By John Tredrea, Special Writer
WEST AMWELL — Gregg Rackin, mayor of Stockton Borough from 2002 to 2006, is now a member of the South Hunterdon Regional Board of Education.
Mr. Rackin, of Glenwood Lane, was appointed to the board July 21. He replaces Donald Vandegrift, who resigned from the board recently.
Mr. Vandegrift, of Wilson Drive, Stockton, decided he had to leave his post because he had “accepted a Fulbright scholarship for the fall and will be working at a university in central Europe.”
The New Jersey School Boards Association “confirmed that I must resign from the South Hunterdon board for an absence of this duration,” Mr. Vandegrift said recently.
Mr. Rackin’s appointment to the board runs through the school election next April. Mr. Vandegrift’s unexpired term on the board ends in April 2013. If Mr. Rackin wants to finish the last year of that unexpired term, he would have to run next April.
While being interviewed by the board July 21 — prior to his appointment — he said he intends to run next April.
Every member of the board voted in favor of appointing Mr. Rackin except Robert Campbell, who abstained because he arrived at the meeting late and missed a substantial portion of the interviews of Mr. Rackin and David Pasicznyk, who also had applied to fill the vacancy.
The interviews of Mr. Rackin and Mr. Pasicznyk lasted about an hour.
During the interviews, Mr. Pasicznyk admitted — in response to a question from the board — it would be hard for him to find time to adequately fulfill his responsibilities on the board. This is due to the fact, he said, that he is still a member of Stockton’s school board.
He indicated that if a replacement for him on that board could be found, he might run for a seat on the South Hunterdon board in the future.
Mr. Rackin has lived in Stockton 18 years. He and his wife have a son who will enter ninth grade at South Hunterdon this year and a daughter who will enter fifth grade at Stockton Borough School.
He worked in the pharmaceutical industry for many years — 12 years with Merck Inc. and several years with Johnson and Johnson — after getting a bachelor’s degree from Allegheny College and a master’s from Ohio University. He works as an independent researcher.
During the interviews, Mr. Rackin and Mr. Pasicznyk were asked how they felt about South Hunterdon’s forming a regional school district with the elementary school districts of Lambertville, West Amwell and Stockton.
April 27 (the annual school board, school budget election) voters of the three towns OK’d a special ballot question that asked them to spend $50,000 for a regionalization feasibility study. The study was approved 726-615.
(July 21, after the school board member interviews, the board hired consulting firm Porzio Bromberg & Newman to perform a comprehensive study to determine if there is financial and/or educational benefit to combine the four existing school districts into one new regional pre-kindergarten through 12th grade district. See related story this week).
”I would hope the study would lead to approval of regionalization by the community, and that would be one big happy family,” replied Mr. Rackin, who said he thought regionalization would “strengthen the schools.”
Mr. Pasicznyk, a geologist who works for the state of New Jersey and a 20-year Stockton resident, said he preferred to wait and “see what the study turns up.” He advised being wary of the “perception that bigger is necessarily better.” He said the question — “will it save money? — is a key issue on regionalization.
”It’s good we’re doing the study,” he said. “Let’s see the data it turns up.”
