BUENA BOROUGH — Ground will be broken today on Buena Regional's long-awaited new middle school in a 10 a.m. ceremony that marks the beginning of a building process and a farewell to school district Superintendent Diane DeGiacomo.

Since 2004, the school district has been planning for a new middle school that would replace the Dr. J.P. Cleary middle school.

But since then, DeGiacomo and school board members have been grappling with ways to help the school plans pass inspection by the Pinelands Commission.

The commission's Land Use Office has to approve any plan that would affect the protected Pinelands area.

The new middle school, which will be built next to the current high school on Weymouth Road, initially was held up during the commission's review while officials looked at the available sewage system.

They raised concerns that the Buena Borough Municipal Utilities Authority was allowing too much sewage into a local stream, Deep Run. The new school, they said, would increase the problem.

The attempts made to get the school built resulted in a new set of guidelines on the land-use process being laid out for school districts by the Pinelands Commission.

The plans were eventually approved in 2005 with more than $15 million of the total $24,842,500 coming from the state's School Construction Corp.

DeGiacomo announced her retirement in November 2006 and today is her last day. She will be replaced by Walt Whitaker.

In the last weeks of her tenure, the Buena Regional school budget was found to have been miscalculated and was short more than $700,000. To avoid the municipalities of Buena Borough and Buena Vista Township having to raise property taxes, the school district has proposed drawing on interest accrued on the sum it will spend on the middle school.

Critics, including Buena Vista Township Mayor Chuck Chiarello and members of his Township Committee, say that that money would otherwise have been used to turn the Cleary building into an elementary school, with a view to retiring the Donini School, which they say is below standard.

In 2003, parents expressed environmental concerns about Donini, including a crack in a fire ceiling and possible mold. The crack was inspected and determined not to be hazardous. Thorough testing by several agencies for stachybotrys, or mold, revealed no unusual levels.

DeGiacomo said at a recent school board meeting that the interest had not been earmarked for Cleary and denied that the budget error would affect the schools' transition.

No approval has yet been given to the school's budget rescue plan, DeGiacomo said Thursday.

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP — After two weeks of marked silence, the Buena Regional school board broke its collective hush Wednesday night with deep apologies for a recent budget error, but also strident dismissals of further problems.

Pronouncing herself “happy with the solution to the problem but not happy with the problem,” district Superintendent Diane DeGiacomo spelled out the district's plan to cover a budget miscalculation without raising the tax levy.

The plan, as observers had predicted, involves releasing $730,866 in interest on a lump sum to be used to build a new middle school. Board President Dave Anderson said the budget would have to be reapproved by the county and state, but the solution would not hold up the sending out of tax bills to residents in July.

But the board's members refuted other allegations, made chiefly by the Buena Vista Township committee, that this was the latest in a series of budget errors.

“The district does not have a budget-preparation problem,” declared Mike Garcia, the board's auditor. He described a previous mistake on a 2004 budget letter sent to municipalities to have been a “typographical error.”

Douglas Adams, a board member, had harsh words for the critics who had called earlier for state oversight of the budget process and the resignation of the business administrator who made the error, Thomas Kearney.

“We will hire, fire, promote or discipline anyone we alone choose, in the best interests of the public and the students who attend Buena Regional's schools,” Adams said.

Later, Mayor Chuck Chiarello responded, “We respect the board's decision-making process — but we reserve the right to look out for the taxpayers.”

Chiarello said copies of a resolution passed Monday in Buena Vista Township to ask for state monitoring of the budget process had been faxed and mailed to the offices of the state commissioner for education, Lucille Davy, as well as other legislators and county and district education officials.

DeGiacomo, who steps down at the end of June, chose to close the meeting by citing a further criticism by Chiarello, that the new superintendent would inherit her “baggage.”

Addressing Walt Whitaker, who will take on her position, DeGiacomo reeled off her highlights among Buena Regional's achievements, and told him not to worry: “This baggage is lined with silk. I have no doubt Mr. Whitaker will carry it.”

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP — Clad in bright blue caps and gowns, 226 Buena Regional High School seniors marched through a light drizzle Monday evening to receive what they spent 12 years working toward: a high school diploma.

