The Eastern Camden County Regional School District and Berlin Borough School District boards of education both hosted reorganization meetings last night at their respective meeting places.
For Eastern Regional, the board of education swore in four members. Jude Brown and Hillary Garr won reelection this past November to represent Voorhees Township on the board. Garr received 3,802 votes while Brown received 3,787, according to results from the Camden County Board of Elections.
Meanwhile, Robert DeCicco won reelection to represent Berlin Borough, with 1,119 votes, while Dennis Deichert received 394 votes to be the lone representative of Gibbsboro on the Eastern board. Deichert was selected early last year after the resignation of Craig Speechley, following his move out of the district.
At the meeting, DeCicco was unanimously voted to serve as president of the board, while Brown was unanimously voted to serve as vice president for 2020.
“I’d like to thank my fellow board members for their confidence in me,” DeCicco said. “It should be an interesting year coming up, with budgets, reduced state aid, negotiations and a few other things.”
As previously agreed, the third Wednesday of the month was selected as the regular meeting date for the Eastern board until its reorganization meeting in January 2021. But due to conflicts, the next meeting will be Wednesday, Jan. 22, at 7:30 p.m.
In the Berlin Borough School District, the board swore in three members to its board later on the night of the Jan. 2 meeting at Berlin Community School.
Rebecca Holland and Lisa Kehoe were sworn in after winning reelection in November. Holland received 32.95 percent of the vote, while Kehoe received 32.57 percent. The third member, Kristen Simone, is new to the board and received the highest percentage of the vote, at 33.29 percent.
During appointments, Jocelyn Lewis was unanimously voted as president of the Berlin board and Rebecca Holland was voted vice president.
Passed during the meeting were three objectives listed by the Berlin board. Goal one seeks “to improve school and district performance by setting and meeting high expectations for academic achievement for all students in order to prepare them for continued success,” according to the meeting agenda.
Goal two is “to increase educator preparedness to meet the needs of every student by setting high standards for the performance of teachers and administrators as evidenced by improved student learning.
Lastly, goal three seeks “to eliminate opportunity gaps by providing a teaching and learning climate and environment where racial, ethnic and economic isolation is reduced and the diversity of our student population is embraced.”
Each goal lists several objectives expected to be followed in order to help achieve such goals.
The next meeting for the Berlin board is Wednesday, Jan. 15, at 7 p.m.
