4 New Members Shake Things Up On Bernards Township Board Of Education

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — A new majority is shaking things up on the Bernards Township Board of Education with the appointments of their own candidates to fill Board President and Vice President seats.

Keith Molinari, Nimish Amin, Csilla Csipak won over Janice Corrado, Guddia "Herpreet" Singh, and Erica Blackman for the three, three-year school board seats in the November election. All three were sworn in to serve on the Board during the Tuesday night Reorganization meeting.

Additionally, Lawrence Rascio was also sworn in to fill the one year, unexpired seat after winning over incumbent Suzanne Schafer-Skalski and Deborah E. Penner Smith.

Molinari, Amin, Csipak, and Rascio all ran under the campaign slogan "For Bernards Children."

At the meeting, the newcomers and new majority appointed Molinari as the new Board President with five yes votes (Rascio, Light, Csipak, Molinari and Amin) out of the nine board members. Molinari is replacing longtime president Robin McKeon.

The same vote tally went to Amin for Vice President. Amin is replacing Timothy Salmon.

Board member Jennifer White advocated for Salmon to be President and then Vice President due to his extensive knowledge of the district.

"It would be in the best interest of all students and staff and as Tim has knowledge of the inner workings on the district," said White.

White added Salmon's willingness to work with the old and new board members would also serve as an assest.

Molinari thanked everyone previously and currently on the board for their service and addressed a concern about new officials taking leadership positions.

"I want to acknowledge it is unusual for newly elected board members to be sitting in executive positions. It's been an unusual couple of years. It was an unusual election. It was a change election," said Molinari. "The majority of the board, going forward I am hoping to use the term the board, but the majority of the board feels that the structure voted on tonight is the one that is best suited for the issues and ideas that arose in the election."

Salmon said that everyone on the board is focused on the same thing - "making a better environment for the kids."

White offered help from the experienced board members to the newcomers.

"It was definitely a contentious election and a chaotic year... We not have any issues whatsoever with individuals, I think we just have a different philosophical view on what we thought should have been board leadership but it was not a personal issue whatsoever," said White. "We have a wealth of knowledge and experience and so we just encourage you to reach out and get the information that you may not know. We are very willing to provide that to all of you."

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