Pine Barrens Tribune September 25, 2021-October 1, 2021

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Vol. 5 – No. 51 ♦

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September 25 - October 1, 2021

School Districts in Pines Grapple with Mandate Requiring Coronavirus Vaccination or Testing of Employees, Visitors

‘COMPLETE CHAOS’

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

A school bus that is part of Pemberton Township Schools’ fleet.

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

School Bus Drivers, Parents Detail ‘Catastrophic’ Breakdown of Pemberton Transportation System with Students Being Dropped Off in the Wrong Locations and Waiting Up to 2 Hours to Catch a Bus, in addition to Overcrowded Buses, Overloaded Bus Stops, and Young Kids Walking Blocks to School

Superintendent Says Shortage of Bus Drivers is ‘Main Component’ Behind Situation, with Business Administrator Also Faulting Aid Cuts, Changes in MVC Requirements, Though District Drivers Blame Poor Management, Planning and Communication and Pemberton Borough, the changing of hours and courtesy busing, and “poor

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

PEMBERTON—A shortage of school bus drivers, the apparent departure of a transportation director just 30 days before the start of the 2021-22 school year, a third-party retained over the summer (unbeknownst to at least one school board member) to restructure school bus routes, reportedly unfamiliar with the geographical area of Pemberton Township

pick-up and drop-off times for students so that most among nine schools are picked up at essentially the same time, the lack of a policy that youngsters of a certain age have to be dropped-off to a parent or guardian, a 2015 change in Motor Vehicle Commission requirements, cuts in state aid that have caused the district to curtail the hiring of school bus aides and forced a reduction in before-school childcare

planning and poor management,” as well as purported poor communication, has all been cited as the reasons for “complete chaos” in the Pemberton Township School District during the first weeks of the new school year, or what one school bus driver described as an “egregious problem” that has been “absolutely catastrophic” and “detrimental” to the Pemberton Schools

See BUSES/ Page 5

PEMBERTON—Superintendents of area school districts, as revealed through a Pemberton Township Board of Education discussion on Sept. 16, are reportedly “pulling their hair out” over a seven-page executive order, No. 253, issued recently

by Democratic Governor Phil Murphy mandating that all school districts require their workers be vaccinated against the Coronavirus or have them undergo at least weekly COVID-19 testing – a mandate that also apparently extends to “regular basis” visitors of such workplaces.

A mong s evera l prop os e d p ol ic ie s that the Pemberton Township Board of Education is considering for approval over the next several weeks is one that contends with vaccinations, which according to Pemberton Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Havers mirrors the executive order “that is something we have to follow.”

“One of the things I want to be clear about is it is a mandatory law,” maintained Havers during a Sept. 16 Pemberton Township Board of Education meeting. “We have to follow it, and if we don’t follow it, we could subject ourselves to potential liability.”

Pemberton Board Member Andrew Sytnik revealed that a vaccination policy for Pemberton Schools was in the making through his somewhat critical questioning on Sept. 16 of proposed stipulations in it.

Sytnik pointed out that “paragraph three” of the proposed Pemberton policy says that “covered workers” include “contractors, See MANDATE/ Page 4

INDEX Business Directory... 14

Local News................. 2

Cancer Awareness .... S1

Marketplace.................13

Letters to the Editor.... 8

October Calendar..... 12

Worship Guide.......... 12

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LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES

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Saturday, September 25, 2021

Pemberton Boro Mourns Sudden Loss of Councilman Ward, Seated in January, But Who Was a Longtime Public Servant

Pemberton Borough Councilman George Ward, who recently passed away.

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

PE M B E RT ON B O ROUG H —T h e Borough of Pemberton is mourning the loss of Councilman George Ward, who passed away suddenly at the age of 68.

Pemberton Borough Council held a moment of silence on the evening of Sept.

20 for Ward, who had just began serving as a borough councilman this past January.

“It certainly was a pleasure to have him on council,” said Mayor Harold Griffin in a later interview with this newspaper, who described knowing Ward for a longtime.

“He was very knowledgeable about the position we gave him, and did a very good job leading the Water and Sewer Department.

It is Pemberton’s loss because he had a lot to give to the community.”

Ward, whose term was to expire at the end of 2023, had moved to Pemberton Borough in 1968, after living in Delanco Township for 16 years. He was a lifelong resident of Burlington County.

He and his wife, Norma Ward, a former borough councilwoman who had served on the governing body for some five years, had owned Cranberry Blossom Floral Company in the borough for about 35 years, before both retired from the floral business, which is now permanently closed.

George Ward, in an interview with this newspaper earlier this year upon being swornin to borough council, described that he was in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves for 13 years and held a Master license. He also said that he was a boat captain for Tuckerton Seaport’s Long Beach Island (LBI) Ferry Service.

Additionally, George Ward noted that he served as a marine surveyor (a person who checks cargo, etc. to make sure it is seaworthy) for 30 years, in addition to being involved for 18 years with the Ocean

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County Pumpout Boat Program, assigned to the southern part of Barnegat Bay, where he would transport and properly discard concentrated effluent waste that had been removed from the holding tanks and portable toilets of recreational boats, which would have otherwise been directly discharged into the intercoastal waters of Ocean County.

“George was bigger than life,” declared Norma Ward when reached for comment on Sept. 20 following the announcement of his death, describing to this newspaper that the death of her husband was a sudden loss. “He was my best friend since I was 15 years old. He was a captain at Tuckerton Seaport. He was a marine surveyor. He drove a school bus for the Lenape Regional school system. He thoroughly enjoyed living in Pemberton Borough and being part of the community. And he was as honest as honest can be with everybody that he met.”

Norma Ward pointed out that her late husband enjoyed boating, camping and, most of all, his family.

“He was a very, very devoted family man,” she said. “George would have been 69 in November.”

George Ward, who was a 53-year resident of Pemberton Borough, prior to being elected to council, served as chairman of the Pemberton Borough Republican Committee for six years. He won a November 2020 election to replace Tim Quinlan, who chose not to seek re-election to borough council.

The late councilman, who told this newspaper in January that his priorities were to replace some of the borough’s aging water lines and enhance its streetscaping, was also a member of the local American Legion post.

“He was a good councilman because he took care of whatever he was supposed to take care of in the Water and Sewer Department,” said Griffin of George Ward. “He was very helpful to me and my family. They were a very close family. We will miss him.”

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By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

BASS RIVER—It wasn’t what occurred during the public portion of the Sept. 13 Bass River Board of Commissioners meeting that is headline worthy, but what happened immediately after it.

About two minutes after the public proceedings with inconsequential and routine agenda items was adjourned for an executive session, and all in attendance were asked to go outside so the closed session in the commissioners’ chambers could commence,

four officers of the New Gretna Volunteer Fire Company, including Chief Tom “Tommy” Wetmore, made their way from the company’s firehouse next door, filed past the residents and this reporter who were chatting in the parking lot by that point, and proceeded to enter the municipal building.

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LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES

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Foot and Ankle Surgery Center on Deborah Campus Treats Everything from Bunions to Vascular Issues

By Judy Cohen Minches Staff Writer

PEMBERTON—Ocean County Foot and Ankle Surgical Associates (OCFASA) is a premier podiatric medicine and surgery practice, conveniently located on the campus of Deborah Heart and Lung Center, in the Browns Mills section of Pemberton Township, where it has served the local community for many years. The practice is passionate about spreading the word about its services to area residents.

“Educating the community about the resources available is important so that residents can get the foot, ankle and leg care they need,” said Dr. Russell Petranto, D.P.M., F.A.C.F.A.S., OCFASA’s managing partner.

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LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES

MANDATE (Continued from Page 1)

providers and any other workers performing work in the school or whose duties require them to make regular visits to the school district, including volunteers.”

“It is pretty broad in the sense that, technically, are we going to be testing the mail carrier and requiring that person to have a vaccination record?” Sytnik asked.

Havers replied that requiring testing of individuals such as the mail carrier is “something that we (district administrators) have struggled with since the executive order came out,” but “what we are doing is we kind of created an agreement for our vendors.”

“They will then have to sign off on it,” the superintendent said. “So that way they are fully aware they need to get vaccinated or tested.”

“Ideally,” according to Havers, he would like to see where once the vendors agree to get vaccinated or tested, “it is on them.” However, he said, “the executive order doesn’t allow us to do that.” Instead, the school district, the superintendent said, “has to have proof and then send that proof to the town.”

“So, we are working on a system so if they are not vaccinated, we need to make sure they are tested,” Havers maintained. “So, security guards are going to have separate login books. There is going to be a Google Docs document to track those vendors. We are working on mechanisms for that.”

Havers pointed out that the executive order says the mandate applies to visitors of a “regular basis” but “does not define ‘regular basis.’” Therefore, the superintendent said, he is falling back on the district’s volunteer policy that “defines ‘regular basis’ as being 36 days in the school year.”

“You are not considered a ‘regular’ visitor if you come in 35 times a year,” he said. “But if you come in 36 times, you then have to get ‘board approved’ as a volunteer. So, we are using that as our basis because it is already a policy.”

The current plan, according to Havers, is once someone has been recorded on a spreadsheet as having visited Pemberton Schools 25 times in the school year, “then we are going to start getting really serious looking at them.”

“We are working on a process and procedure,” the Pemberton superintendent told the board. “But I can tell you a lot of time was spent flushing this out.”

Havers, when later asked by this newspaper what is the difference, when it comes to COVID, between a visitor coming into the school 12 times versus 36 times during a school year, called it a “good question,” and again explained that visiting a district school 36 times or more in a school year is what was previously defined in board policy as a person who visits on a regular basis.

“By using that, this is an effort to make sure we are compliant with the executive order,” Havers told this newspaper.

Havers noted both in the interview and during the Sept. 16 school board meeting that many vendors actually don’t come inside school facilities, but rather remain outside on school grounds, and very few have direct contact with students.

Sytnik, during the Sept. 16 school board meeting, pointed out that the proposed district vaccination policy currently states, “excluded is an individual who is providing a one-time or limited duration repair service or construction,” before asking, “How is that defined?”

“You are asking good questions, but I did not write the executive order, Mr. Sytnik,” Havers declared. “We wanted to create something that was most efficient for us and logical. I attended the County (Superintendent’s) Roundtable on Tuesday.

All superintendents are pulling their hair out about how we are going to do this.”

Sytnik pointed out that on the second

WWW.PINEBARRENSTRIBUNE.COM page of the proposed district policy, it states “the Board of Education collection of vaccination information for covered workers shall conform to federal and state standards.”

“So, basically, we are collecting and housing this information, correct?” Sytnik asked, to which Havers replied, “Correct.”

That resulted in Sytnik declar ing, somewhat contemptuously, “We are now essentially responsible for what could be tens of thousands of medical records for employees, volunteers, contractors, etc.”

But Havers countered that after doing some “checking into,” vaccination records “are not technically considered medical records in terms of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) violations.”

“My next question – and I hope the answer is ‘no’ – we can’t really check the validity of the documentation that is given to us without permission of the person under HIPPA, correct?” inquired Sytnik of the superintendent.

Havers replied that “there are certain tests we will accept and there are certain tests that we can’t accept” with “five categories of how you can determine or submit your vaccine records” outlined in the executive order.

After Sytnik pointed out that “nothing is stopping me from downloading a readily available Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Vaccination Card online, filling it out myself and signing it, or some doctor writing it and submitting it to the school district,” Havers quipped, “Now that you said that, I will be keeping a close eye on you, Mr. Sytnik!”

Sytnik, on a more serious note, wanted to know who will be paying for the weekly testing.

“The testing is up to the individual,” Havers revealed. “They are responsible for making sure they submit a negative COVID test. It is not up to the district. It is a requirement. It is no different than staffers getting fingerprinted and then they have to pay for it. It is not different than staffers having to submit a physical and then they pay for it. It is a state requirement.”

Havers noted that the Pemberton district was working with the state to have a vendor perform on-site testing once a week for both staff and students (“if parents would like their children to be screened as well”).

Should the state follow through on offering on-site testing weekly, according to Havers, the “state would be paying for the testing for as long as they keep it (the program) in place.”

“That is more of a courtesy for our staff,” he said. “We want to try to make it as easy as possible.”

However, the Pemberton superintendent noted that the district has yet to talk with the potential vendor and “if that falls through,” mandatory weekly testing in the absence of vaccination “is going to fall back on the staff member.”

“I hope it doesn’t,” Havers said. “The other piece of the puzzle is they are coming to the school only one day a week. So, if you are out that day, and can’t get tested here, you’ll have to go out on your own. So, it is a challenge.”

The Pemberton superintendent said that the state offered a second option where the district could work with the company, but “would have to do all the screening ourselves.”

“We decided that would not be efficient for the nurses,” Havers contended. “Because with Option 2, we would have to do staff and students as well. We decided that is not going to work with our nurses. They are already doing a lot of work with contact tracing. So, we thought that was not going to be a good option for us.”

Havers, i n response to additional questioning from Sytnik, reaffirmed that the funding for testing of staff and students See MANDATE/ Page 15

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BUSES

(Continued from Page 1)

transportation system.

The unfolding “travesty,” as that school bus driver, Nicole Ferranto called it, was described in testimony to the Pemberton Township Board of Education, including that a 1st grader was dropped off at the wrong bus stop on the first day of school, later found lost and crying in a street of the Country Lakes development by a stranger, there are three school bus routes with no driver currently assigned to them, with one route having at least four different drivers assigned to it since the start of the school year, students are getting picked up and dropped off up to two hours late, 54-seat passenger buses have contained as many as 75 students aboard with one board member confirming that some students of the overloaded buses have had to sit on the floor, as many as 35 students have been gathered at various bus stops in the morning raising fears of potential safety hazards due to that many students crowding together in a single location, some young kids are being forced to walk up to six blocks away from their home to either their bus stops or school and COVID-19 protocols are not being followed.

Livid school bus drivers – who just about everyone who this newspaper has encountered for this story has said are not in any way the problem, but rather the funding woes, management of the transportation system and district administration – in calling for change, said they have so far not been “listened to.”

“We the drivers have seemed to have lost our voice and our value among our peers,” declared Ferranto to the Pemberton board on Sept. 16 in describing what has been occurring. “We have offered to look over routes free of charge, spend time without asking for anything to fix large mistakes and correct major errors prior to the start of school, and even immediately thereafter. Our administration chose to hide behind walls while us drivers were left to deal with massive disruption that was to occur and continues to occur since the first day of school.”

Superintendent Jeffrey Havers, after listening to about a half-hour of emotional testimony about the situation, maintained that he “certainly understands everyone’s frustration” and those who spoke offered “some valid concerns and points made in terms of what we need to do in terms of improvements,” but noted that “there are going to be some things we are going to be struggling with” moving forward, including finding enough school bus drivers in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. He pointed to a “national crisis” involving the shortage of bus drivers and noted that a number of cities and states across the U.S. were now turning to the National Guard for assistance.

But while Havers called the shortage of

AD HOTLINE: (609) 801-2392 bus drivers the “main component of our challenges,” some district school bus drivers attending the Sept. 16 school board meeting shouted from their seats disagreement with that assessment, with Board Member Sherry Scull pointing out that she has heard of significant problems with the district’s transportation system pre-COVID. Scull, along with some of her colleagues, appeared to scold the district administration over their responses to the problem, while others, including Board Member Sheri Lowery urged the community to give them a chance, particularly Havers, who began as district superintendent this past February.

“I have been in a lot of different districts, including one in Texas; three different districts in fact,” Lowery asserted. “Let me tell you that you have a good bunch of people here. Just give us a chance. We need to hear this (feedback), and I know Havers is going to look at it. I have seen him make pivots and he can work with you. He is new too.

I have seen him go back, and he is actually really passionate. Give him an opportunity.

Your voice is heard. … Give us a moment (to fix this).”

Havers pointed out that there is a “new team” now running the Pemberton Schools Transportation Department, with its director, Edmund Treadaway, “starting the first day of school” and assistant director, Maria Funches, “starting this past Wednesday.”

“Of a lot of the things that were in place (for the start of the new school year), none of it was something that (Treadaway) put in place,” Havers contended. “So, we have a new team and are going to continue to work to improve.”

Board President Tom Bauer confirmed at the end of the Sept. 16 meeting the apparent resignation of David Jantas as the district’s transportation director, contending that the district administration has been “dealing with this” since that time, indicating the resignation came about with little notice or time for the district to prepare for the new school year.

“When I heard that (he resigned), a little bit of my hair fell out,” Bauer declared. “Because I knew in just 30 days after he announced this, school would open, and it would be very tough. I have confidence in the new gentleman who is in charge. And I am sure he is going to work this out.”

Jantas, prior to serving as the district’s transportation director, retired in May 2020 as a ten-year police chief of the Pemberton Township Police Department. Business Administrator Daniel Smith, who joined the district in October 2018, in a later Sept.

21 interview with this newspaper, said that Jantas gave his 30 days’ notice on July 28.

“He was offered another employment opportunity,” said Smith of the reason Jantas resigned. “It was a personal decision for him.

He wanted to explore something else.”

Sm ith, i n putti ng the Pember ton

t r a n s p or t at ion s yst e m i n c ont ext , acknowledging that “he would agree it has been a somewhat chaotic start to the school year,” but emphasized all staff is “extremely hardworking” and didn’t want to lose sight of that, described that the district has 90 regular, full-size school buses and smaller minibuses. It runs 122 different bus routes with 54 bus drivers currently. The district is currently short about 12 bus drivers and has no substitute drivers, as it normally would have to cover absences, Smith added.

Since becoming more aggressive with a recruitment campaign about two weeks ago, Smith said, the district has received interest from 12 people who would like to drive school buses for the district. However, in order to transport students to and from school, anyone hired by the district must obtain not only a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) from the state, but get ‘P’ (can transport passengers) and ‘S’ (can operate a school bus) endorsements on their driver’s licenses by passing a test. The business administrator contended that it is about a three-to-fourmonth process.

“We had an individual who came in during mid-August and the earliest appointment they could receive from Motor Vehicles was for November,” Smith contended.

Smith attributed the wait period, in part, to a 2015 change in CDL requirements and testing procedures the Motor Vehicle Commission put into effect in July 2015, which he maintained created longer and more in-depth tests, increased wait times to set up a test, and dissuaded people from wanting to even take the test.

Parent Remona Brown-Woltz, who just moved to the Country Lakes section of Pemberton Township from Perth Amboy, told the Pemberton school board on Sept.

16 that she “can expect certain mistakes to happen on the first day of school as we are all human,” but that “to let my son, who is just 6 years old, off at the wrong bus stop, is just irresponsible.”

Brown-Woltz, in describing what happened that day, said that her son, “who is a young age 6 (he had just turned 6 years old in July)” saw a group of other students on his school bus get off at a bus stop (which happened to be the one before his) and “so he did as well” not realizing that it wasn’t his stop.

“There are no reasons why 1st graders, who aren’t even able to read or write at this point, are able to get off the bus to no one!” declared Brown-Woltz to the school board.

“They should be handed to an authorized adult!”

Instead, according to Brown-Woltz, when the school bus arrived at her son’s assigned bus stop, where she was waiting for him, he was nowhere to be found. Making matters worse, according to Brown-Woltz, is that the bus driver is unable by law to leave her seat while driving students and could not assist in searching the bus for her son, to see if he

LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES

♦ Page 5

possibly fell asleep, etc., and that there was also no bus aide to provide such assistance.

Instead, Brown-Woltz said, “little girls on the bus were helping me.”

“They should have an aide,” declared Brown-Woltz, pointing out that her son is not even of an age where he knows how to read or follow street signage. “It is really unsafe.”

Amid the frantic search for her son, and coming up short, Brown-Woltz said, she received a call from a woman who “found my son five blocks from my home and he had already walked four.”

