By Matthew Sockol
MILLSTONE — The Millstone Township K-8 School District Board of Education saw its president and vice president for the past year switch roles for 2016.
The board held its annual reorganization meeting on Jan. 4.
The three winning candidates from the Nov. 3 election — incumbent Amy Jacobson and newcomers Billy Hanson and John Sico Jr. — were sworn in to begin serving three-year terms. Jacobson is serving her third term as a board member.
Following the swearing in of Jacobson, Hanson and Sico, the board held elections for president and vice president.
John Saxton, who served as the board’s vice president in 2015, was elected president after being nominated by Margaret Gordon. Saxton has been a member of the board since 2010. The board voted 8-0 to elect Saxton. Jacobson abstained from the vote.
Sico was nominated for the position of president by Jacobson, but did not consent to being a nominee.
Gordon, who served as the board’s president in 2015, was nominated by Kevin McGovern for the position of vice president. She was elected in an 8-1 vote, with Jacobson casting the no vote. Gordon has served on the board since 2007.
Following the elections, Saxton recommended that Cynthia Bailey be appointed as the board’s delegate to the New Jersey School Boards Association and that Gordon be appointed as Millstone’s representative to the Upper Freehold Regional School District Board of Education. Both women were unanimously voted to the positions by the board.
The meeting also saw Superintendent of Schools Scott Feder provide an update on the school district’s health situation with pertussis that began in December.
Pertussis, which is commonly known as whooping cough, is a highly contagious respiratory tract infection. At the board’s Dec. 14 meeting, Feder reported that several Millstone pupils had been diagnosed with the illness.
“We are dealing much less with pertussis today (Jan. 4) than we were (previously),” Feder said. “We are still managing, we’re not completely clear, but we are in good shape. We are still working with the Board of Health and our nurses are on top of things. We are in much better shape than we were in 2015.”
