One Candidate Wins Two Seats on Ocean City Board of Education

In a seven-candidate race for a one-year term on the Ocean City Board of Education, voters went to the polls on Tuesday (Nov. 5) and elected Jon Batastini.

But Batastini, an Ocean City attorney, also was the top vote-getter among write-in ballots for a full three-year term to the board. It remained unclear on Tuesday evening how it will be determined which seat Batastini will fill and who will fill the other.

According to the New Jersey School Boards Association, "The successful candidate would get to choose his/her seat on the board. A vacancy would exist in the other seat and would be filled in the usual manner for filling vacancies."

The "usual manner" for filling vacancies involves an appointment by the Ocean City Board of Education (as when Tiffany Prettyman was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Antwan McClellan until the next election). 

Board of Education Solicitor Michael Stanton and interim School District Business Administrator Mark Ritter were not available for immediate comment on Wednesday morning.

Batastini on Wednesday morning said he would wait for guidance on the process before making any potential decision on which seat to fill.

Batastini won in the only contested race for local office in Tuesday's general election— to complete the final year of board member Greg Donahue's unexpired term.

Pete Madden and Ray Clark ran without opposition as the only two candidates for the three open seats for full three-year terms on the board.

The third seat was to be filled by a write-in candidate.

Batastini received 137 write-in votes, followed by Dale Braun with 59 and Ken Cooper with 31, according to preliminary results from City Clerk Linda MacIntyre.

• Jon D. Batastini: 723 votes
• Michaela Walsh: 660 votes
• Holly A. Buck: 509 votes
• Dale F. Braun Jr.: 312 votes
• Michael D. Foster: 284 votes
• Daniel J. McGinley: 247 votes
• David E. Powell: 216 votes

• Peter V. Madden: 2,381 votes
• Raymond M. Clark: 2,167 votes

Clark, an Ocean City firefighter and father of two daughters in the district, was the top vote-getter among four candidates in the 2010 election.

Madden, a broker manager with Prudential Fox & Roach and father of four, served one term on the board and was president 2010 to 2011. But he was defeated in the November 2012 election that re-elected James Bauer and Tom Oves and brought Jacqueline McAlister to the board.

Ocean City's Board of Education includes nine elected members from Ocean City and three appointed from the Upper Township sending district.

Donahue, 65, was re-elected to his second three-year term in April 2011. The retired principal of Ocean City Primary School worked more than 35 years as an educator in the school system.

He resigned when his daughter was hired as a school teacher in the district (to avoid a potential conflict of interest) and because he is currently working as an interim principal at Brigantine Intermediate School.