Mat-Ab budget fails, but most incumbents retain BY KAREN E. BOWES Staff Writer ABERDEEN - Voters soundly rejected the Matawan-Aberdeen Board of Education's proposed $62 million school budget by over 60 percent, 1,365 to 844, on April 17. Among Aberdeen candidates in the race for school board, newcomer Thomas Gambino, 37, was the lead vote-getter with 844, while incumbent Cathy Zavorskas, 46, will begin her fourth term, having earned 826 votes. Carolyn Williams, 56, was ousted from her seat as board president with 763 votes. There were 14 write-ins with a total of 2,447 residents participating. On Monday, Gambino thanked his supporters and shared some of his immediate goals. With the budget's failure, Gambino said he still plans to support the implementation of the new Response to Intervention (RTI) program. "I'm not sure what's going to be eliminated from the budget, but as long as it's in the best of interest of the students, I'm going to support it," Gambino said. The state Department of Education employee said he wants to use his experience to improve the academics in Matawan and Aberdeen. "I met a lot of great people who had a lot of great ideas to share and are concerned about the education of their children," Gambino said of his campaign experience. "I want to start to use data to tell us where to go, where to focus," Gambino said. He added that he would like to "take a look at what is being taught and make sure it is taught in a way that is fun for the students." As a way to pay homage to the community, Gambino said he is committed to soliciting the opinions of the residents to gain input in regards to major decision-making. Gambino added that he looks forward to working with his fellow board members and the superintendent on initiatives to improve test scores. In Matawan, incumbent Larry O'Connell, 53, was chosen to begin a third term. The IBM executive beat out Sheila Flamm, 45, by a tally of 425 to 298. With the race over, O'Connell said he'd like to focus his attention back on the issue at hand - improving student academics. "Our student performance on standardized tests is not meeting my standards nor the community's expectations," O'Connell said. "I want to continue pressing for new approaches and tools to help improve achievement and monitor student progress - not on an annual basis but on a monthly basis." Last summer, O'Connell convinced the school board to adopt his "balanced scorecard approach," a method of tracking each student's class performance that parents will be able to check on the Internet. After the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech University, O'Connell said he plans to propose forming a culture, climate and security subcommittee, a group that would work to ensure school safety through effective intervention of school bullying and other negative factors. "We need to renew and elevate our focus not only on school safety and security but also on the climate in the buildings as well," O'Connell said.