JACKSON – The Township Board of Education appointed resident Brian McCarron to fill the one-year unexpired term of Scott Sargent who had resigned after winning a council seat in November.
During the Board’s Dec. 21 meeting, the Board chose McCarron out of 13 candidates who submitted letters of interest.
Board members thanked all the applicants and voted unanimously to select McCarron for the position. He then took the oath of office at the meeting and will serve on the board through the December 2023 meeting. Sargent’s term would have lasted until that meeting.
This marked the last Board meeting for Board President Michael Walsh. He did not seek reelection in the fall. He told the board that he was impressed by the number of applicants who sought the vacancy and admired their willingness to serve.
Walsh said, “I was very impressed by the candidates and their qualifications who put in for this position and I wish that you would put in (a petition to run) for the position next July for the next three-year term.”
Speaking for the board, Board Member Tina Kas said McCarron was selected from an excellent pool of candidates.
“We feel that Brian’s law enforcement background and that his experience as an SRO officer in a school system will add a level of depth to our board that we currently do not have,’’ Kas said.
The new Board member is a former police officer and school resource officer who currently works as a realtor. He has been a volunteer basketball, soccer and baseball coach and serves as a volunteer with the Emergency Medical Services Advisory Board in Jackson.
McCarron wrote in his letter of interest that he was, “looking to help the Jackson School District with maintaining its environment of safety and success. I want to help keep Jackson schools a safe and engaging district for all students to learn and grow to their best self.”
Nonpublic School Bus Costs
Board members also adopted a resolution during that meeting seeking support of the draft Bill A-4461. They joined Boards of Education and superintendents in Toms River, Brick and Manchester in supporting the legislation that would establish a three-year non-public school student transportation pilot program in certain eligible school districts.
The bill was originally introduced in July 2022 prior to the death of 12th District Assemblyman Ron Dancer who drafted it. It was reintroduced by his successor, former Jackson Councilman Alex Sauickie on September 15, 2022.
Jackson’s school district has experienced “massive increases over the last few years in the need to provide busing or aid in lieu of payments to nonpublic families. Five years ago, 667 resident students who qualified for transportation or aid-in-lieu of transportation. This year there are 4,331,” according to a letter by Township School Superintendent Nicole Pormilli and the Jackson Board of Education to the State Legislature.
The number of non-public students eligible for transportation services more than doubled during the school year of 2020-2021. It went from 1,328 to 4,439 representing a 234% increase. In one year the school district’s budget allocation for non-public transportation increased from $1.3 million to $4.5 million.
The Board had to “cut deeper in our staffing lines and facility maintenance to cover the unexpected large increase in our budget,” the letter added.
Supporters of the bill feel it is part of a solution and would provide assistance to meet the challenges of the problem and would also assist surrounding school districts who will soon be seeing the same budget and administrative struggles as their non-public transportation obligations grow.
The resolution noted that the State’s S2 (state aid funding formula) has resulted in Jackson’s School District experiencing a loss of state aid, furthering hindering the district’s ability to “support this extraordinary cost.”
The Board is requesting Governor Phil Murphy and the legislature to take action in respect to the bill later this year.
