran Teachers Association could also bust the budget, he added.
It's A New Age For Delran In 6-way School Board Race A 20-year-old Is Taking His First Stab At Politics.
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1993-04-04/news/25982154_1_board-members-school-board-school-libraryBy Josh Zimmer, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: April 04, 1993DELRAN — Twenty-year-old Damien Damiano, a 1991 graduate of Delran High School, has never really left his favorite haunt.
"In this school I grew up," he said during a recent interview in the school library. "I found what I wanted to do, and I'm following it."
The "it" is politics, said the Burlington County College political science major.
If his wish comes true, he will become a school board member, which means he would be spending even more time at the high school than he already does as adviser to the student production of Camelot.
He is battling five others running for three three-year terms on the board.
At 20, Damiano is not only the youngest candidate in Delran, he is the youngest one in Burlington County, according to local school districts.
"I hope people will take me seriously," he said. "Right now I do feel Delran does need a new face on the board. Maybe someone who's actually gone through the system should serve."
Other candidates are Sandra DeSimone, Jean A. Gandy, Robert C. Leavitt, Charles Perritt and incumbent Helen Scherer. DeSimone and Gandy are running joint campaigns, as are Perritt and Scherer.
Board members Harry Gutelius and James Hatzold are retiring.
Friends, family and residents have generally been encouraging, Damiano said.
"He's been very involved in the school, so it doesn't surprise me," high school principal Michael Gallucci said. "I think the fact we can interest young people in government is a success story."
The other candidates seem less concerned with Damiano's age than running a campaign and winning.
"Everybody has the right to put their name in," said DeSimone, who last year helped found the group People Recognizing Education as a Priority. "Age doesn't bother me one way or the other. My major issue is what it's always been: That is (for the board) to take more public input."
Others are taking the same tack regarding Damiano.
"There are some very bright young people," board member Robert Sheeran said. "You don't know what ideas they're going to bring to the board."
Aspiring board members will present their platforms on candidates' night Wednesday. Damiano said he had been studying the district's budget as preparation.
Damiano said he supports the formation of a fine arts committee on the board but opposes the board's proposal to contract out janitorial services, despite the potential savings of $105,000.
DeSimone and Gandy support increased spending on curriculum, including textbooks. Despite their criticism of a "lack of openness" on the school board, they support its $17.5 million budget proposal calling for a 4 percent tax increase.
Perritt and Scherer are calling for spending efficiency.
"I think they're (board members) making every effort they can," Perritt said. "I'd just like to give it a shot myself."
Leavitt could not be reached for comment.
Delran School Board Considers Privatizing School-bus Service
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1993-04-04/news/25981531_1_private-firm-bus-drivers-budgetBy Josh Zimmer, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: April 04, 1993DELRAN — Having seen three straight budget proposals go down to defeat, the school board is considering replacing the district's busing operation with a less expensive private firm, according to Board President Ron Napoli.
Eliminating the approximately 20 bus drivers would save $280,000 annually, said Superintendent Carl I. Johnson. The district, which owns some buses that are eight years old, would also get newer equipment by going with a private firm, he said.
The layoffs of the drivers would be in addition to 11 layoffs of janitors already part of a 1993-94 budget introduced last month.
The board is set to vote tomorrow on a budget amended to include the additional layoffs, Napoli said.
"Right now, with facts we have in front of us, I'd say (the new cuts are) highly likely," he added.
Stung by successive budget defeats, the school board proposed a much trimmer 1993-94 budget last month, a $17.5 million plan that calls for a 5- cent tax increase, or $65 for the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $130,000.
Johnson said privatizing busing would save the district $280,000 and slice about 2 cents from a increase.
"That's a lot of money," he said. "The bottom line is you try to provide services for the least amount and try to minimize the impact on taxpayers."
The district began privatizing custodial and maintenance services two years ago, which reduced those jobs to the current staff of 21. Johnson said the district had seen "quite a substantial savings" as a result.
Because state law limits the annual increases that contractors can receive, the savings would continue for the life of the contract, Johnson said.
Those cuts would have been included in the budget when it was introduced, but the bids had not been received, he said.
The proposed budget already includes $105,000 in expected savings from further privatizing custodial and maintenance services.
The threatened workers, who are represented by the 300-member Delran Education Association, will make their presence felt at the hearing, district and union officials said.
DEA president Marge Gessman could not be reached for comment. The bus drivers' representative, Nancy Vassallo, explained the board's proposals to the drivers at a meeting Wednesday.
She declined to comment on the situation but said the drivers would appear in force tomorrow.
"I would suspect that April 5 will be a very lively meeting," board member Robert Sheeran said.
To ease the bus drivers' fears, Sheeran said, the contractors will probably consider hiring them.
There is "no reason for them to be pleased about it," he said. "But once some of the emotion is removed, we think when they have the opportunity to see what the contractor may be able to offer them, I think they may not be as unhappy as they are today."
Overall, the district's maintenance and custodial staff would be reduced to 10 people.
Other area school districts - among them Edgewater Park and, more recently, Cherry Hill - have opted for privatizing bus routes. Edgewater Park Superintendent Walter J. Dold said the district had been contracting out for ''quite a few years."
"They do it better and more efficiently for me," Dold said. "The contractor offered the bus drivers I had jobs."
Delran School Board Backs 31 Layoffs
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1993-04-06/news/25981407_1_bus-drivers-school-board-board-membersBy Josh Zimmer, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: April 06, 1993DELRAN — An overwhelmingly pro-union crowd of about 200 people did not deter the school board last night from approving a $17.2 million 1993-94 budget that eliminates 31 bus-driving, maintenance and custodial jobs.
The proposal to lay off 20 unionized district bus drivers and replace them with a contracted bus service brought speaker after speaker to the podium in protest. Only a few people spoke in favor of the move, which the board said would save $280,000 annually.
"I'm a former bus driver" now, said Robert Chambers.
Some speakers argued that firing bus drivers would hurt safety and expose children to strangers.
Contracting with an outside company "would mean losing control (over hiring), having strangers in the halls," said Marge Guessman, president of the Delran Education Association, which represents the laid-off workers.
Board members countered that Eagle Wolfington, the bus company the board has hired for $613,000, has a better safety record and better equipment than the district.
"I for one have no trouble with subcontracting if we can save money," said Anne Marie Lorenzen, a parent of two students.
A petition with 600 signatures opposing the change was presented to the board.
"We feel very confident it (safety) will not be compromised," said Board President Ron Napoli.
In addition to the bus drivers, 11 custodial and maintenance workers would be laid off and replaced with a janitorial and a landscaping company, a move the board said would save $105,000.
The budget would increase the property-tax rate from $1.25 to 1.28 on each $100 of assessed property value, an increase of 2.4 percent. The owner of a home assessed at the township average of $130,000 would pay $1,664, up $39 from this year.
The spending plan is slightly higher than last year's budget of $17.06 million.
During the discussion over the bus drivers, a furor erupted when Guessman tried to turn the podium over to Steven Swetsky, a consultant from the New Jersey Education Association, so he could present figures allegedly showing it would cost more to hire outsiders.
Napoli would not allow Swetsky to speak and called for the vote.
Failure Of A Leaner, Meaner Budget Confounds Delran School Officials
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1993-05-02/news/25964648_1_order-cuts-budget-proposal-district-driverBy Josh Zimmer, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: May 02, 1993DELRAN — The Delran school board thought it had seen the light after three straight budget defeats.
Residents wanted a tight budget.
And the board complied, approving a $17.18 million 1993-94 budget proposal that would have included $8.43 million in taxes, including debt service. That was a mere 0.68 percent increase in the total budget and a 2.4 percent increase in the tax rate.
The owner of a home assessed at the township average of $130,000 would have paid $1,664 - an increase of $39 a year.
To achieve those numbers, the board fired 11 custodial and maintenance workers and 20 bus drivers. A custodial company already under contract to the district will pick up the extra maintenance work, and the district has hired Eagle Wolfington Leasing Corp. of Mount Holly to handle student transportation.
