Fulcomer Selected As Berkeley Board of Ed President In Split Vote At Reorg Meeting

Berkeley Board of Education members in a split vote selected South Seaside Park resident James Fulcomer to serve as board president in 2013.

Fulcomer - who was elected to his first term in 2011 - thanked board members for their support at a brief board reorganization meeting tonight.

He announced earlier Thursday that he had stepped down as two-term chairman of the Zoning Board of Adjustment and president of the Regular Republican Organization of Berkeley Township.

The vote to appoint him school board president was 5 to 4. Board members Salvatore Ferlise, Sophia Gingrich, Fulcomer and new board members Patrick Mooney and Keith Fisher voted yes.

Former board president Steven Pellecchia, board member Louis J. Tuminaro, new board member Lauren Ciccone-Zawada and Noriko Kowalewsk voted no. Kowalewski was Fulcomer's running mate in the 2011 election.

Board members unanimously selected Gringrich to serve as vice-president in 2013.

Fulcomer distributed a list of committees and asked board members to indicate their preferences.

He also announced priorities he would like the board to focus on in the coming year. They include improving communications with the Central Regional school district, more collaboration with the Berkeley Township Education Association and doing a complete review of school safety procedures in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut shootings.

"I hope in the new year we will develop a better relationship with the Central Regional school district," Fulcomer said.

Fulcomer also wants set up a committee for the annual Stokes State Forest trip in Sussex County.

"We should have a Stokes Committee to keep this trip alive," he said.

Board meetings will now be held on the fourth Thursday of each month, Fulcomer said.