Amato Offers To Host 'Summit Conference' On Shared Services Between School Districts

By Nick Malfitano

The Berkeley Township Board of Education is looking at sharing bus transportation services with the Central Regional school district, although officials disagree on implementing the concept.

Board of Education President James Fulcomer said at a special meeting Tuesday night that Central Regional Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides had recently asked that the shared services meeting be moved to early next year, after newly-elected board members take their seats.

Fulcomer said Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. has also taken an interest in the issue.

“We’ve also received a letter from Mayor Carmen Amato, in which he has offered to host a summit conference on shared services,” said Fulcomer.

The summit conference is tentatively set for 6 p.m. on Jan. 9 in Berkeley Township Town Hall, Fulcomer said.

Berkeley Township Schools Superintendent James D. Roselli said the board commissioned a feasibility study on combining transportation services with Central Regional and saving money through attrition.

However, State Office of Emergency Management official Jerry Renner, a consultant in the study, stated he did not recommend any reductions in bus fleets for any community in the Emergency Planning Zone near Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station. The EPZ is a 10-mile radius surrounding the plant, which includes Berkeley Township, Roselli said.

“Such use would lengthen evacuation time (in the event of an emergency) and is not in the best interest of public service,” Roselli quoted Renner as saying.

Fulcomer countered that Renner was “hired by an administration opposed to consolidating”, and his opinion only represented one point of view.

“We haven’t heard the other one yet,” Fulcomer said. “It would be presumptuous to jump to conclusions without hearing the other point of view.”

Fulcomer was elected to the board in 2011. He ran on a platform endorsing shared services and the eventual consolidation of the two districts.

The issue of shared services between the two districts is an old one.

Two years ago, Central Regional officials met with Berkeley district officials to explore the feasibility of merging the bus fleets for both districts, Parlapanides said earlier this year.

Merging the two fleets would be a five to ten-year process. The only jobs eliminated would be through attrition, Parlapanides said.

Berkeley Township Councilwoman Fran Siddons said at a Berkeley Board of Ed meeting earlier this year that central administration positions should be shared and transportation departments merged.

Siddons was lambasted at the next Township Council meeting for her views by current board members Sophia Gingrich and Stephen Pellecchia. She says she was ousted by the Republican Club screening committee in her quest for a second term because of her independent views.

Berkeley Township Education Association representative Jerry Duggan said last night that Berkeley has the best school bus drivers around, ones who do their jobs well.

“We can’t just go on plausibility. We have to ensure the safety of the children, and it has to be considered when making these decisions,” said Duggan.

Charles Crunkleton, Vice-President of the Berkeley Township Taxpayers Coalition, said the group opposes laying off any transportation personnel or any decision detrimental to the quality of education or services children receive in Berkeley Township.

“If it’s feasible to combine positions and save money, we’re in favor. The BTTC would like to know if we could help,” said Crunkleton.

Roselli replied he met with members of the BTTC and outlined the shared service agreements already in place with Central Regional, such as a courier service and bus maintenance.

“We are not anti-shared services,” said Roselli. “We always want the board to be fiscally responsible. We have the best business administrator in Ocean County. These schools are a direct reflection of the hard work of everyone here.”

Township Council President James J. Byrnes said greater financial leeway could be afforded to the districts' transportation issues if Fair School Funding legislation were passed by the state Legislature. 

That would allow Berkeley Township to receive a greater share of the money distributed to school districts statewide. Currently Abbott districts such as Camden and Newark receive the bulk of the funds, he said.

BTTC President Sam Cammarato - whose son Edward was recently elected to the Berkeley school board as part of "Team Amato" - agreed with Byrnes

“The real tax deduction for property owners will come through the Fair School Funding Act. We’ve failed to bring this issue to the forefront,” said Cammarato.

But Fulcomer said aside from representatives in Ocean County and Morris County, the majority of state legislature members are opposed to the passage of Fair School Funding. That accounts for the lack of traction the legislation has gained in Trenton, he said.