The Board of Education held its organizational meeting Thursday, Dec. 14, the first meeting with the newly-elected members of the board. Adopting a new procedure this year, board members answered a form prior to the meeting to express whether they were interested in an executive board position.
Two members expressed interest in the position of board chair: Ruth DeLuca, who served in that role during the last BOE and was recently re-elected to her second term in the 2023 municipal elections; and newly-elected Lori Bufano, who also said she was interested in being nominated as vice chair. When it came time for nominations, however, only DeLuca was nominated. The board members unanimously voted 6-0 to make DeLuca the BOE Chair.
Editor’s note: an earlier version of this article indicated that Bufano had only registered one choice in which she was interested in, for vice chair. However, that’s what she indicated on the form. DeLuca said at the meeting that Bufano was also interested in the role of chair.
In addition to Bufano, returning member Pam Ely indicated on the form that she was interested in serving as vice chair. Returning board member Nicola Davies, who was the secretary on the prior board, also expressed interest in serving on the executive board, but she did not indicate which role she wanted to be considered for. During the meeting, DeLuca said Davies was interested in being considered for either vice chair or secretary.
New member Patrick Pearson made the sole nomination, putting Davies up for vice chair; no other nominations were offered. Again, the board voted unanimously in approval of Davies for that role.
In turn, Bufano was nominated by Ely for the role of secretary. With no other nominations, the board cast their votes once more, and unanimously approved Bufano as secretary.
Bufano is the sole Republican board member; although fellow new member Heather Priest is unaffiliated with any political party, she is considered as a Republican for minority representation reasons. The remaining members are all registered Democrats.
As part of the consent agenda, the board voted to reappoint Shipman & Goodwin as legal advisor for the district, and reappointed Dr. Christine Macken as Medical Advisor, a position she has held since 2019.
