School Board Appoints New Vice Principals, Director of Guidance

School officials welcomed three new faces at Tuesday night's board of education meeting. Appointed by the board, the new assistant principals of the middle schools and the executive director of guidance addressed the audience Tuesday.

Aixa Abreu will be the new assistant principal of Liberty Middle School. She said she was "happy to be back in a place of diversity and a place that really honors learning." Abreu was an educator in Newark and speaks fluent Spanish. She hopes speaking Spanish can help her relate to the Latino population in the schools. 

"One thing I saw when I was in Newark was that language has a lot to do with how we relate to our environment," she said. 

Julianne Bello will be the new assistant principal at Roosevelt Middle School.

"I share your mission and your drive to make sure our students are educated to be citizens not only of here, but part of the bigger picture," she said. Bello also works as an adjunct professor at Montclair State University and believes technology is important to keeping children competitive. 

Cheryl Butler will be the director of guidance. As a resident of West Orange she said she was "looking forward to working here not only because it's a different community to work in, it's also my community."

Butler has a child in the district schools.