Despite harsh criticism of the layoffs at a public hearing April 5, the board resisted calls to reverse the decision - sure that residents would be unable to resist such a small tax increase.
But residents proved resistant, turning down the proposal April 20 by a vote of 609-584.
"I'm very disappointed," said Superintendent Carl I. Johnson. "The board worked very diligently to keep the budget down. They made some very hard decisions, particularly with privatization.
"If 13 people had voted the other way, it would have passed."
Results showed that 39 people had voted for school-board candidates but not for the budget. At least some who voted against the budget apparently believed the rejection would restore the drivers' jobs.
"I had parents approach me and tell me, 'Don't worry about your job,' " said Barbara Kraus, a district driver for 15 years.
Kraus said she had voted against the budget - not in the hope of getting her job back but because she felt board members did not listen to the public.
In the board elections, voters turned out incumbent Helen Scherer but elected three new members who oppose more spending cuts: Sandra DeSimone, Jean A. Gandy and Charles Perritt.
The firing of 20 bus drivers - some of them Delran residents, some nearing retirement - remains controversial. But the board has insisted that all the cuts are final.
When the board passed the budget plan April 5, some residents said they would be willing to pay $64 more in taxes on the average assessment if the drivers' jobs were preserved.
That reasoning befuddled Scherer.
"It makes me say to myself, 'If they voted no for $39, do you think they would have voted for $64?' It doesn't make sense."
The budget is now in the hands of the Township Council, which may cut it or keep it as proposed. The council may order cuts in the budget but cannot tell the board what to cut.
"Hopefully, they'll review all the efforts made by the Board of Education before the budget went (to the voters) and see it was close, there really was no mandate, keep it intact," Johnson said.
Dispute Stalls Pact For Teachers
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1993-08-30/news/25969177_1_board-negotiator-board-members-board-fearsBy Josh Zimmer, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: August 30, 1993DELRAN — The school board and its 170 teachers are no closer to signing a new contract than they were eight months ago because of a continuing dispute over who can serve as a board negotiator.
The dispute arose in February after the Delran Education Association, which represents the teachers, demanded that board President Ron Napoli and member Robert Mull step down from the board negotiating team because of conflicts of interest involving their spouses.
Napoli's wife is a district secretary and Mull's wife is a teacher at Millbridge Elementary School.
The DEA cited an opinion by the state School Ethics Commission saying that board members who are negotiating a contract that will affect their spouses had conflicts of interest.
Worried that four other members of the nine-member board could have conflicts of interest because they are members of the New Jersey Education Association through their jobs in other towns, the school board in April asked the commission to rule whether they could serve on the negotiating team.
The NJEA is the umbrella union for the state's public schoolteachers and the board fears they could be seen as having a vested interest in the contract.
The four are Morris Burton, an attendance officer in Cinnaminson; Sandra DeSimone, a teacher in Pennsauken; Jean Gandy, a teacher in Pennsauken, and Ronald Forst, who teaches in Burlington City.
The board is concerned that it could be subject to fines if found in violation of state school ethics codes for school officials, said district Superintendent Carl I. Johnson.
The board also wants to guard against a potential lawsuit that could possibly scuttle a negotiated agreement, Johnson said.
The board is still waiting to hear from the commission about the eligibility of the four members, Board Solicitor John Barbour said. And neither Napoli or Mull has stepped down from the negotiating team.
Barbour said that he had advised the board to seek clarification from the ethics commission and that pending such advice "the members don't want to violate the law."
Attorney General Geri Callahan, a commission member, said she did not know when the commission would discuss the issue.
The board and the DEA have not met since March and the old contract expired June 30.
Another board member, Robert Sheeran, had been asked to step down because his sister-in-law was a district bus driver. But the bus drivers were represented by the DEA before the district privatized the busing operations, so his eligibility was no longer in question, Napoli said.
A couple of weeks ago, the DEA filed a petition with the Public Employees Relations Commission seeking mediation on the ground that the board has been delaying negotiations, according to Steven Swetsky, NJEA negotiations consultant.
"It is our feeling there are seven board members who (can) participate in the negotiations right now," Swetsky said. "We've been asking them to appoint a committee and come back to the table."
In Napoli's view, the DEA caused the negotiations stalemate by bringing up the eligibility issue.
"The union thought they could get an easier group to deal with, one that would be more conducive to a higher settlement . . . and it backfired," Napoli said.
The original board negotiating team had said in several bargaining sessions with the DEA that the board would not be as generous as during the previous negotiations when it agreed to a two-year pact providing for consecutive 7 percent raises, Napoli said.
"The economic environment, settlements in other districts and conditions in Delran, in general, don't call for it," he said.
But "the longer it takes, the lower (the teachers') likely settlement becomes."
Ethics Question Holds Up Teachers' Pact Are Some Delran School Board Members Ineligible To Participate In Negotiations? The State Will Rule.
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1994-01-18/news/25825717_1_ethics-panel-school-board-ethics-commission-rulesBy Laurent Sacharoff, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: January 18, 1994DELRAN — For the Delran school board, it's an ethical dilemma. For the teachers' union, it's stalling.
Now, after months of no talks, each is hoping the impasse will be broken by higher authority.
As the board sees it, only two of its members may be free under new state ethical standards to negotiate a contract with the teachers, because seven of its nine members are themselves teachers or indirectly tied to the union with which it negotiates contracts.
For that reason, while it awaits a ruling from the state School Ethics Commission, the board says it has not negotiated with the Delran Education Association since March.
That reasoning is nonsense, replies the DEA, and last week the union asked the state Public Employment Relations Commission to compel the board to negotiate.
Decisions may come in the next two weeks from the two state agencies - and in keeping with the peculiar standoff, nobody is quite sure what would happen if the decisions are at odds.
The ethics panel is scheduled to meet Jan. 26 to clarify whether five members of Delran's school board with ties to the New Jersey Education Association, the parent union of the Delran teachers' union, can safely negotiate and vote on a contract.
On the other side, the Public Employment Relations Commission, which held an emergency hearing last week, is expected to decide by Friday whether to force the school board to negotiate.
The difficulties have resulted from different interpretations of state ethics laws, which were reorganized under the School Ethics Commission in 1992. The school board believes five of its members with ties to the NJEA could potentially be exposed to ethical complaints if they help negotiate or vote on a contract.
"We're not trying to avoid negotiation, we're just asking the state how do we legally do it," said John Barbour, lawyer for the school board.
But the DEA says the fear is unfounded, that the five certainly can negotiate, and they have a legal obligation to do so.
"I think the whole thing is being blown out of proportion," said Steven Cohen, lawyer for DEA. "Their refusal to meet is violation of the PERC act, and their intentions, good, bad or indifferent, are irrelevant."
Those five members are important for contract negotiations, because based on earlier rulings that both sides have accepted, two members of the nine member board definitely cannot participate in negotiations. That means those two members, who have wives in the DEA, cannot even vote on a contract.
That leaves seven, and if five of those are also found to have a conflict of interest, only two remain, - not a majority.
If the ethics commission rules that members with ties to the NJEA cannot negotiate teacher contracts, said Cohen, "that would paralyze half the school districts in New Jersey."
The union's 240 members, meanwhile, have been working under the terms of their old contract, which expired June 30.
Negotiations broke off in March, after DEA President Marge Gessman sent a letter to the school board asking that three members of its four-person negotiating team be removed because of a new interpretation of conflict of interest laws.
Gessman and school board President Ron Napoli disagree, however, over the motivation behind her letter. Napoli argues that the DEA simply wanted to remove from the negotiating team those it thought inimical to union interests.
"If that letter had not been sent, these negotiations would have been finished before October or November, no doubt in my mind," Napoli said.
"So in their effort to get a negotiations team that would be softer, more likely to give themselves increases, the leadership shot themselves in the foot," he said.
But Gessman said she wrote the letter merely to make the board aware of the new interpretation of the law.
