JACKSON – After searching for months, posting the job twice and receiving troves of resumes from all over New Jersey and surrounding states, the Board of Education ultimately decided it needed to look no further than within its own family to find the district’s next superintendent of schools.

At the May 21 meeting the board voted unanimously in favor of appointing Lu Anne Meinders, the district’s current deputy superintendent, to be the new superintendent beginning July 1. Meinders will replace Superintendent Thomas Gialanella, who is retiring as of June 30.

After graduating with degrees in both business administration and English and working in private industry, Meinders began a career in education and has been with the district for 25 years. She was as a middle school math and science teacher, then an advanced placement English teacher and served as the district coordinator of grants and district coordinator of curriculum before becoming the district’s Deputy Superintendent. She is a Jackson resident.

“The Jackson School District is at a critical juncture and I am excited to have an opportunity to continue to serve the students and taxpayers of Jackson in this capacity,’’ Meinders said. “I love this district and I am honored the board has given me the opportunity to continue to shape its future.’’

Meinders said that among the district’s challenges will be implementing the momentous changes to the common core curriculum while advancing student achievement, guiding the district through historic shifts in both teacher and administrator accountability and continuing to find creative ways to manage financial responsibilities to both students and taxpayers.

“I believe fiscal responsibility means not only demanding efficiency in and accountability for how we spend public funds, but also the importance of being able to measure the results of our investments,’’ she said. “This is why we are so committed to making data-driven decisions about how to allocate those precious budget dollars.’’

The superintendent search process was handled by the board directly and began in the beginning of the school year with a community survey to help provide the board with input on what taxpayers, staff, students and residents considered valuable in a candidate. The board also held a community public forum to solicit input.

After months of interviewing candidates through multiple rounds of interviews, the board selected Meinders and voted to hire her at the May 21, 2013 meeting. The board’s vote was 6-0. Board Member Michael Hanlon was not permitted to vote on the position or participate in any of the search process because he has a family member who works in the district.

Superintendent Gialanella said he is thrilled to be leaving the district in such capable hands.

“I could not be more confident in her ability to expertly guide Jackson through what lies ahead because although she is a true educator at heart, she has incredible business acumen as well,’’ Gialanella said. “She also happens to be someone who can navigate through a challenge with intelligence, logic and grace – all the while identifying what opportunities are possibly being created in any given situation. She is truly one of a kind.’’

Topic focused on obesity surgery first; hurricane recovery second

by Phil Stilton

SEASIDE HEIGHTS – In an unannounced visit here, Governor Chris Christie sat down on May 7^th with NBC anchorman Brian Williams to talk about his ordeal as the Governor of a hurricane ravaged state.

The interview, recorded for Mr. Williams’ Rock Center variety news program, was conducted outside the Beachcomber Bar & Grill on the boardwalk, one of many businesses impacted by Hurricane Sandy last October.

When aired on television the following week, much of the start of the nearly 11-minute segment instead revolved around laparoscopic gastric band surgery the governor had in February. The program host began the segment telling viewers he and NBC had planned to interview the governor for many months about the conditions of the hurricane ravaged state in which he presides, but the topic was quickly changed to the pop tabloid topic of the week…Read More

by Kathleen Koch and Phil Stilton

SEASIDE HEIGHTS – What do three Democrats from the “Deep South” have in common with a Republican mayor from the Jersey Shore? They all know what it’s like to have a hurricane devastate their communities, and on Friday, May 17th, they all came together in here.

Seaside Heights Mayor Bill Akers hosted the delegation from Mississippi who came to meet with local mayors and officials and discuss the long term effects of Hurricane Katrina on their cities, including former United States Congressman Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), Mayor Brent Warr (D-Gulfport, Miss.) and Mayor Eddie Favre (D-Bay St. Louis, Miss.). All were elected officials when Hurricane Katrina struck their state in 2005.

Rep. Taylor, who lost his home in that Category 3 storm, tried to introduce legislation to reform the insurance industry to give homeowners more security after national disasters, but his bill never made it to the Senate floor for vote. The divide was between congressmen who represented coastal communities and those who did not. With Taylor’s 2010 election loss, supporters of reform were certain the legislation would die without his support, and it did. Today, New Jersey towns face the same insurance and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) problems his state was confronted with eight years earlier.