Armed with umbrellas, hundreds of friends and family members packed the stands at the school's John J. Zucal Athletic Complex to witness the hourlong ceremony.

The protective gear, however, became unnecessary before the first word was spoken, and Principal Kenneth Soboloski was quick to take advantage of the newly pleasant weather.

“Welcome to balmy Buena Regional High School,” Soboloski said to a wave of chuckles in the audience. “ I told you it wasn't going to rain.”

With beaming smiles, the graduates took full advantage of the ceremony to express themselves, either with school spirit or wacky pranks.

As graduate Deanna Austino finished her performance of the national anthem, the graduates shouted “Chiefs!” before she uttered the song's last word.

Several beach balls, clandestinely inflated in the sea of blue fabric, bounced slowly above the graduates as speakers, students and administrators alike struggled to remain undistracted by the giggles behind them.

The overall light heartedness, however, didn't diminish the solemnity of the speeches made by the class's two academic honorees. Both the valedictorian and salutatorian — Brandon Krementz and Peter Gorgas, respectively — spoke earnestly about the changed world they were about to enter.

“We're the first generation that's forced to put polar ice caps ahead of fast cars,” Gorgas said, ending his speech with a quote from an unnamed philosopher. “We're about 18 now, which means we're already 21 percent dead. So let's start living.”

In his speech, Krementz asked his classmates to live their lives to the fullest, but he added one urgent request — that they join him in taking action to right the many wrongs happening across the globe.

“We're entering a world filled with violence, hatred and war,” Krementz said, citing specifically the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the genocide of hundreds of thousands of people in the Darfur region of the African nation of Sudan.

Krementz also took issue with how his peer group is commonly perceived.

“People consider us the do-nothing generation,” he said. “They label us as lazy, ignorant and apathetic.”

The only way to create change, Krementz said, is to become aware of the work that needs to be done.

“Let's face it: The world we're living in needs a lot of help,” he said. “Do something. That is my plea to the graduating class.”

The gradauates are:

(The Press is not responsible for errors in graduate listings provided by schools.)