In either case, the letter was "the trigger," said School Superintendent Carl Johnson, and the board then wondered whether another five of its members, with ties to the NJEA, might be viewed in the future as having a conflict of interest.
Cohen said that fear was exaggerated, but Barbour argued that in addition to a fine and possible removal from the board, "to have been found to have behaved unethically - that's a big thing for your reputation."
A few days before the ethics panel meets Jan. 26, it expects to receive advice it requested from the state attorney general, according to Paula Sallomi, executive director of the commission.
But DEA members last week asked PERC in an emergency hearing to force the school board to negotiate. Cohen said he expected a decision by Friday.
In the interim, school employees have continued to work, but, said Gessman, ''the school board's lack of respect for the employees of the district really creates horrendous working conditions. It's not an exaggeration."
State Tells Delran School Board To Renew Teacher Contract Talks A Negotiator Must Be Named By The Directors. The Union Had Filed An Unfair-labor-practice Complaint.
Source: http://articles.philly.com/1994-01-24/news/25822747_1_board-members-negotiator-school-boardBy Laurent Sacharoff, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Posted: January 24, 1994DELRAN — A state agency has ordered the Delran school board to reopen contract negotiations with its teachers. The board suspended talks early last year, citing ethical concerns.
The Public Employment Relations Commission on Friday ordered the board to appoint a negotiator, even as the board waits for another state agency to rule whether five board members with ties to the teachers' union can participate in the talks.
"The board's blanket refusal to negotiate so stifles the labor relations process that the harm which flows therefrom is irreparable," PERC adjudicator Edmund Gerber ruled Friday in response to a complaint by the Delran Education Association.
"It's what we wanted," said Steven Cohen, lawyer for the 240-member union, which brought an unfair-labor practice charge against the board in December.
Gerber noted that two members of the nine-member board did not have ''pending conflict-of-interest petitions," implying that either or both of them could represent the board.
School Board President Ron Napoli said the board would not act on PERC's order until its next scheduled meeting, on Feb. 14. Napoli said he didn't want to comment until he had read PERC's order and until the board had received advice from counsel.
"I suspect at that time (Feb. 14), the board would identify someone to negotiate" with the DEA, said Carl Johnson, the superintendent of Delran schools.
In the meantime, Delran's board is eagerly awaiting a decision Wednesday from the state School Ethics Commission, which since 1992 has overseen whether school board members and other school officials behave properly.
The School Ethics Commission has already ruled that two members of the Delran board whose wives belong to the teachers' union should not participate in the talks. It is expected to rule on the status of five other members of the board who have ties to the New Jersey Education Association.
Without those five, the board lacks a majority.
"I feel confident we will make a decision Wednesday," said Paul Contillo, the chairman of the School Ethics Commission. "Whether we make it public that afternoon or in a month is the question.
"I understand the time pressure over there, and I think we want to help them out as best we can," Contillo said.
Contillo did not say how the board would rule. But either way, he said, ''we have to give them some way of going through with business. We have to give them a method of continuing negotiation."
Contillo said the commission would probably also clarify what it means when it says someone with a conflict of interest cannot participate in negotiations.
Delran's board believes the prohibition on participating extends not just to being on the negotiating team but also forbids voting to direct a negotiating team or to ratify a contract, Johnson said.
But Contillo said the law might not view participate quite that restrictively, and Cohen simply said that the interpretation was bogus.
Delran's school employees have worked under the terms of their old contract since it expired in June. Talks broke off in March after the DEA wrote a letter asking that two members of the board's negotiating team be removed because their wives were members of the DEA.
Napoli said the letter was motivated by a desire to remove those seen as inimical to DEA interests from the negotiating team. DEA President Marge Gessman, who wrote the letter, said she was simply making the board aware of the law.
Either way, the board then concluded that the other five members with ties to the NJEA could be subject to similar ethical complaints.
Busing takes schools down a difficult road Budgets, boundaries deprive students of rides
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150924091151/http://articles.philly.com/2003-08-28/news/25453971_1_nonpublic-school-students-hazardous-route-springfield-school-districtBy Kristen A. Graham INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: August 28, 2003Patricia Schultz dreads the phone call.
But these days, when checking on bus routes tops many parents' back-to-school lists of concerns, the Springfield School District's transportation manager knows it is coming.
It is the angry, confused message from the parent who wants to know why his or her child has to walk or be driven to school when a next-door neighbor's child is bused.
But Schultz knows the equation by heart: Buses from the Delaware County school district pick up students who live 1.5 miles or more from their high school or 1 mile or more from their elementary school.
So if Student A lives just a hair over a mile from Elementary School X and Student B is just a share under the mile mark, Student B is out of luck.
"We have to draw the line somewhere," Schultz said a little wearily, this being the time of year when taking vacation time isn't even an option.
And Springfield parents have it lucky. The district does more than the state requires in terms of transportation.
In fact, busy roads, neighborhoods that lack sidewalks, and parent demand make busing a big business around the region. Limited school funds, however, often make it a big headache.
Some school systems bus all students. Some bus if students live farther than a mile from school; for some, the limit is 2 miles or more. All are responsible for transporting both public and nonpublic school students who live within their borders.
As the nation's population has spread beyond cities and into suburbs during the last 50 years, so has the percentage of students who take a bus to and from school. About 31 percent in 1950, it grew to 43 percent by 1970 and to about 55 percent in 2000.
Pennsylvania requires districts to transport only special-education students. But if a district chooses to bus other students as well, the state will partially reimburse it for elementary students who live at least 1.5 miles from school, secondary students who live at least 2 miles from school, and students who live in an area where road or traffic conditions would make walking hazardous.
New Jersey guarantees a ride to students who live 2 or more miles from their elementary or middle school or 2.5 miles from their high school, but it neither funds nor obligates districts to bus students who live on an otherwise hazardous route.
So in both states - depending on the district - parents who feel very strongly that their children should be bused may be out of luck.
In New Jersey, such parents include Robert Seville of Delran, who worries about his sons' safety because he lives just beyond Delran's busing boundary. Because of traffic in his development from a booming commercial center nearby, he won't let his boys walk, and so interrupts work every day to drive them.
In Pennsylvania, courtesy busing has galvanized a vocal group of parents in the Central Bucks district, where about a dozen unsuccessfully pleaded with the school board Tuesday to spare their children's bus routes.
About 350 students at three elementary schools will now walk to classes each morning, saving the district about $35,000 in a tough budget year.
"Courtesy busing is a hot issue in many communities," said Mike Yaple, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. "So many areas are growing so rapidly, and there are huge amounts of cars and speeding commuters."
In many cases, "courtesy" is far from an apt title to describe non-mandated busing. An example in New Jersey would be a student who lived two miles from high school and was offered a bus ride anyway.
"It's not courtesy if you're taking children walking along busy or hazardous roads to school, even if they live under the mileage limits," Yaple said. "New Jersey has suburbs filled with traffic, crowded cities, and its rural areas don't have sidewalks. None of this is conducive for a child walking to school on a dark winter morning."
Increasingly, when bus routes are cut, parents' concerns are not just about safety. Busing is now a lifestyle issue.
"More and more moms are working, and so they have less and less options for how their kids get to school," said Mary Beth Lauer, spokeswoman for the Haverford School District in Delaware County. "The school bus becomes something you depend on."
Few issues mobilize parents so quickly or so passionately as cutting bus routes.
On the state level, Yaple sees it all the time: "This is a hot-button issue. This is something you will see parents turn out to support and support vocally."
Springfield's Schultz, who is responsible for making sure more than 3,000 students get to school every day in the coming school year, put it succinctly:
"If you cut our routes, we'd have a holy war. It's safety. It's parents getting their kids to school. It's that important."
Busing - and any change made to it - needs to be taken seriously by school officials, Lauer said.
"It's a huge operation, and one that you have to look very carefully at before you tinker with it," said Lauer.
In Haverford, for instance, the district buses to 126 public and nonpublic schools daily.
