The Hammonton Gazette 09/10/14 Edition | Page 4

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