BUENA -- It may not be the richest school in the state, but John C. Milanesi Elementary School has something money can't buy.

The state on Tuesday named the 463-student elementary school as a 2004 Governor's School of Excellence.

Milanesi, along with 21 other schools statewide, was recognized by the N.J. Department of Education for its achievement in literacy testing, parental involvement, school attendance, staff development and creative use of technology.

It is the only school in the greater Cumberland County region to win the honor this year. Last year, Cunningham School in Vineland was named a Governor's School of Excellence.

The award includes a $25,000 prize that school Principal Anna Bettini said would be spent on a need to be later determined by a committee.

That exemplifies one of the attributes that Bettini said makes Milanesi a great school -- teamwork.

"We have a great, hard-working, dedicated staff, strong parental support and great students," she said. "There's a real sense that everybody is working together to get the most out of the educational opportunities available here."

Buena Regional officials have watched as additional funding has gone to other, more urban school districts despite their own financial need.

"Imagine what we could do if we had the money," Bettini said.

But, she said, the small-town atmosphere of Buena is another attribute that makes the school great.

"The teachers get to know the parents as siblings go through the school system," Bettini said. "There's a real sense of family here."

Superintendent Diane DeGiacomo said the district also has worked to improve test scores, one of the main criterion for the award.

"The staff and the administration at the school set the standards very high," she said. "And they've applied for some grants that have enabled them to support the school budget."

Milanesi houses students in prekindergarten through fifth grade.

The Buena Regional and Cumberland Regional high school girls tennis teams already have made school history. When the Chiefs and Colts take the court today, they will be looking to rewrite the program record books once again.

Buena (11-5) plays in the South Jersey Group II championship match against two-time defending champion Haddonfield at 2 p.m. at Pitman High School. Cumberland (14-4) has an even higher hurdle to climb, facing Moorestown, which has won 15 sectional crowns in a row, in the South Jersey Group III final at 2:30 p.m. at Bethel Mills Park in Washington Township.

For Buena and Cumberland, it is the first foray in the sectional final.

The Chiefs made their first sectional semifinal last year. Now they're in the finals, and they expect to come out punching against the Bulldogs (19-2). Buena's singles play -- it got wins from No. 1 Jess Titherington, No. 2 Jen Sikora and No. 3 Brittany Mitros in Tuesday's semfinal win -- will be key.

"I think we have a fighter's chance. We'll show up and fight," Buena coach Jon Ferranto said. "I told the girls, the hard part is over. You got there. There's not pressure on us. We're not expected to win."

Cumberland also knows it's a prohibitive underdog. It can take solace in the fact that Moorestown (17-1) will be without Sarah Huah, one of the state's best players who hasn't played much this year while focusing on national-level tournaments. That doesn't mean the Quakers are vulnerable.

"They pretty much are tennis in South Jersey," Cumberland senior No. 1 player Krysta Contino said. "But you just want a chance to play them, and if we play our game and leave it all out there, you never know."

Today's weather forecast is not pretty. In the event of rain, the Cumberland-Moorestown match will be moved to the RiverWinds Tennis Center in West Deptford. The Buena-Haddonfield match would be rescheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at Pitman, and if it rains again, that match would be moved to RiverWinds at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

HADDON TWP. -- Brittany Mitros loves high school girls tennis, but she hates the pressure that inevitably comes along with it.

The Buena Regional High School senior won't allow her fellow teammates to sit behind her and cheer her on during her No. 3 singles matches. She even makes her mother, Kim, wear sunglasses at matches to appear as incognito as possible. In fact, it wouldn't disappoint Brittany if her twin sister, Brooke -- a No. 1 doubles player -- took mom's attention instead.

But Tuesday afternoon in a South Jersey Group III semifinal at Haddon Township, there was Brittany, under the biggest spotlight of her life, playing in the biggest, most decisive match of her life.