"Busing," Lauer said, "is an incredible expense."
About $12 billion is spent busing schoolchildren nationally each year - an average of $528 per pupil (both public and private) in 1999-2000, according to School Bus Fleet magazine. In New Jersey, the average was $768, the magazine estimated.
In 2001, school districts in Philadelphia and its four suburban Pennsylvania counties spent $214 million busing about 400,000 students to public, private and parochial schools. The average annual cost per student was $538.
In New Jersey, 64 percent of kindergarten-through-eighth-grade districts provide more busing than the state requires, Yaple said. About half of the high school districts provide courtesy busing.
Similar figures were not available in Pennsylvania.
Charlie Gauthier, executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, urges districts - and the school boards that make the decisions on how much to spend - to look at the big picture.
"Our position has always been that we're not saying other things are not important issues, but that transportation is easily as important as funding classroom issues," Gauthier said. "Unless we get children to school safely and ready to learn, no one gets an education."
Each year, about 440,000 public school buses travel 4.3 billion miles to transport 22.5 million children to and from school nationwide.
School bus rides are nearly 2,000 times safer than trips in the family car, according to the National School Transportation Association. The school bus is the only mode of transportation for which accidents, injuries and fatalities have been reduced while the numbers of vehicles, miles and passengers have increased annually.
Nationwide, school transportation is a patchwork, with most states mandating at least some busing. Some provide funding; others leave districts to fend for themselves.
In New Jersey, districts are partially reimbursed, but only for nonhazardous busing. Pennsylvania schools receive partial payment for hazardous and nonhazardous busing.
That's a problem, Gauthier said. School buses are the largest single fleet of public transportation, and the only one that receives no federal funding.
"If the federal government funded pupil transportation even 50 percent as much as they funded metropolitan transportation, all these problems would go away," he said.
A parent can dream. But all Seville, the Delran parent who lives one-tenth of a mile under the transportation limit, knows is that he is caught with a sizable tax bill and without a district-provided ride to school for his boys.
"I don't care if you cut some programs that are not so important," he said. "Safety is first. We need a bus."
Contact staff writer Kristen Graham at 856-779-3927 or kgraham@phillynews.com
Inquirer staff writer Kellie Patrick contributed to this article.
Delran BOE plan would cut 12 slots
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20110408/NEWS/304089607By Todd McHale
Posted: Apr 8, 2011DELRAN - Twelve positions, including six teachers, will be eliminated and taxes will increase under the Board of Education's proposed spending plan for 2011-12.
Superintendent Christopher Russo said the staff cuts and tax hike can be attributed mainly to more cuts in state aid.
The district lost a combined $5.5 million in funding from the cuts in state aid for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years and a municipal reduction after voters defeated the budget last year, according to Russo.
He said the district had to eliminate several positions for the second straight year.
The proposed cuts will include six teachers at the middle school, an administrative position and five support staff.
The overall budget actually is down by about $1.9 million this year, but the loss in funding necessitated the staffing cuts, Russo said.
Last year, the district eliminated about two dozen positions because of budget constraints.
All programs will be maintained, but Russo said some class sizes will increase in the kindergarten-through-12th-grade district, which has about 2,600 students.
The $40.9 million fiscal plan will increase the tax rate by 7 cents, from $1.659 to $1.729 per $100 of assessed property value.
If voters approve the $25 million tax levy at the April 27 school election, the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $234,500 will pay $4,054 in school taxes, an increase of $164 from last year's bill.
Todd McHale can be reached at 609-871-8163 or tmchale@phillyBurbs.com
Follow Todd on Twitter at twitter.com/toddmchale
Full-day kindergarten on the ballot in Delran
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20120821/NEWS/308219763Posted: Aug 21, 2012
Things have changed since we went to kindergarten. The days of playtime, finger painting, and nap time are gone. Today, there are more educational demands and mandates than there were when we went to school. Despite this, Delran recently reduced its full-day kindergarten program to half days after 14 years of having a full-day program.
The full-day demand of New Jersey's Core Curriculum Content Standards is compressed into a half day of kindergarten, which is 2 hours and 50 minutes. Here is the breakdown of kindergartners' day: in two hours, they will learn letters, letter sounds, write sentences, capitalization and punctuation by the end of the year. They will learn to read, engage in social studies and science, and do simple math. Thirty minutes of the day is a "special" (gym, art, music, health). The other 20 minutes of the day is comprised of snack time and transition times.
There is very little play in Delran's half-day kindergarten, even though the New Jersey Department of Education, Division of Early Childhood Education, Kindergarten Implementation Guidelines (April 2011) state: "Play should serve as the driving force for learning." A half-day program is simply not enough time for play-based activities, nor for kids to socialize, use their imagination, learn how to get along with peers, or make meaningful connections during hands-on applications. As one of my former kindergartners said, "It's just work, work, work."
The New Jersey Kindergarten Implementation Guidelines state:
"The kindergarten year is critical in laying a strong foundation for the future of every child. In recent years, there has been a push for kindergartners to acquire skills formerly reserved for later grades. Some trends, including teaching skills in isolation and eliminating opportunities for children to engage in 'choice' activities, are not in keeping with the best ways young children learn -- through ample opportunities to explore, practice, apply, and extend on the concepts presented in the classroom."
Delran voters will be asked on the November ballot whether they want to bring back full-day kindergarten. It will cost $400,000, equating to a tax impact of $35 for the average homeowner assessed at $250,000. A yes vote will not take away from existing school programs or activities, including sports.
Full-day kindergarten is important to the whole township, not just incoming kindergartners. When young couples are choosing where to buy a home, the quality of the local schools is always at the top of the list. Good schools increase home values and drive a strong community. If you'd like more information, contact the Full-Day Kindergarten Task Force at Parents4FDK@gmail.comorhttps://www.facebook.com/Parents4FullDayK.
Mara Wuebker
Delran
Delran BOE spending: Where does it end?
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20120916/NEWS/309169837Posted: Sep 16, 2012
Do you need a baby sitter?
After reading the letter to the editor by Anita Cole, "Education system is an asset in Delran," published Sept. 11, I find her comments insulting to Delran taxpayers.
I'm sure, as she indicated, that upgrading her home is for her benefit and that she has no concern for the increased value of Delran properties. Lower taxes draw new residents to a municipality, not having a full-day kindergarten or putting new windows in your home.
The township Board of Education spends money as if it grows on trees, and if you question the spending, you're asked, "Do you want to deprive the children of an education?" No, but don't spend money just to maintain a large budget. There are taxpayers depriving themselves of the things they need so they can pay their taxes.
Look at the school buses that leave the schools at the end of the day. They're leaving with very few students on them. School buses are a big money item for taxpayers, but no one sees anything or wants to see anything.
Voting on Board of Education issues is a joke. Dealing with the board is a no-win situation for taxpayers.
The economy is bad. We must look for ways to save the taxpayers' money, as our Township Council members are doing, not for ways to spend it.
I've lived in Delran all my life and have never benefited from the school system. However, I always paid my taxes to support it. Now I am retired, and 9.5 percent of my Social Security goes to Delran for taxes. When does it end?
Andrew Guzik
Delran
Another tax bill coming in Delran
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20121203/NEWS/312039693By Todd McHale
Posted: Dec 3, 2012DELRAN -- Local property owners will get something extra from the township this holiday season: a second tax bill.
A supplemental bill will be sent out in December to pay for full-day kindergarten, approved by voters last month.
The township had already sent out tax bills in September, which is why there is a need for an additional bill, Tax Collector Victoria Boras said.
While the tax rate still needs to be struck by the county, school district officials estimated that the cost of the program will increase the rate by 1.4 cents, from $1.954 to $1.968 per $100 of assessed property value.
With the new rate, the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $209,400 will pay about $4,120 in school taxes, an increase of $29.31, to fund full-day kindergarten.
"All paperwork has been submitted for the new tax levy," said Christopher Russo, school board administrator.
On Nov. 6, voters approved a special ballot question that authorized the board to raise $400,000 more than the allowable tax levy to develop, operate and maintain a full-day kindergarten, which became a half-day program in 2010.
The money raised will pay for five teachers' salaries and benefits, and all the supplies, technology and textbooks needed for the program.
"The new kindergarten will start in September, and it will be housed in the Millbridge (Elementary) School," Russo said. "Rooms that were repurposed when kindergarten was cut to half-day will return to kindergarten use."
The district trimmed kindergarten to a half-day two years ago to deal with the loss of millions in state aid in recent years and a school budget rejected by voters. The full-day kindergarten had been in place for 15 years.
Before the election, more than 400 people had signed a petition to restore full-day kindergarten.
Todd McHale: 609-871-8163;
email: tmchale@phillyBurbs.com;
Twitter: @toddmchale.
Legal challenge leads Delran to eliminate around-the-clock conduct policy on students
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20130312/NEWS/303129759By Todd McHale
Posted: Mar 12, 2013
DELRAN -- Maybe school districts should get out of the business of doling out punishment for misdeeds by students after the bell rings.
Or maybe that fear of punishment and loss of privileges keeps students on the right course.
Whatever the answer, the fiery issue that sparked lawsuits in other districts across the state in recent years flared up here last week after the Board of Education decided to throw out the 24/7 rule from the student code of conduct.
The decision came after parents legally challenged the policy when school officials imposed punishments that barred some students from going on a senior trip to Florida after they were caught at an underage drinking party in December.
Even though an administrative judge sided with the district earlier this month, the litigation raised questions about the legality of a senior trip agreement signed by the students and the inequities of the around-the-clock code-of-conduct policy.
"The more this board considered the language, the more it recognized that there was too much uncertainty in the enforcement of a 24/7 policy," school board President Ingar Blosfelds said. "In addition, this board believes that discipline for off-campus conduct is best handled by the student's parents and also law enforcement."
The board also did not want to incur the expense of defending the policy in court, especially given the lengthy legal battles that the Haddonfield School District and the Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District endured when they adopted similar policies in an attempt to curb student alcohol and drug use.
In January, the New Jersey Supreme Court declined to hear arguments on the Ramapo case and let stand the ruling from the lower court, which sided with the state Department of Education's decision that the district had overstepped its authority. Haddonfield followed suit and got rid of its policy in February.
"These codes of conduct represent an overreaching of the (school districts)," said Matthew Wolf, a Cherry Hill attorney who is the lead counsel on three similar cases, including Delran's.
Wolf explained that the students charged by police with underage drinking already face punishments by the juvenile justice system and their parents, so he doesn't see the need for the school district to jump into the middle of it.
"It doesn't make sense," he said Friday.
For those who think the school board should stand its ground, officials told a group of parents during a special meeting early last week that they should be prepared to pay the costs of more lawsuits.
"Get your checkbooks out. Haddonfield is still in litigation several years later," board member Sheri Sheeran-Garvey said.
Parent Lisa Wagner and several others disagreed with the board's decision to rescind the policy and allow the students to go to Disney World this week.
(The 24/7 policy) was put into place to protect all the children, teachers and staff," Wagner said. "The BOE has just shown that these kids can do whatever they want and nothing will happen to them, and the kids know it."
Cyndi Coluzzi, a parent of one of the 36 children at the party, believed the board made the right call.
"Thankfully, the board did the right thing," Coluzzi said. "Punishments from the whole 24/7 policy have never been imposed before. The board has more important things to worry about than a bunch of kids at an underage drinking party."
She said that she would rather the district require students to attend additional classes or perform community service, but that taking away a trip they had been looking forward to for years seemed too heavy-handed.
With the board's decision, all the punishments were rescinded.
Although the administrative law judge's ruling came down in the district's favor, board members still didn't feel comfortable about how it would be enforced, given that 26 of the students at the party would be punished because they were seniors and signed the agreement and 10 others would not.
"The more this board considered the incident, it recognized the inherent unfairness and inequity that could follow," Blosfelds said. "In other words, one student could be involved in off-campus conduct and not be disciplined, and another could be disciplined."
New Jersey School Boards Association spokesman Michael Yaple said code-of-conduct policies that go beyond school hours are legal as long as they are reasonably necessary for the student's physical or emotional safety, security and well-being, and for reasons relating to the safety, security and well-being of other students, staff or school grounds.
"There have been court rulings that date back to the 1970s that allow school districts to impose punishments for off-campus behavior, but the key is it has to be connected to the school environment," Yaple said.
He said the Ramapo policy would have been fine if it had not been so broad.
In Delran, the board members seemed ready to move on.
"It's a bad situation for everybody involved, the board, administration, the students. We need to make the best of it," Sheeran-Garvey said. "At the same time, we're voted in by taxpayers. We must look out for them, because litigation costs districts a lot of money. We don't have the money. We can't afford it. Let's all put this past us. Nobody is happy about this."
Wolf applauded the board's decision to eliminate the around-the-clock code-of-conduct policy.
"What they did was very professional and appropriate," he said. "Discipline of children after school hours should be left up to the parents and the juvenile justice system. It was very savvy, because they are respecting the rights of the parents. I wish a couple of those board members would have been in Haddonfield. It would have saved hundreds or thousands of dollars (in legal fees)."
But late last week, the story took a new turn.
The decision in the Delran case was only a recommendation that must be signed off by state Department of Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf.
On Friday, Cerf ruled that the case should not have been decided in a summary decision and bounced it back to the Office of Administrative Law for "the development of a factual record and a determination as to whether the board's decision to impose discipline on (the students) in connection with the Dec. 8, 2012, incident was arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable."
"It's moving forward," Wolf said. "We will be presenting a case to the administrative law judge."
While no hearing date has been scheduled, Wolf said he continues to believe that these around-the-clock conduct policies will continue to be challenged in court.
"At the end of the day, policies of this nature are inherently problematic, because they typically are dealing with students that have been charged but not convicted of a crime," Wolf said.
The board plans to discuss the matter further with its attorney, but Blosfelds said it would not change the decision it made to rescind the 24/7 policy.
Todd McHale: 609-871-8163; email: tmchale@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @toddmchale
Feds settle service dog case with Delran School District
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20140624/NEWS/306249627By Todd McHale
Posted: Jun 24, 2014TRENTON -- The U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement with the Delran School District on Tuesday to resolve allegations that a student was denied use of his service dog for school-related activities.
The terms of the agreement call for the district to pay $10,000 to the unidentified student's family and adopt a service animal policy that is compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Federal authorities said the student uses the dog to alert others to his seizures, provide mobility and body support, and mitigate symptoms of autism. He was prevented from bringing his dog on the school bus and to school activities.
Authorities at the Justice Department indicated that the child's mother spent months responding to burdensome requests for information and documentation, and that the district continued to refuse to allow the student to be accompanied by the dog.
"The old view of service animals working only as guide dogs for individuals who are blind has given way to a new generation of service animals trained to perform tasks that further autonomy and independence for individuals with a myriad of disabilities," said Jocelyn Samuels, acting assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, after the settlement.
The student has autism and encephalopathy and needs the dog's support when symptoms arise.
Federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in public schools. Under the federal act, public schools must generally modify policies, practices or procedures to permit the use of a service dog by a student with a disability at school and school-related activities.
While the mother persisted and even went as far as to drive the dog behind the school bus so the animal could be with the boy during a field trip, the district continued to deny the animal access, leading to the litigation.
"The Civil Rights Division will vigorously enforce the ADA to ensure that students who use service animals have a full and equal opportunity to participate in school activities with their peers," Samuels said.
District officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Federal civil rights complaints specific to New Jersey can be directed to the U.S. Attorney's Office's civil rights hotline at 855-281-3339 or filed by completing a complaint form at http://go.usa.gov/9nzW.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Todd McHale: 609-871-8163; email: tmchale@calkins.com; Twitter: @toddmchale
Delran residents should contact legislators about school funding
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20160321/OPINION/303219790Posted: Mar 21, 2016
As members of the Delran Education Association, Delran Board of Education and Delran Principals and Supervisors Association, we are steadfast in our commitment to serving the children and families in the Delran community, and we will continue to work together to navigate the balance between fiscal responsibility and educational integrity as we discuss the budget for the 2016-17 year.
