Schools

Berkeley Detective Running Solo for Board of Ed Seat

Peter F. La Rocca says he is untainted by board politics

Peter La Rocca is on his own. And that's the way he wants it.

La Rocca, 32, is running for one of the three, three-year seats on the Berkeley Board of Education. He lives on Woodhaven Boulevard with his wife and four children.

He had originally planned to run on a slate with candidates Louis Tuminaro and Gerard Reuter, but changed his mind earlier this year.

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"I'm on my own," La Rocca told Berkeley Patch. "A lot of politics got mixed in and ultimately I decided I wanted to do in own my own."

La Rocca is a detective with the Berkeley Township Police Department. He has been with the department for 10 years.

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"I have some new ideas and I don't think I'm influenced by politics, like some of these other guys," he said.

Like many of the other candidates, La Rocca thinks the Berkeley and Central Regional school districts could merge to avoid duplication of administrative costs. But the combining the two districts into one K-12 district does not come without its problems, he said.

"It's a larger issue," he said. "If we lose the sending districts, we might have to pay more in taxes."

The Central Regional school district, which includes Central Regional Middle School and Central Regional High School, accepts students from Berkeley Township, Ocean Gate, Island Heights, Seaside Park and Seaside Heights.

For now, sharing services with both districts is a "obvious no-brainer" and La Rocca said he would push for more if elected.

"I don't want to see programs get cut," he said. "I don't want to see the gifted and talented program go and teachers losing their jobs. That's the last resort. I'm a union guy."

And unlike some of the other candidates, La Rocca thinks the cost for the Stokes State Forest trip should be kept in the district's budget for now.

"I'd like to see it funded the way it is, until alternate funding sources such as the Stokes Foundation will ensure its continued funding," he said.

The trip has been included in the 2010-2011 budget, but is not in the 2011-2012 budget. The fledgling nonprofit Berkeley Township Education and Environment Foundation was recently formed to brainstorm ways to raise the $80,000 needed to fund the outdoor education excursion, a 40-year-old tradition in the Berkeley school district.

"I'd like to come up with some thinking outside of the box," he said. "Stokes is important to these kids. I'd like to still see that we fund that. I would like to keep it in.""


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