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There is no contest between testosterone and estrogen. The courtesy busing controversy is over and it took steady infusions of estrogen to get it done.

In a sweltering hot June 20 township committee meeting the normal order of business finished by about 9:00pm. It was time to let the monster out of the cage. Mayor Frank Gatti turned over the meeting to Gerry Shamey and stepped away from the dais. Since his own daughter is affected by the courtesy busing issue, Frank would not participate in the discussion.

Tom Auriemma was the first to speak, giving a review of the events surrounding the school budget and the school board’s decision to cut courtesy busing. He reiterated the notion that the school board made this choice out of spite. He also brought up publicly for the first time a conversation he had with school board president Mark Berry. In that conversation he was told that the school board had originally budgeted for three new school buses, with the knowledge that only two were actually needed. While Tom considered the school board’s various actions a “slap in the face” and a “kick in the teeth,” he was willing to make further concessions.

Those concessions included reinstating $15,000.00 in budget dollars to allow a new bus to be leased for one year. He also offered to personally help find the $50,000.00 in school budget line item transfers to fund the bus drivers for another year. These actions, in conjunction with the use of the one spare bus, would allow courtesy busing to be reinstated.

Two citizens came up to the podium to offer their thoughts. Audience members buzzed quietly and fanned themselves with meeting agendas. Township committee members shifted in their seats and leaned back against their wrinkled suit jackets mounted on the back of their chairs.

Then school board president Mark Berry approached the podium. Following after him was the entire school board looking like so many pall bearers at some bizarre funeral service. Mark spoke in measured tones, stating his desire to resolve the courtesy busing issue. In short order, though, Mark tread on dangerous ground while defending his comments about the notorious third bus mentioned earlier by Tom Auriemma.

“Don’t lie to me, Mr. Berry!”

The phrase came out of the deep blue and surprised everyone the same way the great white shark surprised the first audiences to see the movie “Jaws”.

“How about some respect!” came the retort from Mark Berry, and very quickly the deep blue water became a frothy red. In the time that followed, Gerry Shamey regained control of the meeting and board members Denise Kenney, Susan Marcella and Joanne Sekella said their piece. At the end of these exchanges an important point was raised.

The school board has limitations on what it can transfer from advertised line items. A ten percent rule prevents the school board from transferring whatever they want from one account code to another. However, what the school board does not often mention is that they can also appeal that rule to the state of New Jersey as represented by the commissioner of education and the county superintendent. In certain circumstances those authorities can put aside the ten percent rule and allow greater transfer amounts. While the school board members insisted that they could not now legally transfer enough money from other line items to cover the busing, township committee members wanted to know if the commissioner of education had put in writing a denial to allow something greater than ten percent. It turns out that there has been nothing but informal conversations with those authorities and nothing in writing.

After more citizens came up to speak their mind, the question of the ten percent rule was raised again. School board member Rick Finn wondered: if the commissioner of education put in writing that he would not allow the ten percent rule to be broken would the township committee reconsider “giving back” $60,000.00 worth of cuts? Gerry Shamey indicated a need to ask the commissioner together in order to be certain of everyone’s intentions. Mark Berry, who had been circling impatiently in the foamy waters, suddenly swam for the surface and burst forth with mouth open and three layers of teeth gleaming: “You should call the commissioner yourself…Obviously you don’t trust us!”

“Why would you say that? Insulting the town committee is not a good way to get your $60,000.00 back!” was the reply from Gerry Shamey. A nervous kind of laughter surged through the audience. More people spoke from the podium.

Citizen Karen McCullough, herself a former school board member, was pushed up to speak next. Karen offered up the kind of idea that moms suggest to children who have become more concerned about winning than about playing a fun game. If the school board is sure that it cannot now legally transfer enough money to restore the busing that it decided to cut, and if the town committee is loath to fix a problem it did not create, then perhaps the town committee would be willing to restore $60,000.00 to the school budget on the contingency that the school board agree to cut back by the same amount elsewhere. This solves the ten percent transfer problem and it does not ask the township committee to solve a problem it did not create. Applause followed the suggestion, and the soothing effects of estrogen could be felt in the room.

Still more citizens spoke.

Then township committee member Julia Allen introduced another dose of estrogen. Noting the silliness of the arguments between the two governing bodies, Julia related that she has seen this very play staged before. Going back as far as the 1950’s, she called the cutting of courtesy busing as a budget ploy a “tradition… nobody expects our children to walk to school.” Her words seemed to calm the waters.

Tom Auriemma now introduced a motion to restore $15,000.00 in budget money to the school board as he had planned. It was seconded by Beatrice Muir. More discussion followed between committee members and it became obvious there was a split of opinion on the motion. Julia Allen stepped in again with another shot of estrogen: “I am puzzled as to why this game must be played,” she said quietly, and mentioned her support for a restoration of the full $60,000.00 asked for by the school board if it would get us past the silly game.

Gerry Shamey, reeling from the effects of the powerful girl hormone, asked Mark Berry across the room if he would guarantee that courtesy busing would be restored if the full $60,000 was granted. Mark Berry, also sedated by the estrogen said: “Yes.” Gerry noted for posterity that he would not ever go down this sort of path again. He would not play these games with the school board another year.

The elation felt in the room was short lived. The $15,000.00 motion still on the floor was soon voted on and it failed with a tie. Next, the motion for $60,000.00 was made by Julia Allen, but it was not seconded and therefore died in her arms. Gerry Shamey, leading the meeting in Frank Gatti’s place, was not permitted to second the motion. The fragile compromise was unsuccessful.

Suddenly Mark Berry swam up from the back of the room. What if the school board offered to eliminate a vice-principal position at Whitehouse School? That would reduce administrative costs by $70,000.00 and make up for the $60,000.00 restored by the township committee, he asserted. The audience hissed and buzzed. “Isn’t that kind of drastic?” came the reply from Gerry Shamey. Applause followed. Many members of the audience already knew that there was a plan to eliminate this particular position. Many wondered if that plan was based not on the need for the job, but on the particular person slated to fill the position. That person is not socially or politically connected to the circles in which some board members and their fishy friends swim.

All had failed. It was time for one last shot of estrogen. Betty Ann Fort, a woman who has spent untold hours examining the workings of school boards and township committees both, came up to the podium and made a last effort. Suppose we revisit the suggestion of Karen McCullough, she proposed: the township committee will restore $60,000.00 worth of cuts, Tom Auriemma will “help” the school board find $60,000.00 worth of incidental budget dollars, and the matter will be done.

It was the great compromise forged by the patient efforts of three women. Gerry Shamey, happy to have found a solution and relieved that a vice principal position was now out of the equation quickly agreed. The other township committee members followed and in a blink of an eye the estrogen had taken us from failure to success.

The room cleared quickly.