Ocean City Man Who Won 2 School Board Seats Gets to Choose

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.

Batastini, an Ocean City attorney, also was the top vote-getter among write-in ballots for a full three-year term to the board.

The rare election of the same man to two different seats left a fair amount of election-night confusion.

But on Wednesday, Board of Education Solicitor Michael Stanton said Batastini would be able to choose which term he would like to fill. The other seat would be considered vacant, and the Ocean City Board of Education would make an appointment to fill the seat until the next election in November 2014, according to Stanton.

Batastini submitted a petition and was on the ballot as a candidate to complete the final year of board member Greg Donahue's unexpired term. But he also campaigned as a write-in candidate for a full three-year term. 

If Batastini were to choose the full term, he would be sworn in in January. The Board of Education would then interview and vote on candidates to fill the unexpired term of Donahue. 

If he were to choose the unexpired term, Batastini would take office immediately, and the board would make an appointment until a November 2014 election that would decide who would complete the final two years of the term.

Batastini earlier on Wednesday morning said he would wait for guidance on the process before making any potential decision on which seat to fill. (Read candidate profile of Batastini.)

Stanton's opinion matches what the New Jersey School Boards Association states: "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). 

Batastini won in the only contested race for local office in Tuesday's general election — for the unexpired one-year 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

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.