However, the biggest fiscal challenge our district faces is an external one that has been developing and worsening since the 2008-09 school year: The state has, in violation of its own law, underfunded our district by $11 million annually for the last seven years.
In 2008, the Legislature approved the School Funding Reform Act, a law designed to ensure that all public school districts would receive the funds necessary to provide their students with an adequate education. However, the state has categorically failed to fund districts according to the act -- to the detriment of students, taxpayers and educational programs all over the state -- since shortly after the 2008 legislation became law. Thus far, the state has funded the formula only at 85 percent of what would be considered adequate in 2009, and for fiscal year 2016-17 Delran's spending plan is $4.1 million below the amount deemed adequate by the state Department of Education.
Further exacerbating Delran's funding issues is the fact that our district does not receive adjustment aid, support that was originally intended to hold harmless districts that saw aid reductions as a result of the new formula. Adjustment aid was intended to decrease steadily over a period of five years and then be eliminated altogether once qualifying districts' budgets equalized under the new formula. However, because the formula has not been funded since the reform act was signed into law, and since state aid has remained flat for years, districts that were scheduled to be weaned off of adjustment aid years ago continue to receive it -- sometimes to the tune of tens of millions of dollars per year -- while districts like Delran, which never received adjustment aid and never will, continue to struggle financially.
Despite all these financial blows, the Delran School District continues to budget responsibly. While the average 2014-15 per-pupil cost in the state was $15,067, our budgeted per-pupil cost in 2014-15 was $12,350 -- the seventh-lowest per-pupil spending amount among the 68 New Jersey schools in our enrollment group. Further, our district has the ninth-lowest median teacher salary among the 68 schools in our group -- and only 44 out of 575 districts (not including charters and special-service schools) in the state spend less than Delran in the area of per-pupil spending on teacher salaries and benefits.
But even with this level of fiscal responsibility, it will become increasingly difficult to maintain district operations without the tens of millions of dollars to which the school district is entitled to receive, by law, from the state.
Put simply, the state's failure to fund the School Funding Reform Act formula, coupled with the state's failure to wean comparatively overfunded districts off of adjustment aid and redistribute those funds to chronically underfunded districts like Delran, will continue to directly and negatively affect the children, families and taxpayers in this town.
As such, we implore all Delran taxpayers, both those with and without children in our schools, to contact legislators and testify about these issues in front of the Senate and Assembly budget committees.
In the meantime, we will continue to work together for the benefit of our students, their families and the entire Delran community.
Delran Education Association
Delran Board of Education
Delran Principals and Supervisors Association
Delran parents fighting for ‘fair share’ of NJ school funding
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20160511/NEWS/305119633By Kelly Kultys
Posted: May 11, 2016
DELRAN -- School officials have claimed for the last few years that the district has been continually underfunded according to the state's 2008 school funding formula.
The district will receive about $11.65 million in state aid for 2016-17, up slightly from the $11.5 million it got in 2015-16. School officials claim that if the district was funded fully through the formula, it would receive an additional $11 million annually.
A group of local parents is taking up the funding fight with a bigger goal in mind -- to enact change statewide.
Lucy Horton and Mike Piper, parents of district students, said they heard about the issue after a Board of Education meeting. They both decided they needed to do something.
"At first, it's shock," Horton said. "Then it's, 'Well, how can I help?' "
They started a group called Our Fair Share to raise awareness about the issue statewide and get more people involved.
"If we stand alone, it's not going to happen," Piper said.
The parents said they are not asking the state for extra funding, but for funding to be shared proportionally. For example, their petition on change.org says that if the state can fully fund Delran's formula at 85 percent, every district should receive that 85 percent.
"Students, taxpayers and school districts from all over the state have been the innocent victims of the state's inefficient and unlawful distribution of school funds," the petition reads.
The petition, which is how Our Fair Share got its start, now has over 400 signatures. Since then, the group has partnered with others to raise awareness for the cause.
Horton said in particular the group has worked with Chesterfield and Maple Shade in Burlington County. Chesterfield receives the smallest amount of state aid in the county at $419,893 this year, up from $403,538.
Andrea Katz, a parent and school board member in Chesterfield, said she and other parents and teachers from the district are piggybacking on Our Fair Share's efforts. Katz said Chesterfield members as well as representatives from six other school districts across the state joined the team at a state budget hearing last month to show legislators their support for the movement.
"We're trying to educate the public," she said. "This is such a complicated issue; people don't really understand it."
Katz emphasized Piper and Horton's statement that they are not asking the state to give their districts new money through raising taxes on residents, but to reallocate the education funding fairly across every district.
She said many people support their efforts. Assemblymen Ronald Dancer, R-12th of Cream Ridge, and Robert Clifton, R-12th of Matawan, have attended Chesterfield board meetings to share presentations on state education funding and hear residents' thoughts.
Katz is also starting a letter-writing campaign so people can let their legislators know about the issue, even as the budget season winds to a close.
"I don't want the conversation to die out," she said.
Piper and Horton sent a message out recently, asking those who signed the petition to share it with their local school boards, PTAs and other groups to help the campaign spread.
"Our petition is growing fast, but we need more signatures to make real waves," the message reads.
Kelly Kultys: 609-500-0429; email: kkultys@calkins.com; Twitter: @kellykultys
New student summer camp in Delran focuses on STEAM
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/article/20160515/NEWS/305159714By Kelly Kultys
Posted: May 15, 2016DELRAN -- Over the summer, some students spend their time at a variety of camps, whether athletic, sleep-away or special interest.
Two school district administrators are adding to the choices and hoping third- to fifth-graders from any school district find a place this summer at their STEAM academy at the high school off Hartford Road.
STEAM, which stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, plans to teach students through the integration of all these fields, according to Mary Jo Hutchinson, district supervisor for mathematics, business and K-5 computers, and the STEM program co-coordinator.
Hutchinson said the goal is to give students an opportunity to tackle a problem they might find in the real world and use each of the fields to solve it.
The idea for the summer program began about two years ago. Erica DeMichele joined the district as the K-12 supervisor for science, engineering, food and consumer science, and individual arts. She said soon after she started, she got a request from elementary school Principal Jennifer Lowe.
"She said, 'I need a summer science camp, and you're going to do it for me,' " DeMichele said.
Over the past year, she and Hutchinson, who joined the district last summer, worked to come up with a curriculum for the program, find instructors and prepare the logistics of it.
The camp will run for four hours from Monday to Thursday for four weeks, beginning in July. Each is designed to stand alone, DeMichele said, so students can come for one or as many as they like.
It costs $200 for one week, but if students sign up for more than one, they receive 10 percent off each additional week. If a family sends more than one student, it also receives the 10 percent discount for each additional child enrolled. If students need financial assistance, they can receive help from the district in offsetting the cost. There are 20 seats per grade level per week available.
Each grade level will cover different topics, so if students decide to come back the following year, they won't repeat the same program. Third-graders will deal with life science, fourth-graders will tackle earth/space, and fifth-graders will cover physical science.
For example, DeMichele said, students could cover water quality problems. They would be given a situation such as a turtle is living near a contaminated body of water and the students learn that it can't live there. Students would then have to filter out a variety of containments and see if their filter works.
Hutchinson and DeMichele said the ultimate goal of the camp is for the students to become interested in pursuing a career in one of the fields down the line. District high school students, who are participating in the STEM programs, will be volunteering at the academy.
All students in third, fourth and fifth grades are eligible to attend. Registration ends May 27.
"It's brand-new," DeMichele said. "It's not just your average summer camp."
Kelly Kultys: 609-500-0429; email: kkultys@calkins.com; Twitter: @kellykultys
Students become engineers for a week at Delran's STEAM Academy
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160808040421/http://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/local/students-become-engineers-for-a-week-at-delran-s-steam/article_e392cf30-5a51-11e6-a96d-77c917b132e6.htmlBy Kelly Kultys
Posted: Aug 5, 2016
DELRAN — Mya Milanese worked as an "acoustical engineer" for the past week.
"Did you know you can see sound?" she said.
Mya, 12, demonstrated this using salt spread on top of a bowl covered in plastic wrap. She hit a pot hard next to the bowl, making the salt bounce around.
She was one of about 50 students who attended the Delran STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) Academy summer camp over the last month at Delran High School on Hartford Road.
"We wanted to give students an opportunity to work like engineers," said Mary Jo Hutchinson, co-founder of the program and supervisor of mathematics for the district.
The program was open to any area students who had finished third, fourth and fifth grades. The students who just completed third grade studied various bioengineering topics. Earth and space science was the topic for those who finished fourth grade, and kids who completed fifth grade worked in physical science.
This past week, the rising fourth-graders designed a knee brace that would help keep a leg steady after it was injured. The rising fifth-graders created windmills out of milk cartons to not only create energy, but also to lift up a cup filled with washers.
Steven Christie, 9, said his milk carton windmill was able to lift 22 washers when all was said and done.
"It was extremely fun. Before I came here, I thought it was just going to be geeks and nerds like me," Steven said with a smile. "I made a couple of new friends."
Steven said he liked the fact that the students received individualized attention and weren't stuck in a big group.
His father, Dean Christie, sent Steven to the camp for all four weeks to get the opportunity to learn and continue to become interested in the sciences.
"He really loves it here," Christie said.
He said he appreciated that the district was investing in science and technology education.
One of the areas of emphasis was for students not to be afraid to make mistakes, according to high school math teacher Jaclyn Carey, who taught rising sixth-graders for the week.
"Part of being an engineer is improving, improving, improving," Carey said.
Denise Belz, a third-grade teacher, emphasized this with the rising fourth-graders designing their knee braces.
The students tested a variety of materials to make the braces, and then had to see how they could attach them properly, without causing the "patient" too much pain.
"That's the engineering part — the redesign," Hutchinson said.
Students had the opportunity to come for one week or multiple weeks, as each week there was a different project under the three disciplines. High school students also came back to volunteer.
Erica DeMichele, the other co-founder of the program and the district's science and engineering supervisor, said she hopes the camp will continue to grow.
DeMichele said many parents had asked for a full-day program instead of the half-day camp offered this year. She said the organizers also want to take advantage of the district's greenhouse to possibly create a food science program next year.
Delran Township School District receives $20K grant for STEM programming
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20171220/delran-township-school-district-receives-20k-grant-for-stem-programmingBy Kelly Kultys
Posted: Dec 20, 2017
DELRAN — The school district's summer STEAM Up program will have a new funding source this year.
The district was one of four STEM ecosystem alliances that formed about a year ago through the state's STEM Pathways Network, which has provided a $20,000 grant.
With the alliances, public schools team with local businesses and community partners to better teach students about science, technology, engineering and mathematics, sometimes with art mixed in for STEAM.
"We are proud to contribute to the already-thriving New Jersey STEM ecosystems, and look forward to seeing how these grants continue to improve student outcomes in STEM education," said Laura Overdeck, chairwoman of the New Jersey STEM Pathways Network, in a statement.
The grant will be used to host the four-week Delran Cubs STEAM Up Summer Camp from July 9 to Aug. 2.
The camp encourages students to participate in engineering activities and challenges based on real-world problems, and also provides experience in robotics, circuitry and coding. The intent is that students will become interested in STEM programs from a young age, which will help the district continue to grow its alliance.
"Promoting STEM opportunities for students is a top priority for the Delran STEM ecosystem," Kari McGann, the district's director of curriculum and instruction and the lead for the alliance, said in a statement. "We believe that early access to STEM learning will increase student interest in science, technology, engineering and math, and help our students be prepared for STEM fields in college or in a career. We are thrilled with the advancement grant to support the STEAM Up Summer Camp."
Delran STEM alliance shares students’ work
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20180316/delran-stem-alliance-shares-students-workBy Lisa Ryan
Posted: Mar 16, 2018
DELRAN — The school district showed off its recent science and technology initiatives and shared plans for the future on Friday during its STEM Crawl.
During the multi-school tour, faculty shared students' projects with industry, education and policy-focused stakeholders of the Delran STEM Ecosystem Alliance, which works to provide students with science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills and exposure to STEM careers.
"It is about giving students an opportunity to showcase a little bit of what they're learning," said Kari McGann, the lead for the alliance. "But the STEM ecosystem crawl is more about providing information to others about what it is that New Jersey is trying to do with the workforce."
McGann said the state wants 65 percent of its citizens to have higher-education degrees by 2025, a goal with which the alliance aligns. Additionally, some alliance stakeholders, like STEM Crawl participant Radwell Industries of Willingboro, are looking for more qualified high school and college graduates.
The alliance wants to connect students studying STEM with higher-education institutions, leaders in STEM industries, and more. Instead of waiting until the students are in middle or high school, the district is exposing its students to STEM early on. In the gym on Friday, elementary school students worked with large foam blocks and long cylinders to build imaginary creatures that had some sort of special power.
"(This is) a chance for the children to create, to visualize something, and then work collaboratively to create something that is tangible," said Jaime Murphy, a physical education teacher and a district sustainability project manager. "They also can incorporate shapes, movement, barriers, cylinders, gears — it's really an outlet for them in many ways."
The alliance wants to encourage high schoolers' creative thinking as well — they hope that in the next few years, the old auto shop will become home to a "digital fabrication lab," where students can work on 3-D printing, computer design and other technological projects. McGann said time in the lab will teach students necessary skills for solving "tomorrow's problems."
Upstairs in the greenhouse and on the adjacent rooftop deck, students taking botany electives are already contributing to their community through hands-on work, composting cafeteria food waste, then using the compost to grow greens for the cafeteria and culinary electives.
Students also keep busy with research, choosing a topic and plant — bok choy, corn and chicken feed are just a few things in the lab. As students' research goes on, they learn about plant nutrition, pest identification and other botanical factors.
"As long as we keep the STEM process working, the expectation is at the end of the semester they'll all have scientific data backed up by hands in the dirt," science teacher Aaron Fiordimondo said.
Science is fun for everyone at Delran camp
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20180806/science-is-fun-for-everyone-at-delran-campBy Lisa Ryan
Posted: Aug 6, 2018
DELRAN — In a science classroom at the township high school, Keira Burtell was busy building a bridge.
"I like learning about technology and electrical engineering," the 8-year-old Philadelphia resident said. "And I like the engineering designing process because when we get to create and improve, it's really fun."
According to her family, she's already asked to come back to Delran next summer to get another chance to participate in the district's STEAM Up camp.
Since it began three years ago, the four week-long sessions have covered different topics in engineering, mixing art in with science, technology, engineering and mathematics so that "STEM" becomes "STEAM" — ensuring that students develop well-rounded skills and use both sides of the brain.
"If you don't include art in STEM, then (students don't develop) the ability to explain thoroughly, whether visually or kinesthetically," said camp co-founder and district STEM program co-coordinator Erica DeMichele.
Co-coordinator and camp founder Mary Jo Hutchinson, said adding in art shows kids the variety in STEM. Campers can explore agricultural, electrical, biomedical and optical engineering, and every camper gets to study robotics.
For Delran fourth-grader Desmond Shields, an environmental engineering session on Thursday about clearing an "oil spill" from a silver baking pan may help him in the future.
"My favorite thing is how if this ever happened in real life, I might know how to take care of it," the 8-year-old said.
The week prior, Desmond made a knee brace in the biomedical engineering session, and had with him on Thursday the paper frog he'd constructed in a bioengineering session. Still, he said environmental engineering was his favorite.
"My favorite week is this week," he said. "And the reason why is I'm getting messy."
