Hotly Contested Race for Three Available Seats on Berkeley Board of Ed

Seven people have filed to run for the three available seats on the Berkeley Board of Education, according to the board secretary's office.

The deadline to file for the three-year seats on the board was 4 p.m. this afternoon.

Former longtime board member Anthony DePaola, Beaumont Court, is running for his fourth term on the board.  DePaola previously served from 1999 to 2008.

Former board member Louis Tuminaro, Deal Avenue, is seeking his second term.

Jim Fulcomer, Roberts Avenue, South Seaside Park, is running for his first term. Fulcomer is a former Union County freeholder and served four terms on the Rahway Council. He is president of the Berkeley Township Republican Organization.

Fulcomer said he decided to run because a number of people had asked him to.

"I do have an agenda," he said. "To save the taxpayers money. The best way to do that is become a member of the board."

Also running are newcomers Peter LaRocca, Woodhaven Boulevard, Bayville; Salvatore Ferlise, Sandalwood Drive, Bayville; Noriko Kowalewski, Seagull Court; Gerard Reuter, Scott Drive, Bayville.

Incumbents Patrick Riley, Marlana Mastriano and Thomas Guarascio did not pick up petitions to run again.

Guarascio was faulted by the state School Ethics Commission in 2008. The commission ruled that he violated state school ethics law when he voted in closed session in 2008 not to renew former superintendent Joseph H. Vicari's contract. Commission members also said that he shouldn't have participated in a closed session on the matter, because he had a conflict of interest since his wife worked in the district. The board recently voted to allow Vicari to return on April 1, to serve a one-year term for a salary of $18,500, with no benefits.

 Vicari has long contended that the 2008 closed session vote was illegal. The board appointed Arlene J. Lippincott to serve as interim superintendent in June 2009, when Vicari's contract ran out.The board authorized board attorney John C. Sahradnik last October to begin contract negotiations with Lippincott. But board vice president John Bacchione and board president James J. Brynes last December asked Vicari to return until a permanent superintendent could be found. Vicari offered to return free of charge until a permanent superintendent was on board.

The invitation infuriated Riley, who stormed out of a personnel committee meeting when he realized Vicari had been invited. Vicari has said he thought it was a holiday invitation and did not know it was a personnel committee meeting.