3 Members Sworn Into Washington Township Board of Education

LONG VALLEY, NJ — The Washington Township Board of Education held its annual reorganization meeting last week, adding three new board members to the nine-person board.

Newcomers John Oldmixon, Isabel Vieira and Jennifer Ryan were all officially sworn in to serve on the board and will take the spots of Jason Koestenblatt, Jill Mucerino and Stephanie Wilson, whose terms all expired in December.

Oldmixon, Vieira and Ryan, who ran together on the "Excellence in Education" ticket, all won one of the three, three-year seats on the board in the November election over Marisa Baker, Cynthia McConnell and Laura Wengel.

Baker, McConnell and Wengel also all ran together on the "For Public Education" ticket.

In other reorganization business, the board of education was tasked with voting on the board president and vice president for the new year.

Both Carmine Capogrosso and Oldmixon were nominated for the role of board president. Board member Lyndsay Suchy, who nominated Capogrosso, said that his 30 years of experience in education has helped guide the board through two successful contract negotiations.

Capogrosso, who served as the board president in 2019, has also served on all four committees, chairing both education for two years and personnel for one year, Suchy said.

Oldmixon was nominated by Vieira.

Before taking their vote, board member Rob Waskis asked both nominees if they could share why they were interested in becoming board president.

In response, Oldmixon said, "I'd like to be board president, I've been a member of this community for almost my entire life. I have kids in this district that I care deeply about. I have nieces and nephews in this district I care deeply about. Granted I don't have the experience as Carmine does with being on the board, but as somebody who has attended almost every single board of education meeting since probably the winter of 2020, I realize that it's not normal I guess for a new member to be the president but I think that if it was going to be anybody who was going to do that job, I think I would be a good president."

In his response, Capogrosso said, "This is my sixth year and I'm very proud of the things that I have accomplished in those five years. First day on the board, I fought for STEM, I wanted STEM to be more dominant in our schools. I also fought for minutes to be put on the website so that the community could see how board members vote, that's very important. As president, financially speaking, we had the lowest cap in, I think, five years; it was under two percent. Since COVID, the children have lost so much and I think that 2024, this board needs to focus on academics and achievement and we have certain things in place and I want to see them continue."

The board voted Oldmixon in as president in a 5-4 vote, with Capogrosso, Waskis, Suchy and Jessica DeCicco voting no.

For the role of vice president, Waskis nominated Capogrosso, while Vieira nominated Cindy Ruggiero.

Ruggiero was voted in as vice president with a 5-4 vote, with Capogrosso, Waskis, Suchy and DeCicco voting no.

The Board of Education's next meeting will be held on Feb. 13 at the Long Valley Middle School Performing Arts Center.