BY LARRY HLAVENKA JR.
Staff Writer
HOWELL – After newly re-elected Board of Education members Valerie Rosenberg and Robert Antonaccio were sworn in for their new three-year terms at the April 26 reorganization meeting of the board, both relinquished their leadership positions on the panel.
Rosenberg, the former president, yielded to Mary Cerretani, following Cerretani’s nomination by Patricia Blood.
Antonaccio, the former vice president, went so far as to nominate his own successor, Louis Corato.
Cerretani and Corato were elected in identical 8-0 votes.
Further demonstrating the predetermined nature of the vote, Cerretani and Corato immediately received new nameplates for the dais that recognized their new titles.
Afterward, Rosenberg and Antonac-cio confirmed that the board members had previously discussed who would assume the two positions.
“It was a consensus,” Rosenberg said. “I’ve held the position of either president or vice president for seven of my nine years on the board. Everybody here is very capable. We have a very cohesive board and it shows. We may not always see eye-to-eye, but we reach a consensus. We realize the importance of working together for the children.”
Cerretani thanked her colleagues as she read a prepared statement.
“I would like to thank the board for their support,” she said. “[Louis and I] believe there are many others on the board that could have these positions. I want to thank Valerie and Bob for a fine job. I hope we do as well as they did.”
Cerretani is entering the final year of her second three-year term she won in 2004. Since then she has chaired various committees, including the nutritional advisory committee.
Meanwhile, Corato shared the president’s enthusiasm.
“It’s terrific,” he said. “I feel very confident in myself and the board that we can make a difference in Howell.”
Corato is currently in the middle of his third three-year term. He becomes vice president after serving as the chairman for the policy committee and the finance committee. The finance committee was instrumental in drafting the 2006-07 school year budget which voters recently approved.
To that end, Cerretani thanked the community, Superintendent of Schools Enid Golden and the rest of the administration for helping to get out the vote and pass the budget.
“The children of Howell won,” she said of the budget’s approval.
On April 18, voters approved the board’s $103 million budget for the coming school year by saying yes to a tax levy of $58.5 million. The vote was 2,808 in favor to 2,723 opposed to the budget.