Carl Accettola of Colts Neck will serve as president of the Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education during 2019.
Accettola was elected to the leadership position during the board’s reorganization meeting on Jan. 10 at the district offices in Englishtown.
The board oversees the operation of the district’s high schools in Colts Neck, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Howell, Manalapan and Marlboro.
At the start of the meeting, the four individuals who won seats on the board in the Nov. 6 election were sworn in to begin serving their terms. The winners were incumbents Peter Bruno of Howell, Diana Cappiello of Englishtown, Heshy Moses of Freehold Borough and Jennifer Sutera of Manalapan. All four candidates ran unopposed.
When the floor was opened to nominations for board president, Moses nominated Accettola and Bruno nominated Michael Messinger of Marlboro, who served as president during 2018.
Going in order of the nominations, a vote was held on Accettola’s nomination. Messinger, Cappiello, Bruno, Kathie Lavin of Farmingdale and Amy Fankhauser of Howell voted “no.” Sutera, Moses, Accettola and Samuel Carollo of Freehold Township voted “yes” and under the board’s weighted voting system, those four “yes” votes produced 4.6 voting points and were enough for Accettola to be elected president.
In the election for vice president, Messinger was nominated first and Sutera was nominated second.
Going in order of the nominations, a vote was held on Messinger’s nomination. Accettola, Sutera, Carollo and Moses voted “no.” Messinger, Cappiello, Lavin, Bruno and Fankhauser voted “yes,” however, those five “yes” votes only produced 4.4 voting points, which is not a majority of the total voting points and Messinger’s nomination was defeated.
A vote was then held on Sutera’s nomination. Messinger, Cappiello, Bruno and Fankhauser voted “no.” Accettola, Lavin, Sutera, Carollo and Moses voted “yes” and under the board’s weighted voting system those five “yes” votes produced 5.1 voting points and were enough for Sutera to be elected vice president.
In comments following his election as president, Accettola said, “The most important thing, I believe, is the education of our children. I was a board member for four years, then my son was a board member for three years. I learned how valuable education is during that time.”
Accettola returned to the board as Colts Neck’s representative following his son’s three-year term on the panel.
“I always disliked when people talked about the accomplishments of their own family, but I would like to illustrate a point. My son graduated from Yale and Harvard and is currently running the National Youth Orchestra of China.
“All of that was possible because of the education he received. Teachers don’t make the money that people in business make, but they certainly deserve to have everything,” the board president said.
Turning to Superintendent of Schools Charles Sampson, Accettola said, “Mr. Sampson, you have done things I would have never done. You put yourself out there and I appreciate everything you do.”