“The lady told me she saw my son walking down the street, crying,” recounted Brown-Woltz to the school board. “He was scared because he was allowed off the bus prematurely at the bus stop before his. … It is not OK that my son was let off the bus at the wrong bus stop.”

Brown-Woltz said the incident “could have been a tragedy” if not for her writing her phone number on her son’s bookbag the night before the first day of school.

“I wrote my son’s phone number on his bookbag the night before in case he lost his bookbag, not realizing a day later it would potentially save his life,” she asserted.

In recently raising what happened to her and her son to district administrators, BrownWoltz contended it “feels like my concerns are falling on deaf ears” and she is now asking the school board “for help with the district’s failed bus system.” She added that she had since learned that a district policy actually allows elementary students to be dropped-off at a bus stop without a parent or guardian waiting to receive them.

“Realistically, he could have been snatched up, raped, tortured, killed, or anything like that,” Brown-Woltz declared. “I am lucky and so grateful this wasn’t the story as some parents aren’t so blessed. … At this point, I am obligated to advocate for other babies in this district, so they don’t have a funeral.”

Brown-Woltz maintained that as far as she was concerned, any child who is in the 3rd grade or below should have to be dropped off to a parent or guardian.

“This policy needs to be revisited,” she said. “It would have been sad if my son was going to be in the newspaper because he was snatched up in the wrong place, at the wrong time. You need to take this situation as a close call and fix it! You need to change that policy so that a parent should be waiting at the bus stop if they can’t go to the school and pick up their kids!”

What particularly both “floored” and “disgusted” Brown-Woltz, who later told this newspaper that in Perth Amboy there were not only bus aides assigned to every school bus with elementary children, but there was a policy that parents or guardians also had to receive them when they were being dropped off, was that a district secretary “wanted to know why my 1st grader would get off the See BUSES/ Page 6

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LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES

BUSES

(Continued from Page 5)

bus” at the wrong stop and “suggested it should be a teachable moment for him.”

In contending that the secretary “owes me an apology for her lack of self-awareness, insensitivity and ability to recognize this was not my 6-year old’s fault,” Brown-Woltz pointed out that it was her son’s “first day of school at his new district” and he is “literally six.”

“I would rather spend any dollar than have my son crying in the street again,” declared Brown-Woltz, noting that she has since decided to no longer use the district’s bus system until her child is able to walk himself home. “… And this is not the first year that this has happened (in this district). I have many other statements from parents that this has been happening to their children.”

Brown-Woltz later provided this newspaper with screenshots from social media of other district parents describing a similar situation happening to their children, with one mother noting that “this same thing happened to my daughter, who is also of elementary age, “autistic and non-verbal” and that “she was let out at a (location) that was not even a stop” and a “nice neighbor found her and called police.”

In the wake of the incident with her daughter, the woman contended, she met with Jantas and was “told policies would be changed so this never happened to any child again,” and that an app was also created to help in that regard.

“This happening again is horrifying and wrong,” the woman wrote.

Another district parent contended that during this current school year “she couldn’t

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

Terry Maldonado, vice president of the Pemberton Township Board of Education, tells parent Remona Brown-Woltz that her heart breaks for what happened to her child.

WWW.PINEBARRENSTRIBUNE.COM care less about the buses being late,” but that she was “upset” that “my 5-year-old was dropped off at the wrong school two days in a row.” And just as in the case of Brown-Woltz’s son, the parent reported that her 5-year-old son “saw other kids get off (the bus), so he followed them.”

In seemingly making Brown-Woltz’s point that this was not the fault of the bus drivers, but of the “failed bus system,” was that of a district bus driver who told the school board on Sept. 16 that situations like this were happening because of the chaos and overwhelming situation for bus drivers.

“There is massive overcrowding of the buses, with 58 to 75 students assigned to one bus,” pointed out Ferranto to the school board. “There are bus stops that are four to six blocks away from their homes, and 25 to 35 students at one stop.

“I have been recognized for safety in this community by this very school board and our township. I am putting their lives at risk when I delay traffic and I don’t have the ability to check their faces and match them to parents. Everything, everywhere – it is complete chaos! You are asking me to put my driver’s license, ability to care, and my time with these children on the line because people cannot admit that there is an egregious problem here.”

Ferranto, in contending “there is no calm to this disorder,” maintained that there are also instances with “four children sitting in a three-seater or sitting on the floor.”

“Since the buses are so overcrowded, what we would normally recognize (as an abnormality or problem) immediately, we do not have the opportunity to do so,” Ferranto asserted.

Additionally, she said, “three bus routes actually have no bus driver” because “they were generated, but actually really did not exist.”

“When a driver calls out, our office decides to tell them (the parents) that we are a ‘no show,’” Ferranto quipped. “How embarrassing! We didn’t decide to be bus drivers and an extension of the school district to be humiliated. We take pride in what we do. And we also expect respect in return.”

In another instance, she said, a student had been accidentally “assigned to multiple buses” creating confusion.

“He was really my kid,” she reported to the board. “Even with the chaos, I managed to figure out that he belonged to me. Who knows where he could have ended up?”

Ferranto noted that a bus route for Sunbury Village has had “four different drivers” since the beginning of the school year and that in an unacceptable fashion, “the kids just jump off the bus and scurry everywhere.”

Happening “often,” she said, is that student-assigned bus routes have changed “without notifying the driver.”

“Kids are on your bus, and you don’t know it,” Ferranto maintained. “Or you

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are supposed to get them, and no one told you. There are no slips in our box – no communication. And if we ask, we are simply told, ‘Be quiet and go do your jobs!’ We are not children! We are adults and we have done this – most of us – for 18 to 20 years and have taken a lot of pride in it! Our children are not getting to school until 30 minutes to one hour after their start time. And you mean to tell me a kid’s education isn’t just as important as it was a year ago?”

The district bus drivers, she said, have been blamed for a “complete interruption” of the school day by district parents, with angered parents “yelling at us, cussing us out and flipping us off” and “it is not fair.”

“But you guys sit here comfortably while we deal with what has been created for us,” Ferranto declared. “We didn’t ask for this.

We the drivers know how to correct this. We know the geographical routes. We see each other crossing paths when driving down the roads.”

Ferranto maintained that the situation is “all because we brought in a third-party company to redesign our routes that had already worked” and that three separate tiers have also been changed where upwards of around 2,000 district students are supposed to be picked up and dropped off at the same time.

“It is not humanly possible,” she maintained. “We cannot transport 2,000 students at one time.”

Smith, in the later interview with this newspaper, who acknowledged that about 2,000 students are being picked up in Tier 2, explained that there are about 4,565 students transported by the Pemberton transportation system daily.

Basically, he said, the school district can “be more efficient if we tier our buses,” which plays into a state efficiency ranking system, and “a lot of our drivers drive all three tiers.”

Tier One, he said, is Pemberton Township High School. Tier Two consists of Marcus Newcomb Middle School, Helen A. Fort Middle School, Fort Dix Elementary School, Denbo-Crichton School and Joseph S. Stackhouse School. Tier Three comprises Samuel Busansky School, Howard L. Emmons School, and the Pemberton Early Childhood Education Center.

In further declaring during the Sept. 16 board meeting that “our children should come first,” and that the situation was the result of “poor planning and poor management,” Ferranto asserted that, “Let us get back in the driver seat and let us do the job we know how to do.”

“Please, we are begging you,” she told the school board members and district administrators attending the Sept. 16 school board meeting. “Please let us have some respect and communication. It is simply not happening anymore!”

Sue Hertell, president of the Pemberton Schools Bus Driver Association, in

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

Pemberton Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Havers confers with Board of Education President Tom Bauer amid numerous school bus drivers, parents and even a school board member coming forward with stories of overcrowded busing and overloaded bus stops.

maintaining “we have had a bad start this year” said the administration “not wanting” to move the start times for some of the district schools was a major part of the problem, and that a rumor circulating that the start time for Pemberton Township High School could change “is going to violate our contract for 5.5 hours.”

“Right now, it is dangerous,” she said of the situation unfolding in the district. “Buses are overloaded. Bus stops are overloaded. You got 20 to 30 kids at a bus stop. If two people push each other, they are going to be pushed right into the street. It is crazy! And you have little kids walking six streets. Why are little kids walking more than the high school kids?

The kids are losing education over this. They are all late to school.”

Hertell also alleged that the district’s COVID-19 response plan involving bus drivers has not been followed, with “two drivers having COVID,” but “those buses are still out on the road and were not sanitized before the next drivers sat in their seats.”

“Those kids on those buses were not notified that they were around somebody who tested positive for COVID,” she maintained.

“Those kids, for the last three days, haven’t had masks on in the afternoon. With that being said, are we going to stick with this contact tracing, or do we just drop the ball when it comes to the drivers and the students on the buses?”

Vicki Adams, another person who spoke during the Sept. 16 school board meeting, declared “you guys screwed this up” and pleaded with the district administration and school board to “go back to what works” and See BUSES/ Page 7

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BUSES

(Continued from Page 6)

“do something different.”

She too pointed out her observation that the district was struggling to pick up as many as 2,000 students at a single time and “needs to go back to three different pick-up times,” adding that it used to be where bus routes for the district’s various schools were separated by 40 minutes, but are now separated by only 10 or 15 minutes.

Adams, who lives close enough to a district school that under state law, her children are not required to be picked up by a district school bus, further admonished officials after learning that evening that some falling in the same category were actually receiving “courtesy busing.” She indicated it was particularly distressing considering her kindergartner and 5th grader are currently having to walk to school, a situation she called “ridiculous.”

“You don’t want to do it for one little kid who has behavior issues?” said Adams angrily, indicating that she was particularly upset that children so young are having to walk to school.

Adams also pointed out that she has gotten “numerous calls and text messages” from the district transportation department “that this bus isn’t running,” quipping “this is not fair to the parents” and “these kids are going to get in deep trouble.”

Michael Smith, a parent of a district middle school student, called on the district to convert to virtual learning until the situation is fixed. He pointed out that it typically takes him an hour to go back-and-forth to work in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, but that his “daughter’s travel time is taking longer than that when her school is only 5 miles down the road” from where she lives.