Rachel Julia Adelman, Cristobal Alarcon, Lauren Ashley Alexander, Carmen M. Alvarado, Jessica M. Ambrose, Patrick Thomas Ambrose, Ariana D. Arias, Deanna L. Austino, Ramon Avila, James V. Bacon, Brandy Lynn Baker, Tamara Joy Bashenko, Peter A. Basile, David Henry Bauer, Jaimi Brooke Belfi, Erin Rose Bennett, George W. Berner, Richard Karl Berti, Christopher David Birch, Molly G. Bisulca, Chelsea Bombara, Brittany N. Bracaliello, Timmothy J. Bramble, Joseph V. Brotherton, Kalif Brown, Cassandra Ann Cabrera, Kristin K. Cannon, Kaitlin D. Capaccio, Nicholas Michael Capolingua, Alicia Rose Carchia, Jerry F. Carlamere Jr., William B. Carr, Victor Carrillo, Samantha Marie Catts, Dawn Michele Cella, John C. Cheli, Michael A. Chubb, Gina Michelle Cifaloglio, Rachel Sarah Crespo, Edward Randal Crowell, Ireneo Jose Cortez, Emily Ann Davidson, Heather Elizabeth D'Amore, Thomas John Davis, Melissa Nicole Dayton, Erica Leigh DeClementi, Adam M. Deloison, Jason DiBiase, Kelly A. DiPaola, Alfonso J.R. Dones, Anthony James Duffy-Welty, Amanda L. Echevarria, Mark R. Eighmey, Valdez Christopher Ellis, Zachary L. Ellis, Heather Marie Emigholz, Daniel J. Faith, Carlos Xavier Falcon, Kristen J. Fallon, Robert D. Favoretto, Taylor Michelle Fennen, Katherine T. Fouhy, Michael James Fountas, Brittany Nicole Fowler, Jill A. Foy, Christina Rose Franks, Michael C. Gamble, Robert Charles Geisenhoffer Jr., Nicholas D. Gerstle, Charles Michael Giercyk, Kyle J. Giercyk, Renee Justine Giglio, Calvin Alex Glosson, Melissa Lynn Gladney, Peter John Gorgas, Maria Gorgo, Javan P. Grier, Joel T. Grier, Allyson Kristen Groff, Jared Michael Gruccio, Jennifer Christy Guzman, Stephen Joseph Hague, Ashly Lynn Hall, Shana Sheree' Harris, Krystin L. Heredia, Gregory Jefferson Hickman, Nakida Shianne Hobdy, Jesse Joseph Horton III, Christopher Dean Horvath, Melanie Lynn Houston, Patrick Howard, Bruce Andrew Hughes Jr., Steven L. Hunter, Valeria Irizarry, Jeffrey G. Jackson, Noralys Javier-Rodriguez, Jenna E. Jaworski, Joshua Nickolas Jenkins, Samantha Ann Johnson, Antonio Jones, Joseph J. Jones, Jessica Erin Karpiak, Kaitlyn Keller, Alissa Courtney Kennedy, Joshua M. Kerr, Jordan Lynn Komar, Brandon Mark Krementz, Daniel LaFontaine, Shawn Michael Lamkin, Elizabeth May Lee, Shawn M. Lesniewski, Fatima Nicole Lewis, Lauren Nicole Lillie, Laura Ashley Linsinbigler, Steven Michael Lolli, Amanda Catherine Long, Jose' Victor Luciano, Manuel Lucero Jr., Frank Charles Lupperger, Megan Marie Maher, Crystal Marie Maldonado, Erika L. Maldonado, David J. Mallick, Samuel Steven Marsh, Shakira Rana Martin, Vanessa Jasmine Martinez, Bradley Michael Mason, Jesmar M. Matos, Franklin D. Mauger, James M. Mauger, William J. McCormick III, Raymond Michael McCourt, Michael Wayne McCullough, Zachary M. McDermott, Timothy A. McLain Jr., Carrie Lynn Mercurio, Tessa Marian Messore, Lisa Helena Micheletti, Joseph Mills, Gregory James Minervini, Theresa Ann Miro, Charlie Moore, Kyle J. Morgenweck, Brian C. Morris, Katrina Nicole Morozzi, Laura Lynn Mowatt, Stacey Michele Munyon, Cassandra Jestine Murrey, Kasey N. Neal, Rebecca Lee Ann Nelson, Justin E. Nichols, Marnie Jean Niederhofer, Joanna M. Peterson, Erica Elizabeth Petrini, Jacqueline Petrone, Thomas P. Pettit, Todd B. Phillips, Lindsey A. Pickel, Justin Brad Pineda, Annie Elizabeth Prevost, Matthew James Preziosi, Jamie Josephine Pruitt, Alyssa A. Quintana, Crystal Mary Quintino, Elizabeth Sara Ralph, Courtney Lataisa Ramos, Vanessa Ramos, Michael Robert Reynolds, James M. Richart, Angel Gabriel Rivera, Enrique Rivera Jr., Christopher L. Robinson, Jose Manuel Robles, Jr., Ashley Nicole Rodriguez, Emilee Rodriguez, Yvette Rodriguez, Lorena Roman, Jarred A. Ruhlman, Maria Michele Salpietra, Pamela Christina Salva, Jahaida Lyne Sanchez, Amy Lyn Scarano, Robert James Scarano Jr., Sarah A. Scarborough, Regina Marie Scarpelli, Yonnie Dee Schaffer, Catherine Elizabeth Schairer, Cassandra Lynn Schulze, Kassidy Leanna Sciullo, Jessica Lynn Sessions, Brandon Kyle Sexton, Frederick Charles Shea, Michell Ashley Sheppard, Lance Sherrer Jr., Alysia Silva, Anthony K. Simonetti, Katarina A. Slobodenko, Brandi Lee Smith, Danielle N. Smith, Tanesha D. Smith, Catherine A. Snyder, Robert J. Sobolusky, John H. Sparks, Nicholas John Spinelli, Charles J. Staropoli III, Mark C. Stebbins, Quanell M. Still, Tammy R.A. Sours, Tyler J. Spohn, John Joseph Striffolino, Kristian Eric Sundberg, Shayna Marie Sykes, Kristen Jenna Tantillo, Kenneth Richard Taylor III, Tabatha Lynn Thomas, Tony R. Timberlake III, Jasmine K. Torres, Brenda Jean VanAcker, Julianne Nicole Vannini, Jennifer Marie Vapore, Courtney Marie Waddle, Amanda L. Wagner, Jessica S. Wilson, Kendra Alisha Winters, Georgianna Elizabeth Witmayer, Jacob Michael Yanoff, Kevin P. Yearsley, Travis W. Zane and Salvatore H. Zeuner.

