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PEQUANNOCK - Three new faces for school board, budget passes
(by April Plantamura - Staff Writer - April 20, 2008)
PEQUANNOCK - With six candidates running for three available seats on the Board of Education, the Unite for Kids team, consisting of Joseph Cropanese, Vincent Gallipoli and Thomas Molica, beat out the Keep on Track team, which included incumbent Robert Friedman and two local residents, Dr. William Thimmel and William Sayre.
Cropanese, Gallipoli and Molica formed the Unite for Kids team after discovering they shared many of the same beliefs and opinions when it came to the running of the district by current school board members. Cropanese, who received the greatest number of votes overall with a total of 1,121, has lived in the township for nearly 40 years, having had three children graduate from Pequannock Township High School, and currently has two grandchildren attending district schools.
“I am not surprised that our team won because we worked hard,” Cropanese said. “But I am happy because I wanted an opportunity to do something for the town that has given my family so much over the past 37 years.”
Cropanese said that he is eager to take his seat on the board and feels that he and his fellow team members will bring a renewal of leadership and civility, as well as openness and responsiveness to the table. Cropanese would like to see the teacher contracts settled in the near future and turn the board’s focus to a long-term educational plan that addresses the education of all students at all schools.
Gallipoli, who received over 17 percent of the votes in the April 15 election with 1,057, currently has two children in the school district and has lived in Pequannock for over 15 years. He shares Cropanese’s sentiments about educating every child in the township. Gallipoli would also like to take another look at Superintendent Dr. Larrie Reynold’s “Five Year Plan” to make Pequannock schools number one in the state.
“I think we need to reevaluate the plan to see what has worked and what hasn’t,” Gallipoli said. “Then we can make adjustments as needed.”
Gallipoli said that he is happy to have won the election but feels that for now, he has simply been appointed to do a job and it isn’t until his job is complete that he will really celebrate.
“There is a lot of work to be done,” Gallipoli said. “When every students’ education is improved then I will feel like I have won.”
Molica, who received 1,074 votes in Tuesday’s election, has lived in the township for 30 years and has seen all three of his children go through the school district. Molica said that he and his team members visited well over 1,200 houses during their campaign in an attempt to find out from the people their concerns about the school district.
Molica and Gallipoli both said that they spoke with many parents from the elementary schools and middle school who were displeased with the way things were being handled in the schools.
“We learned a lot during the process,” Gallipoli said.
Molica said that he is looking forward to working with all of the members of the board, as well as Dr. Reynolds.
“The superintendent has a very specific function and so does the board,” Molica said. “Neither can usurp the other’s function or abdicate their own position.”
Molica said that the main goal for the Unite for Kids team now that the elections are over is to calm everyone down, unite the board members and determine what is the best thing to do for the kids. Then, things can begin to move forward.
Election Day confusion
To add to the already stressful school board elections, Pequannock encountered some confusion at the polling locations. The polling books for district 5 voters, who were directed to the Senior House located near the municipal building, ended up at the district 7 polling location at the Pequannock Township Library. The books for district 7 were sent to the Senior House.
“If someone showed up at the wrong polling place they were directed to the correct one,” Board Secretary and Business Administrator Steven DiGeronimo said. “Other (voters) were given the option of filling out a provisional paper ballot.”
Not counting these provisional ballots, or the absentee ballots, the district’s $33.8 million budget passed with 1,256 yes votes and 669 no votes. DiGeronimo said that these results are unofficial due to the provisional and absentee ballots that have yet to be counted.
Megan Hollberg, president of the school board, said that Friedman, Dr. Thimmel and Sayre have until the board’s reorganization meeting scheduled for Monday, April 28, to file suit and issue a re-vote if that’s what they choose to do. Hollberg said that she has heard several complaints in the township about people questioning the actual results of the election.
“I don’t know if people were turned away at the polls or not,” the board president said.
Hollberg said that her only concern with moving forward with the newly elected board members is that if they do not support Dr. Reynolds and his initiatives for the district, no progress will be made.
“The taxpayers will be paying him (Dr. Reynolds) $200,000 a year and he will essentially be handcuffed to his desk,” Hollberg said. “They (the election winners) have not been seated yet, so maybe they will surprise me. But they just strike me as not being supportive of what Dr. Reynolds is trying to do.”
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