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Jersey Shore school board discusses nepotism

JERSEY SHORE — A school board member brought up the need for a nepotism policy only to have the rest of the present board disagree during the Jersey Shore Area School Board meeting on Monday.

Craig Allen, board vice president, said the board does not have a policy regarding nepotism.

Michelle Stemler, board member, said she wanted to have a policy regarding nepotism.

“I wanted to bring it up because I thought this would be very beneficial to us in the future,” she said. “Especially concerning where we are in the district and who we’re representing when it comes to major decisions to be made.”

Craig Allen, board vice-president, said the problem is with how small the community is.

“This would be hiring only. It would not be voting. We can’t tell people how to vote,” he said. “It’s a small enough community that people teach here, they grow up here and they want to come back to teach here. They’re probably the most committed to the community and to the benefit of our students.”

“In the future, for our hiring practices, we should be looking at hiring people who are not directly related to board members,” Stemler said.

“Then you’re not interested in having only the best qualified people,” said Mary Thomas, board member. “Basically, people who have gotten on the board have gotten on the board after their spouses have been employees. It’s not that they’ve hired them while they’ve been on the board.”

Thomas said the district does not have a problem with nepotism.

“I haven’t had anybody call me up or see me on the street and say, ‘Oh, I think you’re voting because of nepotism.’ I haven’t seen that,” she said.

Harry Brungard asked if voting no on closing schools would be beneficial to spouses in the district, and J. David Smith, solicitor, said no.

When asked if they were interested in re-instituting a nepotism policy, seven board members said no. Stemler did not say anything.

Present at the meeting were members Allen, Brungard, Christopher Fravel, Dr. John Pecchia, Stemler, Karen Stover, Merrill Sweitzer and Thomas. Member Kelley Wasson was absent.