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP — Clad in bright blue caps and gowns, 226 Buena Regional High School seniors marched through a light drizzle Monday evening to receive what they spent 12 years working toward: a high school diploma.

Armed with umbrellas, hundreds of friends and family members packed the stands at the school's John J. Zucal Athletic Complex to witness the hourlong ceremony.

The protective gear, however, became unnecessary before the first word was spoken, and Principal Kenneth Soboloski was quick to take advantage of the newly pleasant weather.

“Welcome to balmy Buena Regional High School,” Soboloski said to a wave of chuckles in the audience. “ I told you it wasn't going to rain.”

With beaming smiles, the graduates took full advantage of the ceremony to express themselves, either with school spirit or with wacky pranks.

As graduate Deanna Austino finished her performance of the national anthem, the graduates shouted “Chiefs!” before she uttered the song's last word.

Several beach balls, clandestinely inflated in the sea of blue fabric, bounced slowly above the graduates as speakers, students and administrators alike struggled to remain undistracted by the giggles behind them.

The overall light-heartedness, however, didn't diminish the solemnity of the speeches made by the class's two academic honorees. Both the valedictorian and salutatorian — Brandon Krementz and Peter Gorgas, respectively — spoke earnestly about the changed world they were about to enter.

Gorgas, however, weaved humorous stereotypes about his age group into his speech as comic relief.

One such tool was the common parlance of text messaging, which he said he considered when writing his speech.

“OMG, we made it,” Gorgas joked. “THX for everything.”

When the crowd did not immediately erupt into applause, Gorgas delivered the punchline.

“That was supposed to make you LOL,” he said.

And it did.

He soon, however, changed his tone.

“We're the first generation that's forced to put polar ice caps ahead of fast cars,” Gorgas said, ending his speech with a quote from an unnamed philosopher. “We're about 18 now, which means we're already 21 percent dead. So let's start living.”

Many of the graduates will soon attend colleges, and Soboloski read aloud the amounts of scholarship money that each recipient was given.

Two graduates will also join the armed forces. Sgt. Nelson Escobar, a recruiter for the U.S. Marine Corps stationed in Vineland, was at the ceremony to cheer on his recruits.

Christopher Dean Horvath and Frederick Charles Shea will both soon report to the Marine Corps' boot camp at Parris Island in South Carolina. Shea leaves on June 25, while Horvath is scheduled to go on July 3.

In his speech, Krementz asked his classmates to live their lives to the fullest, but he added one urgent request— that they join him in taking action to right the many wrongs happening across the globe.

“We're entering a world filled with violence, hatred and war,” Krementz said, citing specifically the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the genocide of hundreds of thousands of people in the Darfur region of the African nation of Sudan.

Krementz also took issue with how his peer group is commonly perceived.

“People consider us the do-nothing generation,” he said. “They label us as lazy, ignorant and apathetic.”

The only way to create change, Krementz said, was to become aware of the work that needs to be done.

“Let's face it: The world we're living in needs a lot of help,” he said. “Do something. That is my plea to the graduating class.”

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP — It took a week, but for the Buena Regional School District, the other shoe has dropped.

Incensed by the school district's budget error that left a $500,000 chasm its funds, and further irritated by the district's silence on whether or not its business administrator will resign, Township Committee proposed Monday night that the state commissioner for education bring oversight to the budget process.

Mark Stein, the township's solicitor, drafted a resolution that asked for the state oversight on all future money matters, after Buena Regional's administrator, Thomas Kearney, miscalculated revenue streams.

By the time the error was caught, the flawed budget — which had promised a tax cut — had been approved by voters. Now, either property taxes must be raised or the district may use funds that are needed to renovate a local school.

Among the committee's members, neither option is acceptable. The resolution passed 5-0, amid a chorus of disapproval of the district's stance.

Mayor Chuck Chiarello, in support of the resolution, said, “I hope we all care for the right reasons, the rights of our voters and taxpayers.”

