Political Drama As Middletown School Board Nearly Split On VP Pick

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — The Middletown school board held its reorganization meeting Tuesday night, and — for the second year in a row — it served up political drama and revealed who's allied with who on the Board:

First, Frank Capone was nominated for his fourth year to be president of the Middletown school board. Leonora Caminiti was the first to nominate Capone to lead the board, and Capone was elected in a unanimous vote by his fellow board members. Capone told Patch Wednesday he is "humbled and honored" to represent the Middletown school board yet again in 2025.

The drama came with the vote for vice president: Capone nominated Jacqueline Tobacco.

But newly elected Board member Mark Soporowski — fresh off defeating incumbent Kate Farley by more than 5,000 votes in November (he got 18,909 votes to her 13,600, and Tobacco was a strong backer of Farley) — nominated Joe Fitzgerald to be vice president. Joan Minnuies seconded Fitzgerald.

Four BOE members: Soporowski, Minnuies, Fitzgerald and Caminiti all voted against Tobacco being vice president.

However, the other five members voted for her, and Tobacco was able to remain vice president. They are: Capone, Caterina Skalaski , Gary Tulp, Deb Wright and Tobacco herself.

Tobacco secured the vice president spot by a majority five votes, with four votes going to Fitzgerald. Patch contacted nearly all the BOE members after the vote, but nobody would say why there is a divide on the board.

No matter what the reason is, Fitzgerald and his newly-elected ally Soporowski appear to be going after Tobacco. Fitzgerald has also challenged Tobacco in the past: Last January, Fitzgerald nominated Minnuies for vice president over Tobacco. He did this after Tobacco campaigned for him and endorsed his candidacy when he first ran for the board in 2022.

The seats of Fitzgerald, Tulp and Caminiti are all up for election in 2025. The three of them ran as a slate to be elected in 2022; it is unknown right now if all three will seek election again this year.

Watch the Tuesday night meeting here; the voting for president and vice president starts at minute 9:

Just published by the district: 2025 Meeting Schedule For Middletown School Board