Daily Record from Morristown, New Jersey • 3

Daily Record, Morris County, N.J. Thursday, April 6, 1995 A3 Morris County More Local News A4-6, 6b Rockaway Twp; schools cut 35 positions Courtesy busing left to voters I "t-, VV" --r I i Residents were angry the board didn't have figures on the number of children receiving courtesy busing. CHRIS PEDOTADaily Record Children's author David Schwartz talks to a class at Chatham's So that's a million Washington Avenue School. lecting 100,000 pennies, which became props for the day's lessons. The money, by the way, will go to three charities, including Operation Sunshine, which sends disadvantaged students to camp.

Second grade teacher Mary Costener, who organized the day, said pupils went home with a 'good feeling for big Schwartz will be at the Milton Avenue School today and Southern Boulevard School later in the week. Even wonder how big a bag you would need to hold 100,000 pieces of popcorn? David Schwartz, author of 'How Much is a had the answer for students at the Washington Avenue School in Chatham yesterday. The Cali-fprnian made presentations to all the classes as part of Math Day. Among numerous other activities, students had to come up with a budget for spending $1 million, and everyone helped in col BY PETER ROSENTHAL Daily Record ROCKAWAY TWP. The school board adopted a budget last night that cuts 35 full-time positions, including seven teachers, and asks voters in the April 18 school election to approve $224,000 in courtesy busing costs.

More than 100 people packed the Copeland Middle School for a public hearing on the proposed $20.9 million 1995-96 school budget, many asked the school board not to place courtesy busing on a cap waiver. The board passed it despite the protests. If the cap waiver fails, some students in the K-8 district, who live within two miles of their school, would not be bused. Schools Superintendent Thomas Parciak said it was not yet known how many of the 1,300 students the waiver would effect. "Once we go through the process, we will make that determination," Parciak said.

Dan Marcantonio, a resident who made his own budget presentation, said if the board cut "administrative and overhead costs," which he said would increase 18 percent to 27 percent, the courtesy busing could be restored to the budget. "All I did was restate apples to apples," Marcantonio said. Parciak said he didn't have the opportunity to study the presentation but disagreed with its philosophy. "I don't quite agree. It's illogical," Parciak said.

The cap waiver can only pass if Jurors in Dreher murder retrial see graphic close-ups of victim the budget passes in the April 18 school elections. 1 Residents told the board they were angry that the board didji't have figures on the number of children receving courtesy busing. They said they didn't learn until last night about the implications of the cap waiver. Under the budget, school taxes would increase 5.6 percent, mainly because of a loss of state, aid and a smaller amount of reserves to draw from, school officials said. The tax rate would increase 9 cents from $1.60 to $1.69 per $100 of assessed value.

The owner of a home assessed at $100,000 would pay $1,694 in local school taxes. The figure does not include municipal, county and Mbrris Hills Regional School District taxes. The cap waiver, if approved, would add another 1.25 cents per $100 of assessed value to the tax rate or $12.50 per year for the average homeowner. The staff cuts and a more than 5 percent increase in enrollment next year will lead to larger class sizes in the district. Also 25 full-time and many part-time aides, two secretaries and an administrator will be cut, officials said.

FULL SERVICE AT DISCOUNT PRICES ANY LOCAL COMPETITORS' PRICE Automatic Delivery a Oil Burner Service Delivery 7 Days A Week Next Oil Delivery of 200 Gal. or More, Ep, i3195 if msam Student Matt Roffina helps hold banner emblazoned with a million stars. Police Chief Thomas Ramsey to testify. Ramsey was a police captain at the time of the investigation, and yesterday corroborated previous testimony by other officers that John Dreher never inquired about progress in the case or asked about suspects. The prosecution is expected next week to call its star witness, Nance Lyn Seifrit.

She was Dreher's lover at the time of the murder and now has immunity in exchange for her testimony that she witnessed Dreher kill his wife and then helped him ransack the house to make the murder appear the work of a burglar. Yesterday, Ramsey began describing how police started focusing on Dreher as their suspect by conducting surveillance at his house in late February 1986. Ramsey is expected to resume testifying today about how police learned Seifrit was Dreher's lover when they spotted her at his house on Feb. 21 and Feb. 23 1986.

BY PEGGY WRIGHT Daily Record Over strenuous objections from lawyers for murder defendant John Dreher, a videotape of the crime scene that included gruesome close-ups of his slain wife was shown to jurors yesterday at Dreher's retrial. Attorneys for the wealthy 53-year-old tannery owner, charged with the stabbing and strangling of Gail Dreher on Jan. 2, 1986, have argued the last few weeks that the videotape is inflammatory. They succeeded in having about 10 minutes edited from the tape, but Superior Court Judge Stephen F. Smith Jr.

rejected their final appeal yesterday to stop it from being aired. Smith previously has said it's important for jurors to see Gail Dreher as a murdered human being, not as "a rag doll or an on a diagram." The tape depicts the 39-year-old victim lying on the carpeted basement floor of her home on Huron L03U GUARANTEED TO BEAT OR HATCH "Lowest Price Available" Premium Home Heating Oil Diesel K-l Kerosene 3.00OFF Coupon not to bt comblntd wfony ottur offw. State to unveil education plan at Parsippany session in May Defense attorneys succeeded in having about 10 minutes edited from the videotape, but the judge rejected their appeal to stop it from being aired. Drive in Chatham Township, her head slightly suspended above the floor by a string looped around her neck and the column. Stab wounds are visible on her throat, and her nightgown is pulled up to reveal her buttocks and legs.

The videotape also gives a tour of the house to reveal signs of a pur- ported burglary that accompanied the slaying. Also yesterday, First Assistant Morris County Prosecutor Charles Waldron called Chatham Township ment to equalize education based on the amount spent per pupil in each district. Thus far, all efforts have failed to equalize the amount spent per pupil in the state's wealthiest and poorest districts. At the heart of the dilemma is how to shift hundreds of millions of dollars into the 30 "special needs" districts, determined by the state's highest court to be disadvantaged because of inadequate funding. "We haven't achieved equity despite a 20-year effort to do so," Klagholz said during a break in yesterday's meeting of the state Board of Education, which authorized the hearings.

Ironically, of the 21 public hearings, only one is scheduled to be held in an actual special-needs district: May 8 at Cumberland County College in Vineland. The rest are at high school and county college auditoriums in suburban towns or smaller cities that were not identified by the state Supreme Court as poor. Man gets probation in assault by Peggy Wright Daily Record A 52-year-old Harding Township man accused of chasing his wife with scissors, beating her with a belt and holding a butcher knife to her throat while uttering death threats has been admitted into a special pro-- bation program. Insurance agent Barry Gimelstob, arrested Jan. 9 and charged with aggravated assault and making terroristic threats to his wife at their Sand Spring Road home in New Vernon, was admitted Tuesday into Morris County's Pre-Trial Intervention program.

Under its terms, Gimel-st'ob admits no guilt and will have a criminal record if he completes two years of probation. He also must perform 50 hours of community service, continue mental health counseling, tour the county jail and undergo random urine tests for drugs and alcohol. The decision to accept Gimelstob into PTI, instead of pursuing prosecution, was based on the couple's since the domestic violence incident and Gimel-Istob's wife's reluctance to testify against her husband, I said Morris County Prosecutor W. Michael Murphy Jr. Barry Gimelstob's attorney, Martin Goldman, confirmed 'the reconciliation.

I "The reality is, where cou-Iples are making a sincere effort to reconcile, we don't want to be the wedge that 'comes between them. If we "tried this case, Mrs. Gimel-Istob was the only witness 'and she could have invoked privilege to not testify against her husband," Mur- phy said. LOTTERY WEDNESDAY DRAWINGS New Jersey Plck-3: 610 i Straight: $265.50 Box: $44 Pairs: $26.50 New Jersey PicM: 5371 Straight: $2,608 Box: $108.50 N.Y. Dally: 295; WlnFour: 7944 N.Y.

Pick 10: '32-33-41-43-44-45-50 55-57-59-71-72-73 N.Y. Lotto: Supplemental: 41 Va. Dally: 483; Big 4: 6607 same mmiire ttOnaoii uJIgjssSlTeo BY PAUL BONASERA Daily Record The state Department of Education's plan to make public schools better and more equitable will debut May 8 at a town meeting in Parsippany, state Education Commissioner Leo Klagholz said yesterday. "Our No. 1 goal is to open the process," Klagholz said in announcing a schedule of town meetings and public hearings around the state.

"We will seek extensive input from educators and citizens to help us determine the essential components of a thorough and efficent education." The 7 p.m. meeting at Parsippany Hills High School will be the first of three in which state education officials will outline their improvement plan. Every county In addition to the three town meetings, there will be 21 public hearings, one in each county, over the next seven months in an effort to define what a "thorough and efficient" education should be, Klagholz said. The first public hearing in the series will be held April 27 in Hunterdon County. Morris County's hearing will be May 24 at Morris Hills High School in Rockaway.

"The first step in the process is to define exactly what a thorough and efficient education is," Klagholz said. "The state has never defined what program essentials need to be funded if we want children to reach high standards." For lack of a definition, the state Supreme Court on three separate occasions since the late 1970s ordered the Education Depart MACYS 1MKCXCDI Columnist Steve Adubato LC5 I Every Sunday in the Daily Record CLOSE-OUT HMO Li IimiTHLW l'Wdi Best Price Guaranteed Will Not Be UNDERSOLD! Fast. Friendly Service Burner Service 800 Gal Mm. Phone: 201-503-9595 'Sale April 6-9, 1995. Additional savings ol 20 on shoes and 10 on apparel taken from 'YOU PAY' price.

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