Members split on first vote
By:Donna Lukiw
There was another one-vote margin for the Board of Education on Tuesday, as members elected a new president at the annual reorganization meeting.
Echoing last week’s one-vote margin of victory for the school budget, board members nominated Janice Mathewson and Louis Petzinger for board president, before finally naming Mr. Petzinger to the position in a 5-4 vote.
Mrs. Mathewson, Ken Lessing, Dorothy Bradley and Lisa Galasso voted for Mrs. Mathewson, while board members Mike Impellizeri, Gary Cortelyou, Ned Panfile, Mr. Petzinger and George Jakelsky voted for Mr. Petzinger.
But any frustrations from the split vote didn’t last long, with the new president vowing to work with all board members.
"As the new president of the board, I hope to work with the other members to continue the momentum the voters of Manville have given us by passing the last three budgets," Mr. Petzinger said. "Although the close vote would appear to show a divided board, I do not believe this is the case. We as board members will have our differences of opinion, but in the end we never lose sight of our goal to provide the best possible education for our students."
After the election for president, voting for vice president resulted in a tie between Mr. Lessing and Ms. Mathewson, last year’s president. Mr. Lessing withdrew from consideration, allowing Ms. Mathewson to win election to the position.
"In the seven-plus years I’ve been on the board in Manville, we’ve had six different presidents Tim Calvo, Phil Fucille, Frank Jurewicz, myself, Janice Mathewson and now Lou Petzinger," Ms. Bradley said. "I think that our board is strong because of that fact, and as we change leadership from year to year, we only get stronger as we benefit from the different assets each new president brings to the table."
Later in the evening, Mr. Petzinger appointed Mr. Lessing to serve as delegate to the Somerset County School Boards Association, Mrs. Mathewson to serve as delegate to the New Jersey School Boards Association and Lisa Galasso to serve on the Jointure for Community Adult Education.