Seven weeks before Hurricane Katrina made landfall…Continue Reading

Major events across the country and around the world from mid-May 1933 as compiled from sources within the Toms River Library’s Wheeler Room.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in an effort to reduce rising fears of militarization and war between Germany and other European nations, sought to attain an “arms accord” with Chancellor Adolf Hitler that would reduce pressure in that region… the nation’s economy began to improve and it was reported that manufacturing workers received several increases in pay of between five and 20 percent following an appeal by the president for industry owners to do so as a means to boost the national’s renewed sense of upturned progress in the depression… hostilities raged at the Great Wall of China between that nation’s defense and the forces of Japan, who captured the Lwan River on the western border of the famous defense wall… Japanese forces flew over Peiping, China [today: Beijing] and the Forbidden City, and dropped thousands of handbills warning its residents of inevitable war in the region if they did not surrender and swear allegiance to Japan and Manchukuo, the puppet Chinese nation-state set up by imperial forces. Chinese forces, including aviators trained by Americans, expected to battle the Japanese if they attempted an attack… France made public its fears that Hitler planned to arm the Reich and make war in Europe… a three-power united front of the United States, France and Great Britain was formed to confront Germany on disarmament at a Geneva conference… American missionaries in the path of Japanese imperial forces in China were urged by the federal government to leave or face life-threatening attack and occupation… as part of the ongoing peace talks, President Rooselvelt appealed directly to the world powers to “forget petty aims” and to work together… meanwhile, France ordered all national factories to report their current activity and number of employees in the event that Hitler declared war on their country… the following day, Chancellor Hitler endorsed President Roosevelt’s message and vowed to scrap German arms if the world followed but stated the Versailles Treaty was “robbing” the Reich and its people from “economic possibilities of existence.”…

Ocean County 1933

Life and times of Ocean County in mid-May 1933 as compiled from sources within the Toms River Library’s Wheeler Room.

Life

Jewish Americans across the eastern United States, including New York City and various parts of Ocean and Monmouth counties, marched to protest the Nazi party and its anti-Jewish laws and actions in Germany on the same date that that government publicly burned books that were “un-German,” May 10th… circulation in the Ocean County library system reported high circulation for a single month in March, with a total of 7,182 adult and juvenile books both fiction and non-fiction passing through county residents’ hands in the same period. The highest single-month circulation recorded was October 1932, with 7,256… John D. Rockefeller was expected to return to his Lakewood estate following a period spent in Florida, after which he would continue to Tarrytown, New York for the summer… Mrs. Leona Hulting, widow of Louis Hulting, Jr., who was lost with the crash of the U.S.S. Akron, left the area to live with her late husband’s parents in Peoria, Illinois… David Matthews, known locally as “Uncle Dave,” died at the age of 94 as Lakewood’s last surviving Civil War veteran on Sunday, May 14th. A lifelong resident of that township, he had lost a leg in that war. Following funeral services, he was laid to rest in Hope Chapel and given a military funeral by the Lakewood Post of the American Legion…

Business

More than 2,000 stamp collectors from states as far away as Oregon wrote the Lakewood Stamp Society to request the memorial cachet commemorating the loss of the U.S.S. Akron as designed and produced by that club for Memorial Day. The design…Continue Reading

The following is a short essay on cherished past times on the shore, specifically in Ortley Beach, submitted by Island Heights resident Karen Jensen Kier.

 Ortley Beach was a magical place the summer of ’70 . . .

Six girls, a rented summer cottage three houses from the beach, a well-worn path to and from the Surf Club . . . the things those made for TV movies are all about, or it could have been a romance novel written for lazy beach reading.

I found love that summer, someone I had known, worked fleetingly with and who had stopped by Memorial Day weekend to see how the “girls” were doing on Coolidge Ave.   He brought a friend with him (who reunited with one of the other girls), and then yet another friend (who was to also find love with one of my friends).

Read the Rest of the Story Here: http://issuu.com/oceansignal/docs/20130524_ocean_signal/9

The following are actions and news bites from the Board of Chosen Freeholders over the past month.

