Curriculum Review Committee Announced For Hillsborough Board Of Ed

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — Following the appointment of a new leadership team, the Hillsborough Board of Education announced a new curriculum review committee at its reorganization meeting on Thursday night.

Paul Marini, a Hillsborough Board of Education member since 2021, was re-elected as board president in a 6-3 vote against Jean Trujillo. Cynthia "Cindy" DeCavalcante Nurse was appointed as the board’s vice president in a 7-4 vote against Jane Staats.

Moments after the vote, Marini announced a newly formed ad hoc review committee dubbed the Curriculum Review committee tasked with assessing curriculum timelines, standards and processes. The committee was necessitated after "spirited" conversations over the approval of new curriculum items in recent months, Marini said.

"We have experienced some situations which have raised the concern of those both sitting on the education committee as well as the board in general as it pertains to the availability of timelines related to the review of curriculum," Marini said. "As this is the case, we are now instituting this curriculum ad hoc committee to assess the process and timelines for curriculum creation, adapting standard processes and timelines for curriculum creation, and submission of that curriculum relative to the necessary approval dates and to provide recommendations to the education committee for approval of the curriculum."

The same members of the education/technology committee will be on the ad hoc committee - including committee chair Benjamin Kidd and members Allison Laning-Beder, Elaine Jackson and Joel Davis - though additional members may be added as needed, Marini said.

Other committees which organized at Thursday’s meeting include the HR/communications committee, tasked with helping the board with hiring, evaluation, retention and compensation of staff, which will be chaired by Nurse and include Jane Staats, Danny Lee and Marini.

The sub-committee for communications, which will focus on assessing processes for internal and external district communications, will be chaired by Laning-Beater and include Marini, Nurse and Benjamin Kidd. A "catch-all" governance committee to provide board of education guidance and direction will be chaired by Marini and include Trujillo, Nurse and Kidd. The operations and finance committee will be chaired with Trujillo and include Lee, Davis and Marini.

Lastly, an an investigation remediation ad hoc committee reviewing the results of the investigation into past district purchases was also announced by Marini. Chaired by Trujillo and set to include Jackson, Stats and Marini, formal recommendations will be made by the board regarding actions to be taken after the investigation is assessed. Read more: Ad Hoc Committee To Assess Hillsborough Schools Criminal Probe