Kids can attend as many or as few sessions as they would like, and can rise to meet new, age-appropriate challenges as they continue on in school — the youngest campers will enter third grade this fall, and the oldest are headed into sixth. Many are from Burlington County, but some find the camp through relatives who work in the district.
Eileen Baker, the district's English, world language, and ESL supervisor, signed up her granddaughter Keira for all four weeks. On their drive from Philadelphia to Delran, Keira shared some things she'd learned during the civil engineering session.
"I think she could probably tell you what she's learned every single day, but just this week in the new program about building bridges, we're driving toward the Tacony-Palmyra bridge, she was able to tell me what type of bridge it was," Baker said. "But just, so many other amazing things."
Baker said she was thrilled to see Keira's excitement and passion for the new scientific concepts she was learning, from lever systems to robotics and circuitry.
The program served an almost even mix of boys and girls in its last week. DiMichele and Hutchinson said they want to encourage all children to explore and enjoy STEAM, but that research shows a particular need to encourage girls to think differently about science and math.
Since girls are not as often praised for risk-taking as their male peers, some internalize mistakes and become more discouraged by failure as they enter their teenage years, educators said. As a result, they begin to back away from trial-and-error pursuits like STEM.
At STEAM Up, instructors and camp counselors encouraged students to look not at what is wrong with an experiment gone awry, but instead to ask what they can change the next time around. DeMichele and Hutchinson said they want to see all of their campers learning to try and try again, and to enjoy the process.
This summer, partial scholarships were awarded through the Delran STEM Alliance to help send children whose families may be struggling financially.
DeMichele said she didn't want finances to hold a student back from experiencing the program, which aims to open every participant's eyes to the many possibilities in STEAM with possibility of providing a future career path.
"Our goal is to provide a fun experience that might spark something in them," she said.
Hands in the dirt: Delran students explore science of “farm to fork”
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20180817/hands-in-dirt-delran-students-explore-science-of-farm-to-forkBy Lisa Ryan
Posted: Aug 17, 2018
DELRAN — Over the summer a handful of township public school students enjoyed tomatoes plucked straight from the vine, while interacting with wildlife all from the backyard of a township resident.
Silvia Gorostiza opened her Delran "yarm" — yard turned farm — to Delran's STEAM Academy, sharing her organic farming practices with students as part of a two-part lesson on technology, engineering, art and mathematics.
Following the week-long lesson, seventh- through 12th-graders learned about farm-to-fork by picking and cooking fresh produce.
"Our goal is to encourage the kids that were maybe on the fence and didn't really know they were interested in this," said Aaron Fiordimondo, Delran High science teacher and STEAM Academy co-leader.
During the program, students took trips to local farms, Rutgers University agriculture initiatives and to Wegmans to discover where grocery store produce originates. They also used fresh crops and eggs during cooking lessons with culinary arts teacher and STEAM Academy co-leader Austin Anderson.
During the school year, Fiordimondo gives produce grown by his horticulture students to Anderson to use in cooking classes. The collaboration will be made easier when the new organic garden tended by campers begins to grow, Fiordimondo said.
The garden is a key teaching tool at camp, the directors said.
"Once they get their hands in the dirt and start seeing some of the culinary process and what makes food great and they start to experience it first-hand, it just turns on all these synapses in their brain," Fiordimondo said. "You can watch them learning and getting excited."
During their time at the camp, students got to taste test cherry tomatoes, see how a beehive works and hold Gorostiza's chicken, Isabelle.
"I've done STEAM camp for three years and I really like it," seventh-grader Justin Rafanello said. "It's fun and I actually learn a lot."
Junior Mitchell Robertson, who volunteered as a camp counselor in the school's STEAM Up engineering camp held last month, said he was impressed by Rutgers' ability to produce large, profitable amounts of basil. While he preferred the engineering camp, the backyard farming experience gave him new insight as a consumer.
"In the future when I start eating healthier, I might start looking at stuff like this and thinking, 'Oh yeah, I remember why this is better,'" he said. "And I have seen it, first-hand, how this is better and why it's better. It's tasted better, definitely."
For seventh-grader Natalie Jackson, her favorite part was learning to cook with homegrown herbs and making different meals with eggs.
"I think it sort-of made me realize how important farming is, because I never really thought about farms and what I get at the stores," she said.
Delran gets jump-start on federal STEM recommendation
Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20190129/delran-gets-jump-start-on-federal-stem-recommendationBy Lisa Ryan
Posted: Jan 29, 2019
The federal government this month recommended that public schools enhance STEM education, in part, by allying with community partners to share resources and prepare students for the workforce.
These networks, called STEM ecosystems, focus on hands-on learning that emphasizes real-world and career applications of technical concepts. Public schools partner through the ecosystems with local businesses, higher-education institutions and community groups to provide grant opportunities, training, and other STEM resources to kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers.
For Delran School District STEM co-coordinator Erica DeMichele, the recommendation wasn't a surprise. Since her district joined the Delran STEM Ecosystem Alliance in 2016, science, technology, engineering and mathematics education has become more well-rounded as a result of partnerships with such organizations as Public Service Electric & Gas, the district teachers' association and Rowan College at Burlington County.
"When you start talking to people about this work, they're a little perplexed," DeMichele said. "But when you see (students) working, you're like, 'We have to do this.' The ecosystem, the work we're doing, exposes them to more, to activities that weren't there before."
In 2016, Delran joined one of four STEM alliances created in 2014 by the state's STEM Pathways Network to improve STEM education outcomes and workforce development. Since 2017, it has been managed by the Research and Development Council of New Jersey, according to council executive director Kim Case.
Delran is the only Burlington County school district in a STEM ecosystem.
The council wants to see improvements in students' math and science performance and in teacher preparation over time, and to offer quality STEM education to students of any background, Case said.
"We were excited this (ecosystem recommendation) came out in the report," Case said. "This really validates the work we were doing, in addition to the successes we've seen."
The National Science and Technology Council's Committee on STEM Education in early December released a five-year strategic plan to offer inclusive, lifelong, high-quality STEM education nationwide to increase proficiency and access for all Americans. Research shows that compared with citizens in other countries, Americans have less-developed STEM skills and are not as prepared for higher education in STEM, the report shows.
While high-paying STEM-based jobs are in demand, there is a labor shortage, according to the report.
The study noted that comprehensive STEM education is vital since it offers digital, critical-thinking and problem-solving skills necessary across all fields.
The committee is increasing its funding for STEM and, in its guidelines for stakeholders looking to help the effort, encouraged communities nationwide to build STEM ecosystems. The United States currently has 68 ecosystems, according to stemecosystems.org.
New Jersey's four ecosystems have benefited 90,000 learners since 2017, according to Case. More than 3,000 of those students were in Delran's ecosystem, while the others came from the North Jersey-based Liberty STEM ecosystem, the Newark STEAM Coalition, and the Camden-based South Jersey STEM and Innovation Partnership.
In Delran, the ecosystem supports and enhances district curriculum, making lessons more hands-on, collaborative, and applicable to real life and workforce scenarios. Partnerships with employers, like Willingboro electronics firm Radwell International, are helping Delran students think beyond common perceptions when it comes to STEM careers, according to DeMichelle.
DeMichele said partners like Lockheed Martin, PSE&G and the Overdeck Family Foundation have also donated toward the district's digital fabrication laboratory.
The Fab Lab, now under construction, will feature STEM equipment like 3-D printers, laser cutters, woodworking equipment and other tools, which students will use to make models and build collaborative and digital skills. The district hopes that once the Fab Lab is established, students can take classes for dual credit at the high school and at ecosystem partner RCBC.
STEM is more accessible within the ecosystem as well, according to DeMichele. Grants from partner organizations have helped the district provide tuition assistance to low-income students who want to enroll in Delran's summer STEM program, buy STEM books for varied reading levels to accommodate different abilities, and more.
"If we're spouting 'STEM for all,' it's the only way to get STEM for all," DeMichele said.
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