VENTNOR– The school board has approved hiring a business administrator and an interim business administrator to finish out the school year.

The Ventnor Board of Education voted unanimously Jan. 25 to approve Allison Bogart to serve as business administrator/board secretary April 1-June 30.  Diane Bitting was also approved unanimously as interim business administrator/board secretary through the budget process.

Board member Julie Rice was absent from the meeting.

School board President Lisa Martinelli said Friday that Business Administrator Jann Cohen was leaving the district and that Bogart could not leave her current employer, the Little Egg Harbor Township School District, for 60 days from the date of her giving notice.

“At that point from where we were (it would be) the middle of March before she came,” said Martinelli Feb. 10 of the Bogart hire. “We wanted some continuity through the budget process so we are keeping the interim through the budget process in April.”

An Open Public Records Act request showed that Cohen informed Interim Superintendent Robert Baker Nov. 2 of her decision to accept a position as school business administrator/ board secretary with the Buena Regional School District. In the letter, she informed Baker that her actual last day on-site would be Dec. 21, 2011, but that she would continue to be employed by the district, but would use vacation time through Jan. 15, 2012.

Bogart will receive an annual salary of $90,000, prorated for the period of April 1 through June 30, 2012, according to the contract obtained by an OPRA request. She will receive a full insurance benefits package, according to her contract. Bitting’s contract did not reveal compensation. Her last place of employment was Atlantic County Special Services.

Baker would not comment for this story.