Highlights from the Board of Education Meeting

At its meeting Tuesday, Feb. 15, the Barnegat Township Board of Education reversed itself and approved a shared services agreement that will keep two special resource officers in the school.
Here are more details on that and other items from the meeting. Check back with Barnegat Patch for full stories on several of these issues.

• The Board honored a parade of elementary- and middle-school students who received perfect scores on the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJASK) tests last year with certificates. In all, 73 students got perfect 300s on either the language arts or math test, and one student – current sixth-grader Richard Fieramosca – got 300s on both tests.

• Board President Lisa Becker offered a quick update on the budget process, saying that barring any significant cuts in state aid, the board is happy with the budget plan as it stands. But she added that the governor himself advised districts “not to be optimistic” about the announcement regarding state aid he plans to make March 23.

• During public comments, several parents from the Carriage Way development took the mike to express concerns about their children’s bus stop, located on a wide shoulder of a 50-mile-per-hour section of West Bay Avenue. Parents said the stop is unsafe for young children, despite a safety zone designed for bus pull-off, and asked the board to consider establishing a stop just inside the development. District transportation coordinator Bill Cox explained the issue was complicated by the fact that parents often park in the safety zone while waiting to drop off or pick up their kids, and that having the bus pull into the development would add time to the route. The Board’s transportation committee said it would review the results of a traffic and safety examination by township police before making a recommendation the issue to the full board.

• The board passed several motions to allow Spiezle Architectural Group to present plans for solar panel installations at district schools to the Department of Education for approval.

• In a turnaround, the board approved a renewal of the shared services agreement with the township that provides two special resource officers (SROs) to the district. The district will continue to pay $58,066.32 per officer. The measure was voted down 4–3 at the Jan. 18 Board meeting, but had to be addressed again because not enough members were present then for the vote to count. Only Board member Lauren Sarno voted no on the agreement on Tuesday.