Trio of Sea Isle City Candidates Seeks to ‘Continue the Progress’

SEA ISLE CITY — A team of school board candidates here wants to “Continue the Pro-gress” the board has made over the past year.
Valere Egnasko, John “Jack” Birkmeyer and Daniel “Dan” Organ believe the board needs to build on the work it’s done, highlights of which include: striking a deal with the Ocean City School District to begin accepting Sea Isle’s fifth through eighth grade students; secur-ing grants to fix the school’s aging roof; separating combined classes for pre-K though eighth grade; and keeping the taxes flat despite increased expenses.
The group said the community was leery at first regarding the middle graders move to Ocean City, but Egnasko said most are “coming around to the idea” after seeing the educa-tional and extracurricular opportunities at Ocean City Intermediate School.
“It’s a win – win situation for both the students and the taxpayers,” Egnasko said of the plan that would reduce the district’s state-high per pupil costs.
As board president over the last year, Egnasko is proud of those accomplishments as well as leading the way to increase shared services with other districts and reduce staff costs while increasing time on core subjects like math and language arts.
In addition to her school board duties, Egnasko, a former insurance company executive, is also active in the Sea Isle City Taxpayers Association, the North End Association and various council committees. She has been a homeowner here for 23 years.
When asked about the state’s long term plans to consolidate Cape May County schools into one large district, Egnasko wasn’t crazy about the idea.
“The best way to fight regionalization is to act like a regional school,” she said. “That’s why we are being proactive in shared service agreements with Ocean City.” She also men-tioned working on agreements with the city’s recreation department and the county library system. All three candidates believe the only way for a small district to survive and operate effectively is to aggressively pursue shared service opportunities wherever they can be found.
Egnasko said she would strive for the most opportunity for Sea Isle City’s students at the best value for its taxpayers.
According to a previous release, Egnasko’s efforts have led to the New Jersey School Board Association president to add the minimum tax levy to their list of items to discuss with the legislature and the Department of Education. Currently, the law prevents the district from lowering its taxes.
Birkmeyer is a retired mental health consultant who has sat on many local social services boards. He’s been a homeowner here for 39 years.
“The work that has been accomplished by Valere and the board this past year needs to continue,” Birkmeyer said when asked why he was running for the board.
“I share the same philosophy for improving the education of our children while responsi-bly managing its cost and wanted to see the progress maintained. So I decided to run for the School Board and join with Valere and Dan in this campaign.”
Organ, a former refinery operations superintendent, is also a member of the city’s zoning board of adjustment. He’s been a homeowner here for 30 years.
In campaign literature, Organ tells of how he decided to run for school board.
“At a school board meeting, he heard a veteran school board member express to the audi-ence, ‘come April we’re going to take back our school,’” the flier read. “Organ said that was when he realized this election is about the control of the school board and the direction it will take in the next couple of years.”
“I think the taxpayers of Sea Isle City believe it is their school and judging from last year’s election results, they want a board that will listen to the majority of citizens and not a small group of people,” Organ said. “The voters need a choice and by my running they will have one.”
Birkmeyer and Organ said they have been knocking on doors throughout the city trying to garner support for their campaign.
“All three of us are committed to provide our younger children with an excellent educa-tion as we try to make the school as cost-efficient as possible. We want to ensure that our curriculum is as seamless as possible for our children who will advance into the Ocean City schools,” the candidates said in their campaign literature.
With 30 percent of Sea Isle’s eligible students attending other schools, the group is also looking at ways to draw local students back to the school.
This group is running for three three-year seats on the school board against three other candidates: Jodi LaRosa, Antimo Ferrilli and Maria (Vitiello) Crudele.
The school board election will be held April 21 from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. First and Second district voters will go to polls at the Community Lodge on JFK Boulevard and Third and Fourth District voters will go to Dealy Field Recreation Building at 6108 Central Ave.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com