home | contact | faq

action items

The May 24 Readington school board meeting, the first meeting after the decision by the board to cut so-called "courtesy" busing, was well attended and contentious. By the end of the meeting, audience members were literally shouting for answers from board members.

The first public speaking time in the beginning of a board meeting is reserved for items on the agenda, and the minutes from the May 17 special budget meeting on this night's agenda were used as something of a wedge to open up discussion about the busing. Strictly speaking, comments on the busing should have been saved for the public time at the end of the meeting. However, board president Mark Berry, probably sensing the futility of enforcing that rule, let open the floodgates and sat quietly while the foaming waters of public discontent washed over him and soaked through to his skin.

Ten people spoke during this public time, including two town council members. One town council member, Gerry Shamey, gave a long and quietly forceful rebuttal of what he considers to be falsehoods put out by board president Mark Berry at the May 17 special meeting. The other town council member attending, Tom Auriemma, gave a shorter but no less forceful defense of the council's actions. The other speakers all brought up issues of safety, planning, personality conflicts in the budget negotiation process, and other possible cuts that could have been offered instead of courtesy busing. Each speaker was met with applause after speaking. Board members were stone-faced. Superintendent Irene Benfatti sat with hands clasped and head down as if wrestling with some internal debate.

With the first public comment time finished, the board moved on to normal business. In one exchange it was illustrated in vivid Technicolor just how fractious and silly the board can be. Joanne Sekella mentioned almost as an aside that correspondence sent to the board via postal mail is publicly acknowledged but that correspondence sent via email is not. With Rick Finn in agreement, she asked why that rule or policy couldn't be changed now since email is the preferred method in the modern world. Susan Marcella pounced on the suggestion like a starving mountain lion, offering repeated bureaucratic reasons for delaying such a change like so many bites on the neck of her hapless prey Joanne. During the exchange it also became clear that the new board members do not even have a copy of the old board policy manual, never mind the new policies. With support from Rick Finn, and a somewhat grudging assist from Mark Berry, it was finally agreed that this could be examined carefully over the next few meetings.

At the end of this meeting, during the second public comment time, there were five more speakers from the audience and then Mark Berry launched into his defense of the board action on courtesy busing. He did admit that it is becoming a "he-said, she-said" affair between the school board and the township committee. Then his defense fell back on old history again. During the history lesson, Mark mentioned keeping our Readington children "competitive" for their high school and college careers. One wag in the audience (okay, okay, so it was this writer) wondered when school became a team sport. Do we now need to wonder if our individual children will be playing "A" team or "B" team, whether they will be a quarterback or a tackle, or whether they will be benched or in the game?

In any case, Superintendent Irene Benfatti rubbed her nose and looked down at the table as Mark wondered off down this meandering path. By the time it was mentioned that a letter would be going out to parents to warn them of their potential for losing courtesy busing, the audience had had enough.

"Will the board reconsider?!" Was the first question shouted out in desperation. "That's a NO!" came another shout, and: "Will you remain oblivious?" came another. In the minutes that followed, Joanne Sekella indicated that she was uncomfortable with her decision to allow the cut, Rick Finn wanted to know what circumstances would allow a change of course on this issue, and Susan Marcella, Denise Kinney and Marsha Parrish attempted to use their impressive powers of boredom to lull the audience into a trance. Superintendent Irene Benfatti crossed her arms and gave the look of a tired cop on the beat who is forced once again to haul in the town drunk to jail so he can sober up.

Finally Irene spoke, putting aside a faulty microphone and speaking in a refreshingly clear tone. A reporter in the audience whimpered in pain as his swollen hand continued to write. Irene noted that she had already contacted town officials about the busing issue in order to show them the pluses and minuses of various options. She said that with a commitment from the school community we can come to a "humble peace... we do not need this splintering, and we should sit down not at a rectangular table but a round one." She allowed that the voters had made a statement, but, addressing town council member Tom Auriemma directly, she said: "we need to talk."

Then, in a short but very curious exchange, Irene mentioned almost under her breath that perhaps the township committee would reconsider the $720K total in mandated cuts. The meeting ended shortly thereafter.

Is that the face-saving tactic, then? Will Irene broker a reduction in the overall cuts and allow courtesy busing to stand? Is such a tactic possible or even legal? Is the very woman who has been a lightning rod for the electrically charged storms of public opinion now a heroine waiting in the wings ready for the second act? Is there no end to the mixed metaphors that this writer can invent?

Stay tuned folks. Time will tell.