Chris Aveta Is Middletown BOE President, Frank Capone Is VP As Many Arguments Break Out

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — The Middletown school board is split, with Mark Soporowski, Deb Wright, Joan Minnuies and Erin Torres making up one four-person voting bloc and Frank Capone, Jacqueline Tobacco, Caterina Skalaski, Chris Aveta and Sarah Weinstein making up the other five-person voting bloc.

The two opposing voting blocs even sit on opposite sides of the table from each other at Board meetings.

At Tuesday night's meeting, which kicked off the 2026 year, Soporowski and Minnuies both nominated Wright to be Middletown school board president. However, she failed to get enough votes.

Tobacco nominated Aveta to be BOE president, and he was elected, with Capone, Tobacco, Skalaski and Weinstein voting for him, plus Aveta voted for himself.

Aveta started off the meeting by saying he wants to "move this district forward," to which Minnuies interrupted and said "I hope so. I really do hope so."

An argument broke out when it came time to elect a vice president. Weinstein nominated Capone to be vice president, and Minnuies said that while she enjoyed working with Capone, she won't be voting for him because of how he handled the budget process in 2025.

"The thing that's changing my vote this year is what happened during the budget process," said Minnues. "Where our leadership left us high and dry, no communication. Wouldn't meet with us, wouldn't be a part of the budget cuts."

"Joan, I just want to cut you off because everything you're saying is a fraudulent lie," interjected Capone.

"I am not looking to put anybody down, I'm just saying why my vote is changing," responded Minnues. "The thing that turned me off was what happened in this last budget process, where we had no leadership. We had to meet in small groups. Nobody wanted to discuss other options."

Aveta tried to cut her off, but Minnuies said "I have a right to speak before I vote ... We didn't have leadership to get us through that budget and I don't want to go through that again."

"When we had that exec. session you were not here, you were on vacation," said Capone.

After the argument, a vote was taken and Capone was elected vice president.

"I am very happy to see Chris Aveta and Frank Capone assume board leadership this year, and welcome Erin Torres and Sara Weinstein to the board," said former Middletown BOE vice president Tobacco. "Although it was disappointing to see the behavior of the SOS group toward Mr. Aveta as he tried to run the meeting, I do firmly believe he will move this board in a positive direction this year."

She was referencing comments made by some parents during the public-comment portion of the meeting, where some parents criticized Aveta for how he scheduled upcoming Board meetings for 2026. SOS is the Save Our Schools group that was against the proposed closure of Middletown schools in 2025.

Later in the meeting, Aveta said:

"Let's not be abusive, let's not yell and shout from the audience."

There was also a big discussion — and some arguing from audience members with the Board —about who would sit on the various committees this year, such as the shared services, facilities committees, etc. There was also discussion about whether the school board should have workshop meetings or committee-of-the-whole meetings.

You can watch the Tuesday, Jan. 6 BOE meeting here: