Reelected for two, three-year terms, Avalon School Board Members Brian Heenan and James Deever take the oath of office lead by Board Secretary Henry Bermann at the reorganization meeting, April 30. Photo by Leslie Truluck

AVALON –– Reelected for two three-year terms, School Board Members Brian Heenan and James Deever took the oath of office at the board’s reorganization meeting here, April 30.

Election results recognized 114 votes for Deever, 106 votes for Heenan, and one write-in vote for S. Wright.

The board reelected President John McCorristin and Vice-President Lynn Schwartz.

A $2.9 million budget was approved with 81 positive votes and 35 votes opposed.

County Executive Superintendent of Schools Terrence Crowley attended to answer questions from board members and the public. He has been visiting all county school boards as part of his three-year information-gathering process.

Schwartz asked Crowley what incentive the barrier island boroughs would have to regionalize, noting that proficiency is high among students here.

Crowley said the state couldn’t offer a financial incentive to regionalize and “unfortunately not once did I see anything about improving education opportunities for kids (in the School Funding Formula).”

“We’ve been doing shared services long be-fore it was cool,” Swartz said.

Crowley advised the borough to keep track of how much money is being saved through shared services in comparison to how much it would cost to run transportation etcetera individually.

“If you’ve been doing shared services for so long you can lose track of what you’re saving,” Crowley said.
Chief School Administrator David Rauenzahn agreed.

Crowley reminded the board that he works as a liaison to state Department of Education Commissioner Lucille Davy.

He told the board, “Education quality is priority number one, with the financial aspect a close second.”

Contact Truluck at (609) 886-8600 Ext 24 or at: ltruluck @cmcherald.com.