Contentious School Board Meeting Kicks Off 2026 In Bridgewater-Raritan

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — The new year kicked off with a heated argument for the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education at its reorganization meeting on Tuesday.

Michael Pepe was chosen as President and Rebecca Hassouna as Vice President. Boardmembers Lucy Li and Jeremy Li were the only ones not to vote in favor of the nominations. Lanfang "Lucy" Li abstained from both votes, while Jeremy Li voted no.

"I'd like to thank the board for its support, and I look forward to working with everybody at this table and in our school community to make 2026 a year of growth and opportunity for our district," said Pepe.

Incumbents Steven Singer and "Lucy" Li and newcomer James Maloney were also sworn into office at the meeting.

Barry Walker was chosen as the representative and Lucy Li as an alternate for the Somerset County Educational Services Commission Board of Directors.

Jennifer Loughran and Steven Singer were voted as representatives to the New Jersey School Board Association Delegates Assembly.

Singer was also selected as the representative to the Somerset County School Board Association.

Pepe was chosen as the town representative for Raritan and Singer and Maloney as the town representative for Bridgewater.

"I am really hoping we can forge ahead with a little more calm as a board of education," said Laura Kress, who is the President of the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association.

However, Kress' plea fell on deaf ears as contentions arose over the new Board of Education meeting calendar.

Jeremy Li emailed an alternative calendar to the one to be voted on. Boardmembers claimed Li sent the email right before the meeting.

Li's biggest issue revolved around how the meeting calendar called for only one meeting per month versus bi-weekly for the year.

"I believe that the calendar that was presented to the board tonight is an insult to the communities and the people that we represent. By slashing meetings, we silence community input, we degrade transparency, and we turn board oversight into an afterthought," said Li.

"The calendar that I have proposed would restore our multi-year-long tradition of having bi-weekly meetings," said Li.

Hassouna disagreed with Li.

"Having attended meetings for two years as a participant and also having watched, attended meetings for 20 years, I have seen more public interest and more public conversations input this year with our limited calendar than I have seen in 20 years. So I don’t think any calendar that we could propose could limit community input," said Hassouna.

Loughran shared her concerns with the timing of the presentation of an alternative calendar.

"I would've considered additional dates... but when it is thrown at us as a gotcha attempt to catch us offguard so speeches can be made - then no. You just don’t have my support on this," said Loughran.

"For me, one of the advantages of this calendar is it frees up a little bit of time for our administrators during the day to focus on the running of the schools and not necessarily preparing together an agenda every two weeks. Especially this year," said Pepe.

A vote for the revised calendar was turned down with the exception of Jeremy and Lucy Li voting yes.

Jeremy Li then made another motion to table the calendar vote and hold a special meeting to discuss the calendar with the public on Jan. 9. That motion was also voted down, with both Li and Li voting for it.

Ultimately, the calendar presented on the agenda was passed with Li and Li voting no.

The new approved school board meeting calendar is below:

• Jan. 6, Reorganization Meeting
• Jan. 20, Regular Session
• Feb. 24, Regular Session
• March 17, Regular Session
• April 28, Regular Session (Budget Hearing & Adoption)
• May 19, Regular Session
• June 16, Regular Session December 15, 2026 Regular Session
• July 21, Regular Session
• Aug. 25, Regular Session
• Sept. 15, Regular Session
• Oct. 13, Regular Session
• Nov. 17, Regular Session
• Jan. 5, 2027 Reorganization of the Board

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