Others were more blunt. “These are meant to be professionals,” said committee member Mike Rivera.

Chiarello pointed out that the district had not yet met to discuss the situation. Another member, Peter Bylone, responded: “That's so nonchalant.”

Or, as member Sue Barber saw their attitude: “Oops.”

Over the previous week, Chiarello said he had not heard from district Superintendent Diane DeGiacomo.

“They knew this resolution was coming,” he said later.

For the township, however, the intervening week had brought time to research possible precedents for its action.

“There are whole districts, up toward Newark, overseen by state-appointed administrators,” Chiarello said.

Deputy Mayor Teresa Kelly responded with a call for an audit of past budgets: “We need forensic oversight.”

The committee alleges that a pattern of errors has occurred in previous budgets.

DeGiacomo said last week she would not comment on that charge.

Tension over where the responsibility rests was alluded to by Bylone, who made a distinction between the elected and paid officials involved.

“We said this last week: We're not blaming the board members themselves,” he said. Taking the resolution now, and distributing it to the state Department of Education, as well as state legislators and officials in the county and district departments, was necessary timing, Chiarello said.

DeGiacomo steps down as superintendent at the end of June, to be replaced by Walt Whitaker, who has served as curriculum director in Ocean County.

Said Chiarello: “We are concerned that the new superintendent will come in with the old baggage of the current superintendent, and the old baggage of the administration.”

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP — Any math teacher would say this was a costly error.

A school board business administrator whose miscalculation has left a gaping hole of more than $500,000 in the Buena Regional school budget faced calls to resign Monday night.

Thomas Kearney originally had calculated that property taxes could drop across Buena Vista Township and Buena Borough. That news was greeted by officials with delight in April, as voters approved the lower-tax budget and ended a five-year stretch of budget rejections and resource cuts. But Thursday, Kearney wrote to managers to tell them that his sums were flawed, and taxes would have to rise steeply again.

Not only has the revelation thrown the validity of the budget into doubt, as voters were wrongly offered a sweet deal, said Mayor Chuck Chiarello of Buena Vista, but the blunder could cost a local school its much-needed renovation.

Funds to build a new middle school had piled up interest while the project had been delayed, and that interest was to be used to transform the Cleary junior high school into an elementary school. But now the sum may go to close the budget shortfall, Chiarello said during a township committee meeting Monday evening. That plan avoids a tax hike of 12 cents per $100 of assessed property value. But, Chiarello said, “It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Kearney's supervisor, Diane DiGiacomo, who serves as Buena Regional's superintendent, refused to comment Monday on the incident. “We don't yet have all the answers,” she said.

But Peter Bylone was one of three township committee members who wanted to hear one particular answer. “I think the school district should ask for Kearney's resignation,” he said during the meeting.

Mike Rivera, another Buena Vista committee member, agreed: “I don't think someone should be handling that job if they can't handle it.”

The mistake came when Kearney estimated the amount that had been raised by taxes in the first half of 2007. Chiarello charges that this is not the first time errors have been made in the regional school budget. He alleges that Kearney miscalculated the rate in 2004, and that after Ron Trebing, the township administrator, caught that error, the same mistake showed up in an official tax bill.

Some are still concerned that the public is being forced to accept a budget that they never would have endorsed. “It's not right,” said Teresa Kelly, another member, “because voters voted in confidence on this, and those numbers were not presented correctly to them.”

The error brings to an end a sunny spell in the region's school funding woes. This year, the state offered $1.2 million in aid and Buena has undergone a successful property revaluation which has brought in more revenue. In March, Buena Vista Township even endorsed the school district's budget in a televised session. Now, two-thirds of the $500,000 gap is to be covered by Buena Vista, with Buena Borough picking up the rest.

In general, school budget elections can be contested in court, according to Mike Yaple, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. “But that would, of course, depend on someone actually taking it that far,” he said. In 2001, the budget election for Palmyra borough in Burlington county was thrown into disarray after the proposed expenses were misprinted on the sample ballots. That case was taken to superior court, where the election was declared invalid.

For now, Buena Vista's solicitor, Mark Stein, plans to propose a resolution at the next meeting June 11, asking that the state conduct oversight on the school district administration.