Thursday, January 26, 2012
Parents will soon be able to update student account balances with a debit or credit card
Parents of Central Regional school district students will soon have another way to pay for their children's school lunches instead of shelling out cash or writing a check. District officials are partnering with the Berkeley Township school district and Bank of America to set up a program that allows parents to to pay for school lunches with debit or credit cards. Schools Business Administrator Kevin O'Shea stressed that the program is not mandatory and parents can continue to pay cash or by check if they wish. "This is just another option for the parents," he said today. Parents who use the program will be charged a $2 transaction fee by Bank of America every time they use the service, O'Shea said. "If we find that's too much, we will …
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Application deadline for Central Regional seat is Friday
Interested residents have until tomorrow to apply for Robert Ray's unexpired seat on the Central Regional Board of Education. Ray was recently elected to the Berkeley Township Council. He will be sworn in on Jan. 1, along with his running mates John Bacchione and Thomas Grosse. Bacchione and Grosse's victories left two open unexpired seats on the Berkeley Township Board of Education. The deadline to file for those seats was Dec. 2. Berkeley schools Business Administrator/Board Secretary Laura J. Venter said the district received eight applications for the two seats. One application was disqualified because the person did not live in Berkeley Township, she said. All three of the unexpired terms run until April 2012. Anyone interested in the…
Friday, October 21, 2011
Ribbon cutting ceremony held for largest land-based school solar project in the U.S.
On a crisp fall evening the Central Regional School District held a well-attended ribbon cutting ceremony for its massive solar energy project. The field of over 6,000 panels represents the largest land-based school solar project in the country, according to Superintendent of Schools Triantafillos Parlapanides said yesterday. A total of 6,123 panels sit on three arrays that are located adjacent to the Central Regional High School and the Central Regional Middle School. Two arrays are located at the high school while the third sits on property near the middle school. The panels are expected to generate just under 1.8 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy in their first year of operation, according to Kevin O'Shea, district business …
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
District officials plan to go all out to get budget passed next year
The recent extra infusion of state aid will go towards taxpayer relief in the 2012-2013 Central Regional school district budget, schools Business Administrator Kevin O'Shea said. "Because some of our towns may have already printed out their tax bills, it would have been a waste to alter our current year budget and cause some of our towns to have to reprint new tax bills," O'Shea said The Central Regional district accepts high school and middle school students from Berkeley Township, Ocean Gate, Island Heights, Seaside Heights and Seaside Park. "For some our our towns, this could have caused them a cost they did not anticipate and could have put them in a difficult position," O'Shea said. The decision marks the end of a tumultuous budget …
Friday, May 27, 2011
Board members slam Seaside Park officials for lack of cooperation in budget process
Held hostage. That's how some Central Regional Board of Education members said they felt tonight when they voted 5 to 4 to accept $815,239 in cuts to the 2011-2012 budget. "I think it's a damn shame our kids and staff are the victims of this," longtime board member Denise Pavone-Wilson said before she cast a yes vote. "Because of one town, we have to make major cuts. I'm disgusted. Now it's hitting the kids and our employees." Board members had two choices. Either accept the cut, or appeal it to the state Department of Education. School officials did not say where or who would be affected by the cut. "We still need time to digest a number that large," Business Administrator/Board Secretary Kevin O'Shea told the audience. "We are going to …
Monday, May 23, 2011
Residents save on electric bills, school district gets extra revenue
The Central Regional school district’s fledgling foundation is expected to receive its first payment from Viridian Energy next month. Viridian Energy, which was founded in March of 2009, provides an alternate energy supply option to the local utility. Under a program set up by Central Regional Business Administrator Kevin O’Shea, the Central Regional Foundation is awarded $2 per month for every account that enrolls with Viridian under the foundation’s name. So far, 14 homeowners have signed up for the program, he said. “We are expecting the first payment in June for the first couple of months," O'Shea said. "As word is catching on we’ll get more staff involved. It’s slowly but surely picking up speed.” “Last year we formed an education…
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Board of Ed holding off on final decision until May 26 meeting
It's been almost a month since voters narrowly turned down the Central Regional school district's tax levy for the 2011-2012 budget by a margin of 106 votes. The aftermath of that vote has pitted one town against four others. Governing bodies in school districts with defeated budgets are mandated by state law to examine the budgets to decide if a blanket cut should be made. And that's part of the problem in the Central Regional school district, which accepts middle and high school students from five sending towns. The budget passed in Island Heights, Ocean Gate and Seaside Heights. It went down in Berkeley Township and Seaside Park. "If you want to pass a budget, you're at the mercy of the municipalities," schools Superintendent …
Friday, May 20, 2011
Meeting scheduled with Ocean County schools superintendent on Monday
The Central Regional Board of Education has refused the proposed $815,233 in budget cuts suggested by the five towns in the sending district. The board also held off on sending the budget to the state Department of Education for review, a move schools Business Administrator/Board Secretary Kevin O'Shea has said might result in an even bigger cut. Board members last night asked O'Shea and schools Superintendent Triantafillos "Tom" Parlapanides to review the district's staffing and programs again for potential cuts. O'Shea and Parlapanides have scheduled a meeting with Ocean County schools Superintendent Thomas Dowd on Monday to discuss the district's options, O'Shea said. "By law, the Board of Education has 10 days to appeal, so they will …
Thursday, May 19, 2011
School and municipal officials want to avoid sending budget to state Department of Education for review
The Township Council tonight unanimously approved a $815,233 cut to the defeated Central Regional school budget. The cut was the only item on the agenda for the special council meeting. "I really did not want to vote," Council President Karen Davis said after the meeting. "Central asked us to. They wanted to not make things any worse." Central Regional schools Business Administrator/Board Secretary Kevin O'Shea said earlier today that if the five sending towns failed to agree on a cut, the defeated budget would go to the state Department of Education. The Central Regional Board of Education went behind closed doors tonight to decide whether to accept the cut or send the budget to the state. The $815,239 cut comes after hours of tense …
Final meeting slated for tonight, deadline to certify budget is today
Officials from the five sending towns of the Central Regional school district have agreed to cut $815,239 from the defeated school budget. The Central Regional Board of Education will meet tonight to discuss whether to appeal the cuts to the state Department of Education or accept them, school Business Administrator/Board Secretary Kevin O'Shea said today. "A lot of cuts are on the table," he said. "We haven't finalized them yet." The $815,239 cut comes after hours of tense discussions in closed session during two previous meetings and phone calls on Tuesday and Wednesday. Township officials from all but Seaside Park had originally agreed to no cuts. But Seaside Park started out at $3 million, then went to $1.5 million. If Board of …
Mike
9:42 am on Saturday, January 28, 2012
A $2 fee to pay for my kids' lunch? Sorry, I'll keep sending in a check. more ›