AD HOTLINE: (609) 801-2392 “There is no reason why this should be happening,” he asserted. “None whatsoever.

We actually have a registered sex offender who lives three blocks from our house and here she is out there for two hours waiting for a bus that does not show up. … This is a safety issue. We got to get this thing straightened out!”

Smith noted that his daughter has come home from school crying because “she is missing out on education” because the district “is not adjusting the classroom time for lateness of the busses dropping kids off” and “can’t go do homework sitting in a classroom, waiting to be shipped out, because it is so chaotic and disorganized.” During several evenings, he noted, his daughter did not arrive home from school until around 5 p.m.

Also contributing to the busing problems, according to a bus driver named “Amanda,” was that Pemberton Schools’ before-school program, Wraparound, changed its start time from 6:30 a.m. to 7 a.m.

“I can’t drop off my kid until 7 a.m.,” she said, slamming her fist on the podium numerous times. “I have to be at work at 7 a.m. Ridiculous! I drive a school bus, and I can’t get to work on time!”

Brown-Woltz pointed out that she came to the Sept. 16 school board meeting “extremely broken hearted by the current failed bus system in our township,” that “left my child alone, scared and startled.”

Scull, in the wake of hearing all of the allegations and accounts of what happened, began pointedly questioning district administrators, including Havers and Dan Smith.

“Number one, did we hire an outside company to do our routes as was suggested here tonight?” Scull asked.

Dan Smith replied that “we did have a third-party contractor assist with our routes over the summer” because “of Jantas leaving.”

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

Parent Remona Brown-Woltz describes to the Pemberton Board of Education the moment her child was found crying by a stranger after being dropped off at the wrong bus stop.

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An enraged bus driver, Amanda, demands to know why the district curtailed the hours of a before-school childcare program, which she says has resulted in her being late for work.

The business administrator maintained “it was someone who could help us” and “it was kind of helpful.”

The business administrator added, “As you heard tonight, there have been some issues,” to which Scull quipped, “Yeah, I think there would be!”

Scull asserted that she “respectfully disagreed” with the administrator believing the third-party were experts, maintaining, “I think we have experts – our own employees – our own bus drivers.”

“This has gone on for years … this is not something new that our bus drivers are not listened to,” Scull contended. “I have heard them discuss about the changes (in scheduling times) and how it would impact them from last spring. I don’t think they have been respected by the administrators. I know Jantas left, but you know what, not everybody with a college degree or doctorate knows more than the people in the trenches! This is really, very upsetting to me this is the situation when we heard them talk about it before with changing the times of Denbo-Crichton School. … This was before COVID, so I don’t know how this has been impacted by what the state and federal government is doing (providing extended pandemic unemployment causing a worker shortage).”

Scull also maintained that she was told Wraparound would be providing the same service as before, and that while “I know I am getting old, and my mind is not as sharp as it used to be, I remember being told there was not going to be a time change.”

Havers said that the vendor behind the program, Champion, used to start at 6:30 a.m., but “not a lot of people used the 6:30 a.m. timeframe” and then Champion “moved it to 7 a.m. to allow for a lower rate.”

“Because they need to pay staff,” he said.

“We can revisit it.”

As for the start times of school, Havers maintained that he has heard suggestions

to move the times for both Stackhouse and Denbo-Crichton schools, but that “he doesn’t think that is good for families” and “doesn’t think that is the answer.” He added that upon hearing rumors that the start-time for Denbo-Crichton might be changed in the near-future, a liaison to the district for Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JBMDL) reached out to him “deeply concerned” about the impact it would have on military families (many of whom have children in attendance at that institution) and the “affect it would have on the mission of the military on the base.”

The superintendent maintained there is “no doubt” that “no matter what you do there would be some content” and that the district “has to be very careful moving forward” when possibly deciding to change school start and end times.

“It is a challenge, and something that has to be looked at carefully before making a move,” he said. “I said to the liaison, “‘We have no plan to do an immediate change. I understand families need time to prepare.’”

In addressing what happened to BrownWoltz, Havers maintained that Treadaway and Funches were the “experts” he was looking to for the development of “protocols” that “could be put in place” in “terms of checking ID for younger students at the bus stops.” He added that while he would “love to have an aide on every bus, the challenge becomes funding.”

“Obviously, we don’t want any student going off in the wrong direction and having any type of safety issues,” he maintained.

Dan Smith later told this newspaper that Treadaway brings 40 years’ experience in the school transportation industry to the district.

He explained that Treadaway started in the industry as a private contractor, providing bus service to various school districts, and most recently served as the transportation See BUSES/ Page 11

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OPINION

OPINION

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Don’t Be So Quick to Privatize Southampton’s Trash Service Southa mpton Tow nsh ip prov ide s excellent trash collection services. I can think of no reasons to change, except for possibly financial.

I would go very slowly in deciding to privatize the service.

My daughter lived in two townships that have privatized service and the services were both more expensive and inferior. If this path is pursued, then I would like to see the reasons for changing spelled out in detail.

Well publicized public meetings and mailings to taxpayers would be a start.

A decision to privatize means regular payments to a private company that will increase as time goes by, also with strict restrictions on what is defined as “trash.” The trash must be “usual and everyday trash.”

Forget about tossing a step stool or a plumbing fixture.

Finally, kudos to Evelyn “Evie” Doherty (a longtime LeisureTowne and township political activist) for shining a light on this issue and for all she has done for Southampton.

Joe Springer Southampton, New Jersey

Drug Price Control Bill Would Be Devastating to Area Seniors I am writing today to offer my strong opposition to the H.R. 3 Drug Price Control Bill being considered by the House of Representatives. This bill would have a devastating impact on access and affordability of quality medications for our community’s seniors.

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we need to protect the most vulnerable segments of our population.

Our strong pharmaceutical sector helps to achieve this goal through research and development of new lifesaving medicines and vaccines. Thanks to their efforts, 357 million COVID-19 doses have been administered nationwide, including nearly 12 million here in New Jersey.

A study by the Council for Economic Advisors (CEA) estimates that if this legislation were to pass, as many as 100 fewer drugs would enter the marketplace over the next 10 years, and drug costs would skyrocket. Our respective districts – yours in the U.S. House of Representatives and mine in the New Jersey State Legislature – have a heavy senior population living on fixed incomes. This legislation will be directly responsible for placing an undue burden on these seniors who can least afford it.

My fear is that the President is now pushing to have this legislation buried deep inside a massive $3.5 trillion federal spending bill due

before Congress in the coming weeks. This not the way any piece of legislation should be considered, but especially one with such a direct, adverse impact on our seniors.

I am heartened by the fact that despite previously doing so, Congressman Andy Kim, you are not again a co-sponsor of H.R. 3. I am hopeful that decision means you are aware that while this bill may be wellintentioned, it is fundamentally flawed. I am also hopeful that you would be open to a reasonable bipartisan alternative that does not place an undue financial hardship on our seniors or our state’s economy as a whole.

As such, I am urging you to call on Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the President to oppose sneaking this flawed bill into a $3.5 trillion spending bill.

As you may have heard, I am not seeking re-election to the New Jersey State Legislature so I can spend more time with my family. I say this to let you know that my reasons for this letter are not borne from the ugly politics of the day, but to advance a purpose higher than that – putting people first. I truly want to ensure our state and our most vulnerable are not unduly burdened by increased drug prices and stalled innovation.

Ryan Peters State Assemblyman, 8th Legislative District Hainesport, New Jersey

Saturday, September 25, 2021

Emphasize Learning, Not Social Justice, in Southampton Schools Hello and congratulations Superintendent Asia M. Michael on your appointment as Southampton Township Schools’ new superintendent.

I read with interest the recent frontpage article in the Pine Barrens Tribune (Southampton’s New Superintendent Embarks on The Formidable Task of Steering District Through Turbulent Times – Pine Barrens Tribune: Sept. 4, 2021) about your appointment.

These are dynamic times and I am sure you have your work cut out for you. To be quite honest, what I was looking for in the article, even hoping for, was, in relationship to what you wish to accomplish, which would be for you to lead the students, teachers and curriculum to the ultimate goal of academic excellence.

I was looking for words and actions such as education, scholarship, academics, knowledge, and yes, even the word, “learning.”

Since you are a professional educator, I know, you know, how far behind the U.S. is in our once great public-school system compared to the rest of the world,

especially in the areas of math and science.

I was not looking for, “global citizens, with an understanding of culture in the larger world.” The need for comments about; “conflicting, social, cultural and political crosscurrents,” “hiding our true history,” “making our students aware of major historical wrongs.” I could go on, but you get my point.

It is the responsibility of parents, extended families, churches, tradition and community to teach our young people about social issues. I, and you, must see what has resulted in our schools trying to become social justice factories, resulting in imagined grievances and actual division.

We have public schools where the majority of the senior class cannot pass standard tests.

Students go to school to learn, so they, as you pointed out, can compete on a world level. When our only input are race, gender and victimhood, we shortchange them for 12 years, which lasts a lifetime.

Joseph E. Staskewicz Southampton, New Jersey

Elect Leaders in District 8 Putting South Jersey Families First Ef fe c t ive gover n me nt re qu i re s collaboration and compromise, which rests on a foundation of mutual respect and good-faith commitment to honest deliberation.

A host of South Jersey District 8 residents, like myself, can all agree that we’ve had it up to here with corrupt politicians putting themselves and their pocketbooks before the members of our community.

Mark Natale, Assembly candidate for Legislative District 8, knocked on my door last week. He was very enthusiastic and well-informed about the concerns of our community; his passion was evident.

Now more than ever, it feels like career politicians in Trenton put special interests

over people. We need leaders who will put the needs of South Jersey families first, not those of special interests.

Natale will put the needs of South Jersey families first. His love for our community is apparent as he continues to build his family here. He understands our problems and has the common-sense and unique kind of perspective we need to start solving them.

I’ve had enough of apathetic government representatives hindering our ability to move this district forward.

I hope you will join me in putting our community first by voting for Mark Natale for District 8 Assembly on Nov. 2.

Sebastian Graterol Marlton, New Jersey

The Pine Barrens Tribune would like to hear from you about what is happening in your town, or your opinions on any news story and subject! To submit a Letter to the Editor, email letters@pinebarrenstribune.com. Letters should be about 150 words maximum, and include your full name, address and telephone number where you can be reached. All submissions become property of the Pine Barrens Tribune and its affiliates and may be published in print and online. We reserve the right to not publish all submissions.

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When Treatment Ends …

Catching Cancer Early

The Road Ahead

Things to look for and do to help catch cancer early

What survivors should know about long-term side effects of cancer treatment

Questions to ask as cancer treatment ends

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Saturday, September 25, 2021

Food’s Important Role in Overall Health

utrition is a popular topic of conversation, particularly among those embarking on a weight loss or maintenance plan.

Individuals carefully study food macros and pore over various diets to get the most out of the foods they eat. When the end goal is simply looking good, it may be easy to forget about the other benefits of nutritious diets, including their link to overall health.

A close relationship exists between nutritional status and health. Experts at Tufts Health Plan recognize that good nutrition can help reduce the risk of developing many diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some cancers. The notion of “you are what you eat” still rings true.

The World Health Organization indicates better nutrition means stronger immune systems, fewer illnesses and better overall health. However, according to the National Resource Center on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Aging, one in four older Americans suffers from poor nutrition. And this situation is not exclusive to the elderly.

A report examining the global burden of chronic disease published in The Lancet found poor diet contributed to 11 million deaths worldwide — roughly 22 percent of deaths among adults — and poor quality of life. Low intake of fruits and

whole grains and high intake of sodium are the leading risk factors for illness in many countries. Common nutrition problems can arise when one favors convenience and routine over balanced meals that truly fuel the body.

Improving nutrition

Guidelines regarding how many servings of each food group a person should have each day may vary slightly by country, but they share many similarities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture once followed a “food pyramid” guide, but has since switched to the MyPlate resource, which emphasizes how much of each food group should cover a standard 9-inch dinner plate. Food groups include fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins, and dairy.

The USDA dietary guidelines were updated for its for 2020-2025 guide.

Recommendations vary based on age and activity levels, but a person eating 2,000 calories a day should eat 2 cups of whole fruits; 21⁄2 cups of colorful vegetables; 6 ounces of grains, with half of them being whole grains; 51⁄2 ounces of protein, with a focus on lean proteins; and 3 cups of low-fat dairy. People should limit their intake of sodium, added sugars and saturated fats. As a person ages he

or she generally needs fewer calories because of less activity. Children may need more calories because they are still growing and tend to be very active.

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reducing premature mortality from leading diseases should carefully evaluate the foods they eat, choosing well-balanced, low-fat, nutritionally dense options that keep saturated fat and sodium intake to a minimum.

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How to Catch Cancer Early

ancer is most treatable and beatable during its earliest stages. But how does a person detect cancer early, when he or she may not even realize cancer is present? There are a few steps to take.

Screening tests

Scheduling screening tests for common cancers, even if there are no symptoms present, is an effective way to detect cancer in its early stages. The American Cancer Society recommends the following tests.

• Breast cancer: Women between the ages of 40 and 44 can begin to schedule annual breast cancer screenings if they so choose.

The ACS recommends women between the ages of 45 and 54 schedule annual screenings, after which mammograms can occur every two years.

• Colorectal cancer: Regular screenings for colorectal cancers can begin at age 45 with stoolbased or visual exams that look for signs of cancer.

• Cervical cancer: This cancer screening should begin at age 25 and continue until women are 65. Pap tests and human papillomavirus tests are recommended at various intervals, typically between three and five years for healthy women.

• Skin cancer: All people regardless of age are advised to check their skin regularly for any changes that may indicate the presence of skin cancer.

Screenings for prostate cancer, lung cancer, endometrial cancer, and some others may be important for those with a family history of these cancers or those who are at higher risk due to various behaviors. People are urged to speak with their physicians about cancer screenings and any additional steps they can take to lower their risk for cancer.

Looking for microvesticles

To detect cancers earlier, doctors may employ blood tests that examine the presence of microvesticles in the blood. Harvard Medical School says cells shed microvesticles, but the amount shed by tumors is substantial.

However, finding these very small particles requires a powerful device and complicated lab process. Newer innovations at the Center for Systems Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital have led to the development of a handheld device that uses a nanotechnology sensor to detect tumor microvesticles in a drop of blood in roughly two hours. This technology has the potential to diagnose cancer much earlier, according to Dr. Ralph Weissleder, director of the center and developer of the technology.

Feeling “off”

Individuals are their best advocates for early cancer detection.

Any symptom that is out of the ordinary and persists should be treated as a red flag. Lumps, pains, the presence of blood in stool or urine, persistent coughs, fatigue, abnormal vaginal discharge, sores that do not heal, and a loss of appetite all could be early signs of cancer. People are urged to schedule appointments with their primary care doctors to discuss any abnormalities.

As cancer spreads, it can affect the effectiveness of treatment. This also may affect chances of survival. The earlier one detects cancer, the greater his or her chances of surviving the disease.

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Experts Emphasize Importance of Continuing Cancer Treatments

W

hen the COVID-19 virus took the world by storm in early 2020, individuals already battling health problems, including the approximately 15 million Americans currently living with cancer, had many difficult decisions to make.

Health officials continue to urge people to take precautions when going out in public and to limit close contact with others outside of their family units. Medical care systems across the country have been overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. Many people undergoing cancer treatments and maintenance regimens for other conditions canceled or postponed their appointments. Doctors postponed surgeries and other procedures for thousands of patients with cancer.

Many also canceled screening appointments, resulting in serious disruptions in care.

The National Cancer Institute reports that, through May 2020, breast cancer screenings dropped by 89.2 percent and colorectal cancer screenings fell by 84.5 percent. The NCI estimates there will be 10,000 more deaths attributed to these two cancers over the next 10 years as a direct result of the pandemic.

Delays in treatment for many different types of cancer can lead to worse outcomes for patients.

However, each time a patient goes to a medical center to receive care, he or she may perceive an increased risk of contracting COVID-19. That’s especially so for those who have not yet been vaccinated. Many health experts, including Harvard Medical School, advise against delaying cancer treatments during the pandemic, noting that the risk for adverse outcomes

due to cancer overwhelm the risk of coronavirus contraction. In fact, even a short delay in treatment may lead to deadly outcomes, according to a review of 34 studies published by the British Medical Journal. Even a fourweek delay was associated with a 6 to 8 percent greater liklihood of dying during the study period.

While hospitals and health clinics cannot remove every danger of infectious disease contraction, safety is the top priority for cancer patients.

Many organizations are working closely with infection prevention and infectious diseases teams to provide cancer care in safe environments.

Some of the procedures implemented may include: • Reducing the number of people allowed into cancer facilities.

• S taggering appointment times to space out patients effectively.

• S creening all patients for COVID19 symptoms every time they enter facilities.

• Designating firm triage plans for those who have positive screenings.

• Offering telehealth appointments for consultations and when in-person treatments are not necessary.

• Sanitizing high-touch areas and common surfaces repeatedly.

• Requiring COVID testing prior to entering facilities.

Cancer patients should discuss their cancer treatment plans with their care teams, especially if there is concern about pandemic safety. The goal should be to continue treatment with minimal disruption.

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How to Care for Yourself After Cancer Treatment

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C

ancer survival rates have improved dramatically over the last half century. According to data from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, five-year survival rates for all cancers in the United States increased from just over 50 percent between 1970 and 1977 to 67 percent between 2007 and 2013.

The improved survival rates mean more and more people are living five years or more after being treated for cancer. Some patients have trouble readjusting to life after diagnosis as they wonder how to care for themselves after overcoming their disease. In fact, the National Cancer Institute notes that many cancer survivors acknowledge having lots of information and support during their illness while also noting that life after treatment posed some new questions and concerns.

Life after successful cancer treatment may require an adjustment period, but the following are a handful of strategies that can improve quality of life and pave the way for a smooth transition into life as a cancer survivor.

• Ditch the bad habits. Even if a survivor’s bad habits were not believed to be contributors to their disease, that does not mean they should continue to be a part of life after treatment. The NCI notes that researchers have long since linked smoking tobacco and alcohol consumption to cancer.

If you quit these habits during treatment, stay the course even after you’ve beaten cancer. Doing so may reduce your risk for cancer recurrence and will lower your risk for other diseases, including heart disease and diabetes.

• Eat healthy. The American Cancer Society urges cancer survivors to

eat at least 2.5 cups of fruits and vegetables every day. Fat also is vital to overall health, but the ACS urges survivors to consume healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids, which can be found in fish such as salmon and some nuts.

When choosing proteins, opt for those that are low in saturated fat, such as fish, lean meat and eggs.

Choose healthy carbohydrates, such as whole grain breads, over processed products. Processed carbs like white bread have most of their fiber, vitamins and minerals removed during processing. If your carbs are primarily processed foods, you may suffer from nutrient deficiencies.

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• Get back to a healthy weight.

The Mayo Clinic notes that many people lose or gain weight during cancer treatment. Regardless of which way you went, it’s vital to get back to a healthy weight, which can reduce your risk for various illnesses.

• Exercise regularly. Take it slow when returning to physical activity after cancer treatment, but know that staying active has myriad benefits. According to the NCI, recent reports suggest that staying active after cancer can help reduce the risk for recurrence.

In addition, the Mayo Clinic notes that evidence overwhelmingly supports the notion that exercise benefits the heart, lungs and other systems of the body.

Caring for yourself after successful cancer treatment may be marked by some new challenges. Various strategies can help people who have overcome the disease live long, healthy lives after treatment.

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♦ Page S5

What Survivors Should Know About Long-Term Side Effects of Cancer Treatment What are some common late effects of cancer treatment?

C

ancer is a complex disease that affects people from all walks of life. Millions of people across the globe have survived the disease, and millions more are currently in treatment.

No two people will experience cancer in the same way, and some may even find themselves confronting side effects of the disease long after undergoing successful treatment.

According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, many people who have undergone cancer treatment are at risk of developing long-term side effects. These side effects may

occur within months or even years of concluding treatment.

What are late effects of cancer treatment?

The Mayo Clinic describes late effects of cancer treatment as those side effects that become apparent after treatment has ended. These side effects can occur after undergoing various forms of treatment, including chemotherapy, hormone therapy, surgery, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy.

ASCO® notes that different treatments can cause different late effects. Late effects may even be linked to the type of cancer a person had.

So someone who had surgery for one type of cancer may experience a late effect related to that surgery that differs entirely from the late effect associated with a different surgery employed to treat another type of cancer. For example, ASCO® notes that people who underwent radiation surgery to remove lymph nodes may develop lymphedema, a condition in which swelling and pain develop due to a buildup of lymph fluids. Others who had surgeries to their pelvis or abdomen as part of their cancer treatments may be unable to have children in the future.

Even though they are very different, each of these are considered late effects associated with cancer surgeries.

Heart problems are another potential late effect of cancer treatments.

Cancer survivors who underwent both chemotherapy and radiation therapy may have a higher risk of coronary artery disease, arrhythmia and congestive heart failure after treatment ends. In addition,

ASCO® notes that drugs administered as part of cancer treatments may cause heart problems. Cancer patients are urged to ask their physicians if their treatments may affect their hearts, both in the near future and down the road.

If so, doctors may recommend certain behaviors designed to reduce that risk.

Hormonal changes are another potential late effect of cancer treatments.

For example, ASCO® notes that the symptoms of menopause caused by cancer treatment may be worse than the natural symptoms of menopause.

This is because the decrease in hormones resulting from certain cancer treatments happens more quickly than it naturally would. So women undergoing hormonal therapy may have lighter and fewer menstrual periods, while women older than 40 who underwent hormonal therapy are less likely to have their menstrual periods return at all.

Late effects can catch some cancer survivors off guard, especially when they appear years after successful treatments have ended. Cancer patients are urged to speak to their physicians about potential late effects during or upon the conclusion of their treatments.

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How Avoiding Tobacco Greatly Lowers Cancer Risk

I

Why tobacco is so unhealthy

mproving personal health is a goal many individuals share. One of the most effective ways for a person to be healthier while greatly reducing his or her risk of cancer is to avoid or immediately stop using all tobacco products.

Carcinogens are substances that are linked to cancer causation.

Tobacco smoke alone has at least 70 carcinogens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC also indicates that 40 percent of cancers diagnosed in the United States are likely linked to tobacco use, and tobacco products are responsible for at least 12 types of cancer.

Whether it’s the tar, nicotine and acetone in cigarettes or the chemicals used when growing and preparing tobacco for commercial use, these substances can wreak havoc on an individual’s health. In addition to carcinogens, the American Lung Association says cigarettes contain about 600 ingredients total, some of which also can be found in cigars and hookahs. When these ingredients burn, they generate thousands more chemicals, many of which are poisonous.

Ingredients in tobacco affect many areas of the body, from the central nervous system to the respiratory system to the skin that covers the body. Tobacco also can damage the cardiovascular system by tightening blood vessels and restricting the flow of blood. Smoking increases blood clot formations and blood pressure, which can raise the risk of stroke.

Cancers linked to tobacco

There is no safe form of tobacco, and even smokeless products, such as snuff and chewing tobacco, have been found to cause cancer, advises the National Cancer Institute. Tobacco use can increase a person’s risk for the following cancers:

Added dangers

• Lung cancer

Tobacco use does not only affect the person who is using tobacco.

Exposure to secondhand smoke makes nonsmokers vulnerable to cancer and other conditions. Developing fetuses exposed to tobacco chemicals when their mothers smoke during pregnancy may have brain and lung tissue damage, states the Mayo Clinic.

Carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke can prevent fetuses from getting enough oxygen and adversely affect the delivery of nutrients. Smoking also raises a baby’s risk for birth defects, such as cleft lip and palate, and contributes to low birth weight and issues with placenta.

Quitting tobacco greatly improves one’s chances of avoiding a cancer diagnosis. It’s an important step to take to improve overall health.

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Saturday, September 25, 2021

Questions to Ask as Cancer Treatment Ends T

he number of people who can say they survived cancer is growing worldwide. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2018 there were approximately 44 million cancer survivors diagnosed within the previous half decade. Those figures are a glowing testament to the tireless efforts of cancer researchers and cancer specialists across the globe.

Patients tend to have lots of questions after being diagnosed with cancer.

Asking questions about everything from treatment options to prognosis to the expectations for daily life can be vital to patients who not only want to understand their disease, but also do everything they can to overcome it.

Questions also are important upon the conclusion of treatment, when patients who have survived a cancer diagnosis are looking to return to life as they knew it before being told they had cancer. It’s understandable if cancer patients feel a little uncertainty or even anxiety at the conclusion of treatment.

After week or months of focusing their every effort to overcoming their disease, cancer survivors may be a little scared about what comes next.

Asking the right questions can calm those fears and help cancer survivors take that first step toward the rest of their lives. The National Cancer Institute recommends cancer survivors ask the following questions at the conclusion of their treatments.

• How long will it take for me to get better and feel more like myself?

• W hat kind of care should I expect after my treatment?

• W hat is the chance that my cancer will return?

• W

hat symptoms I tell you about?

should

• W ho do I call if I develop these symptoms?

• W hat can I do as healthy as possible?

to

• W hat tests do I need after treatment is over? How often will I have the tests?

• W hat records do I need to keep about my treatment?

• C an you suggest a support group that might help me?

Additional questions

Patients who have concluded their cancer treatments should not hesitate to ask any question that comes to mind, even if the question does not appear on the list recommended by the NCI.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology notes that many people who have had cancer treatment are at risk of developing long-term side effects, which can appear months or even years after treatments have concluded. Both ASCO® and the NCI urge cancer survivors to discuss their risks for such side effects, which are often referred to as late effects, at the conclusion of treatment. Patients also are urged to ask if there is anything they can do to prevent such effects from occurring and if there are any particular specialists they should see to watch for late effects.

At the conclusion of cancer treatment, survivors also can ask for a full rundown of their treatments, including the names of medications they were administered during treatment.

Such information can help doctors address any late effects that may arise in the months and years to come.

Questions are a weapon that all cancer patients should keep in their arsenal before, during and after treatment.

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Saturday, September 25, 2021

Coping With Cancer Loss

A

positive attitude, a skilled team of oncologists and some supportive family members can blend together to give cancer patients the best fighting chances against their disease. The five-year relative survival rate for all cancers combined increased

from 39 percent to 70 percent among whites and 27 percent to 64 percent among blacks between 1960 and 2020, according to the American Cancer Society. Researchers and doctors are hopeful that those numbers will continue to improve across all

genders, races and demographics in the decades to come.

Just about everyone has been touched by cancer in some shape or form, and many have had to contend with the death of a loved one. The people surviving those who have lost their battles to cancer may be left with grief and uncertainty about what’s next. Some people may not know how to cope with no longer being a caregiver. The American Society of Clinical Oncology says grieving a loved one comes with intense feelings that may last a year or more. There are strategies that can help people adapt and process their loss.

• Allow yourself to feel the pain of loss. When a loved one gets a cancer diagnosis, people may recognize the stakes are serious.

Fears about a loved one’s wellbeing are often put on the back burner when treatments begin and a positive, supportive attitude takes over. But it’s natural to grieve and feel hurt when a loved one loses his or her battle. Whether you cry, scream or take other actions, there is no wrong or right way to work through the pain.

• Ignore timelines. The National Cancer Institute says that grief has stages, but not everyone experiences those stages in the same way. Bereaved people usually have grief pangs and

♦ Page S7

bursts. Recognizing that this process will not be the same for you as it was for another frees you from the pressure of conforming to a schedule.

• Talk to someone. Knowing your feelings are valid and talking with someone outside of the family for a fresh perspective and support, such as a grief therapist, can help you work through the emotions you are experiencing. The medical team who helped your loved one may recommend a survivor’s group or a therapist who specializes in cancer loss.

• Put yourself first. If you lost a spouse to cancer and have children, you may want to address the children’s needs immediately.

But you cannot care for the kids effectively without also caring for yourself. Take the time to work through your issues before trying to make sense of what a child or another relative might be experiencing.

No one ever imagines losing a loved one to cancer, and such a loss can catch anyone off-guard.

When confronted with such a loss, it’s important that people recognize working through grief is a process that is different for everyone.

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ccording to the American Cancer Society, recent research has found that sleeping problems associated with cancer treatment persist in almost 40 percent of cancer survivors for up to five years after diagnosis. The 2019 study, published in the journal Sleep Medicine, also found that one-fifth of cancer survivors reported poor sleep quality at nine years after diagnosis. In fact, high sleep disturbance was reported by 51 percent of long-term cancer survivors. The researchers studied more than 1,900 long-term cancer survivors nine years after diagnosis, and participants had one of 10 common cancers, including cancers of the breast, prostate, bladder, kidney, and lung. It’s especially important for cancer survivors to recognize the potential for sleep problems after successful treatment, as the Mayo Clinic notes that sufficient rest is a vital component of patients’ recovery. Survivors experiencing difficulty sleeping after successful cancer treatments can discuss their issues with their physicians, who may recommend certain sleep aides or strategies to increase patients’ chances of getting more restful sleep.

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hough there may not be a cancer vaccine, that does not mean that vaccinations cannot play a role in cancer prevention. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some cancers, including cervical cancer and cancers of the vulva and oropharynx, are caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV. The CDC notes that the HPV vaccine protects people against the types of HPV that most often cause cancers. Adults can discuss the benefits of HPV vaccinations with their physicians, as the CDC notes that adults between the ages of 27 and 45 may have already been exposed to HPV, meaning the HPV vaccination will provide less benefit.

