Schools

Guzzetti Joins School Board, Mehaffey Re-Voted VP

The West Deptford school board voted to bring Peter Guzzetti on to replace former board member James Crawford, who resigned as of the reorganization meeting two weeks ago.

It didn’t take long for the West Deptford school board to fill its open post.

After just two candidates–John Hayden and Peter Guzzetti–put in letters of interest by last Wednesday’s deadline, the board held a first-of-its-kind public interview session Monday night and opted to bring on Guzzetti, who was the fourth-highest vote-getter in April’s school election, as its newest member to fill a one-year term.

Both men had a chance to pitch themselves and answer a series of questions from board members, which ranged from how they would use a hypothetical $1 million gift to their perception of the expectations for board members, as part of the process.

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Guzzetti, who went first, stuck mostly to the same topics he did during the election, touting his experience handling budgets in his job in information technology for Siemens Healthcare.

One of the problems Guzzetti said the board has is effectively getting information out to the public.

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“I’d like to see if we can’t increase the visibility into what we’re doing well as a school district, and what we’re not doing well as a school district,” he said, and added he thought it would be valuable to compare West Deptford to other districts, in terms of things like performance and spending on various categories.

Both Guzzetti and Hayden said more work is needed to get parents involved, whether by getting them to come out to board meetings or participate in things like Meet the Candidates Night, which drew at most two dozen people back in April.

For his part, Hayden continued to push his position as a voice of opposition and a public voice of questioning on the board, which he said the public sees as closed off from the average person.

“There seems to be not a lot of discussion in the public portion of the meeting,” he said.

Board member Don Hicks asked Hayden about the perception that there’s no opposition or debate among board members, and pointed out that the board has committee meetings before and after the public session.

“These meetings are the window for us to see what you are dong,” Hayden said. “If there are discussions going on outside this public meeting, that’s to be commended; however, it’s not something that the public’s seeing.”

Hayden also pointed out the tough spot he was putting board members in by staking his territory as an antagonist.

“It’s difficult to come to a group and say, ‘I oppose you, pick me,’ ” he said.

A few moments later, the board proved exactly that, voting 7-1, with Kate Cargill as the lone opposing vote, to choose Guzzetti over Hayden.

After Guzzetti was sworn in as the school board’s newest member, Strano admitted to “a snafu” in how they elected Jim Mehaffey vice-president at the reorganization meeting at the beginning of the month.

Strano said that, though no one realized it at the reorganization, a close reading of Robert’s Rules of Order, which govern the board’s meetings, showed that any candidate nominated for vice-president had to be considered, rather than having to be seconded after the initial nomination.

“My first three minutes as a sitting president, I made a big mistake,” he said. “We’re going to do this again, and get it right this time.”

Mehaffey was once again nominated for the position, and Amy DeGirolamo nominated Ginny Brockway, who had been nominated at the reorganization meeting by Cargill, but was not considered after there was no second of the nomination at that meeting.

As opposed to the 6-1 majority Mehaffey scored at the reorganization meeting, the vote this time went 5-4, with the women on the board backing Brockway and the men–including Strano, who cast the tiebreaking vote–opting for Mehaffey.


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