Board of Education Voting Meeting - 9/26/18: Tony Perry Tries and Fails To Make A Deal And Shows How Little He Understands

I just finished watching the video from this past Wednesday night’s Middletown Board of Education (BOE) Meeting. What started out as a nice night of recognition for teachers and administrators involved in the school district being awarded 'Future Ready Silver Certification' (a distinction, given to only 35 schools in NJ, 17 of which Middletown is one), ended in what can only be characterize as a desperate attempt to gain some recognition as a candidate for Township Committee by the school community, from Middletown Committeeman Tony Perry, who is up for election this November.

It seems Middletown’s Board of Education isn’t the only entity in our community not immune to political stunts this election season.

When the meeting was opened for Public Comments, the unelected Committeeman and Candidate, Tony Perry (who, by the way was appointed by his Father In Law, Gerry Scharfenburger to the Township Committee), took to the microphone 'On Behalf of the Township Committee' to address the BOE regarding a possible agreement to take over the maintenance of 'Bayshore Elementary'.

A couple of quick notes before moving on; First, wasn't there just a conference held by Mayor Kevin Settembrino, where he proclaimed that he alone spoke for the TC, which would mean that either Settembrino sanctioned Mr. Perry's visit to speak on behalf of the committee and make an offer or Tony Perry was going rogue,  trying to make deals on his own, even though he is not a member of the joint Shared Services Committee. Later in his comments, he seems to back away from this statement and declared he 'doesn't speak on behalf of anyone, but himself'. Secondly, there is no 'Bayshore Elementary ', he would know that if he lived in Middletown for more than 5 minutes before becoming a Township Committeeman and not attempting an obvious political stunt, so I will assume he is referring to Bayview Elementary School.

Moving on ... Perry made reference to the potential Stevenson's Park Sports Complex, which in his words, 'is a political football' and 'not an honest discussion of how many fields would be placed there.' He goes on to accuse others (presumably, his opponents, one of which is Board Member Danielle Walsh) of 'intentionally misleading the residents of Shady Oaks and Shadow Lake'. Honestly, I'm not sure what these statements were meant to accomplish at a BOE meeting other than an attempt to garner votes by driving a wedge between the BOE and the parents of a few sports kids.

You can call me crazy if you want, but according to the plans for the sports complex that I and others have seen, they clearly show a plan to create a total of 9 multi-purpose sports fields beginning with a Phase 1 start of 2 fields.... Again, call me crazy, but how does informing residents living adjacent to Stevenson Park of plans for a potential Sports Complex by others 'intentionally misleading' or relevant in any way to the BOE?

He then offered to propose on 'behalf of the Township Committee' to take over control and maintenance responsibilities for Bayview Elementary Fields. In return, the Township Committee would decide which entities are entitled to use of the fields, with the school events getting priority. Not a bad deal for the BOE, right? Except, Board President Joan Minnuies pointed out, the Township Committee already decides who gets priority over these fields. He went on to refer to Bayview as an 'unknown and treasured part of Middletown.' Unknown? Really? I’m sure thousands of Belford residents would be shocked to know their elementary school was unknown to a candidate for the Township Committee.

Committeeman Perry also asserted that in the arrangement, the 2 baseball fields presently there (albeit without pitchers mounds because they are multi-purpose fields) , would be torn down to make room for the maintenance of soccer, flag football and lacrosse fields. When BOE member Michael Donlon questioned this, Perry inferred that it would be fine because there were no issues with lack of field time for baseball in Middletown.

BOE member, Danielle Walsh questioned his political motivations for addressing the BOE, since he 'had never been to a Board of Education Meeting before tonight' and 'suggested what would amount to an agenda item for Shared Services'. And further took issue with Mr. Perry's accusation that the BOE 'ignored' their fields. It was at this point that Mr. Perry changed his tune and insisted he was there speaking 'on behalf of himself', then went on to say 'I don't have the ability to have my voice heard to the School Board on my opinions about Shared Services decisions that occur. Unfortunately, that is why I have to come to these meetings.'.

BOE member Nick DiFranco also took issue with some of Mr. Perry's assertions regarding Shared Services and the extent to which the BOE was involved in addressing issues with field usage.

The bottom line here is that Mr. Perry, accompanied by another unelected Committeeman, Rick Hibell (who did not speak) seemed out of his depth of knowledge when it came to not only how the BOE works, but how to effectively communicate within the boundaries of his own Township Committee. But this is what you get when you have a Township Committee where there is no accountability to the point of blatant nepotism. Watch the exchange in the video for yourself and decide (I’ve queued it to the start of Perry’s comments).

Other than what I’ve mentioned above, the Voting Meeting was relatively uneventful (with the exception of Board Member Leonora Caminitti referring to another BOE member as a 'sissy'), but you should still take the time to watch the entire meeting, which you can access …. HERE

And while you’re at it do me a favor, consider asking the BOE to work on their video sound quality. I appreciate the transparency of the taped meetings, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.