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AN AWE-INSPIRING TRACTOR PARADE The Central Jersey Tractor Pullers Association on Sept. 12 held its 10th Annual Tractor Ride Parade, the “longest parade” in Burlington County. The 36-mile ride went through through Springfield, Pemberton, Southampton, Lumberton, and Eastampton townships, ending at the Burlington County Fairgrounds.

Photos By Heather Slocum

LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES

♦ Page 9

Page 10 ♦

LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES

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Saturday, September 25, 2021

UP, UP AND AWAY Recent scenes from the Pemberton Township Water Carnival held at Mirror Lake Beach, which included a new stunt show added to the festivities this year.

Photos By Donovan Gardner

BURLINGTON COUNTY PAUSES TO REMEMBER Burlington County officials, first responders and residents came together Saturday, Sept. 11 for a solemn Remembrance Ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Photos By Jim Hoffner unless noted Photo Provided

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Saturday, September 25, 2021

BUSES

(Continued from Page 7)

supervisor for the Trenton City School District.

“He brings a wealth of knowledge to our department that we have been lacking for the last several years,” Smith declared.

Funches, he said, is a former business administrator who “has a lot of experience working with transportation” and brings extensive “private industry experience in logistics” to the Pemberton Transportation Department.

As for the overcrowding issues, Havers, during the Sept. 16 school board meeting, recognized “no bus should have more students than the 54-passenger maximum,” but pointed out bus drivers are given “a list of routes with a number of students” and should be bringing any number in excess of 54 to the attention of Treadaway and Funches.

That prompted the bus drivers attending the meeting to shout from their seats, “We do!”, prompting the superintendent to add, “Then we need to address that.”

The superintendent, in addressing other concerns that were raised during the board meeting, said of courtesy busing that “unfortunately there has to be a line that you draw, and at some point, some people are not going to make that cut off in terms of bus routes and have to walk,” and that “in terms of contact tracing on the buses, “we do contract trace” and that is why the district uses seating charts.

“Our nurses work on that and we take appropriate action,” Havers maintained.

“In terms of missed instruction, I agree, it is not good,” Havers acknowledged. “We should not have kids showing up late. We don’t want kids staying after school for an hour or more.

That is a huge deterrent. We have offered to pay staff to stay after school to help monitor students (left behind, waiting for a bus). The more staff we can get to accept that pay, the more we can manage.

“In terms of virtual learning, I have heard that suggestion through multiple parents. But it is no longer an option allowed by the state.

It is not something we are able to do.”

Havers asserted, however, “the fact of the matter is this is a national crisis (with a shortage of bus drivers)” and “there are problems throughout the country.” He added the district was talking to its vendors to find drivers with commercial driver’s licenses, incentivizing bus drivers to come to work with the hope to increase the bus driver attendance rate from 90 to 95 percent, and also discussing with the JBMDL the possibility of military personnel driving for the district, though he noted a few years ago he was told that was not possible.

“The bottom-line is we don’t have enough bus drivers and it is not a ‘Pemberton issue,’”

AD HOTLINE: (609) 801-2392 declared Havers, causing the district bus drivers to shout in the room that the district does have enough bus drivers and the causes of the problems were other issues, which started with changing the schedule for Denbo-Crichton.

Dan Smith, in the later interview with this newspaper, explained that the “time change” for Denbo-Crichton was implemented in September 2020, and pointed out that given the district had been closed a lot for in-person instruction for a large part of the 2020-21 school year, and when it was open, had hybrid instruction where only half of the student body was attending in-person classes, it presented an “odd base year” where officials could not see how “this time change is affecting” operations.

The business administrator, in explaining the reason for the district implementing the scheduling changes, blamed the recent cuts in the state aid to the district, contending district officials at the time were “looking at how we can try to be more efficient with our dollars.”

“We felt that was part of the solution,” he told this newspaper.

The concerns conveyed on Sept. 16 were so serious and unprecedented that Bauer announced that he was allowing for a special board forum, so that the Pemberton school board members could address the public directly.

Holding board forum is not something the Pemberton school board typically does during a work session, but as was pointed out during the meeting, it is also rare for the public to attend a school board work session.

“As a grandparent, I can totally understand your frustration, and I am so sorry what happened to your child,” said Board Vice President Terry Maldonado while looking directly at Brown-Woltz, before turning her head toward Havers, who sat next to her at a folding table. “As a board member, I urge the administration to sit down with the bus drivers and find a solution to this problem!

God forbid a child gets hurt because no amount of money can fix that nightmare!”

Maldonado also quipped to Havers, “Can you please put it out there that we are not requiring our bus drivers to have a mandatory COVID vaccine?”, adding that her request was because some on social media said requiring the vaccine was the reason the district was facing a bus driver shortage, to which Havers replied, “No, we are not (requiring it).” (See separate story.)

Wanda Knox, a member of the board sitting closest to Maldonado at another folding table, also asked the “administration to consider meeting with the bus drivers that have some good ideas and things that might help straighten out things for our students getting to school late, missing instruction and being dropped off at the wrong bus stop.”

“This is not how it should be,” Knox acknowledged.

Chris Otis, another board member, who

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

Board Member Sherry Scull grills the administration over their responses to the busing situation.

LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES

♦ Page 11

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

Sue Hertell, president of the Pemberton Schools Bus Driver Association, maintains “we have had a bad start this year.”

said he has six children, some who are currently in the district and others that have been through it, maintained “this is the worst bus year I have ever seen” after living in Pemberton for 18 years. He said that after seeing an advertisement from Medford Township Public Schools seeking school bus drivers for $21 an hour in the newspaper (Pine Barrens Tribune), the questions need to be asked, “‘Do we have the same stuff (in our benefits package)?’ and ‘Do we need to raise the bar?’”

Pemberton Schools posted on its website last week, prior to the school board meeting, that it was hiring “contracted” school bus drivers for $20,129 annually, or at $111.83 per day for 6.5 hours of work (for 180 days).

“I get reports from my kids that they are sitting on the floor due to overcrowded (bus) seats,” Otis acknowledged. “… It is taking an hour to an hour-and-a-half on average before my kids are getting home. It is terrible. Trust me, I am right behind you, pushing to try to find a solution because it is unacceptable.”

Board Member Andrew Sytnik, who made headlines in this newspaper just a couple of weeks ago for saying during another board meeting that he was “fully prepared to pay more in taxes” after hearing of other problems district staff were challenged with due to budget cuts and layoffs in the wake of state aid cuts, which will continue for several more years, said he knows “it sucks and nobody wants to pay more taxes,” and that he doesn’t want to have to raise taxes, but the “reality” is “money does run this world” and “the reality is that (money) is what it takes to fund the school district properly, bring back services and staffing to make things run smoother.”

Sytnik, who explained that he comes to the board with a finance background, said he is of the position that “you do a lot better with a little bit more funding.”

“Where do we get bus aides from?” he asked. “You can’t ask them to volunteer. You have to pay them. Is this breakdown the result of the wage of the bus driver? Is that what is going on, with others offering $21 an hour?”

Sytnik, who noted his wife is a school teacher and mother taught in the district for 25 years, in showing his support for all staff, but particularly bus drivers in the wake of the charges, quipped that he “actually beat up a kid in middle school because he was making fun of a bus driver.”

“I did not like that,” said the 1999 district graduate to laughs in the room. “It was in Pemberton.”

Sytnik added that he is giving his support “to new leadership in transportation” at this time “because you have to give someone with a new opportunity time to make a difference,” but told those attending the board meeting it is “up to you how long to give them an

opportunity.”

“I have an idea, you have yours,” he said.

“But I like the idea of bringing everybody together.”

Dan Smith, in the later interview with this newspaper, pointed out that the district was looking at a potential $3.5 million reduction in state aid, or what he called “the best-case scenario,” for the 2022-23 school year. When asked how raising taxes further wasn’t the only plausible solution at this point given the situation described now, Smith replied that “even if we raise taxes, we are still going to have to make reductions to balance the budget” because “you do have to consider community input as well” and “you have to be cognizant of the entire community,” suggesting that some would have a hard time with affording a substantial tax increase.

“These are the confines the state has wrapped around us,” he maintained.

“Ultimately, they make rules, and ultimately our job is to the follow rules best we can. Our goal is to have the least impact on instructional programs. We are seeing changes to programs that no one wants to see. We don’t want to cut athletic programs, special program teachers, and have tried to avoid that as much as possible, and are still working through it.

When I present the budget in March, it will contain hard decisions, and it is not going to be fun, but it all kind of ties back to the state.

We are trying to work with the funding the state is providing to us.”

Bauer, in concluding the Sept. 16 session by noting he was the longest serving member of the board (most of the others on the board are new to it with the exception of Maldonado), said he can “assure you, this (fixing the transportation problem) is the board’s number one priority” and that “we will be talking about this after we go home, tomorrow, and the next day and the next day after that.”

“I am sure my fellow board members have great confidence in our superintendent, and business manager who has been dealing with this since our transportation supervisor left us,” Bauer said. “ … Always come here if you have any issue. I can remember in the spring, sitting in this room, when we first started having open meetings, and a couple staff people brought issues to us, which were controversial, and they were solved in a very short period of time.

“I want you to go home with the confidence that you made your point, and it was really worth it to come out and speak to us. I, my fellow board members and administration will be right on this!”

The next board meeting was scheduled for Sept. 23, after this newspaper’s press time.

Dan Smith, however, told this newspaper See BUSES/ Page 15

Page 12 ♦

EVENTS / WORSHIP GUIDE

OCTOBER

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Saturday, September 25, 2021

To promote your November Events and special event on this page contact Jayne promotions happening Cabrilla at 609-801-2392 or email jcabrilla@pinebarrenstribune.com locally this month!

October 1 Multi-Family Yard Sale Location: Lumberton Details: Huge, multi-family yard sale, all in one location! Oct. 1 and 2, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., 9 Hopewell Ave., Lumberton. Books, toys, games, clothing, housewares, sporting equipment and more! For more information, email czrt4f@aol.com .

