Millstone BOE president to serve on UFRSD BOE
BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer

MILLSTONE — Tom Foley will serve on two school boards this year.

Foley, president of the Millstone Township Board of Education, will also serve as the Millstone representative on the Upper Freehold Regional School District (UFRSD) Board of Education.

At the May 11 Millstone board meeting, Foley, who attended via teleconference, was the only person who volunteered for the UFRSD position. All of the board members voted in favor of his nomination with the exception of Holly Deitz, who abstained.

Deitz said she abstained from the vote because she is not sure this is the Board of Education's best option.

"I didn't want to vote no as I commend [Foley] for taking up the commitment," she said.

Millstone, which does not have its own high school, pays tuition to UFRSD to send its high school-aged students to Allentown High School (AHS) and has one voting position on the UFRSD Board of Education.

According to Millstone Superintendent of Schools Mary Anne Donahue, 80 percent of Millstone eighth-graders go on to attend AHS. Millstone students make up 55 percent of the AHS student body, Donahue said.

The Millstone Board of Education sought volunteers for the UFRSD board seat at its prior meeting, but none of the board members sought nomination at that time. Ramon Recalde, one of the few Millstone residents who regularly attends board of education meetings, said he was very disappointed that no one stepped up and volunteered for the UFRSD seat at the previous meeting.

"Parents in Millstone deserve better than that," he said, and asked what would have happened had Foley not volunteered.

Board Vice President Margaret Gordon, who ran the meeting in the physical absence of Foley, said that the Monmouth County Superintendent of Schools would have appointed a Millstone board member to serve on the UFRSD board had there been no volunteers.

Recalde said that former board member Laura Dreifus, who represented Millstone on the UFRSD board prior to the recent school board election, had done a very good job. Dreifus opted not to run for re-election this year after serving three terms.

Gordon said that serving on the Board of Education is a very big commitment, and serving on both boards is a "humongous" commitment. She noted that Dreifus and former board members Mary Ann Friedman and Kathy Winecoff graced Millstone by undertaking that commitment.

Gordon also noted that state law would not permit the board to rotate members in the UFRSD position.

Board member Patrick Whalen said Millstone's lone seat on the UFRSD board "reflects how handcuffed we are" when dealing with Allentown High School issues.