SOUTH COUNTY: Nine regional school board members chosen

Many are familiar faces from current school boards

By John Tredrea, Special Writer
   WEST AMWELL — The nine members of a new regional school board that will serve Lambertville, Stockton and West Amwell have been appointed by Dr. Gerald Vernotica, Hunterdon County’s interim superintendent of schools.
   All members are serving on a school board now or have served on one in the past.
   Dr. Vernotica announced the names of the nine members at a town hall meeting on the regionalization process, held at South Hunterdon Regional High School Tuesday night.
   Five of the members of the new board are from Lambertville, three from West Amwell and one from Stockton. That apportionment was “done statutorily,” reflecting the populations of the towns according to the 2010 U.S. Census, Dr. Vernotica said.
   The five Lambertville members of the new board are Dan Seiter (currently a member and president of the South Hunterdon Regional High School board), Derek Roseman (current member of the LPS board), Laurie Weinstein (a former LPS and SHRHS board member), Nicole Claus (former SHRHS board member) and Anne Nicolas (now a member of the LPS board)..
   Appointed to the regional board from Stockton was James Gallagher, currently president of the Stockton school board.
   The three West Amwell residents who were appointed to the new regional board are Celeste Mosby (currently a member of the SHRHS board), Victor Paerg and Peter Gasparro — both members of the current West Amwell school board.
   Yet to be scheduled, Dr. Vernotica said, is a meeting at which the nine members of the regional board will take their oaths of office.
   Those who are already members of another school board will have to resign from those positions, he said. After they do resign, their boards will have to begin the process of replacing them by advertising for replacement candidates. This needs to be done, he said, because July 1, 2014 is the earliest date the new regional school district can be operative. That means July 1, 2014 is the earliest date at which the new nine-member regional board of education “can become effective,” Dr. Vernotica said.
   He added that “the first task of the new board will be to hire a superintendent of the new regional school district.”
   On the issue of contracts with teachers and other bargaining units, Dr. Vernotica said “it’s my understanding that all the teachers involved are meeting in an effort to form a new, single bargaining unit.” He said that, if no contractual agreement with the teachers (or any other employee group) is reached by July 1, “things will continue as they are” until contractual agreement is reached.
   Mr. Seiter, who chaired Monday night’s meeting, said “the new board will work with the new bargaining units. There’s nothing to suggest that July 1 isn’t an attainable date.”
   He added that the new board would “seek community input before making any major decisions.”
   Under state law, new members of a board of education are required to take training, on how to be an effective board member, from the New Jersey School Boards Association. “The training covers such areas as personnel, including contract negotiations, and dealing with school buildings and grounds,” Dr. Vernotica said.
   Assuming it obtains the required approval of the state commissioner of education, the earliest the new regional district could actually be in place is next July 1, which under state law is the first day of a school district’s’ fiscal year. “It’ll be up to the new board to decide whether to have its school elections in April or November,” Dr. Vernotica said.
   He said there were 18 applicants for the nine positions on the regional board. “It was a magnificent group of applicants,” he added.