UPPER FREEHOLD — They did not gain more school board seats, but Millstone school officials hope to have greater influence on what happens at Allentown High School this year.

Patricia Coffey, Millstone’s lone representative on the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education, said she wants to see a committee put together "to see more representation of Millstone on the Board."

Millstone students currently make up more than 50 percent of the Allentown High School student body.

"I think it’s important that [Millstone’s board] feels it is part of the process," Coffey said at last week’s Board of Education meeting. "There’s really not a lot that separates the two communities."

UFRSD Board President Jeanette Bressi agreed, saying, "I try to look at every issue with, ‘What if this were my child?’ I look at this as, ‘What if I lived in Millstone?’ We’re educating the children and the community needs to know we are doing the best for our children."

Bressi noted that Millstone residents cannot vote on the school budget or make any decisions that have an impact on the local tax rate.

"I’ve never been an advocate of Millstone having a majority on this board," said Coffey, who has been on the UFRSD board since 1989 and is allowed to vote only on issues concerning the high school.

"But with Millstone sending more than 50 percent of the students, there must be more [representation]," she said. "I’m a strong advocate of this district, but they need to partner [with Millstone]."

UFRSD Superintendent of Schools Robert Connelly said that Millstone students made up 25 percent to 30 percent of the total number of students in his school system.

Officials decided to form a committee, which would meet later in the year, to discuss the change.

In other business, Connelly said the board received a request from MGD Development Corp., which is building houses on a site next to the campus, for an easement on school property.

"There is water run-off that goes on the property," Connelly said.

According to the superintendent, the board’s attorney and architect are reviewing the proposal. Connelly said one question now being evaluated is, "What do we gain [by granting the easement]?"

In a related matter, Bressi said she would like possible future school sites to be identified as such in the Upper Freehold master plan.

Under state law, she said, the school board has one year from the date any such designated site is purchased for development to match the developer’s price and purchase the land.

The township’s current master plan does not cite any such properties.

Board member Frank Skube agreed to attend Upper Freehold Planning Board meetings regularly, and report to the Board of Education.