105 Acres in Jackson Purchased for Natural Lands Trust

The Board of Chosen Freeholders approved a $911,800 land purchase of a 105 acre tract in Jackson Township. “This 101-acre site, has a negotiated price with the landowner. The [Ocean] County Natural Lands Trust does two appraisals and we always come in with the price within those or below those appraisals,” said Freeholder John Bartlett. “With this acquisition, in public hands in this area, which is in the flight path if you will, of approaches to the Joint Base, Lakehurst. We will have in this area now, approximately 4,500 acres under public ownership and control. So, furthermore, the Department of Defense is very pleased that the county is making this acquisition and in all likelihood will be a [monetary] partner in the acquisition. The reimbursement to the county may be as much as 50 percent, but under the present problems of the sequester in Washington, the Department of Defense (DOD) cannot commit funds at this point in time, but we are on the list. They are happy for the acquisition and it enhances the mission of the base. So, not only are we preserving open space, but we’re helping to preserve the base as well and we expect to get some help in the funding of the acquisition as well. Again, all of this money comes out of funds that we have in hand, from our Natural Lands Trust Fund.”

$82 Million in Temporary Emergency Appropriations Approved

Salaries and wages dominated a recent $82 million temporary emergency appropriations resolution passed by the Board of Chosen Freeholders, including $10.5 million in group health insurance. The measure was passed and allows for payment during the first three months of the fiscal year.

$647,373 Drug and Alcohol Abuse Grant

The board authorized a letter of agreement with the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (GCADA) to participate in the 2013 Alliance to Prevent Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Grant in the amount of $647,373.

2013 State Homeland Security Grant

Given to enhance municipalities’ and agencies’ ability to prevent, detect, deter, respond and recover from threats and acts of terrorism within Ocean County, the 2013 State Homeland Security Grant award amounts included: Berkeley Township $25,000 Toms River Township $ 5,552 Ocean County Board Of Health $23,000 Toms River Fire District #1 $17,025 Brick Township $5,552 Lakewood Township $25,552 Stafford Township $20,000 Ocean Township $20,000.

Ocean County Board of Health Appointments

Richard Work of Manchester, Robert Singer of Lakewood and Warren Wolf of Brick were appointed to serve on the Ocean County Board of Health for three year terms. These are uncompensated appointments.

Workforce Investment Board Appointment

Stephen Reed of Jackson was appointed to serve on the Ocean County Workforce Investment Board.

Senior Nutrition Site Opens

On May 1^st, the Southern Ocean County Service Center held the grand opening for the Senior Nutrition Site, located at the center on the corner of Routes 9 and 72 in Manahawkin. Socialization, recreation, educational programs and health screenings will be offered at the site.

Public Hearing on Transportation Grant June 20th
A public hearing will be held on June 20^th at the Ocean County Administration Building in room119 for a proposed transportation grant. The county is applying for funding from New Jersey Transit Corporation under the Senior Citizen and Disabled Resident Transportation Assistance Program. The purpose for the hearing is to solicit public comment on the County’s FY 2014 transportation service proposal.

by Erik Weber

BERKELEY TOWNSHIP – It may have been several decades since they put down their social studies notebooks and picked up their badges, but for five of the seven current police chiefs serving in Ocean County, coming back to the halls of Central Regional High School here to reminisce about their early years in front of  the cameras of contemporary television students was a bit like coming home again.

The five – Toms River Chief Michael G. Mastronardy, Class of 1971; Tuckerton Chief Michael Caputo, Class of 1976; Ocean Gate Chief Reece J. Fisher, Class of 1985; Pine Beach Chief John M. Sgro, Class of 1987; and Berkeley Chief Karin T. DiMichele, nee Kane, Class of 1989 – arrived one by one to the parking lot of the school, once just a grass field when they all had attended, and entered a main entrance facing Forest Hills Parkway that was built years after they graduated. After photo opportunities and initial video interviews conducted by student Avery Jackson in another newer hallway honoring successful alumni, the five walked through an older part of the school – trading old stories as they passed the rows of lockers – and entered the current location of the student television studio, which once held Industrial Arts classes.

The two other Central Regional graduates currently serving as police chiefs – Seaside Heights Chief Thomas Boyd and Seaside Park Chief Francis Larkin – were unable to attend. Lt. Kevin C. Arnold, head of the Island Heights Police Department but not yet formally promoted to chief, is also an alumni.

Settling into a row of chairs before bright lights and a group of digital videocameras, the five opened up to student and host Angela Roberts for the station’s Community Spotlight program about their reaction to the changes around the school, how they learned they had all graduated from the same school, what they remembered most about their time here, and what they could offer as advice for contemporary students.

“So, pulling up into the parking lot and walking through those same hallways again, what felt different?” asked Ms. Roberts. “What has changed since how you remember it?”

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