So when her opponent, Haddon Township senior Nicole Boerner, hit a slice into the net to give Mitros the 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(2) win that propelled the third-seeded Chiefs to a 3-2 victory against the second-seeded Hawks and into the sectional championship match for the first time in school history, Mitros admittedly didn't know how to react.

"I didn't want to make her feel bad," Mitros said after the thrilling team win, which included three tiebreaks and two three-set matches. "But all I wanted to do was jump up and down."

Buena (12-4) will play top seeded Haddonfield on Thursday at a site and time to be determined. Haddonfield beat Gateway, 5-0, in the other semifinal.

"People up here didn't know who we were," Buena coach Jon Ferranto said. "But now they do."

While Mitros was figuring out how to overcome her biggest fear, the Chiefs' top player, Jess Titherington, was two courts over, outlasting Haddon Township's Jordan Gercke in another three-set nailbiter.

Titherington won the match, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4, to set the stage for Mitros' heroics.

"I've never been so nervous in my entire life," Titherington said.

Since Haddon Township (12-3) had lost at second singles and second doubles to Seneca in the quarterfinals, Ferranto was expecting big things from those spots.

But while Jen Sikora won at second singles, both Chiefs' doubles teams lost.

When Titherington and Brittany Mitros began their third sets, both knew what they had to accomplish. They had spent their matches keeping an eye on their teammates' scores.

Even Mitros, who knew that would just add more pressure.

"The pressure always kills me. I just like playing for fun," Mitros said. "I usually choke."

"But you didn't (today)" Titherington added.

Staff photo/Barbara Errickson

Christiana Mata, 12, and her father, Juan, walk along Wheat Road in Buena. Christiana's parents don't allow her to walk home from Cleary School because of the heavy traffic. The family wants the school district to provide transportation.

How it works

BUENA -- Though she lives less than a mile away, Ana Guzman-Mata refuses to let her 12-year-old daughter walk down Wheat Road to J.P. Cleary Middle School.

In that short distance, seventh-grader Christiana Mata would be forced to endure a harrowing adventure, battling cars that whiz by and dodging tractor-trailers that rumble along on the county road, which has no sidewalks.

Instead, her father drives her to and from school, even though he has had several back surgeries and sometimes struggles to get out of bed.

"Safety is the main issue here," said Ana Guzman-Mata, 44. "I have only one child. God forbid anything should happen to her."

Safety is the subject of even greater concern now, since the Buena Regional School District recently stopped busing Christiana. District officials found the distance between the girl's home and the school fell short of their courtesy busing policy, which provides transportation for K-8 students who live a mile or more away from the school they attend.

New Jersey requires school districts to provide transportation for K-8 students who live 2 or more miles away from school. Districts receive no state aid for students they bus who fall below this range.

But should the district's busing policy go further when it comes to dangerous roads like Wheat Road?

Guzman-Mata thinks it should. The dangerous road conditions, she believes, entitle her daughter to busing.

But, asks Superintendent Diane DeGiacomo, when does the school's responsibility to provide transportation end and when do parents become responsible for safely transporting their children to school?

These very questions are the ones Buena is grappling with. Members of the school board's policy committee and its solicitor met this week to develop criteria for roads in the district that could be labeled hazardous.

Students who walk along a road deemed hazardous would be bused, even if they live less than a mile away.

Board member Doug Adams, who also is Buena's police chief, has said Wheat Road merits the designation because it doesn't offer a shoulder, sidewalk or bikeway for pedestrians.

On Tuesday, the full school board will get its first glimpse of the criteria being considered. The most likely candidates to fit the guidelines are Wheat Road and Route 40, said DeGiacomo.

In that case, about five students along Wheat Road -- including Christiana -- would be added to the district's bus rolls. For the last 30 years, the district has been transporting all students along Route 40 to Donini and Milanesi schools. That policy, while never put in writing, was enacted after a student was killed crossing the state highway.

Under state law, any school district that provides courtesy busing must adopt a policy for hazardous routes. As Buena Regional belatedly develops its own, it can use criteria set forth by law as a point of reference, as well as the examples set by other districts: