By Cheryl Conway
May the best applicant sit!
The Mt. Olive Twp. Board of Education plans to hold a special meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 6:30 p.m. at the Mt. Olive Middle School for the purpose of interviewing applicants for the vacant board seat. Action will be taken.
BOE Member Dr. Asunta Beardsley resigned on Sept. 1 and vacated her seat on Sept. 15. On the board for three years, Beardsley’s term is expiring this year, but she did not finish out her term as she is moving to Allamuchy.
The BOE has received applications from three local residents interested in filling the position. After each candidate is interviewed, “the BOE will move into closed sessions to discuss,” explains BOE President Dr. Anthony Giordano. “Then the BOE will come out and vote on the candidates.
“After a candidate has been voted on and receives the majority of the votes of the voting BOE members, they will be sworn in,” explains Giordano.
The chosen candidate will hold the position for three months, until Jan. 2021, when the board’s reorganization meeting is held.
At the last BOE meeting on Monday, Sept. 21, at the Mt. Olive High School Performing Arts Center, the BOE was discussing how they wanted to move forward with filling the vacated seat. They agreed that offering a special meeting focusing on the applicants would be the best option rather than waiting for the next meeting in October.
Members Question Dates And Venue
Some board members question why the BOE has been meeting once a month as opposed to two times a month, as it usually does. They also question why the location for the BOE meetings keep switching venues.
“Why are we meeting just once a month?” questions BOE Member William Robinson. “Why was Sept. 28 cancelled? We should go back to the meeting that was scheduled.”
The Sept. 28 meeting was recently cancelled and moved until Oct. 12.
Robinson suggested that the board decide now on the vacated seat so “new people can get their feet wet,” serving on the board for three months so they can see what it is like.
The BOE almost switched the date back to Sept. 28 until members realized that Monday is Yom Kippur, so they went with the day after.
“Why can’t we have it at the middle school?” suggests BOE Member Anthony Strillaci. “This is just ridiculous here. The people out there, I can’t see anyone here. You can’t hear, you can’t see anything.
“This is not a desirable place,” he continues, “it’s difficult to hear. This is not conducive; we have like 17, 18 people here tonight. This is too dark in here; it’s ridiculous.
“We should be back in the middle school,” says Strillaci.
BOE Member John Petrie, who is running in the upcoming November General Election for another three-year term on the BOE, announced at the meeting that he does not want to vote tomorrow night on the person to fill the vacated seat because one of the applicants is also running for the BOE and this would be a conflict.
Petrie says he is “recusing himself since one person is running for BOE. I’m not sure how unbiased I can be.”
In the upcoming election, seven candidates are vying to fill three seats on the BOE.
Petrie is running against BOE Member Dr. Antoine Gayles, whose three-year term also expires this year; Christopher Zeier, Richard Vanatta, Brian Schaechter, Colleen Suflay and Rhonda Cohen. Former BOE members Schaechter and Cohen are running with Suflay on the same ticket with the slogan “Schools in Motion.”
Get To Know Candidates
With the election approaching, it is wise to get to know the candidates in order to make an educated selection.
Some say ballot placement may cause voters to not consider all their options before making their choices.
“Ballot placement is totally random and should not be how we choose someone who is responsible for spending 70 percent of our property taxes,” says Irene Sergonis of Budd Lake, a committee-member of the Mt. Olive Democrats who ran for Mt. Olive Twp. Council last year.
Ballot placement can affect the outcome of an election, she says.
“I was working the polls and many people came out of the booths and said they voted for 1-2-3 on BOE since they had no idea of BOE candidates,” says Sergonis. “This has been the case in many of the recent elections.
“People should also read questions,” she says, when they vote.
The special BOE meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 29, will be held at MOMS. It is open to the public but as per the N.J. Governor’s executive order, only 25 people are allowed inside for the indoor meeting. The meeting will be visible as a livestream on u-tube like the previous meeting, says Giordano.