October 1 Train Rides Through the Woods of New Gretna

In-Person Services being held after Labor Day at 8:15 am | 9:30 am | 11:00 am | Facebook Live

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Location: Bass River Township Details: The Woods of New Gretna Park and the New Jersey Shore Live Steam Organization provide train rides for all each Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The small steam locomotives, and other trains, wind their way through the beautiful park. The rides are provided by a group of dedicated volunteers who have revitalized the park and laid out the railroad track, based on the historical Tuckerton Railroad. The volunteers maintain the railroad and walking trails, and are constantly expanding them. Riding the trains is free, but donations are very much appreciated. The train rides are outdoors.

October 4 History of Burlington Island Location: Southampton Details: The Southampton Historical Society will feature a program “History of Burlington Island,”at 7:30 p.m., at the Southampton Municipal Building, 5 Retreat Rd., Southampton. Judy Gauntt will tell the history of the island, located in the Delaware River between Bristol Borough, Pennsylvania and Burlington City, New Jersey. It was originally established by the Leni-Lenape Peoples around 1624. It was to become the first European settlement in New Jersey. By the early 1900’s it was used as a picnic area and then the island became one of the largest resorts on the East Coast, with thousands of visitors daily. Learn about the past, present and future of this 400-acre undeveloped island. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 609-859-0524.

October 16 Poker Run for Paws

Location: Mount Holly Details: Join One Love Animal Rescue for their 2021 Poker Run for Paws whether you join on a motorcycle, car, truck, bus or any other vehicle! Five prizes (starting at $200 in value) for best hand, 50/50 raffle, basket raffle, games, music, cash bar, plus great BBQ food by Mission BBQ! $25 per ticket includes a poker scorecard, and $15 for a passenger (no scorecard). Check in at Mount Holly Moose Lodge, 853 Woodlane Rd., starting at 10 a.m., then enjoy the scenic two-hour drive through Burlington and Ocean counties. For tickets, visit https://bit.ly/2021OLARPokerRun .

October 30

Southampton School No. 1 Celebrates 100 Years!

Location: Southampton Details: Come celebrate Southampton School No. 1’s 100th Anniversary on the front lawn of the school, 100 Miss Mabel Dr., Southampton, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (Rain date, Oct. 31, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.). Learn the history of the school and hear remarks from past and present administrators, employees and alumni. There will be tours of the school with guides dressed in 1920’s fashions, “stand-in cutouts” for 1920’s era photo ops, and historical artifacts will be on display. A Centennial Celebration booklet will be available for purchase for $5. This event will be fun for the whole family! For more information, contact Mr. Jeffrey Hicks, Chairman, School No. 1 Centennial Committee, 609- 8592256 x 127, or email HicksJ@southampton.k12.nj.us .

2 Hartford Road | Medford NJ 08055 medfordumc.org | 609/654-8111 info@medfordumc.org

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Bathrooms Closed Between Classes at Pinelands Regional High Following ‘Minor’ Vandalism, Likely Linked to TikTok ‘Challenge’

By Bill Bonvie Staff Writer

L I T T L E E G G H A R B OR—W h a t Pinelands Regional Board of Education President August Daleo has characterized as “minor” damage to both the boys’ and girls’ bathrooms at Pinelands Regional High School that occurred during recent incidents of vandalism has resulted in the facilities being temporarily locked between classes and a warning being sent out to “Wildcat families” by Principal Troy Henderson.

A request by the principal that parents of students talk to them about “social media challenges,” as well as a reference made by Daleo during a Sept. 17 phone conversation with the Pine Barrens Tribune to “some new nationwide fad thing” involving the TikTok website, indicated that the vandalism was probably spurred by a reported new challenge on TikTok, called the “Devious Lick,” in which teens are encouraged to record themselves engaging in destruction of school property in order to elicit views and “likes.”

The school board president replied to a request for information about Henderson’s letter, which was posted on social media, after District Superintendent Dr. Melissa McCooley initially responded to the same inquiry with an email asking, “Who is feeding you this information?” then followed that up with a second message contending that “student matters are not discussed with the press.”

The vandalism, Daleo said, involved items

having been removed from the bathrooms, which he didn’t consider particularly “newsworthy.”

Perhaps as a result of the incident, however, a notice dated Sept. 20 was emailed to “Pinelands Families” by McCooley that, after first inquiring whether they “have a question about the Pinelands School District,” asks, “Have you read something on social media that doesn’t seem right or may not be true?”

It then provides a link (which could not be opened by this newspaper) to a form that the superintendent urges parents to “please use” for the 2021-22 school year “to ask any questions you may have.”

“Have a great day,” it concludes.

Daleo, in response to questions, maintained that the reason for locking the facilities between classes, necessitating students having to ask their teachers for hall passes in order to use them, was that staff members couldn’t be expected to stand inside and monitor them.

“Mr. Henderson was very clear that vandalism will not be tolerated, and took appropriate steps” to deal with it, the board president contended, noting that the episode was being investigated.

In his letter to “Wildcat families,” Henderson warned that “any student found to be vandalizing school property will have to pay restitution and may be subject to criminal charges.”

“Please talk with your student about social media challenges and the consequences they may face,” he added.

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(Continued from Page 2) JoAnne I. O’Connor, when asked about this newspaper’s observation and what was discussed during the executive session, replied, “They were discussing a new fire truck.”

“No action was taken yet,” she said.

O’Connor said no further information for public release was available at this time.

The next meeting of the commissioners is scheduled for Oct. 4.

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approved, resident Carol Bitzberger raised concerns about Cramer’s Junkyard, located on Route 542 in Bass River Township.

“It is not even my night (for license approval),” quipped Pat Spagnola, the sonin-law of Cramer’s Junkyard owner Tommy Cramer, who runs it.

Bitzberger, in explaining her concerns, said that she drives by the junkyard “an awful lot – at least once a day” and “there are no fire lanes” there.

Resident Howard “Howie” Rothschild then came to the defense of Spagnola, pointing out that “you can’t see the fire lanes at 45 mph,” with Spagnola adding, “unless you are not watching where you are going.”

“What’s blocking it?” Mayor Deborah Buzby-Cope asked Bitzberger, with the resident responding, “There seems to be vehicles piled up. Sometimes there is, I don’t

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know if it is a tractor or what, sitting right in the middle of the road.”

Bitzberger, who has brought up the condition of Cramer’s Junkyard in the past, declared, “I don’t care! But don’t the residents who live close to it care?”

Spagnola, in response, maintained that, “I always try to make sure the roads are open.”

Bitzberger then pointed to seeing “a pile of junk up against the fence,” claiming she thought the area around it had to be kept clear, with Spagnola retorting, “You don’t see a pile up against the fence. There are barrels up against the fence.”

“It is also called a junkyard, you know!” quipped Rothschild, who came to the defense of Spagnola. “Just sayin’!”

Bitzberger told the commissioners the only reason she was bringing up her observations is the “town has ordinances, and if you don’t want

to enforce them, my thing is, get rid of them.”

“If nobody else cares, then I don’t care, as I don’t live near there,” added Bitzberger as she continued to receive opposition to her comments from residents attending the meeting, noting, in jest, she was “probably going to get beat up” by Spagnola, given he was sitting right next to her. “Every time I go by there it looks terrible.”

Marion Assur, in response to that latter remark from Bitzberger, also quipped, “It looks like a junkyard,” to which Bitzberger replied that, “If you go by the other junkyard, you wouldn’t know it was a junkyard until you get up close.”

Deputy Mayor Louis Bourguignon noted that Cramer’s Junkyard is “inspected all the time” by the state, as well as by the township code enforcement officer.

Page 14 ♦

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MANDATE (Continued from Page 4)

would not be paid for by the district.

Sy t n i k a l so i nqu i r e d ab out wh at consequences district employees might face if they refused to comply with the vaccination policy.

“Again, I talked to other superintendents,” Havers replied. “Every superintendent is struggling with what to do. I certainly hope it does not come to progressive discipline. If it is something that they forget, we would charge them a personal day for each day that they can’t come in because they don’t have it (proof of weekly testing or being fully vaccinated).

After that, if they lost personal days, it would then have to be days without pay.”

Havers not e d that some are a superintendents “have talked about using progressive discipline,” but that “I don’t want to go down that route.”

“I would hope we don’t have those types of conversations because I believe our people will do the best they can to make it work,”

Havers said. “If they are not able to (get vaccinated or tested), or something happens in their life and they weren’t able to get tested, it’ll be a personal day and hopefully that will (resolve it).”

In the later interview with this newspaper, Havers contended that approximately 50 percent of district staff have so far submitted proof that they are fully vaccinated, noting that they have until Oct. 18 to provide such documentation. The Pemberton superintendent added that he is not aware of any district staffers who have said that they are quitting because of the mandate.

“We have dedicated employees, who want to serve our children, and even if they are not comfortable with getting vaccinated, or disagree with the mandate, they want to support our kids,” declared Havers, noting that at this time, it has been decided to only require unvaccinated district staff to get tested the “minimum,” or once a week, despite the executive order allowing school districts to mandate testing up to five times a week. “That will ease the burden on our staff and make sure we can efficiently navigate this process.”

BUSES

(Continued from Page 11)

on Sept. 21 that he did not expect any major announcements at that meeting involving the transportation issue.

He added that while it would be a “conversation between myself, the new transportation administration and Mr. Havers,” significant changes “are not something we are looking at right now because it would disrupt parent schedules that have already been set up.” Rather, the district is “exploring options that can help us by working with additional private contractors to help alleviate that swell in Tier 2” and “we

are going through our guide to make sure we can transport all students.”

Treadaway, he said, has “brought up a few things we can do in the district more efficiently,” but “change takes time, and we need to give it time.”

“His first day was the first day of school,” Dan Smith emphasized to this newspaper.

“He is trying to adapt to a plan put in place by his predecessor, and is changing it almost daily, making it better. There is light at the end of the tunnel with this issue.”

Smith, hoping that the state will now consider fast-tracking examinations for school bus driver endorsements, added that “it comes down to staffing, and if we hire 10 drivers tomorrow, I feel confident we can alleviate the concern.”

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