Middletown School Board Says Goodbye To Leonora Lacqua-Caminiti, Gary Tulp And Joe Fitzgerald

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — The Middletown school board held their final meeting of 2025 on Tuesday night, and at it, multiple Board members praised and said goodbye to three Board members who are ending their terms this year: Joe Fitzgerald (served one three-year term; was not re-elected), Gary Tulp (served one three-year term; he chose not to run for re-election) and Leonora Lacqua-Caminiti, who after 19 years on the school board was not re-elected this year.

It was Fitzgerald's final meeting as an elected member of the school board, and he was not present Tuesday night. It is unknown why he was not there.

Lacqua-Caminiti briefly choked up as she said goodbye to the Board and the Middletown public:

"I just want to say thank you to everybody. It really has been an honor to sit up here; I love it, I enjoy every minute of it. Fighting, not fighting, the parents yelling at us, it doesn't matter. It makes it all worthwhile when you see the children. Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart."

"Thank you to everybody," said Tulp. "I've been on here for three years ... I couldn't make it work to go forward and take another crack at it. But I look forward to seeing what the district has in store in the future."

"I want to thank Gary and Joe. Anyone that volunteers their time for this position, it's a lot. No matter what you do you're not making some people happy, and it's hard. But it's really special that you got to serve this town and our children, so thank you," Joan Minnuies said to Tulp and Fitzgerald in absentia.

Then, Minnuies specifically praised Lacqua-Caminiti; the two have become close political allies on the board.

"We could write a book about Middletown, I'll tell ya that right now," said Minnues. "She has served her position with integrity, class and style and good faith. She has always put our children first, no matter what. We have learned as friends to agree to disagree, which a lot of people should really pick up on because you don't always have to agree with people ... and her and I have had some really long, late-night conversations about what we disagree on. But we've always come to a compromise. I think this community has lost a good person. But I know you're going to stay involved and do right for our students. You've got a lot to be proud of."

You can watch their final meeting of the year here: