By SUZANNE MARINO
Staff Writer
MARGTE -- A heated exchange between Margate City Commissioners John Swift and Margate Mayor Vaughn Reale broke out at the commission’s weekly work session Thursday, May 18.
Jarring looks and jabs of “You’re a liar,” to the mayor from Commissioner Swift created a tense atmosphere as residents questioned a capacity study and the $4,500 out-of-district tuition for Margate Schools.
Reale said the topic of conducting a study and monitoring district-wide enrollment numbers came after the long-term planning commission returned results in November. Swift maintains that the mayor was talking about the possibility of closing a school months before that body returned with its findings.
There are several issues that are hard to escape in Margate and they all revolve around money. One is Lucy the Elephant; another is the Margate School District, specifically the proposed capacity study and out-of-district tuition.
The Margate School Board on May 16 instructed Superintendent Dominick Potena to create a request for proposal to undertake a study. Potena has indicated that he will have specifications ready to share with the Board of Education at its June 13 meeting.
On the other side of town, the governing body is making noise about funding its own study.
City Commissioner Sigmund Rimm said that he would prefer that the Board of Education make the plans and set the parameters for a study.
Mayor Vaughn Reale is pushing to have the city fund a study to provide concrete enrollment figures and projections for the city’s three schools. He favors going ahead with a study, but said if the school district moves quickly on its own study, he would be more than happy to cancel the city’s plan.
The school funding and capacity study debate consumed much of the work session but yielded no compromise.
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