A Man Of His Word

by Patricia A. Miller

You’re going to miss him when he’s gone.

James Fulcomer - who steps down from the Berkeley Township Board of Education on Dec. 31 - always differed from most other board members, past and present.

Call him the board renegade. He kept his promises. He kept his campaign pledges - to consolidate as many services as possible with the Central Regional school district - from the beginning to the end of his three-year term.

“I always keep my promises,” he said, during an interview at his South Seaside Park home recently. “Always.”

He was no “yes” man. While other board members during his term rarely questioned anything and routinely rubber-stamped whatever was put in front of them, Fulcomer did not.

Case in point - Schools Superintendent James D. Roselli’s new contract - which the board approved earlier this year.

Fulcomer was the only board member who questioned the details of the new contract and why a new contract was needed at all. The board members had little time to review the new contract, which was presented at the last minute before a board meeting, he said.

“I was the only one who addressed the facts in the contract at the meeting,” he said. “Nobody disputed what I had to say.”

Roselli was not even hallway through his initial contract when the board approved a new one with a $5,000 raise and the potential to receive another $23,500 in merit increases.

Fulcomer disputes Roselli‘s claim that he was approached by the board for a new contract in 2014. It was the other way around, he says.

He ran for his first term in 2011 with Noriko Kowalewski and Sal Ferlise. They ran on a platform of consolidation of school services - transportation, buildings and grounds and administrative positions. They also vowed to save the annual Stokes State Forest trip, which some - including former Superintendent Joseph H. Vicari - tried to stymy.

“We all agreed our platform was consolidation,” Fulcomer said.

The trio won. But their alliance - especially with Kowalewski - began to fray over the years.

Fulcomer knew something wasn’t right during his first year on the board. Often board members were given information just before meetings, without time to review it, if they received it at all.

“There is greater transparency at Central Regional than there is in Berkeley Township,” he said. “I have difficulty getting information as a board member. Imagine what it’s like for a private citizen.”

Fulcomer also knows how meetings should be run. He served four terms as a Rahway councilman and one term on the Union County Board of Freeholders before he and his wife Cathy moved to South Seaside Park more than a decade ago. He also taught high school history for 42 years before retiring.

There were times during his term on the Berkeley board he had to point out to the administration or board president that Roberts Rules of Order were not being followed.

For example, in 2012, Fulcomer asked for an amendment to the board minutes of the May 2012 meeting because he said they did not accurately reflect what occurred.

“I don’t believe the minutes should be false,” he said during the Aug. 16 board meeting. “I think they should be true.”

Fulcomer said the board had not actually voted to hire the district’s transportation coordinator, but only to close the debate on the matter.

He asked for a correction to the minutes at the Aug. 16 meeting, but did not get it.

“Why are your words the truth and the minutes not the truth?” said then-Board President Steven Pellecchia, who often sparred with Fulcomer.

Fulcomer asked that the word “considered” be substituted for “voted on” the hiring.

“Where’s the recording of the meeting?” Fulcomer said. “The only vote taken was a vote to cease debate. We never voted on the main motion - the approval of the transportation appointment.“It’s very important that the minutes reflect the truth. To vote for untruthful minutes is like signing a false affadavit.””

There have been times when recordings of Berkeley Board of Ed meetings were never recorded. The answer in the past have been that someone forgot to push the button of the recording device.

Fulcomer sees no reason for K-6 districts anymore. K-6 districts are an anachronism, going back to times when children barely made it through in elementary school, then went to work rather than continuing their education.

The two districts should be combined, with one set of administrators, rather than two. The superintendent of Central Regional should oversee a K-12 district in Berkeley, with a small salary for doing the extra work, he said.

“I’ve learned the system of two superintendents is really against the best interests of the children and the taxpayers,” he said.

Fulcomer says he may still attend meetings as a private citizen. But he tired of being a minority of one. The number of Fulcomer grandchildren grew from two to seven during his time on the board and he and Cathy want to spend time with them.

Thank you for your service, Mr. Fulcomer.