School board splits votes on bus manager, spending line items
Wednesday, September 10, 2014 • The Hammonton Gazette • Page 3
SChOOL, from Page 1
Hammonton Board of Education President Joseph Giralo said
he was in favor of waiting on the
decision.
“The most prudent position
would be to table this and see
where Dr. Dan [Blachford] is
going, see where enrollments are
going to be in the next few days,”
Giralo said.
Board member Leo Petetti said
the line items were “important”
and should be approved.
“Teachers are very important.
Getting kids to school is equally
important, maybe more important
. . . Cameras don’t work. We need
them now. We need teachers and
we need them now. We need to do
what we have to do,” Petetti said.
Lyons said “based on what I
heard in [the] curriculum meeting
today, I’m concerned that Dan’s
going to come to us and say ‘We
need three new teachers.’”
“We’re looking at about 31 students per class” in the fifth grade
at Warren E. Sooy Jr. Elementary
School, Sam Mento said.
The line items were brought to
a vote, which passed by a vote of
5 to 4, with Tom Attanasi, Linda
Byrnes, Mento, Petetti and Eric
Weiss voting yes and Berenato,
Manny Bermudez, Lyons and Giralo voting no.
The second split vote, with discussion, of the meeting was a job
description for a “transportation
fleet manager” at the school district’s transportation department.
Berenato and Giralo voted no
on the measure, with Giralo stating “No, because the person will
not be a mechanic.” Attanasi,
Bermudez, Byrnes, Lyons, Mento,
Petetti and Weiss voted for the position, a “district full-time 12-mo.
bus manager” which was filled by
Dennis Silipena, according to the
agenda.
Berenato asked why the job description was being approved by
the board after a person had been
interviewed for the position.
“We approved a job description,
but we already know who’s going
to get that job?” Beren F